Joe Borzotta - Craphound

I am a Craphound. A craphound for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is a person who collects alot of stuff. Not the psycho pizza boxes up to the ceiling nut, just to be clear. If you remember Liquid Lounge, you'll remember all the pop culture memorabilia decor, most of which is stored away in my attic. What am I going to do with all those lunchboxes, figures, games, pez, bobbleheads and such?? I might have to open a new place to display them! I also have thousands of comic books (in mom's house, thank God!), hammered aluminum trays and bowls, sports cards, art books, vinyl records, and a slowly growing collection of original art (other than my own). And don't suggest that I sell the stuff! How could I part with my Mr T sprinkler? or the Justin Timberlake N'Sync marionette? or the Sta-Puft Marshmallow man radio? or the can of Popeye Spinach? or Chairy? or my 1966 Batman lunchbox? How dare you?!?

I have visions of someday owning a house where I have one room that's MINE, off limits to the future wife and kids, my own Sanctum Sanctorum (comic book geek reference) and I have all this STUFF displayed, a drawing table, and a lazyboy with a TV so I can watch wrestling and UFC, and read in peace...the modern term is "Man Cave."
Craphound or not, I have reeled it in considerably. Especially with lunchboxes - they just take up too much room. HOWEVER, I finally managed to get one that I've longed for since first grade. I always got beat out on Ebay for it, but this one came up Buy It Now-- and I did, damn the consequences!!
Ladies and gentlemen, from 1968, the dometop Snoopy lunchbox!

Farewell to Love

Just made a fantastic purchase to combat this diabolical cold weather (how the hell do people live in No Dakota where it's like this for MONTHS at a time! My friend's sister went to college in Minnesota and had to use a device to keep the oil in the car from freezing - oil freezing??? OIL?? But I digress...), one of those winter hats like Van Gogh wore in a self -portrait, or like that guy who could fix anything wore on Hogan's Heroes. The kind with the furry lining and big ear flaps that's hipster ironically cool? Fashionable or not, it's WARM WARM WARM! Maybe people in Minnesota could use them in their engines to keep the oil from freezing.
Anyhoo, a block away from St Marks (where I got the hat) on 2nd Ave is
Loves Saves the Day, the famous pop culture memorabilia store that's been there forever. As many of you have probably heard, it's closing in a few days. I saw a piece on it on NY1, and apparently the owner's wife died about a year or so ago and they have a store in New Hope or somewhere, so he's downsizing to just that store. I have mixed feelings about LSTD - it's cool that it was there, great for the neighborhood and fun to pop in and look at the collectibles. However, it was a total tourist trap - his prices for collectibles were on the far side of astronomical. Just about anything there could be found on EBay for 25-35% of their asking price, so as a collector I could never take their pricing seriously. Nonetheless, sad to see it go - probably turn into a PinkBerry or Verizon store...feh.