Modern Optimist

A few close mates and I have officially started posting in the “Kurt Cobain Journals”. In simplified terms it’s an ongoing (big) birthday card.

Some background

My dad and 4 of his close mates have been passing around the ‘Barry Manilow song book’ for about 24yrs and are still going strong.

What they do is whoever had the previous birthday (holds the book) writes a poem about the guy who’s birthday it is and includes stories on what had happened to the guy in the past year (work/travels/embarrassing stories etc).

The guys who’s previous birthday it was reads the poem out on the mates birthday in a quiet corner of the pub they meet at. They talk some crap catching up over some beers and then paste the poem (and anything naughty they find) in the book and pass it on to the birthday boy to hang on to until the next mates birthday in the circle. In this time the birthday boy can browse all the entries over the years with a million memories.

They chose Barry Manilow as their songbook of choice as he was sort of a legendary figure in their day. (Apparently you hear him often in elevators:)

I’m forbidden to read this song book, but caught a glimps once of a photo pasted in of a girl licking her own boob, and haven’t stopped thinking about it since:)

Our version

We decided that Nirvana pretty much is everyones (or our youths era) biggest influence so we got hold of Kurt Cobain’s Journal/Songbook which contains drawings and sketches from his career including drafts of some of our favorite songs.

We wanted more people to be involved on each birthday so we collectively decided that each guy or girl attending the birthday drinks brings a birthday message to paste in the book. It can be a short message, a funny pic of the birthday boy, or just write in the book on the page designated to the birthday. There is no real pressure and if you can’t make the meetup, you can just visit the guy that week and write in the book.

The book is 294 pages long and with only about 5 birthday inputs, it already has real character!

What we paste in the book:

• Notes/Messages
• Newspaper clippings
• Photos
• Drawings
• Concert tickets
• and more…

The real magic

The real magic will be when it’s your birthday 10 years down the line and you get to page through hundreds of pages of messages from all your mates. This journal will be priceless in years to come.

Your turn

Why not come up with something your can share with your friends for the next 10 years, or start your own song book!