Video Interlude: At Home with Josh 'Shag' Agle

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Artist Josh Agle, better known as Shag, is a favorite around the Eichler Network. His googie-style art evokes an idea of the swinging, mid-century modern cocktail party lifestyle of which Eichlers and their ilk hold promise, though it may elude us in our daily routine. It makes one interested in Shag's own home life, of which the Style Network got a glimpse years ago. Mid-Century Modern Freak unearthed the below video Tuesday, which Shag told us in an e-mail was probably filmed in 1999 or 2000.

My daughter Zoey, who was about 18 months old in that video, is now 14 and in high school, so the video would have been filmed in late 1999 or early 2000.  It was filmed for a special on the Style Channel called "Artists and Their Homes."  I moved out of that house in 2002.  It was a charming place, but I wanted the quintessential "Shag" party pad, so I moved to bigger place with walls of glass and a view of the valley over the swimming pool.
When I lived there, I hung a giant tiki mask on the exterior of the house.  Unfortunately, it became a calling-card, and strangers would knock on the door asking if Shag lived there.  I took the tiki mask with me when I sold the place.  The people I sold the house to went on to sell the house again, and used the fact that I had lived there as part of their sales pitch.  They told me the new buyers were excited that Shag had lived there.  I recently drove by the house, and the current owners have hung their own giant tiki mask exactly where mine had been.

The 4-minute video is worth a watch if only to get some good ideas on strict period decorating, as Shag explains everything in the unassuming suburban home came from either a thrift store, a flea market, or his own mind.

This post has been updated throughout