Pack Rat has two ears and a heart–that’s why we love Phil Collins.

Look what I just bought! Honest to God, I am totally in love with The Utilitarian Franchise. This guy makes THE. BEST. STUFF. ON. EARTH. Snapple may try to make that claim, but oh ho ho hooooo boy, they are way off. Quick test. Which is better? Unique, affordable ($9.00 - $12.00 a piece), and blazingly surreal art slapped onto a hand towel…or some kind of artificial ice tea that tastes like bowel cancer waiting to happen? If you’re on the fence, let me remind you that these towels don’t just look like a Wonderland dream, you can also use them to dry stuff.  That’s two, count ‘em, TWO great uses in one. Where as Snapple…well, now that the Snapple lady is gone, they don’t really bring much to the table at all, do they? Stop surrounding yourself with mediocrity in your everyday workhorses. Fill your home with stuff that you’re going to love! And if you think I’m talking about Snapple, there’s just no hope for you.

View my most recent acquisitions. Do it.

photo copyright by The Utilitarian Franchise

photo copyrighted by The Utilitarian Franchise

Pack Rat is one angry dwarf…and don’t forget our black t-shirt.

Imagine if you still lived life like you were in the second grade. Your boss denies your vacation request? Demolish him on the 4-square court. Know your multiplication tables up to 10? You’re a freaking genius! Have a blue foil star. And you glued a stack of popsicle sticks together in one fire-hazard sized pile? Instead of sad and slightly disturbing, it’s artistic. Looking at the stash of reclaimed art supplies at the Materials for the Arts warehouse in Long Island City, NY brings back those grammar school feelings of standing in front of the open art closet–big possibilities. MFTA opens their art and crafts treasure chest to artists and groups who need cheap or free swag in order to make their creative vision a reality. For 31 years, MFTA volunteers and staffers have been saving perfectly good arts supplies from the landfills and playing matchmaker, pairing them with the appropriate causes. Their warehouse is a veritable candy land of paint, glitter, yarn… So, actually, maybe not so much like a land made of candy, but definitely as good. Just seeing it will make you feel like a kid all over again. And knowing that a bunch of schools benefit from the MFTA resources, means that they’re helping today’s kids have that same kind of excitement. So support them how you can. Live near by? Volunteer: volunteer@mfta.org

However,  unlike second grade, if you eat the paste there will be repercussions. You know who you are. Actually, depending on the kind of paste you ate, maybe you don’t.

photo copyright by MFTA/Susan Springer

photo copyright by MFTA

Pack Rat refuses to give back any fillets of fish

Is there anything sadder than a discarded lotto ticket? It pretty much screams of dreams lost, broken, and disappointed, be they small or large. However, before that thought has you drafting  a suicide note, take heart. Not everyone out there is a pessimist. Take artist Jean Shin, who sees these slips of sad trash more like prayer offerings to the gods of success. She has collected about $25,000 worth of lotto tickets and assembled them into a booming burg in a piece she calls Chance City.

Her city of  cards, much like the dreams the lotto tickets represent, isn’t held together by anything permanent or stable. She uses no adhesive to bolster these paper slips, just a steady hand and gravity to assemble the sky scrapers. And, like a deeply cherished dream, somehow her precarious city works.

Shin says, “I feel like these are reflections of cities. Most people who move to cities experience a lot of hardship and work, not a lot of instant successes. So they learn the hard way by living in a city what defying odds is all about. Picking up your life and moving to the city and giving it all you can, your dreams may change — transform, but somehow, I think all of us retain that memory of something that they really wanted to do, and against all odds, are able to succeed.”

Hear more about Jean Shin’s efforts to look on the bright side of refuse at Morning Edition on NPR. And see more of her work in her “Common Threads” show, on display  The Smithsonian until July 26.

photo copyright Jean Shin

In Pack Rat’s opinion, fun is only fun if you saying twice.

So I’ve come out of hibernation just in time for a metric ton of flashy, lush, boogalicious of indie craft shows to be starting up. I’ll keep you abreast of the goings-on as they go on, or at least as I hear about them. Up this weekend is the Twist Fair in Northampton, MA. As if you needed an excuse to visit Hippie Central, USA? Dig $3 out of the couch, hand it over, and spend either today or tomorrow fondling the handmade goods: note cards, recycled bags, organic tees. And probably as much hemp gear as you can shake a stick at. And, as a double bonus, you can sing The Twist by Frightened Rabbit the entire time you’re there…and you’ll look only half crazy.