As if Kurt Cobain hasn't died enough times already

This, ladies and germs, is how you butch up men's figure skating: Nirvana on Ice! (Erin Polgreen via Chris Baker).

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Entertainment

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Anonymous

What the fuk is happening to this world? Social suicide at its finest. The absolute WORST display. A wretched interpretation of Nirvana cluless to its core. Nirvana on ice?? are you kidding me. Its obvious Scott and his moronic staff just don’t get it.
BitchOmatiK

As a fan of all types of rock (hey I’m not going to get all PC here) and a figure skater, I really enjoyed this routine. I probably wouldn’t have picked this song because I don’t really think that this song is really “skatable”. i probably would have picked songs like, System of a Down, “Spiders”, NIN “Perfect Drug” and “We’re in this Together” and something from Sublime, well you get the idea..

Actually a British ice dancing team skated to Linkin Park at this years winter Olympics. I enjoyed their routine.

Well I could go on and on on how to incorporate good rock songs to figure skating. With the right choreography, editing down the songs to the correct time limit and costuming it can be done!
Anonymous

I think it’s fabulous! Exciting! Now! Pow! And I’m a 65 year old white lady who doesn’t even like Nirvana. What’s so wrong with innovation? I’d love to see break dancing on ice…..
kfractal

dissonance in action. count the levels!
Anonymous

actually, this makes sense.
Anonymous

Yes, very funny. Am sure ALL members of Nirvana would have had a laugh at this.
Anonymous

For every view of this on youtube, a hipster throws up in his/her mouth.
Anonymous

What else would you expect from Paulie Shore?
coaxial

Given the USA star logo in the corner, this puts the video somewhere between June 1, 1996 and July 3, 1999. Looking at the quality of the footage, I’ll say it’s closer to 96.

Like many people, I *want* to believe that his suicide was a nobel move to preserve the art, but now that I’ve outlived him for a few years, I see his death as simply the actions of a bipolar heroin addict. A death that transfigured him from “rock star” to “tragic rock god,
Michael A

The whole essence of Nirvana’s music is we try those fancy jumps, but gravity makes us land on our ass.
solidvoid

not to be too contrarian, but I was actually pretty entertained by this performance. sure, it’s not classy, but it was fun seeing an alternative to the usual swan dance whatevers that make up most of these ridiculous displays.

nascent ideas of a new way of expressing movement on ice could just as easily be the takeaway here, instead of the supposed travesty most seem to be seeing.

also, i couldn’t tell when this was recorded, but Scott Williams started skating professionally in 1988 – this performance very well could have pre-dated Cobain’s death, so perhaps he was amused by it after all.
- blueelm
  
  I like it.
  
  *ducks*
- rydz
  
  I agree with #38 (and others) and do not understand why people find this clip so unenjoyable. If more of figure skating looked like this, I would watch more figure skating.
BitchOmatiK

You have to admit though that one spin he does across that ice is quite impressive! I’d like to see some of you macho men skate with the same kind of talent he has. Seriously people, It’s just figure skating! Get over it!
Anonymous

I don’t have a problem with this. Kurt/Kurdt put his music in the marketplace, to be interpreted and incorporated into our lives just so much as his beloved Led Zeppelin, Beatles, R.E.M. and indie heroes were made available seed for his own yearnings and creativity. I actually admire the tone and expressive lines this skater realized while incorporating Nirvana into his art. Who has more cause for inchoate rebelliousness than a young man whose sport is dismissed as faggy and whose every minute is consumed with training? I am sure Nirvana gives him strength to forge a path in a confusing world, as it does for the little glue sniffer in the $35 band tee, as it has for so many. I think Cobain might have liked this guy’s moxie. This event was an exhibition; he had nothing of value to obtain through this choice. Skating rewards the straight arrows.

Deb Chasteen, Athens, GA
Anonymous

Figure skating in general is highly circumscribed. The rules of jumps and spins limit any artistic expression.

I actually like how he played with convention here, even if he cowtowed somewhat. This sort of thing was what I hoped for with ‘ice dance’ at the start — an artistic dance-inspired routine that exploited the unique benefits of skating.

As for song choice: yes, it’s as inappropriate as most figure skating song choices. Uninspired as well, as a top ten hit. The costume squares the insult.

