Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 930

How Would Kurt Cobain Feel About his Childhood Home Being Sold as a Shrine?

Because purchasing a massive 43-track deluxe reissue of In Utero isn't quite enough, the discerning Nirvana fan can now mark unofficial Nirvana Retrospective Month with a slightly more prestigious piece of real estate—literally. Surprise: it's the 1.5-story Aberdeen house where an innocent childhood Cobain fiddled with a piano and, years later, where a maladjusted teenage Cobain sulked and dropped out of high school before being kicked out by his mother. Smells like teen spirit, indeed.

As the Associated Press reports, Wendy O’Connor (better known as "Kurt's mom") is selling the dingy house for $500,000, which is admittedly a little more than the $67,000 the house was last assessed at. But the house does offer shiny amenities like Cobain's mattress, the holes he put in the walls, and the spot where the budding rock star scrawled "I hate Mom, I hate Dad" after his parents' divorce. These are valuable artifacts, especially considering Cobain's family is interested in turning it into a museum: 

It’s a short walk from a riverfront park dedicated to Cobain’s memory, and the family said it would welcome a partnership to make the home into a museum. His room still has the stencil-like band names—Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin—he reportedly put on the walls, as well as the holes he put in them.

“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,” Cobain’s sister, Kim Cobain, said in an emailed statement

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some are creeped out by the sale:

Saving the mattress of your dead son for future profit is one thing, tying it to a box set release is another. http://t.co/hrsXyDfPCE

— Jessica Hopper (@jesshopp) September 25, 2013

way to profit off your dead son Ms. Cobain

— Kim Fearon (@KIMFEARON) September 25, 2013

[image error]Of course, historic preservation is a fine thing, but for a rocker as tortured as Cobain was, it's tough not to wonder what the guy would make of all this hubbub. Would he smile and cheer at the thought of his childhood home being sold for almost a hundred times the budget of Bleach and shuffled into a shrine? Maybe. But, based on what he had to say about the corrosive power of fame, probably not. 

Cobain's intense discomfort with celebrity has been no great secret—the frontman jokingly introduced his band as "major label corporate-rock sell-outs" and once quipped that if he went to jail, at least he "wouldn't have to sign autographs." His biographer, Michael Azerrad, characterized him as "very ambivalent about being a multi-platinum celebrity," a topic Cobain breached in his 1994 suicide letter:

The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I'm having 100% fun. Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage. I've tried everything within my power to appreciate it (and I do, God, believe me I do, but it's not enough). I appreciate the fact that I and we have affected and entertained a lot of people. It must be one of those narcissists who only appreciate things when they're gone. I'm too sensitive. I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasms I once had as a child.

So do we really need to put the house where those childhood "enthusiasms" were stirred on display so his family can make a buck? We've already got the singer's private journals on sale for $18.38 to go along with the aforementioned suicide note; hoisting up his teenage mattress as a shrine seems a bit gratuitous. Museums are great, but for Kurt Cobain, the music is a fine enough museum already.

All photos: Associated Press.

       

Michigan Bill Would Allow Agencies to Refuse Adoptions on Religious Grounds

If a bill in the Michigan House becomes law, state adoption agencies will be able to refuse to place children in homes on religious grounds, all in the name of those agencies' "religious freedom." The bill, with strong support from the Michigan Catholic Conference, would also prohibit the state from refusing funding to discriminatory agencies. It's part of a
    

George H.W. Bush Quietly Endorses (One) Same-Sex Marriage

At a wedding this past weekend, former president George H.W. Bush was a witness at a same-sex marriage in Maine. There's even photographic evidence, complete with the elder Bush's amazing socks: the couple, Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, posted a photo of the elder Bush, signing the paperwork, to Facebook this week: 

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As The Washington Post notes, Bush's office confirmed the president's participation, but made it clear that Bush's participation in the wedding wasn't a political statement: “They were private citizens attending a private ceremony for two friends," spokesperson Jim McGrath said. George W. Bush, earlier this year, said that he "shouldn't be taking a speck out of someone else's eye when I have a log in my own," in response to a question about the conflict between Christian values and gay marriage, while H.W.'s granddaughter Barbara has openly supported gay marriage. 

