- Wednesday was a big day for a lot of flannel-wearing, grunge music-loving souls out there. The day marked the 15th anniversary of the death of iconic Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who allegedly committed suicide, killing himself with a shotgun while high on heroin and pills. The facts of the case have never quite added up, but the police have maintained to this day that it was a suicide. At the park adjacent to Lake Washington in Seattle, a park bench that sits just a few hundred feet from the house where Cobain died served as something of a memorial to the mercurial singer. The park bench facing Lake Washington was covered with flowers, poems, a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and graffiti. "I miss your beautiful face and voice," one dedication read. "Thank you for inspiring me," says another. "RIP Kurt." Ironically, those closest to Cobain - Nirvana bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, along with wife Courtney Love - have achieved high levels of fame in the wake of Cobain’s death - the very fame he seemed ill at ease with in spite of his celebrity status. Novoselic and Dave Grohl eventually formed other bands, with Grohl fronting Foo Fighters, which remains one of the biggest bands in the business to this day. Love has made an ass out of herself for the most part, dabbling in drugs, trying her hand at acting and pursuing her own music career with a general lack of class and couth that have made her an easy target for those who blamed her for Cobain’s downward spiral. His death ended a battle with hard drugs, putting him alongside troubled musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Jolin, Elliott Smith and others whose lives were cut tragically short thanks in large part to drugs. His ashes were reportedly scattered in a Washington state river and a New York Buddhist temple. What is truly amazing is how much Nirvana’s music has resonated with fans the past 15 years and how relevant it still is today. Cobain even has fans in his hometown of Aberdeen, which he often derided as a small-minded town. The town even erected a sign at the city limits that greets visitors with the words "Come As You Are," a reference to one of Nirvana’s better-known songs. Also, Cobain Memorial Committee members, who include Cobain's paternal grandfather, hope to establish a community center in the late rocker's honor that would give area youth a place to play music and pursue artistic interests and held a concert tonight to raise money for the center. Ironically, the millions of dollars Cobain left behind when he died have mostly gone missing and a team of accountants is digging to figure out where it all went. Regardless of where the cash has gone, Cobain is still clearly missed and his musical legacy is as powerful as ever…
- Have you been putting off going to church because it would necessitate you leaving your favorite bar stool and ceasing the consumption of alcohol for a couple of hours? If so, I may have just the church for you - assuming you live in or around Little Rock, Ark. A new church called "The River" is looking to do something unique for its upcoming Easter service, with that something unique being holding the service at The Rev Room, a popular River Market bar. The River Church is labeling itself the Bar Church for Easter Sunday and advertising itself as such. Not only will its Easter service be held at the bar, the church is holding Good Friday service this week in the River Market as well. “Well, we're meeting at a bar,” says Shane Montgomery, Pastor of The River Church. He says he's trying something different. "If you’re going to church somewhere, you probably don't need to come down on Easter Sunday because you might feel a little uncomfortable," Montgomery said. He hopes that this change in venue will attract a new audience that might not ordinarily attend a religious service that didn’t include Pabst, Michelob, Budweiser or Heineken. "It made sense to me," the pastor said. "How do you get people that don't go to church to go to church? You do that by going to a place and removing obstacles that are intimidating and church is intimidating sometimes." Pastor Montgomery says he anticipated negative reactions, but he believes that he has a higher calling and that he’s following Jesus’ example of going to meet with people that are, well, less than saintly. "We choose to listen to the people that Jesus called us to reach," he said. Before you wonder how an entire church will cram into one small bar, know that The River Church only has about 30 members so far. Currently, they meet on Sunday nights at Pulaski Heights Christian School. In other words, they’re not abandoning some state-of-the-art building for a bar on Easter Sunday. Montgomery also views this weekend as a trial run. He says that if all goes well, the church says it will also like to hold Mother’s Day and Father's Day services at a bar as well. An interesting concept to be sure and it’s a fine line to toe, but if Montgomery and his congregation can reach out to people effectively this way, I tip my hat to them….
