Twenty Years Since Nevermind? (Or How to Make Gen X-ers Feel Old)

Last week, during spring break, I was generously given a few nights off from The King and I. So, being a spontaneous, carefree couple, Dan and I decided to hit the road and visit the Nirvana exhibit at Seattle’s Experience Music Project (EMP). (By the way, Dan and I are not very spontaneous. Because tone is difficult to convey over the Internet: I was being facetious.)

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses was being installed last year during our pilgrimage to the Battlestar Galactica exhibit, and we missed seeing it by about a week. Nirvana's breakthrough album, Nevermind, just celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011. This came as a bit of a shock. I still have a hard time believing I am from a generation whose iconic moments are 20+ years old.

“Do you want to make our trip Bohemian this time?” Dan asked, recalling that two years ago I had insisted on a more impromptu approach to our vacationing.

“No.”

“We could be a little Bohemian,” he said.

Before we left, we booked hotels in La Grande, Oregon, Seattle, and Leavenworth, Washington.

“What part of this trip is going to be Bohemian?” I asked Dan.

“I guess none.”

My totally not-free-spirited self was secretly relieved.

We broke up the trip so that we didn’t have to drive straight through from Boise to Seattle or, I suppose I should say, so that Dan didn’t have to drive straight through. My sister-in-law is always very surprised when I tell her that Dan single-handedly chauffeurs our road trips. I did not realize this was such a strange arrangement. So I attempted to put an end to this inequality in our marital roles.

“You know, I can drive too.”

Dan gave me a funny look.

“Forget I mentioned it. I would rather read anyway.”

I think he said, "Good," under his breath, but I can't be sure.

We had a “Nirvana Fest” on our way to and from Seattle. That’s what Dan and I call it when we play every album a band has ever made, usually in chronological order. I also included some Sleater-Kinney on our playlist. I had to represent my gender.

At the EMP, we walked around the exhibit making nostalgic statements such as:

“I remember seeing that shirt in ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.'"

"That's the In Utero angel. I remember seeing that on stage."

"There's a clip from Unplugged. I remember seeing that on MTV (back when they used to focus on music, before The Jersey Shore was even a zygote)."

It's sad when you are walking around a "museum" exhibit - museums being the same establishments that house dinosaur bones - and you are able to recall the artifacts from your lifetime. It makes a 30-something Gen X-er feel quite old.

At one point Dan looked up from one of the early snapshots on display and said, "It looks like Kurt Cobain used conditioner back then. His hair's so shiny."

Before you think my husband was being disrespectful to Cobain's legacy, I should explain that Dan has been told on more than one occasion that he looks a bit like the Nirvana front man. I think Dan was comparing Cobain's shiny locks to his own. In fact, I wondered if other people visiting the exhibit would mention the resemblance or maybe even report possible "Ghost of Kurt Cobain" sightings at the EMP.

It didn't happen. Most guys in Seattle look a little like Kurt Cobain.

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