Photo Courtesy of CollectingCandy.com

Is New York’s increasingly renowned vintage candy wrapper collector, Jason Liebig, collecting offbeat art or merely living out some unfulfillable boyhood fantasy? And why are we, the public, so intrigued? 

Jason Liebig isn’t just like a kid in a candy store;  in many ways he is one. Except he’s 43 and the candy store is actually his Queens apartment where he houses over 10,000 neatly preserved vintage and modern candy wrappers.

What’s more, he tosses out any new candy prior to its wrapper’s preservation, a fact which would likely bring joy to no child anywhere. Liebig believes he has the only such collection in the city and that nationwide very few people, if any, share his particular hobby.

Liebig and his Willy Wonka-esque tendencies have only recently emerged from semi-anonymity. His collection and the website where he archives his ongoing project, CollectingCandy.com, were just featured on the long form journalism site Narrative.ly. His story was then quickly nabbed by the Huffington Post. At least one of his blog posts has gone viral, receiving more than 20,000 views in one day.

For Liebig, a former Marvel Comics editor and present day bartender, this is not about reliving a childhood love of sweets, or even really the candy itself; his collection is about art.

“In a way, my appreciation started out of my love of graphic design and art,” says Liebig.

“My dream has never been to work in the candy industry,” he explains. “I’m interested in a very specific niche part of it, that has thus far been ignored by much of the candy historians, which makes sense, since the packaging designs are often forgotten and lost.”

“But that’s what I love about it,” he adds. “I realized there was the whole segment of consumer goods packaging that really was an art world and history of art unto itself.” It’s this segment Liebig chronicles on his website.

***

Nearly everyone collects something, most without realizing it. These collections vary in size from a couple tokens to essentially every item found in a pathological hoarder’s domicile, and in type from buttons to real estate. Many would argue “collecting” is more about the psychology that drives one to accumulate rather than the physical items themselves.

New York-based psychoanalyst Dale Karp explains: “People collect things for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they collect just for the sake of it, sometimes the art of it, sometimes the value of it.”

“Amassing lots of things one loves should not be confused with the compulsion to possess or own things,” he continues. “There can be a fine line separating a hobby from a drive which might be pathological.”

Karp equates “pathological” with those who “hoard purposeless quantities of meaningless things.”

Don’t accuse Liebig of hoarding though; he is careful to note he keeps his apartment relatively clean of trappings from his candy-related endeavors. Walking into his apartment you may have an inkling from the decor, but until you start digging you could never know the true extent of his fascination.

Some experts say collecting items, particularly those reminiscent of childhood, is simply nostalgic. Other times they observe collecting to be about gaining a sense of control over a lost period of time.

According to life management expert Kimberly Friedmutter, “to the collector, collecting childhood symbolism is simply a subconscious way of rectifying and making amends with the time when we were the most vulnerable.”

“Collecting is protecting,” she says.

Without knowing him personally, Karp is quick to dismiss the theory that Liebig’s hobby necessarily has something to do with, say, some unfulfilling trick-or-treating experiences from his youth. Further, despite the amassment’s uniqueness, does it really differ in any way from a more ubiquitous comic book or baseball card collection?

“Candy wrappers can have pop culture significance in America,” Karp says. “They might represent our values about food, vintage art, advertising, wastefulness, consumption, etc.”

“Do we question Andy Warhol’s interest in Campbells soup in terms of his personal concerns about food?” Karp asks. “You can wonder about the significance of candy to this particular collector, of course, but any conclusion about the unconscious symbolism of candy wrappers is over the top pop psychology.”

Liebig’s earliest memory of engaging with candy wrappers — or candy — on a more profound level than the average individual dates back to 1992 when he first saved an M&M’s peanut butter wrapper, which remains neatly maintained to this day.

“It really struck me graphically,” he says.

Though Liebig emphasizes the process is in large part artistic, he often finds himself wondering how some long vanished candy might have tasted. Moreover, he wonders at the accuracy of his memories of childhood tastings past.

“I loved the Mars Marathon bars of the 1970′s, and I’ve found that they were very much like the Cadbury Curly Wurly bar,” says Liebig. “In the last few years, I’ve had many of the UK’s Curly Wurly, but I still wonder if there were subtle differences from these, and what I had as a kid in the Marathon.”

***

Why are we, the viewing public, so fascinated with Liebig and his collection? Why all the blog hits — why is the media catching on? According to Karp, “maybe deviations from the norm tap in to our unconscious wishes to be extreme and simply act out for us what we don’t dare do, like eat a million candy bars.”

Liebig points out many collectors like him have a specific goal in mind: “To most buyers, what’s best to them is getting the ‘one they remember’ from their personal life. And I can agree with that,” he says. “That’s what got me started on the whole thing.”

“It’s my way to add to our collective nostalgic consciousness,” he adds. Perhaps then we the viewers are merely reaping this nostalgia Liebig and his archives confer.

While this is where the experts might nail Liebig on the connection to his childhood memories, the issue of what psychoanalysts may think of Liebig’s passion is one he approaches with dismissive caution.

