Yesterday's NFC Chat Session wasn't particularly interesting or eventful as they usually are, and the turnout was not that impressive. Though, thanks to those who did appear and participated in the chat. Perhaps next time we should decide in advance on some specific topics to discuss. In any case, you can read a log of about 5½ hours from the chat here. Remember that logs from earlier chat sessions are also available in the NFC Museum. The Java Chat client has been a bit instabile lately but it should now work in both Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can always try it out here. In other website news, the poll question on the main page has been changed to: "Do you think Kurt Cobain should have married Courtney Love?". Please go ahead and vote if you haven't already. Also, don't forget that this year's Christmas present will be removed in a few days.

A disturbing story that popped up in the New York Times a few days ago; "AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Patti Smith, who were among the acts recently passed over for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, reportedly have an unlikely defender. Protesting their exclusion from the hall, Hole leader Courtney Love has demanded that the hall of fame's Cleveland museum return all memorabilia belonging to her and her late husband, Kurt Cobain, the New York Times reported Thursday (December 21). 'Any of my stuff you stole, I want back immediately. This includes any of mine or Kurt's clothes, guitars or debris that you scavenged for,' Love reportedly wrote in a telegram sent to the rock hall. 'I hope that no one I know is ever inducted into your idiotic Hall of Fame.' Spokespeople for the hall of fame and its nominating committee said they were unable to confirm the contents of the telegram or comment on Love's demands." VH-1 had more details; "... 'How dare you fools not put Lynyrd Skynyrd, Patti Smith, or AC/DC in your Hall of Fame,' Love reportedly wrote in a telegram sent to the rock hall. 'Damn you to the darkest belly of the underworld. Stop.'" This story was courtesy of Brian Hiatt, SonicNet and VH-1. Thanks to Bob Gilmartin and Nitin for the link. Read the full stories. Feel free to discuss this idiotic move on the Discussion board, or over at the official Hole website.

Don't forget to turn up for the NFC Chat session, starting tomorrow around 2 PM EST. To join, just use the online chatroom or an IRC Client, connected to irc.afternet.org and the channel #NirvanaClub.

I may I have mentioned this before, but here goes; "On VH-1's Top 90 Videos of the 90's, Smells Like Teen Spirit was #1. On the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, Nirvana was #7. On a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, they had a sketch parodying the VH-1 show Behind the Music. It was Behind the Music-Rock & Roll Heaven. In the beginning, they ran pictures of deceased artist, and the second one was huge b&w Kurt Cobain photo. It seems Nirvana is quite popular on the VH-1 show, 'The List'. Here is everything that they have ever been nominated for; Best 90's Band or Artist, Best 90's Song, Best Album, Best Album Cover, Best Album of the 90's, Best Rock Anthem, Best Singer/Songwriter, Greatest Artist Whose Life Was Cut Short, Most Groundbreaking Band or Artist, Sexiest Male Artist, Rock's most Significant Moment (The Emergence of Grunge)."

Nicole wanted to add this; "There is the absolute best cover of 'Rape Me' done by Richard Cheese. You can't help but love it! It's on the 'Lounge Against The Machine' CD. Enjoy." Courtesy of Nicole.

Bastian Stein was kind enough to translate the list of Nirvana songs to German! So if you know German, check out the translated text here. Once again thanks to Bastian Stein for doing this.

The latest poll; "What should be added to this site?" ended with the following result: 'More Pictures' - 917 votes (44%). 'More sound clips' - 360 votes (17%). 'More movie files' - 378 votes (18%). 'More articles' - 123 votes (6%). 'More Nirvana Info' - 305 votes (15%). So, out of the 2083 total votes the majority wanted more pictures. To grant that wish, I decided to host a terrific Nirvana Picture Gallery, created by Vladislav Bajev. His site contains around 1.000 Nirvana photos, from their entire career. I thought that would satisfy your Nirvana picture needs for now :) Check out Vladislav's amazing gallery here. All the pictures are neatly sorted and organized chronologically, and the gallery contains many rare and uncommon shots.

