Obscura Day in Bucks County

If you're interested in something weird to do this March you can take a drive down to Bucks County to celebrate Obscura Day with a rock concert at Ringing Rocks park. What's Obscura Day, you ask? Why, Obscura Day is only the 17th best day of the year. March 20th is designated as an international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places or "Obscura Day."

One of the official Obscura Day events is a concert created by banging on the rocks at Ringing Rocks Park in Bucks County. And anyone can participate. As Obscura Day's website describes:
March 20, 2010 1PM: Bring hammers, mallets, bats, and other percussive instruments for this gathering at the mysterious Ringing Rocks Park in eastern Pennsylvania, where the stones have a most curious property: they ring out musical tones when struck. The exact mechanism by which these rocks ring remains a mystery, though it may have to with the freeze-thaw cycle that helped created the boulder field in the first place. The unusual property has been observed at only a few other locations in the US. Join us on Obscura Day to collectively rock out in this most curious of rock parks. Obscura Day Ringing Rocks Concert website: Click Here

Although WeirdNazareth.com won't be hosting an official Obscura Day event we are going to create a WeirdNazareth map that you can follow on Obscura Day or any day of the year. It will allow you to enjoy the impending Spring weather and some of the stuff we've posted here in-person. Dust off your GPS's and check back in a little bit for your official Spring 2010 WeirdNazareth.com map!

Nazo State of Mind

Local radio DJ Jarret Brown is droppin' it like it's hot in this dope rap about Nazareth. You'll think this track is ill even if you ain't from south of Prospect...

Click Here to Listen

A CD, a Video, and a Book--The Indian Tower Depicted

The album Indian Tower, by Pearls and Brass

Not everyone knows that Nazareth's Josh Martin, Randy Huth and Joel Winter formed a musical group called Pearls and Brass that is known internationally among fans of metal music. The boys named their first album Indian Tower and tracks include The Tower and Black Rock Man.

Possibly most interesting to us are the interviews they have given. See one here: Death Becomes Them. In more than one interview, they muse upon the strange and supernatural feel of the Nazareth area.

They are not the only ones, and the Indian Tower is often the focus of that regard. Have a look at this video (it says it's Emmaus, but we all know that tower when we see it!), and of course there is the children's book The Cross Over, by Scott Morro, in which children sheltering from a storm in the Indian Tower find themselves back in time.

Many people seem to feel something there at the tower. Have you had an experience there or at Black Rock? Tell us your story and we'll add it to the chronicles of Weird Nazareth.

[A story on the tunnels or tunnel rumors is being prepared, hopefully for late next week, so stay tuned!]

The Weight

"The Weight" is a song by the band 'The Band' and features references to the town of Nazareth. The song was released in 1968 on their Music from Big Pink album and while it was on the charts for 7 weeks it never eached higher than # 63. Rolling Stone Magazine named The Weight the 41st Greatest Song of All Time.

Why Nazareth? That's what's weird. These were folk musicians so obviously there is a connection to Martin Guitars. There also is the symbolism of biblical Nazareth. The answer is not clear.

Check out a sample of the song HERE.

Lyrics:

I pulled into Nazareth, I was feelin' about half past dead;
I just need some place where I can lay my head."
Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?"
He just grinned and shook my hand, and "No!", was all he said.

Chorus:
Take a load off Fannie, take a load for free;
Take a load off Fannie, And (and) (and) you can put the load right on me.

I picked up my bag, I went lookin' for a place to hide;
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin' side by side.
I said, "Hey, Carmen, come on, let's go downtown."
She said, "I gotta go, but m'friend can stick around."

(Chorus)

Go down, Miss Moses, there's nothin' you can say
It's just ol' Luke, and Luke's waitin' on the Judgement Day."
Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee?"
He said, "Do me a favor, son, woncha stay an' keep Anna Lee company?"

(Chorus)

Crazy Chester followed me, and he caught me in the fog.
He said, "I will fix your rags, if you'll take Jack, my dog."
I said, "Wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man."
He said, "That's okay, boy, won't you feed him when you can."

(Chorus)

Catch a Cannonball, now, t'take me down the line
My bag is sinkin' low and I do believe it's time.
To get back to Miss Annie, you know she's the only one.
Who sent me here with her regards for everyone.

(Chorus)