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

Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford, Connecticut

Wonder if  Skull and Bones, the secret society for boys-not-yet-men at Yale University

Skull and Bones, Yale University
Photo: en.Wikipedia.org

ever cruised the 30-odd miles from New Haven up to Hartford to practice their skulduggery at the Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford?

The Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven was closer  -- there's even a section just for Yale College -- but can't you just see those rich bad-lads tossing bootleg bubbly in Dick's Stutz-Bearcat and motoring to Connecticut's other city on a midnight lark?   

Gravestones of the Lawrence family
Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, Connecticut
Photo: Connecticut Historical Society
and Connecticut History online

Dating to 1640 and continuing to the 1800s, the burial ground is the oldest historic landmark in Hartford.

The headstones range from plain style with just the facts about the deceased to stones with carved ornamentation of death's heads, angels and cherubs.  Ground stones, tablets and table stones mark the final resting places of Hartford's early English and French Huguenot settlers.

A brochure produced by the Ancient Burying Ground Association outlines a self-guided walking tour with detailed information  on notable headstones, genealogy and regional history.

A short video on the graveyard provides historic and cultural orientation.

More information:

Connecticut Visit - Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford

Connecticut Historical Society Museum & Library

Connecticut History

Eva Peron :: RIP July 27

The New York Times obituary notes that Eva Peron died on July 27, 1952.

For years, I held on to the uncorrected proofs of the book Life and Death of Eva Peron which was published in 1979.  (see photograph below). The book came to me at one of the many book sales in this area where bibliophiles comb through piles of oddities from reviewers, publishers and disappointed readers. 

Recently I donated the book to the friends of the local library, so they can offer it for sale.  And so the book change hands, possibly circuit around other used book stores and sales, much like Eva's corpse has traveled.

Does anyone  born after 1995 know who Evita was?  The broadway musical Evita! might help her live on, similar to the way Jesus Christ Superstar helps Jesus.

Mournful fictional video depicting Eva's end.

Graveside Gastronomy

Eat beside a grave?  You bet.  Cemeteries offer quiet and parkland, or a place to pause on the road to the Open Grave.  Many cultures supply their dead with grave goods -- food, drink, money and supplies for the even longer journey through the AfterLife. What will you take with you into your Open Grave?  I'd like to have a shroud of orange silk, many fragrant flowers, petals, pebbles and vinegar.