Demand: Yekaterina, 20 June 2009, Porter Square, Cambridge

I was upfront with Yekaterina why I had stopped her: the color of her hair and outfit.

In days like this when everybody is miserable, I like to show the bright side of life.

She says she buys from thrift stores and would never switch to high-end. I asked what the best thing she'd ever found was.

A poodle dress...It was like a ball of tutu. It was the craziest thing and the best thing.

Okay, pretend that you have to go to a giant meeting of all the most important people in your life, living or dead, and you have to make a speech. What would you wear?

I would probably wear that dress.

Demand: Natasha, 19 June 2009, Union Square, Somerville

What was the best thing you ever bought at a thrift
store?

Best or or weirdest?

Either, I guess.

In high school, I had a silk button up shirt with gold zebra print.
It was probably the best and weirdest. It was hideous and wonderful.

Demand: Cyrus, 16 June 2009, Boston Common

Cyrus got into thrift stores when he was in high school.

I got tired of the consumer shit. Big companies tell you Air Forces are what you young black men wear....It's like "Brave New World". Everybody's programmed to want new shit all the time.

That said, he's into shoes.

I've got 70, 80 pairs of kicks....I'm hip to bullshit. I'm still definitely a shopper.

His watch was big, bright, and complicated looking. He said it was vintage Aquastar.

There's mad lights.

He said he's very eclectic, a Japanese influence. He's had a unique style for awhile.

When I was in middle school, I would come in in overalls and suede Merrell clogs....I started wearing suit jackets for no reason.

He's got tons of clothes in his closet, partly because he doesn't really throw things away.

The only way it leaves is to be completely destroyed.

Supply: Tokyo Kid, Harvard Square, Part 2

[Continued from yesterday.]

I asked him about his favorite anime series, and mentioned "Aria", which is set in a city of the future that is modeled on Venice when the real Venice has been destroyed. The series focuses on the day-to-day doings of its protagonists.

It's a slice-of-life kind of series...You see them going shopping.

Andrew said that he really draws lessons and feelings from anime that affect him in a real way. A few years ago, he was feeling unhappy with his job at the store when he saw an episode of "Aria". In this particular episode, the characters spent the whole episode trying to figure out what made Akari's life so great. Finally, they realize that she simply has a positive attitude. "That's when a light bulb went off in my head," Andrew said. He realized he counld control his attitude toward anything, including his job, and he said he's been much happier since.

We wandered over to the manga shelves, and he pointed out some series that were particularly good. Some are more serious and some are more light-hearted, he said. He picked out a book to show me.

It's a light and fluffy thing, but it's a very well done light and fluffy thing.

Toward the end, I tried to ask him about what it meant to watch anime versus live-action film and the difference aesthetically, and he pulled up a clip on his computer. The backgrounds of the scene were so detailed they seemed to be only one or two steps removed from real photography.

I actually find this kind of thing much more impressive than live-action film...because somebody had to conceptualize all of this.

Supply: Tokyo Kid, Harvard Square, Part 1

(Wallets.)

Tokyo Kid is a store in the Garage, the little indoor mall in Harvard Square. It deals almost exclusively in Japanese pop culture -- manga, anime, dolls, toys, and scuplture. Andrew, the owner, was tending the register and agreed to show me around (though he asked me not to give his full name). He started by pointing out two individual statuettes that are some of his favorites.

As a piece of sculpture, these are amazing.

We talked about how hard it is to find high-quality anime-inspired sculpture in America, and he said that it generally sells better in Japan, making it more cost-effective to produce there. While Americans don't generally want to spend hundreds of dollars on their sculpture, the Japanese are much more willing to, so the manufacturers and dealers "are willing to make something that makes $400 a pop" because they'll actually sell a lot of them relative to in America.

He mentioned another reason that it's hard to find this kind of scultupe here: Japanese artists sometimes simply don't want to sell here because they don't think their work will be appropriately appreciated. While the Japanese are obviously willing to sell consumer electronics, they might not sell what to them feels like fine art.

For them, this stuff is much more personal, rather than a car, or a camera.

[Continued tomorrow.]