What does your pop-culture cubicle decor say about you? Here’s why I’m asking: I recently got a new cube mate, Fred. The day he started, I was on vacation. The day I came back and met him, he told me he’d already checked out all my memorabilia. Not good. Suddenly I wished I’d thought of putting Post-It notes on select "pieces" before I left explaining their origins. For instance:
• I only have these two copies of the Showgirls V.I.P. Edition because I reviewed it.
• These authentic "Thanks for last night" autographs from Ryan Seacrest (close-up after the jump), Dave Coulier, and Coolio (the latter which says, "Thanx 4 last night & yesterday & the day B4. It was good!") were given to me by friends as gifts. (I’d started the now-extensive collection in 1998, when I went to a Jon Stewart book signing and he didn’t know what to write inside.)
• Speaking of books, I appreciate the absurd title and cover shot of How do I love thee kitty? — not cats.
• I really am busy. It’s just that I make time to put my face over Renee Zellweger’s on a Down with Love cut-out doll so that I can be with Ewan McGregor, and to craft Tom Cruise and Daniel Radcliffe stick puppets. (Special shout-out to frequent PopWatch commenter furry_tom, who knows where I’m coming from.)
• See, David Hasselhoff looks so happy in the photo I have of him on a tire swing that it makes me happy.
• I really want to put this stuffed animal dog on the giveaway table, but I feel guilty. I will never, however, get rid of this stuffed cat, a promotional item from the movie Cats & Dogs, because it reminds me of my former cubemate, Gilbert Cruz. He briefly inherited its name, Mr. Tinkles.
• That jar of clear liquid may or may not be moonshine. I wouldn’t open it, just in case.
Your turn.
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I have a drawing of David Hasselhoff driving a race car that says “Here’s to a slice of heaven in ‘87 Love Always, David Hasselhoff” Really. Not much more to say.
I have a Spongebob Square pants 12 inch doll I won at Rye Playland years back (I’m almost 30, tres triste indeed!), a Dogbert plush doll, several Dilbert cartoon strips( I’m semi afraid to put up my “Must Control Fist of Death” or “Wand of Stupidity” strip). I had a picture of the Hoff, but it was giving me hives so I gave it to my neighbour ( more like pasted it on the wall in his cube when he was out on vacation).
I don’t want to infer that yr ashamed of yr Showgirls box sets. That movis is amazing!
At my last job, I used to put funny quotes up in my cubicle. My favorite, of course, is a Bushism.
“And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That’s what I asked—4,000 hours.”
I have my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Calendar above my desk, a rubber ducky named Marvin, and a Dilbert comic about thinking of other people as noisy furniture. (“Hey, a talking ottoman!”)
I have a section of my corkboard dedicated to the Dilbert comic strips that I find hilarious (I update it all the time). Recently, I added a bug picture of Optimus Prime since I am a huge fan (and the movie rocked!!). Depending on the movie or band I’m into at the moment, I’ll have a picture of it on my desktop. Recently it was Linkin Park, now it’s Transformers. By next week, I’m sure it will be the Simpspons!
Having recently started an office job, I personally have nothing “cool” as of yet… but my husband has an authentic Swingline red stapler.
That picture of Rick James sitting low in a chair with fringe on his crotch and jheri curl gleaming is to honor his memory (um…yeah, that’s why it’s on my wall). And no, Boyfriend, I will not take down that picture of Stringer Bell (Idris Elba). They should have never killed him off of the Wire!!!
Mandi, you are by far my FAVORITE writer at EW! Your blogs are the BEST! If I were in the cubicle next to you, we’d probably be having Down With Love doll wars b/c I too want to be next to Ewan! (If you need a factchecker, I’m your gal!) BTW, I miss furry_tom’s dolls… haven’t seen one since his saucy leather-vested Daniel Radcliffe creation. My office is littered with LOTR Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom posters, action figures, and calendars. My current desktop is the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, as is my screensaver. And I have an embarrassing amount of beanie babies inhabiting my desk surface. If they start making Pirate ones, I’m in big trouble!
I have a “Schrute Buck” given to me by a co-worker and quotes from “The Office” hanging up in my office.
I also have few Dilberts taped around! My screen saver is a quote from Ferris Bueller mvoing around. I have a SpongeBob and Patrick stres ball. I keep the real good stuff home since no one understand my love for the pop culture at work…
i have a george huff button (american idol season 3) on my tackboard, along with a goonies button, and a family guy/stewie button that says “What the Deuce are you staring at?” on it.
Most of my desk junk is travel related (glitter snoglobes from New York and the Hoover Dam, a tacky shell-thing from Key West, a puppet from Bali). My only real pop-culture things are an Edgar Allen Poe bobblehead, an Edward Gorey page-a-day calendar and a statuette of Reggie Jackson in his A’s uniform. Because, I may like my odd, gothic art and liturature, but I love my A’s.
p.s. Very cool pics, f_t! Didn’t see those before.
Well, let’s see. There are my Star Wars stamps, my photo of Mrs. Sato on the Vespa in front of the US Capital, the Venture Brothers logo taken from volume 2 of their dvds, more my cokerewards caps than you can shake a stick at, and a kid robot toy on my desk next to the robot styled paper holder.
