In June 2012, I wasn't at the top of my game. I was dealing with trauma brought
about by some abuse in my history, and although I was in therapy and working on
being emotionally functional again, I had a lot of work to do on my self-esteem
and my ability to find joy in things.
My luck was about to change,
though, because I am a librarian and hence I scored a ticket to the final Rock
Bottom Reminders at the 2012 American Library Association conference in Anaheim.
When you read Hard Listening and the authors tell you about what a perfect night
that was ("especially the mistakes" -Dave Barry), believe them, because I was
there too and I can confirm it from the audience perspective. It was only the
month after Kathi Goldmark passed away but she was there at that concert. You
didn't even have to believe in anything supernatural to know that Kathi was
there, unless you consider love something supernatural.
I found joy again
at that concert and I haven't lost it.
So now it's 2013 and this year the
annual ALA conference was in Chicago. I had Hard Listening loaded on my Kindle
for the flight and I couldn't put it down the whole time. Stephen King's essay
"Just a Little Talent" about his mildly skilled guitar-playing is profound. Amy
Tan's "50 Shades of Tan" is another gem. I love her exploration of the evolution
of feminist tropes in pop music and the line about her dominatrix "These Books
Are Made For Walkin'" act: that it was for all the early rock-era girls whose
Princess phones never rang! It was interesting to learn that Matt Groening based
the early Simpsons character country singer Lurleen Lumpkin on Kathi
Goldmark.
Ridley Pearson's "Green Room" essay offers a loving profile of
each member of the band - this is/was a really extraordinary collection of
people. At the end, he describes that final concert in Anaheim and mentions a
"sobbing girl in the front row." Well, that was me.
The drummer Josh
Kelly was kind enough to give me his drumsticks and the set list from the
concert at the end of the night. They are now among my most prized possessions (and yes, those are what I'm holding in my photo).
I hope they all know how much they healed me. Because I can't be the only
one.
By the way, all proceeds from the e-book are donated to covering the late Ms. Goldmark's medical bills.
Being a librarian, now I'm just wondering how libraries could
possibly purchase this e-book for their collections so patrons could borrow and
enjoy it . . .
