Hot on the Flesh Market

I just saw SciChi's (yeah, I said it) show "Oddities" for the first time, and it was one of the coolest. It features this shop that was clearly in New York and clearly run by some kooky individuals, and clearly I had to look it up. Enter: Obscura.



It's really real and it's really here, on 10th St between 1st and A, as was primarily expected.


ANYWAY, the store is crazy, creepy cool and I can't wait to go there with Irena and look for clams. (Holy shit they just showed a taxidermied jack rabbit posed shooting a shotgun! In a guy's personal apartment! Just casually in the background and not even part of the show!)

Here's a picture of some Obsucura wares I found on the interwebs:

It's definitely a place you want to go.

Also I realized, upon seeing all of this, that I'm well on my way to a shelf 'o' obscure oddities, though now it's mostly just obscurities (you know, old-timey shit). But seriously, I'm one mummified organism away from living room display victory, and have one more goal to throw in my pocket.

End quote from James: "Let's go buy that flesh! Let's go buy that flesh. We can buy an ancient glove with ancient flesh in it."

Update: A girl just walked in with a jar full of toenails, and then was like Siiike! I make lizard sculptures out of them!

Pretty, Pretty Princess

I'm just saying, they're awesome. (Dior)

Clam Jam #10/ Nice to See You Again

Holy shit, guys. Holy shit. And I don't say holy shit often (?), but it's officially been more than a week since I've rattled off some meaningless garbage on the good old internets. We haven't even talked about how much I'm totally obsessed with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (or more specifically Richard Lawson's recaps of their finer moments--seriously, check it.)

I have been so much more of a legitimate adult than I've ever intended in these past few... 8 days?... 8 weeks?... whatever, but I've also gone on some honest-to-god journeys which were totally reminiscent of my high-school-going-on-college days (and Irena was here, and there was New Year's and such). The great irony is that in light of all the story-making, the storytelling mechanism gets cut from the schedule. And so there is so much life experience sludge, left to fossilize, and only emerge one day when memories get skewed.


Let's cut to the clam jam chase here. I came to talk about Icypoles by Alpine, and how it's so good and how I left my iPod in New Jersey, and how much that sucks. Fortunately, I found Icypoles on a playlist, and by the time I got to this moment the next song had begun to play. It's pretty fun. And thus it takes over. (Still check out Icypoles. It knows how to fucking rock a morning commute.)

You Guys Really Didn't Pay Enough Attention to Dildo

In case you guys missed my groundbreaking, totally important, not even remotely self-serving Christmas list, let me re-highlight for you the greatest find on Google Maps to occur this side of the millennium: Dildo, Newfoundland.


To (totally un-self-servingly) quote myself, "Dildo Newfoundland is a magical place, filled with amazing sights to see. There's The Dildo Dory Grill, Inn By the Bay (where you can get it in... by the bay), and don't forget to take a short journey down to South Dildo, where you can drive down Spread Eagle Road. I repeat, Spread Eagle Road."

The best part? This is all totally real! There are no exaggerations! Dildo is an actual place, deserving our respect, adulation, and a no holds barred onslaught of derisive comments. It is also the place where the poop joke was invented.

Ok, maybe that last one was a lie, but who cares? It's Dildo!

It's also the 482nd reason why I love Canada.

Some other really fun tidbits about Dildo, which you can verify for yourself on Google next time you need an excuse not to do your laundry:

- overlooks Conception Bay
- 4 miles south Cummingers Pond
-35 miles north of the town of Placentia. (Don't act like you can't see what they're getting at.)

This is all the handywork of Captain James Cook and his (hopefully hunchbacked) sidekick Michael Lane. They mapped Newfoundland in the 1760s, and literally just thought it was funny to name things after lame, 18th Century sex jokes. Coincidentally these are the same sex jokes we're making today. According to hilarious Wikipedia phraseology, they "were not above selecting names that might offend overly sensitive readers." And the rest of us just are.

Look What James Found!

If you are a lover of nerdy city history, secret locations, and watching people risk jail time (and their lives) you will be pleased with the following video, brought to you by James.

This is UNDERCITY, a documentary by Andrew Wonder that follows this guy Steve around as he lurks through NYC subway tunnels, shows us the original architecture of the Canal Street sewer (the city's first underground), interviews some people who have been living along train tracks for decades, and climbs to the tippy top of the Williamsburg bridge.

In case you haven't guessed, Andrew Wonder and Steve are super badass. Seriously, take the time to watch:

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.