He captured riveting action in that dumpster!
Director Daniel Allen showing me his vision of diving into a dumpster!
Oh my......
I was going through my files of pics to send to my delightful editor at 'Florida Gardening', Kathy Nelson, when I spotted these shots of a cool hysterical life event that occured several years ago, 2004 I think. Their producer in New Zealand stumbled on me by Googling "Dumpster Diving" and saw the piece that CNN did about the "scandal" surrounding my submitting my Space Couch to a slip cover company's annual Ugly Couch Contest. A judge for the contest disqualified me because he was sure I made the couch TO ENTER the contest.....total bummer as I was in the Top Three and we and our couches were to be flown to New York to be on the Regis Philbin Show....they had even sent me reservations for my Manhattan hotel room! But the judge would not budge, even though folks avowed that my couch had been that bad for a LONG time. Top prize I think was $2,000 which I could have really used as back then I was in debt and had a mortgage on my Denver house. As Eb says on 'Green Acres'....."Kay Sarah Sarah".
The Animal Planet crew guys were a sheer delight as over a few days they shot a segment on my Art Tacko living room made mostly from dumpster treasures, and another on my feeding my chickens restaurant scraps. We had fun, worked well together, and despite their sheer exhaustion on this global jaunt to shoot segments for the series, they were remarkably focused, open to ideas, good humored and when done they treated me to Crazy Buffet.....sushi heaven. We had some brews and great conversation. They were professional top notch guys. I got a crush on Daniel the director, and some weeks later I had the joy of seeing our sound guy (I forget his name but he was a very modest and agreeable man, and consummate perfectionist) win an Oscar for his sound work for 'The Lord of The Rings' !
Dumpsters have helped to sustain me since 1976, have given me year after year the stimuli and fodder for creative projects, all the while cutting my cost of living very deeply to allow me much delicious lateral freedom all these years for projects like urban farming, artistic projects, rose breeding, plus decadent goof off time too. I've met many delightful people WHILE diving, or, as in the case of the 'Most Extreme' guys, BECAUSE of my being a dumpster diver.
When I see those room shots from 2004, I am stunned to see that back then it was still the original white latex walls vs. the near total mirror it has been for years now.
New project. Soon, the livingroom mirror floor gets replaced with brand new BIG slabs of 1/4 inch thick mirror, some scavenged, some WONDERFUL gifts from friends, each mirroe backed by cheap contact paper for tensile strength that GREATLY prevents cracking, but that holds the shards in place safely and attractively the rare occasion it happens. When I am done, there may just be a little throw rug here and there to cover small areas of the original gnarly looking brown 50s linoleum that inspired this project, if I can jigsaw them all together effectively. My long term is to have the livingroom floor 100% mirrorized.
I'd love to hear from folks of their most memorable dumpster finds.
Peek and You Shall Find!
John
p.s. When people have asked I've tried to find those two segments at the 'Most Extreme' site to no avail....I have just the VHS they mailed me before broadcast that year.
p.s. When people have asked I've tried to find those two segments at the 'Most Extreme' site to no avail....I have just the VHS they mailed me before broadcast that year.
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