For my next trick I'll need a volunteer...

Wednesday night I went to Copperfields Books in Petaluma to hear Crystal Zevon read from her new book about Warren, "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead."

It was an emotional experience. There were not very many people there, but most of us had clearly held an inordinate attachment to the man most people know for writing Werewolves of London, but who wrote oh so much more and who, in fact, was oh so much more. Crystal was not only his wife for many years (you'll see them in this fun home movie video from Amazon)but they were also very old and dear friends in the many years after they divorced. He often sang about her and had many times asked her to take him back. These are emotions that I have experienced myself over and over during the last two years, and I find comfort in these songs that remind me that I am not alone in the feeling. On Wednesday, Crystal even commented that they had talked about getting back together several times over the years, but they finally came to the conclusion that they were better as friends. Evidently, they were very good friends. You could feel it in the way she spoke of him, the way she looked off above the crowd at points when she finished reading. Warren was the one who asked her to write the book, and at times during the reading it was easy to get the feeling that if you turned around Warren would be standing in the back row grinning and taking it all in. My favorite quote of the night was that Warren "... had this way of empowering you to do what you had no business doing."

If you spend some time with the later songs from Zevon you come to understand a little bit about how an artist of such catastrophic craziness at one point in his life can become deep, and profound, and lovely at another point (or perhaps both sides were there always, and it takes other developments for the rest of us to see them). Such people are really what artistry is about, because it is in the living of their lives, their faithfulness to their gift and their work, and their giving to the rest of us from that living that we learn more about being who we are.

Crystal's stories were entertaining, engaging and encouraging and she closed the reading by, as she put it, "giving Warren the last word." It was a wonderful and surprising evening, one that once again reminded me of the depth to be found in Warren. Such evenings are why we have books and records and films... It's the way we keep the memories, the lessons and the love in our hearts after the people who gave them to us are no longer existentially present in our lives.