Perfect for the dead. Pretty cool for the alive.
We’ve always loved hanging out at cemeteries. Especially the ancient ones..
Hollywood Forever is a mix of modern graving techniques and mid-age visual concepts. From what we’ve seen around 70% of all graves were in Russian. Mostly Jewish and Armenian people.
The cemetery is rich and the landscape is definitely beautiful. It overlooks the Hollywood sign if you take the main entrance path.
There are 4 main points of interest. I gave them my own names and maybe there are more of them as well, but this is just how I understood the cemetery:
1. The “Land Graves”. Tombstones on acres of green beautiful land with peacocks and squirrels walking among them.
2. “The Lake”. Very positive lake in the middle of the land of the dead.
Right by the lake the only celebrity tomb we spotted was this one..
3. “Ash House”. Burnt remains of hundreds or maybe even thousands of American dream seekers who shaped this city before us.
When you sit down for a quick second.. you start noticing things around you living their own lives even in a slow-mo place like this. I noticed this was the only tree that was literally bleeding next to this standalone grave.. Speaks for itself.
This lady is probably in her late 70’s.. she parked her still shiny bloody-red 1989 SL 550 with Montana license plate by the entrance of the “Ash House”, all wearing gold and diamonds, slowly passed by us and entered the building.. the next thing we heard was loud cutting-through sound of her moving a floor-scratching armchair towards one of the “Ash panels”, where I suppose someone she cared about was buried.. she just sat there.. staring into nowhere.. it was a complete art scene.
Then a woman and man quickly sneaked into one of the “Ash House” hallways holding some sheets of paper with numbers.. probably looking for a spot where someone they knew was buried. In a few seconds we saw them standing in front of one of the vaults while she was loudly reading some prayer and he standing with his head down..
Inside the “Ash House” there was a David Lynch style room.. it had 4 floor-to-ceiling walls with little cells containing remains of people and material world things they owned.. like photographs, packs of cigarettes and personal belongings. many kid cells.. unfortunately.
We spotted beautiful mosaic walls, cemetery streets named after the dead, weird doors and more..
4. “The Funeral House”. I guess this name is pretty common and I didn’t make it up. I’m not certain if it’s OK to say “we were lucky” to spot a real funeral that day, but if you look at death the way I do – then it’s a Win-Win situation: the dead person was lucky to transform into new energy and we were lucky to spot a rich Hollywood funeral with dozens of latest luxury cars parked around the Funeral House with all wealthy and sleek grandmas and grandpas slowly walking in and out..
It was a great day at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Definitely won’t leave you emotionally untouched. In fact, I felt hungry at the end of the day there and we went to “The little next door” to enjoy some fine French cuisine and an intellectual conversation about the Hollywood Forever experience.
OK, we need to get going now.. the World of the Alive is waiting.
Blogging by Alex P. 