I moved to Minneapolis for Prince

On the left, we took a photo in the car, before we went into Paisley Park last summer. Prince doesn’t allow photos or alcohol in his parties. On the right, Paisley Park at night. Credit: Angilee Shah

On the day of Prince’s death, I wrote a remembrance.

I don’t remember not listening to Prince. After college, I got my first job in Los Angeles and moved into a motel-turned-apartment on La Cienega Boulevard. The street was busy and, like most of my neighbors had experienced at one time or another, my old Civic was broken into in my first few months on the block. They smashed a back window, took my tennis bag and a pair of heels I wore into the office. I made peace in my heart with the thief, though, mostly because the only CD he or she took from my collection was “The Very Best of Prince.”

Prince to me was Los Angeles, and I love Los Angeles. So whoever had the good taste to cherry-pick his music from the pack was OK with me. I couldn’t blame them. I had barely enough money at the time to fix the back window. I replaced the Prince CD first.

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