the wifely person prepares for round three in what proved to be a long monday afternoon full of thrifting, hardcore. is she not just cuteness on wheels though
i love the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) on Mendenhall. been in there a few times, and it's always the same: SO chill, really nice staff, great environment/ambience (if you can seriously use that word to describe a thrift store), they never listen to any music, just play vhs movies on a tiny tv (today it was "boys on the side" i think, that's that one with whoopi goldberg and drew barrymore right?) and hang out and smile.
they also have an assload of old(er) cameras, including the kodak handle™, which if i'm not mistaken, like many of the other old ass polaroid cameras, you can still actually get film for directly from kodak (eastman kodak rochester ny) if no one else, at an INSANE price. every time i thrift with relatively uninitiated people (NEWBS, newfags, newbies, lol, lulz, etc) i have to go through the same spiel whenever they see one of these BAD ASS looking cameras..."yes i know it looks amazing, yeah it probably works perfectly, what you're failing to consider here is that although the camera is fifteen cents, the film is going to be twenty dollars per pack, which works out to about two dollars per snapshot with your hilarious vintage camera which you will inevitably throw away after two weeks when you realize what a pain in the ass it is to operate compared to your digital. what a god damn buzzkill
anyway as i just said this is an EXCELLENT example of what a thrift store should be, it's SO huge and has a wide selection of clothes, furniture, books, housewares, etc - just a great all around store. it's a shame that all the really good ones that aren't constantly overrun are all out around the beltway...i suppose that's just the nature of the beast though
although it was nearing the end of a long day of thrifting, wife number one snagged some SICK finds, including this charmingly emerald sweater
i saw a bunch of weird crap, like these fifteen unbelievably hard and sturdy plastic pots, about five inches wide and i'd guess about that much deep too, for maybe two bucks a shot - kind of pricey if you ask me but the things were UNBREAKABLE which is also the name of my favorite bruce willis movie
there was a bunch of really excellent furniture that was priced, i don't know, i guess i'd say "accordingly" since it wasn't outrageously expensive the way some thrift stores will jack up the price of anything that looks like it was made by ethan allen, but it wasn't so screamingly cheap that you'd write home about it. this chair and stool set was $40 i think.
this beautiful couch has been sitting here for months, it's $95 for god's sake someone buy it, i can't afford it and have no room in my apartment for it even if i could
so then. on to the records, but not without mentioning the enormous collection of "art," most of it HUUUGE that covered a lot of the walls. the only piece worth mentioning happened to be right above the records, which is an artificially smooth segue but also happens to be true - excellent
the records, while affordable and in generally good shape, and pretty well organized, SHOULD HAVE COME WITH A WARNING LABEL because they had some of the porniest covers i have ever seen, such as the above, "Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?" by one Peter Brown (the title track from the album, followed HILARIOUSLY by a track called "You Should Do It." Peter, if they need that much encouragement, maybe you should be looking for a different group of people to get funky with), which is bad enough, okay, but then it's followed by
this hideous abomination, by one "Climax Blues Band" or some such, featuring one member by the name of "Peter Haycock" (i don't know if it's the particular gentleman featured in the photo - i'd like to assume so) apparently giving the band it's chosen title in immediate physical form. this is definitely number two on my all time list of most disgusting album covers. do you want to see number one
the less said about that the better
anyway i almost snagged a gospel album by a group called "The Shumways" only because that was actually Alf's real name, from the 80s television show (and i think some Geico commercials or something since then), was Gordon Shumway, but honestly, i'm 27 years old, i don't need to be buying a crappy assed gospel album by some west tennessee nobodies just because it reminds me of the real name of a fictional television puppet that i enjoyed watching when i was a child (he always wanted to eat the cat, is what i remember)
i did buy this however. i think everything good about going to paris in a hypothetical sense in contained in this picture. short stout man wearing a trenchcoat, smoking a little cigarette with his tiny moustache, wearing a beret with thick rimmed glasses, carrying a giant pumpkin on his shoulder. welcome to a pleasant dream that will last you the rest of your life
i also found two copies of this album by this dickstick. don't know, don't care. just wanted to point it out as something to avoid. also saw multiple copies of "the sea" by rod mckuen (poet laureate of people who really really like oatmeal first thing in the morning for breakfast, to stay regular and start off a healthy day)
they shut off the lights as i was taking that picture, so i didn't even really get to look at the books, let alone photograph the calvin and hobbes book i bought. ah, well, as they say in paris, "HONH HONH HONH J'EM APELLES QUOI FROMAGE?" or some such. saw this wonderfully ambitious architectural monstrosity on the drive home and it seemed a fitting end to a wonderfully productive and weird and great day
total spending:
(ladies clothes plus two records and one book - too tired to itemize it all)
$16.57
plus $22.36 in previous equals
$38.93 in thrifting plus one $30 tank of gas so
$68.93 all told
DAV Thrift Store
3680 S Mendenhall Rd Memphis TN
797-9995
hours:
mon-sat 8:30-6:30
sun cl
music: as i said earlier, none, just the sound of whoopi goldberg and drew barrymore acting their asses off
before i turn in for a well deserved sleep, one further thought.
an apathetic elvis impersonator. we could bill him as "mehlvis."
mehlvis
good night
d
Not that I ever bothered to ask, but I always kind of wondered why my mom tends to refer to the Salvation Army as the DAV. Now, I know.
ReplyDelete...and knowing is half the battle, Jasmin! :)
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the "fifteen unbelievably hard and sturdy plastic pots", I think you'll find that those are actually bed risers or lifts. You can find these in a wide variety of shapes and styles in most department stores.
ReplyDeleteThrift store employees never seem to realize the intended purpose of these items and they are inevitably sold as flower pots.
you are just dropping knowledge on me left and right, it's like the god damned axis bombing of london in here, albeit with less death and dismemberment.
ReplyDeletethanks for the clarification, and the background info on the cavalcade of cans. nice to know someone else cares about this shit as much as i do.