As the usher brings forth the Ice cream and snacks, we wait for the main feature to resume
What to do with all that Stuff.
To quote the much maligned theme tune to Star Trek Enterprise ‘It’s been a long road Getting from there to here’. All has been quiet here for a while due to a mixture of technical, time and personal issues. Those issues have meant most of my time I’ve been concentrating on Booktube content and been having fun with that. Please feel free to pay me a visit. One of my original plans was to link the videos to some extra articles that I have written here. I am now ready to start doing that, which I hope is going to add a fun dimension to both the videos and the articles. Each piece be it a written or in a video format will still stand on it’s own, meaning that you don’t need to read or watch the related piece to fully understand it
Forest J Ackerman (1916-2008) famously had one of the biggest and best collections of Science Fiction, fantasy and Horror memorabilia. He was famously at the first world Science Fiction convention in 1939 where he wore a costume in what he called ‘futuristcostume’ which was basically the start of what is now known as Cosplay. He went on to produce the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland (1953-1983) which has been stated as an influence by such people as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Guillermo Del Toro.
His enormous memorabilia collection he housed in his Ackermansion, and then later in 18 rooms of what he called Son of Ackermansion. In over 50 years it is estimated that he entertained over 50,000 fans in his open houses. I remember in the late 70’s early 80’s reading about him in Starlog magazine. His collection ended up spawning numerous articles within its covers.
Despite his profile and his best efforts numerous parts of his collection were sold to pay for medical bills or stolen over the years. He also never found a permanent home for his collection which he wanted. After his death unfortunately his collection was split with his papers going to Syracuse University and other items to various over Universities. Some items made their way to Seattle’s Science Fiction museum and Hall of Fame with many other items being auctioned off separately. His collection included items such as the Robot from the original Metropolis, Bela Lugosi’s cape from Dracula and original Gremlin from Joe Dante’s Gremlins.
One of my neighbours passed recently, as far as I know he had no family and few friends, a few days ago I saw his house being emptied by a cleaning firm and it saddened me that this man’s life and belongings came down to strangers putting things in plastic bags, and more than likely disposing of them with no conception of what some of those belongings could have meant to him.
This got me thinking, I have a lot of things from books, comics, CDs, films to action figures. Things I have bought or been given throughout my life that mean something to me and my loves. Most of it probably isn’t worth huge amounts of money but I have a couple of things that I know are worth some money. These things are part of mine and my Wife’s life. I have them because I enjoy them and they mean something to me. I am lucky to be married to someone who has the same feelings about a lot of these things. I know they are only belongings but to me it’s a lot about what they represent about me and my Wife and our personalities.
Unfortunately we have no children (well except dogs) and we are not close with our families. What happens if something should happen to us? I don’t have an answer. Even if you have children or close relatives who will sort out you belongings once you leave this mortal coil, what happens if they don’t have the same enthusiasm that you do for these objects. I know they are only objects but to me they almost represent what I’m all about. I do not have any quick or easy answers but they are questions worth pondering.
To leave you on a brighter note watch season 2 of Strange New Worlds, it’s new Trek at it’s best and Captain Pike is quickly rising the ranks of my favourite Captains. Watch it you won’t regret it.
The lights dim, we now resume the main feature
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