PUT A STAMP ON IT

I was in a Nevada City a couple of weeks ago and pulled these postcards from the $1 basket by the door.

Mailed 1909

Inscibed, but unsent

Inscribed, but unsent

Unused

Container for the Thing Contained

How is it we haven't talked about this yet?



"Dance Party" Record Case (Capitol, 1961)

 

I found this in a thrift store twenty years ago. It's currently crammed with 45s, including my signed Joe Strummer picture disc, "Kinky Boots" by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman, and assorted singles from Elvis Costello, The Clash, Tom Waits, Harry Belafonte, Stan Getz, XTC, etc.

 

Normally, I'm a stickler for buying things in perfect condition, but the brown crayon on this case only makes me love it more. 

 

And the dancing figures remind me of Jay Ward cartoons:

 

 

 

The box also contains some stray ephemera: old postcards, a few pieces of artwork from my children, a couple of old business cards.

 

And this:

 

 

 

Birthday wishes from "Sheriff" John Rovick, who hosted a cartoon show (Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade) for kids from 1952-1970 on L.A.'s KTTV.  If you tuned in on your birthday, he'd read your name and sing "The Birthday Cake Polka." 

 

And then there's this, stolen right off the table from Bob's Big Boy:

 

 

 

Maybe I hold onto things for too long.

 





Tolkien 'Bout a Revolution

Promotional button (2012)

I never read The Hobbit and I never read The Lord of the Rings.  There, I said it. 

In my experience, people who don't read a lot tend to make a lot of assumptions about people who do.  Same with movies.

I've worn glasses since seventh grade and worked in bookstores since college and yeah, I read a lot but I'm not interested in everything.  Nobody is.  Just because something is popular doesn't make it appealing.  "You like books, what did you think of Fifty Shades of Grey?"  Couldn't tell you.  Hunger Games?  I dunno. Harry Potter references are lost on me.

Do I consider myself a student of popular culture?  You bet.  Is it important to me that I know what's going on, that I know what people are chattering about?  Absolutely. 

But no, I don't read everything and I don't watch everything and the truth is, I don't even try.