Coffins *

* (Halloween countdown post #10)

A container similar to the type used for disposable tupperware, is enlarged to create a casket that could hold a body. Notions of staying on the efficient “treadmill” of urban life, moving from one prefabricated disposable compartment to another in order to keep up with the demands of contemporary society are questioned. What is the value of an individuals life? Where in the end do we find ourselves? Are we consuming or being consumed by a society whose mandate is to use and then discard what is no longer valued?

 

 

Commissioned for a recent funeral, the coffin is in the form of a traditional steamer trunk and is decorated with luggage labels from places visited by the deceased.

 

 

I just stumbled on this 2006 patent from inventor Donald Scruggs for a “Easy inter burial container.” The name in no way describes what this really is: a coffin that doesn’t need a hole dug in advance, because the entire coffin can be drilled into the ground vertically.

 

An actor dressed as zombie performs during a coffin horror show, performed by Kowagarasetai (Scare Squad), for people to lie inside a mock of coffin with a plastic shield in order to maintain social distancing amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tokyo, Japan.

 

 

Some psycho forgot his coffin full of weird weapons in a Florida park.

 

Royal mill creates world’s-first ‘woollen coffins’ as demand for less ‘scary looking’ caskets rises. The British mill, which provided the fabric for both Prince Harry and William’s wedding outfits, has created the world’s first woollen coffin designed to be less ‘scary looking’ than its wooden counterparts.

 

 

A corpse has been caught on camera appearing to wave from inside a coffin at a funeral service. The chilling footage was filmed during a Christian service in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, on May 5. As the devastated family of the deceased gathered around and the priest read prayers, the apparent outline of a hand and fingers could be seen moving under the glass panel in the casket. In the video, the priest is heard saying: “God has said in the book of John. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me he will live even though he is dead.” Moments later the limb seems to wave or press its hand against the coffin lid. “Yes, he waved, maybe he was still alive and try to dig his way out,’‘ wrote Yunita Ouwa online. Moments later the limb seems to wave or press its hand against the coffin lid. “Maybe it’s a mouse,” Toink Khan added.

 

 

Karl Pilkington commissions a Twix-shaped coffin in the finale of The Moaning of Life. Tonight’s (December 17) final episode of the Sky1 show will see Pilkington travel to Ghana, where he visits a custom coffin maker and decides to commission a double casket for him and his girlfriend Suzanne. Pilkington chooses to have a coffin dedicated to his favourite chocolate bar – a Twix.

 

 

Born and based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Luciano Podcaminsky studied media, film and copywriting prior to unveiling his series of thought-provoking sculptural works. His coffin-shaped tanning bed — entitled ‘Sundead’ — is a chilling reminder of the dangers that come with achieving a bronzed complexion.

 

 

A group of mourners somewhere in Accra have taken their treatment given to the dead to bizzare levels. Photos of the mourners carrying their deceased relative in a penis-shaped casket has shaken social media to its core. Mourners, both young and old filled past the casket which has been laid as they looked on in either amazement or fear. It is not particularly clear why the deceased was being accorded the particular treatment of being buried in a ‘dick-shaped coffin but it is a common practice in parts of Ghana to bury people in caskets that shows their lifetime professions.

 

As creepy-cool as sleeping in a coffin sounds, it’s not exactly the kind of place you’d want to spend the night in. And yet, Brandon Hardy, of Bear, will spend 30 hours lying in a wooden box this weekend for a contest at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. After submitting a short essay, Hardy was selected from more than 4,300 people across the country to be one of six “coffin dwellers” during the amusement park’s Fright Fest. The contest will start at 1 p.m. Sunday with a “Laying to Rest” ceremony and conclude at 7 p.m. Monday with a “Raising from the Dead” event. A former paranormal investigator, Hardy is the only participant with previous experience sleeping in a coffin. He said he climbed into it in an attempt to entice a spirit or supernatural presence. “I didn’t get anything, but it’s one of those things you try,” he said.

 

 

A funeral took a peculiar and shocking turn when a woman decided to jump on top of the half-opened coffin and started to twerk. The video footage that was taken by a spectator shows the young woman clambering onto a wooden coffin and also dancing to the reggae music. The clip has gone viral on social media platforms. The video that got shared on the social media platform Twitter with a caption that read, “If yo girl don’t do this at yo funeral is she really yo girl.” As per El Universo, the person who died was identified as 38-year-old Marlon Mero Quijije. The person was shot three in different parts of his body while he was walking neighborhood of San Jose located in Manta and got pronounced dead at the hospital.

 

It was an ancient practice to bury treasured possessions and even tools in the grave. With this replica of a Laplander’s sled, Richard Mullard has created his own coffin that will enable him to be buried wearing his skis as if on a final expedition into the frozen north.