“I’ve often said that, in the modern age, we have extended adolescence well into adulthood across the board,” Liebig says.  “We are a progressively fun and silly culture.”

“Of course, New York City extends adolescence in a host of other ways,” he notes.

“I don’t know that my hobby is so much extending a childhood fantasy, but I think it is a fascination with the trappings of adolescence, and in a way a kind of literal extension of it,” Liebig explains.  “I don’t see myself as stuck in some phase of incomplete development though, anymore than the historian who studies the Beatles is stuck in the 60′s.”

Liebig is also wary of promoting his collection too much, as he told Narrative.ly, for fear of who might similarly glom on to his hobby and exorbitantly run up the memorabilia’s valuation. Scarcity does not make Liebig see dollar signs, it just makes him excited, like an art-lover stumbling upon a rare work.

His biggest hopes for his collection are a coffee table book or perhaps a television show. “I don’t want to have an empire, but I would like to make a living and have a lot of fun with it,” he says. So far, it sounds like the project is at least living up to the “fun” requirement.

Liebig likely won’t be listening to the head-shrinking naysayers anytime soon either.

“I have a sense of humor about this stuff because it’s just a bunch of things,” he notes. “But when I sit down to tackle the history of it, I do so as an adult, and as seriously as I do anything.”

At some point in the Halloween celebration, your addled brain will to realize you need to eat something. This may happen at 4 a.m., while you’re still out and about, or it may happen at noon the next day.

When it does, the vague concept of food that starts to form in your sodden head most likely coalesces into something carb-heavy, childish, unchallenging: pancakes. Thanks to an amazing market saturation and its de facto trademarking of the very word, when most of the country wants pancakes, consumer instinct pulls them to IHOP. Until recently, however, New Yorkers somehow muddled through with Greek diners, and delis.

Now we too have this oddly sterile breakfast depot at our disposal, on East 14th Street between Second and Third avenues. So when you regain the ability to form complete sentences and manage to say to your friends, boyfriend/girlfriend or that stranger who’s in your house for some reason, “Let’s get pancakes,” your consumer instinct will kick in and lead you straight there. It’s an oddity for some, a taste of home for others, and is so far drawing a huge business—so much so that at prime weekend brunch time the wait can be over an hour and at night (it’s 24 hours, as all good diners should be) there’s a bouncer at the door to keep the crowds civilized.

IHOP’s menu offers a great number of things, and they’re clearly hoping to be your one-stop chain restaurant for breakfast, lunch, etc. However, everyone’s here for the pancakes and they know it. Even the one woman I saw who ordered a sandwich also got a side of pancakes, just to keep the universe in balance.

There are basically three types on offer – plain, fruit-based and ludicrously extravagant—all available in combinations that include a second full meal of eggs, hash browns and meats. Do not venture down that path, even if you’re convinced you’re ravenous—the pancakes alone will sink you like a stone, guaranteed. Get bacon or sausage on the side, if you insist.

If you’re still feeling shaky by the time you’re seated, stick to the plain (sorry, “award-winning original buttermilk”) and curl up with the thermos of coffee provided to every table—a genuinely brilliant innovation. I don’t know what award they won, but these are indeed the Platonic ideal of pancakes, a feat of corporate cooking that looks and tastes exactly the same every time. Uniformly fluffy interior, golden brown crust ringed with a pale spine where the cake missed the griddle—you’re not quite sure they’re real, even as you eat them.

Your steadier companion may decide to keep the party going with a more Willy Wonka-esque innovation. Cinn-A-Stack™ pancakes are layered with a cinnamon ooze and topped with cream cheese icing, while New York cheesecake pancakes have pellets of cheesecake scattered through the batter before cooking. The effect is less jarringly dessert-like—as if a real person making pancakes with real buttermilk took these off the griddle a second too soon, leaving a slightly creamier interior and a hint of tang. They come drowned in a strawberry topping that is diabetes on a plate and should be asked for on the side or not at all; these do best with the warmed original syrup brought out with the dishes.

After a few bites, the sugar and starch will work their magic and you’ll start to feel human once again. When you do, you may notice that, though visually perfect, the pancakes taste one-note and mildly chemical, the “butter” reeks of artificial butter flavor and the syrup is more high-fructose corn than maple. Leave those thoughts for another day, though, when you’ve got your strength back and have washed all of the Cleopatra eyeliner off. Right now, it’s as much like food as you can manage.

Pancakes and Syrup and Jam, Oh My: IHOP lands in the East Village and serves up all the sugary breakfast foods needed to quell your Hallow’s Eve hangover.
PHOTO BY ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Compiled by Max A. Goldstein

Friday, June 11

Young Picassos—Arts in Action, an after-school arts program and summer camp, sells color prints of student work. Proceeds support a scholarship program for children who need financial need. Little Shop of Crafts, 711 Amsterdam Ave., 212-864-4833; 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Free admission.

Saturday, June 12

Classical—Swedish conductor Ragnar Bohlen leads the New England Symphonic Ensemble in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, with soprano Ingela Bohlin and baritone Stephen Gaertner. Michel Brousseau conducts the U.S.
premiere of the Saint-Remi Solemn Mass, a recently discovered work by the French composer Theodore Dubois. Carnegie Hall, West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, 212-247-7800; 8 p.m., $35 to $95.

