Spooky the Reuse Ghost

Happy Hallowe'en

An all-time favorite reuse art project finally gets it's time to shine. It's Spooky, the Reuse Ghost.

Made from wire, a styrofoam ball, some google eyes, and stretchy fabric, this Halloween ornament was a favorite of ours. It kicked around the Junk Store for many months, repeatedly going missing and then being found on the floor somewhere in increasingly more dilapidated and dirty condition. I haven't seen Spooky in many years, but we'll always remember him fondly.

Spider-Mania vs. Horror Reptiles

Halloween is coming, so get out those cheap ass Junk Store via Dollar Store decorations...

This "Spider-Mania" package should be celebrated all year round. That crazy hag in the big blue t-shirt is just so awesome! Is she caught in a big spider web, or is she queen of the spiders?

I don't want to get a technical here, but I do believe that spiders are in fact arachnids and not reptiles. Either way, I am now referring to all spiders, nay, all spiders and insects as "Horror Reptiles".  I encourage you to do the same.

Skull Shelf

Skull Shelf.
Pretty self explanatory.

Junk Pirate Art Installations: Dark Side of the Window

If you're in the neighborhood, take a stroll down 40th and check out the latest window display at the Junk Pirate Headquarters. 

This psychedelic keyboard supertrip is as over as the summer of love, but since you didn't get to groove on it while it was happening (and even if you did), here it is. I was there, Man.

Artist, The Game

Artist, The Game.

Where everybody is a loser.

Viva La Tienda Basura

A delightful junk store painting of what appears to be Che Guevara neck deep in flames, perhaps burning in hell.

They might tell you to learn to paint, but I say "Fight the power, Man."

Ticket To Ride

The Jammer recently came up on a fat sack of partially used BART train tickets.

With remaining balances of anywhere from .15 cents to nearly 5.00 bucks on each ticket, we're talking a total value of several hundo once consolidated!

Score!

Update: The jokes on us. The Jammer went deep into the bowels of BART to find that office that will consolidate your tickets only to discover there is not a cent on any of them. 

Cock O' The Walk

This animation cell from came framed under glass, and the donators said that when they attempted to get it restored, some charlatan actually ruined it, so now they were donating it to us.
I looked at animation cell and could immediately tell that is was the back of the cell that was being displayed under the matt. Hand drawn animations are colored from the back so it just was all color fills without any of the details or outlines. I opened the frame and flipped it and here you go:

You can see that the restorer did do a shit job, but mainly just the yellowing and fading on the chicken girl's white fill. Otherwise this is an awesome piece of rare Depression-era Disney animation.
Thousands of these hand drawn and hand colored cells were created for every animation from that era. Nearly all of these cells (perhaps except from some of the popular feature films, and even then) got destroyed.

A little research (aka reading the back of the frame and then doing an internet search) revealed that this is a cell from Disney's "Cock O' The Walk", a Silly Symphony from 1935. It's on youtube, embedded at the top of this post.

Knight Rider Board Game

This 1982 Parker Brothers gem comes to you complete.
Best opening theme in television history:

Libros de Educacion

Loving the screenprinted covers of these Spanish language educational books.
If you want more awesomeness on your phone on the regular, follow my Instagram account at "thejunkpirate".

Space: 1999 - The Moistener(?)

The past never seemed so futuristic.

No idea what this thing is supposed to be. It's like a ink pad without the ink. I guess it is a promo moistener. That makes no sense.

...or Hardly Working

If the customers we serve wanted me to get off my ass and help with with their donations and questions and such, then they shouldn't donate working portable DVD players.

Quadraphonic Masterpiece

Introducing: the most awesome portable cassette stereo you have ever seen.

Other People's Photos: Depression Era Beefcake

Nothing But The Code

Anybody who has had the privilege a glancing into the Black Out Closet of the Sorting Room this past year or so could not have ignored the shelves and shelves dedicated to hoarding a particular book... the most commonly donated junk store book there is...

Oh yeah, we've assembled nearly 100 copies of The Da Vinci Code in a little over a year. Welcome to the secret society dedicated to the protecting the sacred knowledge of the Junk Store.

No less than six different versions of Da Code. Two sizes of hardcover, and four unique paperbacks. These are all American releases. 

