Item of note #2: Wow, there are now 3,400 lists posted here! That means we’re pretty much caught up on scanning and posting the lists we have. Three. Thousand. Four. Hundred. Lists. And largely, it’s thanks to you. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. Whether you sent one list, an envelope of them, or a big box of found lists, thank you.

Item of note #3: We just gave the site a facelift. The new design makes to easier to see the lists themselves, and the site now uses a responsive design making it look great whether you’re viewing it on a computer, a tablet, a smart phone, or another mobile device.

About MILK EGGS VODKA: The book is a compilation of abandoned grocery lists that have been discovered in grocery carts, market floors, and parking lots across the country. If we are what we eat, then this book reveals deep truths about the average American (not to mention more mundane truths like a surprising number of people enjoy onions, and, for most people, banana and mayonnaise are very, very difficult words to spell). Separated into chapters (funny lists, sad lists, unhealthy lists, organized lists) the book also includes snarky commentary and delicious recipes created from found grocery lists. Sidebars and food facts round out the menu.

More info about the video:

• Quite obviously this site right here, www.grocerylists.org, is the original project which turned into MILK EGGS VODKA
• And here’s the book on Amazon
• The story in the song is based on a promo site I made for the hardcover release: www.milkeggsvodka.com
• The awesome song is by Israel279 which cost just $5 on fiverr.com
• I used Prelinger Archives public domain educational films from the 1950s for the video footage
• Here’s some background on how I used fiverr.com to make an entire CD of songs about other peoples’ grocery lists
• And here’s where you can contribute your found lists!

So… check it out, buy it, borrow it, whatever. If you like it, please give it a good review on Amazon. And massive thanks to the hundreds of people who have sent in lists over the years — this is your project too, now!

Cheers,
bk

PS: This is not an April Fools joke.

Each of these songs was written and performed by a complete stranger via fiverr.com, a web site where people offer to do things for $5. I took a bunch of them up on it.

I sent each of these fine folks a found grocery list (the list songs) or a link to the story I wrote at milkeggsvodka.com (the MEV songs) and asked them to interpret in their own way. It worked out pretty good — thanks to everyone who played along.

FWIW, I made about 20 requests and a little more than half delivered (you get your money credited back to your account when a transaction is cancelled). The ones who didn’t deliver came up with all kinds of serious excuses: I got the flu, I just moved, my camcorder died, my computer died, my friend died, etc. One person was good/blunt enough to simply say, “I don’t have time to do this.”

Anyway, grocerylists.org is proud to present the new musical masterpiece CD “Let’s All Go to the Grocery Store!”:

1. Cheerdealer: “The Official Milk Eggs Vodka Jingle” (the book)
2. Brodafin” “Spaghetti (List #449)”
3. IdiosyncraticAl: “Candy & Gin (List #1096)”
4. Israel279: “At the Grocery Store (MEV #1)”
5. Michiel: “Cupcakes (List #701)”
6. MD2020: “Times Is Tight (MEV #2)”
7. sam_ovp: “My First Shopping at Grocery Shop (List #382)”
8. Jeiji: “No Treats for Bad Dog (List #1648)”
9. Pablo Woodruffe: “Make Our Lists Forever (MEV #3)”
10. Taryn Parker: “Underwear and a Lemon (List #126)”
11. Stocking: “Hatchet & Sheath (List #407)”
12. Casey Smalley: “Everything is Gonna be OK (List #270)”

And it’s free! Here are a couple samples…

• Jeiji: “No Treats for Bad Dog (List #1648)”
• Casey Smalley: “Everything is Gonna be OK (List #270)”

If you’re wondering about the lyrics to the bizarrely entrancing track #7, here they are: My_first_shopping_at_Grocery_Shop.doc. ESL extravaganza! I do appreciate his effort and hope he put that $5 to good use.

You can find the actual lists linked above, if you want to know the specific inspirations for each track.

You can download the MP3s here. Get the cover art here. Released under a Creative Commons license.

PS: Look for my book MILK EGGS VODKA (the jingle song) to be re-released in paperback in April 2011.

UPDATE: The paperback is now available and here’s a video to celebrate.

There you go. Your new year is sure to be excellent now. Although… now that I think about it, you also may want to start exercising more, drinking less, eating better and finishing all those projects you’ve been meaning to work on.

Same here.

Oh well, here’s to 2011!

