Wish You Were Here (and Dead)
The Forest Lawn cemetery franchise nearest my house shines its burning cross into my front window every night, so my family and I thought we'd accept the inevitable a few weeks ago and visit the venerable necropolis.Emblematic of the West in general, the cemetery has a lot of room to grow. There are plenty of wide open spaces that would be littered with corpses if Forest Lawn were an east coast cemetery. We saw families with picnic lunches, people admiring the views of the city, and folks hanging out. We didn't see any funeral processions, but there were plenty of small chapels (like the Wee Kirk o' the Heather) and even a treacly heart-shaped children's burial area.
Not willing to acknowledge the mortality of anyone in the car, we drove quickly by.
But the fiery cross is not the only thing that compels one to visit the cemetery. There are the kid-friendly swans and ducks, the fountain, the view, and a museum that displays decidedly non-funereal things.
It was to that museum we trekked today to see the rock album artwork of Storm Thorgerson.
The exhibit was great. There were all these album covers from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin as well as original artwork from the Monterey Pop Festival.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that I was still in a cemetery and was painfully aware that the exhibit was not about Dance Dance Revolution, Graffiti Art of Rave Kids, or Skateboard Sticker Graphics. It was art that resonated with people who might be considering retirement funds.
I am only interested in Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin as quaint relics of an age I never experienced, of course, and appreciate them like the precocious 22-year-old scholar I am.
Forest Lawn's "Elegance" Funeral package includes your choice of several caskets and plots, full embalming, two days of visitation, and a leather memorial book for about $20k. A nice cremation package will run about $2,500.
The "Revolutions: Artists Who Rocked the World of Music Industry Graphics" (including Storm Thorgerson) exhibit is free and runs through October 9. You really should see it before you die.
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by Marty Barrett at Friday, August 12, 2005
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