Museum of Gaffes
"Where the Zeitgeist Becomes a Nightmare"

P.U., MONSIEUR: THE PARIS SEWER MUSEUM

We’re not kidding – there is an actual museum dedicated to showing off France’s fecal fairways. The museum describes itself as such:

"Five hundred metres into the sewers of Paris to trace their history and that of Lutecia to the present day. An original way of exploring Paris, an exhibition area presenting the water cycle in Paris and its history. Several models and machinery used yesterday and today. Audio-visual show, exhibition room on the techniques of the future."

Audio-visual? Exhibition room? We can only imagine. Although we’d guess you could find some nice bargains on toilet paper in the gift shop.

LOUVRE OF LOSERS: THE MUSEUM OF BAD ART

Some art is so awful, it deserves its own museum. The Museum of Bad Art houses all the putrid Picassos and Gag-Me Van Goghs you can damage your eyes to. It fittingly celebrates the works of ‘art’ created by “the talentless, the color blind, and those suffering from hand tremors.” The museum talks about itself thusly: The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) is a community-based, private institution dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms and in all its glory.

MOBA was founded in the fall of 1993 and presented its first show in March 1994. The response was overwhelming. Since then, MOBA's collection and ambitions have grown exponentially.

Initially, MOBA was housed in the basement of a private home in Boston. This meager exhibition space limited the museum to being a regional cultural resource for the New England area.

THE MUSEUM OF ODD SOCKS: A MISMATCH MADE IN HEAVEN?

Here’s one we wish would disappear in the dryer. The Museum of Odd Socks widens the cultural horizons of those for whom socks aren’t just something to warm the feet, but nourish the soul. Typical is this kind of description of a display called "Solitary Sock":

The pathos in this work will be evident to even the most hardened among us. The pink sock is near perfect...but where is its mate? Is it fated to go through life alone? Will it ever find fulfillment or will it end up in the bottom of a drawer, lonely, unloved and utterly defeeted?

"Defeeted" we are, indeed.

DON’T WIG OUT ON US! LEILA’S HAIR MUSEUM

According to the curator (Leila) her museum "is the only hair museum in the United States."

One display is made from the locks of 156 members of a single family. They must be a lot of fun at reunions. There are 159 wreaths and over 2,000 pieces of jewelry containing, or made of, human hair dating before 1900. For $3.00, the public in invited to look at these locks at Leila's Hair Museum. , Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Liela's hair museum has its own place in cyberspace. Be careful visiting, you may get a bit itchy. 815 W. 23rd St., Independence, Missouri, USA

WHY DO WE EXIST?

No we don’t mean "we" as in why we humans exist – more like what’s the purpose for the site?

Well, there comes a point when dull collections of poorly presented put-togethers become known as “art” and somehow the sum of their awfulness becomes greater than their poor parts. What once repelled and sickened begins, somehow, to look attractive. At that moment the formerly horrible must be shared, not just for altruistic reasons but to confirm that indeed others now find them attractive. At that moment, no less than an entire gestalt shift has taken place.