I know what many of you are thinking, “she is becoming some sort of creepy stalker taking pics of her neighbors’ garbage all the time”.
Yeh, so what? Admit that you, too, take some unexplained pleasure in the oddities that I find lying out by the curb on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
For today’s shot I had to get off the phone to take the picture with my godforsaken Blackberry. As much as I cannot wait for the iPhone5 to arrive with its dazzling 8 megapixal camera, there is something fabulous about how this shot came out, don’t you think?
I am not sure what to say about this. There I was, getting into my car in a parking lot and stuck to the pavement was a patch of…
… well, a patch of hair. In some sticky stuff. I don’t want to think all that much about the sticky stuff or how the patch of hair got stuck to it. Did someone lay down and have a patch of hair pulled out? Cleaned their brush out the window of a car and the residue floated down and serendipitously stuck to the parking lot goo? Ok, maybe I do want to think a bit about it.
So, here’s the thing. I was about to get into my car and there was someone waiting, not so patiently, for my spot. She saw me get out of the car with my camera and take a shot of the hair ball in the goo and then drive off. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the quizzical look on her face. Do you think she got out of the car to see what I had taken a picture of or did she just write me off as a nut. C’mon, am I the only one who notices this stuff? Probably not but I suppose most people don’t take pictures, or even think all that much about them. What can I say, it is part of the MFTA credo.
This could actually be one of the more disgusting things I have encounter lately. And I don’t know why, but I was drawn to it. Enough to take a picture at least, it’s not like a touched it or anything. I think Eckhart Tolle would call me extremely present for this one.
Yeh, I just wrote four paragraphs about a hair ball in a parking lot. So what!
I have always noticed the oddities out there in the world. Even before this blog became the catch-all for all things crazy, they always found me.
Now that I have deemed myself the Magnet For the Absurd it seems to have stuck. In the last 2 weeks people have sent me all sorts of oddly humorous and offbeat things, via every technology possible. I thought it would be fun to share a few.
This came from an old friend via email:
Driving cross country. Now in arizona. Just passed a billboard and thought of you: Ostrich Eggs. Meteorites. 50% off.
This was from a friend via Facebook:
I thought of your photos and your blog yesterday while passing through Frenchtown on our way home from Elon U. . . we noticed a street sign stating ” Saturday is cancelled” — found it to be funny . . . and maybe something I should send along to my two kids away at school?!
And these two pics came via text message from Sedona:
I particularly love the ‘Est. Before Mankind’. Nice touch.
These submissions prove to me that people do see the absurdities out there, they simply never had a place to share them.
I took this shot earlier this month at the Brooklyn Flea. This place was a treasure trove of the bizarre. Looking through the shots of the summer this one was begging to be featured. After the Krazy Glued penis caper I could not help but think this little guy was awfully symbolic. Oh, and I saw this right after Michael Jackson died in the height of MJ fever. Any connection? Can’t you picture him in this get up?
This artifact begs a few questions:
1. Who designed this item, for mass market, no less? And for what purpose? I am thinking this could easily be one half of a nesting salt and pepper shaker from the 50’s. Like the dancing bears my mom had. Hey, Ma, do you still have those?
2. What is the significance of the crotch grabbing? Protection? Masturbation? Or simply the need to pee?
3. Why do I think that this little guy could star in a nightmare I will have real soon. One where all the weird stuff I have taken pictures of will come alive and start chasing me.
Oops, sorry, I probably should not let the inner workings of my warped mind out of the bag so candidly.
Oh, right, isn’t that what I have been doing here from the beginning?
The biggest question of all: Why did I not purchase this little guy?
Stay tuned for more oddities from the flea market on days I have nothing to write about.
Seen in the waiting room of an ob/gyn’s office today:
Young man with spiky hair and his girlfriend wearing ripped leggings. He was carrying a copy of Puppies for Dummies. Should we not be concerned that this couple was breeding?
Old Orthodox Jewish man with long white beard and black hat sitting in a chair next to… a teddy bear.
Dr. Phil! What is up with these friggin’ people? Why would you do this on National TV? Are they for real with all this crying and airing of their personal business for the whole world to witness. (hmmm, sounds like some popular mommy blogs we know, does it not?)
News promo, “Baby Jesus returned to manger in Babylon… Town Mall (for non-locals, Babylon is suburb of NYC)
A plate of garlic knots at the receptionist’s window where there would normally be a basket of hard candy. What is up with that?(fyi, spiky haired man asked his girlfriend if she wanted one because it would make her breath ‘taste’ real bad! this sounds like something Napoleon Dynamite would say.)
That about sums it up folks.
Does everyone encounter these kinds of oddities in their day or is it just me?
Tonight I was saddened to find out that the Freakatorium – Manhattan’s freak museum – or as it was also referred to, El Museo Loco, closed its doors.
Ok, so I am a little late to the party here. It closed in January ’05. I told you I don’t get out of the basement much!
I was preparing to write this post, looking back fondly on the day spent there with the best of friends (hi Ron, checking to see if you are reading). I googled it to get a link for this post and there it was. This sad announcement of its closing.
What a loss. This place rocked. It is the place where Gary bought one of his favorite T-shirts, Zoma the Canibal. Yes, they misspelled it on the shirt. See.
I am pretty sure that I had to ask him to take that shirt off at least once. Maybe we were going to a kid’s birthday party, or worse, Open House at the kid’s school. It is a great shirt though, don’t you think?
Back to the merits of the Freakatorium. It was a tiny little storefront shop really. Squeezed in between a tragically hip eatery and a corner Bodega on the then gentrifying Clinton Street. This place had it all.
Here is a list of the few amazing items of oddity that were housed within its frankly creepy walls:
Pictures of Jo Jo the dog-faced boy
An authentic living, breathing 2-headed turtle (no joke, I saw it move around)
Sammy Davis Jr.’s glass eye
A conjoined twin pig fetus (ew, ew, ew)
See for yourself. This vid is a tad long but Johnny Fox is so weird and wild in a John Waters sort of way. I could not help but watch it to the end. Must admit that parts of it were a little bit liking staring at the accident.