I'll Keep You In My Heart for a While (Forever, Actually)

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 . . .