Aside from all that, the desk is a big messy pile of papers, as well as notes scribbled on that mention bands who’s mp3s I’ll someday download (like the Busters who sing “sharp dressed girl”).
i have my newspaper ad from march 5th 2004 of Lord of the Rings: Return of the king after it won 11 oscars, its definately yellow by now. I have my skeleton keychain with pink “jewels” that i received a looong time ago when i joined the Stephen King library. I also have various internet printouts of Chucky from Childs play that says “Chucky for President”, Andy Milonakis in his “spoon” skit and the ever iconic picture of Jack Nicholson in the Shining.
I have some anime cels (one Lodoss War, an Escaflowne movie one and a couple of Silent Mobius ones…my really good cels remain at home)hanging up. I also have an Escaflowne toy model with small figures of Van and Hitomi sitting on my desk next to a pewter figure of Katsumi from Silent Mobius. There’s also a few Star Wars figures sitting on my desk and Darth Tater. Also on the wall is a signed piece of art depicting Aerith, Celes, and Garnet from the Final Fantasy games that I picked up at an anime con.
I work for Coke, so I have a lot of Coke memorbilia on my shelf – various promo bottles, a Coke Frizbee, etc.. But becuase I am a geek I also have a Frodo doll, a Yoda wind-up toy, a postcard of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford from ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’, and a photo of me and Orlando Bloom. That last one is sometimes the only thing to get me through the day.
matt: no bobblehead?!
I’m a librarian and I used to have a life-size Legolas standee in my office, until it fell over and half his head fell off. That was a major conversation piece.
Wind up Nunzilla, Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls figure, Homer & Ralph figures as well as Simpsons travel mug that is holiday theme (bridging my love of the Simpsons and Christmas into one awesome piece of tacky crap), tiny plastic E.T. figure that my husband drew a combover on, stickers from Kid Robot, a Librarian action figure (with Shushing Action) and a picture I took of the T-Rex in Cabazon, CA that I believe was featured in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Au revior Pee Wee!!
Let’s see … I have a blow-up Stewie doll, a Stewie USB figurine that moves/talks when I use certain key combos on my computer, a Bob’s Big Boy bank, Dr. Evil and Austin Powers pull-string/talky figures, an Albert Einstein action figure, Jean-Luc Picard action figure, and a “Boss Toss” gun-thingy that my boss gave me to use whenever she gives me crappy work to do
Oh, I also have a “gold”-plated Slinky displayed on wood-like display thingy (it’s an “executive Slinky desk set”) and a Magic 8-ball …
Mandi, I agree with what people write here: you have the BEST BLOGS!!
I, too, have a Schrute Buck. But the item that gets the most attention is a wedding photo of a grinning Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fulaau taped to my phone, right next to the caller ID. Reactions tend to start out, “aw, who’s that?” followed by, “um, isn’t that…?” Then usually a bewildered “oh, god – um, why?”
not one cube visitor thus far has seemed to get the same joy i do from seeing those two crazy kids finally tie the knot.
Thanks for the shout-out!
You can see my Mr. T and Timothy Treadwell pictures in the background of the slideshow, but I also have an Arrested Development background on my computer desktop, an ugly drawing of a squirrel surrounded by a bunch of movie quotes*, and the poem “Slough” tacked up on my corkboard, which some people may have seen read by David Brent on The (British) Office.
*It started with “You go in the cage. Cage goes in the water. You go in the water. Shark’s in the water. Our shark.” and expanded from there.
My desk includes: a framed photo of Sting (it never gets old when people think he’s my husband), a moose that does a split, a NASCAR pez dispenser, Superman, Batman and Tigger. Plus my note pad that says “Chick With Brains”.
I have several “Pearls before Swine” comic strips posted about. That strip is just laugh out loud funny. Also my favorite Dwight quote is posted right to my monitor
“I never smile if I can help it. Showing one’s teeth is a submission signal in primates. When someone smiles at me all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life.”-Dwight Schrute
PS
Where can I get a Schrute buck?? I would love to have one!
I’ve got a Lumberg postcard “Um, yeah…I’m gonna need you to come in this weekend.”, a picture of Yoda, random quotes from The Office, a Mr. Bean magnet, an Office calendar (currently on a Pam and Jim page), endlessy rotating pop culture images as my desktop wallpaper, a voodoo doll (so no one messes with me) and a list with all the songs I want to download after hearing them on Pandora. I would have my Darth Tatter Mr. Potatoe Head but I’ve got nowhere to put it.
daisyj: Where’d you get your Allen Poe bobblehead? I love to have one of those!
Pearls before Swine comics, Carson Ellis drawings (pilfered from the internets), and an Abbey road message board all proclaim that I am the coolest person in the office
Commodore Norrington Action Figure. Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever. And so hard to find.
Two Gollum action figures, one of which hisses and sings, a Gollum snowglobe (very classy!), a Gandalf action figure (does battle with the Gollum figures when not in obscene poses with Gollum thanks to my gutter-minded co-workers), and a Monty Python and The Holy Grail plaque (best birthday present EVER!)