       

BuzzFeed Attempts to End Cory Booker's Senate Run with Stripper Tweets and GIFs

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BuzzFeed has put its readers through the same sort of torture that stripper Lynsie Lee's customers pay her for — slow-building arousal, followed by nothing. What a tease! We get what BuzzFeed's Benny Johnson was going for in his exposé of Cory Booker's direct Twitter messages with a stripper, since the Newark mayor is in the middle of a senate race and illicit liaisons with sexy ladies tend to kill political careers. But Johnson's article takes us through a long photo-and-haha-GIF-heavy explanation of who the stripper, Lee, is, and how she knows Booker (they were in a movie about Twitter together), and what they have in common (pets). The post shows five exposed nipples, three erect nipples visible through a tank top, three bikini photos, and four GIFs. Yet it shows only two direct messages sent by Booker. Two banal direct messages. "And the East Coast loves you and by the East Coast, I mean me," Booker says. "Well now I'm blushing :)" Lee, replies. "It's only fair," Booker says. That's it.

The DMs were so banal, in fact, that conservatives immediately had to imagine a darker conspiracy was afoot. Booker, who is single, has said he doesn't want to indulge homophobia implicit in accusations that he's gay. He recently told The Washington Post:

"People who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, 'So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight.'"

A New Jersey Star-Ledger article from February 2, 2000 reported Booker said he was not gay, and wrote about overcoming his own homophobia in college. Even so, some immediately imagined Booker leaked the stripper DMs himself to push back against rumors that he's gay. 

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Fashion Designers Have Figured Out How to Monetize Video Chat

Skype announced Wednesday that it's producing a documentary project (or reality show, depending on who you ask) with Victoria Beckham. The former Spice Girl will let Skype film her fashion brand's studio, giving the consumer a peek into all the "pre-show cronut binges" as well as meetings and fittings. No word on whether people will want to watch something filmed entirely by Skype, but fashion fans are definitely interested in Beckham. This is Skype's first partnership with a fashion brand, but it's unlikely to be the last.

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Beckham's not the only designer to utilize video chat to bring the average consumer behind-the-scenes access to the fashion world. Parisian designer Kenzo is broadcasting its fashion show from Paris on Sunday via a Google+ hangout. According to Fashionista, "a team of 'Kenzo reporters' will be on the ground at the brand’s runway show, capturing behind-the-scenes video that will be immediately available to anyone signed up to the hangout." The Kenzo/Google collaboration comes with merchandise, too. Designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim created a pouch for Google's Nexus 7 tablet, which will be available in October for 85 euros.

Google Glass-aficionado Diane von Furstenberg announced this week she too would use Google+ hangout, and she's found a pretty explicit way to monetize the interaction. Her hangout will take place the evening of October 3rd on the Air app, and anyone who logs in can watch her answer questions while shopping her dresses right in the sidebar. Five lucky fans will actually get to ask the questions. You can see a demo of how the shopping sidebar works at right. Assuming all goes well, Rag & Bone, Rebecca Minkoff, and Rachel Zoe will also do Google+ shopping hangouts on the Air app. 

The fashion industry has been historically seen a world of exclusivity, but giving shoppers this kind of digital access is a great way to appear more egalitarian — and make money at the same time. Since a lot of business gets done via video chat these days, designers are comfortable with the medium. When Beckham was living in LA in 2010, she told the Telegraph, "most evenings, I'm curled up in front of Skype, in my dressing gown, speaking with my studio in London."

       

The Surprising, Exciting Second Life of 'Law & Order: SVU'

On a rainy Thursday night two weeks ago, I made my way to the Bryant Park Hotel, a swanky boutique place in midtown Manhattan, and watched an episode of Law & Order: SVU. Not in a suite or anything, but in the hotel's downstairs screening room. I was met by publicists from NBC and told to order something from the bar — a glass, OK two glasses, of pinot noir, in nice stemware! — and shook hands with SVU's current showrunner, Warren Leight. The screening room wasn't terribly big, so pretty soon I was sitting not far from a few of the show's stars: Richard Belzer, Danny Pino, and, commanding focus in a formfitting red dress, Mariska Hargitay. Leight gave a little speech before the episode, which played to gasps and applause, and then there was a cocktail reception where people mingled with Mariska.

