Casually, contorno is a “side dish,” but that phrase isn't reverent enough for Hannibal 3.05's ode to accompanying women. I've pointed out other instances in which the women in this show just won't go along, and instead run on their own tracks. In this episode, we're reminded how each acts from her own motivational center,…
In the future, mourners may interact with beloved deceased through virtual reality. Project Elysium is the brainchild of game designers from Australia, and proposes to use a headset like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive as the gateway to a 3-D experience of the beloved who will be “inhabited” by an AI version of themselves. From…
“Sex and death” is a phrase with more resonance when you put Marvin Gaye on the iPod and open the lid of the 21 Grams memory-box. Artist Mark Sturkenboom of the Netherlands has created a way to… well, see, the deceased's ashes go into a… oh, we'd rather let him explain: 21 Grams is a…
A Ghostly Grave by Tonya Kappes is the second in the Ghostly Southern Mystery series about a young undertaker, Emma Lee Raines, who can see the ghosts of murdered people (available March 31, 2015). This excerpt is reprinted by arrangement with Witness. All rights reserved. There's a ghost on the loose—and a fox in the…
Hundreds of bodies left freeze-dried on Everest? You may recall our recounting of the “traffic jams” of climbers, but we didn't know how many just pulled off the road and parked, forever. According to the website Altered Dimensions (which also has creepy pictures, should you dare) there are over two hundred: At 26,000 feet, in…
The memento mori continues to be updated for our times. This Lego video pierces us with the painful truth behind our entire existence, not just when stepping on one in bare feet. The School of Life is not the first, however, to be inspired by plastic blocks to examinations of transience and inevitable decay. Check…
If not space, the stratosphere at least. A company founded by people with a “background in aerospace engineering and satellites” is now offering to release your beloved's ashes from 20 miles above the earth with a weather balloon, also to film it for your later memories. Here's Mesoloft's promo video: According to the Huffington Post:…
“Ashes to Ashes” wrapped up a couple more of the main arcs and ended with a riveting season finale that was quite satisfying for this Longmire fan. Rather than try to hit all the plot points, here are some of the highlights I enjoyed, and I hope you will add your favorite moments in the…
“Death Becomes Her,” the fall exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Anna Wintour Costume Center presents a stitch-by-stitch account of what the well-dressed widow was wearing a century or two ago. There were rules for such things, naturally, and we can thank high-profile mourners, such as Queen Victoria and her daughter-in-law Queen Alexandra for…
Carved by hand and painted into fantastic shapes like leopards, jet planes, cell phones, chickens, shoes, even cars and cigarettes, these artistic funerary creations began somewhat by accident at the Ghanian workshop of artisan Kane Quaye. Since then, they've not only caught on in the community, which may pool its funds to get one of…
