Load up on gunsBring your friendsIt's fun to loseAnd to pretend

Thirteen years ago today, Kurt Cobain killed himself.

I was in law school at U.S.C., living in Hermosa Beach. I remember hearing that a body was found at his house. Doug Nussman told me that he had committed suicide.

I was sad for a long time after that. They were my favorite band. They should be knighted for killing hair metal and storming to the top of the charts, displacing Michael Jackson. Neither hair metal nor Michael Jackson ever recovered.



I remember hearing Nevermind for the first time. That album smokes from the opening notes of Smells Like Teen Spirit to the last strains of Something in the Way.

It changed everything. It really did.

All you kids listening to bands with exclamation points in their names, playing crappy, derivative rock... tear yourself away from myspace and give that album a listen.

If you like it, go on ahead with Incesticide, In Utero and Unplugged.

He sang his own eulogy in that Unplugged performance. He died a few months later.

I dusted it off and gave it a listen recently. It holds up, and it makes you wonder what might have been, and what direction they would have gone.

Right before he killed himself, he was talking with Michael Stipe about a collaboration. That probably would not have sucked.

Their drummer stepped out from behind the kit, and has had himself a pretty nifty career with the Foo Fighters.

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I dropped my camera. It broke. There will be no pictures for a while. I need to make a decision on its replacement. It was a tiny, 5 megapixel Kodak that could fit in my shirt pocket. That was convenient for snowboarding, hiking, kayaking, etc. It took video, too. It took OK pictures- most of the pictures and video you see here were taken with it- but I was never happy with the 3x zoom when taking wildlife pictures.

I had to get disturbingly (to me and the animals) close to get a decent picture. Since the wildlife in Montana can kill you, it may be wise to take pictures from a safer distance.

I am not sure whether to get another small one for convenience, or get something that has more megapixels, a big zoom and will undoubtedly be a pain in the ass to carry around. Also, I'd probably have to read the manual. And maybe learn something about photography other than the Rule of Thirds.

With a pocket camera, I can plead ignorance.

Plus, in case you hadn't noticed, I tend to break a lot of stuff- snowboards, guitars, cameras, dvd players, iPods, and even a car or three- so that is always a factor.

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We watched The Blood Diamond last night. Pretty good movie, although Jennifer Connely (sp?) really bugged me for some reason.

I liked it, nonetheless.

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I am currently re-reading a bunch of Bukowski. It is good for the soul.