Matthew Currie Holmes is an actor in Hollywood who has guest starred on TV shows like CSI: Miami and movies such as The Fog, Firewall with Harrison Ford, and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End with the original badass himself, Henry Rollins. Check out his site and be sure to follow him on twitter.

He also has a man cave. I saw him tweeting about it last month and he agreed to let me do a profile of it! Check out the interview below followed by a ton of pictures (click each to enlarge).

How much time do you spend in your man cave and what are you usually doing in there?

I spend anywhere between 5-8 hours a day in my mancave as it doubles as my office.

Activities include:

• Writing:  I am currently writing a couple screenplays and setting up a feature film for pre production.
• Music, I have a full recording studio in my computer and like to make music when the desire hits.
• Sleep:  My man cave is equipped with a lovely twin sized bed, for those late night writing sessions.
• TV: Sometimes you just need to get away so I come to my mancave and watch horror movies or DL’D television.

What’s your most prized possession in your man cave? Any story behind it?

I don’t really have one single prized possession. That’s we have a mancave right? For all our shit?

Some standouts:

I have a custom Jumbo Taylor acoustic guitar hanging on one of the walls in my mancave, I don’t know if that’s my most prized possession, but it’s definitely a great fucking guitar.  It was a gift from my father on my 30th birthday.

The walls in my Mancave are covered in Art.  Mostly horror images from the BRILLIANT graphic artist, Alex Pardee.  I have some cool gig posters as well.  It helps inspre me when I’m writing.

I also have an award for acting in a Canadian series called Godiva’s… but if I had to pick a PRIZED possession, then it would be the little plaque my daughter made me that says: “#1 Dad.

Are there any stories about stuff that happened in your man cave that stand out?

What happens in the mancave, stays in the mancave.

What show/movie should we look for you in next?

I was recently a Guest Lead on CSI: Miami … I’m sure it’s hit Hulu and I know it’s on CBS.com.  It’s a cool episode featuring hot women kicking each others asses in Roller Derby:)  Otherwise keep an eye out for my feature film P5YCH, we are currently setting up for pre-production.

Can you recommend any designers, architects, electricians, etc. that helped with your man cave?

My Mancave is actually the guest house on our property so it was pre designed.  I would recommend you hire someone to curate your space.  My wife owns an art gallery so knew right away where to put each piece of art.  Nothing says MANCAVE like a well thought out, thoroughly designed artistic space…. that and a small fridge for beer (which is in my garage).  If you can’t hire my wife, then ask yours — trust me guys, it may be our space, but they know where all your shit should go!

The Entrance:

The Workstation:

Storyboards:

The Goods:

The Artwork:

]]> http://tothemancave.com/2011/03/29/man-cave-profile-matthew-currie-holmes/feed/ 0 http://tothemancave.com/2011/03/23/make-your-man-cave-smell-manly/ http://tothemancave.com/2011/03/23/make-your-man-cave-smell-manly/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:51:15 +0000 Andy http://tothemancave.com/?p=131

Your man cave probably smells. I’m not saying it smells good or bad, but it most likely has some kind of distinct odor. At the very least, I hope it doesn’t smell girly, but if it does, there’s a solution for you: Man Cans.

Man Cans are manly-scented candles invented by 13-year-old Hart Main in Ohio. They come in scents like bacon, new baseball mitt, and fresh cut grass and are sold in recycled soup cans. Hart and his candles were recently featured on WCPO in Ohio:

You can purchase the candles from Hart’s website.

A week ago we identified the youngest man cave owner ever, 7-year-old Joshua Boyer in Montana. Sorry Joshua, but your reign is over.

Earlier this month, My Modern Met profiled a pirate ship themed bedroom inhabited by a 6-year-old named Zach in Minnesota. They also interviewed Steve Kuhl, the designer. Kuhl was commissioned to build the room by a father who loves his son more than most.

“Our client grew up as a repressed type-A child and never really lived the childhood he dreamed of. He had to help support the family from a young age. When he became a father one of his goals was to give his son, Zach, a childhood full of play and adventure. He approached me about designing something special. I conceptualized a few different ideas including a space ship and a race car. Ultimately, the pirate ship ruled the day.”

That dad kind of screwed himself, though. Whenever I was bad as a kid, my parents told me to go to my room. Leaving his room will be punishment for this kid.

The main feature of the room is the incredible floating pirate ship. Kuhl used 2×12 ribs to construct the hull of the ship, covering them with layers of 1/2 inch plywood to act as the planking. A bomb-proof blend of plaster and epoxy with integrated coloring was used simulate an old ship’s hull.

You’re damn right that says “bomb-proof.” Can’t let something like a bomb ruin a good man cave.

The room also features a rope bridge, jail cell, secret hidden room, and spiral slide that dumps you out downstairs. Head over the My Modern Met for the full highlights, interview, and photo gallery.

Thanks Ben M. for the tip.