(And here’s this year’s Top 10 rundown — Happy New Year!)

Big, big thanks to the JKL staff and crew who were nothing but nice, helpful, reassuring, complimentary and kind. You guys, Josh and Jordan especially, are awesome! Jimmy Kimmel you are cool too. Thanks for having me on the how (and thanks for actually laughing for real at the lists!).

Check me out! Anyway, here’s part one of the interview on YouTube — and here’s part two. It’s on ABC.com too. Also, at least for now you can watch the clips or the entire episode on Hulu.

[Update: The videos are private now, but you can see the clips on this questionable YouTube clone site.]

Other thoughts and tidbits before I get on the plane back to St. Louis…

Hollywood stuff:

• I like the weather in L.A. The weather is really freakin’ nice. What a cliché.
• The Roosevelt Hotel is killer.
• Hollywood Boulevard has a lot of payphones on it — way more than I’ve seen in at least 20 years.
• Loved the vintage aura of the Musso & Frank Grill. Ate a massive porterhouse steak there.
• Didn’t love the touristy hoo-haw stuff and really wanted to hit Venice Beach but just didn’t have time.

JKL stuff:

• I guess Dakota Fanning didn’t want to stay and sit next to me for my segment. Maybe she has a curfew.
• Wardrobe put a little makeup on me but said my hair look great. Ha!
• Korn’s not my thing (and I bet found grocery lists aren’t their thing) but I saw them anyway with a great sidestage view. Their crowd was way into it.
• A show like this is obviously really complicated to make work but they are super-organized and professional.

I’ll update more on the trip elsewhere in the next few days! Thanks everyone!

P.S.: The book, if you want to buy it: “Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found.”

Please do.

[Update: Here's the recap post.]

Yes, on Thursday, July 1, 2010, I am going to be on the freakin’ Jimmy Kimmel Live show. Here’s the episode summary from TV.com: “Actress Dakota Fanning; grocery list collector Bill Keaggy; Korn performs.” That’s the ABC network. Check listings for the time in your area.

So. Yeah. Weird. We’ll be talking about other people’s grocery lists — as seen here at grocerylists.org and in the “Milk Eggs Vodka” book. What else is there to say? Watch it! Let me know if I look nervous!

• Here’s the proof on TV.com
• More info on STLtoday.com
• The web site that started it all (you’re there right now)
• The book on Amazon

It came about because of my spot in “The Curators,” a documentary film project by the always awesome Coudal Parters out of Chicago.

Watch Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday, July 1!

FIRSTLY,

Filmly: Ever wonder how abandoned shopping carts end up where they do? Check out this great short film by Jesse Rosten.

Cart – The Film from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Lostly: For more on the subject be sure to see “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification.”

Minely: And of course you already know I wrote a book based on this very site. Right? You knew that didn’t you? It’s called “Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found” and you can buy it. Or you could buy my other book.

SECONDLY,

Creeply: The creepiest refrigerator of all time? I think I’ve seen worse. In fact, if you want creepy try looking at these gross food packages, or this amazing mask, or anything on this page.

Bestly: There is a rumor that this is the world’s best pancake recipe. Let’s all try it and see.

Cholesteroly: I can vouch for this apple dumpling recipe, though. Made it. Insane. Yum.

Mathly: If you’d rather skip the heart attack, then try making a mathematically correct breakfast — yes, a real Mobius Sliced Linked Bagel.

LASTLY,

Linky: I added my del.icio.us feed as a linkblog on the keaggy.com home page, making that the first design change to the page since I posted that layout in 2002.

Run-on-sentencey: Last month I went to SXSWi and had fun and met cool people I’d only known online and saw others I hadn’t seen in a long time and I came home inspired to make things but not quite sure what then it hit me that while there are hundred of funny and strange periodic tables out there on the web there was no periodic table that rounded up the best of the periodic tables. So I made one.

Oh, and here’s the token grocery link: Healthy Eating Begins at the Supermarket — Learn to efficiently shop for healthy foods.

Later.

The economic downturn has taken its toll on traditional museums with cutbacks and closings, but one corner of the collecting world is flourishing.

Virtual museums, just a few years ago seen as a curiosity, are gaining legitimacy as collectors open online galleries to share their passions.

Cereal box covers. Matchbook designs. Grocery lists. Record album covers. Motel signs. Prison escape tools. Toothpaste. Stewardess uniforms.

