Thursday, April 05, 2007

Load up on guns
Bring your friends
It's fun to lose
And 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.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

I am a world's forgotten boy
I am the one
Who searches and destroys

Know what else I am?

A street-walkin' cheetah with a heart full of napalm.

Best. Rock. Lyric. Ever. Iggy Pop.

Seriously, if any of you readers out there (both of you) can come up with a better song-opening lyric that better embodies the rock and roll spirit, submit it in the comments or the email, and I will send you a special present.

And maybe, if you have slippery morals and minimal body hair, we can make sexytime.

Niiiiiice.

I watched The Departed again the other night, as part of my movie-frenzied, snowmelt depression. It is such a damn good movie. I also realized that Nas' "Hip Hop Is Dead," which I recommended a few posts back, is part of the soundtrack. That song and the Dropkick Murphys, "Shipping Up To Boston," are the two best songs I have heard in the last four months.

Along with Modest Mouse's "3rd Planet." Modest Mouse is playing in Bozeman on Saturday. Yay, dude. General Admission. Dude will be there.

(I am a fairly verbose individual, with a firm grasp of the English language if slightly sweatier, slippery grasp on grammar and punctuation- witness haphazard usage of italics, quotes, ((parenthesis)), this parenthetical separated by dashes, etc.- yet I cannot break the habit of short sentences and short paragraphs.

The thing is, I have read a lot of books. My favorite author is Bukowski.

He wrote short sentences.

He never rarely used adverbs.

Because adverbs are for pussies.

There is something to be said for getting straight to the point. I'm not sure what, but I am sure it is something. You know, to be said.

Everything that keeps me together is falling apart

I've got this this thing that I consider my only art

Of fucking people over.

- Modest Mouse, Third Planet, worth 99 cents.


It has been a fairly intense week for me. A lot has happened. Things I don't care to share.

When all is said and done, I'd like to look back and say I did the most with what I had. That I had the most fun I could. Squeezed the last drop.

See you around.

P.S. Seriously, submit a lyric, win a prize.

P.P.S.


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