It appears that the happiest man in America has been identified, and his name is Alvin Wong. The New York Times has the details:

For the last three years, Gallup has called 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day and asked them about their emotional status, work satisfaction, eating habits, illnesses, stress levels and other indicators of their quality of life.

A profile of the happiest man emerged based on the answers given by respondents, and it sounds like a character Zach Galifianakis could have dreamed up for his SNL monologue this past weekend:

He’s a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $120,000 a year.

But does he have a man cave? How did that question not get asked in a survey about happiness?

The Times called some people and eventually found Alvin:

He is a 5-foot-10, 69-year-old, Chinese-American, Kosher-observing Jew, who’s married with children and lives in Honolulu. He runs his own health care management business and earns more than $120,000 a year.

Congrats, Alvin. Enjoy your bliss.

Man caves need not be just for hanging out and doing whatever you please. You can also conduct interviews in them when you set world records, like 7-year-old Joshua Boyer did recently (7 years old, not a typo). In November, Joshua was fishing with his grandfather on the Missouri River in Montana and caught an 11 pound, 8 ounce walleye measuring 31 inches long, making him the new International Game Fish Association record holder for walleye in the Smallfry boys division.

Joshua recounted his fish tale to the Independent Record and couldn’t have picked a better setting for his interview:

Lean and lanky, Joshua sprawled his 46-pound, barefoot frame across a camouflage bean bag couch for his first interview. The couch was the only furniture in a basement room that has “The Man Cave” painted on the wall between two bull elk silhouettes. His grandfather, Jim Boyer, has loaned two black bear hides and a collection of deer antlers and antelope horns to decorate the walls and add to the man cave mood.

Some of us need giant TVs, outlandish bars, and sports memorabilia in our man caves. Others make due with a beanbag chair and some reminders of the beasts our families have conquered adorning the walls.

Joshua also appears to be on the right track when it comes to dealing with ladies in the man cave. Stay the course, young one:

Joshua is 7 years old, and some of the details of his exciting fish story were filled in by his mother, Laura. She’s not supposed to be in the man cave, Joshua pointed out, but he’s allowing it this one time.

If you haven’t noticed, modern man’s image has been taking a beating lately. We’ve turned into a bunch of lazy bums, apparently, and people are chiming in from all corners explaining how we got here. Some are blaming movie directors like Jud Apatow and Todd Phillips for their depictions of men in moves like Old School and Knocked Up. Others point to marketers for displaying men as oafs in advertisements.

The Los Angeles Times even has a name for this new breed of man: “He’s a lout, from the English word for ‘an ill-mannered fellow,’ which was itself derived from a verb ‘to stoop,’ and his emergence says something important about men today.”

You know you’re in trouble when people associate you with old English words.

The lout is not exactly a reversion to the old macho stereotype. He isn’t tough, muscular, steely, monosyllabic, able to build a car engine or a house singlehandedly or sail around the world solo. He’s not a sophisticate either, a Dos Equis most-interesting-man-the-world type. He doesn’t dress to the nines or know his wines or drive a Porsche, and he isn’t able to make witty cocktail party repartee. A lout is someone who is proudly stuck in a kind of adolescent parody of manhood that conflates insensitivity and machismo.

Louts luxuriate in their lack of sophistication. Louts travel in packs or just hang out with one another. Louts dress in T-shirts and jeans and eschew fashion. Louts guzzle beer rather than sip wine, and they are most likely to be spotted in bars or lounging on living room couches watching football. Louts don’t talk feelings; they talk sports and beer. Louts have few needs and no shackles. Above all, louts may ogle women and snicker about them, but women are pointedly never their top priority. At most, women are objects, just like in the old days. That’s the revenge part. Louts don’t have to make any concessions to women. Louts barely need women. Just give a lout a Bud and his buds and he’s happy.

That definitely sounds like a few guys I know, but certainly not all of them. The Wall Street Journal grabs the mike:

What explains this puerile shallowness? I see it as an expression of our cultural uncertainty about the social role of men. It’s been an almost universal rule of civilization that girls became women simply by reaching physical maturity, but boys had to pass a test. They needed to demonstrate courage, physical prowess or mastery of the necessary skills. The goal was to prove their competence as protectors and providers. Today, however, with women moving ahead in our advanced economy, husbands and fathers are now optional, and the qualities of character men once needed to play their roles—fortitude, stoicism, courage, fidelity—are obsolete, even a little embarrassing.

We’re even worse for the environment now too, according to a study covered in Time recently:

Put simply, men are worse for the planet than women. While the study found French women emit 32.3 kgs of carbon per day, men compare at a whopping 39.3kg-mainly thanks to a carbon intensive diet and their inefficient use of transport.

To recap: we’ve become unfashionable, shallow, immature weaklings. And we eat too much meat.

Is this simply an image problem, a case of a few ruining it for the rest of us, or did we really screw ourselves up somewhere along the way from Steve Mcqueen to Bradley Cooper’s character in The Hangover (don’t get me wrong, I love that movie)?

