Had no idea that existed. Phenomenal.
Had no idea that existed. Phenomenal.
Easily the best thing about the HoF is the way it facilitates interesting performances. That's really all I watched it for - particularly seeing Bruce and the E Street Band play with David Sancious and Vini Lopez again. What a moment.
Nirvana's performances were great, too. I think Lorde was probably my favorite, with St. Vincent right behind her.
I thought Kim Gordon was the worst of the four performances... I found it to be terrible and ruined the song. To each their own.
I remember reading that either Dave or Kris also stated how overwhelmed they were with Kim Gordon's performance and that Kurt would have been head over heels for it. Not that the other ladies weren't great, but Gordon was the only one who "got it". She didn't just stand there are play. She threw herself entirely into it.
Last edited by allegro; 06-03-2014 at 02:50 PM.
So I have a friend visiting from Japan who is a HUGE Nirvana fan and today we made our way out to Aberdeen, WA so we could take the following photos....enjoy!
Kurt's childhood home. It's currently valued at around $64,000 and the owners who bought it in 2002 want $500,000 for it. I guess it still has writing on the walls in Kurt's old room and comes with a few original pieces of furniture.
Then two blocks over at Riverfront Park there is a small memorial in his honor.
Front:
Back:
Under the bridge
^^^
Welcome to the muddy banks of the Wishkah.....I was seriously taken back by this experience and had to fight back tears since I never even once thought I would ever step foot here. Like the sign says a few photos up, this was the bridge that Kurt would frequent as a teen and write poems/thoughts/scribble drawings that some would later go on to become Nirvana related. If you ever find yourself in Washington, please take the time to drive down here. It's about an 2 hours south of Seattle. The only thing I can't stress enough is to keep to yourself and don't talk to the locals in the neighborhood. I managed to speak to a local Nirvana fan who told me that the people in the neighborhood around Kurt's house and the park are mostly druggies who try their hardest to take advantage of fans when they come by (ie. aggressively ask for $$$).
Interesting stuff! I had no idea they made such a big deal out of it. Makes you realise how much a part of the establishment all the stuff from that era is now (I mean that in a good way)
Nirvana was one of the first rock groups I liked, but that's a terrible way to memorialize them, in a generally horrific way. Fuck that. That's the most tone-deaf memorialization I've ever seen.
Are we saying this is a good thing?! Please tell me I'm misunderstanding.
PS/EDIT: I'm not saying anything about you or your friend from Japan... just, is this park a real thing?
Last edited by Jinsai; 01-27-2015 at 05:44 AM.
These memorials were done by fans with permission from the city, how is that a bad thing?
You truly have a bleak outlook on everything, don't you?
One of the quotes on that memorial thing "I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not' - is that some kind of irony? People appropriating him and pretending they knew him, it's actually quite disturbing, particularly when the ridiculous levels of fame possibly contributed to him killing himself. Imagine how stifling that level of impossible love / adoration was? How could he possibly have lived up to it?
Last edited by WorzelG; 01-27-2015 at 05:58 AM.
I don't want to shit on your parade. I don't want to interrupt your happiness in any way.
I was offering an opinion on the park, and the nature of the way they were representing the legacy of Kurt Cobain. I'm not the keeper of his legacy. I just didn't like it, so I said so.
I'm glad you guys had fun, and I didn't want or intend to piss in your cheerios. I earnestly apologize for being overly aggressive in any way about this. I just don't think any of the represented gestures of what Kurt "was about" in that park really sum it up in a way that means anything either. It's all just lame noise, and it plays into something that matters to me.
Last edited by Jinsai; 01-28-2015 at 03:24 AM.
That really bummed me out... right up there with the boardwalk dollar-sketch portrait and the lyrics from Something in the Way, including "yeah ah mmmmmmm."
Also, if you're going to reduce Kurt Cobain to an inspiration dorm poster, let's go for the weightier stuff. "Don't take drugs, they will **** you up" and "I'd rather be hated for who I am than be something I'm not" aren't cutting it for me. How about "I have a request for our fans. If you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us - leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records." When Nirvana blew up, they took over the mainstream audience of a genre previously dominated by macho bro bullshit, homophobia, and misogyny. To print that in your liner notes at the time was a huge "fuck you" to the people who needed to be told to fuck off. Maybe it's predictable and even passé now, but back then it was part of what set Nirvana apart and made Kurt an important voice outside of the music. That was a big part of who Kurt Cobain was though. He was cynical, harsh, and openly critical of stupid bullshit.
