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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
this week we swung through one of the more obscure thrift stores in the memphis area, but one of my favorites nonetheless: the metropolitan inter-faith association's thrift store on vance st, near downtown. i say "obscure" only because it's not listed in the phone book or your average google search for thrift stores in the greater memphis tn area (although it's proudly displayed on my lovingly handcrafted google map in the right column), and it's on kind of an out of the way street in kind of an out of the way neighborhood, but there's a lot of great stuff there, if you can stand the hideous freaking lighting
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
i always get a giggle out of this sign on the way in - "vulnerable" adults could mean so many different things...i mean, isn't everyone vulnerable to something? thankfully i was riding with the incredible hulk on this visit so he was okay to stay in the car by himself, as long as i left the windows cracked a little bit.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
i've made no great secret of my love for old, sturdy, well constructed appliances in the past, and the mifa store usually has a few goodies to scratch that particular itch. while i'll confess to not knowing EXACTLY what a beater/sweeper is, if it walks like a vacuum cleaner and quacks like a vacuum cleaner...you get the drift.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
this is perhaps a little overenthusiastic on the part of the staff. i'm not talking about the price (which is a little high, to be fair) as much as the fact that they bothered to write "vintage" on the label. we get it. the shit's old, it's cool, they don't make stuff like this any more and if they did you wouldn't be able to afford it, so just buy it already. we (the general shopping public, whom i now apparently feel qualified to speak for) can figure all that stuff out on our own without you (the general thrift store employee population) having to write "vintage" on the label for us. this is really getting my goat for some reason...i think if i had a white glove on i would take it off right now and slap this picture across the face and demand that it duel me with pistols for having insulted my intelligence so. i demand satisfaction!
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
so, true to form, i've been looking for a vcr my last few visits (the one i got from amvets on presley for $5 turned out to be a dud - these are the chances we take, people) and as always, the universal rule of thrifting has held true:
WHEN YOU WALK INTO A THRIFT STORE LOOKING FOR ONE SPECIFIC THING, IT AUTOMATICALLY DISAPPEARS.
carve it into a stone tablet. a not too beat up, not too ancient vcr for less than $10/15 bucks that's not the size of a sherman tank and looks like it might actually work. i know it's out there, it's just like finding true love...you have to stop looking.
AWWWWWWW....
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
liberace and edgar allan poe's time-traveling man-baby love child had this in his bathroom for a while but he had to get rid of it because it clashed with his toilet paper
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
what a bunch of knobs
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
so perhaps can anyone who's been to this particular store before in the past verify for me that this huge shelving unit stuffed to the gills with plushy animals has always been there? because i really feel like i never noticed it before. maybe (not so much of a stretch here) i just don't pay enough attention to stuffed animals, that's definitely been a valid criticism leveled against your humble narrator before, but it really felt like i was stumbling across this stuff for the first time - very strange.
had i an infant, toddler, or otherwise diminutive human in my care (god forbid), i would probably buy them some of these, but i can also understand why parents might be a little reluctant. i mean they're basically impossible to clean (you can only use so much antibacterial febreze on something before you're basically just abusing it) and you know your kid is going to just put it all sorts of in their mouth, and they're kind of the definition of "you don't know where that's been." but i would probably get one or two for my demon spawn, if for no other reason then to fight the ever rising tide of inoculations and sanitizations and immunizations that is creating superbugs and superviruses and superdiseases left and right, that will someday mutate into sentient life forms and kill us all. germs are not automatically evil, people...you're supposed to get sick occasionally, even your kids. do you really want humanity to be wiped off the face of the earth by a gigantic talking streptococcus bacteria because you couldn't put down the purel? do you?
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
someday i will take a transatlantic steamer, and this will be my luggage.
yes, even the lamp shade.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
some nifty books this time out. i already have a copy or two of this or i probably would have snagged this one too. this kind of stuff (trivia books) is usually the best bathroom reading there is, hands down. comic strip collections get old real quick, any kind of prose is impossible, and i'm sorry but i just cannot take poetry seriously while i'm crapping. call me lowbrow if you want.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
all you need to put on the front to get my attention is "companion to the pbs television series." in thriftspeak that translates to "hello. i live on your coffee table now." definitely bought this.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
"rock lit" usually turns out to be a total waste of time, but i always end up reading it, even though it's pretty universally awful, just because i'm interested in the band. case in point, i bet this book sucks but i'm sure i'll blow through it in an afternoon, just because i like modest mouse pretty well. i think i probably bought this just for the novelty factor. i hope someday someone else will too.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
speaking of all things slack nineties, here's a book from the guy who gave us "generation x," douglas coupland. i've never read it but i've always wanted to - growing up when i did i've always had the kind of weird fascination with "gen x" that you have when you're just outside something, but you can still see in so clearly, and almost convince yourself you know what it's like. i don't, i mean i was 11 when nevermind came out...i loved it, to be sure, and still do, but it wasn't my moment the way it was for a lot of other people. don't get me wrong, the nineties shaped who i'd become more than i'd probably ever care to admit, but no matter how loose you make the definition of "gen x," i never quite make it. that's okay, or rather should i say, whatever.