Adam Carolla might have the answer. In Saturday’s New York Post, Carolla lamented the “Man Disappearance Crisis”:

The real problem lies in the fact that women aren’t asking men to be men, and men aren’t asking women to be women. My wife doesn’t sew. She barely cooks. She’s a slob. When did women become slobs? I thought the whole joke growing up was that I was going to be walking around with a trail of socks and underpants and my wife would be saying, “It’s called a hamper.” What happened to that?

There’s a profound dishonesty in all the talk of gender equality. It began when the first women-libbers said they wanted to be more like men. They wanted us to stop being hunter-gatherers and start being huggers. They fired the first shot. This whole movement started in the ’60s when we had to start changing the way we talk. Someone would say, “Well, if this guy’s an airline pilot, and he tells me…” and people would interrupt, saying, “… or she!” “Or she!” By the way, shut up to all those people already.

As a society we have turned a blind eye to this genitalia genocide. Women said, “Let’s get out there! We want to be the boss! We want six-pack abs!” And the dudes started saying, understandably: “Oh, if that’s what you’re doing, then I’m going to hang out at home.” For every woman getting her six-pack abs, there’s a guy who’s cracking a wine cooler and watching his “stories.”

Of course, not every man has gone soft around the edges. Plenty of guys still have the qualities that make you a man’s man – knowing how to change a flat, keep burgers from becoming hockey pucks, etc. – but also know when to help out with the laundry. And if you’ve ever watched an episode of Mad Men, maybe we’ve had this coming for a while.

Still, Carolla has a point. If nature doesn’t require certain traits anymore, evolution kicks in and we lose them.

Women said that they wanted men to be more nurturing and sensitive. And we lost our eye of the tiger. It’s a case of “Be careful what you wish for,” really. Because now you have a bunch of super-sensitive, lazy dudes who don’t go out and make any money.

Remodelista has the details of the loft apartment created for Matt Damon’s character in the new movie The Adjustment Bureau, out on Friday:

Production designer Kevin Thompson dreamed up an industrial chic loft overlooking Madison Square Park, carving the loft out of a raw space in a disused office building. “We wanted a very masculine, spare vibe,” Thompson says. Set decorator Susan Bode-Tyson visited local antiques dealers to put together a collection of appropriately masculine props: vintage footballs, yachting flags, gas station signs, even a ping pong table.

“Appropriately masculine” should be the label we all aim for with our man caves.

The New York Times has a story about St. Jetersburg, the home that Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter built in Tampa (and the reason the Yankees didn’t win it all last year, according to Hank Steinbrenner):

The 30,875-square-foot mansion, which overlooks Hillsborough Bay, features seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a pool, two boat lifts, a drive-through portico and a pair of three-car garages flanking the north and south ends of the property.

No pictures of the inside, but Jeter’s gotta have a classy man cave in there somewhere. I wonder if he has the same poster hanging in his man cave as I do:

Chris at ManMadeDIY posted about a cool project that Katy at Mom and Her Drill just completed. Katy used discarded wood pallets to create a wall that would give your man cave quite the facelift:

Katy got the idea after seeing something similar at a friend’s house:

My little house is too new and devoid of character for such a discovery. BUT. I know that I can recreate this look with lumber. The problem is that I didn’t want to pay for lumber. Enter: the trash pallet.

I work in a factory that throws these away. But I checked out local pallet companies, and they have mountains like these….free for the taking…

If your man cave could use a little character, consider a pallet wall. The upcycling says “I’m green” while the fact that your wall is made from old pallets says “but I have a blue collar.” And it’s a good excuse to buy a nail gun if you don’t have one yet.

Chris over at The New Hobbyist is working on some cool projects. His latest would make a perfect DIY project for any man caver – a wireless light switch hidden in a Beethoven bust!

Chris said he was inspired by the original Batman TV series where a switch hidden inside a Shakespeare bust opened the secret door to the Batcave. Wait for it…

Check out the post for details about how to make a light switch bust of your own for your man cave. You gotta love instructions that begin “Like all good projects this one started with cutting off someone’s head with a band saw.”

I realize some of you might be saying, “This looks cool and all, but what about those of us who feel Beethoven was a hack?” Don’t let that deter you as there is a surprisingly thriving bust marketplace with a myriad of choices. A few standouts:

The Hermione bust. This would make you a weirdo in a lot of ways.

The Hideki Matsui bust. Ironic because he was anything but a bust.

The Norse God Odin bust. Wikipedia says he is “associated with wisdom, war, battle and death, and also magic, poetry, prophecy, victory, and the hunt.” That is the recipe for a bustworthy Norse God.

Finally, I would fail you as a blogger if I didn’t point out that you can choose from no less than three Barack Obama busts.

The middle one… yeesh. That sculptor definitely voted McCain.