The hook
A small museum on a Los Angeles boulevard shows you an ant with a fungus bursting from its head, a sculpture carved to sit inside the eye of a needle, and a dozen exhibits that may or may not be true, and it won't tell you which.
01Why it's worth it
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, on Venice Boulevard in Culver City, is one of the strangest institutions in the country, and describing it plainly almost misses the point. David Wilson opened it in 1988 as a cabinet of curiosities in the old sense: dim rooms of specimens and dioramas and hushed audio, a stink ant with a fungus erupting from its skull, microscopic sculptures by Hagop Sandaldjian set inside the eye of a needle, mechanical opera sets, obscure scientific theories narrated in a reverent whisper. The catch is that some of it is real and some invented, and Wilson, who won a MacArthur "genius" grant, refuses to say which, because knowing would ruin it. What you're left with is pure wonder shot through with a low, pleasant vertigo about what's true. Go in not knowing, take your time, and have tea on the roof after.
02How to experience it
It's at 9341 Venice Boulevard in Culver City, easy to walk right past. Hours are limited, afternoons and closed early in the week, with a small suggested donation. Give it a slow hour or two in the dark, and resist looking anything up beforehand; the not-knowing is the whole experience. The rooftop tea room and its doves are part of the visit.