The Things They Carried
July 27, 2007 6:53 AM   Subscribe

Do you prefer to travel light or be prepared for anything? The Flickr pools for what's in your bag? and The Items We Carry reveal all. More prevalent than I would have expected: Burt's Bees, multitools, carabiner keychains.
posted by emmastory (49 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
These pools hold a weird fascination. It's almost an object-focused voyeurism, like trying to divine what each of these people do by looking at the tat they cart around day after day.

Plus of course, looking for cool stuff that might come in useful.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:08 AM on July 27, 2007


I like to travel light AND be prepared for anything. That's why I have a Swiss Army Knife and an encyclopedic knowledge of survival and self-defense skills. I know 1500 ways to kill a man without even standing up. In fact, many of you reading this comment are already dead but don't know it yet.
posted by DU at 7:12 AM on July 27, 2007


many of you reading this comment are already dead but don't know it yet.

Well, that ruins my morning. Now I'm dead. Thanks a lot, DU.
posted by grubi at 7:31 AM on July 27, 2007 [2 favorites]


This is absolutely fascinating.
posted by malaprohibita at 7:41 AM on July 27, 2007


First person to find my collection on Items We Carry pool gets a $20 Amazon gift cert via email.
posted by studentbaker at 7:49 AM on July 27, 2007


When flying at least anything nonessential is left behind. For gadding about town who needs more than keys and a wallet, and perhaps a cell phone.
posted by caddis at 7:58 AM on July 27, 2007


For gadding about town who needs more than keys and a wallet, and perhaps a cell phone.

caddis, that's exactly why I got interested in What's In Your Bag? to begin with, after seeing ethnographers from Intel give a paper on "mobile kits" at Ubicomp05 in Tokyo.

Keys/wallet/phone had, indeed, emerged as some kind of global consensus minimum (which intrigued me most because at the time I refused to carry a mobile phone). The interest wasn't so much in that as in looking specifically at where and how people carried these things, how and under what circumstances they deployed them, how they were accessorized, and what was done with them in social settings or after people got home.

I still think What's In Your Bag? is one of the best things about Flickr, and I'm always prodded by my own contributions to think anew about the art of packing - whether for a two-week trip to Asia or a bike ride across town.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:20 AM on July 27, 2007


Great post, emmastory.

Lots of people with no pens, weird.
posted by escabeche at 8:24 AM on July 27, 2007


Also, I'm overjoyed to belatedly notice that you've namechecked Tim O'Brien's magisterial "The Things They Carried" in your title - huzzah. To my mind, "Things" is one of the best-ever attempts to convey rich experience through a metonymic inventory, and a great story besides.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:25 AM on July 27, 2007


studentbaker: do i win?
posted by Mach5 at 8:30 AM on July 27, 2007


adamgreenfield: I think I find these photos interesting for similar reasons, although I have yet to do one of my own. But last night I did find myself emptying out my bag, reorganizing everything, and replacing a couple of items.

And yeah, I love that story, too.
posted by emmastory at 8:30 AM on July 27, 2007


@Mach5: Sure do, give me a little bit and I'll send it your way.
posted by studentbaker at 8:37 AM on July 27, 2007


@Mach5, how did you figure that out?
posted by malaprohibita at 8:45 AM on July 27, 2007


So, anyone other than studentbaker going to own up to having a picture in the pool?

I do and it's my 23rd most looked at photo. Even beats girls wrestling in pudding and a Frenchwoman in a bikini for views.
posted by 100watts at 9:39 AM on July 27, 2007


woohoo! through people's pics this post i found exactly what I want to buy too, these jimi wallets look awesome.

easy to figure out, i work for a search engine and my mom is a research librarian so i have inherent searching skills. studentbaker has his email in his profile, which i did a google search for, found his blog, and then found his flickr. go me.
posted by Mach5 at 9:42 AM on July 27, 2007


Does nobody smoke anymore? Admittedly I didn't look at every picture, but in my reasonably thorough sampling, I saw no cigarettes or lighters/matches. I jsut thought that was interesting.
posted by naoko at 9:48 AM on July 27, 2007


Aw, mach5, as a librarian I can say your Mom would be proud. (I always joke that librarians are just stalkers gone legit.)
posted by 100watts at 9:52 AM on July 27, 2007


oops, bad link form

jimi wallets
posted by Mach5 at 9:53 AM on July 27, 2007


It was from those pictures that I finally learned how much excessive stuff women tend to carry around in their purses.
posted by gyc at 10:11 AM on July 27, 2007


studentbaker's tipoff was in revelaling the lack of cash in the wallet.
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:12 AM on July 27, 2007


I just carry a towel.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:16 AM on July 27, 2007


Even easier, studentbaker has a link to his website in his profile, as well. Once there, the "things I carry" photo is right there on the front page.
posted by inigo2 at 10:20 AM on July 27, 2007


[apropos of nothing, really] Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream is the bomb.
posted by jokeefe at 10:27 AM on July 27, 2007


i work for a search engine... which i did a google search for

If you do not work for Google, then I find this statement highly entertaining.

Also, Mach5, have you seen Wallet 2.0?

Also, Burt's Bees lip balm is some sort of addiction. Everyone I know who tries it, even once, is hooked, so don't.
posted by Ynoxas at 10:28 AM on July 27, 2007


haha, yes, i do not work for google. YET! wallet 2.0 looks cool but i want as thin as possible.
posted by Mach5 at 10:57 AM on July 27, 2007


naoko, here's smokes and a lighter viewed from above. It was one of the few photos I clicked on because the background looked interesting.

