Got Dirt?

How beautiful is this?  In a few weeks my friend Judi gets to visit this cemetery in Paris.  I know she’ll be taking many lovely photos that she’ll incorporate into her art.  I’m so envious, aren’t you?  If you visit the website you will see many famous people are buried there – from Jim Morrison to Oscar Wilde.  I’m crossing my fingers she’ll manage to scrounge up a little dirt for me.  I’d love to give her shovel and a bucket but like that will happen.  Here’s another site where you can look up the famous people resting there:  search.

I used to be afraid of cemeteries.  Not sure when I switched my thoughts on them….might have been when I lived in Boston and walked through several very old burial grounds right in the city.  The time-worn tombstones felt rich with history.  I’ve always been enamored with churches, and iron gates, you’d think I would have appreciated the graveyards sooner.  Not long ago I began an altered book that I call the "Dead Poet’s Society".  It is slowly being filled with poetry and photography of the cemeteries I visit.  You could do a whole book just using carved stone angels, couldn’t you?

There’s another project I’m working on that has a deadline.  It’s not for publication, it’s for a gift.  The giftee already has a collection of grave dirt that we started for him so we’d like to add to it.  I’ll explain more about the story below.  I would like to get the dirt from at least a dozen famous people but I’ll begin with my top few.  If, by chance, you live near one of these grave sites I would love to make arrangements with you to get some dirt.  I’m thinking the easiest way to do it is to carry a film container in your pocket (you know, those kodak black plastic cylinders) and as you kneel down to pay your respects at the plot you can sneak out the canister and sorta gnash at the ground and score a little dirt.  Might be helpful to have a spoon with you.  I only need like a few pinches, enough to fill a small apothecary bottle which I’ll illustrate below.  Sounds easy doesn’t it?

ONE:  Edgar Allan Poe seemed impossible at first because if you notice in the photos the monument is surrounded by brick.  Like, there is no dirt.  Drats.  Then Carrie reminded me that there is another Poe tombstone erected at his original burial location.  Definitely some dirt there. (Maryland)

TWO:  This may seem like an odd choice, but the giftee has a tattoo of this dude on his forearm, so you know he’d appreciate if we could score some grave dirt of Charles Bukowski (California)

THREE: This is a long shot, since it’s in France….but I got grave dirt from Denmark so it could happen.  If only Charles Baudelaire was buried in the same cemetery Judi is visiting.  Maybe I could convince her to add this location to her itinerary – although looking at the photo you wouldn’t think there was grave dirt to be had….but just across the path there is some. (Oh, and giftee has a portrait of this guy on his wrist.)

FOUR:  There are no tattoos of these next two men on our giftee but I think he would like to have their dirt for his collection.   Bela Lugosi, famous vampire.  Is this song playing in your head?  I know there are a few of you who will be humming with Peter Murphy "Bela Lugosi’s Dead".  (California)

FIVE:  Another long shot, Boris Karloff is in England.  I would have chosen Vincent Price too, but his ashes were scattered in the ocean off California.

That’s my request for now…..five men.  Hoping to get at least the two in California and the one from Maryland.  Who’s up for it?  I’ll make a trade with you…..like I did with Maj.  Ok, here’s the background…..Last April we learned there would be a Meet&Greet with HIM in NJ.  When you have advanced warning, even if it’s only a few weeks, you clammer to come up with cool gifts.  A group of us fangirls brainstormed and it was brought up that we should get Ville, the singer, something Poe related.  He not only wears Poe portrait shirts, but he got Poe’s eyes tattooed on his back (by KatVonD!)  Grave dirt was an idea, but we discovered it would not be possible because of the bricked in area (none of realized that there was another burial place for Poe.  I think I remember someone saying they could get a brick!).  Then Deb, who is up in Boston, said she had H.P. Lovecraft dirt.  And Laura, from NJ, said she had some Elvis dirt.  (Very hard to get!)  So we met up in the parking lot before the concert and I poured the dirt into the bottles and packaged it all up.

The gift was a hit.  We heard him mention it in a radio interview, then we got hard evidence when this appeared in a rock magazine:

So who wouldn’t want to collect and gift more dirt?  I made a post on my blog last June requesting dirt, and Maj responded.  I had not yet had the pleasure of knowing her, yet she offered to gather grave dirt from Hans Christian Andersen for me.  The guy is buried in DENMARK!  And I have his dirt, ready to deliver to my giftee. 

I should have brought the H.C.A. dirt with me in August but I didn’t know there was going to be a Meet&Greet.  I have additional gifts that go with the dirt and didn’t want to schlep it all if it wasn’t a sure thing.  Example: Stairway to Heaven – The Final Resting Places of Rock’s Legends, a book I know he’ll enjoy.  (I got one for Graham, mostly because of the title, but it turned out to be an interesting book.)

We have tickets to see HIM on October 18 in NJ and December 1 in NY.  They are beginning and ending their Venus Doom tour here.  It’s unknown at this time if we will be granted a M&G but we are crossing fingers!  I feel so lucky to have met them twice…..especially since they are from Finland!  I don’t consider myself to have an obsession with grave dirt in an unhealthy way, it’s really just an extension of a crush, and the things we do……..(One last thing about the band…..their album entered the charts this week at No. 12 so THAT means I’m not the only devoted fangirl).

Got a crush to share?  There are a few days left of Crusade No. 12, come play!

If you are interested in finding graves of famous writers or musicians, THIS is a great site.  You can search by location or by person.  Maybe you live near a famous burial site and don’t even know it!

And if you choose to take on the mission of assisting me with this intended gift PLEASE WRITE SOON!