Dec 30, 2009

Swan Lovin'

And now, to cap off a tremendous year of donation sorting, photocopy sneaking, doodad hoarding, and general junk piracy, may I present to you, for everlasting glory upon the internet, the greatest Junk Pirate photo of all times:


I really don't know if any commentary could possible do justice to the creepiness and yet tender loving emotions of the old lady in her kitchen caressing a swan photo that I like to call "Swan Lovin". It probably is even better without any context, even if that context is just how I came across it.
This picture was one of literally hundreds of old photos featuring some guy's transformation from little kid into old man (the most recent photos were from the 1970s). These photos got donated in two giant trash bags in December of 2005. As amazing as this is on its own, many of the pictures featured this guy hanging out in nature with various swans, ducks, and geese. Minds were and continue to be blown.
In fact, the cover of Junk Pirate issue #10 was a goose portrait photo from the same collection. That issue (some of which is reprinted in the Junk Pirate Volume One book) featured a bunch of photos from those trash bags.
Swan Lovin ended up framed and available at the December 2006 Junk Pirate art exhibition. I think it sold for like 8 or 16 bucks. I didn't even scan it or anything. Luckily for me, and all of us, the person who bought it, artist Lisa Romero, was nice enough to scan it for me.

Happy New Year!

Dec 18, 2009

Snakes! Snakes! They're everywhere!

What's worse, dozens of small shedded snake skins, or one giant one?



Dec 14, 2009

Twist this fool's cap back

More awesome toy guns! The little beauties are heavy steel so you feel like a man when you hold them. And the cap-ammo is available over at the Walgreens down the road. 

Dec 9, 2009

S.C.R.E.A.M. : Shredded Cash Rules Everything Around Me


It's is not all that uncommon for us to receive donations of cash... shredded cash that is. Finely shredded US currency that somehow retains a bit a seeming value even though it is really just worthless shredded paper. As a kid I used to think that if I just had the time, I could reassemble enough bits to make me rich. Nowadays, shredded money just reminds me that our unshredded money is still just paper that symbolizes credit and has no real value. Since we ditched the gold standard (1946), and eventually the US Treasury refused to exchange currency for gold (1971), paper money (and coins, too) has value only in theory.


We usually get little bags like the one above or sometimes it's used in a paperweight or pen or something. But the tenuous conceptual hold of paper to value really hit home when some dude donated a couple of trash bags full of shredded cash.


Worthless. Or would you pay 25¢ a handful? 
Shredded cash is fun as a novelty, and could be a useful art supply or perhaps make for decent insulation. I guess it is better than no cash.

Dec 3, 2009

MEGAPHONE!



If you think that I won't answer the telephone using a megaphone, you have no idea  how bored we get working at here the Junk Store.