- Well, I guess Jack Bauer won't be dying on this season of 24 after all, not if Kiefer Sutherland is announcing his plan to stick around for at least one more season and Fox is announcing that Anil Kapoor, who played game show host Prem Kumar in the Oscar-winning indie Slumdog Millionaire, will join the cast for Season 8. While that takes some of the air out the this season’s drama with Jack supposedly being ill with an incurable ailment brought on by exposure to a toxic pathogen in a biological weapon, it’s good news for all the Bauer-heads out there. Season 8 is set to premiere in early 2010, with Season 7 currently winding its way through a terrorist plot brought on by an American defense contractor whose persona and story were clearly inspired by renegade defense contractor Blackwater and its wacky antics killing civilians and committing other atrocities in Iraq. For Season 8, Kapoor will play a Middle Eastern leader who comes to the U.S. on a peacemaking mission. How large his role will be and how long he’ll be on screen before he’s killed haven’t been revealed, but I’m guessing he’ll make it at least a few episodes. Before that can happen, this season’s saga must be resolved and that’s set to happen when two-hour Season 7 finale airs on Monday, May 18. As someone who’s never seen Slumdog Millionaire and doesn’t really have any inclination to (not a fan of game shows or game show-themed movies, supposedly inspirational or not), I can’t say much about Kapoor’s acting abilities, but I can say that I’m glad we’ll have another season of 24 regardless of who will be joining the cast…..
- It never ceases to amaze how pets that are missing for months or even years and travel hundreds of miles from their homes end up reunited with their owners. Somehow, some way, these pets (usually dogs) find their way home and the reunions always bring a smile to your face. ToBoi, a Jack Russell terrier missing for three years from her South Florida home, is the latest extraordinary tale along these lines. The pooch was reunited with her owner on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Barbara Apostolo has no idea how her dog escaped from her home, but is ecstatic to have ToBoi back. "She just disappeared," Apostolo said. What she does know is how the dog came back to her. Two weeks ago, Apostolo received a letter from workers at a shelter in Louisiana, more than 1,000 miles away, saying they had found her dog. They had been able to identify the dog using Apostolo's contact information from ToBoi's microchip. Yes, Apostolo bought an ID chip for her dog - rich people and their splurging on dogs makes me sick too. That splurging continued when Apostolo paid to fly ToBoi home rather than drive to pick the dog up and force it to suffer the indignity of riding in a car. Owner and pet (something tells me Apostolo is one of those losers who refer to their dog as one of their children, but I refuse to do so - ever) were reunited at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Chalk another happy ending up for embedding microchips in or on your pet, who knew when this technology was developed what lofty aims it would be used for……
- Exactly how else do school officials at Arizona State University expect ASU students to sustain and fund their reputation as the country’s biggest party school? If it means hawking tickets for President Barack Obama's scheduled speech at their commencement ceremony next month to buy an extra keg for this weekend’s party, so be it. The powers that be at ASU had to know when they booked Obama as commencement speaker that some students would be looking to turn their tickets for a profit. First, not everyone walks at graduation and if you’re not going, why not sell your tickets? Second, some students are from far enough away that their family can’t make it to the ceremony and again, why not sell the tickets? School officials may be pissed that dozens of students are trying to use Craigslist to make some money from their graduation ducats, but I think it’s a great idea. Students like business management major Mike Rogers are examples of putting your college education to use. Rogers said he believes he was one of the first people to post his tickets online for the May 13th speech, and he offered them for $50 a piece. He had interest almost immediately and intends to turn them over to the interested buyer unless he gets higher offer before April 27, when he picks up his tickets. He went so far as to say that he's putting the skills he learned at ASU to use in his personal life. Of course, that isn’t stopping ASU officials from throwing a fit and pointing out that students are not authorized to sell the tickets. Here's how the ASU commencement webpage addresses the issue: Commencement is not an event where tickets are sold to the public. Tickets cannot be copied, duplicated or altered in any manner. In addition, tickets may not be sold, traded, bartered, or assigned or transferred in any manner for any consideration whatsoever. Any violation of these rules will result in a forfeiture or seizure of the ticket (s). Mmm hmm, sure. How exactly do you plan to enforce that? A university spokesperson said that students could run the risk of having their tickets confiscated if they attempt to sell them and that students would be required to sign an agreement when they pick up their tickets, acknowledging the Student Code of Conduct and that they are willing to abide by it, but that’s not going to stick. These students have a chance to score some extra beer money for their final party before graduation and there’s no freaking way they’re passing that up. Score this one Students 1, The Man 0……
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