Patti Smith

This afternoon Patti Smith read from her memoir Just Kids at Skylight Books. I knew it would be a crowded event and feared I wouldn't be able to find parking. I found parking easily, but when I got to the bookshop nearly an hour before the reading, the place was already packed solid up to the door. They were directing people to the Skylight Annex two doors down, where they had a big screen set up for a simulcast, so that's where I went. I was a bit disappointed, but 1) I've seen Patti Smith perform several times before, mostly in fairly intimate venues and 2) I didn't really feel like being sardined in a crowd for hours, and the Annex, though crowded, was fairly comfortable. Anyway, Patti did a wonderful reading of various passages from the marvelous Just Kids (which she sprinkled with comments and a hilarious rendition of a bit of the Vanilla Fudge's version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On"), plus sang one song ("Grateful") and answered questions from the audience. A lovely event.

Now I must get back to revising chapter 24...