I’m starting off with a little gem. This first one is hard! I’m realizing this is going to be rather cathartic, but I think it must be done.

This is a hand carved, hand-painted wooden trinket (2.75 x 2.5 x .75 inches) from Tibet sold for practically nothing at tourist trade, but you have to have been climbing the Trans Himalayas to get one. In 1994, a very good friend of mine was doing just that and she brought this back to me, after purchasing it from the locals when she was about half way up her 8000 meter climb. I lived with her for about a year, along with the rest of my band in a large house that resembled a boat in North Hollywood, California. She was one of our biggest supporters and we grew very close, and in fact she encouraged me to write more seriously and I wound up self-publishing my handmade zines, which in turn developed the beginnings of my mailing lists and caught me my first art collectors. I later trained her to sell my art and become my “agent.” We organized private parties and exhibited my work and did pretty good. About a year later she was hired by a very prominent commercial art agency to represent some of the best illustrators and photographers in the business. I think she is co-owner of the agency these days. I’m not sure because I don’t talk to her anymore. We had quite the falling out due to some other, rather complicated situations between a large group of mutual friends. I can’t say she is on my list of people I think highly about anymore, but there will always be a place in my heart for her because of the extraordinary times we shared.

When I look at this trinket, which has been sitting in a prominent place on my living room self, I have bittersweet feelings about it. I’m attached to it because it’s just cool. I think about how much I loved my friend, and I think about how she stabbed me in the back in the end. So, I think it’s a good thing to get it the hell out of my life and move on and let someone else dig it for it’s interesting look and the fact that it comes from Tibet, the fact that someone made it with their hands, and that they were selflessly willing to part with it for hardly any money. It seems fitting I should give it away for free.

The first person to come up with an appropriate name for this guy, gets it. Just leave it on a comment. Don’t forget to put your email in the email field.