San Francisco

As a kid, the only thing that kept you from raiding the impossibly cool troves of your older step-brother's stuff was his seemingly endless arsenal of cruel variants on the purple-nurple. Well he's in jail now, but his stuff's at Room 4, opening Thursday.

The first venture of a Texan architect turned professional packrat, 4's crammed with throwback clothing, furniture, and ephemera from the 60s, 70s, and 80s -- when men were men, despite all haircuts to the contrary. Gear-wise, they've got button/snap downs, leather/suede/tweed jackets and blazers, tons of Levis, accessories (from golfer hats to western belt buckles to 80s shades), and tees from tours both successful ("David Bowie Serious Moonlight Tour") and not ("A Woman is the Ticket -- Geraldine Ferarro 1984"). Key-party-friendly home furnishings include 70s shag couches and chairs plus shabby-chic tables and nightstands; other hand-picked Americana includes mini Swiss Army knives ganked by airport security, and a collection of vintage Gallery, Penthouse, and Playboy, one cover sporting a young Brigitte Nielsen, long before she was worked over by the oversized hands of an oversized clock.

Perhaps the most collectible bits are the clean selection of He-Man and -themed lunch boxes and thermoses sporting the likes of Fat Albert -- appropriate, given that where your step-brother is now, an obese man is definitely keeping him warm.