smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "bryan" <munki100@pacbell.net> |
| Subject | Re: Cobain + 10 |
| Date | Mon, 5 Apr 2004 23:13:06 -0700 |
[Part 1 text/plain iso-8859-1 (3.9 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
Dale wrote:
> In any news event I'm always fascinated by the round the clock coverage
> and the reaching for something new to say when there's no news. Peter
> Jennings and Dan Rather are pros at it, but the MTV news staff wasn't quite
> up to the task.
Ok, I wasn't going to chime in but I sorta feel like I have
to -- I was interviewed by a reporter for the local ABC
news station KABC here in L.A. ten years ago today,
about Cobain's death. I was working at the Virgin
Megastore in Hollywood at the time.
Earlier that day, a kid had come in and said "did you
hear that Kurt Cobain offed himself?" It was the first
I'd heard of it, and like many, I didn't believe it right
away, but then it sorta dawned on me that it might be
true. At lunchtime I saw the news on TV, and thought,
oh my gawd, I wonder if the news crews are going to
come into the store and interview sad Nirvana fans. I
wondered if there might be a run on the CDs, too, since
I was responsible for helping to keep stock on the floor.
Sure enough, I got back from lunch and the KABC
reporter was there. But no Nirvana fans came in. I told
the reporter, off camera, that Nirvana fans already had
the CDs, and most likely they were home watching MTV.
As I recall, *no one* came in and bought Nirvana CDs,
even after I'd brought up a bunch from the basement to
put into a rack by the door (feeling queasy about it, but
just doin' my job, y'know?)
The reporter hung out for awhile longer and finally asked
if they could interview some of the staff at the store. My
manager came down and said, "no," and expressed that
he didn't want anyone wearing a Virgin employee t-shirt
to say anything about sales, or the effects of a person's
death on sales, or whatever. So the reporter hung out...
and finally, begged me to ask the manager if they could
interview someone on the staff when they were off work.
He finally said "Ok," but no one -- myself included --
wanted to be asked about Cobain's death in an interview.
So, I got off work, clocked out, changed my shirt and
started to leave, and the reporter -- who had been there
most of the afternoon -- came over and said "c'mon,
you're a Nirvana fan, aren't you?" and pretty much
begged me to say something. I finally said, "ok," so we
went outside, in the courtyard. The lights and camera
went on, and he started asking me about sales....I stopped
him and said, "I can't talk about that." I reminded him
what the manager had said. So we started again. I said
something innocuous like "here's a guy who is married
with a kid, and a career, and kids love him -- and still
he kills himself, so he must really have been struggling
with depression." Something like that. Lights and camera
went off, the reporter thanked me, and that was that....
So, I get home, and sure enough, it's on the 5pm or 6pm
news (forget which), and I'm featured prominently in the
interview, looking like a long-haired dork, saying something
stupid about depression and whatever. Under my name
it said "Nirvana fan." I thought, well at least that's that --
it's over. But no....the story was, of course, picked up by
the national ABC news, with Peter Jennings, and once
again, my mug is right there on the national news saying
whatever it is that I said to that local L.A. reporter...
And then, the most amazing thing happened -- a TON of
people saw it, people I hadn't seen in years and years,
and I started getting comments from people in the store,
who recognized me, and it just kept going and going....
When I went to my high school reunion (I think it was
in 2001; they combined several graduating classes), there
were people there that I hadn't seen since high school
who had remembered seeing me on the national news on
April 5, 1994 --
So, now I *never* talk to reporters!!
Bryan
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.648 / Virus Database: 415 - Release Date: 3/31/04
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.