Event Name: Graveland Exhibition
Contact Email: carlaconte@hotmail.com
Event Start Date: 29/01/2013
Event End Date: 03/02/2013
Admission Cost: free
Event Times: 12-6pm
Venue: The Crypt Gallery
Venue Address: St. Pancras Church, Euston Road, London, NW12BA
Country: England
Region: London (Greater)
Venue Name: The Crypt Gallery
Art Form: Cross Art Form
Statement: A playful art & photography exhibition exploring cemeteries from around the world and how we remember the dead.
Photos, objects, stories & decorations show some of the ways we commemorate, from the traditional to the more unusual. And this will be further explored by artwork including drawing, sculpture, installation, film, performance, craft, writing and music.
Artists: Carla Conte, Hin, Pablo Delgado, Pia Interlandi, Shehnoor Ahmed, Tina Bueno, Rachel Wallace, Kai Yoshino, Candida Lucca, CJ Chandler, Owl & the Abacus, Steve Ferrar, Robin Bath, Matthew Fleming, Giovanni Ferri, Sabra Lawrence and Patrick Harrison. Plus contributions from young people and children.
It aims to open up this often ignored subject and create a space that is beautiful, inviting, informative and respectful. The exhibition will be participatory, inviting the audience to have their say too.
There will be an opening event on 31st January, 6-9pm.
A ‘Death Cafe’ will be held on 1st February, 3-5pm.
All welcome. Free entry. For more info see … www.cemeteriesaroundtheworld.com
Archive: 29 January 2013
Modern life
San Francisco’s prolific garage rockers Thee Oh Sees will follow up last year’s Putrifiers II with Floating Coffin. Due out April 16th via Castle Face Records, the album’s been described as “the next chapter in the story of Thee Oh Sees, the one where they fix their fury against the onrushing night,” according to a press release.
Floating Coffin Tracklist:
01. I Come From the Mountain
02. Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster
03. Floating Coffin
04. No Spell
05. Strawberries 1 + 2
06. Maze Fancier
07. Night Crawler
08. Sweet Helicopter
09. Tunnel Time
10. Minotaur
The Gravedigger’s Wedding
THE GRAVEDIGGER’S WEDDING
by Kevin Paul and Harold Arpthorp (1926)
‘Twas the day of the gravedigger’s wedding,
The churchyard was shrouded in gloom,
And the lads of the village sat silent,
As they played tiddley winks on a tomb.
The villagers trooped up the High Street,
Trying their best not to grieve,
They were losing their jolly young sexton,
And alas there could be no reprieve,
Mr. Coffin, the star undertaker,
Was giving his daughter away,
And despite his morose occupation,
Was doing his best to look gay.
He had finished the final arrangements,
And had measured both bridegroom and bride,
He had ordered the finest brass fittings,
And the hearse in which homeward they’d ride.
The villagers all were invited,
Invitations sent out to each guest,
Said, “Be in the churchyard at mid-day,”
And ended “No flowers by request.”
The bride wore a gown of black muslin,
And everyone said she looked grand,
A veil of black crepe o’er her shoulders,
And she carried a wreath in her hand.
The bridegroom had laid down his shovel,
In order to take up a wife,
And he whispered aloud to the verger,
“It’s the sorriest day of my life!”
He arrived an hour late for the wedding,
And the crowd were all getting alarmed,
He had been in the old “Crown and Anchor”
Getting completely embalmed.
The parson was solemnly waiting,
The bride and the groom at the rails,
Her train was held up by two pages,
His pants were held up by two nails,
And when the parson had joined them and blessed ’em,
They were sentenced for better or worse,
And the organ played “Rescue the Perishing,”
As they hurried away in the hearse.
The guests followed on to the breakfast,
The bridesmaids were sent in a cab,
The feast was laid out in the parlour,
The best man laid out on a slab.
The verger had charge of the breakfast,
The most popular toast that he gave,
Was “Health and long life to the bridegroom,
May he live to dig many a grave.”
The breakfast was very near over,
The guests were half screwed in their chairs,
The husband was asked where the bride was,
He answered, “The body’s upstairs.”
Hat-tip: Pete Smith. Thanks!
Wilko Johnson on the fear of death
Former Dr Feelgood guitarist has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given nine months to live. As he embarks on his farewell tour, this is what he says about it:
“The things that used to bring me down, or worry me, or annoy me, they don’t matter anymore — and that’s when you sit thinking, ‘Wow, why didn’t I work this out before? Why didn’t I work out before that it’s just the moment you’re in that matters?’
“Worrying about the future or regretting the past is just a foolish waste of time. Of course we can’t all be threatened with imminent death, but it probably takes that to knock a bit of sense into our heads.
“Every little thing you see, every cold breeze against your face, every brick in the road, you think ‘I’m alive, I’m alive’ — I hope I can hang onto that.
“I’ve had a fantastic life. When I think about the things that have happened to me and the things I’ve done, I think anybody who asks for more would just be being greedy. I don’t wanna be greedy.”
Hat-tip to the Gloria Mundi blog.