Al Capone hanging out at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. Look at his comfortable prison cell (the one he had at Eastern State, before he was transferred to the more grueling Alcatraz). Who knew Scarface was allowed to wear such a swanky suit as a...
This blog has covered odd taxidermy collections more than a few times in the last five years from Alabama’s Mann Wildlife Learning Museum and the 19th century collection of frogs in Switzerland to Romania’s August von Spiess Museum of Hunting and the largest collection of stuffed dogs at Bítov Castle...
Last night’s late post went over well (sarcasm) so maybe this next one will do better. How can it not? I mean, a creepy wax statue of Mel Gibson…what’s not to love? If you’re wondering why Mad Max looks so happy, it’s because his statue maker was a Gentile. Something...
Steven Wright might be the name of a deadpan comedian, but please don’t confuse him with folk artist Stephen Wright (or English footballer Stephen Wright). Back in 1999, Stephen the artist was a stationary and textile designer. But one day after seeing Jarvis Cocker’s Journeys into the Outside, he decided...
Patti Smith once sang in the song Gloria these immortal words: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.” Well, today is the day, guys. On Wednesday I told you about some bronze statues peeing outside the Kafka Museum. But now I have a completely different collection of sculptures for...
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming (again…SORRY!) of creepy museums and attractions in the month of October to bring you a post from museum-of-artifacts because today is Octopus Day (yes, you read that last part right): There are a lot of awareness days and months. People like to be aware...
The Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí might be best known for painting melting clocks, but he also designed a sundial. Above Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris, which has a lot of sundials by the way, is “Le Cadran de Dalí“, a curious-looking piece of art (complete with Dalí’s signature in the...
Any film or book set in Bangkok is usually about some tourist dude who gets tied up with drugs and some underground gang is after him and then he ends up in a dirty, overcrowded prison with cockroaches laying eggs in his skin aka the Bangkok Hilton. This all sounds...
One of the most well-known and mysterious cemetery markers in the Chicagoland area, as well as a personal favourite of mine, is the grave of six-year-old Inez Clarke (1873-1880). Located in Chicago’s historic Graceland Cemetery, her parents commissioned a life-sized statue, which was completed a year later by a Sicilian...
Every year I like to say that Saint Valentine was given red roses and candy hearts for loving Christ instead of being beaten with clubs, stoned, and beheaded for refusing to deny Christ before the Emperor Claudius. Forget weddings, overpriced greeting cards, and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, February 14th is...
