Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Junk Drawer: Mork and Mindy Lunchbox

Click all for bigger.

Hey, watcha got in the lunchbox? This one is, for me at least, an interesting time capsule of the early 90s when I worked for Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation. I don't believe I've ever written about this period in my life; still too traumatized, I guess. I'm not going to go into it, but let's just say that you'd think two guys with rhyming names who put on a cartoon show would be fun, nice people, right? Well, there you would be spectacularly, sensationally incorrect. Let's move along.


1. Shitty quality paper Act Up stickers.
2. This is one of those why do I have this? kinda things. It's apparently a promotional yo-yo for the 1991 flop Karen Allen vehicle (!?) Sweet Talker
3. Smiley zipper pouch. I'll let you guess what I used to keep in it.
4. Giant-sized Lego! Bigger than a Duplo!
5. Hang-card for a bag of googly eyes. When I worked for the Festival, I always used to keep my jacket pocket full of googly eyes and a glue stick, because you never knew when you might see something which could be improved by these things. I really should get back into this habit. My other way of spreading random fun was to carry tiny plastic ants which I would surreptitiously place in diner sugar dispensers.
6. Classic Bicycle playing cards. Still available!
7. Airway bill for films shipped to the Valley Art Theatre in Tempe, Arizona. What a great theater it used to be! It's still in business, but no longer independent. I have very fond memories of the manager, Krista (interesting/depressing article!).


    8. Now here's a really revealing look at my past: a pay stub from the Festival. Yikes.
    9. Yay! This is a photo of one of my all-time favorite people! Meet Wendy Fonarow, my college (and thereafter) buddy and now the fabulous Anthropologist of Indie Rock™. OMG, the stories I could tell about Dr. Fonarow! I love you, Wendy! She's still so fabulous that I suspect she's got an aging portrait stowed in an attic somewhere.
    10. Stupid, lame-o hipster belt buckle from an advertiser for the magazine I wrote for after leaving the film festival.
    11. Phone messages from the always harried, abused Festival office gals.
    12. Photo I took of my favorite building sign in downtown San Diego.
    13. Dumb novelty plastic TV you look into to see kitschy vintage ads.
    14. This is way, way older than the other items in the box. It's a camera shutter extension/single frame release made for movie cameras. For a brief period in elementary school, I fancied myself an animator and never completed a single film. I had fun, though!

    4 comments:

    desertwind said...

    OMfG

    You're back! You're back!

    Something to entertain me in my dental work haze...

    I know you understand that haze.

    samael7 said...

    Peteykins Time Capsules!

    You know, I'm not sure at what point the metal lunchboxes of my youth gave way to the plastic ones in the style pictured here. For some reason, I never cottoned to those quite as much. Too rounded? Too scuffable? "Appliqué" pictures as opposed to painted metal? Or perhaps just an early precocious sense of time moving on and my objection to that process?

    I think I still have my old metal Road Runner one. It's my crayon container, these days. Ah, the smell of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of yore. That and Crayola. Mostly Crayola.

    Nixie Bunny said...

    I remember that lunchbox! I also remember how Spike & Mike drove you absolutely batshit crazy. Remember that 5 gallon jug of money that we (mostly I) spent hours extracting and counting? Crazy.

    Karen Zipdrive said...

    I like posts like these.
    I'd do one myself, but I'm way too lazy.