March 20th is Obscura Day, a day designated for celebrating wondrous, curious and esoteric places. The celebration is going on in cities all around the world. There are special events going on at strange places ranging from visiting a dead body in a sculpture park in Lucas, Kansas to checking out giant potholes in Nighoj, India.

This is one of those things that is a little random and weird but is also really cool. There are tons of interesting and unusual things to see in various places around the world. They exist in large cities as well as small towns. Sometimes you go see them and they turn out to be kind of boring but often you discover things that you never would have known anything about. Broadening your experiences makes your world bigger.

Here in my own neck of the woods, some of the things going on for Obscura Day include:

• Wine and snacks at the Long Now Foundation Museum. This place is working on a project to make a 10,000 year clock. I’ll be honest; I’ve been here and I think this project is just a little bit too smart for me because I couldn’t quite follow the point of it. Nevertheless, I got to check out some cool machines and try to get a grasp on a really unique project.
• Tour of Musee Mechanique. This is a really cool old arcade museum that features arcade games from years and years ago. It’s located at Fisherman’s Wharf here in San Francisco and it’s always tons of fun to go to it.
• See a huge pneumatic tube system. In nearby Palo Alto you can tour one of the world’s largest pneumatic tube systems for Obscura Day.
• Berkeley’s Bone Room. I haven’t ever been here but I’ve heard it’s a must-see thing for people who are into strange stuff. It’s a collection of bones and for Obscura Day they’re providing a talk about what you can see there.

Tags: obscura day