As you may know, The Order is very big on the use of hair as a relic and tool of mourning. (See: Ask a Mortician Ep 5 & Hair Essay) Jenine Shereos, unbeknownst…
February 23, 2012 | Blog
[My Long Term Relationship With Death]
Lukas McLaughlin is an embalming student at the British Institute of Embalmers and the Irish College of Funeral Directing and Embalming. He contacted me first on Twitter (where you can find him…
February 22, 2012 | Essays // Essays by Contributors
Dead Bodies Look Like Dead Bodies
Hey guys, Ampersand Gallery, in Portland, is having an exhibition of morgue photography from the 1930s. Oh. Whoops. The exhibition was in 2010. My bad. I’m putting these up anyway because they…
February 21, 2012 | Blog
The Order & the Old Zoo
This past Sunday, the Los Angeles members of the Order of the Good Death visited the abandoned caves and cages and grottoes of the old Griffith Park Zoo. As a side note:…
February 16, 2012 | Blog
In Dead Earnest
IN DEAD EARNEST If I should die before I wake All my bone and sinew take Put them in the compost pile To decompose a little while Sun, rain and worms…
February 15, 2012 | Blog
Green (not Soylent) Death Art
I’m just going to say it — Art surrounding natural burial can be tacky. “End of Life Shamans” who come to your house and burn incense and decorate your cardboard casket with…
February 10, 2012 | Blog
Fortnight Journal: Death & We Three
CLICK HERE for a new piece written for Fortnight Journal.
February 6, 2012 | Blog
Over my Decomposed Body
I am asked quite frequently about the “Body Farm,” the research facility at the University of Tennessee where they study rates of decomposition of the human body. The research helps them determine…
February 5, 2012 | Blog
Republican Primary Yays & Nays (Death Edition)
It’s been a weird week in death news for the Republican Presidential candidates. Normally I wouldn’t bring politics into the deathblog, but each of these stories is bonkers in its own way…
January 29, 2012 | Blog
Embalm (“sort of like being in porn”)
Mortician’s note: Sarah Wambold is the thing. THE. THING. I spent a day with her in Austin this month and we are morticianly kindred spirits of the highest order. Sarah shares many…
January 26, 2012 | Essays // Essays by Contributors
Green Burial for a Fallen Comrade
Saturday evening, David found a dead bird on the window seat of his cabin. It was late, so he tossed it into grass. The next day, believing that a fallen comrade should…
January 24, 2012 | Blog
Pretty Picture Show for Fortnight Journal
New piece for Fortnight Journal on the art of the medieval macabre as it shows up in modern art. It’s 12 slides but it could have been 900. Restraint in 2012! Click…
January 23, 2012 | Blog