This set makes me realize what a mess I am. Were I to dump the contents of my purse, there'd be things like a smooshed piece of gum partially escaped from its wrapper stuck to my pen (good thing I carry 2 pens), piles of crumpled receipts, and a wallet covered in bite marks from when my kid was teething oh, 10 years ago.
posted by hoppytoad at 11:23 AM on July 27, 2007


Mach5, a good friend of mine carries this wallet and it's amazing how slim it is.
posted by 100watts at 11:31 AM on July 27, 2007


Heh. There's smokes and an All-Ett wallet (among other things) in my manbag.

Great post.
posted by enrevanche at 11:40 AM on July 27, 2007


I knew this Flickr stream would end up here the blue. I'd be interested in what fellow MeFites are carrying, so do link your photos here.

I'll start.
posted by aladfar at 11:52 AM on July 27, 2007


100watts, I'll 'fess up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/studies_and_observations/tags/mobilekit/

(These aren't my most-viewed, but they're up there.)
posted by adamgreenfield at 12:05 PM on July 27, 2007


Sorry, linked.
posted by adamgreenfield at 12:05 PM on July 27, 2007


my stuff
posted by Lucinda at 12:23 PM on July 27, 2007


Can't get on flickr at work.

Pockets: cell phone, keys, wallet, pen

Messanger Bag: bike lock, blinkey bike lights, 2 pens, hilighter, random cards from my wallet that I don't use much like my frequent flier card, condom, $5 and random change, novel, 2 moleskines (I'm in the process of transfering to a new one), moleskin datebook, zinc tabs + ibuprofin + airborne since I've been sick, bits of trash, chopsticks, checkbook, bolt.
posted by craven_morhead at 12:34 PM on July 27, 2007


I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the kind of people who carry multitools and carabiner keychains are probably far more likely than the average person to post a 'what's in your bag' or 'the items we carry' photo.

(No offense intended to anybody--I've got a multitool and a carabiner keychain in my pocket as I write this.)
posted by box at 12:54 PM on July 27, 2007


@Mach5, how did you figure that out?

I would have been lookin' for a 5lb bag of King Arthur "Type 65".
posted by deCadmus at 1:00 PM on July 27, 2007


Couldn't help myself - did a new one while on my lunch break. I'm pleased that most of the things I said I needed to add in commenting on the first picture are now in the purse. This also shows my purse in its much more cluttered state with receipts and random pieces of paper floating around.

Does a USB Swiss Army knife keyring attachment count as a multi-purpose tool?
posted by 100watts at 1:17 PM on July 27, 2007


If you like this sort of thing, you might find the discussions on the EDC forums interesting.
posted by bitmage at 1:47 PM on July 27, 2007


haha! Perfect.
posted by taz at 1:49 PM on July 27, 2007


sort of related: where's the phone?
posted by caddis at 2:12 PM on July 27, 2007


Ah, good to see I'm not the only smoker left.

Anyone esle reminded of the bit in Nora Ephron's book (I Feel Bad About My Neck) about the contents of her purse? I haven't read it, but my mom thought that passage was so funny that she read it out loud to me - the "little bits of tobacco" sounded very familiar.

I'm at work and can't post a picture, but a quick survey of my purse - actually, a small purse inside a big tote bag - in case I go out on the townafter work, I'll leave the tote here over the weekend and take just the purse out - reveals:
in the big tote: extra pair of shoes, latest Michael Ondaatje novel, notebook, headband, flier about a city council candidate, receipts
in purse: wallet, phone, smokes, lighter, mini hairbrush, mirror, pen, more receipts, random dollar bills, Metro pass, work ID

The neatness of other people's stuff kinda freaks me out.
posted by naoko at 2:19 PM on July 27, 2007


Heh. I haven't used either a multitool (SOG, subdued finish) or a carabiner keyring (I. Goldberg, $4.95) since getting out of the Army, but I'll kinda stipulate that I am both the kind of person who would have used them once upon a time, and center-mass of the audience for What's In Your Bag?

P.S. Y'all carabiner-lovers ain't seen nothing until you've been to the Shibuya Tokyu Hands. Mmmm.
posted by adamgreenfield at 2:40 PM on July 27, 2007


Here's mine, featuring smokes and carabiner keyring. I have a multitool, too, but it's hidden in one of the pouches. My lip balm is from Lush, which seems to be only slightly less popular than Burt's Bees.
posted by emmastory at 3:45 PM on July 27, 2007


This is what's in my bag
posted by quartzcity at 4:13 PM on July 27, 2007


here's mine, which was a contrived replication of the original.

I'm gonna go ahead and claim that my replication led to the group being formed in the first place. Of all the useless things in the world that I can claim some sort of responsibility for...
posted by garethspor at 6:10 PM on July 27, 2007


FWIW, I happen to believe that the Mojo Titan (visible at bottom-left here) is an infinitely superior product to Burt's Bees, both in terms of being super-premium-quality lipbalm and as regards the delivery system.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:15 PM on July 27, 2007


I took the credit card holder out of my wallet and use that for my wallet.

So I have the sub wallet, 2 keys, and iPhone. Thats it.
posted by Photar at 12:16 AM on July 28, 2007


Someone once told me that the only sensible way to travel is to carry half as much luggage as you think you'll need, and twice as much money. That definitely works for me.

In town then, I carry just keys, loose cash and cigarettes in my pockets.

The boot of my car is an absolute shithole though.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:23 AM on July 28, 2007


Also, I'm overjoyed to belatedly notice that you've namechecked Tim O'Brien's magisterial "The Things They Carried"

adamgreenfield: for your amusement here is The Things They Carried + Tay Zonday = Tay Zonday reads The Things They Carried.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:14 PM on July 30, 2007


Things on Me.

Yes, I'm in both pools.
posted by Poagao at 11:54 PM on July 30, 2007


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