Dave Grohl just posted a nice little message at the Foo Fighters message board, noting how pleased he was to have finished the latest Foo Fighters tour and what some of his future plans are; "We're all at home, kicking back for the holidays. Hope you all are too. Chicago is next. Then Brazil. Then new record. Are you guys ready for another one? I can't wait. I'm not sure what to expect, but there's a ton of new stuff kicking around. Like, 25 or 30 new ideas. We'll see what happens. We won't make you wait long." Read the full message at foofighters.com. Thanks to Tom.

Today, Madonna - the legendary queen of pop - is set to get married in Scotland to British film director Guy Ritchie; "Madonna's big day on Friday was strictly off limits for the press who have turned the pop icon into one of the world's most photographed women after the death of Princess Diana. Three security teams, equipped with thermal heat-seeking equipment, are prowling the pine forests around the Gothic-turreted Skibo Castle in search of intruders. Three paparazzi have already been ejected from the grounds. Up to 1,000 reporters from around the world have invaded the sleepy little Highland town of Dornoch for Britain's wedding of the year. The rumor mill is working overtime, the tabloids are competing fiercely for every snippet of showbusiness gossip. The 2 million pound wedding has attracted a sparkling cast of A-list celebrities -- from pop star Sting to Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow and wedding dress designer Stella McCartney. Madonna, whose fortune is estimated at $200 million, has spurned the celebrity magazines who were seeking exclusive photos of the wedding. Ritchie boasts a strong emotional attachment to the Scottish Highlands and is determined at the wedding to honor his grandfather, decorated for bravery in the First World War and killed fighting in the Second World War. The film director, who has in the past talked down his background and developed a 'Hard Man' working class image, is to wear the family Hunting Mackintosh tartan and his grandfather's sporran for his romantic walk up the aisle. The wedding ceremony will be performed by Church of Scotland minister Susan Brown who also officiated at the baptism." Story courtesy of Yahoo!

The person who was fortunate enough to be visitor number 3 million was kind enough to take a screenshot of the main page and send it in. View it here.

Adem Smith wanted me to post this about his band; "We are in a band together, and Nirvana is our biggest influence amongst other grunge bands. We try our hardest to keep our music pure and as natural sounding as possible. In recent months, we have been getting more and more popular in the Twin Cities metro area. We will be acquiring an agent soon, and will be playing venues throughout Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding cities. Our band's name is ANTITOXIN. With enough luck, and the ever so valuable word of mouth, we'll be going nation-wide bringing the truly heavenly style of grunge (not pearl jam) back to the forefront. This is all we've ever wanted to do. Currently we are working a demo and hopefully we'll soon be getting that out and about. Also we are currently working on putting up some mp3s. Come visit us for questions and/or comments, or just to visit here." Now, enough with all the band ads :)

There is going to be another NFC Chat on December 28, starting around 2 PM EST. To participate, just enter the online chatroom or fire up an IRC client and connect to irc.afternet.org, followed by joining the #NirvanaClub channel. Special thanks to Tyler for once again organizing this.

The following documents were briefly updated; Nirvana in movies and TV, the list of songs, the discussion board archive, the most wanted list, the Vault and an extra question/answer was added to the NFC FAQ. Also don't forget to check out this year's NFC X-mas present. The NFC Discussion Board rules were also briefly revised. Note that the 'Nirvana' forum is currently closed due to constant abuse. It will re-open sometime after Christmas. Thank you.

The infamous documentary "Kurt and Courtney" by Nick Broomfield will be aired over in Sweden on the channel 'SVT2' this Saturday (December 23) at 11:20 PM, local time. Indeed, one hell of a way to spend Christmas ;) Thanks to Dag and John for the news.

