Top 10 Weirdest Stores in Los Angeles
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| Yelp/andy s. |
Part drugstore, part head shop and part Psychic Eye, Million Dollar is downtown's definitive botánica -- a store that sells alternative medicine in the form of charms, figurines and household objects that function as folk remedies. Among everyday staples you'll find candles, oils, aerosol cans and other sundries meant to treat random conditions like the fear of public speaking. There's soap for your legal troubles, incense to battle jealousy and a small bottle of red waxy oil with a label that cryptically reads, "I Can and You Can't." It doesn't matter if any of it works -- browsing this store is more fun and less expensive than therapy, and probably just as effective. 301 S. Broadway, downtown, 213-687-3688
2. Dapper Cadaver
Courtesy of Marianne Williams Photography BJ Winslow of Dapper Cadaver
Dapper Cadaver is the foremost purveyor of "casualty simulation," renting and selling death-related props to horror filmmakers, Halloween fans, forensic institutes and anyone else who needs stuff like a steel autopsy table, talking headstone or camel femur. Owners BJ and Eileen Winslow thrive on finding and selling weird things -- their preserved specimen jars feature vintage, scientific or even vegan items, and are all bottled in-house. They also fabricate their own sideshow oddities, with curiosities such as a real Dayak boar skull from Burma, a vampire killing kit and a wide range of two-headed creatures as well. Their client roster includes everyone from the producers of True Blood and The Hunger Games to Martha Stewart, Six Flags, the FBI and Scotland Yard. But unlike some other prop houses, this one is open to the public, and that means you. 7572 San Fernando Road, Sun Valley, 818-771-0818, dappercadaver.com
826LA/Echo Park Time Travel Mart
1. Echo Park Time Travel Mart
While the Echo Park Time Travel Mart won't actually take you back in time, it does sell things you might need if it did, including a 50-year calendar, a robot toupee and strange toiletries like Viking Odorant, which, unlike your average antiperspirant, works to make you "stay filthy." Like the others, this weird store has an objective that goes deeper than just making a buck: It's the storefront for 826LA, the local chapter of a nonprofit writing organization for kids. 1714 W. Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, 213-413-3388, 826la.org/store
Tanja M. Laden manages Flavorpill Los Angeles and blogs at Huffington Post. Follow her on Twitter at @PopCuriousMag and for more arts news follow @LAWeeklyArts.
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MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY
9341 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA
Category: General
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