November 12, 2008

Yes, You’re Old: Nirvana Baby, Now 17, Reenacts Nevermind Cover

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mojo-photo-nevermindguy.jpgI know your corns were giving you trouble and you just stepped on your bifocals, but here’s another reminder of your rapidly advancing age: the wee tot whose wee-wee was displayed proudly on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album is now 17 years old, and he has recreated the famous photo, just to rub it in. Spencer Elden was just a baby when his parents were paid $200 to drop him in a pool for the up-and-coming Seattle band. The resulting image of the infant swimming hungrily after a dollar bill (coinciding with Nirvana’s move to Geffen) has since become one of the most iconic in the history of recorded music. MTV News says it’s “unclear” why Elden shot the new photo, although I think the subject of the photo itself might be a big hint. Elden’s wearing dopey board shorts in the new photo, which EW’s Popwatch blog says turns out to be “the difference between art and commerce,” and they’re right: naked, it would have been a kind of John-Lennon-In-Bed-With-Yoko statement, but instead it gives the impression some sleazy web site gave him 50 bucks, and he goes “okay, but I’m keeping the shorts on,” and they go, “fine, just hurry up, we’ve got a Lohan story to cover.” So the whole thing feels more sad and embarrassing than anything else. …Or wait, maybe that’s our gray hair that’s sad and embarrassing.

Photo from splashnewsonline.com.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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