I want to see real ‘ice dance’ as this guy tries — piked jumps, dive rolls, and even more! The regular events have become rote and boring.
Anonymous

better way to disco to nirvana

http://www.soop.ca/bootie/top10/overdub-comeasthestarlight.mp3
tubacat

I liked it, too (wasn’t there one other person who said they did?). I liked it better than the Olympics, anyway, for the most part…
adsum

I’m a long time Boing Boing reader.

Why don’t you come to my website: http://www.balletformen.com and accuse me of trying to “butch up” ballet while you are at it?

Of course there is not the possibility of a male figure skater who wants to express his art to Nirvana [sarcasm]. To spend that much time choreographing something that complex to it, and to do it against what the norm for the sport/art is, shows an intense appreciation of the song.

Kurt Cobain would (if we got into caring) probably be way more pissed off about the people on this board criticizing someone’s art and expression.

Please think a little before you perpetuate these awesome stereotypes.
justanotherusername

Lookit.

Figure skating is not the real world, it’s a world of its own where normal rules do not apply anymore. You can’t pass judgments and values from one world to the other.

Figure skating happens in a fictional world with its own internal logic. In that world this video makes perfect sense.

Now you might have seen a bit of figure skating before. Most likely most of it will have been completely alien to you so that your world remained safely separated from the world of figure skating.

In this particular video however something that was exclusively part of your world (Nirvana) now suddenly is also part of the world of figure skating. A bit like a staunch heterosexual discovering that his parents are gay.

This can be confusing and traumatic but don’t worry; even if worlds are colliding, they are only constructs of your imagination. :)
gentaro

fantastic. what’s not to like?
MetaScience

I like how the announcers tried to optimistically say his routine sucked by calling him innovative and creative.
Axx

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?
Anonymous

absolutely fantastic.
mramberg

So it’s a great song and people like it. That’s a good thing. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZjnFZvCNc
- Berk
  
  Oh wow, That’s awesome.
jackie31337

All I can think is that this is not exactly the kind of think Brian Boitano would do.
ubernym

Neither Nirvana nor Kurt Cobain are sacred cows, why is this a big deal? Is it cringe-worthy, possibly. Of course it’s also possible that this figure skater is a big fan of Nirvana and wanted to pay homage. Is that so bad? You may not like it, but is it really so terrible?

Did Kobain really end his own life because of stuff like this? Do Kurt’s fans really believe he died because he didn’t like what people did to his music? What a way to dishonor his memory. It makes him sound whiny.
Anonymous

“Nirvana? Just a band”.
stegodon

first, ‘nirvana rock band’ and now this? this is bullshit.
- mindysan33
  
  Yeah, It’s kind of bullshit, but probably less bullshit than Nirvana on Rock band or guitar hero or whatever, which is a far more egregious case of Nirvana’s music being used in a way that Cobain would have hated (rather than kids going out and making their own music, sitting around pretending to make his music)… and actually the Dead Kennedy’s rock band or guitar hero or whatever was far more bullshit, as they apparently changed lyrics to songs because some would have found them offensive (don’t ask me which songs and which lyrics – this is second hand knowledge from a conversation well over a year ago)… I kinda agree with #6 Anon – Cobain probably would have been amused by the whole thing…. Weirdness.
  - skinnyernie
    
    To ME, the only thing wrong with Nirvana on Rock Band ( a game i have never played) is that he is not in control of it nor is he profiting from it. We all know who is. And those people don’t need the money. So I agree that’s a joke. As for DK, i think those guys really need the money and let’s face it they didn’t sell 1/100th the albums Nirvana did. So if dudes gotta eat then what’s the big deal with putting it on Rock Band? It is disillusioning when there was a time that music inspired many to wake up but now it’s just entertainment. So I agree with the emotional sentiment behind giving up DK to the corporate monster. And chances are Jello is not driving a mercedes off what he makes off it.
    - mindysan33
      
      Actually, the use of DK songs in commercials and such has been bitterly disputed by the Biafra and the rest of the band and he’s been pretty vocal about the instances when it’s come up – but it’s not completely up to him legally. Wikipedia has a round up of the various legal disputes. I don’t know if any came up regarding the video game or not:
      
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Kennedys#1990s-2000s:_Legal_conflicts
      
      His views I think are nicely summed up in the song Pull my Strings and I don’t think it’s changed since:
      
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_My_Strings
      
      Biafra is pretty hardcore about his beliefs, or seems to be at least.
      
