What do you think of when you think of El Dia de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead? Skulls, of course! Usually human in shape and made of sugar. But today let's celebrate All Soul's Day by talking about one of the coolest documentaries I've seen in a long time: Ray Bandar: A Life With Skulls. This 30 minute panorama "exploring science, art, and eccentricity" is a must-see for anyone interested in collecting, obsession, nature, and oddballs! And who is not interested in all of the above? No one reading this blog, I'm sure. The director, Beth Cataldo, is a friend of mine who lives in San Francisco and has always been a prism for the baroquely weird. In Ray Bandar she's found a perfect subject for her slant on life. Ray's a retired science teacher who's been cutting off the heads of faithfully departed beached marine animals for at least 50 years, and his exhibit of collected skulls recently filled a few halls at the California Academy of Sciences, where he's a field associate in the Ornithology and Mammalogy department. This is a man who knows how to accumulate! His home — filled with elephant pelvises, coiled rattlesnake skeltons, assorted witch doctor paraphenalia, and skulls, skulls, skulls — reminds me of the basement of the St. Louis Art Museum. That's where the tribal art collection lurks: primitive masks whose baleful blank gazes make jungle drums pound hectically in your ears. Western science is a thin veneer for stranger impulses in this documentary, which gave me a new appreciation for both the sculptural beauty of bones and the cleansing power of beetles!
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