Results tagged “kurtcobain”

Recent Manhattanite Frances Bean broke the 140-character rule on Twitter (like mother, like daughter) and penned an open letter to Lindsay's lil' sis on Long Island, Ali Lohan. Add your own [sic]s:

During his final days as he suffered from pneumonia and hep C, Jim Carroll had returned home to the same Inwood apartment where he was raised and detailed in his classic, Carroll went back to Inwood to save money and work on his first novel (which he finished!) in the apartment now decorated simply with a poetry event poster and a photo-triptych of Kurt Cobain. A friend of his tells the Times, “There’s a lot of the poetic there, of coming full circle."

This week we saw the new Guitar Hero 5 featuring the late Kurt Cobain. Who approved this? Who knows, but no one is willing to take credit for the avatar, which once unlocked can move beyond the Nirvana catalog and plays tunes by Bush, Bon Jovi and other bands Mr. Cobain would have likely never covered without a slight ironic half-smile on his face. Stereogum aggregates the fallout, which pitted Courtney Love against Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Activision. "Courtney Love very calmly took to Twitter to call out Activision and threaten filing suit. In her words: 'FOR THE RECORD I DID NOT APPROVE KURTS AVATAR FOR GUYITARHERO5. i think Kurt would despise this game alone let alone this avatar ... WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises'." Once the internet got a hold of all this, a statement from Grohl and Novoselic landed in our inbox, stating in part, "We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate—we have no control whatsoever in that area. It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."

It's really no secret that C. Lo has been dealing with some serious cash flow problems. Even if one isn't able to translate her many rants on MySpace or Twitter, there tends to be a common theme to the tirades involving mysterious Cobains popping up around the country and buying houses with her and Frances Bean's money. Or something. On March 18th she wrote, in part:

"we were just looking at Cobains over 100 years of age, there are none so these peopel ALL HAVE PROPERTY< they all own PROPERTY, there are 1000s and 1000s of these using my and my daughters surname. Kurt is DEAD. yet he owns under his ssn over 2000 properties, under a few other names even more, do you get it? they stole HIS money were forced to use HIS surname and bought REAL property."

Fifteen years ago today, Kurt Cobain died at the age of 27—he was found three days later inside of his home in Seattle. That day many fans of the band came home from school or work to see this MTV Kurt Loder broadcast (which we don't remember him delivering quite so detached). Soon after, Loder talked to Courtney Love—that year, 1994, she lost both her husband and her friend/bandmate Kristen Pfaff. Today fans are gathered, as they are every year, at the unofficial memorial of the singer: a bench in Viretta Park in Seattle (Cobain has no gravesite).

Last night Jesse Frohman's "In Bloom" exhibit opened at SoHo Grand's gallery, and Papermag describes it as "epic," twice (doubly epic!). The show features Frohman's now 14-year-old images of Kurt Cobain, and allegedly some photos of flowers. He told the website, "This shoot was supposed to be a five hour shoot. We had to do it in 15 minutes. It was crazy." It took place in NYC just before Cobain's death, and the singer arrived 3 hours late, looking exactly how he does in the photographs. But why show the seven photographs, from one photo shoot, now...is this just one more person trying to capitalize on Cobain? Could he be using his 15 minutes with the icon to get his, you know, 15 minutes? Whatever the reason, the show runs through January 31st, and images from the shoot are available for purchase in multiple places online.

The New Museum unveiled its new exhibit, After Nature, yesterday. Running through September 21st, they say it's a departure from "the fictional documentaries of Werner Herzog" and instead draws inspiration (and its title) from W.G. Sebald's book...though rapture, ruins and environmental disasters also acted as muses. Bringing together 26 international artists on three gallery floors, expect to take in paintings, photographs, installations, films, writings, and living sculptures. Perhaps the most jarring piece is the headless horse emerging from the wall (created out of taxidermied horse skin). As an aside: Williamsburg clothing label Love Brigade also has a limited edition shirt from their “Love, Kurt” line, inspired by the artwork of Kurt Cobain, for sale at the museum (in conjunction with the exhibit).

ART: "Drawing Art and Politics" seems like a fitting event to have on the calendar today. "Spend an evening with New York’s renowned graphic artists Jules Feiffer, David Levine, Stan Mack, and Edward Sorel, as they examine the ways in which complex social and political issues are depicted by artists in today’s media. Jules Feiffer will moderate a discussion that explores the roots of political art and social realism in the context of John Sloan’s early 20th-century illustrations of New Yorkers engaging in routine pastimes and pleasures. Presented in conjunction with John Sloan’s New York." More info here.

MOVIE: Tonight the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series delivers two very different films. First up is The French Riviera, described as "a road documentary that follows a truck driver on a mission to earn enough money selling ice cream in the Icelandic countryside to go on a vacation on a French beach."

READING: Our interviewee from yesterday, Adrian Tomine, will be reading tonight at Book Court. The graphic novelist not only has his work in some of the more prestigious rags, he's also got a full length graphic novel, titled Shortcomings.

EVENT: All week long Lower Manhattan has become a stage. Today, "watching from behind a window overlooking the site, viewers observe Bill Shannon and crew engage with the public space and pedestrian traffic in their freestyle performance that taps into the hip-hop/skateboard tradition of street improvisation. The distance between audience and performers is mitigated by holographic screens and live audio and video mixing by special guests." DJ Excess will be on hand for some live audio mixing. More info here.

