Here's an old photo of The Bad Apple, around the time my husband Dylan opened it with his friend Tim three and a half years ago:
That's Patrick McGoohan's face on the wall there, though if you've ever watched The Prisoner you don't need to wonder where that still is from!
This is only a very small portion of the stuff it eventually had. Books, books, books, and lots of dvds and vhs tapes. Not to mention the furniture and fixtures. And, wait, there was a back room where Dylan ran a comic book publishing company, Sparkplug Comic Books. Here's a photo of that, from way back:
When I think it will be too hard to get my personal space in order, I tell myself that I coordinated moving everything in this space (which was much more stuff than you see here). This was an 1800sf space! I should be able to manage the 200sf or so that I am overseeing now.
I'd like to say a word here about Craigslist, and what a help it was to me over the last few weeks! I sold a few pieces of furniture, and that was great for raising the money needed for the move and the new Sparkplug location. However, the "free stuff" classifieds are just as good when you need to get a load out quickly. It's like getting a moving company for free! I got rid of some huge, slightly damaged metal shelves that I was dreading having to take out on my own. The same for a big old sofa bed with tears and stains. People will take the weirdest things as long as they're free! I got about 75 email inquiries in just a few hours on one ad.
Portland Store Fixtures was pretty great for this kind of thing too. They bought a couple fixtures and completely lowballed me (I mean LOWballed). But, they offered to take anything else that I didn't want. Apparently they have ways of recycling that thrift stores can't do. I gave them all the damaged or flat out broken stuff that I had left after the Craigslist sweep. The only thing the pickup dude wouldn't take was a pane of chipped glass that I was having trouble throwing out. Whatever, I just thought I'd ask if he wanted it. This experience has kept my enthusiasm for the Portland Store Fixtures high. I got compensated in junk removal. If I ever wanted to start a new store, I know they'd have whatever I needed and cheap-ish, so I still think they're rad.
I was watching NCIS Los Angeles this evening while making yet another pile of things to take to SCRAP* and a guy in it says "Now I feel like a chili dog" after looking at some photos of a criminal rendezvous at the Santa Monica pier, or someplace like that. The girl he's talking to looks at him dumbfounded. Just LOOKS at him.
*SCRAP, 2915 NE MLK Blvd, Portland OR 97212 (503-294-0769), scrappdx.org. Best place ever to find cheap and plentiful donated art supplies! Best place to donate them to also!
