The Viktor Wynd Museum is Crowdfunding a 1,000-Year-Old Mummy Head

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Help London’s quirky Viktor Wynd Museum buy a mummy head for its collection for cool perks like mummy dust, penis bones, and chocolate anuses.
Viktor Wynd Museum mummy head
This 1,000-year-old mummy head would make a great addition to the Viktor Wynd Museum

The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History in London is home to an amazing and macabre collection of oddities, including skulls, bones, shrunken heads, weird medical antiques and more. They even have the gold-plated hippo skull of Pablo Escobar. But they don’t have a mummy.

And quite frankly, who doesn’t want a mummy?

The museum opened two years ago thanks to nearly 500 contributors to their first crowdfunding campaign. So, to celebrate the its second birthday, a new campaign on just launched on Indiegogo to purchase the 1,000-year-old mummified head of a young boy from Peru’s moon-worshipping Chimú culture.

Of course, helping a museum buy a mummy that you can visit any time you want is reward enough, but the perks are great, too. Contribute to the campaign to earn things like mummy dust from the bottom of the cabinet, cat skulls, edible chocolate anuses, walrus penis bones, Viktor Wynd’s used underwear, and other bizarre items that would look great in your own personal cabinet of curiosities.

Some of the skulls, bones and other oddities on display at the Viktor Wynd Museum
Some of the curiosities on display at the Viktor Wynd Museum

https://vimeo.com/182438527

Help the museum fill it’s mummy-shaped hole right here.

Monsters in America Cryptid Art Show

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Cryptozoological wonders come to life in this art exhibit inspired by the Monsters in America map by Hog Island Press.
Mothman art by Steven Levan
Mothman by Steven Levan

Stop in at One Mile Gallery in Kingston, New York to catch an unusual art show every Saturday in September. The Monsters in America art show was inspired by the Monsters in America map by Hog Island Press and curated by artist Richard Saja. It features interpretations of Bigfoot, Mothman, lake monsters and other cryptozoological creatures in a variety of mediums by 58 different artists.

From the show description:

Whether the protagonist be the Pope Lick Monster, Wampaus Cat, Mothman or Chupacabra, tales of mysterious creatures and inexplicable phenomena have been passed down for generations. Curated by Richard Saja, One Mile’s September offering, “Monsters in America”, is a group show featuring various artists’ take on the cryptozoological map of the United States. Each artist focuses on a legendary monster, ancient spirit or alien being.

Texas chupacabra by Keri Oldham
Texas Chupacabra by Keri Oldham

Pope Lick Monster by Caitlin McCormack
Pope Lick Monster by Caitlin McCormack

Skunk Ape by William Hatch Crosby
Skunk Ape by William Hatch Crosby

Honey Island Swamp Monster by Kahn and Selesnick
Honey Island Swamp Monster by Kanh and Selesnick

Loveland Frogman by Theo Ellsworth
Loveland Frogman by Theo Ellsworth

Mothman by Herman James
Mothman by Herman James

See all the art from the exhibition on the Monsters in America blog right here.

Morbid Curiosity: A Card Game About Death

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This new death positive card game promises to turn morbid curiosity into a delightful group discussion about human mortality.
Morbid Curiosity game

The death positive movement has been gaining steam for years, working to transform the taboos of mortality into something positive and personal. A new card game called Morbid Curiosity (currently on Kickstarter) is a great way to start the conversation in a society where we have become so incredibly detached from the inevitable.

Kimberly Mead, a grief and trauma therapist from Austin, puts it best in the press release:

When asked “Why a game about death?” creator Kimberley Mead said “It’s the biggest mystery there is and honestly, we’re fascinated by it, obsessed even.” When then asked “but doesn’t thinking and talking about death so much depress you?” she answered “Actually it does the opposite, it helps me fear death less and enjoy living more. I think of it like this, we are all in a relationship with Death whether we like it or not, and we should be on speaking terms. So why not kick off your shoes, sit down, and spend a little time getting to know Death better.”

