Hard to believe that I haven't done a post about the Twilight Rummage Sale in so long. I took a couple months off to spend time with family, but I came back in June to be both salesperson and DJ again. Like before, I shared the duty with Estaban, the same DJ/seller that worked with me previously. It went really well and Jake, who months ago helped me figure out all the equipment I needed to get started on this wild lifestyle, told us that we'll probably be part of the ongoing core group that play music at the sales in the future.
I DJ'd again for the Sweet 16 party that was hosted at the I.P.R.C. as the Portland Zine Symposium's opening event. Usually I just bring my mixer, a few connectors, a turntable and an iPod. This time I had to set up a PA and speakers too! The speakers were taller than I am! I was really surprised that no one told me to turn things down. I even had my own private dancer!! A woman started gyrating in a crazie fashion to Strafe and kept it up for a good 20 minutes.
I love it when people want to know what I'm playing and what they especially like. A lot of folks mentioned this cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Now I have to look up pictures of Robert Smith. I make myself sick.
Last Saturday was plain old Twilight Rummage Sale with just me at a table with a zillion DVDs and old magazines. I do have other things I need to bring, so that will entail me sorting through the basement some more.
December is trouncing me with a buttload of things to do. Plan a holiday party, plan two trips out of town, get ready for the last Twilight Rummage Sale of 2015. It may be my last chance to sell the big box of vintage ties my mom saddled me with. For some reason I left them in a friend's van for about six months. I imagine some folks might want to class it up with a polka-dot tie for parties of their own.
I have a new phase of sorting and clearing to commence in the basement. Now that I have space to move things around I'm going to make a dedicated area just for comics and stuff I want to sell at future Frankensteins / Comix Thing / Rummage Sale events.
The season (i.e. holidays AND winter) has got me thinking about the charities and non-profits that can use donations year-round, especially now. These are all places that need goods as well as cash. Most are in Portland, but I hope no matter where you are you'll think of similar places in your area that need your help:
Transition Projects: this is a place that shelters homeless men and women, helping them find jobs, get addiction treatment and mental health services, among other things. I've given them a lot of clothing, which they badly need. Make sure it's clean and in good repair, ok?
SCRAP: I've talked about this place a million times because they've taken shitloads of my extra random craft supplies, but did you know how much they help teachers? They give special discounts to educators and they do community outreach stuff. When I ran Sparkplug I'd get almost all of our office supplies there, and it was good stuff too.
Independent Publisher's Resource Center: This place has been a strong presence in my life for the freakishly long time I've lived in Portland. They like to get small press publications for their library of zines and comics.
The Dylan Williams Collection: Speaking of small press comics libraries this one has a special meaning for me, because it's named after my late husband. They have a super-diverse expanding selection of independent comix and they need more! If you or someone you know make comics you should send them some. They'll pay for shipping too!
Free Geek: This is a good place to get secondhand computer stuff and they recycle EVERYTHING! I've given them old hard drives, cables, radios, some of it broken-ish and they still find uses for them. They'll take other appliances too. They usually ask for a small donation of $$ when you give them stuff, but it's worth it to get rid of the CPU that's been chunking around on the laundry room floor for years.
