40 Years Ago Today

Kurt Cobain was born in Aberdeen, Washington.  On a message board Monday someone asked, "what would Kurt be doing if he were alive" and another person wrote, "he would have never made it to 40, no matter what".  Then later yesterday on the radio I heard that scientists may be close to isolating a "suicide gene" that tends to be passed down within families where there are multiple suicides.  Maybe, they think, they could identify those who are at high risk.  And what?  Medicate them?  Tell their families? 

It's a strange thing, working on a film about someone who has died.  Spending hours in a small room listening to a voice, a vibrant, very alive voice.  Forgetting that he's dead for a moment.  Or for hours actually. 

So, you'll forgive if I imagine for a brief second that it's possible that Kurt Cobain could have made it to his 40th birthday, possible that the demons and the depressions and the drugs were controllable, and that the gene, if it exists, could be zapped away with powerful virtual reality lasers.

And then I will acquiesce.