A celebratory eulogy for life in "the decade of Nirvana," rock critic Sheffield's captivating memoir uses 22 "mix tapes" to describe his being "tangled up" in the "noisy, juicy, sparkly life" of his wife, Renee, from the time they met in 1989 to her sudden death from a pulmonary embolism in 1997. Each chapter begins with song titles from the couple's myriad mixes—"Tapes for making out, tapes for dancing, tapes for falling asleep"—and uses them to describe a beautiful love story: "a real cool hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl" meeting in graduate school a "hermit wolfboy, scared of life, hiding in my room with my records," and how they built a tender relationship on the music they loved, from the Meat Puppets to Hank Williams. Their bond as soul mates makes his reaction to her death deeply moving: "I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language." But Sheffield's wonderful, often hilarious and lovingly detailed stories about their early romance and their later domestic life show how they created their own personal "mix tape" of life in the same way a music mix tape "steals moments from all over the musical cosmos and splices them into a whole new groove."
It was my first memoir, so we're setting the bar pretty high here. I went to the library again yesterday to find a replacement, but just ended up getting some cookbooks, a few design books and picking up the "Bass Basics" kit on reserve. :) I couldn't really tell what I was in the mood for next, so, I picked up C.S. Lewis' "That Hideous Strength" and requested "Perfect From Now On". We'll see what sticks.
Left CCEN a bit early last night to make it to Jason Feller's CD Release party. It was a good show and good to see him doing his thing. I'm glad people are going to hear that record. After the show, stopped by Eric's new house and had a little late dinner. Ryan, Dawn, Eric, and Lele were all there for the dance party when we discovered that the lights were on a touch-sensitive switch. And Scott was there after just returning from Moldova, so we celebrated by commandeering Eric's keyboard and drum kit for some much overdue rocking.
Off to the post, the Y and hopefully the grocery to get some things to try out the new cookbooks!