The counter on the main page will probably hit 3 million later today! Wow! Quite impressive. Though, this count doesn't say much as the same person may trigger it several times (although the script is setup to prevent this) and it only registers hits to the main page. Detailed analysis of the logs have proven that this site gets around 110.000 unique visitors per month.

From André in Brazil; "Yesterday I was watching MTV and, with MTV Brazil having their 10 year anniversary right now, they're showing some good programs. So, I saw a Nirvana special yesterday. They showed some videoclips [exactly the same videos that the guy told you about on MTV2 in the US], but they showed that Brazillian interview [few parts], and a [clip of] Drain you from the São Paulo show. Its not pro shot with tons of cams. It's pro with one cam. On the right side of the stage, but not on the stage, it's in the crowd. I didn't record it, but sure, there's 2 versions of this show. One source from globo networks [pro shot, tons of cams] and another source from MTV brazil [pro shot, one cam]." Info courtesy of André.

"I was watching MTV2 [in the US] on 12/15 and from 4pm (Eastern) to 5pm they played all Nirvana's videos. They played (in correct order): Lithium - Heart-Shaped Box - Drain You (MTV studios) - About a girl (Unplugged) - In Bloom (Version 1, wearing dresses without the audience) - Territorial Pissings (MTV studios) - The Man who sold the world (Unplugged) - Smells Like Teen Spirit - Aneurysm (Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!) - Come as you are - Rape me (SNL) - Sliver - All apologies (Unplugged)." Thanks to Ryan for this info.

Barry put up an interesting Trading Tree for Nirvana fans, which should ease the acquiring of Nirvana recordings. Join the tree, or get more info, here. Thanks to Barry for the link.

From Nathan; "I'm in a band known as sELF-Titled and right now we've got a cover of Polly that we did on a 4-track floatin' around on Napster. One way [to get it], is to go on Napster and search for sELF-Titled: or find me on there. I'm satansmacker on there. People also have told us we sound like a cross Nirvana-Smashing Pumpkins and since we've been up at mp3.com, we've been doing REALLY GOOD FOR AN UNSIGNED BAND! We're #3 in our genre for Winnipeg with our song 'The Tragic's Theme' (which we think is the worst song we put up, 'cause the vocalist can't sing). Don't forget to check us out here. I have all the songs on Napster, including a really cool cover of Shout At The Devil that was done in 1 take." Courtesy of Nathan.

There are now ad banners in the top and bottom of every page of this website. Unfortunately, this step was necessary to take, in order for the site to continue. The expenses in hosting alone are several hundred dollars per month, which are paid for indirectly by the advertisers. Generally, it was a choice between shutting down the site or putting ad banners all over the place. I chose the latter. The content of the site is, obviously, the same and it will continue to be free. Thank you and sorry :o)

Since there's absolutely no Nirvana news at the moment, let's do some Grohl news; "FOO FIGHTERS drummer DAVE GROHL has said he plans to move into writing film soundtracks, claiming it is the 'retirement plan for any musician'. Speaking in an interview on XFM to be broadcast tomorrow evening (December 15), Grohl said he has already been offered a score, which he 'really wants to do'. He said: 'There are people that just move on into that and it becomes a great way to exercise your creative muscles and do something worthwhile - that's kinda like the retirement plan for any musician. It's like you tour your arse off, you get tired, all you want to do is stay at home. And then you have this career opportunity, which is watching TV and writing music!' Grohl said he was increasingly unhappy with doing massive tours 'to promote a product'. He said: 'I started touring when I was 17 years old. I'm almost 32! 'I mean, we love playing live. We've become better at it and we're happy, because the other night we were playing and I remember what it felt like to play in 1995, and I know what it feels like to play now, and it's a world of difference, it really is.' 'You know, it's a whole different vibe. I don't ever want to stop doing it, but you know there's the whole side of being in a band which is touring like mad, to promote a product.' " Story courtesy of NME. In other Grohl news, Dave appears on the first single off the new Tony "Black Sabbath" Iommi solo album.

