The Moment I was Clueless About...SomethingThis is a moment in my life that is so hard to explain that I still to this day have no idea what happened, and have just now realized that I may need answers or it will annoy me for the rest of my life.
I was about four or five years old, and learned about death for the first time in the most fucking bizarre way possible. As a child, you don't understand that there was a time that existed before you were alive. Most kids don't even really understand that concept until they start teaching history in class. Stories your parents tell you are just that - stories, regardless if they are a memory your folks had. It seems impossible when you're a kid for them to have those memories because you weren't alive for them.
I remember standing on a front deck and watching my mother cry in my grandfather's arms. My father was next to them, and was not the problem or anything like that. He was participating in mourning something, but what it was, I didn't know. I reached up to poke someone and get someone's attention. I asked what was wrong. For the longest time, my mother has been a huge FILM fan (not MUSIC fan) of Elvis Presley. My mother wiped away a few tears and told me that Elvis Presley died.
It wasn't until years later that I learned more about Elvis and figured out that he had been dead a LOT longer than 1990 lol. So, to this day, I don't really know what happened. I just know that whatever it was, my mother felt it was easier to tell me Elvis died than it was to share whatever information it was. To me, today, that seems like a weird choice. So I wonder if maybe someone she knew died, maybe she had a miscarriage or something, and to avoid conversing with me over someone I may have known or explain miscarriages or something that the next logical (in her brain) choice was to tell me that Elvis fucking Presley died in 1990.
Kurt Cobain's DeathI was JUST on the outskirts of listening to Nirvana when this went down. I became hugely into music fanaticism when I was 8, and this happened right at that moment. My older, distant cousin was in town visiting and he had literally JUST introduced me to Nirvana. He showed me their stuff because I really enjoyed Weird Al's parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit. We sat in my bedroom on Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings bean bag chairs, pretending we were playing guitar, listening to Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails. Next thing I know, his sister comes in the room and said that Much Music is talking about Kurt Cobain. We went downstairs and they were showing a news feed of a reporter outside his house discussing "we don't have many details at this time, but it is believed that Kurt Cobain has died." My cousin cried for hours.
Michael Hutchence DeathMy dad grew up as a humongous INXS fan. He showed me their new album - Elegantly Wasted - and I really enjoyed the album. I was watching Much Music when they said that Michael Hutchence had died. I told my dad, he came out and we learned that he somehow used a belt to kill himself in his hotel room. I, up to today, didn't understand how that was possible. I figured if he did it in a closet, the bar would likely break and wouldn't be high enough for it to actually force him to die unless he literally refused to put his feet down and held them in the air until he died.
I just visited wikipedia for more information, and I am going to share it here:
Police reported that, "He was in a kneeling position facing the door. He had used his snake skin belt to tie a knot on the automatic door closure at the top of the door, and had strained his head forward into the loop so hard that the buckle had broken".I remember there was a rumour that went around suggesting the Elegantly Wasted was his suicide letter. I really doubt it, considering he made his solo album there after, but regardless, he's the lines that people think are applicable to his death:
We run
We hide
We wait and we want
The good life
Aw sure
You're right
This ain't, the good life
Ah, Elegantly wasted
Ah, Elegantly wasted
(you could be right, you could be certain, you could be right)Here's the music video for some nostalgia throw-back (I think these are fun to add as it gives more depth to people's experiences):
Using the InternetIt was the first time I ever got to try the internet, and these are literally the first three things I did with it. We got a brand new computer, I got ICQ, and can still hear "uh-oh" in my brain every once and a while. I then went on to yahoo chat, which at the time was a visual experience where you dress a character and then move room to room to chat with other people as their characters - the entire conversation taking place over their heads. You could quite easily just put your character in a room (like a bar or a dance club) and then just watch everyone else's conversation like a creepy little stalker. It was annoying when the other person just stopped replying, because you couldn't tell if they just didn't want to talk to you anymore or they left their computer. So you just sat there like a dick, and most of the time had an impossible chance of re-finding that same person the next night if you wanted to talk to them again.
OMG I found it! It's called The Palace Chat, and this is what it looked like:
And when they talked (though this was clearly not an English room):
I seriously can't believe I found that. Anyways, the third thing I did was google "boobs" in the address bar, which then stayed there. My uncle came over, and my dad tried to take him to a website, but as soon as he clicked the address bar, it immediately said "Boobs". I was embarassed.
World Trade CenterIn the middle of my grade 9 shop class. Over the PA, randomly we start hearing a news report being brodcast. There was nothing said before this came on, just immediately the world is ending. I remember thinking "I wonder if this is like that early 1900s radio prank for War of the Worlds or something." I was bending pennies in a vice to allow them to hook onto an elastic cord on my binder, and then launching them around the room. After listening to this announcement for about 10 minutes, we were told to go home. People cheered. People fucking cheered.
Princess Diana's DeathI was camping, but we were in a cottage. We had just finished breakfast. It was my family of four, and my two aunts. The radio was on and it broadcast news of the wreckage and of Diana's death, and my one aunt literally collapsed. She was a big fan of Diana, as a LOT of people were at the time due to her fashion and whatnot. She was devastated.
Owen Hart's DeathWas at my aunt and uncle's for a spaghetti and PPV night. I remember the feed getting cut out for us. Our station suggested technical difficulties or something, and everything was quite hush-hush. I was confused, and we went home. I didn't realize what happened until the next day when everyone was talking about it.
Heath Ledger's DeathThere is this gorgeous common room with like a 60 foot ceiling at the University just outside of the library area. Today, that section is a Starbucks (not sure if Justin knew that or not). We were working on the aspects of our project that would fit best on film, and one of our partner's, Danielle, got a text. She then told us Heath died. I said no. Then a few people from a table across from us started talking about it, and I was immediately fucking bummed out. May even be the reason why we opted to turn the project into the film, can't quite remember.
Philip Seymour-HoffmanWas in the middle of recording my band's album. I was about to head out to record more at my drummer's place, and checked facebook before leaving. I saw Philip Seymour-Hoffman found dead. I googled to confirm the hoax, read about the heroin and the needle. Immediately went into depression for about a week. I was not fun to live with. This really, really bothered me.
Robin William's DeathI was playing Resident Evil 6 with my father, and my fiancée came out and said "I checked everywhere for a hoax, and it's not. Robin Williams is dead. I can never watch Flubber again." I told her I didn't believe her, continued playing, then got more and more annoyed at the prospect of it being true. I googled it and whatnot, then texted Justin, then finished my game and got bummed out.
Have 9 points in celebration of this monumental achievement!