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  • Kurt Cobain Day In Aberdeen, Washington

    Kurt Cobain Day In Aberdeen, Washington

    Aberdeen is celebrating what would have been Kurt Cobain’s 47th birthday by making February 20 the official Kurt Cobain Day in the city.

    Cobain, grunge band Nirvana’s front man, was born in Aberdeen in 1967. He had a turbulent childhood and struggled with his parents’ divorce. He also dropped out of high school and was known to be a rebel. Through his teen years, Cobain moved to different homes and at one time even lived under a bridge.

    Cobain then formed Nirvana together with bassist Krist Novoselic who also lived in the area. Nirvana’s first few band practices were held in Aberdeen, but they eventually moved to Washington’s state capital, Olympia, before finally settling down in Seattle.

    For Kurt Cobain Day, city officials are planning to unveil a statue of the late rocker, which will be located at the Aberdeen Museum of History. The statue was a tribute that the city refused to accept 2 decades ago. After Cobain’s suicide in 1994, Randi Hubbard started making the cement statue, which was finished with the help of art students. They offered the statue to the city, but were refused.

    Some residents of Aberdeen did not want the statue, due to Cobain’s drug addiction and negative comments he made about the city. Mayor Bill Simpson says that the statue is being erected to honor Cobain’s contributions to the music industry.

    Kurt Cobain Day will be celebrated with the performance of Gebular, a local band. Aaron Burckhard, Nirvana’s first drummer, and Warren Mason, Cobain’s guitar teacher, will also be making an appearance at the event. The museum will also be displaying a couch that Cobain once used.

    Aberdeen Museum of History gets about 5,000 visitors yearly. With the addition of Cobain’s cement statue, city officials are expecting the number to increase.

    Nirvana will be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10.

    ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (Live)

    Image via YouTube

  • Kurt Cobain’s Childhood Home For Sale

    The childhood home of iconic Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is up for sale in Aberdeen, Washington, about 2 hours southwest of Seattle, The property comes complete with an old mattress the singer once slept on, a sort of ultra-ridic package to compliment the Nirvana “In Utero” 20th anniversary box set.

    The ramshackle 1923 house is being put on the market by Cobain’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, for roughly $500,000, and comes complete with stained carpeting, rotting wooden shingles on some interior walls, and a recent coat of yellow paint. The 1.5 story bungalow, appraised at less than $67.000, is on East 1st Street in Aberdeen.

    Cobain’s sister, Kim Cobain, said in an emailed statement, “we’ve decided to sell the home to create a legacy for Kurt, and yes, there are some mixed feelings since we have all loved the home and it carries so many great memories. But our family has moved on from Washington, and (we) feel it’s time to let go of the home.” The family is using photos from Cobain’s early life to help sell the property, and the walls in the house still feature holes the artist punched in, as well as stenciled-in band names like Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin.

    Cobain’s parents bought the house when he was two, and he’d lived there until he was 9 when his parents divorced, and then moved back in during his teen years. Charles R. Cross, author of the Cobain biography, “Heavier Than Heaven,” said in an interview that the house was “a place where he (Cobain) had very fond memories, but it’s the house where his parents got divorced,” adding, “he couldn’t wait to get away, but it’s a place that helped shape who he became.”

    According to Beverly Hills-based real estate firm The Agency, the house features the original dining room table and hutch from when Cobain lived there, and his mattress is stashed in a musty upstairs crawl space. In 2002, a nearby house was sold in Montesano for $42,500. When the owners learned that Cobain had lived there from ages 11 to 15, they flipped it for $210,000.

    In a study featured in the New York Times, people appear to buy celebrity memorabilia because they seem to think that some sort of essence is locked inside of the object, and that said essence might somehow be contagious. So, the sellers best be sure not to wash that mattress, as any potential buyer might lose their chance at gleaning talent from it.

    Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.