129 DAYS LATER

There were many days of my existence that could easily compete for the title of "The Best Day of My Life." Maybe , I will explore some of them at another time. For now, the day that comes to mind, is the day that I saw NIRVANA.

Not so much the actual seeing of NIRVANA, as the the events of that day. It was November 27, 1993. I was living in Key West, Florida. A perfectly beautiful day. The show was to take place in Miami and the friend I would travel with drove a topless Jeep. How cool is that! Now, to get to Miami, the only way by "land" is to take Route 1, also known as the longest dead end road in the America. It spans from Key west, to the Canadian border in Maine. But from Key West to the Florida mainland is about 100 miles of bridge known as the Overseas Highway. On this stretch of road is the Marathon Bridge. It was blown up in the movie "True Lies", staring Arnold Schwartzeneger and Jamie Lee Curtis. This big scene, featuring a harrier Jet, delivery trucks and explosions, was to be filmed on location on this very day. Now, this meant that anyone wanting to travel north to the mainland, would have to do it before 10 a.m., as the bridge would be closed for most of the day. Whatever, fine with me. I'm going to see NIRVANA .

We seen the Jet parked at the edge of Marathon Island, as well as cameras and trucks and military personnel. (think of me during the bridge scene if you ever see "True Lies", I was there.)

What a beautiful ride. Warm, sunny, the wind blowing thru my long hair, and not a care in the world. My favorite feeling is to not have to hurry or worry. Nothing but blue sky above me, and blue water as far as the eye can see in either direction. Bouncing from island to island like some cosmic connect the dots game. We listened to a lot of NIRVANA, and arriving in Miami so early in the day, we were able to explore record shops, an outdoor mall on the waterfront, and the Hard Rock Cafe. It has a giant green Gibson Stratocaster on the roof that slowly rotates. It could also be seen from the amphitheater next door where the show was to be held. Later during the concert, people would be throwing frizbees on the stage and Kurt Cobain would say, "Instead of throwing things up on stage, why don't you go next door and throw rocks at that stupid fucking guitar!"

They put on an awesome show that night, and did a fair amount of damage to the stage props and equipment, as would be expected from the best "grunge" band in the world. I bought one of every NIRVANA concert shirt that was available that night, and was especially happy I did when the ride home proved to be less than warm. In fact, it was down right cold. Living in Key West can spoil you. You forget that it gets cold in other places, like driving across the ocean at night. I still have the shirts, and the seven mile bridge is still there. It was a perfect day.

I totally worshiped NIRVANA at the time.( and probably still would, but I'm a little bit between deities at the moment.) If I could live any day over again, this would probably be the day that I would choose. It was NIRVANA in Paradise.

129 days later, Kurt was dead.