The corpse show.

I apologize in advance for my repeated use of the words "skinless corpse" in this post.

Last week a group of friends and I went to see Bodyworlds, "The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies." For those who aren't familiar, some German guy developed a body preservation technique called "plastination" in which the fluids are replaced by plastic. People donate their bodies to this guy and his group plastinates them and puts them in an educational art display about the human anatomy. I forgot to mention that the bodies had their skin removed and were placed in various poses. One guy actually had his skin removed in one piece and was displayed holding it up. One skinless guy was playing basketball. A skinless woman was displayed shooting a bow and arrow with her brain removed and resting on top of her skull. So then I raised on the button with AKo, and skinless basketball guy reraises from the small blind, now I'm thinking he's weak because he has been doing this a lot, so I cap...wait, nevermind.

Okay, so I only found it completely disturbing. Very interesting and educational, yes, but disturbing. I almost passed out in the first five minutes. And I almost passed out again later. I just have a problem being surrounded by skinless corpses playing sports. One guy was riding a horse. A skinless horse. Cool.

I haven't really even touched on how many different exhibits the show had and how amazing and educational it was. Many different parts of the anatomy were shown and highlighted in the various displays. Diseased organs were shown next to healthy ones; there was a full arterial system on display (in fact, a whole family of arterial systems), preserved as if it was still in the body (I have no clue how they did that).

I just couldn't get over the fact that I was surrounded by people. Sure, they all volunteered so I don't have a problem with the ethics of it. I just don't know if we were meant to see the inside of a dead person's face. That's all. I wonder if the people get to choose how they are going to be posed. Like if on the Bodyworlds body donation application there is an area for that. "Please tell us how you would like your body to be displayed: I would like my skin removed, the front half of my head chopped off, and I want to be hanging upside down by my small intestine with it wrapped around my ankles. Also I would like the front half of my head placed in a separate 'Inside of a Dead Person's Face' display."

In an interesting related story, This exhibit has been successful enough that there have been a few copycat exhibits. One was in San Francisco, called the Universe Within, which is (was) mired in controversy. It was put on by an Austrian TV producer who wanted to capitalize on the popularity of skinless corpse exhibits. Except he couldn't prove that he owned the bodies legally and that the previous owners wanted them on display. Also the bodies started leaking silicone and fat because they weren't preserved properly. Cool. Click here to read about it (I hope the link is still active). Bye now.

So I guess this blog isn't only going to be about poker.