It was an undeniably peculiar way to watch a show that, I think, most of us usually watch in our pajamas on the couch in some sort of Sunday afternoon rerun marathon. SVU, which is the last of the once-mighty Law & Order franchise, has been on since 1999; a whopping 319 episodes have already aired, likely to still be playing in syndication long after all of us are gone. The episode I saw in the screening room was the 320th, the premiere episode of show's fifteenth season. So why all the pomp and circumstance — well, free drinks at least — for this old dog? What's everyone so excited about? Well, as the intense, spare, and even artful episode showed, SVU has learned some new tricks of late, becoming one of the best dramas on network television in the process. It's a shift I'd noticed even before the free wine. (Honest, check my Twitter!)

The change started with the thirteenth season, when Leight, a Tony Award-winning playwright (Side Man) turned TV writer, was brought in to steer the ship in its new post-Chris Meloni era. Meloni, who played one half of the show's central will they/won't they pair of sex crime detectives (they didn't, in the end), left the show rather abruptly and took with him what had become, in some ways, the show's main dramatic engine. Fans were beside themselves, but instead of throwing in the towel, NBC chair Bob Greenblatt saw an opportunity for change. So he asked Leight to tweak the series, a daunting proposition, but one Leight told me he seized with relish.

"I think everyone thought, 'Well Warren's just been put on the Titanic,'" he said in a phone conversation this week. "But it became the luckiest break imaginable in a way." Throughout our chat, Leight was careful not to criticize the SVU that came before him — "it was working very well" he stressed several times — but when asked what he thought needed changing, he said, "I wanted to change the way the stories were told, so that they were a little less... I guess melodramatic. I wanted a little more naturalism." He explained that he "wanted to get back to the original conceit, which was that the victims were in fact alive. It had become much more of a raped-and-murdered show. And in real life those cases are handled by homicide detectives." Leight said he was interested in "what that experience was like, of a victim going through the system."

He also took the show outside more. "There was a lot of medical on the show. There was a full set that was set up full-time as a hospital and we turned that back into a swing set. I wanted to use the city a lot more. It's easier to put everything on a stage, you can control it more, but I wanted the city as a real character in the show. And I think we went back to more ripping from headlines than had been the case." That last bit might immediately conjure up something cheesy or sensationalistic, but Leight's approach is more restrained. "We have one coming up and it just sounds so cheesy," he said of a future episode starring Cybill Shepherd as a Paula Deen-esque character. "The 'celebrity restaurateur who fears for her life and shoots a hooded black teenager' episode. It sounds like a cheesy mashup. I'm hoping we'll get people to watch, but when they watch they'll see that it's not at all a cheesy episode. It's a very realistic depiction of the trial and how it works."

Leight's concerns about things being realistic and decidedly not cheesy have had a noticeable, and exciting, impact on the show. What had become a series mostly known for Meloni's too-close-to-the-case bellowing and the elaborate plots' grand "twists and turns," as Leight calls them, has turned into something quieter, thoughtful, even. And there's a new attention to artistry. Leight referenced an episode two seasons ago that barely used any music. The season premiere, which airs tonight at 10 p.m., is in many ways a two-hander, between a sadistic rapist/kidnapper played by Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black's "Porn Stache") and Hargitay's Det. Olivia Benson. Hargitay does a lot more capital-A Acting in the episode than we're used to seeing from her, but it doesn't play like shameless Emmy reeling or, y'know, melodrama. Her brutal scenes are urgent and scarily intimate, setting the stage for a season-long character arc. That's another new thing Leight is trying, giving the season some shape rather than having every episode be perfectly standalone and syndication-ready.

