Finder.

Guess what was waiting for me on the curb, in the rain?


And apparently it works, too! Some sad garage-sale leftover pile was just waiting for me to come along and grab this. I left it at Ryland's (hence the stock photo), but I can't believe someone would just throw this out. I already have one - my original one from when I was eleven, still in its original packaging - but it never hurts to have a backup (until I trade it to Ry for... something). These little tanks just keep on working, despite being technology old enough to legally drink. Can you say that about your 5-year-old Playstation 2?

Also found in the garbage - an antique, hand-carved wooden end table. I pulled it out of a St. Johns dumpster and then had to let two buses pass me by before finding one that had the room to take it. Cleaned off, it looks perfect with the remnants of the hand-carved wooden circular mirror I inherited from my mom, who picked it off the curb of Providence herself back in the 70's. I can't even bring myself to rant about society's waste when I am so often its beneficiary!

Not to mention the last two trips I've taken to the Bins this week with my friend Greg. Holy moley. I've saved some serious time-capsule outfits from the landfill (see my Flickr set of Bins finds to truly get the magnitude of some of these "pieces.") Well, okay, here's a preview:


As Heather so rightly put it, "Old Orchard Beach, here we come!"

All this bad fashion, neon and acid wash must have gone straight to my brain, because I've been revisiting some old photos and books I've left untouched for a few years. I recently picked up the furry-porn series Omaha the Cat Dancer, something I used to be embarrassed to own but could now give a shit. I never read more than the first few issues, but I'm getting deeper into the story and looking at it less as a reader and more as a creator. Sometimes comics that were beloved to me as a teen fail to hold up under today's scrutiny (see Johnny the Homicidal Maniac), but Omaha still rules. I think it might have been the first example of furvert art. Super early-80s styling on all the characters, too!

Now the big question: should I give up on comics altogether and just spend full time mining the Bins and operating an Ebay store of my finds? Your call!