Fess up, now -- what's the oddest/coolest/most-potlatch-worthy thing you've bought (or wished you had) on ebay, at a stoop sale, in a flea market, etc.? Requests for anonymity will be honored.
Trip Kirkpatrick is grooving to his find:
The coolest thing I have bought recently (since as we all know I buy cool things all the time) was the soundtrack to Jean-Luc Godard's Nouvelle vague. What's so cool about this? Well, rather than just another soundtrack, this is the sound track to the film. The whole kit and kaboodle. The entire 88-minute sounds of the film, on two shiny CDs. Unfortunately, there's no libretto, so I can only follow along as my ability permits, which is to say intermittently. There is, however, a nice pinhead essay (in French, German, and English) by a cultural critic about the movie and why it's great to listen to the sound without the vision. Big ups to Chris Molanphy, who gave me the gift certificate to Other Music, which is where I found this gem.
Alex Joseph bought:
Black Velvet San Francisco Painting That Lights Up
I believe I have the coolest thing. I would like to be buried with it. And yes, I bought it on eBay. It is a 6' X 3' black velvet painting of San Francisco that lights up. Yes, that's right. The cable car lights up, Golden Gate Bridge lights up. Not only is it exceptionally ugly/beautiful, the scale is all wrong, Coit (sp?) Tower is where Chinatown should be, the bridge is wildly out of proportion. That phrase, "black velvet San Francisco painting that lights up" has wormed its way into virtually every substantial conversation I've had in the past 3 months. Try saying it sometime.
I also have a raining oil lamp with a naked lady that slowly turns around, surveying the pink, plastic foliage at her feet. AND I have a lenticular. A lenticular is a 3-D image (think VuMaster) that lights up (notice a theme?). My particular lenticular features a witch, a pumpkin, and a green wall.
Next: Taxidermy.
Eric Lane bought:
On ebay, I bought a promotional jacket for the video game NARC. I haven't worn the jacket a lot, but when I do, people seem to love it. NARC was a superviolent game of my youth. It was a one or two player game where you controlled either a red or blue masked man who with his submachine gun would fight packs of drug-users, drug-sellers, and other drug related enemies (attack dogs if I remember). You'd also have to avoid the giant needles thrown your way. As for ebay, I have not yet given in and purchased a snow cone machine or a vhs copy of the film Ratboy.
P.S. I know someone who purchased live lobsters on ebay. Something about that bothers me. Oh, I also purchased a front row Beck ticket to his 2/15/00 show at radio city music hall. I had to meet the guy in an alley in times square at midnight on a wednesday to pick it up. I don't know why I felt that buying over ebay made it a safer transaction. But I did get to see the manchild funkster himself, feet away from me, perpetrating full-on rock-out explosions. I guess that's about it for ebay. Wish I had weirder stories. Over and out.
[NB: Meeting a guy in an alley at midnight isn't weird enough?]
Mike Everett-Lane bought:
Well, on-line, my best score was a talking Buttercup watch (for Debbie, of course). This watch is so cool. Buttercup is the most kick-ass of the three Powerpuff Girls, those kindergarteners who protect Townsville using their super-powers (think Sailor Moon 10 years younger). Not being able to watch PPG is one of the major drawbacks to going off the cable grid, but the watch almost makes up for it. It's huge, it's green, it talks and it has kewl animation on its tiny screen. Plus it has a tiny Buttercup figurine on it. Every grrl needs one.
Back in the real world, my latest favorite find was at our own stoop sale, which turned into a swap meet of sorts. I got a very cool straw-fedora-type hat for $1. It's my "daddy-o" hat -- I am now ready for fatherhood. (Well, at least I can look ready.)
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