Whatever the obsession, the Internet has provided a limitless digital curio cabinet for sophisticated and novice collectors alike…

The Museum of Online Museums, a Web site created by Chicago design firm Coudal Partners, does its best to track online museums and serve as a gateway. The firm has collected about 1,200 links and puts up about 150 to 200 links at a time on its Web site, rotating the galleries quarterly. The firm has produced a video about online museums called “The Curators” due out this spring.

Last summer I was interviewed by Coudal Partners for that upcoming Museum of Online Museums documentary. Check out this preview clip. Awesome! I love how the YouTube video ID starts with “aSS.” Perfect.

Update: The film has been posted! Embedded below is the Part 1 with me. Watch Parts 2 and 3 to learn about Brian Collier’s Very Small Objects and Jennifer Sharpe’s The Kriegsmann Files. Fascinating stuff. Big thanks to the Coudal crew.

The Museum of Online Museums’ “The Curators” (Part One) from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.

About this MoOMumentary: For all these years we’ve been curating the Museum of Online Museums, one persistent question has been with us from the beginning: “Why?” It’s one thing to collect stamps or coins and have some association with a like-minded community. It’s something else entirely when you’re likely the only person on the planet scouring thrift shops for Fanta bottle caps. And it takes an extra special breed to then take their one-of-a-kind collection and building a dedicated online museum to share their odd passion with the world. We’ve been enjoying and collecting these collectors’ work for so many years, but it was high time we learned some origin stories. So we hit the road, camera in hand, landing in three cities and three states, seeing three collections up-close, interviewing each curator, and asking, well, “Why?”

Oh, and here’s a bonus grocery joke.

And this highly refined individual with impeccable taste is looking for a special someone.

That is all.

There is nothing more satisfying than creating a grocery list.

It’s not only fulfilling your needs (what you’ve run out of, saving money by buying what’s on sale), it also allows you to compose meals based on mood, time, energy, availability and choice.

Perhaps it starts with beef tenderloins and then you think that shiitake mushrooms, wild rice and red wine would be nice accompaniments.

Better add those to the list.

Then you realize you’d better get some fresh garlic too. The last time you bought some was during the Johnson administration.

Or maybe you’ve always wanted to make Penne a la Vodka and now that you’ve finished that great big report, you’re going to treat yourself to a night of cooking at the stove, maybe eat it on the couch while watching a movie you’d be embarrassed to tell someone about. Something with Kate Hudson or Matthew Perry, perhaps.

Then there’s the addition of the items that you can’t resist. If you’re my mom, it’ll be chocolate on sale or maybe even fudge. For some people it’s ice cream or potato chips, for others its carbs and microwaveable dinners, a pricier bottle of wine or a new book or CD.

Adding these otherwise verboten items to your list is like giving yourself a little reward for a tough week at work or finally finishing cleaning out the garage.

My list of indulgences includes pickles, fancy salad dressing, a new cleaning product (so sad, isn’t it?), or a pack of pens, notebook or stickers. Apparently I’m 12.

Obviously, as the book Milk Eggs Vodka: Grocery Lists Lost and Found attests to, your list says a lot about you. Do you put everything on one list — tires, grapefruit juice, nail polish, boating license — or do you compartmentalize it like so?

• Groceries
• Errands
• Hardware
• Drugstore

I always have to categorize mine. I walk almost everywhere so I need to know what I’m picking up where. No way do I want to have to walk back to get something. I love the exercise, but not that much. Plus, I take my time with my list, making it out, checking it over, dreaming of new looks for our living room, meals for my fella and sometimes even fantasizing about getting a new look from head to toe, with the addition of a few, carefully selected products.

And it’s not just the contents on the list, but how you go through them. I am fascinated by those who cross off items while going through the grocery store. I want to be that fastidious. I mean, I’ve put in all of that time and effort into one list, so why should I keep going over items again and again?

But alas, despite having at least two or three pens on me at all times (a writer’s habit), I feel like crossing things off would take all the fun out of grocery shopping. It would make it into more of a task than an adventure.

And for me, heading out to get groceries is always an adventure. It’s the possibility of getting something I can’t usually afford on sale, the chance of seeing something new, and the journey of making some very ordinary ingredients into an extraordinary meal for the ones I hold dear.

Of course, should I leave my list at home, it’s closer to a disaster…

©Stephanie Dickison, 2009