If reading hurts your brain, you can still follow the adventures of Robert Langdon via audio book. Three version on cassette, plus a CD pack.

Plus books about The Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci Code Decoded (also in audiobook form), and a Christian book all about how the theories brought forth in this work of fiction are, in fact, bullshit. Take that Dan Brown.

10 different Da Vinci Codes in all (plus the books about The Code). With a new copy or two (usually of the hardcover or smallest paperback) being donated every week, we are up to our armpits here. And now you can be too...

Nothing But The Code, a Junk Pirate window installation, is happening at Book Zoo in Oakland starting on Friday September 7th (why, that's tonight!) and on view until Sunday, or while supplies last.
Mandatory FREE copy of The Code with any purchase all weekend.

Join me tonight around 7pm while we project the Ron Howard film version and drink beer while trying to plot how to wipe out that evil Priory of Scion... or are we trying to protect the Priory?
I really should read this book someday.

M500 Polaroid ID Camera

Now here's something someone other than me could probably do something interesting with...

The Polaroid M500 ID Camera. It comes in a monstrously bulky case with desktop mount, two packs of expired 669 film, and some other metal crap, and a lot of wasted space filled with foam.

Just plug this behemoth into an outlet (or more likely an extension cord because the power cable attached to the camera is only 10 inches long), load up some of that awesome Polaroid film where you have to peel the two sheets apart, and it's time for some action. 

The most unique part is that you can take 4 instant photos on one piece of film. You can set it to take four of the same picture, two pictures of two, or four different pictures. It also has a flash and even a primitive exposure setting system. 

Here, Hans agreed to model so we can demonstrate just how gorgeous these photos can be:

Unlock the Mystery

September 7th, 2012 at Book Zoo

Error

I apologize to anyone looking through the older posts on the Tales From the Junk Store blog who noticed that basically every image is not loading. I have a large team of monkeys working in 8 hour shifts around the clock to get all the images back up.
Seriously, all the pictures from the beginning until mid-2010 (about 200 posts) have to be found and replaced by hand. And these monkeys aren't really easy to train.

So, to prevent this type of thing from ever happening again, a nice gentleman who lives behind the storage lockers across the street sold me this premium internet server...

Brown Rice

Meanwhile, on the Games shelf...

5 of the many, many, many types of Monopoly that we see everyday here at the Junk Store.

Classics: Viking Booze

I figured I would end this dazed week of drug-induced donation madness with a classic pic from the Junk Store Archives... the Swedish Booze set.

This photo comes from long ago and is the earliest record of a booze donation to the Junk Store. Apparently I didn't know how to focus a camera back then.

So, I hope you enjoyed getting faded with me this past week. Keep on donating your unwanted inappropriate consumables to your local thrift store and always designate a driver.

Flesh of the Gods

After the intensity of a triple threat of pills, drank, and liquid morphine (as seen in the previous posts), this image of a rare book about shrooms seem pretty lightweight.

Still a cool book image worth posting, though.

Ease the Pain

Morphine?!?
Really? Someone donated Morphine?!?

I enjoy the jovial nature of all these drugs posts, and a forgotten roach in a bottom of a donation of markers will give me a smile, but, come on! An unopened bottle of liquid morphine?!? Get it together, people.

Syzurp

And while we're recklessly ingesting expired habit-forming drugs that weren't prescribed to us, pass me a styrofoam cup...

Generic for Loaded

The weekend might be over, but we aren't going to work today because we just took a handful of slightly expired narcotic pharmaceuticals.

No kidding, someone included some Percocet and Norco pills in there stapler and paperclip donation. Thanks, buddy.

I don't do drugs, so I immediately gave these to the Jammer, who, I assume, delivered them to the police for safe disposal. 

Whip It Good

You could use this sealed NO2 cartridge and dispenser to make up some delicious whipped cream topping.

Or you can do like the Jammer and turn the sorting room into your own private parking lot at a Grateful Dead show.

Tetrahydrofuckyea

Maybe you like the cool vibes of a good weed buzz, but smoking ain't your thing. Mellow out, man. There's probably still a few drops of this mint THC spray you can suck out of this thing.

Addicted to Junk

This weekend we are going to get soooo wasted on drugs and drug related donation photos.