      Personally, I have my own views of these things. I don’t think there is anything wrong with making $$ off art, but it can be problematic. I think this is tough stuff to come to grips with and is quite a gray area, which something that some do not want to take into consideration. They want their heroes to be purist and not have to deal with the daily realities of living life (ie making money to get by, etc). In general I feel we should defer to the artist when possible regarding commercial use of their art. For Cobain, I think he would have found the ice skating far less galling than the Rock Band or Guitar Hero, or whatever the hell it is. Perhaps I’m wrong though. And of course, he’s not around to ask, so we’ll never know how he’d feel about it.
moniker42

I disapprove of everything about this, everything related to this, and everything that this makes me think about, with the possible mental exception of Nirvana itself.
monkey_pirate

No! No! A thousand times no!
philoponia

That was by far the best figure skating I have EVER seen!
Boba Fett Diop

Arrrrgh! Kill it with fire!
Anonymous

Kurt Cobain changed my life with his music- I only wished he could have stuck around to make more. I paid homage to him on the anniversary of his death with my portrait of the grunge legend on my artistâ€™s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/04/in-memoriam-kurt-cobain-and-lane-staley.html
Anonymous

I think Kurt Cobain would have found this amusing.
- Anonymous
  
  I really don’t think Cobain would have found this amusing in a positive way, more in an amusing I now have to kill myself way. Things like this really upset him, part of the reason his life ended in tragedy. And to be honest, as figure skating goes, that outfit was awful and the routine did not fit the music or the lifestyle. Poor decision and effort all around. F-
- Anonymous
  
  I agree with anon. Despite the ridiculousness, and desire to gouge out one’s eyes. Cobain would be laughing his ass off
- querent
  
  “I think Kurt Cobain would have found this amusing.”
  
  An excellent point.
- skinnyernie
  
  I agree. That’s the first thing I thought when I saw it. He would have enjoyed this.
Anonymous

I like watching figure skating occasionally, but the “choreography” always reminds me of those fireworks displays that are supposedly set to music. My eyes are impressed and my ears are pleased, but they seem to be enjoying separate shows.
Anonymous

This would have only been acceptable if he had gone the whole way and ended his routine with a shotgun to the head. . .
WaylonWillie

“I feel stupid, and contagious….” BB’ers haven’t been this funny in quite a while.
Anonymous

my viralometer!
It just popped!
Anonymous

so wrong…
Krutus

As a Nirvana fan: The skating was pretty cool, the Gaga mash-up was a meh, and the Ukulele version was frigging ghastly.
nemofazer

Is there a word for someone who achieves the exact opposite to what he set out to do?
- Anonymous
  
  antichrist
- Tdawwg
  
  Maybe Edsel? (After the car, of course, and, most recently, after Harold “Edsel” Ford, for almost everything he’s done in his sad, funny political career.)
Anonymous

OK, I made it to 1:06.
Anonymous

too many haters, this video rules!
Anonymous

The butt of this guy eats his pants.
- scifijazznik
  
  #13– that cracked me up.
Anonymous

such a tortured soul. I was waiting for him to bust out the faux shot gun and blow his psudo brains out.
j9drost

He did a barrel roll…
Alan

Somehow this totally legitimatizes Johnny Weir skating to Lady Gaga.
PixelFish

My favourite thing wot makes Nirvana fans twitch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O34BLIDgXDI
- Anonymous
  
  “My favourite thing wot makes Nirvana fans twitch:”
  
  Mash-ups are the most terrible thing to hit the internet since Anime Music Videos.
- pstarr
  
  haha, that was actually alright. much less soul bleeding involved than with the skater. and i don’t even much like the gagaloo’s music.
pstarr

that is one of the most awful things i have ever seen on on the series of tubes. and i can never unsee it. i’ll get you for this, xeni!
DanRuth

This disproves my theory that figure skating needs to expand its musical repertoire.

Stay with classical music!
redheadedandstrangerthan

Go ahead and hate all you want, ye who have never landed so much as a waltz jump.

Whether it’s the more “butch” skaters like Williams and Stojko, or Johnny Weir, or the women, or the little girls for that matter, these people work and work and bleed over their craft. They train ridiculous hours, injure themselves, then go back and train some more.

So, sorry if you don’t like the costume, or the blasphemy of figure skating occurring to music you feel is “yours”. Enjoy your Nintendo thumb and couch-ass.
Maddy

Noble attempt. I’ve been saying for years — they need to do more hip hop songs.