Obviously this show's difficult subject matter, harrowing and grim as it all is, will never be to everyone's liking, but what Leight and his writers have done in the past two seasons has made the material palatable not by being wickedly prurient or leering, but by addressing these themes intelligently, with shading and texture. The show is actually Saying Something about these frightening and uncomfortable topics, not with the broad-strokes speechifying you may expect, but in subtle and deceptively complicated ways. Leight says of the show's tone, "SVU covers cases that are gray." That's a tricky line to walk, especially for an old network drama like this one, but they've been mostly, and perhaps miraculously, pulling it off, week in week out, for the past two seasons.

SVU hasn't exactly entered the annals of so-called prestige television, but for having such a late-in-the-game renaissance, and for doing so with smarts and simplicity instead of showy tricks or casting stunts (the guest casting of late has been especially sharp), it's a show worth giving another shot. It's a bizarre thing to say about any series, but Law & Order: SVU's fifteenth season could wind up being its best.

       

Oracle Team USA Just Stunned the America's Cup

At long last, today was the absolute final race in the 2013 America's Cup, and Oracle Team USA won a stunning comeback over Emirate Team New Zealand to retain the prestigious yachting trophy. Down eight races-to-one in the first-to-nine series, the American team built by Silicon Valley tycoon Larry Ellison, won an unprecedented eight races to successfully defend the Cup. What does that mean? Let's walk through it. 

Every three years the world's richest men fund teams to compete in the world's most revered sport: yachting. This year's competition had it all: controversy, cheating, and a stunning comeback. The winning team gets to choose the rules for the next America's Cup, and Ellison caught some criticism for the changes he made. Grantland's Katie Baker has a good run down of what this year's Cup was like during the heart of the competition, but the most important change was to use super expensive, super advanced catamarans, called the AC72. Because of this decision, only three four teams could afford to compete this year: Oracle Team USA, Emirates Team New Zealand, Artemis Racing (from Sweden) and Luna Rosa Challenge 2013 (from Italy). The new boats are also fast, furious, and very dangerous: an Olympic gold medalist from Artemis Racing died earlier this year after one capsized during training. 

But, like we said, you can't get a bunch of rich guys competing in the same room without one team looking to get an edge. Prior to the Cup, Ellison's boat was caught cheating in a qualifying race and docked two points that would come back to haunt them. 

There's only one way to win the America's Cup: the first team to nine points takes home the trophy, the bragging rights, and the right to set the terms for the next one. New Zealand stormed their way to a eight-to-one lead, but Team USA has rallied back to tie it at eight points. Had they not been caught cheating, the Cup would have been in Ellison's hands already. 

       

The Cost of Love Measured Only in Sandwiches

It is the year 2013 and there is a woman in America (perhaps there's more) who will not receive her engagement ring and wedding proposal until she makes 124 more sandwiches. She's already made 176, and she has no plans of stopping The New York Post revealed that the woman behind this sexist-sounding stunt is actually a reporter for Page Six named Stephanie Smith. "We met at a restaurant in Chelsea two years ago when a friend I was dining with spotted an Alexander Skarsgård look-alike," Smith wrote describing her boyfriend, who also bears an uncanny resemblance to Carson Kressley.

Swayed by his good looks and a desire to show her affection, Smith devised the plan after being asked nicely bossed around into making a sandwich for her future fiancé one morning. Here's what that romantic pillow talk sounds like:

Each morning, he would ask, "Honey, how long you have been awake?"

"About 15 minutes," I’d reply.

"You’ve been up for 15 minutes and you haven’t made me a sandwich?"

To him, sandwiches are like kisses or hugs. Or sex. "Sandwiches are love," he says. "Especially when you make them. You can’t get a sandwich with love from the deli." 

[...]

As he finished that last bite, he made an unexpected declaration of how much he loved me and that sandwich: “Honey, you’re 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring!”

Dangling an engagement in front of Smith is not unlike dangling a carrot in front of a donkey. And some (all?) donkeys, we think, have more sense than to make 300 sandwiches for that carrot. 

If 300 sandwiches garners a proposal in Schulte's world of romance, then what about first dates? Twenty-five for third base? And what is the current exchange rate for a chicken parm? That silliness in mind, we created The Atlantic Wire's Sandwich Scale of Love.

