Alright this just struck me as so on so many levels. Like, not just the randomness of GPS being the specific thing that is the singular modern miracle, not just that new-fangled technology existing that people who are now dead didn’t get to experience is the reason why it’s sad they’re dead, but even why it is noteworthy that Helen Mirren has these thoughts, and why was she saying this of Kurt Cobain of all people?

I figured there had to be more context, and there is, but nowhere near enough to adequately answer my questions. Apparently though, this isn’t a one-off. She is known for talking about Kurt Cobain and how modern technology relates to his death.

Of course, the comment came amid a broader point she was making about aging. “If you’re lucky, you get to be older,” she continued. “And then there you are. Oh my God, I’m 79! I never thought I’d be 79. And then you say, OK, well this is it. This is what 79 is. And it’s kind of OK. It’s not brilliant, but it was not that brilliant to be 25 either.”

Mirren has referenced Cobain numerous times in the past when discussing the nature of aging. In 2014, she told Oprah Winfrey, “Look at Kurt Cobain — he hardly even saw a computer! The digital stuff that’s going on is so exciting. I’m just so curious about what happens next.”

A year later, she told Cosmopolitan, “I was thinking about Kurt Cobain the other day and he died without knowing the internet, and I’m totally blown away by that.” And, in 2016, she said to the Daily Mail, “If I’d died at 27, the age that Kurt Cobain [of rock band Nirvana] died in 1994, I’d never have even known there was an internet! Incredible things are happening all the time and I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

I suppose it’s mildly (very mildly) interesting to know that some celebrity I have a vague notion of (Mirren) is an unlikely fan of another celebrity who I was once a huge fan of. And I guess everyone has their own unique ways of contemplating their mortality.