Oh To Be Not Anyone...Gone

I didn't see Patti Smith when she was recently here in Seattle, and I regret it. Immediately after the show, the entire city was breathless with excited and tearful summaries of Smith reading old poetry and new prose from her book Just Kids, and of her powerfully direct musical performances, just she and a guitar. No one who saw it spoke of anything less than a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Stranger writer J.T. Oldfield posted this summary on the magazine's blog.

Luckily, video blogger Ben Slivka sneaked a video camera into Benaroya Hall and managed to record a stunning seven minute section of Patti reading and playing. Here, she reads about her mental state at the very moment that her friend and lover Robert Mapplethorpe died, followed by a heartbreaking performance of her song "Beneath the Southern Cross."