Court and Light

Malibu Magazine
October 2011

Rumor has it Joni Mitchell lived in this house, back in the day. Which day was that? Was it the Court and Spark day? I know her music well and wonder if it was the view from this house that inspired these lyrics to Trouble Child:

They open and close you
Then they talk like they know you
They don't know you
They're friends and they're foes too
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu

This home is part of the Malibu Colony, but just outside the gates. Access is from Malibu Road where there always seems to be a lot of rattle and hum from cars and limos and cops and construction equipment. I am told this area was plagued with house beach parties during the summer of 2007, and there were paparazzi chasing heiresses and other troubled children all summer long. That did not create a good street impression of this house, which is crammed into a narrow lot, hard up against homes on both sides.

But the noise and confusion of the street evaporated the moment I walked through the gate and into a shaded courtyard, which cut off the noise and trouble and strife, and was like a destressifier. The courtyard is covered with a lattice that creates geometric shadows on the ground and is very satisfying to walk under and be a part of.

Chez Joni is longer than it is wide, like most Malibu Colony homes. The architect responded to this challenge by creating a two-story home with three bedrooms, four bathrooms and a lot of light and lines and angles. The horizontal lines accentuate the stretched length of the house and point everything toward the sea.

The living room leads to the kitchen then outside to a small backyard with a hot tub and pool - for rinsing off after dealing with all those breaking waves at Malibu.

Malibu Road homes don't have room for regular staircases, so a spiral stairway winds around upstairs to a master bedroom that overlooks the ocean, and it has a balcony that will let in those sweet sounds of the ocean - music as sweet as ... Joni Mitchell!

I was assured that the City of Malibu voted to limit party houses to preserve the domestic tranquility of this busy corner of Malibu Road from summer into winter. I was assured there would be fewer heiresses and paparazzi hanging around the neighborhood revving their Ferraris and playing that infernal rap music.

This might be the house where Mitchell lived when she composed Court and Spark. One of the songs on that album, Free Man in Paris, was inspired by her friend David Geffen. He is still in the neighborhood, but Ms. Mitchell is long gone, and I have to wonder what she would think of her beach cottage and the neighborhood now.

23758 Malibu Road
Listing price: $14,900,000
Agent: Jim Rapf