BANG BANG

Rock'n'Roll Camp for Girls: The Book is out! Chronicle published it and it turned out great. Neighbor Nicole illustrated it, Carrie wrote the foreword, Beth Ditto wrote an amazing piece called "How to Sound Like a Vacuum Cleaner," Cynthia Nelson eloquently explains "Why I Am Not A Rock Star," and that is just off the top of my head, basically everyone I love from rock camp wrote funny and moving and most importantly useful words of advice. My contribution is a nonglamorous but pragmatic thing called "How to Spin the Web (and Not Get Caught)." The internets, they're outlaw territory.

We had a book release party at In Other Words the other night. Sts handed out chopsticks and taught the whole audience how to play a rock beat on the back of the folding chairs.

This reminded me of a certain goal I drew in January.

So yesterday after rock camp was over and everyone was filtering out I grabbed a pair of drumsticks from the giant bucket by the rock room and sneaked into the Volcano Room, a tiny windowless room where a kit was still set up. I shut the door and turned on the light and sat down behind the kit. And I did it. One-and-two-and, one-and-two-and, faster and faster, and then I tried hitting really hard, and it was incredibly loud and a little scary but in an awesome way. I could feel the sound traveling through me via my arms and feet. I heard people going back and forth in the hallway outside the door and I felt bashful despite myself so I turned off the light and slipped back out. But I was grinning all the way home.