Until Pseudo.com’s Josh Harris got his 4,000-square-foot SoHo loft up and running four months ago, only Warhol and Hef seemed this adept at combining home with happening. Harris has wired his entire apartment like a television studio; cameras and microphones are easily harnessed to an elaborate $150,000 electrical exoskeleton, and the best footage turns up on Pseudo, one of the first interactive TV-Internet networks. One recent Saturday night saw Harris, 38, opening his home to a select 45 for an aphrodisiac-theme party. “I had the oysters and the Viagra and the herbal lust stuff,” Harris remembers; a cameraman followed one Viagra-fueled couple throughout the evening. (See what happened on tanyatv.com, Harris’s girlfriend’s site.) “That the loft is a set really enhances things; people feel like they are on,” says Harris. “It gets groovy.” High-voltage contemporary art is rotated frequently throughout the million-dollar frat house (designed with the help of architect Glenn Leitch): Frank Bruno’s Or Up Yours, on the living-room floor, purports to be a painting of Satan’s sphincter. “It’s part of the apocalyptic movement, by an artist from Arizona,” chirps Harris, a Martha Stewart with a devilish sense of humor.
How will the Internet change the home?
The eight hours of TV viewing in the average household will dramatically shrink as people get sucked into their Internet worlds. High-speed transmission will enable widespread two-way video conferencing; everyone will see who they’re chatting with. People will be judged on how they appear on the Net in addition to how they appear in the flesh. We will increasingly spend time with a whole world of people with the same interests; I won’t have to depend on girlfriends or work associates.
Home computers
One ugly Dell PC, one blue iMac G3.
Bought it online
I have 25 bids in on eBay for Herman Miller items, transistor radios, an East German wristwatch tracking device from the seventies, and a bunch of other people’s home movies. The ones from the thirties are always Yosemite or parades–they are great.
Bookmarked sites
eBay, quote.com, herp.com (where you can buy lizards, not the virus), okbridge.com (an online bridge club).
Online grocery list
Dean & DeLuca deli stuff primarily (deananddeluca.com). Honest Tea (honesttea.com) is my favorite beverage besides water. Can’t wait for Balthazar’s bakery and Russ & Daughters to get with the program.
Please invent
A virtual wife. I look forward to seamless virtual reality (though I saw The Sixth Sense and am still wondering if I am not already in it). I also want to retain a computerized log of all telephone conversations and messages, and audio-video of people who buzz me from downstairs.
Coolest appliance
My Sony transistor radio from the sixties even though it is only AM; I’m still grieving over the loss of WQEW.
Favorite movie set
The Red Shoes (incredible sets and locations).
Store I could live in
The soon-to-open Prada in the downtown Guggenheim.
Favorite city building
The huge AT&T neutron-bomb building in TriBeCa, which has no windows, is as deep as it is high, and reminds me that I live too close to the epicenter.
Coolest video games
I’ve played most major video games, but I’ve gone back to the basics: My No. 1 game is Solitaire (by 10x); my No. 2 is Pong (from Atari).