The Oddities Market made its debut in Tucson in a jam-packed venue. The location was far too small for the crowds of people who were plunking down $5 cash at the door for entry. And, as of noon on Saturday, one vendor, a kilted, wood craftsman, told me he was already running low on merchandise and there was still a day and a half to go.
So I guess we can call the Oddities Market a huge success.
From my viewpoint, however, the problem was that it was difficult to take photos in such crowded conditions under fluorescent lights. But from these not-great photos you can judge whether the vendors or the merchandise was odder. Starting with the stuff for sale:
Going for a Shock Effect
Right inside the entry was the booth for Recykulled Doll Parts. This artist definitely set a high standard for shock-at-first-sight oddities for the entire show. As the name says he works with discarded dolls, but also ads bones to his creations. I didn’t ask where the bones came from. Hopefully from making chicken soup.
Most of the hand-painted leather masks in this booth were fun rather than threatening or shocking.
This booth offered table lamps made from old phones and also had a wall lamp made from a vintage camera. Then came a quirk of the camera a few booths away. While being bumped around I tried to get a photo of steampunk style balloons and it turned out that one balloon appears to replace the head of a vendor in black/white checked shorts. And this brings us to the vendors…at least some of the more eccentric ones.
Are they real?
Both these people are real…I think. I didn’t realize he had those creepy eyes until I got home and looked at the image. When I magnified the image, the white eyes were even creepier, but I assume they were contacts. They were selling silver jewelry. Or maybe she was selling silver jewelry and he was a manikin?
This young woman was selling prints of her drawings. She and her friend were very friendly, despite the somewhat Dominatrix impression the costume gave.
Around the corner was another young woman dressed for the event. There must have been a memo that went out suggesting black/purple costumes!
Up to this point people had moved slowly around a single circuit inside the building, but at this booth the crowd came to a complete halt. Using a lot of “excuse me’s”, I wormed my way through to the next booth where…
A pitchman shilled for a booth called the “Cabinet of Curiosities” which was, I discovered, not at all like a Victorian era cabinet of curiosities filled with ostrich eggs, weird machines and stuffed dodos. It was one of two fortune telling booths at the Oddities Market. He was very good, however, and, no doubt, Central Casting would be more than willing to give him a bit part as a shill in a steampunk video.
Nothing spooky here: a U Arizona Library Studies major paying tuition by selling her Advanced Book of Potions as well as some potions themselves. And this brought me back to the Entrance/Exit. In all, I was inside the show for less than an hour and even if I had wanted to go back to see some of the booths again it was too crowded for that. I left.
The Oddities Market continues through Sunday, November 17, 2019 and is supposed to be back six months from now. I hope it will be in a larger space.
