Skulls!

Being the quintessential Closet Goth¹, it should come as no surprise to anyone that I have a thing for skulls; in fact, I even have a skull collection^{2, 3} of sorts.

Unfortunately, I won't be purchasing this anytime soon (spotted on Boing Boing).



It's a life-size platinum skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds and valued at, oh, say, $100 million (video).

And during its exhibition in London someone decided to pull a little prank:

{A}n artist named Laura created a replica covered with 6,522 Swarovski crystals and dumped it outside the gallery in the middle of the night on top of a pile of trash."




I shouldn't laugh; I really shouldn't, but that's funny!



Notes:
1. From the LiveJournal Profile:
The only thing more misunderstood than a goth, is a Closet Goth.

Hello, friend. We here at closetgoths are not goth and never were (well, except for that one time). In fact, we are the polar opposites of. We're just into gothy things, more than we're willing to admit. The art, music, the fashion... even bats are sorta cool. But you didn't hear it from us. A "closet goth" is not a budding goth, but the sort of person that keeps this facet of their personality concealed in a little box, with a padlock. In other words, we simply observe and admire. When no one is watching, that is.

So if you are goth, or believe you are goth, or wish you could be a little more goth, this is not the place for you. You defeat the purpose, so come back in 5 years after your phase is over. Flames and idiots will be removed without warning, so please refer to the disclaimer.

2. Photo A, which requires minimal explanation and merely demonstrates what happens when an obsessive personality interfaces with eBay. I only wish the rest of my apartment was as neat and organized.

3. Photo B doesn't require an explanation but is going to receive one anyway. The painting in the background was my first attempt with oils. The glass bottle to the right is a vintage embalming fluid container on semi-permanent loan from my friend Lynn K. (thanks, Lynn; where the hell are you these days? It's been years!). To the right of that is a polyresin urn decorated with (duh!) skulls which I'm thinking would make a good container for my cremains and would be a wonderfully morbid addition to someone's living space (anyone want to totally own me after I'm dead?). The tiny little pewter skull in the lower right is the first one I ever bought and came from a punkish gift shop in Virginia Beach I discovered when I took a break from a family reunion. The round thing with handle on the lower left is a (prepare for the pun!) hand mirror. The four clear skulls in the front do not contain brains; that is a camera flash artifact. Just visible on the table to the right is a genuine fox skull, a genuine cat skull (relax, they're both from Carolina Biological Supply Co.), and the corner of a genuine human calvarium (about which the less said, the better).