Ode to a Cemetery

Oh how I love thee, Mountain View Cemetery. Let me count the ways.

My favorite place to hang, to exercise, to think, to chill, is a cemetery. Not just any cemetery. It's a huge, gorgeous, rolling hills, big trees kind of place that is so amazingly peaceful that it boggles the mind. When I tell new people that I go to a cemetery all the time, they think it's creepy and downright odd. Then I take them there, and they go, "Ohhhhhh..." They understand. This place is so beautiful and so full of lovely big monuments that it qualifies as the prettiest park in Oakland. I've gotten a few folks hooked on it.

I first learned of it in art school, which was right next door. Some students used to sneak on to the cemetery grounds at night to smoke weed, drink, and have Goth-ish sex on the front steps of the big crypts (it's the same as regular sex, but all the clothes that get removed by the participants are black). I did not have the cojones for that sort of thing, but I fell in love with the cemetery by day, and I am still coming here twenty years later. Constantly.

Ever heard of Frederick Law Olmsted? He was an amazing landscape architect who is mainly known for designing Central Park, Yosemite, and Stanford. He also designed Mountain View, and gave it a character that is rarely found in cemeteries. The part I love is that in its early years, the cemetery was used by young people for courting. It was one of the only places where they could meet each other unchaperoned, and they spent many hours "paying their respects" to their loved ones. That vibe still exists at Mountain View, because it is definitely a major make-out spot, expecially for the local baby dyke population. How sweet is that? I cannot claim to have done any smooching there, but the day is still young, no?

The cemetery is the final resting place for the architects Julia Morgan and Bernard Maybeck, the Crocker family (remember Crocker Bank?), "Borax" Smith (of Borax & 20 Mule Team fame), Henry Kaiser, and the Merritt family (everything in Oakland is called Merritt, I swear). Plus there are some folks who are not famous, but noteworthy. Like the first black sea captain. They found his grave recently when they restored an old section of the cemetery that was overgrown. That pleases me.

There is no getting around the fact that this cemetery is still active for new burials, and that entire section of the cemetery has a much more somber feel. The sections are very separate: the old part is on one side of the hill, the new is on the other. Those of us who enjoy the place as a park tend to avoid the new sections, as there is no way to ignore the fact that you are surrounded by people who are grieving their losses. In the very old, established sections, the spirits have moved on so long ago that the air is clear, so to speak, and one can remain light hearted.

I have taken so many photos in this place, shot so many people here, and have brought so may people here to take photos. My friend Johnny Boy took the photo above. It is the ultimate place to test a camera's meter because of all the mid-range greys in the stone statues and buildings. I always trot out a new camera there first, to make sure I know where it sits exposure-wise.

And before anyone comments on me smoking in the photo, lemme say that I smoke about one clove cigarette a month, if that. And no, they are not those harsh, nasty cloves you tried in high school. So if that makes me a smoker, well, allrighty then. But not really.