This weekend, I finally attended punk rock bowling in Vegas. It's a yearly music festival that features bowling in the morning and a huge musical festival every afternoon and evening. We had never been to the festival, so when I was invited by my punker friends to read at a bookstore called Avantpop Books that same weekend in Vegas, I jumped on it.
It was such a wonderful decision to say yes to the reading and music festival (we passed on the bowling) because it turned out that Billy Bragg, a famous punk singer, social justice activist, and writer who was also headlining the music fest, agreed to be part of our reading. His music was a huge part of my high school years, especially the song "A New England".
How could this all happen you ask? It's the magic of my buddy James Tracy sending an email to one of his music idols who happened to have a new book to market, a rock history nonfiction book called "Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World". Bragg talked about it at length and the crowd was transfixed.
My reading went well. It felt like kismet. To be on stage with my dear friend and punkera icon Michelle Cruz Gonzáles and with my idol Billy Bragg, along with the most amazing writers James Tracy, Mike Dunn, Jason Lamb and Paul Prescott, was so flipping epic. To see my husband in the audience, who I rarely let come to my readings because I'll cry (and the one time I stumbled on my words was when I caught his eye) was beautiful and fitting. When Billy Bragg whispered a sweet compliment in my ear after my reading, one I'll never forget, I hugged Billy tightly. It was the culmination of everything.
And it feels like a brand new day.
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