"Art Supplies"

Man, there sure is a lot of sorting that needs get done at the Junk Store today. I'll just start by opening this big box here labeled "art supplies" and...

Aaaaaaaaaagggh!

Live Free or Die!

Patriot's Freedom Blanket. New in the bag. If you don't buy this from the Junk Store right now then the terrorists have already won.

Light 'Em Up

This large, handmade sign came in a while ago and we are just so overwhelmed by the whole thing that we still haven't figure out what to do with. It is made from wood and painted plexi and two strings of large xmas light strands. I was sure it wouldn't work but, sure enough, once a few boxes of extra bulbs came in I tested it out and it was 100% good to go. It currently resides in the heap next to the water cooler.

Rip It Up

Obviously, we're always on the lookout for skateboards and skate related merchandise here at the Junk Store. We'll take whatever you got: decks, wheels, brokenbearings, tech decks, toy store crap boards, broken boards, clay wheels, long boards, anything.

A while back on a special afternoon we unloaded two legit skates off the truck....

We've got a well worn but still tip-top cruiser from Black Label, plus a brand new blank deck. Pretty good score. I thought that maybe the skate-donation-Gods were smiling down upon me for a long-run, but we haven't gotten anything skateable since these.

Holier Than Thou

Boo-yeah! Coming straight outta the Holy Land and all up in your grill is the triple threat of religious relics to cleanse your dirty, dirty soul: Pure Olive Oil from the Holyland, Holy Earth from Bethlehem, and a vial of Holy Water from Jordan River to wash it all down.  Enjoy these and I'll see you in Hell (from Heaven).

I Love Fisher-Price

You haven't lived until you have simultaneously played the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack on four different Fisher-Price record players. It has been a while since that old-school Junk Store shenanigan, but I'm gonna bring it back starting with this working model #825 Fisher-Price Portable Record Player. These things are the best. They play at 33 and 45 speed, have a built in 45 hole adapter, 4" internal speaker, and a removable lid. They almost always work. The tan-white-orange color combo was manufactured from 1979 through 1984. From 1985 to 1989 it came in a white-and-blue style (which has never been donated).    and now for some links: - First United Church of the Fisher-Price Record Player - awesome T-Shirt illustration - complete Fisher-Price phonograph product list (with photos) - video of Hall & Oats record being played (?!?)

Pass Out

In this amazing and popular board game, players roll and move around a board taking a drink when the board square instructs.

Each time a player passes the 'start' square he must take a 'Pink Elephant' card which contains a tongue twister. If he managers to recite the card three times successfully he gains the card.

The first player to obtain 10 'Pink Elephants' is declared the winner.

A large disclaimer at the end of the rules: "Not intended for use with Alcoholic Beverages."

Hot Dog Tuesdays

By far one of the best developments here at the Junk Store this year was a fresh-off-the-truck donation of a brand new novelty hot dog serving apparatus. Just throw some franks (or veggie dogs) in the boiling water, steam a few buns, open a pack of cheese, chop an onion with a hacksaw, steal some ketchup packets from Jack-in-the-Box, and you have got yourself a gluttonous feast for the ages. 

1400 pages of stolen time

I've decided to make the most of my working hours and read a book from start to finish...

Complete and uncut with 500 extra pages.

Other People's Photos - people standing in front of cars, part 1

Other People's Photos - baby in a box

Other People's Photos - proud moments

Other People's Photos - dinner with the gang

This photo is extra special because it was enlarged up to 8 x 10! These people look like they are having a really great restaurant experience.

Other People's Photos - get high

Other People's Photos - autumn grab bag

Give your thanks to the Junk Gods for donations like this one. A fat sack of vintage other-people's-photos. You just know with a stash this big, there have got to be a few good ones in there. This week, we're going to take a look at a few.
Stay tuned.

Other People's Photos - Happy Halloween

Burns 2008, Oh Fuck Yeah!

