Over the years I've scavenged some pretty cool stuff and this file cabinet is definitely one of the best. (The absolute best is the 1967 diary I found in an alley. Yep, best find ever. That's a post for another day, for sure.)

The cabinet was on the side of the road on a residential hill in Silver Lake in 1995, geez 20 years ago. I remember the year because I had just moved to L.A. and started working at Campanile and La Brea Bakery as Manfred Krankl's assistant. (I was born here, but left with my Mama as a baby. In the early '90s I moved to downtown Los Angeles, but only for about a year and then moved back to San Francisco.)

The Silver Lake hills were pretty fancy and exotic to my eyes, especially in comparison to my little bungalow near the not yet gentrified Melrose and Wilton, making the find seem like a particularly good score. "The rich get rid of such good stuff!"

My boyfriend was showing me different neighborhoods and when we drove by the cabinet at the end of a fancy house's driveway and I yelled "Stop!" We were in his truck, so we just hefted into the back and I've been lugging it around ever since. I didn't have a car—I walked and took the bus everywhere.

The cabinet is a well loved and heavily used studio object. All 30 drawers have things in them and most of the drawers are labeled.

From the upper left heading down and across here is how they are labeled ("—" for no label):

Recp
Ardunio sticker, leftover from when I was at Somewhere Something (contains pens)
bands
— (contains business cards)
— (contains sewing stuff)
ink
hole punches
printer ink
— (contains post its)
post its
pens / pencils
glue
tape
tape
batteries
misc. computer drives, cords, mice
keys
hole punch, calculators, etc
— (contains old buttons and thread)
— (contains ribbon)
binder clip, tacks, fasteners
stamps
thread
— (contains adding machine)
staples
paper clips, fasteners
— (contains ribbon)
— (contains ribbon)
— (contains ribbon)

Looking at the picture, I cannot help but notice the object on top of it—a piece from an old mailroom. A post for another day!

Day 34 #100DaysStudioObj