 

 

She has long blond hair, she is holding a red rose and she has been dead for 145 years. Nobody knows her name or how she died. She lay under a San Francisco home’s concrete garage floor for decades until two weeks ago, when workers doing remodeling struck her lead-and-bronze coffin with their shovels. The unidentified girl, who appeared to be about 3, is believed to be one of about 30,000 people who were buried at the old Odd Fellows Cemetery in San Francisco. The bodies were moved to a common burial plot in Colma around 1920, after all the city’s graveyards were ordered closed to make way for the living. Somehow, the workers in charge of moving the Odd Fellows occupants left this girl behind.

 

Patent No. 81,437 granted to Franz Vester on August 25, 1868 for an “Improved Burial-Case”

The tomb is equipped with a number of features including an air inlet (F), a ladder (H) and a bell (I) so that the person, upon waking, could save himself. “If too weak to ascend by the ladder, he can ring the bell, giving the desired alarm for help, and thus save himself from premature death by being buried alive,” the patent explains.

 

Patent No. 268,693 granted on December 5, 1882 to John Krichbaum for a “Device for Indicating Live in Buried Persons”

The device has both a means for indicating movement as well as a way of getting fresh air into the coffin. The disclosure states that “It will be seen that if the person buried should come to life a motion of his hands will turn the branches of the T-shaped pipe B, upon or near which his hands are placed.” A marked scale on the side of the top (E) indicates movement of the T, and air passively comes down the pipe. Once sufficient time has passed to assure that the person is dead, the device can be removed.

 

Patent No. 329,495 granted on November 3, 1885 to Charles Sieler and Fredrerick Borntraeger for a “Burial-Casket”

The invention provides for improvements in the important components of previous “burried alive” inventions. In this instance, motion of the body triggers a clockwork-driven fan (Fig. 6), which will force fresh breathable air into the coffin instead of a passive air pipe. The device also includes a battery-powered alarm (M). According to the patent, “When the hand is moved the exposed part of the the wire will come in contact with the body, completing the circuit between the alarm and the ground to the body in the coffin,” the alarm will sound. There is also a spring-loaded rod (I), which will raise up carrying feathers or other signals. Additonally, a tube (E) is positioned over the face of the burried body so that a lamp may be introduced down the tube and “a person looking down through the tube can see the face of the body in the coffin.”

 

Patent No. 7,765,656 granted August 3, 2010 to Jeff Dannenberg for an “Apparatus and Method for Generating Post-Burial Audio Communications in a Burial Casket”

In this instance, the casket has an audio message system (20) containing audio and music files that are automatically played in accordance with a programmed schedule, thereby allowing the living to communicate with the deceased. The system also allows for wireless updating of the recorded files, giving “surviving family members the ability to update, revise and edit stored audio files and programming after burial.”

 

Patent No. 9,226,059 granted on December 29, 2015 to John Knight for “Your Music for Eternity Systems”

The system comprises a solar powered digital music player, which allows both the living as well as the dearly departed to be comforted by music or a recorded message. There is a speaker in the casket and a headset jack on the headstone.

 

Patent No. 5,353,609 granted on October 11, 1994 to Ruby Hall for a “Casket Jewelry Guard Apparatus”

Tomb robbing was recognized as a problem as early as the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150 – c. 2613 BC), and the living have taken measures to protect the dead and their valuables back to the time of Egyptian Pharaohs. Many of these tombs were equipped with deterrents and safety measures. This invention, patented in 1994, however, is next level when it comes to protecting the deceased’s valuables. The apparatus attaches the jewelry worn by the deceased to an alarm system while also securing it to the casket. So even after “death do us part,” spouses can wear their wedding rings for eternity.

 

 

At Bangkok’s Kid Mai Death Awareness Cafe, you can sit next to a skeleton and look up at signs bearing messages like ‘The death you love’, ‘Eventually you can bring nothing’ and ‘Is there anyone waiting for you?’ The range of coffees and sweet drinks includes ‘birth’, ‘elder’, ‘death’ and ‘painful’. And there’s a large, ornate white coffin in the seating area, which you can get in – closing the lid after you – for a discount.

 

 

“I like being different,” Megan said. In footage that has been seen around the world, the teenager slides out of the back of the hearse. She jumps out of her makeshift coffin to the surprise of her friends at their school in New Jersey, US. Megan said there was a specific reason for her bizarre choice. She wants to be a funeral director after college, following in the footsteps of a family friend who drove her to the party.

 

 

Classic KISS guitarist Ace Frehley talked about when he attended the late Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul burial and saw the KISS coffin that was used. “It was crazy, because I had a speech planned, and it went over perfectly. In the church, I’m at the podium, and I spoke for about 10, 12 minutes. And then we get out to the cemetery, and he’s in a KISS casket. Vinnie Paul got buried in a KISS casket, and I see my face on the casket, and it weirded me out. But above and beyond that, his father said to me, ‘Would you say a few words by the casket?’