While to you this may just be another crappy 45 record from some one-hit wonder from the early 80s, to me this is an early relic of the amazing career of the actor who would go on to play Dr. Peter Burns on the greatest television drama of all times, Melrose Place.

Jack Wagner is known for his role as Frisco Jones on the soap opera General Hospital in the 1980s and 90s. He ascended to god-like status when he was added to the cast of Melrose Place in 1994 as the rival to Thomas Calabro's Michael Mancini. He currently stars as Dominick Marone on The Bold and the Beautiful. He was nominated for two Daytime Emmys (in 1985 and 2005).

Even more impressive, he has recorded five albums on which he sings and plays guitar (the most recently in 2005), and scored a #2 hit on the US pop charts (#1 for two weeks in the Adult Contemporary charts) in early 1985 with his hit song, "All I Need".

This record is the not-so-successful follow-up single, "Premonition". The B-side, "Lady of My Heart" did hit #76 on the US pop charts in the summer of '85.

Check outs: Jack Wagner fan site, Jack-Wagner.com
"Did you think I was insane AND stupid?!?"

The music video for "Premonition"!!!

Play on, Players.

A few more bits of video game gear for the archives...

New, in box, Atari 2600 standard joystick...

and a working Gameboy SP with charger and several Pokemon games.
That'll kill some time.

The Trashman Cometh...

I just wanted to give a little shout-out to my buddy Morten Pivelfist, who was the inspiration behind putting Junk Pirate into blog format. He is a garbage man in "the City" and keeps us posted on the wonderful and horrible things people are throwing away in his blog: I Am Throwing Your Life Away. You can find it over at thankyoume.blogspot.com. Being a sanitation worker has got to be one of the hardest jobs out there (the hours alone blow my mind), so show some respect and tip you garbage man.

Update from the future: Looks like this blog has been neglected, despite my awesome promotional efforts. Dude still leaves images of "trash captures" on his Instagram account, but you'll have to sift through hundreds of daily pictures of his kids to find those. Maybe do a hashtag search for "#trashcapture" or something. 
Or don't, I don't care. Leave me alone.

Fragile

A head made out of glass. Pretty cool. Amazingly, we've had this thing for a few weeks and it still hasn't shattered yet.

I'm Going To Be Sick

Some sick little monkey thought they would be clever and "donate" a chocolate cake to the Junk Store. Normally we welcome donations of food, but I'm going to have to ask that perishables be given in their original packaging. This jerk just dropped this plastic bag on us containing a cake and a cinnamon sticky roll.

The cake-donating-psycho is, in fact, the person known as the Taxman. I don't even have the time to go into this guy's long history of disturbing behavior. Completely unrelated to this cake fiasco, the Taxman has recently been banned from the Junk Store on charges of violent and threatening behavior, abusing his work release terms, wearing strange elbow pads, and generally being the creepiest person I've ever come across. I would not doubt this was a poisoned cake.

Get Blasted

These things are fucking loud.

Tell 'em who you came to see...

While I'll never frown upon a donation like a "We Want Eazy" b/w "Eazyer Said Than Dunn" 45 record, it would have been even better if the actual record was in the sleeve. Until then, we can at least admire Eazy's Eight Ball Posse jacket.

"We Want Eazy" was a single by Eazy-E featuring fellow N.W.A members Dr. Dre and MC Ren from his 1988 debut album, Eazy-Duz-It. The song was produced by Dr. Dre and DJ Yella. "We Want Eazy" appeared on his greatest hits, Eternal E. A 12-inch remix of this song was released as a single and appeared on rappers posthumous compilation, Featuring…Eazy-E.

Damn you, EMI!

More Great Finds

Some decent items from the past couple of weeks....

Vintage? Maybe. Wind-Up? Absolutely.

Repro vintage plastic bunny wind-up.

Speaking of plastic bunnies.

Mini walking robot that holds it's own wind-up key.  Amazingly, the wind-up hole also serves as a twisty-style pencil sharpener and the shavings collect in the robot's head!

