Friday, May 21, 2010

Every Stamp In My Collection Is a Place We Could Go

By Kevin Guilfoile

I've mentioned the MoOM here before. When I was working for the advertising/design firm Coudal Partners, we started a site called the Museum of Online Museums. The MoOM is a collection of links to unusual collections that people have uploaded to the internet. Occasionally one of these collections touches on a subject we're discussing here on the Outfit and I'll point to it.

The latest MoOM update includes a site called DeQuinceyJynxie, which is operated by an anonymous Russian/Brooklynite blogger and drug user who posts all the packaging his dope comes in. He also includes great stories about running out to buy his drugs, and he reviews his rushes and highs. Sometimes the stories are so good you almost wonder how real it all is, but then other times they're really kind of ordinary and funny/sad and you believe it.

Before this trip knowing that Newark can be quite dangerous and stuff so to calm my nerves in the unknown territory I consumed 3mg of Klonopin. It made me very relaxed but also a bit disoriented and I have a tendency to pass out in very unpredictable situations. I run into light pole, nod out while crossing street, etc.

Klonopin in such amounts can be very dangerous since you cannot control when and how you will nod out.
So finally with my dope stashed well I walked into Newark Penn station. Oh God ! This terrible thing happen I happen to nod out while checking out arrival departure display board. Only for a second I thought. Next thing i know this burly cop grabs my arm and tells me to come with him... I will not go into details of unbelievable harassment and abuse NJ cops subjected me to, but at the end I was given citation for "loitering with purpose of obtaining illegal drugs" !!! In Newark Penn Station no less! I did not know they sell it right there, then I wouldn't go to Pennington Court for shit.

But anyway I thank God everything worked out fine since I have an unpaid fine in NJ from 2001, that constitutes warrant isn't it? I was already imagining myself in county jail and whole nine yards.


Along with the latest update, Coudal created a documentary called The Curators (directed by Steve Delahoyde) about three of the collections in the MoOM. Perhaps because I still hold the title of "Collections Director," they asked me to host and narrate. The doc comes in three parts. The first is about designer Bill Keaggy's grocery list collection:



Part Two explores Brian Collier's classification system for "Very Small Objects":



And Part Three features writer and commentator Jennifer Sharpe, who rescued a remarkable collection of photographs from a dumpster:



Finally, I'm holding a contest over on Twitter in advance of the August release of my new novel THE THOUSAND. I'm looking for a thousand followers, and when I get them I'll pick 10 at random to win an advance reader's edition of THE THOUSAND. One of those ten will also win a one-of-a-kind, handwritten, deleted chapter from the book that I have illustrated with sketches and drawings and doodles. Ten others will win a gift package from Field Notes. There will be other contests throughout the summer, too, so follow along if you want to win.

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