The game consists of 156 trivia and conversation cards (printed with an elegantly illustrated Death’s-head moth) designed to let people “look at death while having a good time with friends” with questions like “How was Alexander the Great’s body preserved?” and “Would you consider leaving your body to science or a body farm?”

Morbid Curiosity card game

I’m particularly excited about the expansion pack in the works called the Undertaker’s Deck.

The Kickstarter campaign runs until October 6th. Check out it out right here.

Update: Let’s Play a Little Game About Death

We’re Going to Hell for the 15th Annual Hearse Fest

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Hell, MI is home to an annual hearse car show and parade organized by Hell’s own Just Hearse’n Around car club.
Hell's hearse Fest 2016
Hell’s 15th annual Hearse Fest

I had an opportunity to buy a hearse when I was 17. It was parked on a farm just outside town. I don’t remember anymore what make or year it was, but it was probably a late 70s or early 80s model in beautiful condition. It was black, of course, much like my horror, Halloween and death-obsessed teenage heart…and I wanted it badly. I stopped one day to talk to the owners, and they offered it to me for $5,000. That was probably a great price for a hearse in that condition, but, frankly, there was no way in Hell I could cough up that much money.

It’s been a long time since that day, and if I was offered the same price on that hearse now, I still couldn’t afford it. So instead I bought a Matchbox hearse, and I’m going to revel in the macabre majesty of the annual hearse gathering in Hell, Michigan known as Hearse Fest.

1963 Cadillac Matchbox hearse
This 1963 Cadillac Matchbox hearse is as close as I’m getting to being a hearse owner. via @mentalshed

The event, now in it’s 15th year, is organized by members of the Just Hearse’n Around car club. Festivities include a PineBox Derby race, hotdogs and burgers from the casket grills, Halloween costume contest, hearse parade, vendors, and live entertainment throughout the day by Creepy Clyde and DJ Surfer Joe. Awards are given for various categories including Scariest Hearse, Best Casket Cart, and “How the Hell did it make it here?” I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the beginning of the Halloween season.

I’ll be there with Cult of Weird resident mad taxidermist and morbid candle maker Rob Reysen at the Grave Digger Candles booth.

See you in Hell!

15th annual Hearsefest in Hell, MI
Hearse Fest flier by one of my favorite artists, Robert Paul Nixon. Prints of this killer design are for sale right here.

World’s Longest Parade of Hearses…in Hell

Hearse parade in Hell, MI
World record-setting hearse parade in Hell, 2011. Photo via Just Hearse’n Around.

In 2011, during the 10th annual hearse car show then known as Last Rides Reunion Hearse Show, Just Hearse’n Around set the Guinness World Record for the longest parade of hearses with a total of 51. Unfortunately, the record was beat the following year with a parade in the Netherlands consisting of 107 hearses.

Hearse Fest starts at 10am on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 4025 Patterson Lake Road, Hell. More info at hearsefest.com

Beeswax Feline Skull Candles from Grave Digger Candles

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Look what the cat dragged in: New feline skull beeswax candles freshly exhumed from the grave digger’s pet cemetery.
Halloween candles cast from real cat skulls
New for Halloween: Feline skull candles
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The flickering warm glow and natural honey aroma of pure beeswax candles mixes well with the macabre in the case of the bone-shaped memento mori luminaries from Grave Digger Candles. Last year the online shop launched with the “Grave Wax” collection, which included spine candles cast from real human vertebrae, as well as small skull candles and gothic coffin candles.

Now, for the 2016 Halloween season it seems the grave digger has been busy in the pet cemetery exhuming his own personal friendly familiars – all-natural, hand-poured beeswax feline skulls cast from real bone. They are available in two styles: Adult cat skull candle and kitten skull tea light candle.

The candles are lifesize and cast from real cat skulls. Each one is hand-poured with pure, all-natural beeswax for it’s clean, petroleum-free burn and air-cleansing properties. And don’t worry, nothing was killed to produce these candles.

Creep out your Halloween party guests with these new cat skull candles

Find these and other beeswax oddities at Grave Digger Candles.