April is the month of Easter and Earth Day. It also sees Alcohol Free Weekend and Infants Immunisation Week, as well as month-long promotions of child- abuse prevention and sexually transmitted disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) awareness.
While it's also the International Month of the Fugue, during which celebrants write a fugue a day in honour of Johann Sebastian Bach, it is a month in which we should remember an altogether more tragic musician. Monday was the 16th anniversary of the death of Nirvana's front man and those who wish to pay passive respect to Kurt Cobain (right) can do so tonight at 11pm (Bio).
While the two-hour profile itself is not extraordinary - most of the interviewees are music-magazine writers repeating sound bites from published stories about the star - the troubled life and eventual suicide of this Gen-X icon (who was plagued not just by drug addiction but also by an undiagnosed chronic intestinal condition) was. In fact, the tale of Cobain's very public struggles with fame, authority, substance abuse, his health and parenthood could have made him the poster boy for many of this month's key awareness issues/themes, IBS included.
Moving on to more wholesome fare, TVB Pearl introduces a new (to us) face in television cooking. New Zealand food writer Nici Wickes makes hers a World Kitchen (TVB Pearl; Tuesdays at 8pm).
With just half an hour to explore a city and show us how to make a meal inspired by the people and flavours she encounters, Wickes has to keep things simple. She manages to infuse cooking demonstrations with a sense of creative adaptation without losing the essence of each cultural dish, and makes useful observations about ingredients and cooking methods without overwhelming us, the armchair chefs.
Her easy-going and respectful persona (she delights in the honour of being invited to a home-cooked meal by her surf instructor in Bali, Indonesia) reflect genuine enjoyment - from both herself and her local hosts. The show's flaw, if there is one, is its brevity; when you've had a taste of Barcelona, Spain, through the adventures of Wickes and her adorable guide, you can't help but wish for a bigger portion.
