Touring the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office

Friday at the office dragged on for what seemed like weeks. I could have attributed my impatience with the fact that I would be leaving for a 5-day vacation on Monday, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. My impatience was definitely due to the fact that at 6:00 I would be one of the few, privileged people who would be touring the service area of the L.A. County Coroner's office!

Arriving early, I found myself completely unsettled by the creepiness of the parking structure at 1104 N. Mission Road. An extremely low-hanging "ceiling," the rusty and outdated steel beams, the lack of lighting within the structure all made for a nice introduction to my evening. I walked over to the Administration Building where the first part of the "festivities" would take place and waited for the doors to open.

At approximately 6:15, Chief Craig Harvey opened the doors and welcomed us to his domain. I couldn't believe we were having cocktails at the Coroner's! And while I waited for all of the guests to arrive I couldn't resist shopping at one of my favorite stores in Los Angeles: Skeletons In The Closet. It figures that the L.A. Coroner's Office is the only coroner's office in the nation to have a gift shop!

Scott Michaels and Mark Masek started the evening off and Mark gave us the history of the facility.

What is currently used as the Administration Building was formerly the Los Angeles General Hospital. The beautiful entry way says it all:

Thereafter, Erin Murphy (who used to play Tabitha on the TV series Bewitched, spoke about her experiences with the cast and crew of the show. She was charming and her stories were endearing, especially those about Elizabeth Montgomery, "the Dicks" (York and Sargent), and Agnes Moorhead.

And then it was time for the coveted tour by Chief Harvey, who told us we could take as many photos as we wanted except for two restrictions: 1) No photos of bodies (darn!) and 2) no photos of staff members without their permission. OK, so with that, we were on our way!

As we made our way to the service building, I couldn't help but feel like a kid going to Disneyland. I know... My Mom cringed when I told her that.

We started out in the area where bodies are initially brought in, weighed, identified, photographed and where the toe tags for the deceased would be created. Two toe tags (no longer paper and wire, they now look like blue credit cards) are made - one is attached to the toe of the deceased and the other stays with the paperwork. (Note the camera on the ceiling in the photo below.)

Our attention was then called to the steel door on the opposite side of the room. This door leads to the Coroner's "crypt." Chief Harvey explained that they don't refer to it as the morgue because USC handles the County Morgue. The bodies that end up at the morgue are typically of people who died of natural causes. The bodies that end up at the crypt have died of suspicious circumstances, including homicide and suicide.

As soon as the door to the crypt was opened the stench of the dead bodies overwhelmed me. I have to say I will never forget that smell. Chief Harvey explained that the smell is the combination of the plastic the bodies are wrapped-in, the fact that some people were not in the cleanest state when they arrived, and of course a bit of decomposition. It was completely surreal to me that I was viewing dead bodies. I was fascinated. I was amazed. I was hogging up the front of the line! Had it not been for the smell I probably could have stood there gawking (I know that's very insensitive) for another ten minutes.

The facilities were immaculate! Chief Harvey explained to us the various parts of the labs, the equipment used to perform autopsies, and showed us the room which was previously used for high-profile cases coming through the facility (Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, specifically) but that has now been turned into a mens' restroom!

All in all, it was an amazing evening and I must give a huge thank you to Dearly Departed Tours for setting-up the tour. It's an experience that I will always treasure!

I hope you're enjoying this Halloween season as much as I am!

L

2-Year-Old Boy "Gives Birth" To His Twin?!

This news story was sent to me by a good friend of mine (she obviously knows me well). I'm so fascinated by scientific anomalies like this. Growing up I'd do my best to research (we didn't have the internet back then) stories I'd heard of women having cysts removed from their ovaries, and the doctors finding hair and teeth in the cysts. Blech. But I guess a good blech?

Today's story has to do with a Chinese boy who had his conjoined twin growing within his stomach. Unbeknownst to his family and his doctor, the boy had a twin whose egg didn't fully separate in vitro and those cells began to grow within him. Yikes! Take a look at this footage and be sure to check out the x-rays closely. Amazing! And blech!
http://on.aol.com/video/boy--2--gives-birth-to-conjoined-twin-517954199

Happy October, everyone!
L

Halloween, my favorite season!

Hello, my pretties! Would you believe it's already the start of the holiday season? Well, no, not that holiday season. It's my favorite holiday season: Halloween.

October's the month where my DVR is blowing up with recorded horror movies that I've seen a million times, causing me to giggle in anticipation of watching them again. And again. It's the month that I've impatiently waited for since the end of last season's The Walking Dead. It's the time when I try to convince just one of my friends to accompany me to a fright fest of some kind. My best memory of one of these jaunts was when I took my friend Isabella to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights. When she couldn't take it anymore she stopped in her tracks and literally sat on the ground in a fetal position, begging the ghouls to leave her alone. Good times.

This year, however, may actually top my list of Halloween festivities. I will be attending the October 4th evening event hosted by Dearly Departed Tours in Hollywood. Does anyone recognize the building in the photo above? If you do, are you excited for me, jealous of me, or both? The photo is of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office on Mission Road. AND I GET TO GO ON A TOUR!

Promoted as a "bare bones" tour of the facility, the evening will begin with a bar set-up in the hospital building with the promise of spirits (see what I did there?) accompanied by revolting finger foods. Why am I imagining something like this?

One can only hope!

