Visit to local enigma
OK, how is this for geeky? My son and I were on Broadway having lunch at Rom Mai Thai, one of our favorite restaurants. They have a rock'n green curry and a good attitude towards child patrons, as all smart businesses should.
After, we started to wander north and peeked in the window of the "Seattle Museum of the Mysteries." Located at 623 Broadway Avenue East, a formally somewhat creepy place, that I was still curious about and would like to now demystify. The rather nice post card they gave me says it features "Exhibits, Library, Cultural Center, UFO History, Ghosts and Northwest Mysteries." They also gave me a tri-fold flier from "NUFORC" (I've never seen such a dorky acryonym in my life) the National UFO Reporting Center. (more info at: www.UFOcenter.com)
I have been and seen many a parent with children in tow look down the dank, dark stairwell next to the sign, and the ill-favored (creepy/rubbery) larger than life troll mascot that sits on the stairwell, look in at it and then turn around and leave in a hurry. I've done it several times myself, the last time, it seemed that there was some kind of freaky, Museum of Mysteries "fan boy" club in progress, one would have to have plenty of confidence to walk into a social scene like that alone.
Well, it was a mellow day, and I was bored so I just decided to go in. For $3 dollars admission (children are free) you can see a very small, former retail space, with the exception of the cash register, looked like an eccentric's living room, posters of the anticipated "War of the World" movie, art gallery of sasquatch images, complete with a large library topics: (UFO's, Crop Circle phenomena) and DVD collection with titles: The X-Files (of course), The Secret World of the Trancendental, The Secret Powers of the Mind, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and (strangely) "the Blair Thumb," "Thumb Wars," "Thumbtanic," and "the Godthumb," (what the?) big-screen tv/DVD player, and ultra-plush couch with silken pillows, coffee table, stocked with a puzzling array of artifacts, skeletal remains, and odd toys like the "voice powered mini-mobile, which my son was clever enough to figure out immediately. He saw that it had a microphone attached to this strange structure, started singing into it and make the mobile light up and turn. They also had some vintage devices like an old 1940's radio (that you could imagine some 1940's people getting all freaked out by the radio show "War of the Worlds") and a strange black box with dials, buttons and levers called a "Diatherm Device." Cheap thrills.
We got a brief tour from "Head Librarian" of the metaphysical library, Philip Lipson of the many Sasquatch and foot and hand molds, movie-stills of video footage of the creature. We were also invited to watch a video documentary about "the mystery of Mel's hole." Story line: there was a bottomless hole reported in the foothills of some eastern Washington town, that "the military" apparently paid some landowner a million cool to make like a tree and...leaf. An expedition was launched,...in Winter to find it (and I thought) explain the mystery. (We thought they were going to find "Mel's hole," but they didn't) so it remains a "mystery." They also boast of the only Oxygen Bar in Seattle (but be sure and buy your own nose cannula, ok?)
They also gave me an informational flier on the 5th Annual UFO/Paranormal Conference being held at the Seattle Center, a two-day (I'm not making this up) $140 dollar buffet/lecture event. See above link for more info.
After we left, I asked Connor was he thought. He said it was cool, but when asked if he would invite his friends there, he said "no way, it's too creepy!"
After, we started to wander north and peeked in the window of the "Seattle Museum of the Mysteries." Located at 623 Broadway Avenue East, a formally somewhat creepy place, that I was still curious about and would like to now demystify. The rather nice post card they gave me says it features "Exhibits, Library, Cultural Center, UFO History, Ghosts and Northwest Mysteries." They also gave me a tri-fold flier from "NUFORC" (I've never seen such a dorky acryonym in my life) the National UFO Reporting Center. (more info at: www.UFOcenter.com)
I have been and seen many a parent with children in tow look down the dank, dark stairwell next to the sign, and the ill-favored (creepy/rubbery) larger than life troll mascot that sits on the stairwell, look in at it and then turn around and leave in a hurry. I've done it several times myself, the last time, it seemed that there was some kind of freaky, Museum of Mysteries "fan boy" club in progress, one would have to have plenty of confidence to walk into a social scene like that alone.
Well, it was a mellow day, and I was bored so I just decided to go in. For $3 dollars admission (children are free) you can see a very small, former retail space, with the exception of the cash register, looked like an eccentric's living room, posters of the anticipated "War of the World" movie, art gallery of sasquatch images, complete with a large library topics: (UFO's, Crop Circle phenomena) and DVD collection with titles: The X-Files (of course), The Secret World of the Trancendental, The Secret Powers of the Mind, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and (strangely) "the Blair Thumb," "Thumb Wars," "Thumbtanic," and "the Godthumb," (what the?) big-screen tv/DVD player, and ultra-plush couch with silken pillows, coffee table, stocked with a puzzling array of artifacts, skeletal remains, and odd toys like the "voice powered mini-mobile, which my son was clever enough to figure out immediately. He saw that it had a microphone attached to this strange structure, started singing into it and make the mobile light up and turn. They also had some vintage devices like an old 1940's radio (that you could imagine some 1940's people getting all freaked out by the radio show "War of the Worlds") and a strange black box with dials, buttons and levers called a "Diatherm Device." Cheap thrills.
We got a brief tour from "Head Librarian" of the metaphysical library, Philip Lipson of the many Sasquatch and foot and hand molds, movie-stills of video footage of the creature. We were also invited to watch a video documentary about "the mystery of Mel's hole." Story line: there was a bottomless hole reported in the foothills of some eastern Washington town, that "the military" apparently paid some landowner a million cool to make like a tree and...leaf. An expedition was launched,...in Winter to find it (and I thought) explain the mystery. (We thought they were going to find "Mel's hole," but they didn't) so it remains a "mystery." They also boast of the only Oxygen Bar in Seattle (but be sure and buy your own nose cannula, ok?)
They also gave me an informational flier on the 5th Annual UFO/Paranormal Conference being held at the Seattle Center, a two-day (I'm not making this up) $140 dollar buffet/lecture event. See above link for more info.
After we left, I asked Connor was he thought. He said it was cool, but when asked if he would invite his friends there, he said "no way, it's too creepy!"
