memorabilia!

Oh. My. God. IT’S THE ACF 11 VIDEO.

Crowd shots.
The Tea Party
Show shots.
Graham yelling “HOW ARE YOU ALL ENJOYING THE LIQUID SUNSHINE TODAY??”
Swollen Members music for the credits.
A clip of promotions, the gang stapling posters in the most stupid locations possible. Including some trick cyclists and the back of a moving bus.
Some guy talking about how he “owned the slope” at ACF 10.
The ACF parade with fifty of us in yellow T-shirts, happily chanting the ACF 11 song (‘WE’RE GOING TO THE FAIR, WE’RE GOING TO THE FAIR! WE’RE GOING DOWN TO THUNDERBIRD, WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!”)
If ACF was an animal, it would be a platypus.
Graham yelling into a bullhorn.
“Art, in the county, that’s a fair.”
Many of us lying on plastic to U2 over the sound system.
A clip of me holding up a chunk of stage while Caitlin Fontana explains it being built
The stage being built in high speed, complete with Canadian flag scrims.
Steve Price sexily posing while lying on a heap of geotek and explaining what it is.
Karen explaining why there are engineers crawling along the fence and digging holes.

And the VCD is scratched right before the point where my ex-boyfriend, who, as then-president of the Engineers, was absolutely DRUNK OFF HIS ASS at the time, explains how they found a buried keg. Dammit. Well, I got eight minutes of SOLID GOLD out of it, anyways. Enough to show my friends here, enough to explain where I came from, what the Fair was, what it meant to us and to the rest of the school.

I found these magical memories because I am sifting through boxes in my room, one of which contained a spindle of CD-Rs that hadn’t been touched since I packed up my on-campus room in 2003. This has led, not only to the reappearance of the lost ACF 11 video, but to the discovery of a five minute clip of an Animal House party from Hallowe’en 2002.

And I’m sifting through boxes because I’m cleaning my room today. I’m putting my foot down with myself regarding the amount of memorabilia I’m allowed to carry with me. I tend to collect things that I don’t ever look at again, but can’t bear to throw away: Mardi Gras beads in New Orleans, a pink foam rubber crown from a CODEPINK event, UBC t-shirts. Photos, printouts, flyers, detrius. I have always had a fondness for tangible nostalgia, for cheap items that would be garbage without the sentimental association. But every so often, I go through, and force myself to choose what stays, what goes, and what I will remember without the junk that went with it.

Without question though, this is memorabilia worth keeping. I also have all the materials from the campaign I ran for Student Services Coordinator in 2002 (slogan: “Don’t Mess with Texas!”), a CD I burned for a Texas themed party in January 2003, and a whole slew of term papers I don’t remember writing.

I think I have to go out into Venice now. Sometimes, too much nostalgia at once can make me sick, can make me dizzy. I’d better go ground myself in 2006 now.