King's Chapel Burial Ground (Boston, MA)

This is the third cemetery in a series of photos I've taken at various Boston cemeteries. Today, we're moving on to King's Chapel Burial Ground. Most of this will look pretty similar to the other two cemeteries I've talked about, but they play around a bit with those common themes and symbols. Believe me, I could have stacked this post with winged death's heads- they're absolutely everywhere (and my favorite)- but that doesn't give you a good idea of the variety of artwork this cemetery has.

Film review: The Possession

I like figuring out how stories work. They all have histories, rules, connections and themes that are waiting to be unearthed. The difference between the good and bad ones, for me, is that the good ones have innards that make sense. They might not be obvious, they might require some work to figure out, and they might even surprise you. I always hope they'll surprise me, I like that part. If they're really good, the next time you go back to the story they'll even change.

The... not-as-good stories don't make a whole lot of sense.

Granary Burying Ground (Boston, MA) - Part 2

I last posted photos from the Granary Burying Ground over a month ago, intending to talk about the second set much earlier than this. February was a bit of a whirlwind, so here were are in March already. As I said then, I often come away with so many wonderful examples of gravestone art that I can't narrow it down into just a few images. So here are some more that I loved from this particular Boston cemetery.

Film review: Sinister

 In SINISTER, Ethan Hawke stars as true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt who has brought his wife and two kids to live in a house formerly occupied by the slaughtered family he intends to write his newest book on. That sounds reasonable, right? After finding a box of 8mm snuff films in the attic, Oswalt realizes that the person responsible for this most recent murder may have been attacking families for decades. 

In retrospect, I wish I had thought to live-tweet my thoughts on SINISTER while I was watching it.

A Cemetery Special

For some time I’ve had a documentary in my Netflix queue called “A Cemetery Special,” which was put out by PBS title in 2005. I finally took some time to watch it, not knowing exactly what it would cover but given my proclivity for the topic I figured I’d appreciate whatever they had to offer.

Granary Burying Ground (Boston, MA) - Part 1

My next set of Boston gravestone photos is from the Granary Burying Ground. I have so many great images from this, and following cemeteries that I'll have to split them up. There are also many beautiful examples of some of the symbols I've already discussed, which I'd love to include but would be awfully repetitive. As much as I love seeing them over and over... only I would love seeing them over and over again.

Central Burying Ground (Boston, MA)

I've been a little slow on the posts this week, I'm taking some of my last vacation of the year and that means my mind is occupied by some other at-home projects. One of those tasks involved getting some old files off a laptop from two replacements ago. Luckily they were perfect to talk about here.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Boston, and although I was very sick at the time and didn't have much money to travel I couldn't pass up that kind of chance. Back in college when I was preparing a thesis paper on the value of cemeteries (go on and try to act surprised) my adviser rightfully suggested that I make time someday to visit two places: Boston and New Orleans. Reason being, their cemeteries are unique and in a word, amazing. So off to Boston I went.

I have many photographs from that trip that I'd love to share here over time, but for today I just have a few from the first cemetery I visited while there, the Central Burying Ground.

Bronswood Cemetery

I belong to a special category of nerd that has an affinity for cemeteries and gravestone art. No, the word you're looking for isn't "goth." Don't let my predilections fool you, I'm far too much of a Poindexter to belong to that subculture. In my case the correct term would be a "taphophile."

The appeal of a cemetery to a taphophile has nothing to do with image, being morbid, or the idea of a burial ground as Spooksville USA. I don't visit them to lie around on top of graves in tragic poses or commune with the spirits of the departed. As fascinating as I do find ghost stories, I mostly go for the same reasons I would go to a museum. For the art, history and a large helping of philosophical reflection. Cemeteries do not make me feel the least bit morbid. In fact, I find them soothing and inspiring. I feel connected to something bigger while walking among the dead. Take from that what you will.