Oh no, not buried alive!!!!!!!

TEN Horrifying Premature Burials.  Only 10?

Open Grave, the movie

I started writing Open Grave as a zine-newsletter in 1978.  First story featured a grave digger who was transporting concrete grave liners in Florida.   Online version of  Open Grave started in 2008.

Now there's a movie called Open Grave.  

And a band called Open Grave.

Universal subject.

Historic Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC

Death in Tuscany

I am lying on a hillside in Tuscany pretending to be dead.  My body cells merge with the grass and dirt.  I would be the organic being I strive to be.  A wind courses through the trees, the few left by  industrious firewood harvesters.  They are wise enough to leave shade trees, well-spaced saplings and venerable flowering fruit trees.  

An octopus-shaped cloud obscures the sun.  A few minutes ago it was a flying goddess with a swan on her back.  The clothes under my body would be better on, but then have buried me naked so I know I am alive.

Had to happen sooner or later: Caskets and funeral planning are coming to the mall. 

CBS News reports that Forest Lawn - cemetery of the stars - has established kiosk sales points in SoCal suburban malls.

The death business might be in decline if they're coming out from behind shuttered and curtained "funeral homes" and setting up consultation centers in commercial shopping centers.  Will this mean more transparency in the American business model of fleecing relatives of the dead with overpriced sateen and velour lined boxes sealed in expensive hardwood coffins and even more expensive metal containers?  So wasteful.  

Jessica Mitford's milestone investigation The American Way of Death points out that while the death industry might try different window dressing, it is still  bunko.  Funeral directors and their ghoulish henchmen the embalmers, need more regulation.  Competition should be encouraged; Americans need a low-priced option  -- simple containers and inexpensive burial or cremation options.
Embalming is not necessary and not required in many locations.

Intelligent and eco-sensitive folks can arrange burials efficiently and relatively waste-free with a cardboard casket or natural burial at many locations.

Meanwhile, a company called Til We Meet Again which specializes in lifestyle caskets and military funerals, has opened stores in Arizona, Louisiana, Kansas, Indiana and Texas, according to the CBS report and the company's website.

Stack the Deck

A Labor Member of Parliament from Scotland proposed in 1996 that London opt for double-decker graves to accommodate its problem of overcrowded cemeteries.

The plan to deal with over-crowded cemeteries with double decker graves was finally approved in 2008.