 

 

Inside the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, lays the body of Rosalia Lombardo, entombed for eternity inside a coffin made of glass. Devastated by the loss of his two-year-old daughter to pneumonia in 1920, Rosalia’s father turned to Alfredo Salafia, a renowned Sicilian professor of chemistry and a talented embalmer to preserve his daughter. Her corpse was carefully mummified and encased in a glass coffin so they would still be able to see their little daughter. Considered to be one of the best-preserved mummies in the world, for years after her death, her skin retained a warm and pink complexion giving her the eerie appearance of sleeping peacefully. In 1982 she was transferred to a special nitrogen-filled chamber to preserve her body even further.

 

A video, posted on Instagram , shows a man in gym shorts and a black suit jacket fueling up A motorized white casket before hopping in for a ride. “He’s driving a f—ing casket!” a woman taking video of the bizarre moment can be heard saying. “[He] just put gas in the casket,” another man in the car can be heard saying as the coffin driver fueled up his peculiar ride, which had wheels affixed to the bottom. “And it’s moving!” the woman, who by her accent appears to be from the United States, replied as the man turned to the camera, threw up a peace sign and drove away.

 

 

Memento is a dual purpose piece of furniture that functions as a coffee table during its first stage, and as a coffin in its second. Memento will absorb the life and love that occurs around it, and will create personal identifications with the coffin, through the patina it acquires over time. Memento creates value through the symbolism inherent in the design. The body is meant to be placed in a fetal position, which gives the piece its shape. This way the body can be buried facing the east, toward the rising sun, which is a common symbol of rebirth.

 

The double-sided special foil is unfolded and the deceased is placed inside. You close the film again and with the help of sealing tongs you simply heat-seal on all three sides. In a few minutes you will have the special foil 100% absolutely tightly sealed. The body can now be placed in any coffin.

 

Le Cercueil (The Coffin) was unleashed onto the world in 1974 following the release of the horror movie, “The Exorcist.” The decor, featuring grim reapers and dark skeletons, creates a morbid atmosphere in this unique tavern. The only thing creepier than placing your skull-shaped beer mug on a coffin is the nomenclature of the cocktails. Sit back and sip on your choice of corpse juice, devil’s sperm, and vampire blood. The bar offers a speed-dating service but beware, the ultraviolet neon lights give potential lovers an eerie corpse-like appearance.

 

 

I’m having trouble deciding what the point of the calendar is. Is it to make this manufacturer’s coffins appear sexier, so maybe you choose this if you are younger and planning your funeral or so young family members of the deceased invest; or, is it some kind of fetish thing for undertakers? Thoughts?

 

Are you afraid of death? It must be terrifying for some people. That’s what the Indonesian government uses to punish the Covid protocols of offenders. That is to say, those who do not wear masks. As there are so many offenders, a local government has taken an extreme way to discipline its people. In this case that is lying inside a coffin. The offenders are asked to lay and think of their mistake for 5 minutes.

 

 

Furniture: Silver Fleur. Specification: Painted. Side: Engraved. Lid: Raised. Moulding: Double Beading. Colour: Yellow Finish: Satin.

 

