sweetheart redux

the window on the passenger side of my old car had been thoroughly shattered, but nothing valuable was missing inside, because there was nothing of value in there.  The one strange thing was that whoever it was that did this had taken my favorite compilation CD, one I’d made recently and had left on the passenger seat.  I wasn’t sure if the cops were only called when a car had been stolen or something valuable like a cd player boosted from it but my room mate said an attempted break in was worth their time so I spoke with a team of cops that came by the house and took some photos of the old car.  Later I ripped up a thick green yard waste trash bag and duct taped it to the hole left by the broken window glass.  This made me look poor, but I didn’t mind; I was young and I’d been to college and it felt good to look poor. One day a few months later I was driving down Sunset and there was a fragile, slow-moving blue Hyundai driving in the next lane, which I immediat...

This is an older treasure box, from my younger teens I think.  It's full to the brim so I won't bore you with its entire contents. Pretty handkerchiefs, a change purse made out of a shell, a pretty box from those English Pastilles candies, a glass strawberry, the usual. My favorite object from this panoply of sentimentality is a little notice in the employee's bulletin that Hudson's put out the day I was born.  My grandmother Hope worked there; it was once the largest department store in the world, and was definitely the primary shopping destination in Detroit, from 1911 to 1983.  The bulletin is dated March 17, 1979, and says "Hope Pulve of the YOung Guy Department is a happy new Grandma.  Granddaughter Robin Hope was born March 1st and weighed 8 lbs."  This is a special memento because I only met her once and was always very curious about her. As you can see, this photo focuses on my compass, a wonderful piece in my priced shell collection, an...

Today's excavation into my many treasure boxes I keep hidden away in a nondescript cardboard box is a look into this box here: which my mom made me when I was a teenager.  I'm guessing I used it to keep treasures from the time I was 13 to maybe after college, since there's an old school photo in it of a good college friend.  the rest of this stuff is pure teen Robin though. Here is the interior.  Stuck to the purple felt on the inside lid is 2 Rocky Horror pins and my ticket stub from when I saw Nirvana at the Forum, December 30, 1993. Here is a piece of paper signed by all members of L7, plus Courtney Love.  A friend got it for me.  I don't know why I wasn't at that show.  It was probably on a school night and I was safe at home reading Weetzie Bat or watching The Simpsons. Look at all these precious treasures.  I see:  3 of my public transit bus passes, my school ID, an antique match box full of my punk accessory saf...

I have a few boxes I keep hidden away in the closet even thought they're full of beloved treasures -- this is because, while I love these treasures, I wouldn't have the concentration to think if I lived in a house where all these things were not kept in boxes.  Instead of thinking of them as being hidden away in a closet, I try to think of them as being kept in treasure boxes.  Over the weekend I had to delve into a couple of these boxes while looking for a photo album I really needed, and here, I have selected a few unearthed treasures to share: My grandpa gave this to me and my husband the day before our wedding -- i may be a little confused but i think it's a commemorative George Gershwin envelope that he sent to Gershwin's son to have signed.  These are a couple pages from a full diary my mom bought me at a flea market when i was a teenager.  It is  "Line A Day" diary -- its title page says "copyrighted 1892, by samuel ward company, Boss, MA...

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 "SHOWGIRL CONFIDENTIAL"  (Cover Photo by Dusti Cunningham) PLEASANT GEHMAN, AUTHOR OF “SHOWGIRL CONFIDENTIAL” BIOGRAPHY Pleasant Gehman is a true renaissance woman: writer, dancer, actor, musician and painter. A Hollywood icon, during the 1970’s, she was one of the first punks in Los Angeles, documenting the scene she helped create in her fanzine “Lobotomy”. During the 1980’s, she toured across North America fronting her three bands, all of whom released multiple recordings: The Screaming Sirens, The Ringling Sisters and Honk If Yer Horny. She was also the booker for the seminal Los Angeles clubs Cathay De Grande and Raji’s.  Since the early 1990’s, under the stage name Princess Farhana, she has appeared internationally as a professional belly dancer and burlesque performer and teacher. She has danced and acted in numerous motion pictures, in music videos and on television. She has appeared in many documentaries on belly dance and burlesque, performin...

I often use the word 'camp,' and I particularly used it in Grad School to describe Kurt Vonnegut's loving but critical portrayal of normal people, but I could never put it into good words until I came upon this essay, by the amazing, real genius writer Susan Sontag.  I thought her essay may be useful to those of you who try to describe why gay guys love Liza Minnelli (stereotypically) or why you covet Aunt Rose's collection of Hummel Figurines. super-camp hollywood-camp                                                                                     Notes On "Camp" by Susan Sontag Published in 1964. Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility ...