Fun with Death

Deceased rock star and catalyst for my rock-n-roll awakening Kurt Cobain is the subject of a new documentary. Friends Brandon, John, and I went to Nashville's Belcourt Theater to see About A Son last night. The film consists of video/images of Washington towns Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle, and audio from Cobain himself. Cobain's voiceover is taken from Michael Azerrad's interview tapes for his book Come As You Are. The film gives insight into the mind of Cobain and the childhood, physical ailments, contradictory personality, and general grouchiness that so heavily inspired his music.

There are no Nirvana songs. No live footage of the band. No entertaining of conspiracy theories about his death. No chest-beating about how they changed music. It is a very real portrait of Cobain and the towns, landscape and culture that molded him. Check it out if you can.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, check out this highly entertaining and informative cartoon on the death industry and the impact of our decaying bodies on the earth. If Cobain made cartoons, they might have looked something like this. Fascinating stuff.

College Basketball Returns

A wonderful essay from my friend, Kyle Whelliston of ESPN fame. Kyle once stayed at my house during a trip to cover the Hilltoppers. I've known him since his days as "that 100 games guy."

Anyway, this is a great essay, even if you do not like basketball--and I expect you might like college basketball a bit more if you read it.

Conferences in basketball make things special. They give teams from counties and regions home-and-home shots at each other each winter: Kent and Akron in the MAC, the Metro Atlantic's Manhattan-Iona and Canisius-Niagara pairings, Lafayette and Lehigh in the Patriot, the Big West's Irvine and Long Beach. There are state skirmishes too: Montana-Montana State in the Big Sky, Arkansas and Arkansas-Little Rock. Sometimes they clash over the rights to a name: Saint Francis must be somewhere up there, checking in twice a year to see which NEC team (PA or NY) is wearing his name more proudly.

I will be writing more on my hoops blog from now on. I'll link here whenever I write something that crosses hoops into this space. Of course, I'd argue that hoops ALWAYS does that...

Hey Kids: GO TO CHURCH

Does going to church help offset being born into disadvantaged life circumstances?

Journalist Melissa Lafsky reports that the answer appears to be: YES.

Overall, we find strong evidence that youth with religiously active parents are less affected later in life by childhood disadvantage than youth whose parents did not frequently attend religious services.

About A Son

Did the band Nirvana serve as an efficient conduit for your teenage angst? Did you enjoy watching hair metal die a not-so-slow, excruciating death? Did you buy a $150 Lotus guitar, a stomp box, a beat-up crap amp and start plowing through songs from the "Nevermind" album, willingly shredding your vocals chords on a daily basis?

YOU DID?!?!? Well, then you might need to see Kurt Cobain About A Son. It's a new documentary about Cobain and it seems that all of the dialog in the film is his own voice. It's lifted from clips of interviews and recordings largely unheard to this point.

I think I want some water to put out the blow torch of my excitement.

Poopeating Grin

A call to ingest more fecal matter from Slate.com.

Our food is hosed and boiled and rinsed and detoxified and frozen and salted and preserved. Recently, we have begun to irradiate it, too—just in case. As a result, when our bodies encounter the occasional inevitable bug, they're unhappy. Our centuries-long program of winnowing out all the muck has turned us into sissies and withered the substantial part of the immune system mediated by our intestinal tract.

This is why I do not feel so badly about letting my nine-month-old lick floors and chew on our 100-year-old traveling wardrobe which serves as our coffee table.

I think I'll ask for a side of axle grease and a splash of poo with my oatmeal at Teresa's on Friday.

Woman Sues Apple Over $200 Price Cut

You knew it was a matter of time. EDIT: Link has been corrected.

According to Li's lawsuit, filed on Sept. 24 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, the price reduction injured early purchasers like herself because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the cell phone following the price cut.

Li purchased a 4GB iPhone for $499 and alleged that owners of the 4GB model were given less favorable terms than those who bought the 8GB model at the premium price, according to the lawsuit.

I hate shady business dealings. I hate stupid litigation even more.

Radiohead for the Cost of Plain Ol' Radio

Radiohead is releasing a new album. And, folks may download it for whatever they wish to pay. The band is letting consumers set their own price.

This sort of idea is right up Freakonomics author Steven Levitt's alley. He blogged about it today.

What does this mean for music? If one of the biggest bands in the world is giving away their music (or, more accurately, just setting out the e-tip jar), what does that mean for record companies, iTunes, etc.? If people can get Radiohead for free or for their own price, will this be an even greater incentive to not pay for "lesser" music?

Riveting stuff. Brandon/Justin/Derek(s), I expect you will have excellent insight/thoughts here. No pressure.