MANILA, Philippines – ADD, OCD, and the rest of those neurotic acronyms may be the hottest accessory since the designer bag pooch these days, but artistic folks have been drawing inspiration from their own, particular brand of crazy ever since primitive man first decided to redecorate his cave. After all, art has its price — it cost Sylvia Plath her life, while Van Gogh was lucky enough to lose only an ear.
Some of you may remember our coffin-toting friend, Vinko Mario Prizmic, from the article “Tales of the Travelling Crypt.” And yeah, he’s still at it—traversing the globe with a mannequin for a wife and a coffin for a friend in the hopes of bringing passersby to confront their own deaths and finally start livin’. Last we heard from him, he was being carried around in Something Better (the name of his coffin) by “four men, one French professor of art history and three Chinese men, around Notre Dame.” Prizmic writes of his recent Parisian funeral:
“It was an adventure beyond the body…But still the people were so confused. Yes, it was La Fete de la Musique…Juliete Bonnet and Antoine Bonnet were giving my Happy Funeral such a mysterious touch. With contrabas and her fantastic performance…giving them my mortal speech in an almost-forgotten language — language de Bretaigne. It sounded so beautiful and scary! Like having orgasm with somebody you would not even think to touch. La Muerte! La Mort! The Death!
And when it was over…like in a David Lynch film, Juliette and Mirjana approached Something Better and softly, very softly — like caressing a beautiful stomach, the milky-white skin of a mysterious stranger, covered with red roses — they started to remove the cover. And Vinko Mario Prizmic was inside? No, he was not! You were inside! How it is possible?
It was so beautiful to die in Paris...during La Fete de la Musique 21.06…”
His next funeral should be truly volcanic: Vinko is laying himself to rest on Mt. Pinatubo this July 19. Here's to finding the art within your own, personal insanity. — Nicola M. Sebastian