So sit on the floor, turn on the black light, put the soothing sounds of Iron Butterfly on the Hi-Fi, make sure you have a trusted friends nearby to guide you in case things get a little rough, and prepare for take off. 

First things first: A bong and a hookah. No big deal, man.

Authentic Blu-Ray Donation Confirmed

Another Junk Store barrier gets broken as a fully functioning, complete-with-packaging and all-discs-included Blu-Ray gets donated.

Now what's a guy got to do to get some PS3 games donated?

Junk Store People: Fear the Beard

You are in for a special treat. 

Thus far, I've kept most of my posts strictly about the donations. Sure, occasionally I snap a pic of the Heap or a particularly inspired store display, and I might even drop a coded reference to a co-worker, boss, or even customer. But for the most part, I keep it about the junk. 

Not today.

You see, long before the Tales From The Junk Store blog, the Jammer and I used to take pictures of all the weirdo customers. Just as a visual document to be used in identifying one of these whackos in the likely event that they flipped out and burned the store down after being charged $1.35 for an action figure.

Despite the fact that these Junk Store customer photos are amazing and more interesting than any of the crazy items I usually post, I've hesitated to publish them. Welp, today I'm dropping these two bearded gentlemen for two reasons. 1) I've mastered photoshop to the point where I can cover their eyes, thus perfectly concealing their identities. 2) I'm pretty sure both these guys are dead by this point, probably from choking on their beards.

I also want to express that these two guys used to come into the Junk Store every day. And they always wore the same clothes. The guy on top used to purchase one item for under a dollar, complain about the price, demand a bag and a receipt, and then walk away into who knows where. Every day. 

The second dude was far more annoying, spending most of our work day chatting away with us, even though we tried to ignore him and help other customers. This isn't really abnormal behavior, except that most of his conversations were about Barbie. Yes, Barbie, the toy doll. Every day.

So here you go. May their beards rest in peace.

Commie Space Dog: "Starlet"

Philatelists - while this word definitely sounds like a scientific term for some specific sexually deviant behavior, it is basically just the nerdiest possible way to say "stamp collector". More accurately, it is "someone who studies stamps", which I'm sure that someone out there has also managed to turn into a sexually deviant behavior.

While you think about that, check out this awesome Russian stamp celebrating a dog they shot into space back in the 60s.

The Junk Pirate research team took one glance at this stamps and immediately launched this rocket of wisdom:
This dog is Zvyozdochka (pronounced Zvezdochka, Звёздочка, or "Starlet"), who was named by Yuri Gagarin. He made one orbit on board Korabl-Sputnik 5 on March 25, 1961 with a wooden cosmonaut dummy in the final practice flight before Gagarin's historic flight on April 12. The dummy was ejected out of the capsule while Zvezdochka remained inside. Both were recovered successfully.

Drug Magnetism

Zithromax... Redux... Medipren... Galan... Lodine... Ortho Tri-Cyclen... and my current favorite, K-Dur 20.

We love magnets, we love pharmaceuticals, we love promotional items. Ta-daa.

Amish Party Flag

Now you can publicly commemorate your thrill-a-minute adventure through the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch wasteland without the mind numbing boredom that would result from an actual visit to the Amish country.

Tony's Birthday Surprise

Remember back in the day when dozens of life-sized male stripper cardboard displays were donated, and we put a few up in the display windows in the front of the store, and some lady came in and said that the beefcake coming out of the box was actually a co-worker of hers named Tony and he was really ashamed of his lascivious past and could we please destroy those before he sees them, and then we put them all up on display?

Ahhh, Junk Store memories. 

A side note: All the posts that are labeled "junk pirate archives" contain photos taken for a free-hosted website about the junk store that the Jammer and I made before blogs even existed. This is why these photos are usually very small. You may be too young to remember, but way back when, some folks didn't have the modem power to load large photos. Things sure have changed. Only the mountains of garbage being donated every day is as it was. 

Meanwhile...

I've been out there sorting awesome donations like vintage beepers, Jack Chick comics, Garfield board games, old Macintosh computers, skeleton toys with both eyes on one side of their heads, and vintage Wizard electronic games in their original packaging. 

What've you been doing? Sitting on the computer looking at some pathetic blog?   Loser.

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