Why I have the ultimate vision (vintage haul).

 As I write, I am on a trip with my dad and sister in the Minnesota/Wisconsin overlap area. I have been experiencing a sensation not unlike one I might have if I'd been knocked on the head and woke up to find myself in a different state. Why am I in Minnesota right now, I thought, as I looked out our rental car window at a nondescript highway. There's literally no reason to come here. I mean, we went to the Mall of America but none of us are huge shoppers. I made my own (deranged, Monkees-themed) M&Ms at the M&M store. We ate a disappointing dinner at the Rainforest Café, and I looked at a lot of bad clothing, and we went back to our motel. That was day one. 

I make it sound very depressing, but I actually had a nice time overall. Something about the air seemed cleaner, and the absurdity of being on a random highway in Minnesota was amusing enough to keep me generally happy. Day two was better: we got to drive out of the ultra-commercial area we were staying in (near the mall and the airport) and into the Twin Cities: St. Paul and Minneapolis. The outskirts are gorgeous: suburban, green, and teeming with lakes. Much of the cities themselves are lovely too. Lake Street was particularly cool- that's where Time Bomb Vintage was. I had looked up thrifting possibilities the night before in an attempt to find something to do after visiting Snake Discovery's reptile zoo, which was a major stipulation of the trip as a whole. My sister has been an avid fan of the Snake Discovery youtube channel for as long as I can remember, and the fact that they opened a public zoo in Minnesota made a Midwest trip unavoidable for us. Wisconsin had already been on the horizon since my dad is from there, and we were curious about what it would be like to go back. But the relevant part is Time Bomb Vintage. The pictures I saw on google really intrigued me, ESPECIALLY one that appeared to show a print or photo of a still of Martin Sheen from Apocalypse Now hanging from the ceiling. In the style of many retro goods stores, a speech bubble cut from white paper was taped to the image, and read "OMFG, records!!" 

Well, Marty was nowhere to be found when I went. But that was fine- I (and my traveling companions) found tons of stuff inside the store that I ultimately ended up purchasing for a total of around 76 dollars. I'd like to dissect this bag of treats for you.

1-8!

I have a treatise to share. Have I not achieved the most unified... batch of... things, here? Collectibles, pieces, goods? Kitsch, I guess? Shallow as it sounds, the look of all my purchases together is super exciting to me here. My vision (meaning interests, preferred visual aesthetic, and historical fixations) was realized, and here's why:

I've got the sunny 60s yellow, which brings to mind those old Beatles posters (I have one in my room) with bold black text and etching on a yellow background. I've got my sweet 70s browns, richer tones (numbers 1 and 5 are pleasing together) and I've got that gorgeous green 45rpm label on #2, a Zombies single-- I associate this color with their name, mostly because of one of their compilation album covers on spotify-- which screams 60s neon-horror-campy-rock pop. Do you know what I mean? I'm picturing big round buttons with Dracula or Frankenstein or Batman on them. The Monkees VHS, which is interestingly the newest of the items in this group, knows what I mean. It's got a little image of a ditsy "I'm a Monkees fan!" pin on the cover. The most important categorization of the items, of course, is the skewed Monkees throughline. #7 is pure: The Monkees, by The Monkees! It's the original vinyl, companion to the first few episodes of the series or even to the buildup before the premiere. Then, #3, a few episodes on VHS. It's a nice find, as these are really hard to get in any physical format affordably. Then there's two sort of branch-offs. Dolenz, Jones, Boyce, & Hart (#1) is weird and obscure but comprehendible. It's the studio album from a 1970s attempt at reviving a little Monkee mania through the partnership of Micky, Davy, and some of their original songwriters, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. It's intensely of its time, super-pop music, and seamlessly pairs with the skin-tight, star-graphic shirts and spacey jumpsuits they wore during performances of the songs. I am a DJBH enthusiast. But the most wonderful freak-child of the Monkees (and the 60s, in general) is #6. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KIDS (comic book). This is based upon, or maybe more accurately, in promotion of, a short-lived Hanna Barbera cartoon of the same name. It was a shameless Scooby-Doo xerox with an uglier dog and a mystery-solving gang that was also a band. The important part is that the band's curly haired, dopey drummer, Wally, was voiced by Micky Dolenz. No, he did not get to sing for any of the show's (numerous!) in-episode songs, some of which were released as 45s. No, he was not particularly funny in his role as alternate dimension Shaggy. But the look of the characters and the fact of his involvement are more than enough to interest me. Now, I have the comic! How cool!

Shaggy I mean Micky I mean Wally.

The shirts are exciting, too. I had already found a pretty awesome 70s tee on day one of the trip at a store called Ragstock in the mall (apparently this is a chain of new/used clothing stores in select U.S. states, none of which are in proximity to my home). The shirt reads "Happiness is an Irish Setter" and has a cute illustration of the dog on it. It's perfectly thin with age, and perfectly pale yellow, and has a notch cut out of the collar in the way that stores like Forever 21 always try to replicate, but has only been successfully accomplished by the bored teens of years past. To the point, I was in the mood to collect the type of shirt I always wished I could find back in Brooklyn.  The Minneapolis store had lots of graphic tees from local events and locations from the 70s and 80s. I picked up a Minnesota zoo shirt (#5) and a silly Eau Claire, Wisconsin tourist tee (#6). Both were fairly pricey but considering the amount I will be wearing these, and how many boxes they check for me style-wise, it was worth the 20ish or 25ish each cost. (I am a souvenir shirt sucker to begin with so it's likely I'd have spent more for worse, newer ones if I hadn't gotten these! YEAH!)

(Ragstock) I also bought the jeans, which I am holding
by the crotch in this image due to the busted zipper. I got a discount.
And they fit too well to pass up.

It's already pretty clear why the Monkees & post-Monkees vinyls were instant buys for me. As for the two Zombies 45s, I just like those songs! I don't know very much about them but I love the music and I want to expand my single collection. They were just a dollar each!

If you are traveling near Minneapolis I highly recommend Time Bomb Vintage. It had exactly the sort of selection that you hope to find entering any store that advertises itself as vintage, and most of the non-clothing items were extremely cheap. These places really do not exist in NYC! The only similar place I remember going to was in the small town of Suffern, NY. It was called Wow! That's Unusual, and the store's owner went out of his way to show me the breadth of Paul McCartney memorabilia that was available inside. (I ended up buying a towel with a photo of him from the RAM sessions on it- that says enough). 

Thank you for reading and I REALLY hope I can keep up the blogging momentum for the rest of the summer. Maybe I'll write another Midwest dispatch in a couple of days.