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What's New at Arcadia
Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast By Glenn A. Knoblock
Arcadia Publishing has releases a new title in the Images of America series, the historic account of the cemeteries along the New Hampshire Seacoast. This collection is a must for anyone interested in local history, genealogy, or colonial-era art. Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Historic Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast and browse other cemetery books!
Green-Wood Cemetery By Alexandra Mosca
Arcadia Publishing announces the release of the historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery.
Announcements
Quoting Death in Early Modern England: The Poetics of Epitaphs Beyond the Tomb By Scott L. Newstok
An innovative study of the Renaissance practice of making epitaphic gestures within other English genres. A poetics of quotation uncovers the ways in which writers including Shakespeare, Marlowe, Holinshed, Sidney, Jonson, Donne, and Elizabeth I have recited these texts within new contexts. Visit Palgrave Macmillan and purchase your copy today!
Living by the Dead By Ellen Ashdown with illustrations by Mary Liz Moody.
A memoir about living beside a cemetery--and about the members of my family who came to rest at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida. Please visit Kitsune Books for more information.
Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski.
Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.
Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman
Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture is now available. Please visit Studio Indiana for more information.
West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark
Features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Inventor lets the dead have final word |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Thursday, 26 August 2004 |
Burlingame resident Richard Barrows is eagerly awaiting the approval of a patent for his "video tombstones." Though not yet available, Barrows says the specialized tombstones that would give people the opportunity to leave behind videotaped messages for cemetery visitors already is sparking interest worldwide. Coinciding with his invention, Barrows also has written "Cemetery of Lies," a series of short stories of confessions from the grave. He is waiting for the work to be published. Barrows talked recently with Times reporter Christine Morente.
Q. How did you come up with the idea for video tombstones?
A. I work in advertising, so I do television commercials all the time and I sculpt with stone, so I put it together and you have "video tombstone."
Q. How will it be designed?
A. There will be a protective screen in front of the monitor with speakers and a remote control. The difference primarily from mine and other (people's designs) is I create a hollow chamber within the tombstone. And there's a platform. It's a tombstone that is designed to accommodate audio, video and computer equipment.
Q. Is there a big demand for this?
A. Wow. I can tell you that there is an incredible worldwide interest because of the press this has been receiving just since early July. Cemeteries may be a little reticent to accept it, but it's additional revenue for them down the line. Each and every cemetery has its own regulations as to what it will allow.
Q. So the person who passed away can leave a message to anybody who is interested in listening? Like a confessional?
A. You can say anything you want, which will eventually raise some free-speech issues because you have no idea what people will say. Whether it's truth, or lies, or slanderous, racist, promoting the overthrow of the government. And do the dead have rights of free speech and how can you control it?
Q. So people don't need epithets anymore?
A. With an epithet, you can only write six to eight words or what you can carve on a stone. Now they can leave an epithet that is four hours long or as much you can leave on a disc or a multiple disk. You can say everything you never wanted to say while you were alive or didn't dare say when you were alive. Whatever you think might be interesting for generations to hear.
This will help examine your life in ways in which you haven't examined your life before. This will really change the way history is told, because now you'll be able to go to a cemetery and find out what a guy had to say about his own life and times, in his own words and hear his own inflections about them.
Q. It is morbid, yes?
A. It is morbid and a little bit scary and a little bit freaky, but it can also be very comforting because you never know what a person might say. It's not like they're talking to you from the beyond, they're talking to you when they were still alive.
Q. How much would this cost?
A. Well, tombstones can come in any shape or size. So my guess is it would cost maybe 20 to 30 percent more than a similar-shaped standard tombstone, plus the cost of any electronics you want to put in there.
Q. Is there someone from the past you wish had made a video?
A. Anyone from George Washington to Abe Lincoln, Julius Caeser to Moses, anybody.
Staff writer Christine Morente can be reached at (650) 348-4333 or at
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http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11268~2353188,00.html |
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