The annual NFC Christmas Present is now online. For the 4th year in a row, we present to you some classic and rare Nirvana tracks in all their glory for a limited period. This year we have an instrumental from a studio session done in January of 1991, a video clip from Nirvana's last ever concert, and a couple of stunning live performances. Remember that the present will - if everything goes well - be removed in the beginning of January 2001. Special thanks to Chad Channing for his contribution. Check out the NFC X-mas Present here.

Gilbert Blecken who contributed some great Nirvana photos to this site not long ago has opened a site of his own, featuring some interesting stuff - such as a full transcript of the interview he did with the band in 1991. Check out Gilbert's site here. Thanks to Gilbert Blecken for the link.

I recently noticed that if you search for Nirvana on either of the net's two biggest search engines/directories (Yahoo! and Altavista), the first result (or "hit") will be this very site. Very interesting indeed :o) It is worth to mention that if you search for "Nirvana" on Altavista, it will currently return that it found 109230 pages!

Interesting observation; "In the video game 'NFL Gameday 2001' (american football game) for the playstation, when a team scores a touchdown, sometimes it will play a crappy sounding clip of Nirvana's 'In Bloom'. It's obvious its In Bloom too." Courtesy of Mark C.

"Courtney Love has signed on to star in a movie about a woman climbing her way up the entertainment ladder — but it's not autobiographical. Variety reports that the Hole leader will star in Hello Suckers, a film about Hollywood legend Texas Guinan, a turn-of-the-century showgirl who schemed her way to Broadway and the silver screen. A Map of the World director Scott Elliott will helm the project, which is based on David Henry Hwang's adaptation of Louise Berliner's 1993 book, Texas Guinan, Queen of the Night Clubs." Story courtesy of Yahoo! and Wall of Sound. Thanks to Vic for the link.

"Just wanted to let you know that your site was just mentioned on the German MTV Webcharts. I was just zapping through the channels, so I didn't get to see it all, but the VJ was talking about Nirvana and that there were so many internet sites about them and they showed the URL of yours. Afterwards they played 'Come as you are' from Unplugged, which was no. 3 [on the webchart]." This interesting news was courtesy of Franzi. Currently number one on the webchart is Deftones, followed by Eminem on place #2.

VH-1 are having an auction at amazon.com, for some interesting music history artifacts; "How would you like to play a round of golf with Alice Cooper? How about owning Madonna's pink cowboy hat? Or the sparkling blue electric guitar from the Goo Goo Dolls video? The VH1 Save the Music holiday auction lets you bid on these items and more fabulous rock & roll memorabilia--and all for a good cause. Just in time for the holidays, over 100 items of great music memorabilia--such as guitars, CDs, posters, and set lists signed by your favorite rock stars--are being auctioned with all of the proceeds benefitting Save the Music, the nonprofit initiative dedicated to improving music education in America's public schools. Surprise your friends and family with great gifts, and maybe bid on that Aerosmith-signed electric guitar for yourself while you're at it." These items include a guitar, autographed by Gloria Estefan, Don Henley, Nirvana and others; "This Yamaha FG-401 acoustic guitar was signed by Gloria Estefan, Don Henley, members of Nirvana, and others. Net proceeds from the sale of this item benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation in helping to restore music education in our public schools." The auction closes 12/13/2000 @ 12:00:00 PST. Unfortunately, the seller will not ship outside of the US. More info here. View the other auctions for legendary items here. Thanks to Ryan for the links.

"According to wallofsound.go.com, this Saturday MTV (US) will be airing 'MTV Uncensored'. I think this is just a rerun of an old show, but it does spend a few minutes on Nirvana, so it's worth mentioning. Other bands listed were Beastie Boys, Green Day, Limp Bizkit, and 98 Degrees." Courtesy of 'AKMoose' and Daniel. Update: "That MTV Uncensored show is 'MTV Uncensored: New Years Eve Special.' As far as I know that hasn't been aired before, but they're gonna be showing bloopers and stuff of all the new years eve specials they've had. " Courtesy of 'magoo'. The airing times are 1 PM, 6:30 PM and 11:30 PM. Thanks to Matt for the times.

