In 1994 I was finishing my final year of high school (Year 12 it’s called here in Australia). It was a big year for me, in that I woke up politically. So much was going on in the world, and because if it I started reading and really paying attention to the news. There was a lot in the news about Bosnia and Rwanda.
On the day he died I was driving down a dusty road at the back of where I kept my horse. I had Triple J on the radio and when the DJ announced it she cried. I remember it vividly because I’d just got my provisional license and it was one of the first times I drove a car on my own. I remember feeling such a sense of happiness and freedom. When they heard the news the station stopped playing music completely and took calls from listeners. There was so much crying. I remember pulling the car over and listening to the talkback for about 40 minutes on the side of the road while I tried to come to terms with the news.
Mitch, my best friend through Year 12 and I would listen to the song ‘About a Girl’ on repeat for days at a time. I remember lying on the cold grass at the back of his house in the dark, getting eaten constantly by mosquitos, listening to that song over and over again, while we talked for hours and told each other we would be friends forever. I haven’t spoken to him or seen him for about 6 years.
Every time I think of Kurt Cobain or Nirvana I think of Mitch.
MinneKeith
03.Apr.06 at 10:17 am
The day they found Kurt Cobain I had driven to the bank and was coming home when I noticed that the entire street was filled with police, media and gawkers.
Did I mention I lived right down the street from Kurt and Courtney?
The police wouldn’t even let me down my own road. Knowing that he lived there I flipped on the local radio station to hear they were reporting a body found in his carriage house above the garage. At this time they didn’t know it was him.
So I drove around the back way and noticed a group of kids peering over the fence that got a straight view of the apartment above the garage. I got out and joined the rubberneckers to see two feet sticking out from under a blanket. A reporter and photographer took a picture of the scene which became the front page photo announcing his death.That pic is burned into my mind.
I was only a recent convert to Nirvana and I never saw my neighbors band because I thought they would be around for a long time. Little did I know. Now if there is something or someone I want to see/do I don’t put it off. Life changes too quickly.
i keep thinking about this – i was in my second semester of college when he died. all my memories from the mid-90s are tied up with the years i spent in college there, so it’s hard to tease out a specific year.
i do remember that i heard about kurt cobain’s death from my dad, who probably said something like “one of your rock stars died.”
I actually wrote a story a few years ago based on what happened to me the day Kurt Cobain died. Early that afternoon I accidentally banged my head and gave myself a concussion. I didn’t realize this, so I tried to carry on as I normally would. While driving to work, I heard the news, and I felt like I already knew that he was dead. Like it was old news.
My boss’ son was 12 and a huge Nirvana fan. He came to the office after school, and I was the one who told him. I think I blogged about that around this time last year. Feel free to dig through the archives.
When I got home around 10 PM, my roommate was watching the endless loop of MTV coverage. She was distraught, but pulled it together enough to realize how loopy I was. We spent the rest of the evening in the emergency room, not getting home until 3 AM or so.
Since it was recommended that I stay awake, I spent the night sitting on my bedroom floor, burning incense, eating Easter candy, and listening to “Nevermind” over and over while the cool spring breeze blew in my window.
I was just thinking about 1994, because so many Chinese years tie together for me. This is another Year of the Dog.
I was working at a crappy temp cube farm job (which I might be doing this year, too, as I have been Notified and will be SOL come June–flashback!), and I had my headphones on listening to REV 105 when the news of Cobain’s suicide broke. I stood up, and then I saw a guy on the other side of the cube farm stand up with his headphones on, too. We were both in shock.
I ended up doing a lot of miserable job hopping until I finally gotinto a company that I would stay with for many years. Still the best job I ever had.
Lerren
06.Apr.06 at 12:13 pm
When cobain died, i was twelve, and i was having my own life troubles – nothing related to him, nirvana, any of it at all. But this is one of my most vivid memories from that year: I was enrolled in enrichment, at the time, which basically means every halfway smart freak was dumped in and forced to fight it out. A girl in my class, Jordanna, locked herself in her closet for four days (she was a *big* nirvana fan at the time), and there was talk of sending her to an asylum. It ended up that another girl in the class, Kaight (yes, that’s how she spelled it, pronounced rhyming w/ “hate”), who had spent significant time in said psychiatric care, ended up talking her out of it – i don’t think they spoke another word to each other, ever – even though we were all in the same classes through highschool.
Later on, (maybe even a year later, i don’t really remember), a number of my older friends (i was twelve/thirteen, they were seventeen/eighteen) and i drove, all day and all night, to seattle – i don’t remember any of seattle, but i remember the stars at night in montana, and i remember wondering how anyone could die not having seen that.
