Sunday, July 3, 2011

What`s in the Bag? Part 1



I found the bag last week in my parent's garage. The sun-bleached canvas bag itself is of a mid-nineties vintage, as the band patches of bands sorta popular at the time indicates. As for the contents, it was a mish-mash of not so much keepsakes as little stowaways on my life's journey. These were items of my youth that, when I moved away from Winnipeg in the late nineties, I couldn't bring myself to either throw-out or burden myself with. While pawing through these items of slight significance, I was seized upon by the idea that a record (in the form of shoddily-lit, ill-composed photographs of the items discovered) should be blogged. So for those of you old enough (and perhaps North American enough) to remember the crushing disappointment that was Geraldo Rivera's on-air opening of Al Capone's vault, here's my brief foray into a sort of narcissistic archeology:


(Figure Two: The Stuff)


Here's an aerial view of the shoe box that lay inside the mystery bag.


(Figure Three: The Wires)


The first thing we found is a batch of orphan wires and plugs, not thrilling in anyway but a reminder of the connections we abandon along the way.


(Figure Four: The ID)


Next, I collected a set of items, name-tags, membership cards etc., which once gave proof of my identity to the skeptical ("Do you work here?", "Can I see your card?") On a really sad note the Jumbo Video membership is not in my name, I worked there, but for one 'Billy Bragg' - oh the things we did with the laminator to while away the midnight hours.

On that Bragg-related note (and believe me there are more of those embarrassing fan-boy moments to come), we'll leave off for now. Things can only get more exciting as we delive further into the bag...

Feel free to give us your reasonably kind take on this little excavation work in the COMMENTS section and, worry not, there's no way with my shutter skills that this blog is gonna decamp over to Flickr.

8 comments:

  1. I'm intrigued by your bag.

    More Bag!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hate those power adapters! They never tell you what they are for, so I am always afraid to throw one away lest it be for a crucial piece of equipment stashed in the closet. I'm certain they all do exactly the same thing, so why are there so many varieties?

    Do they even have audio stores any more? I haven't seen one in twenty years. Seems that Best Buy and Wal-Mart are the default and stereo connoisseurs will have to go begging on the internet.

    Daddy? What's a video store?

    I'd hoped for something more tantalizing from the bag but anxiously await the next installment. Surely there's a cassette in there, no?

    ReplyDelete
  3. CallPastorJerkfaceJuly 3, 2011 at 12:54 PM

    Oh, the Avail patch! If there was ever an object of 90's vintage that deserved it's own punk ode it would be those poorly stitched (or safety pinned) patches in all their unbleached glory. Write me a book, I say, a book!


    Your collection of cards and name tags shamefully reminds me that I still carry my laminated Nomeansno "Wrong" I.D. card (with full colour photo no less) in my wallet just in case someone needs to know how worthy I am of two good shots to the head.

    ReplyDelete
  4. man. that bag was made to carry LP's.

    also, i feel the need to comment on the Avail patch as well, despite two other references already.

    it seems like that was standard issue in the 90's for sure. almost like a carbon dating watermark or something that anthropologists in the future will be able to use to identify objects. "does it have an Avail patch on it? oh, it belonged to a punk kid in the 90's."

    i wonder how many of those were ever produced. they've gotta have gold status, right? maybe platinum by now?

    ReplyDelete
  5. this is a great post mate.i have similar experiences every time i go to my inlaws house in spain(where a whole load of my 'stuff' is stored)and i can spend hours digging through boxes containing stuff that i have to keep no matter what my wife says.anyhoo looking forward to part 3!

    ReplyDelete
  6. @CPJF ...laminated Nomeansno "Wrong" I.D. card (with full colour photo no less)???

    Wow! I still have mine somewhere. Not laminated, and missing my ugly mug...


    Cool mini-series though, Jeffen!

    ReplyDelete
  7. CallPastorJerkfaceJuly 9, 2011 at 4:00 PM

    @biopunk...I shall scan the Wrong article and send it Jeffen's way as, someday, someway, he'll surely be able to use it post wise!

    ReplyDelete
  8. brink
    Thanks for the early encouragement - and worry not, there's more crap to come!

    4 steps
    I am always afraid to throw one away lest it be for a crucial piece of equipment stashed in the closet"
    Exactly why those useless pieces of crap were saved!

    CPJ
    That 'Wrong' card will appear here!

    VBJ
    "it seems like that was standard issue in the 90's for sure. almost like a carbon dating watermark or something that anthropologists in the future will be able to use to identify objects. "does it have an Avail patch on it? oh, it belonged to a punk kid in the 90's."
    Fuck, yeah. I not only STILL love that first Avail album I think Tim Barry's solo stuff is fantastic.

    gobshyte
    "stuff that i have to keep no matter what my wife says" That should be the sub-title when I put together the reader-sourced sequel.

    ReplyDelete

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