Kurt Cobain’s Writing at Age 24

Here is a note that Kurt Cobain wrote in a battered Mead 3 Subject notebook at age 24.  It is about his love for music and his family’s role in cementing this passion.

Even before the grunge prodigy was born, his love of music was nurtured well at home — factors that led to a legendary era of rock as we know it today, the potent music of Nirvana.

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The Art of Travel According to Alain de Botton

Book Review of The Art of Travel by Alain De Botton

Traveling widens human potential.  I believe it hastens maturity and allows you to understand living in a convincing manner. When I say convincing, it means you are the object of the experience,  neither the observer nor the critic, you are in the story and leading it.

If you are asked, why do you travel? We usually say for pleasure. But Alain’s skill for dissecting the mundane is impressive in this book.  While reading it, I needed to re-asses my own travels and remember how it felt then. As a habit, I am observant, even taking pictures of the common and creating a story out of it.  An example is the picture below which I described in my blog:

This blue-eyed guy in his late 40s was waiting for his wife while they took turns in going to the restroom and attending to their travel stuff. He was wearing a Marmot jacket, Reebok sandals, owns a Jetpak bag and browsing the Lonely Planet travel guide to the Philippines. He must be an accomplished mountain trekker from Alaska, and they were like having a retirement vacation across Asia. But their Jetpak luggage reveals that they might be based in Sweden or in Europe. After twenty minutes, they left for Cebu, judging from the timing they heard the boarding call.

To look back at this moment offers some clarity for me, and I certainly knew there was something good in remembering this particular moment.  Until I have read more of Alain De Botton’s Art of Travel.

In his book, he has divided the discussion of The Art of Travel into five parts: Departure, Motives, Landscape, Art and Return. A review is not supposed to reveal the plot nor the core of the story, but I needed write how I understood each part of traveling.  Some spoiler from hereon I reckon, so be warned (I assure you though, my ability to explain is far more inferior than that of Alain’s).

The Wizards Of The Westman Islands by Jarvis Cocker

Here’s a little Icelandic tale for you lovers of stories and musings, read by Jarvis Cocker of the English pop band Pulp himself. It’s called the The Wizards of Vestmannaeyjar,  Jarvis will tell you the rest for the next seven minutes.  You can also read it from the book  Scandinavian folk belief and legend (page 165).

The Westman Island is the archipelago you’ll find south coast of Iceland, Norse Mythology fills its earlier understanding of gods and where the Black Death ravaged the lands in the mid-late-14th century.

I am wondering painfully on what the happened in the end, tell me what you think… it’s a burden thinking about it ’til now, I’m looking at any catch anywhere in the story. Is it mere love or your usual folk tale that renders children wanting for more?

Download 7-minute reading here