Speaking of pencil sharpeners, here's another one for the collection.

And speaking of "another one for the collection"...

Light 'Em Up

Not one, not two, not three, but four, count 'em, four awesome butane lighters coming in from a single hip donation. I tell you, folks in their mid-thirties that are moving and just cleaning out their drawers give up some of the best bits.

Here we have (from left to right), the "heart lock" that lights up, the "full house" that lights when you spread the cards, the "ass", which I guess is supposed to be sexy but really is just strange, and "the stripper", the best one, with light up nipples. 

PS3 game!

Hell, I would've settled for a lousy Playstation One game, but then the Jammer's eagle eyes spotted a mint condition copy of Rock Band for PS3 in the Education Section. I think you need all the guitar controllers and everything to actually play this game, but it is still pretty exciting to have a next generation video game come into the junk store. 

I honestly think this was donated by mistake. Tough shit, sucker. It's ours now.

Bear Booze

The donor of this beautiful bear bottle full of whiskey claimed it was "at least a hundred years old". Well, the 1977 date stamped onto the bottom suggests it might be not quite so antique (or maybe the donor was from the future).
Still, a 9-year-old whiskey from 31 years ago gives us forty years of smokey whiskey flavor to enjoy. That'll get your motor running.

I'm gonna have to go ahead and ask you to come in Sunday as well. That would be great. MmKay.

A talking Milton Waddams bobble-head (actually, it's a bobble-waist) figure from Office Space. Push the button at his feet and the voice of Bill Lumberg (?) tell you he's gonna need you to come in on Saturday. This video I found shows a similar figure with Milton's voice.

In related news, we have recently been gifted a red Swingline. 

Part of the original Mike Judge animation that is the basis for Office Space.

Best Typewriter Ever?

We just may have a new front runner for the race of the best typewriter donation of all time:

That's right! It's the typewriter that types in cursive!  Amazing.

Rock In - Rock On - Rock Over -Rock Out

This little Yamaha wooden combo amp just needed a little love and we were throwing down tasty licks by the end of the work day.

Print Gocco!!!!

Many moons ago, the Jammer spotted and laid claim to a brand new Riso Print Gocco B6 printing machine. New, in the box, all wrapped up, with inks and bulbs and screens and all that. It was a once-in-a-lifetime score. I'm sure he broke it or lost it or sold it for a bag of magic beans or something.

Then, earlier this year, the fates tossed me a bone and I pulled my own Gocco from the heap. I already own one, but if you think I'm letting this baby pass by then you don't know how we do it in the sorting room. This Gocco was yellow (mine is pale blue), in the box, with a few old screens and bulbs that probably don't work. Still a very, very amazing score. 

If you aren't familiar with the Gocco printing machines, they are basically an awesome mini toy screenprinting device from Japan. It can expose the light-sensitive screens and print with the same unit, and because it prints using downward pressure rather than a cross-screen squeegee pull, you can print multiple colors at once.

In recent years, the Japanese manufacturers of Gocco have discontinued the printing products, sending used Gocco printers and supplies through the roof on ebay. I think I'm going to send this one to an artist friend in Philadelphia. 

Link: the Save Gocco website

Now It Belongs To The Ages

We get a lot of art here at the junk store. Some of it is so bad that it is good. Most of it is so bad that it remains bad. However, this poodle painting, clearly, is fantastic.

Unsigned. No date.

The old Pen Dispenser

A vintage dispenser of pens. Amazingly, there were still a few old pens lodged in there. Not amazingly, there was also a ton of dust, rust, grime, and mold. It is was manufactured by Jammer Corp! Well, Jamer Corp, anyway, but close enough.

life-size game of Jenga

We like to stack heavy cardboard boxes floor to ceiling. Some of the boxes are half-empty (hopefully those at the bottom). When things get precarious we secure the boxes with scotch tape. Top Cat and Big Merl almost got buried in an avalanche of cardboard and fabric scraps when this big boy took a tumble. I have to say it was well worth the risks.