The Paul Walker Death Sunglasses

Paul Walker in the death sunglasses with friend Roger Rodas who was also killed.

Paul Walker in the death car moments before the crash.

Celebrity Culture in this country is a strange thing. When the Porsche Carrera GT Fast and Furious start Paul Walker was riding in hit a light pole and then burst into flames debris was strewn everywhere. A bystander supposedly recovered Walker’s sunglasses and then put them up on an auction website.

Paul Walker’s Maui Jim sunglasses post mortem.

Bidding was up to $1729 when outrage pressured the site into shutting down the auction. A fire extinguisher and wreckage from the car found at the crash site was also included in the auction. According to the item description:

As the consigner walked the scene in disbelief and grief, he found a pair of sunglasses nearby in the ivy. After showing one of the officers, he was waved off. The glasses were dirty so he wrapped them in a handkerchief and put them in his pocket. He also found some residual debris nearby which he kept in memorium.

The Paul Walker remnants as seen at auction on bidAMI.com

The guy who allegedly found the sunglasses has been attacked with such vituperation, you’d think he has horns and was stomping around people’s stoops with cloven hooves and waving around a pitchfork. I agree the auction crosses some line of decency, but where is it drawn?

I remember once, after a David Bowie shoot to which I’d lent custom sunglasses, I found one of his hairs attached to the piece. I removed the hair, looked at it a while and whimsically pondered putting it up on eBay. Of course I didn’t. But I don’t believe I ever threw it out…

I’ve always wanted to take a look at a pair of leather pants Jim Morrison supposedly wore, which are on display at one of the Hard Rock Cafés. I once read at some point after Morrison died the Doors wanted Iggy Pop to take over as lead vocalist. Ray Manzarek gave him a trunk of Morrison’s old clothing, which the Iggster promptly sold to buy heroin. Different things have different value to different people.

I never fully understood the phenomenon of collecting anything and everything as long as it has celebrity provenance. Do people feel the object is somehow sprinkled with whatever stardust the famous person had? Then again I can sort of understand being touched by someone’s life and work and valuing a physical memento of that person.

I wonder how many pieces of the True Cross are still floating around?

For some reason it struck me as odd Paul Walker was wearing Maui Jim. But which Maui Jim sunglasses was Paul Walker wearing when he died? At first glance I thought he was wearing a style named, with dark irony, the “Guardrails”. After further review I now think it was the “Freight Trains”.

Maui Jim Freight Trains, as worn by Paul Walker.

Resquiat en pace.
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