Kurt Cobain Turns 35; A Winter Semi-Formal; 13-Minute Quickie Therapy Sessions; Mini-Blurbs

But if none of those things happened, Kurt Cobain would be 35 this week. His birthday is being honored not on NPR or E! but in Boog City, a new Lower East Side community newspaper edited and published by David Kirschenbaum. The second issue of Boog City contains a "Tribute to Kurt Cobain at 35" with interviews, poetry and art; it debuts this Wednesday. A party on the Bowery kicks it off.

"Too much of our culture is bought and paid for by death and everyone wants to celebrate the deaths of these people," Kirschenbaum says of Cobain. "It's like, you know, I don't want to be in Strawberry Fields on Dec. 8 every year; I want to be there on Oct. 8. Do I understand that Kurt's dead? Of course I do, I'm not a fool, but we want to celebrate his life. We don't want to celebrate a day when he made a choice that many of us who suffer from being bipolar could have made."

To mark the birthday, Kirschenbaum is bringing in 12 local bands to play the 12 songs from Nirvana's Nevermind in order. (Kurt Cobain fronted a group called Nirvana and Nevermind was their big album.)

"I tried to find bands that would take tracks off Nevermind and fuck with them," he says. "I programmed this band Ruth Gordon, which is two guys playing what they call 'broken country music,' doing 'Come As You Are.' Then I have a band like the Ward, a rap group, doing 'Lithium.' And I have Schwervon! doing 'Polly' and I have Nan, the woman drummer, doing lead vocals. So here's this song about a woman being raped being sung by a woman."

Boog City is a biweekly paper. Kirschenbaum refuses to explain its name, but since he's been calling his alternative press Boog Literature since 1991, he must be pretty committed to it. Distribution is handled by a company called Sunspot, "which is not really a company but is just one guy, Donald Lev, who's been a patron saint to the poetry community for the last 40 years," Kirschenbaum says. "I tell him where I want [Boog City] dropped off and he drops them off. I have them in like 40 different locations in the East Village and Williamsburg."

Makes you want to start your own community newspaper, no? Rest assured, reading New York Press is easier and more financially sound. The launch party for Boog City takes place this Wednesday at The Knitting Factory (74 Leonard St., betw. B'way &Church St., 219-3006). It starts at 8:30 with $12 tickets at the door, and in addition to the 12 bands, New York Press alum Tom Gogola will read his essay on Nevermind, Rodney King, Terence McKenna, psychedelic mushrooms and other early 90s screed-worthy topics. Enjoy, Tom's a fabulous writer.

...If he hadn't shot himself, Kurt Cobain might also have gotten charred in an electrical house fire or run over by a drunk-driving cop or hit with sarcoma, cancer of the body's connective tissues. Sarcoma is a nasty killer that comes in many flavors: leiomyosarcomas infect the smooth muscles; malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) put a hurting on brain function and fibrosarcomas are like tumors made of scar tissue. Devoted to eradicating them all is the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which holds its ninth annual Winter Semi-Formal this Saturday.

One might ask, "What is the difference between a semi-formal and a formal?" Not to worry, both are parties with hors d'oeuvres. A formal requires men to wear tuxedos and women to wear evening "gowns," which can be anything from actual gowns to tiny black patches of skirt?they just have to be the sort of labeled drapery that one would wear to the Oscars. A semi-formal is more permissive: it asks that men wear jackets and women, dresses. Everyone has a good chance of attending a semi-formal and the Kristen Ann Carr event is a good place to start, since it offers up a large and somewhat bizarre collection of swag at its silent auction and raffle.

Available for bidding are a Sex and the City script signed by Chris Noth, the top 100 films of the 20th century as selected by AFI and an autographed copy of Gene Simmons' latest plea for attention. The raffle prizes include a year-long pass for two to Loews cinemas, a poster signed by the band Vertical Horizon and a Sega Genesis video game system, coveted by many preteens circa 1991.

Raffle tickets can be purchased and bids can be placed at www.sarcoma.com, but don't lose sight of the real opportunities of the Winter Semi-Formal: an open bar from 9 to 12 and the chance to find a rich mate. The fact that you'll be helping obliterate a pernicious disease is a bonus. The festivities begin at 9 on Saturday, cost $120 (tax deductible) and take place at the 200 Fifth Club (200 5th Ave., betw. 23rd & 24th Sts., 675-2080).

...Finally, it's possible that, had Kurt Cobain lived, he would have been driven mad by his alleged bipolar disorder. Avoiding big-money therapy due to paranoia, guilt about being rich and a short attention span (and also very confused), he would've had nowhere to turn but Lisa Levy's Psychotherapy Live! show.

Levy is a conceptual art/hucksterism queen. At her show, she brings audience members up onstage (where Levy sits with a doctored diploma and "special official psychotherapy glasses"), plunks them on a couch and provides them with 13-minute psychoanalyses.

"I often turn to the audience and go, 'What do you guys think?' to try and get them involved," Levy says. "I definitely think that there are people who've thought about things differently when they've left."

With the popularity of speed dating and John Edward's Crossing Over show, it's only a matter of time before some network tv exec realizes that Psychotherapy Live! with a real, camera-friendly therapist and seven-minute segment lengths would be an afternoon smash. Catch it while you can at Here (145 6th Ave., betw. Spring & Broome Sts., 647-0202) this Monday; tickets are $12 and the show starts at 7.

As for Kurt Cobain, what can be said, in the end, about a man who killed himself so foolishly? We'll just never know all the possible cool ways that he might have died.

...Mini Blurbs: A Life in the Week of Ned: The new lounge West (425 West St. at W. 11th St., 242-4375) is really, really far west. It's on the West Side Hwy., actually, which is technically called West St. Owner Patrick Campi, who is a former owner of the popular after-work/artsy wine bar Otheroom (143 Perry St., betw. Greenwich & Washingon Sts., 645-9578), points out that the west-ness is not a big deal for New Jersey patrons, who just have to find a parking spot on West St. and they're there. West is dark and cavernous with square seats, a bar that looks like its own escape pod and a few beautiful people hanging out at any given time, even 1 a.m. on a Tuesday night. I asked the bartender: What's with the graffiti on your window? Local hoodlums not appreciate opening a yuppie bar on their turf?

"That graffiti is part of the design, actually," he said. "Well. No, it's not."