Kurt Cobain died!

I think it was a Saturday afternoon in April 1994 and I decided to head into the city and just check out the sights, maybe go to the mall and just wander. I liked to do that when I was young and still do very much to this day, just wander, get lost for a little while, discover, do some people watching, take in the city and its sounds, its smells, its people. And I don’t mind doing it alone either.  And that is what I was doing on this particular day, heading into Central, Hong Kong alone on the 6a bus from the bustling Stanley Village on the southside of Hong Kong Island to the metropolis of the city and its many skyscrapers, hotels, apartment buildings, vibrant neon street signs and people, LOTS of people…. 

 I put my money, some loose change into the bus driver’s cash slot to pay for my fare, it was definitely not the correct fare amount, I usually just threw a whole load of random pennies and change (making it seem like a lot more than it was) and hope that the bus driver wouldn’t realise I hadn’t paid the right amount. And usually they didn’t realise or at least they never said anything. The 6a was relatively quiet today and I headed up to the top of the double decker bus and to the back of the bus and sat down. I went to get out my yellow Sony Walkman and listen to music at full blast, I was listening to my cassette tape of Nirvana’s Never Mind, one of my very favourite music albums. I noticed there was a newspaper in the seat in front of me, that day’s South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s biggest newspaper. I picked it up and started to look at the front page and I saw the headline “Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain DEAD…” 

 I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading, this was the first time I had really felt this kind of emotion when hearing of someone famous dying, especially someone like Kurt Cobain who was so young, who apparently had the world at his feet and whose art and music had meant a lot to me so far in my young life, it was quite surreal, really. I started to look at the liner notes/booklet of my Never Mind album cassette tape and I just started to listen to the album start to finish, though I do remember starting on the song Drain You (track number 8 on the album) first and I just listened to the album full blast and was staring at Kurt Cobain’s face in the pictures and looking at the headline in the South China Morning Post and I just went a little numb for a while, staring into his eyes, daydreaming and just wondering, thinking what could’ve been going on in this man’s mind and life. Sad, just sad…. 

 Needless to say Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s music will always be a huge part of my life and my life’s soundtrack...

ps; I just re-created that same moment just now upon the date of publishing this post (Tuesday 8th December 2020, the 40th anniversary of the day John Lennon was murdered), listening to "Drain You" (posted below) and looking at the very same image below, I was back there on the 6a bus in Hong Kong 26 years ago once more and I felt it again, deeply....
 

This Year's Love (Under rated British film) - 1999

Just watched British film "This Year's Love" for the first time in years.  This was always a real favourite of mine and vastly under rated in my opinion.  I'm not sure many people I know actually really liked, enjoyed or even ever saw the film and it certainly wasn't a huge commercial success at the time.

Written and directed by David Kane - the film features an impressive ensemble cast featuring the likes of Kathy Burke, Dougray Scott, Ian Hart, Jennifer Ehle, Douglas Henshall and Catherine McCormack. 

Original theatrical poster (1999).

The film also features British singer/songwriter (unsigned at the time) and chart topper David Gray as the lead singer in a pub band, I was then immediately hooked on Gray's voice and music after watching this film at the cinema - which, by the way, I watched on my lonesome at the old Odeon at The Stack Leisure Park in Dundee, Scotland with barely half a dozen other people in the auditorium also.

David Gray in cameo role.

The film is set and filmed almost entirely on location, in and around the trendy Camden Town area of North London and centres around the lives of 6 people over the course of 3 years and their relationships and how their lives intertwine with one another.

Camden Town - London, England.

Funny, sad, at times tense, touching and with a lot of heart - I think the reason I love this film so much is that it has a realistic, contemporary quality to it and I can relate in many ways with the lead characters as they are all flawed, real and humane. 

Scottish actor Dougray Scott as artist Cameron.

The film also boasts a great soundtrack too, which is always a good thing; including the film's opening number; Welsh band Stereophonics'  "Just Looking".  I really liked the song and, at the time, I actually thought that it was a new song from Bryan Adams as I felt Kelly Jones' voice resembled him a little and I hadn't actually heard Stereophonics' music before watching This Year's Love.

 The film also captures a time and place (mid to late 90s, pre-millennium) that I feel is rather long gone now, which pretty much makes this film now a period piece.  There was an energy and buzz around London and Britain at that time.  I can relate so much to this film in almost all the characters in different ways, being a young adult trying to find and feel my way in the real world. 

At the end of the day, the film is really entertaining, makes me smile and you just have a really good time with it - which is why we watch films, isn't it?  To be entertained.  Check it out if you can.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Wwq5gQCgbE8