Nirvana - Taking Punk to the Masses EMP Exhibit

Finally had a chance to tour the new Nirvana exhibit at the Experience Music Project (EMP). Rather than spending a lot of wordage, here are photos + captions to tell the story:

There's been lots of Love Buzz about this exhibit. I was beyond antsy to see it. Here's the entrance.

I love these old relics: cassette tapes and the Vogue define the early days - not that I, being underage, could get in to the Vogue!

Beyond radness. RIP The Rocket - so thrilled that I got the chance to intern there in the later days. This magazine introduced me to music journalism.

Kurt lyrics.

"I may go far if I smash my guitar."

In Utero stage angel. Hard to fathom these survived the carnage of a live Nirvana show. I recall looking up to this from the pit at the Live and Loud show. Ugly and gorgeous at once.

The infamous naked-baby shot, which became Nevermind's cover. The scribbled note at the top says, "If anyone has a problem with his dick we can take it out." Ha!

It was strangely surreal to see that green shirt. I bought - and wore frequently - a similar one in the early 90s to emulate Kurt. Next to it is the MTV award given to Nirvana - inscribed for "Smells like Team Spirit." Whoops.

You know that crazy-famous action shot of Kurt leaping into a drumset? This is it. The tour guide said this had just been hung in the exhibit recently.

Pat Smear's instantly recognizable guitar from "MTV Unplugged." 

Marshall red.

That's Kurt as Barney and Pat Smear as Slash at a Halloween show.

A wall of memories. The aftermath of grunge - the mid 90s. 

The yellow sweater Kurt wore in "Teen Spirit." How badly I wanted to reach into the glass to a) touch it and b) smell it - because I bet that it did not smell like teen spirit. 

I’ve been wanting to crack that joke for a few weeks now.

But now that seems mindless. Because as I loaded these pictures from my camera onto my computer, I had a moment with this image. For a split second, as I flipped through the thumbnails, I thought this was a live shot of Kurt on stage.  I couldn’t figure out what shot I’d taken. Where did this one come from?

The blurry blond head in the photo’s background was, for a moment, Kurt mid-song, wearing the tattered sweater. The black gap in the cardigan – the space where his frame should be – was, temporarily, filled.

It's haunting. And, much like Kurt’s time on this earth – fleeting but forever.

If you want to see the EMP exhibit, get there before April 2012.