Incredi-Bill: North Platte, Nebraska's Fort Cody Trading Post

Nothing warms the heart of a bored cross-country roadtrip passenger than a good, old-fashioned politically incorrect tourist trap. Such is the case of the Fort Cody Trading Post, just off Interstate 80 in North Platte, Nebraska. North Platte has a genuine claim to fame, as it was the 1880s home of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Not exactly the stay home and collect stamps-type, he got his nickname for killing 4,280 buffalo in an 8-month period during 1867-68. There are lots of good reasons to stop and stretch your legs here: the "fort" is actually a western museum/wild-west-show-in-miniature/kitschy gift shop all housed in a mock stockade (mockade?) complete with soldier mannequins (one with an arrow tastefully stuck in his butt) and a corral out back that is home to a...drumroll, please...Muffler Man Indian! The western museum displays many authentic items, including chaps, guns, boots, spurs, stuffed animals, and some statues of Bill and various Indians. The piece de resistance, though, is a stuffed two-headed calf. The miniature west show is an accurate, if not tiny, diorama of Buffalo Bill's traveling extravaganza from the 1870s. Ernie and Virginia Palmquist carved the 20,000 figures --snake charmers, knife-throwers, fat ladies, cowpunchers, squaws, you name it -- that come to life every half hour in an animated show, free of charge. The gift shop features a glittering array of items to mark the occasion and remember your friends and loved ones by: iron dinner triangles ("Come an' gitit!"), books of western lore, taste-challenged T-shirts, edible bugs, stuffed jackalopes, candy cigarettes and more John Wayne paraphernalia than you can shake a stick at, Pilgrim. And if that's not enough, out back there's a corral with wagons, a tee pee, a buffalo and, yes, the famed 25-foot lantern-jawed brave, girning at you with Native American Muffler Man pride. Muffler Man aficionados will tell you this is a modified classic MM, not the official Indian classification, just so you know. However you categorize him he's awesome, and how.

So don't pass up the chance to see a real kitschy Americana treat the next time you're passing through central Nebraska. And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Good, bad and ugly: Dedham, Massachusetts' Museum of Bad Art

A good citizen, indeed.

"Faceless"

"Drilling for Eggs"

The gallery

"Joan Crawford"

"Play Boy Bunnies"

"Untitled"

"Papa Nostro"

The Museum is housed in this lovely 1927 working theater in charming downtown Dedham.

And if you're a man and you need to answer the call of nature...

...the Mens Room is conveniently located just on the other side of this partition (sorry, ladies -- you'll have to go to the other side of the lobby).

We're big fans of "so bad it's good" here at Eccentric Roadside and no one has got that covered better than the Museum of Bad Art (MoBA) in picturesque Dedham, Massachusetts on Boston's southwest border. Started in 1994 by five righteous bad art lovers, the Museum now has 500 pieces in its collection, with a rotating group show on permanent display next to the Mens Room in the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre. The pieces come from a variety of sources, including yard sales, thrift stores and donations. MoBA bills itself as the only museum dedicated to bringing the worst of art to the widest of audiences, but there is a criteria for what can be accepted. "Works must be original and have serious intent, but they must also have significant flaws without being boring; curators are not interested in deliberate displays of kitsch." Kind of like the TV show "Dragnet," which is the most unintentionally hilarious show on television because it tried so hard to be serious. They also exclude works done by children, black velvet art, paint-by-numbers or commercially produced paintings, proving it's as hard to get into a bad art museum as it is to get into a good one.

They support themselves by selling anthology books of the collection and T-shirts, along with donations from bad art lovers everywhere. They also have a terrific website and a sister gallery in another theater basement in nearby Somerville, Massachusetts. They like to say "In our museum, it's not the artists that are tortured, it's the patrons." We say we may not know art, but we know what we like and we love the Museum of Bad Art.

The whole kitsch and caboodle: The Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch to open September 14th

Everything but the kitsch-en sink: artifacts from Allee Willis' kitsch collection (photos from alleewillis.com)

The great Allee Willis at the Ghettogloss gallery in L.A. (photo from Ghettogloss)

We received word that there is a kitsch museum opening and it looks to be a real doozy. Allee Willis has written songs that have sold over 50 million copies, including "September" and "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth Wind and Fire, "Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters and the theme from the TV show "Friends." She also collaborated on the score for the musical "The Color Purple". She's been a cyber pioneer and is also a talented multi-media fine artist and has rubbed shoulders with all kinds of showbiz luminaries. This is all well and good but what really impresses us is the fact that she has what's billed as the world's biggest collection of kitsch memorabilia. She blogs about it in her Kitsch O' The Day column at alleewillis.com and is preparing to open the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch on September 14, with an exhibit at Los Angeles' Ghettogloss art gallery on Melrose in Los Angeles. Allee will be displaying hundreds of amazing artifacts from her rarely-seen-in-person kitsch collection and will frequently be on hand greeting visitors and discussing the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch. We at Eccentric Roadside could not be more thrilled. The world needs more kitsch and patrons like Ms Willis. If you're in the area, you must check it out (we wish we could). Not to do so would be in very bad taste.