A bit of everything, and some things that aren't as they seem

Date: 29/03/2005
Source: JS Online
Author: Crocker Stephenson

Affordable Media and Spy opened a few weeks ago on King Drive; it's owned and operated by Davion Briant, a 29-year-old with a ponytail roughly the same length and shape as a bottle of Pinot Noir.

Briant says his store isn't entirely open; it's about 40% open. He's still filling out his stock, setting up shelves and getting everything in order. Briant's got irons in a lot of fires, and Affordable Media and Spy is an effort to get all the fires under one roof.

The store offers Internet auction services - one of the things he's selling on the Web for someone is a treadmill for dogs - CDs and DVDs, CD and DVD recording and duplication services, a vast collection of '80s era G.I. Joe dolls and equipment, as well as rare and not so rare action figures, such as Transformers and X-Men.

The things that Briant sells reflect the things that occupied him as a kid; not just the action figures, but the spy equipment, as well.

Briant grew up near N. 39th and Capitol, and his home was repeatedly burglarized. Not that Briant, his mom and two sisters had much to steal, but still the burglars came. One climbed into the house over Briant's bed, as he was sleeping. Another time, he and his mother returned home and saw an intruder silhouetted in their window.

"Each time we were burglarized, we felt violated," Briant says. "It was an awful experience."

Some of the inventory that would fall into the affordable spy category is designed for security. Home alarm systems, for example, and metal detectors. There's a lot of what Briant calls "diversion safes," that is, containers designed to look like they are something other than a place to stash valuables: water bottles, peanut butter jars, books, dried soup mixes.

When it comes to actual spying, what Briant sells are small video cameras with very tiny lenses embedded in places you normally wouldn't expect to find a camera.

Teddy bears. Cigarette packs. Calculators. Pencil holders. Mirrors. Bathroom lights. Air fresheners. Ceiling fans. Baseball caps. Clocks. Plants.

Briant says he does not condone the nefarious use of these cameras. People are more worried more than ever about their personal security, and ideally, he says, the cameras help you keep an eye on things.

Of course, people will put these cameras to nefarious use - taping unsuspecting people using the bathroom, or getting dressed or having sex.

I don't blame Briant for selling things people want to buy. But I find the mix of his inventory curious; it so aptly reflects our current dilemma.

There's a point at which our hunger for security overwhelms our expectation for privacy, and when that happens, we start running out of things worth securing. It's like the burglars who invaded Briant's childhood home: It's not the loss of the things that were stolen that sticks with him; it's the sense of violation.

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