An Arm's-Length Away: Museum of Selfies Opening

Try as we might, and scrunch our foreheads in thought though we will, and attempt to think our hardest though we shall, this fact holds fast: Predicting the future is some kind of tricky business.

Ponder this: When exercise mavens of bygone decades daydreamed about this time, right now, did they guess that many of us would frequently hold our arms out, straight, for several seconds, not to lift a dumbbell but to point a camera at our own faces?

And old-school push button phones. Did futurists of the past predict that the symbol on the bottom right, the hashtag, would figure so prominently in 2018, especially in online posts depicting photographs we've taken of ourselves?

Would futurists then say, "hey, what's an online?" Because they already knew all about posts, those sturdy pieces of wood that bolster fences.

Which is all leading to this declaratory statement: Good people of Southern California, hang onto your cameras, your phones, and your camera phones, for The Museum of Selfies is nearly here.

It really is a museum devoted to the art of posing for yourself, and while it opens on Sunday, April 1, it is no April Fools' Day joke. After all, selfies are some serious business for those who passionately pursue this most modern — or post-modern? — form of self-expression.

The Glendale pop-up, which is located at 211 N. Brand Boulevard, will be open for two months. Within that time, camera-wielding visitors will pose and click in front of a variety of selfie-themed backdrops that are colorful, cheeky, or both.

And, yes: There is an area devoted to the bathroom mirror selfie. No selfie museum worth its selfie stick would dare not include such a nook.

Speaking of selfie sticks, what's being dubbed "The World's Longest Selfie Stick" will be on display, if you've ever thought that arm's-length was too short a distance from your camera to your face, and traditional selfie sticks could, all told, be a little longer.

Which also leads to this notable asterisk: While many museums around the world have banned selfie sticks, the Museum of Selfies is all about 'em, so show with your stick.

No sneaking it in, which you'd never do anywhere, anyway, ever.

Exhibits on the car selfie, selfies taken from higher elevations, historical selfies, and cautionary selfie tales will also fill the photo-mad museum. And a snapshot while sitting on the Selfie Throne, which is comprised of a bouquet of selfie sticks, as well as a few artfully placed phones, is a must for those looking for an irony-tinged, highly royal keepsake.

A ticket is $25, which leads us to ponder what futurists of an earlier generation would have thought of one popular trend, the trend of people taking pictures of themselves while they hold tickets to concerts, plays, and festivals.

Followed by the trend of taking several more snaps while inside the event, before posting on social media.

Surely soothsayers of the past would have been quite befuddled. But then, they knew what a "social" was — a lively jamboree or neighborhood party — and "media," of course, was the TV, or the paper, or a digest, or the wireless.

Let the hashtaggery commence, Southern California, this April and May.