Silver Lake Jubilee & The Rattling Wall

Hip young beauties gliding like giraffes in their ultra-high platform wedges. Rocker chicks. Rocker guys. Bands I'm too old to have heard of. Even the little children at this event were way cooler than I am.

But I found my tribe as a reader at the PEN/ "Rattling Wall" stage. Yes, some slasher-rock (I have no idea if that's the correct term, but their screeching made me want to cut my wrists) band was wailing away down the block. It didn't seem to matter. Our audience stayed in their seats and at least pretended they could hear. And since they laughed in the right places while I read, I think they actually did have some idea of what I was saying.

The other readers were fabulous, and I took a spot in the audience and listened to them while I devoured a delicious bahn mi and iced Vietnamese coffee. Azarin Sadegh, Lauren Marks, Hafeez Lakhani, Eric Layer (all current PEN Emerging Voices fellows) Monica Carter, Libby Flores, D.J. Pangburn (also in issue #1 of the Rattling Wall.)

As for issue # 1 of "The Rattling Wall," it is far more beautiful than I ever would have imagined. Kudos to the founding editor Michelle Myering, and the featured artist, Albert Reyes. I'm very thrilled to be a part of it.
Here's the link if you want to buy one.  http://www.narrowbooks.com/

I am absolutely in love with the essay by Don Winslow. He made me wonder about all these crazy dreams I have about houses. Maybe what I really need to do is drive.