After the end of programming on Day 2 of the Death Salon, the paid attendees and performers retreated to a lovely house with a breathtaking deck to decompress.
Sarah of Nourishing Death baked a feast of treats from Pan de Muerto to Mormon funeral potatoes to Johnny Cake Cookies to Ossa Dei Morti. There was cinnamon-laced Mexican Funeral Coffee with skull-shaped sugar cubes and Balinese rice pudding with corpse water. There were Victorian Funeral Biscuits and filled cupcakes with candy tombstones and skull-shaped lollipops. Everything looked amazing and tasted even better. I wish I’d taken more pictures.
To wash it down, there was locally brewed mandarin orange ginger ale and craft beers and all the wine a girl could want.
Best of all were the conversations. I learned about the variety of hospice traditions in LA and the green cemetery movement in Austin and independent publishing in Washington and surviving the hurricane in Brooklyn. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a party with so many fascinating people.
Next year’s Death Salon is planned for London. I’m not sure what I’m going to have to sell to be able to afford to go, but I really do not want to miss it. Hope to see you there, too.