Today in things that make my brains slowly leak out my ears, I present: The citizens of Long Beach. This is Jonathan Polk. Jonathan is a business man attempting to open a…
March 25, 2013 | Blog
Q: How Ya Doin’ Order Member? A: Good, You Know, Bein’ AWESOME
The members of the Order of the Good Death are all magical fairies, spreading sparkling death acceptance dust o’er the children’s eyes at night. Reading that sentence back I realize I’m making…
March 6, 2013 | Blog
The Tweet Hereafter
The Tweet Hereafter is a new website with a very simple concept, posting the final tweets of well known people. The founder was interviewed by our friend Jian Ghomeshi (I was on…
February 26, 2013 | Blog
Fighting with Angels: Why Language is Essential in Obituary Writing
Because I do so loathe euphemisms and silly death-denying language, I love this piece by the lovely Jen Aitken about the necessity of doing better with your obituary writing. More of her…
February 21, 2013 | Blog
The Sights & Smells of Funeral Home Design
Order member Barbara Chung recently completed her design thesis on the architecture of funeral homes and the sensory experience. For Chung, the design and architecture of a place of death is not…
February 19, 2013 | Blog
Traffic Accident Photos From 1951 Are Art
Growing up in the 1990s, with the Internet floating into my home through the dial-up tubes starting in 10th grade, my only exposure to fatal car accidents was the hyper gruesome pictures…
February 15, 2013 | Blog
Corporate Funeral Homes–Soul Sucking Monsters or Nice Work If You Can Get It?
Order member Jeff Jorgenson, natural funeral wunderkind behind Elemental Cremation & Burial in Seattle, once again graces us with some straight talk about working in the funeral industry. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* A few of…
February 12, 2013 | Blog
Tombs of the Russian Bourgeois Give Dapper Weirdness
Sorry guys, my Russian is a little rusty (in that I never spoke it at all). But this story on tombs of the Russian bourgeois seems to be about the way they…
February 7, 2013 | Blog
This is Michelle Amber Johnson.
Jennifer Park-Mustacchio is a funeral director and embalmer in New Jersey. She has written for the Order in the past about her first Buddhist funeral service. Here she writes about a recent…
February 5, 2013 | Blog
Should You Let Your Kids Around Corpses?
I was thrilled to receive this story from Michelle O’Leary-Sherman about her recent trip to Ireland to attend a funeral. Not because it’s a funeral–I’m very sorry that her aunt died so young–but…
January 31, 2013 | Blog
Interview with Anatomical Yarn Darling Shanell Papp
You guys LOVE totally grotesque things rendered in fluffy yarn form. I’ve seen those “likes” on the Facebook page. Don’t try to lie to me about this. I sought out artist Shanell…
January 29, 2013 | Blog
The Cemeteries of North Kohala
I’ll tell ya this, kids, the secret to happiness on a Saturday afternoon is visiting a couple of antique stores and a couple of cemeteries. Of course, that’s why One Direction’s Harry…
January 24, 2013 | Blog