- A yellow legal-sized writing pad containing mysterious ideas and plans.
- An issue of Mike Hampton’s Hot Zombie Chicks.
- Minidisc case reading “Babbling — Raw #7. Also, The Babbling Project #1.” (No minidisc.)
- Minidisc case reading “1. Babble 2 6/6/00.” (No minidisc.)
- Mindisc (with case) reading “Babbling #8.”
- Y adapter for telephone line.
- Minidisc case — scratched and unmarked. (No minidisc.)
- Floppy disk with label scratching out Intellipoint driver, reading “ME — Startup.”
- Floppy disk (unmarked, unlabeled).
- Various audiocassettes from November 2004 containing interviews that I conducted to research a still unfinished polyamory play.
- Minidisc, with case reading “The Babbling Project #2.”
- Blue Sharpie
- Box of Bostich No. 10 1000 mini staples
- Unlabeled green floppy disk
- Floppy disk reading “Creative stuff began @ work I”
- Damaged minidisc with Chet Atkins and mysterious “Test 7/21/00″ label.
- Blue Pocket Etch A Sketch
- CD — containing driver for Olympus digital camera I no longer own.
- Unusued Ampex magnetic tape still in shrink wrap.
- 3M Recording Tape containing audio for uncompleted film.
- Many business cards.
- Many mysterious microcassettes — what’s on them?
- An incomplete San Francisco Secondary Schools Pass.
- A minicomic — Melina Mena’s Sour Milk Sea.
- A 2004 monthly calendar designed by my friend Tom Working.
- A strange package containing an adaptation cable for a video card that was fried sometime in 2005.
- A small bottle of Advil PM. (It’s still good! The expiration date is 10/09.)
- Many 3×5 index cards.
- A red Bostitch mini stapler.
- Many VHS videotapes containing (among many movies) Soapdish, episodes of the animated Star Trek series, episodes of Blake’s 7, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, episodes of Doctor Who and Monty Python, Twelve Angry Men, Sullivan’s Travels, Miracle Mile, episodes of The Simpsons, episodes of The Prisoner, Quick Change, an HBO special starring Rowan Atkinson, Suspiria, and Poison Ivy (recorded, no doubt, because of the promise of Sara Gilbert and Drew Barrymore naked).
- A pair of red scissors.
- A small journal I had forgotten about that contains the sentence, written in 1999, “I am slightly fearful of being laced with Judeo-Christian nonsense.”
- A CD containing photos of a play I wrote and directed many years ago for a small venue.
- An additional CD containing the sound cues for Wrestling an Alligator.
- A mysterious 5 1/4″ floppy — what’s on it? how to transfer?
- Numerous writing instruments.
- An unopened box containing a corner brace — 1-1/2 in. x 3/4 in.
- A student ID from 1991 in which I actually had hair.
- A Swingline package containing 5,000 standard staples.
- A floppy labeled, “YES! 4/97 Job Search.”
- A floppy labeled, “Servant of Society.”
- A receipt from Stacey’s Bookstore, dated 05/04/07, for Bleak House. (I still haven’t finished that book.)
- The Fat Camille Omnibus 2007 by Camille Offenbach.
- Another minicomic: Nitsy and Bitsy.
- A CD labeled “80s MP3s.” (Shudder.)
- An undeveloped roll of Fujicolor film from who knows when. (What pictures are on this?)
- Julia Wertz’s I Saw You…: Missed Connection Comics #1.
- A handout for an improv class that I took in 2005.
- A handout from MUNI on “Ballpark Service Tickets and Fares.
- A spare serial drive cable.
- 2 AA batteries — still good?
- A UHU STIC gluestick.
- Many DV tapes — containing what?
- Two VGA to DFI adapters.
- Printout of Segundo scheduling spreadsheet from 2006.
- 16mm yellow leader tape.
Most of this will probably be thrown away. But unfortunately, I’m too curious about the data that might be on some of these tapes. I’m additionally curious as to where I obtained some of this stuff. This curiosity, I suppose, is the problem with moving. When setting up in the new digs, I will likely expend a considerable amount of time trying to find a use for nearly everything on this list.
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (