The Backstory of Bagtown

Valerie opened the utility room door and frowned.
"These bags are getting out of hand."
John rolled his eyes and said in a flat voice, "I know, I know. I'll put it all in the recycling."
It wasn't just the bags. Cardboard boxes were piling up too.
"I swear I'll get to it," he said two weeks later.

Then one night, as she made the morning coffee, Valerie noticed multi-colored lights flickering under the utility room door.
"Hmm."
She put her ear to it. A thumping sound came from the other side, like a drumbeat, a strange disco four-on-the-floor beat. Her hand hovered over the doorknob for a few seconds; then she flung it open, and...
The bags had built a city from the cardboard boxes, a vast city with bridges and nightclubs, trees and statues, and a train!

One of the bags motioned for her to get on the train.
And she did get on...as if a city growing in her utility room was no big deal.
"Come on. Don't be late," said the bag. He wore a neat little conductor's hat made from the same material as himself.
"Welcome aboard," he said. "Where ya headed?"
"Well...I don't..."
"That's O.K. Y'know, we all start out empty, folded flat, and then we open up, right? And we put stuff in our bag, and other people put stuff in, and before you know it, we're full!"

All this time, the train was rolling through a brown paper landscape alive with High-Lighter colors; Pink-Blue-Yellow-Orange.
The conductor went on.
"Your bag is full of everything you've collected over a lifetime. You like Surf Music. You don't like fish. You prefer Yellow to Teal. In other words, our 'Bag' is who we are.
And we decide what we want to put in it."

The drumbeat got louder as the train rolled into town. At last, they got to the source of the noise. There was a party going on. A band was playing.

"If you were you and it was now," they sang, "What would you do?"

"It's up to you," the conductor said, "what you put in your bag...what gifts it can hold. The possibilities are endless."
"Is it a Glad Bag or a Sad Sack," he said.

Time had no shape in the cardboard city. She didn't know how long she was there. Finally, the Conductor broke the spell.

"Uh-oh. Time to head back. The Number-Five is leaving right on away."
In a blink of Dreamtime, she was standing outside the Utility Room door again.

What just happened?
She swore she could still hear the faint sound of drums.
John came up behind her then.
"I swear, I'll recycle all that stuff today!"

"Oh," she said, "Why don't you wait a while."

The ‘Making Of’ Videos

In the winter of 2017, our son Malcolm worked hard on the miniature Bagtown set - creating incredible art for the soon to be built city.

Malcolm Smith went to work building the town. The project took seven months, burned up many hot-glue guns, and filled about 30 square feet of our studio. The result of his labor was fantastic and magical beyond our wildest expectations. Mike Wellins came in and shot it from every possible angle. Then it was time to take it down.

We were sad. “Can’t we leave it up for just one more day? Or a week?“

Mike to the rescue again. He happens to be the proprietor of the FreakyButTrue Peculiarium, one of those institutions dedicated to keeping Portland Weird. He offered us a home for our beloved ‘Bagtown’ set, and came up with this beautiful presentation. ‘Bagtown’ is now under attack from Godzilla and Sharknado!

All is right with the world.