Think of us as the Thomas Cook between food and romance. Note: the exchange rates listed below are fluid and you should probably not be dating anyone exchanging love for sandwiches or vice versa.  

First Date. Half an English muffin with a pat of butter. Smith didn't start her sandwich-for-marriage ploy until the two had moved in together, so we're going to wing it here and say that if you need to make a sandwich in order to entice someone to even think about getting someone to go out to a terrible movie with you ...you're doing it wrong. If you are making a sandwich, it should be the plainest most low-effort thing possible.

First Base. PB&J. Depending on your dating style, this would be somewhere between the first and third dates. This is probably worth an actual, classic sandwich like a PB&J but one that doesn't involve meat or a fancy cheese. 

Second Base. A sandwich that includes lettuce, a meat object (if desired), and a slice of non-Kraft singles cheese. Again, this could be anywhere from date one through five, and it's worth more effort and time than a PB&J. 

Third Base. A sandwich that includes turkey. Turkey is the most boring of the sandwich meats, but it shows a true upgrade in the romance department. Making a loved one turkey shows that you might be in it for the long hall and you care about their protein intake, meaning maybe you'd like to see them in it for the long hall too.

The Booty Call. A BLT or Grilled Cheese. You can't decide if you'd like this to go further, but you know everyone loves bacon and grilled cheese. 

All the Way. A breakfast sandwich. Sausage, egg and cheese; bacon, egg and cheese; egg and cheese; McDonald's Sausage McMuffin—these are not only ways to show someone you care, but they are also really thoughtful the morning after.

[image error]The "What Are We" Date. A chicken-salad sandwich. This sandwich is the equivalent of all the sandwiches we mentioned above, and actually take some work to do right. There's the boiling of the chicken, chopping of onions and celery, and making sure you have the right dijon/mayo/lemon juice ratio. That's a lot of work, and so is having a boyfriend or girlfriend. 

First Month Anniversary. A fancy sandwich that includes meat that ends in -etta, -ola or -ella or something with gruyere. To make a fancy sandwich like this, you need to actually go to a store to procure the ingredients, which means you may have to learn how to pronounce capicola. 

Six-Month Anniversary. 72 sandwiches or three and a half chicken/eggplant parms. Smith told The Post her current sandwich output is three sandwiches a week, or 12 sandwiches a month which would put us at around 72 at month six. At this point, it's more about quality rather than quantity. A melty chicken (or eggplant if you prefer) parmigiana sandwich on a soft, chewy hero is worth about 20 slapdash sandwiches. Plus, at this point you're more likely to stay in than go out, which you need to do if you're stuffing all the mozzarella, tomato sauce, and breaded protein into your gaping maw.

[image error]One-Year Anniversary. 144 sandwiches or this thing called a porchetta. This is close to where Smith is at. She could have saved herself all that time if she just figured out how to create this heaven-sent masterpiece. Another viable option would be just to take the sandwich home and never look back. 

Two-Year Anniversary. 288 sandwiches. At this point, you have to realize you are dating an adult child, and that in making 288 sandwiches, you've made more sandwiches than a mom would during a single school year (there are 180 or so instructional days in one school year). 

The Engagement. Under Smith's sandwich-making output, this would happen about two years (288 sandwiches) and one month (12 sandwiches) into the relationship. And whoever you made those sandwiches for should appreciate you enough not to ask for another sandwich again. Don't sign a pre-nup.

The Divorce. As of 2009, the median length of a marriage ending in divorce was around eight years, 1,152 sandwiches if you are still counting (1,296 if you have a one-year engagement) you are entitled to half the assets which means you better be asking for at least 600 sandwiches. 

For non-sandwich lovers. We were always told that an engagement ring should be worth around two months of someone's salary. The average cost of an engagement ring is about $5,200, Credit.com reported. Extrapolating the 300 homemade sandwiches, you could conceivably also procure these things for those sandwiches:

Around 10,400 Krispy Kreme donuts (it's about $6 for a dozen).  About 20,841 Chicken McNuggets ($4.99 for 20) About 4,381 pieces of Popeye's chicken (18.99 for 20 pieces) A feature in the New York Post.
       

