pt 3: More out of The Box

Just a couple more items from the much-vaunted Mystery Media Free(k) Box, then onto other posts.
This contribution came bundled with a couple mixtapes and a photo, which was too dark to translate well to a photocopied zine. More on that in a bit. There was also a note included on an index card that caught my attention; both sides of it here:

Dear finder. Here's a CD, a tape, and a photograph. I want you to know that the CD packet was from a previous finding with 3 CDs which I traded for my {secret?}. Now then, I'd like to tell you something that I can't tell anyone else.

I've thought about offing myself before because of how kids at school make fun of me and how I have no friends and that I'm weird and no boys like me and that I'm not good at anything except Art, which I am proud of but it seems to make some people think I'm even weirder. I've had a boy tell me "Oh, I'm not dating you. I'm not touching anyone who draws stuff like that." And I've heard boys tell each other that they like me in a sarcastic way. Like, "You love her!" "EWW NO YOU DO, dude." "You dream of her!" "No one dreams of her!" Ya it makes me feel like shit. But in the end I decided it would be selfish to off myself & I should grow a pair since I have a house, food and all my senses, I am healthy and have a few friends.

But to tell you; please don't give people shit Please Please no matter how strong they seem you could be killing them. Bye-Bye.

I love you,

Thanks for reading.

The photo was very shadowy and smeared with some paint, but you could just make out a human form. "The one holding the cookie made my life hell in 6th grade. It's gotten better" was written in marker on the photo.
--Love to you as well, and thanks for sharing.

This contribution was a trifolded sheet of paper, with writing on the outside center section, which I copied and pasted onto the other side for the sake of space.

I find I never have anything to contribute when I come to the box.

I found some sweet CDs, so I drew this on the spot. It's awful.

--Well hey, thanks anyway!

 And finally, from the introductory notes of a previous zine documenting free box finds:

ABQ Lost is an entity dedicated to investigating the secret psychic histories of this region. As one might guess, the scientific methodology required to obtain such information can be very different from that of the consensus reality. To achieve the most worthwhile results, special attention needs to be paid to the margins, the gutters and the garbage, in both literal & symbolic senses. ABQ Lost collects material from as many disparate sources as possible, assessing & cross-referencing them equally with intuitive rigor and dispassionate empathy. This method, applied with discernment, can provide refined glimmers of the Whole through refracted glimpses of the Hole.

Ahem.
More "expanded material" related to the ABQ Lost mission to be posted soon!

-DCat

pt. 2: Free(k) Media / For Madmyn Only

Since this series of posts was started by talking about the ABQ free media boxes, I'll post this picture of The Strange Tractor, the free box in downtown Iowa City, IA that was the inspiration for the first one here in town.

It's been active for well over a decade. I'm pretty sure it didn't exist when I left I.C. in '98 to wander aimlessly, eventually ending up in Burque. The only way I know of "the tractor" is through my friend Virginia Visker, a townie afficionado of and participant in the underground art & music scene. Virginia interacts with the box on a regular basis, often telling me about what she's left in it (including many items that I've sent her) and the "responses" she receives. Even though anyone can take or leave anything they please in a free media box (and for any reason), Virginia sometimes interprets the contents as addressing her personally, depending on how much she's off her meds. I've noticed that free media boxes often attract the most concentrated attention from schizophrenics, of which Virginia is a proud "sufferer". I love Virginia.

Virginia reading w/ noise/improv locals

"S.C." was another such person that contributed heavily to ABQ's first Mystery Media Free(k) Box, and many of whose offerings were compiled in a special ABQ Lost supplement. Known "S.C." documents had stopped appearing in the free box by the time of that publication, & I found only a few other items bearing S.C.'s signature (or by-now distinctive handwriting) before the box was removed. One was a Christmas card addressed to the Peace & Justice Center down the street, thanking them for taking care of all the homeless puppies. I'm pretty sure the P&J isn't involved in that activity, but I left the card under their door anyway. I arranged the others as a page intended for The New #2, but eventually used it in one of the originals-only, single copy issues I made out of the castoffs from that zine. {Another of these single copy issues contain letters & artwork Virginia Visker has sent me over the years, released with her blessing.} Here, S.C. offers up a series of 3 post-it notes, uniquely engaged in & critiquing syllogistic logic. These are followed by another post-it of uncertain authorship, with eerie astronomical insinuations.

The Truth

1 of 3: Comfort, is a lie.

2 of 3: So is philosopy. Philosophy is defined as love of one's own thoughts.

3 of 3: Subway wheat bread is a lie.

followed by:

You're lit from the other side

Mizar Draco

M81, 82 

Enough for now- free box finds continued in the next post.

-DCat

ABQ Lost: "The New #2"

Starting today, most RFN posts for a while will follow up on the promise of "Expanded material related to this zine online soon" made in The New #2: furthur findings ov ABQ Lost. This photo of the original Mystery Media Free(k) Box was taken shortly after the first ABQ Lost came out. I got tired of lugging this abandoned newspaper dispenser to shows for hyping the zine, and chained it up in an alley where it became the free box. Somebody snapped it early on, before it got covered with graf, stickers, coverup paint, more graf, etc... Two or three years later (?!), the lock was cut & the box got removed. The Free(k) Media box turned out to be a Hydra, as there's now several around town:

1. There’s one in the alley that runs East-West between Garfield SE & the old cemetery, sorta behind Synchro Studio (512B Yale SE).
2. In a neighborhood north of downtown, there’s a free box by the alley between 11th & 12th, on Granite NW. It’s a couple blocks north of Lowe's grocery on Lomas, right next to the backyard entrance for the Moldspores venue (923 11th St. NW), which also houses a fantastic lending library & distro. Call (505) 238-2181 to see if they’re open to visitors. 
3.  There’s one outside The Tan gallery (1415 4th St. SW), with a cool light that can be switched on or off if there's new material inside. 
4. While not necessarily connected to the Free(k) Media mission, there's a cardboard box that says "Free" sitting in front of the bulletin board outside the Fine Arts Library (FAL), on the 4th floor of the UNM Design Bldg. (across Central from Frontier). FAL is also a good place to check out obscure & underground videos, which you don't have to be a student to access- you can get a "community card" for about $30/year! A lot of the Alphaville Video (RIP) collection ended up here. 
5. There’s also one not far from where the original was. It’s on Silver SE, between Cornell & Stanford, right by the sidewalk on the north side of the street. There’s even a bulletin board next to the spot! It's protected from the elements underneath the awning of a bricked-up former porch. Keep in mind that this location is actually attached to a residence, and I doubt that anyone asked first. So don’t be a dick to the unwitting hosts of the newest Free(k) Media Box.  
6. The newest Free(k) Media Box is located around the corner from The Octopus & The Fox boutique, at 514 Central Ave. SE, in the Huning Highlands neighborhood. It’s a gorgeously painted item, sitting right next to an Alibi box.

Now more than ever- support local independent & underground media; practice self-expression.

Small things grow tuff in the desert.

Thanx, Dcat