Cool!WTF?

A New Way to Remember Grandma: Press Her Ashes into Vinyl

A few months ago I wrote about weird special edition vinyl that some musicians have released. Once again, I’ve learned about a vinyl oddity that I was blissfully ignorant of until now: pressing the cremated remains of loved ones into records.

Part of me, the part that loves all things macabre and wanted to be a funeral director when I was 14 (taking Addams Family-loving, semi-Goth child to the next level…), thinks this is a really cool idea. I mean, why not? There’s all sorts of weird and wonderful mementos to loved ones that use ashes. The records that the ashes are pressed into hold recordings of the deceased’s voices, putting the cremated remains to good use. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that a tiny part of me wasn’t a bit weirded out by the idea, but for the most part I’m very “you do you” in my life philosophy.

A short documentary called Hearing Madge explores the UK-based company And Vinyly owned by Jason Leach. From Aeon:

Hearing Madge explores how Leach’s venture was given new meaning when he was approached by a man looking to save his mother’s recollections that he had recorded shortly before her death. Surprisingly touching, Andrea Lewis’s short documentary is both a profile of an unusual business and a thought-provoking contemplation of the ways we chose to remember the dead”.

The American Film Institute premiered Hearing Madge on June 26 at AFI Docs 2016.

Watch the trailer:

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