Watch Ted Cruz Read Every Word of 'Green Eggs and Ham' on the Senate Floor

At about 8 p.m. tonight, Senator Ted Cruz read Green Eggs and Ham, in its entirety, on the Senate floor during his non-filibuster against Obamacare. It was a bedtime story to his daughters. "I do not like green eggs and ham," the senator said to America. "I do not like them, Sam-I-Am." Cruz can speak until tomorrow afternoon, but he won't be able to stop the first procedural vote on a resolution to continue to fund the government. We're updating on the fake filibuster here. 

Ted Cruz also offered up a comparison between Green Eggs and Ham and Obamacare, albeit one that seems to completely skip over the ending of the book: "'Green Eggs and Ham' has some applicability, as curious as it may sound to the Obamcare debate," he said, adding that Americans "did not like green eggs and ham, and they did not like Obamacare either. They did not like Obamacare in a box, with a fox, in a house, with a mouse," he explained. Twitter had lots to say about this: 

My former editor @FutureBoy has a great point: Isn't Green Eggs and Ham all about liking something you thought you'd hate?

— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) September 25, 2013

Surprised Cruz isn’t up there denouncing the moral equivalence of The Butter Battle Book or the anti-growth ideology of The Lorax.

— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 25, 2013

"I would not could not with a goat," said a United States senator while standing in Congress.

— Matt Berman (@Mr_Berman) September 25, 2013

But this is definitely the cutest reaction

Pic of @SenTedCruz daughters as he reads them Green Eggs & Ham. #MakeDCListen pic.twitter.com/UXqFg0xrPB

— Jason Johnson (@jasonsjohnson) September 25, 2013

       

Pope Francis Excommunicated a Priest Who Supports Women's Ordination

Pope Francis's Vatican drew a more firm line in the sand on its stance on women's ordination this month by excommunicating an Australian priest who advocated for the inclusion of female priests. Fr. Greg Reynolds became the first member of the Melbourne Archdiocese to be excommunicated for reasons other than pedophilia, according to a report from the National Catholic Reporter. They explain that the letter of excommunication:

"Accuses Reynolds of heresy (Canon 751) and determined he incurred latae sententiae excommunication for throwing away the consecrated host or retaining it "for a sacrilegious purpose" (Canon 1367). It also referenced Canon 1369 (speaking publicly against church teaching) in its review of the case. Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff having heard the presentation of this Congregation concerning the grave reason for action ... of [Fr. Greg Reynolds] of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, all the preceding actions to be taken having been followed, with a final and unappealable decision and subject to no recourse, has decreed dismissal from the clerical state is to be imposed on said priest for the good of the Church." 

A letter to the other priests in the archdiocese explained that his excommunication was "because of his public teaching on the ordination of women." Female priests are banned explicitly by Canon law, and Pope Francis has repeatedly stated that his beliefs on the subject are aligned with that law. The Pope did not address the issue in his interview last week in America magazine. Reynolds told the NCR that he also believes his support of the Melbourne LGBT community was also a factor. 

The priest's advocacy goes a beyond a statement of support for female ordination. Reynolds is the founder of Inclusive Catholics, which advocates for women's ordination and for a reform of the church's teaching on homosexuality. He resigned from his parish ministry to lead the group (but not from the priesthood), providing a further reason for the church to seek him out for censure. In 2012, Reynolds received a letter of warning from Denis Hart, the Archbishop of Melbourne, for acting publicly as a priest without authorization, and for giving "alternate" forms of the Eucharist at Inclusive Catholics's monthly meetings. 

Excommunication is serious, although Reynolds still technically remains Catholic. In addition to losing the ability to hold any sort of position in church hierarchy, Reynolds is also banned from participating in the Eucharist or other sacraments of the church. Excommunicants, however, are usually encouraged to attend Mass. They're just not allowed to participate. Ordaining, supporting, or becoming a female priest has been explicitly grounds for automatic excommunication since at least 2008, thanks to a declaration by Pope Benedict XVII. While Francis has praised the role of women in the Catholic community, he has largely stood by his predecessor's stance on female priests, and on those pesky American nuns.