I went to the most wonderful place yesterday. The Museum of Modern Oddities (MoMO).

Every year, the city I live in has an arts festival. MoMO was set up as part of that festival. It's part of a bigger group of museums that span the world, spontaneously popping up to remind us of the absurd and the beautiful.

How to explain this current incarnation? The curators found an old hardware shop. The sort of shop where you suspect the owner is not in the slightest bit interested in selling anything. The store is merely an extension of his own back shed.

It's filled with strange cabinets of odd things, switches, knobs, fasteners, 1920s condom makers (I kid you not--DIY condoms, just add latex) and a plethora of things for which I'm sure there is no use. The curators took this and added their own touches, creating strange contexts and wonderful juxtapositions like 'The Lifecycle of a Tennis Ball.' From bright green fuzz to well chewed ruin.

In addition to what they did with the existing materials, they let the audience contribute oddities of their own. They encourage users to add to the 'Directory of Nicknames' or the 'Museum of Collected Longing.' You can create your own exhibit with the flotsam you carry in your own pocket. I created a piece called 'Recipe for a spell to capture a heart' made up of a rose-covered postage stamp, an earring and a lock of my own hair.

You can even take other exhibits in exchange for one of your own.

If you get the chance to visit one of these things, go do it. In the meantime, you can experience some of what I saw here.

Enjoy!