Shelby Ford Pop Culture Baby As my black ballpoint pen hit the signature line of my very first lease, my 21-year-old, financially illiterate brain was not thinking about security deposits, first and last month’s rent, or securing a box truck for moving day. Instead, I was thinking about my posters, my carefully curated vintage tchotchkes and various collectibles, my books and vinyl records; all things I would display in my new-to-me apartment. I envisioned my apartment as the museum of my mind. I once heard someone joke that every young, individualistic art snob has a Pulp Fiction poster, and when it came to me, they were not wrong. I also had a Ghostbusters poster, a Fido poster (an indie comedy set in a post-apocalyptic, yet somehow utopian 1950s-esque society that found a way to domesticate and exploit zombies), various flyers for local punk shows, tickets from my favorite concerts, magazine clippings, and more. I was so proud of every single piece of paper on those walls. I thought they were a perfect reflection of who I am. Though I am an artist and a friend of many artists, there was not one piece of our art on my walls or on my shelves. Just mass-produced media and vintage kitsch. Long before I was renting and decorating apartments, I was a latchkey kid with an absent father, a workaholic mom, and an elderly great-grand- mother. This means that I spent a lot of time in front of the television. Dad didn’t have cable, so I spent my time watching Sunday movies on FOX56 or Pee Wee’s Playhouse on ABC. On Friday nights, we went to Hollywood Vid - eo, Blockbuster, or our local Video Mania, where I remember renting The Pick of Destiny, Along Came Polly, Scream, Ace Ventura, Ghostbusters, The Spice Girls Movie, UHF, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure , and more. Mom had cable, which had Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, HBO, and FX – my favorites. Nana had whatever the middle package was. We would watch Judge Judy, Murder She Wrote, The Twilight Zone, The Golden Girls, The Nanny, and whatever else was on Turner Classic Movies. In the words of Pee Wee Herman himself, “I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel.” I rarely left whatever home I
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