Bad Taste at the End
Not to launch into morbid subjects, but this is about funerals. After my grandparents and father passed away, my brother, sister and I made arrangements and planned the funerals. The grief issues aside, each time we were faced with choosing really hideous items, from the caskets to the register book and cards.
The caskets all looked like 1970s Mediterranean television sets and the cards were sickening (not in a cool way). Each time we chose the simplest and cheapest casket. Each time the funeral director suggested something more expensive and elaborate. Didn't we love them enough to have the best? He could not understand we wanted simple and didn't want the gilded and mahogany one with puppies on the pillows because they were fugly.
The Shinjuku Rurikoin Byakurengedo is a skyscraper cemetery in Tokyo. Since most people in Japan are cremated, this is an option to house the ashes behind an individual Buddha. The walls are structured with LED changeable lighting. When a visitor swipes a card, the specific Buddha lights up. This could be a remarkable art installation, but serves a purpose so elegantly and simply. How can this exist in Tokyo, but is unable to travel across the Pacific, giving options beyond the media console/brass handle caskets?
TV console and Jonathan Livingston Seagull options
1974 Zenith Mediterranean style television console