My only ish: why not incorporate more early 90s alt rock dancing moves. the head thrash, the weird little stomp dance in the most pit circle, the stage dive. I did like the almost Grateful Dead- whirling dervish thing at the end. The Janitor’s mopping needed to be in their somehow too …
13strong

Nirvana? Just a band.
Jeremiah Blatz

You know, it would’ve been pretty awesome if he had had attempted tricks he could do like a third of the time. Falling on his ass over and over again, with the occasional mind-blowing success.
Anonymous

Never has the title “Smells like Teen Spirit” been more literally accurate.
Anonymous

I am with #26. That guy should have skated to Henry Rollins’ song “Liar”. That would have been more appropriate.

“Cuz I’m a LIAR! I’ll burn your soul!”
Bazilisk

Oh, come on. Just because the lead singer’s dead doesn’t mean people can’t do opposing things with his music. What is this person, a demigod who we can’t anger?

Anyway I really enjoyed it from a gender perspective. Femme guy doing a macho thing which is really just a slightly more macho version of his usual femminess. I found it entertaining and I actually saw he was interpreting the emotions of the song in a -well, unique– and engaging way.
Anonymous

Hey, look! Chazz Michael Michaels LIVES!!!
georgethe23rd

Punk’s not dead?! Dancing on Ice in The UK had a celebrity iceskating to Ever Fallen in Love by Buzzcocks recently.
Anonymous

Awesome!
ultranaut

this is an abomination.
Anonymous

Irony is funny.

I think the Nirvana/Gaga mash up should have been called NirVaga. That incorporates both names and sounds a teeny bit dirty.
ToMajorTom

I don’t see a need to “butch up” men’s figure skating…especially with a dead rock star. Be your twinkly-toeing, fabulous skating selves (with equally twinkly and fabulous music). But if you want to conform to society’s pressures of “what is a man,” then perhaps you should have put your skating skills to work in the hockey rink.
- Pipenta
  
  Twinkly-toeing? That’s a joke, right? Othewise, way to comfort your insecure self with stereotypes.
  
  You think you’re more butch than Elvis Stojko? Not fuckin’ likely. I’ll bet you were one of those hockey players who proved how manly they were by never washing their pads. Ugh.
  
  My twin nieces play hockey, and fiercely, but they’re as fem as can be. Crazy, sure, but plenty fem. Of course, if they got to choose theme music for hockey skating, it would probably be something by Hanna Montana instead of Nirvana.
  - IronEdithKidd
    
    RE: unwashed pads. The primary reason a lot of guys don’t wash their gear is superstition. Thou shalt not wash thine pads during a winning season. The secondary reason is if you don’t have a super-extra-capacity front-loader at home, it gets to be a real pain in the butt to try to wash your gear.
    
    If your nieces prefer Hanna Montana at their games, theyâ€™re too young to know that there are far better acoustic options available.
  - ToMajorTom
    
    Please reread my comment. I’m speaking from my own *gay* perspective that I don’t see a need for male skaters to butch-it-up for their own sake? or society’s sake?
    
    “Twinkly-toeing” — yes. Frankly, some of us fit the twinkly-toe stereotype. I, for one, was born with lead toes and no sense of fashion, but I love Ethel Merman, and that ensures I can keep my Q-Card.
    - Pipenta
      
      Sorry Tom. Sleep deprivation has eroded my mental functions. Must sleep. Also must put a sock in it.
Antinous / Moderator

Women’s figure skating already cleaned up their little princess image a few decades back.
kytyn

that was way cool – major props to Scott for doing something different and quite enjoyable. I’m rather watch this and Johnny Weir skating to Lady Gaga than the same-old same-old any day.
alisong76

A buttload of the comments on here are reminding me of this:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuinedFOREVER
- seanc0x0
  
  I should have known better than to click any link to tvtropes.org… can I have that hour back please?
  
  The wailing and gnashing of teeth that seems to crop up whenever someone does anything with Nirvana’s music amuses me. Nirvana was good, I was a fan in high school. But for the love of $deity(*), lighten up!
  
  * For all values of $deity != ‘Kurt Cobain’
Antinous / Moderator

Also, Kurt Cobain was girly-pretty and emo. Skate to Henry Rollins if you want to butch it up.
- SeattlePete
  
  Or turn convention on its head and skate to Fear – Beef Bologna. More butch? Less butch?
  
  If Cobain looked like Ving, nobody would know who Nirvana is.
MichaelRN

The world ended shortly after Cobain died, when I heard a Muzak version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” being piped into my local supermarket.