countessian

Almost, anyway. A little bit OCD. Perfect nails forever.

[See also: Manicure, 8x10]

Remember vinyl? That fragile, inconvenient, difficult-to-travel-with way of buying music? (Remember buying music?)

Well, boys who play records for drunk people in dark bars do! And, dear reader, I used to go out with one of those boys. The free drinks were always fun, but I’d sometimes get bored and just take pictures of his LPs looking all nice and stripy in their crate. Turns out you can turn those pictures into migraine-inducing background images, years later. Nice.

A coffin at the British Museum. When I die, you know what to do.

From the British Museum’s website:

The Ga people live in the south-east coast of Ghana, including Accra the capital city. They revere their ancestors and give great importance to funeral celebrations. From the early 1950s they became well-known for developing a new tradition of beautifully carved figurative coffins. This practice is said to have originated in Teshie, a fishing community in Accra. The earliest example was made in 1951 by two carpenters, Kane Quaye and his brother Ajetey, who made a coffin in the form of an airplane to bury their grandmother in 1951. This new style was successful in the community and Kane Quaye developed it further with his apprentice Paa Joe. Such artistic coffins have become very popular in Ghana and internationally.

Ga coffins are made by specialist carpenters. The carpenter will first make a drawing following a brief from the deceased’s relatives. Families commission coffins representing the life achievements or dreams of a deceased relative, or characterising their personality such as an eagle, a car, a plane, a bible, a fish, or a camera. Sometimes the deceased will have prepared a design brief during his or her lifetime. Coffins are made of wood and then painted. The deceased’s body is washed, dressed, adorned and laid out with the coffin open during the wake. The coffin is then closed and carried to the burial ground.

I’ve been in New Orleans and New York but now I’m very much back in Los Angeles, pool party video shoots and all.