Tag/Thrift Tuesday #77: Where Cheap Remains the Esthetic
by Pasadena Adjacent
I like globes. I don’t collect them in the same way as Brenda in Arizona does, but still, I like them. I even had the chance to paint one that was used in one of those 1492 Columbus quincentenary year movies*. And we all know how well that celebration went over; clueless Pasadena placed one of Chris’ descendents as Rose Parade Grand Marshal.
Anyhow, I’ve been dragging the above globe around since at least 1992. It’s a globe that has a history. “Discovered” back when flea markets were more like the alternative to holding a garage sale. At such a market, held in the parking lot of East LA College, I met a fellow from (insert favorite South American country here) who was selling the globe. It’s made of aluminum and divided into two parts, (missing the North Pole) and hinged together with small screws. It once belonged to a grade school Mr (insert favorite South American country here) had attended mid-century. He’d been dragging it around too. And I picked it up cheap. Over the years and due to my perilous existence, I’ve watched it take on a few dents. Worst has been the effects of the sun, as it turned the paint further into powder. I did something the Keno twins would have me killed for. I repainted it (but I left the dents). In a few years, when the paint begins the process of deterioration, and the bloom is off the rose, it will be beautiful.
* (lots of mythical sea monsters; good money/cool job)
Pasadena Adjacent 
In my neighborhood, trash collection takes place on a Tuesday. The night before is a good time to canvas the neighborhood for castaways. It’s great sport. I use Tuesday on my blog to post my treasures.
“Getting it cheap is part of the esthetic” was coined by my photographer friend D Gordon
http://www.dgorton.com/
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Insensitive and elitist? The white shoes? NAW! Couldn’t we have a Rose Parade with uncut flowers?
Our Editor Responds: Big Fred was buried in his white shoes. He could be insensitive.
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You did this by hand? Steady on, PA. Any more thoughts on dogs?
Our Editor Responds: Yes and no. I used a latext mask to block out the ocean then painted the land…let dry…remove mask..then block out the land and spray the ocean.
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I love old globes, to see how they once split up the world. When The Times was going belly-up, as far back as the 90’s, they stopped updating the globe in the, er, Globe Lobby. So you’ll still see the USSR.
Our Editor Responds: Several land masses had fallen by the wayside on my globe. I’m convinced I incorrectly placed Hawaii. Can you take me on a Times tour? I want to see that lobby (the building is still there…?)
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PA, you always make me laugh, even as you teach me. Should I admit I never heard of the Keno twins? I live in a bubble.
I love the before and after photos. Keno twins be damned! You did the right thing.
Our Editor Responds: You sound like Ramona (read the editors comment to D)
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Judging from their photo, I’d say the Keno twins understand make-up.
Our Editor Responds: score!
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Name dropper! I love Petrea’s quip. Have you noticed on the Roadshow how “value” plummets on some restored items yet no discounted price for other restored things? Coin toss? Globes and maps are always fascinating, new, old, faded, ripped or worn. Of course we can discard them all now in favor of the failproof GPS. Where am I? I should have u-turned back when the disembodied voice told me to. A map or globe would never talk back (with the exception of Globey from Pee Wee’s Playhouse). Wilma made her famous tacos for all of us last night. Ole.
Our Editor Responds: Keno twins “That Federal Highboy would have been worth 1.5 million, but since you replaced the hardware with home depot replicas (because they were shiny) and painted it orange, it’s now worth the price of the replacements” Ask Ramona. She antiqued my grandmother’s birds-eye maple dresser (and replaced the hardware with shiny hardware) ole!
btw: get her to make chicken and dumplings
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It’s beautiful – I love the palette. But I can’t believe you had the patience to do it. What was it like painting the coast of Norway, or the tip of South America? Did you get all the little islands? (oops, there will be complaints from the Hawaiians and accusation you wiped them out deliberately). Did you dream of the countries you were painting? Did you put a red dot on Garvanza?
Our Editor Responds: All done with aerosol paints. One could say that the destruction of the o-zone went into the creation of Norway. No dots for Garvanza.
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I’m glad you repainted it. The Keno twins are weird. It’s one thing to be identical; it’s another to make your living doing the same obscure thing.
Our Editor Responds: They are odd. I hear they’re second cousins twice removed from Anders Behring Breivik.
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“Maps are a way of organizing wonder.” (Peter Steinhart, as found in William Least Heat Moon’s book, Prairy Erth).
But if the tin is dented, might the whole thing wobble in its orbit? Or just fly off into dark energy?
Our Editor Responds: if it does, maybe it will meet up with all those lost socks.
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I always wundered what happened to old globes. Especially as nations change and cross borders. Now I know who the caretakers of such stuff is.
Our Editor Responds: The “adjacents” make the best caretaker/ Heritage Square/ Charles Lummis House/ Police Museum / South West Museum / Arroyo Seco Stables and we were robbed by Pasadena who stole our Garvanza Church of Angels
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The chocolate and turquoise color combo is very trendy. As usual, you were ahead of the curve (of the Earth).
Our Editor Responds: Or maybe behind the curve. It has been my unfortunate experience to discover that no retail store sells the entire range of aerosol paints. It was a choice between dark chocolate and Ocher. Sometimes trends are wise
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