In the latter half of Flea Market Sunday, a fellow vendor’s shelving buckled and caved under its weight and toppled. Everyone heard it–just before an upcoming Fire Dept. inspection this week; the woman was beside herself. I did what I could to move the goods into the booth and behind the line to prevent an infraction, offered her a bottle of water, bought two butter dishes (I kept thinking, “Fuck you! Get a bigger dish!”, a famous meme from Cracked.com, but held a straight face), and promised (since I’d be there anyway) to assist her booth on the Wednesday indoor vendors get to manage their booths. Simple solution: reduce the load and store lighter items, setting heavy stuff elsewhere; expensive version: purchase new shelves. Bigger shelves.
For today’s diatribe, while browsing my snippets of text files, I happened upon one where I commented on the MCU. Strange, right? What I wrote reminded me of one thing: it’s never done. It may never be done–it will never be done. There is always something else you can fix in your setup, be it your display at a flea market (sales are stronger and swifter outdoors, guaranteed; look for every means of advertising the existence of the indoor areas if you sell from there) or your immediate den. Much of this is true when dealing with excess clutter or countless small items that add up.
As I twirl about, rearranging things as they come means I will net more than a few sales and some extra ideas on what to work on or read that day. It wasn’t too much and I did buy more than I sold but, on November 12th, 2023, the volume of people who bought something from me expanded even further purely because I made sure everyone could see as much as I had. I was quite pleased with myself and the progress I’ve made. Not everything has come together just yet, but it’s getting there. My den is another matter altogether. The apartment complex has reserve storage spaces for tenants. I secured one, but its immediate mustiness makes it ill-suited for literature unless I keep them in a bin fitted to remove the mustiness (newsprint, charcoal, baking soda). There is a pillar passing through it, so there’s less space. I can stack crates full of CDs without incident, but stowing an appliance might be asking too much.
Meanwhile, tons of books are strewn about, enough to make transit difficult. A whole bunch litter the futon! You’d think that stacking like-sized ones together near a wall in lieu of there being no shelf to stuff them, while not ideal, is better than nothing. You’d be right, if you found space on the floor! If so, try to kiddie-corner them wherever foot traffic is non-existent and keep the stacks themselves neat or leaning against a wall or shelf. I repurposed a small bookshelf I perched atop another bookshelf (surprised?) from stocking art supplies to holding several softcover self-help and reference books. It looks magnificent! It’s always uplifting to see everything neatened into some semblance of order, even when not alphabetically sorting or anything particularly obsessive.
The real problem is preparing books for display and sale. Children’s pictorial hardcover books in particular are hand-me-downs from public libraries notorious for peppering discards with stickers and liners. My process is known and tested: take hair dryer & Goo-Gone to soften & remove stickers, surface grime, and covers to ensure greater buyer confidence. While it takes time, not doing this makes selling them difficult. I crowded my den with books to keep them in a controlled environment, sort them by size, count quantity (note: if you sell by size, just print labels in batches–worry about exact counts later), and verify contents. Fiction and most cookbooks go straight to sale, maybe some persuasive non-fiction (e.g. by media commenters), not so much self-help, guides, or art references; you can guess why.
This is the definition of creating value when re-selling. Despite limited space and the hassle of cramped quarters, this will liven up the booths at the co-op. If I perform the drudgery of removing stickers, and eliminating mustiness, buyers won’t be bothered by appearances, especially if they thought they’d have to perform the drudgery. In short, it’s not a tall order–just a long one. I am convinced people do this when selling online. They take extra steps like photographing them to document their condition, then packing them into individual vessels for when the time comes to insert a label and mail them to the buyer. In short, I’m always finding new ways to sort and display items for sale. It’s a constant battle, but one I can easily win.
So: what does this have to do with the MCU? Well, I wrote a comment to JesterBell’s YouTube channel.
She’s a relative newcomer to the venue, though she has filmed short movies for some time while also writing in a fledgling comic book blog. As per her namesake, JesterBell’s favorite cartoon character is the classic Harley Quinn, when she was voiced by the late great Arleen Sorkin. Another media commenter, I know.
I wrote the comment after resorting my shelves because JesterBell pointed out positive things from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest tire fire, “The Marvels”. Seems the actress who played Ms. Marvel, Iman Vellani, was enthusiastic and even charming, despite everything that happened in the movie. JesterBell, like many of our luminaries, is disenchanted over the status of popular culture of late, either from the worsening decisions made by the companies or the utter lack of heeding client grievances. If I ignored people as much as some of these companies, then the staff at the flea market will have kicked me out for noncompliance (the space was cluttered). Yet, I get far less cash for my trouble than companies like Disney do, so I can’t help but resent their practices.
The MCU’s latter productions faltered less from ideological intrusion setting unreasonable quotas than overextension in general. They made worse mistakes and had no fallbacks. We complain about overusing computer-generated imagery, how it does not deliver the same results as practical effects, but they lack access to or understanding of practical effects on the fair assumption that theirs is easier. They cut corners and boxed themselves in one–not just the ideologues’ unrealistic expectations but also the public’s. Something has to give. My shelf was sparsely holding errant art supplies. I set those aside and placed far more self-help books than I expected to stow, and there’s still more space. There are many manga volumes I intend to read before parting company with. Space is at a premium.
The superhero movie genre is not quite aging out as momentarily oversaturated. Do too much of one thing and it starts to cut into what needs doing. In the 1970’s, filmmaking was deliberately high-concept with several auteurs–figures who dipped their involvement into every facet of a production–producing and directing all sorts of epics. Eventually, after allowing such unchecked excess, they made “Heaven’s Gate” (no, not the Hale-Bopp mass suicide cult–the epic Western that halted Westerns for several years). The “Auteur” boom fell by the wayside at last, allowing for film companies like Cannon to fill the (prop guns with) blanks. The studio behind Marvel, Disney (until they sell Marvel off, the sale of which should have never happened to begin with), is under the conceit of shilling a message or moral with every piece of entertainment. After a while, people become sick of lectures from essayists out to make a point at the expense of plot and character.
In short, the MCU is not so much bloated than scattered. Therefore, it dawned on me that nobody did themselves a kindness. Kindness entails sacrifice. What did I do? Sacrifice artistry for functionality. I set aside the art supplies and put up the self-help books, of which needed some kind of home. Likewise, the portrayal of Ms. Marvel infuses enthusiasm about comic books, playing a terrible hand exquisitely, much to JesterBell’s surprise. Iman took a dying project seriously and demonstrated what fun could be had from a movie sourced from what they used to call “Funny Books”. She knows what needs doing! The Marvels might become this generation’s “Heaven’s Gate”, but Iman might just become her generation’s Samuel L. Jackson.
That’s from dedication and persistence. Raw talent can only get you so far. So, don’t be afraid to look around, see if you can give your den a bit of care, never quit tinkering or figuring out ways to do things efficiently and effectively. Just don’t kill yourself–be gentle; it was all part of the plan. Be sure to check out JesterBell’s channel. Pay attention to the short films–those are endlessly cute!
https://www.youtube.com/@realjesterbell