AT LAST, A REVIEWER WHO gets it. I’m referring, of course, to Glenn Dixon’s review of the last three Nirvana releases, the CD MTV Unplugged in New York, the video Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!, and the book Cobain (Music, 1/6).

Dixon deals contemptuously and accurately with Rolling Stone magazine’s highly ironic attempts to cash in on the genuine sorrow of Cobain’s twentysomething fans (I would have liked to see Dixon mention the ridiculousness of Rolling Stone‘s offer to sell a poster of its cover art for the December interview with Courtney Love, and its attempt to get street credibility by running “pieces on women in rock” when all it does is quiz Love on her last days with Cobain). Dixon also crafts an affectionate and clear-eyed review of the video and recording. Dixon sums up whatI’ve been waiting months for reviewers to catch on to: It was not because of his problems, but despite them, that Cobain attained artistic success.

Mount Pleasant, via the Internet