So what do you say when you meet someone whose friend has died? What are you supposed to say? Knowing what to say — or not to say — is an exercise led by example tonight by guitarist and Hole co-founder Eric Erlandson discusses and signs his debut book Letters to Kurt — and it is the discussion part that will doubtless be more compelling and essential than the usual meet-and-greet pressing of the flesh. Part prose (without being prosaic), part poetry (without becoming polemical), the book is Erlandson's response to Kurt Cobain's departure some 20 years ago — and it's also an indictment of celebrity culture, an almost bacterial way of living that focuses on the petty and the trivial at the expense of the people from whom those bacteria derive their own warped brand of sustenance. Letters to Kurt is a book that everyone expected Erlandson, Grohl, et al to have written — occasionally, when silence gets too much, people want to fill in the blanks with their own hapless words. But sometimes you don't have to say anything. Sometimes you just have to listen. Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz; Thurs., Mar. 29, 7:30 p.m., free; book is $17.95. (323) 660-1175, skylightbooks.com

Thu., March 29, 7:30 p.m., 2012

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