More nail-biting will ensue when author Mark Masek (Hollywood Remains To Be Seen: A Guide To The Movie Stars' Final Homes) tells us the history of the Coroner's facility, followed by a tour of the service floor by Chief Craig Harvey.

There are many other exciting activities during the 2013 Dearly Departed Weekend, including dinner in a mausoleum on Saturday night (I didn't feel as compelled to be a part of that since I've already dined in the crypt at St. Martins in the Field). If any of you want to partake in the fun, you can find all of the information at www.ddtweekend.com.

Hope to see you there!
L

American Horror Story is coming soon!

I have to say I'm very intrigued by the beautiful promotional campaign for season 3 of American Horror Story. Unfortunately, I don't have much faith that I will be able to endure watching the entire season. Were there others of you out there that were extremely excited about seasons 1 and 2, only to lose interest halfway through? I understand that this is typical of Ryan Murphy's projects, but I wouldn't know since I wouldn't be caught dead watching Glee.

Zombie Love

Well, kids, I finally went to see World War Z. I wasn't sure what to expect since I purposely didn't read any of the reviews and only saw one of the trailers. It didn't help that as I was leaving for the theater, one person told me it was "really good" and another person told me it wasn't. But then again, that's exactly why I don't read movie reviews nor talk to people about a movie prior to seeing it. I don't want to be biased when I arrive at the theater, not to mention that I want to come to my own conclusion. So if you're like me, and if you haven't yet seen the film, don't read any further.

For those of you who are still reading, I have to say that I really enjoyed the film. It felt like a global version of The Walking Dead with fast (fast!) zombies. I have to believe that the author of the novel, Max Brooks, has read The Walking Dead comics. Too many similarities to be coincidence. Still, I thought the plot was original enough to hold the audience's interest. I personally haven't read the book so I don't know what's different in the movie, but I really liked the cinematography and special effects. The quick cuts that the editor uses in the first chaotic sequence shows everyone running, including the zombies, so the audience has a hard time distinguishing who's human and who's not. I think this is genius because that's how the zombie apocalypse is going to be: a sea of confusion and panic. Yes, I said, "going to be." Come on. We all know that it's coming - the question is: When?

I also liked the disjointed way in which these zombies moved. Very disturbing. And to see the global scale of the apocalypse, thanks to Marc Forster (director) using a lot of aerial shots for the final addition of the computer graphics, was intense and fun. In fact, for this movie being as intense as it was, I was completely surprised that it lacked the gore that we're used to seeing in a zombie-related story. There were no shots of people's necks being torn away like taffy, there was no blood spurting from jugulars, nor did we see any zombie heads being smashed in. Yet, I was still left clutching my seat while I went along for the ride.

Okay, it's time for the jumpers. I actually counted the number of times the film made us jump out of our seats: three. I sat between two of my friends who aren't as "comfortable" watching horror films as I am and I have to say that may have been the most entertaining part of the evening. The friend to the left of me was already jumping during the trailers that played before the feature! Awesome! And there was one point during the film where the three of us jumped in unison. That made me smile from ear-to-ear.

Thank you, World War Z for a fun ride and for my newly discovered form of protection against zombies. When the apocalypse finally happens, I'll be sure to wrap Vogue magazines around my arms with duct tape. Genius. Pure genius.

Until next time,
L

Cremation Canisters as photographed by David Maisel

Beautiful and unique. That's all I can say about David Maisel's photography of these abandoned canisters from the Oregon State Insane Asylum. No, wait. There is one more word I can say in reference to this exquisite collection of photos: Jealous. As a photographer myself, I'm always looking to capture vivid images of extraordinary subject matter (and the creepier the better!). So for Maisel to have the opportunity to photograph these unclaimed canisters, holding the cremated remains of the deceased, well...yes, "jealous" may be the most appropriate word I could use.

I love the way that the minerals, contained in the copper canisters over the decades, have created phosphorous on many of the cans. That, in combination with the oxidation of the copper itself, has turned something tragic (imagine no one claiming your remains) into something captivating - so much so that I'm willing to bet many people would pay good money to have several of these pieces in their homes. I know I would.

Maisel calls this collection of work "Library of Dust." As he explains on his website (www.davidmaisel.com), "On my first visit to the hospital, I am escorted to a decaying outbuilding, where a dusty room lined with simple pine shelves is lined three-deep with thousands of copper canisters. Prisoners from the local penitentiary are brought in to clean the adjacent hallway, crematorium, and autopsy room. A young male prisoner in a blue uniform, with his feet planted firmly outside the doorway, leans his upper body into the room, scans the cremated remains, and whispers in a low tone, "The library of dust." The title and thematic structure of the project result from this encounter."

There were, at one time, thousands of these copper canisters contained in the "Library of Dust." Each lid is stamped with a number - the lowest being 01 and the highest being 5,118. How tragic. And yet how fortunate we are to have discovered what happened to these remains as they deteriorated over the years thanks to the talents of David Maisel. Please check out the entire story and the entire collection of Maisel's photos at his website: www.davidmaisel.com

Until next time,
L

Feather Emerges from Baby's Neck

I'll let the following link say it all. Enjoy!

http://news.yahoo.com/two-inch-feather-emerges-babys-neck-212722115--abc-news-topstories.html?fb_action_ids=10151591025129593&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151591025129593%22%3A117606135071336%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151591025129593%22%3A%22news.reads%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D