A couple of days ago, another star-studded music award show took place in the US. This one, My VH-1 Music Awards, was a bit different as the categories, the nominees and the winners were all decided by people voting at the VH-1 website. The big winners at the show were Creed and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who also performed live along with Metallica, Christina Aguilera, Bon Jovi and a few others. Metallica did a terric performance of "Fade 2 Black", a song also voted for by people on the Internet. Metallica ran off with the award for 'Best Stage Spectacle', while The Foo Fighters were nominated for 'Video of the year' but lost to Bon Jovi.

As we have now headed into December, I thought it was time to give the main page of NFC it's usual Christmas look, with a couple of bells and a new banner. Once again thanks to Claus Jensen for making these images back in 1997. This year's NFC Christmas Present will also be up soon, probably within the next week. More info about that will be published as it becomes available.

The lucky winners of the 7th NFC Competition have now been chosen. The winner of the first prize, "NIRVANA: The Bark Not The Bite - an interview CD", is Marco Sorbetti. And the winner of the second prize, "FOO FIGHTERS: There Is Nothing Left To Lose, press pack", is Jenna Lohneis. There was no third prize this time. Unfortunately, only 117 people entered their name to this competition - a bit odd considering this site has a little over 100.000 unique visitors per month. I will try to line up some bigger prizes for the 8th competition, starting early next year.

Some Nirvana news from Matt; "I got some new info on that book Charles Cross is working on. The book is due out in August 2001. The title will be: Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain. The suggested price is $24.95. There is a picture of Kurt on the cover from the session that yielded photos for Nevermind and Incesticide -- it's a black and white photo where Kurt is wearing a leather jacket. It was an advertisement for publications due next year." I have been reluctant to publish this info earlier, as the author Charles noted that the title could possibly change (it was previously to be called "The Will of Instinct"). Though, the release date should be correct. "Heavier Than Heaven" was the name of Nirvana's first UK tour in 1989 with TAD. It will be published by Hyperion Press, possibly on August 15. Thanks to Matt Reeder for some of this info. Also thanks to Caren.

"SLTS is going to be used in a musical called 'Moulin Rouge'. Unfortunately I don't know where and when this will be shown. I just know that some responsible person called Baz Luhrmann asked Courtney for permission and apparently she didn't mind. The interesting thing about this musical is that the action takes place in the year 1850, I wonder how they want to make the song fit in there." Courtesy of Franzi. Mr. Luhrmann is the writer and director of the film. "Moulin Rouge" features stars such as Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo and Kylie Minogue. It is currently slated to be released in the US, June 2001. A more detailed story on the film's use of Nirvana; "Movie director Baz Luhrmann was forced to beg Courtney Love to let him use Nirvana's cult song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' in his new movie. Love was convinced that the music of her dead husband Kurt Cobain wasn't appropriate for the period piece, Moulin Rouge (2001) - which also stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, and revolves around the 19th Century Parisian night club. Luhrmann says, 'I had to spend time with Courtney Love going through that in a very thorough way. You can imagine Teen Spirit is an ironic piece, a symbol for a generation and Courtney really protects it. At first she was like, 'In a musical? I don't think so!' And then I sent her the footage with that lyric, 'Here we are now, entertain us,' and she recognised the song is being sung by guys in top hats and tails and it's this wild out of control vision of the 1890s. The juxtaposition made it special enough for her to give us permission to use it.'" Story courtesy of WENN and The IMDB. Also thanks to Elizabeth.

"MADONNA SETS WEBCAST RECORD. A record nine million people watched Madonna on their computers Tuesday night as she strutted her stuff at London's Brixton Academy for a six-song twenty-nine minute set". Full story, courtesy of Rolling Stone.