Sunday, June 13

Science Up Close—The Milstein Science Series brings together Jarod Miller, host of the television series Animal Exploration with Jarod Miller, with scientists from Audubon of Florida, who work in the everglades, to discuss that area’s ecosystems. The presentation includes live animals, such as alligators, crocodiles and a Burmese python. The American Museum of Natural History, Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, first floor, West 79th Street and Central Park West, 212-769-5100; noon to 4 p.m., free with museum admission ($9 to $16).

Beloved Berries—Zion St. Marks Church hosts an “Erdbeerfest,” or strawberry festival. Enjoy delicacies like “Erdbeertorte,” a German strawberry pie, as well as coffee, tea, music and a raffle. Zion St. Marks Church, 339 E. 84th St., 212-288-0600; 1 p.m., $10 suggested donation.

Sound Garden—The West Side Community Garden hosts free concerts every Sunday for the next six weeks, starting today with Mary Cherney, David Nadal and Julia Marion, who perform on Renaissance flute, guitar and bassoon. The concert series runs through July 25, and will include jazz, opera and other genres. West Side Community Garden, West 89th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, www.westsidecommunitygarden.org; 4 p.m., Free.

Martyr’s Muses—Amuse, a 16-voice women’s ensemble, presents Missa São Sebastiã, by 20th-century Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. The program, led by guest conductor Phillip Cheah, includes complementary works of plainchant, Renaissance and contemporary polyphony. St. Ignatius of Antioch, 522 West End Ave., 212-580-3326; 4 p.m., $15 to $20.

Monday, June 14

Idol on Stage—Lakisha Jones, a 2007 American Idol finalist and star of Broadway’s The Color Purple, makes her New York debut at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. Jones sings selections from American Idol, Broadway hits and her new single CD, So Glad I’m Me. Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, 540 Park Ave., 212-339-4095; 8:30 p.m., $30 to $50 plus $25 minimum.

Book Club—Aimee Bender, author of an Invisible Sign of My Own, discusses her latest novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Bender is interviewed by Heidi Julavits, a novelist and co-editor of The Believer, and Kate Burton performs a selection from the novel. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, 212-864-5400; 7:30 p.m., $20.

Good Cause—O’Neals’ restaurant hosts a gala cabaret evening to benefit the Westside Crime Prevention Program and the Tamar Lynn Safe Haven Project. The program encourages merchants to offer help and protection to children who are in trouble on the streets of the Upper West Side. Critically acclaimed entertainers John Carelli, Shana Farr, Insuk Kim, Melanie Long, Emily Ross-Johnson, Mary Ann Mootos, Jacqueline Thomps and David Maiullo are scheduled to perform. O’Neals’, 49 W. 64th St., 212-787-4663; 6 p.m., $75 to $150.

Tuesday, June 15

Mentors in Action—The group Free Arts NYC hosts its annual “Art from the Heart” gallery exhibition. The evening includes a performance by Story Pirates, a children’s theater troupe that acts out short stories written by kids in the weekly mentor program. A short awards ceremony follows, after which the crowd is shown 300 works by participating students. Free Arts NYC is a non-profit that offers educational arts and mentoring programs to under-served children and families in the New York City area. On view through Aug. 22. El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave., 212-831-7272; 5 p.m., Free.

International Studies—Husband-and-wife power couple Kati Marton and Richard Holbrooke participate in a discussion focused on international challenges facing the nation today. Marton has reported from Soviet-ruled Hungary and Holbrooke is now a special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Obama administration. New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, 212-868-4444; 6:30 p.m., $20.

Wednesday, June 16

Western Classic—The 29th annual celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses follows Joyce’s hero, Leopold Bloom, as he makes his way through an ordinary day in Dublin. The Bloomsday on Broadway performance features film and Broadway stars, including Ira Glass, Stephen Colbert, Colum McCann, Malachy McCourt, Marian Seldes, John Shea and Tony Roberts, and is staged by Isaiah Sheffer. June 16, 1904, is the most famous fictional date in literature, marking the day when Leopold Bloom walked around Dublin in the pages of Ulysses. Since 1981, hundreds of acclaimed actors have joined avid Joyceans, writers, critics and scholars on stage at Symphony Space to read selections from the book that heralded the birth of modern literature. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, 212-864-5400; 7 p.m., $20 to $25.

Discovery Day—New York’s largest community arts school, The Kauffman Center’s Lucy Moses School, opens its doors to the public for its second annual “Discovery Day.” Children ages 4 and older can try out a wide range of instruments, such as
the violin, cello, flute, clarinet and piano, under the guidance of the school’s faculty members. Lucy Moses School, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501-3360; 4 to 7 p.m., Free.

Thursday, June 17

Literary Classic—Budding theater stars in the Kids Company perform in Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka. Fifty children ages 6 to 14 take part in the production, while teens ages 14 to 18 work on the set, lights, sound, costumes and production management. West Side YMCA, Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, 5 W. 63rd St., 212-875-4100; 7:30 p.m., $30.