BY DC CUEVA
This week, DCBLOG returns from a few weeks' hiatus from this hobby where this blogger got to follow both the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI during the just-completed month of February, and being able to create plenty of escapable content in the latest series of Vegas YouTube vlogs from my trip last fall. But before we begin this spring cycle of going Inside MTV Reality and our tenth year of covering TV's most-talked about reality fare with a new season of Siesta Key that debuts this coming Thursday night, we would like to take this brief moment here to remember a friend of this site.
It's obviously been a rough couple years for all of us -- the two-year anniversary of the pandemic declaration is this week... and that is on top of politics, Black Lives Matter, plenty of panic, and now the war in Ukraine with Russia & its leader in the middle. But above all, it's likely that you have had to deal with the death of a loved one or an idol in the twenty-six months of this lost decade: over the winter holidays, my extended family got to say farewell to one who welcomed us into her home for many a family gathering for so many years -- our beloved nanny who we all called "Inong." And it was just last month that I found out about someone who I featured on this site back eight years ago, and one who I discovered from watching the shows I love.
Occasionally on here, the DC FORUM segment gives this blogger a chance to bring on someone from the MTV fandom or those podcasters who cover The Challenge and other shows every week to do what those in the ladder profession do best: talk about the fifth major pro sport or whatever is going on in the wide world of reality television. In one of those instances -- and in this case, two in fact -- we featured one who got to become a loyal fan of the shows you love to watch.
When The Real World switched up its format late in its three-decade long run on MTV and then on both Facebook and Paramount+, Ex-Plosion in winter 2014 provided us with several glimpses into the future. This was the season that introduced us to the eventual king of MTV Reality in Cory Wharton, who in addition to being on The Challenge also took his exploits to Teen Mom, Just Tattoo of Us and Ex On The Beach -- for which Season 29's titular twist of exes of him & the seven strangers inspired that MTV's global entry into the reality dating genre. And as of this past weekend when he turned 31, Cory now awaits his next chapter after he & girlfriend Taylor Selfridge announced their summertime expectancy of her second baby, his third child and the fourth kid in the ecosystem of the MTV Reality community's representative in the Teen Mom universe, Are You The One? alum Cheyenne Floyd.
If you check out a music video from a band that had its big break on The Challenge two decades ago in Yellowcard, you'll have an idea of how difficult Eric's life was. In the clip for the track "Sing for Me" in 2011, he was one of its featured subjects and where he opened up about the one time where he contemplated suicide. That is only part of a life's story that also saw the one he was closest with, his brother, tragically killed... along with going through many struggles with his own health -- both physically and mentally. Sadly, it was in early January that River passed away two months shy of his 30th birthday... and it would've been this coming Friday that he would have celebrated it.
It was just only over a week ago that yours truly found out about it, and where for one who I got to know just on social media through our mutual MTV love and despite us sharing this same home state, but nonetheless his loss really stings just like any other. Sure, we never got to meet each other in person, but River Zain's loss no doubt leaves an empty seat in the fandom that might not be filled, and he was always a good friend to me and will always appreciative it... it's most especially true for the compliments he gave me for getting to feature him in my blog posts a few times.
To those who he got to become friends with in the MTV family like Tyler, Cory's Real World castmate Jay, Gus of Floribama Shore and others, once they hear about what happened to Eric in this post it will be a loss that they will also find out and perhaps get teared up, just as so many of us have had to bear the weight of this loss. But the greatest impact of his absence is, obviously, on the Cebellos family, who still come to grips with his death over a month after the fact, but do take solstice that he's in a good place now where he is not suffering and where he & his brother are together again.
In an Instagram post on his 29th birthday on March 11th of last year, River wrote in part: "Feeling so fortunate & blessed on this day, 29 years young! I’m so humbled. ... I have absolutely everything I need today, and more 🖤 I’m surrounded by the f___ing BEST! My wish for the year ahead is continued happiness, the health of myself and my loved ones, family and to continue to do and be around people that make me feel whole and feed my soul. I’m here, I’m happy, I’m loved and I love. I love who I see in the mirror, these days...genuinely. I made it. Peace is so underrated 🙏🏽🖤." Rest easy, River... you will be sorely missed by all of us.
Besides suicide prevention, a cause Eric championed was awareness of eating disorders, and many times he was featured in various events for the National Eating Disorders Association... and in 2017 he wrote a blog post on his idol River Phoenix, for which he would adopt his first name. And this spring & summer cycle of our DCBLOG MTV coverage -- including Siesta Key, Season 3 of The Challenge All-Stars and other shows that might come up in the months ahead -- will be dedicated in River's memory.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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