In 1994 I was finishing my final year of high school (Year 12 it’s called here in Australia). It was a big year for me, in that I woke up politically. So much was going on in the world, and because if it I started reading and really paying attention to the news. There was a lot in the news about Bosnia and Rwanda.
On the day he died I was driving down a dusty road at the back of where I kept my horse. I had Triple J on the radio and when the DJ announced it she cried. I remember it vividly because I’d just got my provisional license and it was one of the first times I drove a car on my own. I remember feeling such a sense of happiness and freedom. When they heard the news the station stopped playing music completely and took calls from listeners. There was so much crying. I remember pulling the car over and listening to the talkback for about 40 minutes on the side of the road while I tried to come to terms with the news.
Mitch, my best friend through Year 12 and I would listen to the song ‘About a Girl’ on repeat for days at a time. I remember lying on the cold grass at the back of his house in the dark, getting eaten constantly by mosquitos, listening to that song over and over again, while we talked for hours and told each other we would be friends forever. I haven’t spoken to him or seen him for about 6 years.
Every time I think of Kurt Cobain or Nirvana I think of Mitch.
The day they found Kurt Cobain I had driven to the bank and was coming home when I noticed that the entire street was filled with police, media and gawkers.
Did I mention I lived right down the street from Kurt and Courtney?
The police wouldn’t even let me down my own road. Knowing that he lived there I flipped on the local radio station to hear they were reporting a body found in his carriage house above the garage. At this time they didn’t know it was him.
So I drove around the back way and noticed a group of kids peering over the fence that got a straight view of the apartment above the garage. I got out and joined the rubberneckers to see two feet sticking out from under a blanket. A reporter and photographer took a picture of the scene which became the front page photo announcing his death.That pic is burned into my mind.
I was only a recent convert to Nirvana and I never saw my neighbors band because I thought they would be around for a long time. Little did I know. Now if there is something or someone I want to see/do I don’t put it off. Life changes too quickly.
i keep thinking about this – i was in my second semester of college when he died. all my memories from the mid-90s are tied up with the years i spent in college there, so it’s hard to tease out a specific year.
i do remember that i heard about kurt cobain’s death from my dad, who probably said something like “one of your rock stars died.”
I actually wrote a story a few years ago based on what happened to me the day Kurt Cobain died. Early that afternoon I accidentally banged my head and gave myself a concussion. I didn’t realize this, so I tried to carry on as I normally would. While driving to work, I heard the news, and I felt like I already knew that he was dead. Like it was old news.
My boss’ son was 12 and a huge Nirvana fan. He came to the office after school, and I was the one who told him. I think I blogged about that around this time last year. Feel free to dig through the archives.
When I got home around 10 PM, my roommate was watching the endless loop of MTV coverage. She was distraught, but pulled it together enough to realize how loopy I was. We spent the rest of the evening in the emergency room, not getting home until 3 AM or so.
Since it was recommended that I stay awake, I spent the night sitting on my bedroom floor, burning incense, eating Easter candy, and listening to “Nevermind” over and over while the cool spring breeze blew in my window.
I was just thinking about 1994, because so many Chinese years tie together for me. This is another Year of the Dog.
I was working at a crappy temp cube farm job (which I might be doing this year, too, as I have been Notified and will be SOL come June–flashback!), and I had my headphones on listening to REV 105 when the news of Cobain’s suicide broke. I stood up, and then I saw a guy on the other side of the cube farm stand up with his headphones on, too. We were both in shock.
I ended up doing a lot of miserable job hopping until I finally gotinto a company that I would stay with for many years. Still the best job I ever had.
When cobain died, i was twelve, and i was having my own life troubles – nothing related to him, nirvana, any of it at all. But this is one of my most vivid memories from that year: I was enrolled in enrichment, at the time, which basically means every halfway smart freak was dumped in and forced to fight it out. A girl in my class, Jordanna, locked herself in her closet for four days (she was a *big* nirvana fan at the time), and there was talk of sending her to an asylum. It ended up that another girl in the class, Kaight (yes, that’s how she spelled it, pronounced rhyming w/ “hate”), who had spent significant time in said psychiatric care, ended up talking her out of it – i don’t think they spoke another word to each other, ever – even though we were all in the same classes through highschool.
Later on, (maybe even a year later, i don’t really remember), a number of my older friends (i was twelve/thirteen, they were seventeen/eighteen) and i drove, all day and all night, to seattle – i don’t remember any of seattle, but i remember the stars at night in montana, and i remember wondering how anyone could die not having seen that.