Assorted Day of the Dead and Malibu morning pictures of the day - Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

On Halloween afternoon, I had to go get my glasses fixed downtown, but I took the opportunity to view the altars that had been set up in Grand Park (near City Hall), marking the Day of the Dead (usu. observed Nov. 1 in L.A.). The exhibit had been up for a week.

This set of colorful skulls had been set up in the plaza around the Music Center. The Meso-American observation of this day is not gruesome or morbid as the subject matter of skulls might imply. Rather it is a day of remembrance and celebration of lives past, so it's rather joyful and festive, as you see how these skulls are all pretty happy looking campers.

This one pyramidal structure had been set up next to the Jacques Lipschutz sculpture in the plaza and made a nice juxtaposition.

Many of the altars on display were highly personal statements by individuals, having pictures and various artifacts relating to loved-ones who had passed on, either recently or in the far past.

I find this kind of approach to death and dead people quite healthy and holistic compared to the more typical American reaction to things like skulls, skeletons, and death--objects of fear, threat, decay, and menace.



The Tim Burton movie that introduced this idea in a mainstream movie was The Corpse Bride, which I highly recommend if you have not seen it.

That movie is based on a Jewish folktale where a bridegroom on his way to his wedding, practices his vow and unwittingly says it to the corpse of a bride, who had earlier been waylaid, attacked, robbed, killed, and then disposed of in a shallow grave, while on her way to her wedding. (Seems like a cultural memory of a pogrom to me.) She rises from her grave and follows the groom, demanding that he be faithful to her. The Burton version changed things around, of course, but the essential question asked by that story (and answered by the wise rabbi) is "Do the Dead have any hold on the Living?"

This picture of the person expanding out from the baby is probably my favorite image for the entire installation. It just kind of says it all to me in a very succinct image.

I hope you had as nice and as meaningful a Halloween as I did.

Here's the Malibu picture today. We had a tiny bit of rain last night. Enough to snarl traffic. 'sall gone now though.

However, this morning the storm has left a scalloped border accent over the sea. This happens once in a great while.

And take a second look...

A nice day to be alive, and since I believe in an afterlife, it's also a good day to be dead.

Love,
Pops