Outspoken & Freckled

What attracted me first to CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER (1962) was the poster.

Our story, courteous reader, begins in late November of 2008. I was in Framingham, Massachusetts, working on the production of a meeting for pharmaceutical sales reps. Sure, it sounds glamorous, but this event was really no different than any of the dozens of other similar events I’ve worked on over the last two decades. No, what was unique about this project was not the meeting itself, but rather the event that was loading in to the hotel as we were loading out.

It was a memorabilia show.

If you’re not familiar with convention culture, a “memorabilia show” is a collectibles expo that attracts (mostly) paunchy, middle-aged men who feel the need to fill their homes with obscure artifacts of American popular culture.

I can speak from an informed perspective about this subset of society, because I…