The Samadhi – 4D Experience of Death uses dramatic special effects to simulate a feeling of dying, CNN reports, with players made to compete in a series of challenges to avoid “death”. Those who are not successful are laid down on a fake crematorium conveyor belt which uses hot air and light projections to create an “authentic experience of burning”. The “cremated” players are then taken into a soft, womb-like capsule to simulate “rebirth”. The winners in the game will “also have to die of course” as “everyone will die eventually, no matter what they’ve survived,” Ding Rui, one the creators, told CNN.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, B. Whew, okay, I won’t worry about you getting dehydrated then. I’m gonna go hit that Dominator track as soon as I’m outta the p.s., you bet, thanks! ** Dominik, Hi!!!! The worst movie I’ve ever seen? Hm. Probably ‘Dancer in the Dark’. I’d rather watch ‘Motel Hell’ on a loop than sit through that one again. Worst book? That’s harder because I probably stopped reading it fast. Weirdly, I can’t think of any book even though there are probably a lot of them. Thank you, Mayor. In gratitude, love makes your Mayorship a lifetime position, which is kind of greedy of love in truth, ha ha. Yeah, SCAB on Ecstacy seemed pretty intense, and love loves intensity, or mine does. Thank you for the love/rave, although I wonder how long that marriage would last under those circumstances. Given today’s blog theme, how about a twist on yours: love spiking everyone’s tears at his funeral until it turns into a giant rave and his corpse is everyone’s favorite dance partner, G. ** David, Hi, Enjoy Liverpool. I really want a scone now. ** Dom Lyne, Hi, Dom! Me too, on the going out front. Heck, I’d kill to go watch some folksinger at this point. Thank you so much about ‘I Wished’. Means a lot, man. Oh, that is good news about the kidney thing diagnosis. I can feel your relief through my own. Fingers obviously stranglingly crossed for your writing project. Warmest hugs and love from over here. ** Nik, Hi, Nik! Early rave culture was pretty great. All that bliss and hopefulness and thumping and experimentalism, sigh. I was happy to see you and your name in the sidebar at the Maryse event, thanks a lot for being there. And huge thanks for the kind words about ‘I Wished’. That’s so good to hear. Thanks, man. Oh, having it in the world … mostly feels quite good, a bit confusing, I don’t know. It’s a weird sensation. But one for which I am very grateful, of course. Very happy to hear that you’re working on your fiction. What are you working on specifically, if you can say? Very cool about the reading at Brown. Give my very, very best to Blake if you remember and don’t mind. Definitely very interested to see that magazine. It sounds super curious. Yeah, hook me up when hooking up is possible, thank you. And seeming score on working for Bill Clegg. I don’t know him, but, yeah, he works with writers I like a ton. Sweet. You sound really great, which is so good to hear! I’m good, busy with projects (virtual 3D rendered Home Haunt, new film with Zac, a new theater piece with Gisele, a.o.) You take care too, and it’ll be great to see you the next time you’re free to drop in. And enjoy the reading tomorrow. Wish I was there. ** T, Hi, T. Glad the post intrigued. Oh, about the article, let me check. Hold on. No, it’s not online. It used to be. It’s in my book ‘Smothered in Hugs’. I never go to clubs in Paris, but Zac does sometimes, and, yeah, he says the exciting ones are extremely rare. I can ask him for recommendations if you want. Yeah, there was a bunch of talk about a rave resurgence at one point, and there are raves, at least around Paris, but they’re just big, mostly outdoor dance events. They aren’t keyed into bigger concepts or anything. I’ll go listen to those mixcloud sets as soon as possible, thanks! Ha ha, now that is some Tuesday you’ve set out for me. And I’ll take it! Instead I’ll be doing a lot of art stuff since one of the big art fairs is opening today, and a bunch of my art world friends are in town. I hope today hands you free passes to the upcoming Salon du Chocolat de Paris, which I highly recommend in any case if you like chocolate and want to see/taste how creative it can get. ** David Ehrenstein, What are underwear parties? Parties where everyone is dressed in their underwear? Was that a thing at some point? ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Well, it didn’t work out re: storming the charts and all of that, but it was massively influential, and all the cool people were all over it at the time, although I don’t know that the music industry’s push had anything to do with that, I guess. Think Skrillex has ‘branched out’, hasn’t he? I don’t keep up, obvs. ** Joakim, Joakim! How totally cool and amazing to see you! It’s been seriously forever, and I’m so happy that you and Eli are coming to the big P. It’ll so great to see you. So much too catch up on. I don’t do drugs anymore either but yeah, the impact is eternal. Wow, that’s very intense about your internal transformation. I’m glad you’re in one big piece. And, yeah, I’ll see you really soon. Hopefully the ‘Haunt’ event thing will be fun. We’re still too crazed building to know yet. Hopefully. Lots of love to you, my friend, and take good care between now and soon. ** Corey Heiferman, Nice to know raves are still ambitious in their intentions somewhere in the world. Sounds like the festival did its trick. Excellent. Sure, on that post, that works for me, great! Well, you see how the posts tend to be/look. There’s a fair amount of flexibility. You would need to send the text part of the post in a doc or imbedded in an email, indicate where the images go, send the images as attachments, place the addresses of the videos you might want where you want them to go, and I can imbed them. For links, places the addresses, and I can make the workable links on my end. Basically like that. Is that clear? Thanks! ** Misanthrope, You might have liked raves. Not sure. Eek: David. Congrats on the new weight. That’s no small thing. Suave, even. ** L@rst, I think I’m seeing the VU doc on Thursday. They’re doing this odd theater roll out here where it only plays once in one theater and the theater changes every day. On Thursday, it’s at a nearish-by theater. Excited. ** Justin F, Hi, Justin! I remember you. How’s it going? Oh, man, I’m really happy you like ‘I Wished’ so much. That’s so great, thank you, that’s really heartening. That is a totally hilarious story about Reggie Workman holding a copy of ‘The Sluts’ in his hands. That’s a seriously mind-boggling mental image. Ha ha, thanks, Justin. What’s going on with you? What are doing and/or working on or … ? Take care! ** Okay. Halloween is back to infect the blog again today. See you tomorrow.