The problem here is the quotes are grouped together in a way that makes the band's music seem like they had more in common with Gordon Lightfoot and Depak Chopra than Sonic Youth. By looking at this "art" you'd think Cobain didn't make pissed-off sounding music. This entirely sidesteps the aggression, anger, and sadness, and goes straight for the hippy motivational-speaker side of Kurt.
It's like those John Lennon posters, with the self portrait and a quote from Imagine like "Imagine all the people living for today." Yeah, there's John Lennon in a box. Lets frame it and put it next to a sculpture of a giant hand making a peace sign.
It's about as deep as Fred Durst's tattoo. It's the version of Kurt Cobain that was used to market Doc Martins. It's the likeness featured in Guitar Hero 5.
I agree Jinsai, it's corny. But also I think it's kind of awesome that someone like kurt has corny freshman bob marley poster type things made of him... IMO he's in a pantheon that includes sonic youth, butthole surfers, big black etc and I still find it hilarious and heartening that the mainstream loves somebody that weird - clumsy crass tributes and all
Nirvana punking an unruly buenos aires audience - apparently kurt took their abuse of the opening act as sexist, and as such this is a proper bizarre set full of windups. I believe it's the only airing that the opening track ever got. This is a pro shot video, and it's good!
That was very sweet of you, @NotoriousTIMP. I bet your friend would have really enjoyed the experience. I would love to get the opportunity to visit that area of the U.S. some day, it's on my list.
Nirvana will always have that special place in my heart, in all of our hearts. Personally, I carry a photo of Kurt in my wallet. Was he a loved one, no. Did I even know him, no, but that is my way of remembrance. It's easy to feel protective over something that means so much.
That Buenos Ares set is fantastic. I legit LOL'd anytime they kicked into Teen Spirit only to immediately derail it.
I finally picked up the In Utero 2013 mix on vinyl. Holy shit, it's incredible. There are so many different little subtle nuances that I haven't picked up on in the 20 some odd years I've been listening to the album. Really interesting to hear what In Utero was *supposed* to sound like.
I didn't realize Aberdeen was filled with so much Cobain kitsch. Thanks for the photos!
Speaking of the divide of public opinion
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_7195962.html
It sounds like Morgen is compiling the best unheard demos and noodlings. I'm ecstatic about this.
yeah, i'm a little scared about this actually, sounds like they will release a bunch of boombox acoustic unfinished demos or covers, similar to some of the stuff on WTO, not quite sure it is necessary but I hope I'm wrong, I would love to hear some reel new music from him but I am not sure it exists really at this point.
What'd everyone think of Montage Of Heck? I felt like the immensely long wait for a form of documentation about Kurt Cobain that was as perfect & beautiful as Montage Of Heck was beyond worth it. Being only a year away from the age that Kurt was when he died, it was fascinating to see how the first Idol I ever had lived his life, compared to my own. What he accomplished; what I haven't, and Vice Versa. You grow up and aspire to live like your idols, and seeing that in a different perspective is wild.
I was actually a little disappointed myself, I guess I had too high hopes for it and it didn't live up to that. The first half was ok, I did enjoy the insight into his youth and art, and some of it is in the journals. It was a shame though, the movie kept flashing a lot of notes and scraps so fast it was impossible to really look at things, but then again his art should probably not be looked at through a movie, these are papers and sketches so we'll have to wait for inevitable kurt cobain touring expo sometime in the future. The animations were nice, it was a smart way to bring to life his motionless art. The songs were carefully chosen too and they help glue the story.
But based on the reviews they apparently had access to such a wealth of material and for me the end result feels light in that regard, it gets quite uneventfull especially when courtney comes into the picture, these home movies were somewhat cute but they didnt achieve anything really, except flashing love's boobs, did we really need to see that? and her interviews were just horrendus, she just looks like a mess, as she always has, rehashing the same old BS we've read and heard before, the junkies' story. And the story about the "retarded girl", did they really have to include that??? This was really not flattering, it was nice to have him tell the story but to me the story didn't really need to be told.
And the music... ok, we got a few more demos, some are probably on WTLO, Live at Reading... again, with such a supposedly wealth of material, why not include more gems???
I don't know, since this was done with the approval of so and so, I had high hopes, I guess I should just stick to the music, it's all about the music anyways. Let's see the soundtrack now, it will probably be sliver 2, the best of the best of the box we released 10 years ago.
Last edited by armogi; 05-05-2015 at 11:54 AM.