also secret message spelled out in the title of this book, reversed. "SHAMPOO PLANET" becomes
"TEN, AL...POOP MA HS"
i'll leave it to you to interpret.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
i've been buying up old cds and cassettes to leave in my car lately, just anything that catches my fancy, or stuff i used to own (cosmic thing by the b-52s, matthew sweet's "girlfriend," and, most embarrassingly...jesus jones) but don't necessarily want to have back in my itunes...it's all so cheap that i keep finding myself saying "why not?" just for nostalgia's sake alone, you know? a dollar to hear it in the car right when you walk outside versus what, writing it down, going home and downloading it and listening to it an hour or two later when it's not even funny any more? give me the cd, please. and it won't exactly break my heart if my car ever gets broken into (again) and they get stolen...the day you see me shed tear one for the loss of my jesus jones tape you can take me out back and put me down like old yeller.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
another thing i have to assume was always there, and i just didn't notice it before: flower pots, like tons of them. there were more than this, i just didn't feel the need to shoot like four pictures just to convey "a lot of flower pots" to you. neat, i guess, if you're into flower pots.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
all the sales they were running. this is easier than writing it down and transcribing it. also as usual check the "on dock" list (bottom right, you can't read it from the picture but that's where it always is) for bigger stuff, furniture, pianos, etc that they can't bring inside because there's no room in the store.
so. snagged some good books, a couple cds and a tape or two, all pretty cheap. i did notice, however, for the first time, that their clothes are totally and utterly a mess. there's no organization, no signs, no indication even where the men's clothes are versus the women's. kind of a glaring achilles' heel there, mifa. otherwise though another good trip to a solid and sadly undervisited store.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
also, as an addendum, i swung through the salvo on danny thomas because it was close and i was still hunting for a vcr. not a lot of interesting stuff to report on here but i shot some pics so why don't we take a look anyway.
ps i hate trying to take pictures of the outside of this store. if they would just block off traffic on danny thomas for me every time i come down like i keep emailing the mayor about, then i could probably get a good shot or two, but until then this is the best you can get. somebody call willie, let's set up a meeting. we can make this happen.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
usual kickass selection of furniture, really heavy on the dining sets this time, which are not exactly the most interesting thing i've ever seen, but boy were there a lot of them
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
and a couple couches. i don't really know why i took this picture. i guess because that coffee table on the right is sort of shaped like the starship enterprise. does that really merit a photograph, though?
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
OHHH i wanted this so bad. if i had a few extra bucks to throw around and it wasn't about to be winter, and there were some clear indication that this set of mallets also came with the balls and the wickets to complete the set, i would have grabbed it and ran, but for all the aforementioned reasons, i did not. but i ask you, dear reader, in our ongoing inquiry into values:
WOULD
YOU
BUYIT?!?!??!?!???
answers in essay form only
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
almost bought this for my dad
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
almost bought this for my mom. you can draw your own conclusions about what kind of people they are, based on that. go ahead, i encourage you to.
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
why is every lamp so goddamn ugly? the one on the right looks like it came from a comfort inn in dubuque, the one in the back in the middle is books, or trying to look like books at least, and the one on the left...well, you can see it, god dammit. it's right there, just showing you what it is. by being it. there
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
hurrs
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| From New Album 9/30/08 7:13 AM |
this is what i walked with. i wasn't kidding about the jesus jones. a couple okay books, whatever, no big deal.
and that'll be a wrap for this week - gonna try to get another run of regular posting going, as i slowly adjust to the rigors of the work week again, and the site redesign continues (note the store(s) of the week tab at the top, with basic info about each store and links to previous visits) along with beefing up the content on the map of doom!/savings at right, and a couple little other treats as they occur to me. any suggestions would be most appreciated. until next time, take care of yourselves and each other, and don't forget to spay and neuter your pets.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmwah!
d
will you go back to mifa and buy me that flower pot on the far right of the picture with the brown yellow and orange flowers on it? i need it reeeeeal bad.
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