Remembering Kristen Pfaff (May 26, 1967 - June 16, 1994)

Recently discovered this great photo of Kristen via a very kind Hole fan in Italy who sent it to me. It's sweet how this shot conveys her joyful spirit — seems like almost all of the publicity shots for her work with Hole are kind of dark or sad. This image more accurately reflects my memory of her (though the time we spent together was in the late '80s and this picture is from the early '90s). She was so talented. She used to play these very melodic, incredibly beautiful little instrumental riffs for me on her bass (early on, in Minneapolis before she was playing in any bands). I have this vivid memory of a horrible, rainy New York City trip we took together — I remember breaking up with her at Dojo Restaurant on St. Mark's Place after a cockroach crawled out from under my napkin. The last time I saw her was after her last Hole gig at Slim's in November 1993. So sad, so sad.