As we heard last week, Doc Martens released upon the world a new ad campaign starring some familiar faces: Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone. The deceased musicians were depicted wearing the shoes in "heaven," but there was no approval for using their images. Courtney Love promptly issued a statement, the ad company was fired and Doc Martens - though apologetic - looked really, really bad. Now Joey Ramone's brother, Mickey Leigh, has issued the following statement:

Courtney Love (who recently sold some of her own stuff on Ebay) has announced she'll be putting almost all of Kurt Cobain's belongings up for auction at Christie's.

MUSIC: It's hard to believe Kurt Cobain would have been 40 today. In celebration of his birthday and life there will be live performances of Nirvana albums Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero from Daouets, The Domestics, and Schwervon with some other musical guests. Bring flannel, your inner teen angst, and rock out like it's the early 90s.

Coming to an off Broadway stage near you this March: Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison in "27 Heaven". About, you guessed it, the most prominent members of The 27 Club. No word yet on where the show will run, the press release states that it's "the featured act at this year’s prestigious National Arts Club annual benefit on March 16 in New York...27 Heaven begins an extended run in New York’s off Broadway District in March 2007". The National Arts Club’s board members include Martin Scorcese, Uma Thurman and Robert Redford.

You know how this story goes, though. Reality tv and other shows replaced videos, and the only videos aired anymore are the same ones over and over again (you've seen TRL, right?) So today the channel turns 25, and has become way less mature since we stopped watching in the early-mid 90's.

Note: a few people were uncomfortable with the picture of Lindsay that we used on this post, so we took it down. We got the warning label from this fun site. Peace and love, y'all!

PARTY: Neighborhoodies is having a dance party at Rififi this Saturday. Wear that clever t-shirt you made and get ready to dance, dance, dance. Click on the flyer to the right for more info.

Tonight, be sure to catch a sneak peak at this summer’s upcoming movies: MoMA’s Department of Film and Media presents Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, inspired and "loosely" based on Kurt Cobain’s last days before his suicide (with Michael Pitt as the struggling, Seattle-based grungy musician), at 9:00 PM, as well as Van Sant’s Elephant at 7:00 PM. $10

, at the Bryant Park Reading Room as part of Coliseum Books’ “Word for Word” lunchtime reading series.

Just the other day someone mentioned to us a rock photography exhibit at the Guggenheim. And we hadn't heard of it! Shocking, since a giant book of old rockstar images on glossy pages compose the top shelf of our nightstand. There is just something about the genre we love.

What if Seattle rock legend Kurt Cobain had married a local Pacific Northwestern Phil Collins-loving waitress instead of Courtney Love? And what if the Cobain-esque rock star had left behind one special song when he died, so special that his widow clings to it, not sharing it with the world, and prompting freak groupie types to try to do anything to get their hands on it? Playwright Christopher Shinn (Four, Where Do We Live) runs with this idea in his new work On The Mountain, with its New York premiere currently being presented at Playwrights Horizons, one of Gothamist's favorite not-for-profit theater companies.

Last time Courtney was in a NYC court, she re-did the courtroom sketch of herself. And she was admitted to Bellevue during the summer, though not to their psych ward. Of course, her marriage to Kurt Cobain was Law & Ordered...and her issues with custody of daughter Frances Bean Cobain were Kevin Hill-ed.

Rob Sacher, Co-owner Luna Lounge

Also, check out our new sections: Ask Gothamist for advice on things like who to give up your subway seat to and Gothamist Weather on the weather and more (kite-flying, anyone?). And if you haven't read the amazing Gothamist Interview with Clay Shirky? Plus the week in full.

For more about Kurt Cobain and the ten year anniversary of his death, check out LA Weekly's 13 Ways of Looking at Nirvana. MSN also has a pretty extensive feature on Kurt Cobain, Black Table has thoughts from notable writers about the death/legacy of Cobain, and there's an L.A. Times article (via Newsday) written by Cobain biographer Charles Cross, who wrote Heavier than Heaven. Plus more links via Coolfer. And On This Day in History.

Man, if Courtney Love thinks taking her case to Rush & Molloy is going to win her some support, she clearly is insane. Love talks to the Daily News' gossip mongers in order to give a glimpse into her mental health, as she tries to get custody of poor little Frances Bean back, after Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services placed her 11 year-old child with Kurt's mother, Wendy O'Connor when police arrested Love for, oh, being under the influence of controlled substance (and breaking the windows of her ex-boyfriend's house) and overdosing on OxyContin. Some gems:

Gothamist wasn't sure what was more distressing about an episode of the Osbournes that was rerun yesterday: Seeing Jack Osbourne fall for the cute blonde houseguest of Courtney Love or seeing Courtney Love. Probably Courtney Love, who walked around in her underwear and changed in front of the camera and just acts like the crazy person she must be. L.A. Department of Children's Services - get Frances Bean out! And lest you think that Courtney's houseguest was Kato-like or some poor girl whose job it would be to pleasure Courtney or revive Courtney after some night on the town, the object of Jack's affections is Brieann O'Connor, half-sister of Kurt Cobain.

100 Best Songs?
Gothamist takes aim at VH1's stupid new list (yes, an easy target, but still fun) with some of their and their readers' favorites.

"I like punk rock. I like girls with weird eyes. I like drugs. (But my body and mind won't allow me to take them.) I like passion. I like playing my cards wrong. I like vinyl. I like to feel guilty for being a white, American male. I love to sleep. I like to taunt small, barking dogs in parked cars. I like to make people feel happy and superior in their reaction towards my appearance. I like to have strong opinions with nothing to back them up with besides my primal sincerity. I like sincerity. I lack sincerity ... I like to complain and do nothing to make things better." Salon's feature about the upcoming release of Kurt Cobain's journals