1991 just seems like a really, really long time ago. But now that Times Square is a family destination, punk rock is a Broadway musical and Elton John is writing a book subtitled The End of AIDS, it's helpful to remember a time that existed in the shadow of a thousand points of light. Helping with one aspect of total recall is the Bay Area's Gilman Street/Lookout! Records punk whirlwind Anna Joy Springer discussing her memoir The Vicious Red Relic, Love: A Fabulist Memoir (Jaded Ibis Press). Springer was lead singer and songwriter for Blatz, which produced the tender ode “Berkeley Is My Baby (and I Want to Kill It).” During her time toiling in the feminist punk trenches, she got into a relationship with [Gil], a drug addict and survivor who neglected to mention to Springer that she was HIV-positive. It's a tumultuous cataclysm of a book, riddled with heartbreak and annihilation, but Springer can't stop loving [Gil], placing her in brackets as if to protect her from a world that keeps spinning, no matter how much loss remains behind. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., W. Hlywd.; Mon., Aug. 20, 7 p.m.; free, book is $24. (310) 659-3110, booksoup.com.

Mon., Aug. 20, 7 p.m., 2012

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