We hit the road around 8 am Sunday morning and pulled into LA around 1:40 in the afternoon. At that time we got out and walked around Silverlake, checking out a few thrift stores and all that stuff and a couple of book stores. We checked out a feature reading at Book Bound where I heard Hassan speak. He wrote about the black experience of LA. He read some jazz
oriented stuff and then some general observations about LA culture. We then flew over to Glaxa. Glaxa is a little cafe with two studios attached to it. I had a Mocha, and a chocolate chip cookie and a complimentary beer. The Poetry reading commenced in one of the studios, which was kinda like the
Black Box at UNLV. Basically a room with bleachers for off off off off Broadway productions. The reading included fledgling stand up comics, old washed up singer-songwriters, new washed up singer= songwriters and a few poets. Manuel who reads at Enigma but lives in LA did his schtick and he was pretty good. But it was a hard audience to get a reaction out of.
Maybe everybody was depressed and suicidal. But I still had a good time. I was never bored. And the free beer helped.
Note: The beer was a gift from a group that was filming a doccumentary in the other studio. They do charge for beer normally.
So we went to our hotel room in beautiful downtown Culver City. The Four Seasons Hotel... okay the Econolodge was very spacious and efficient for our purposes which was to sleep. In the spirit of propriety, Rick and I shared a bed and Karen and Shelley took the other. For all our ranting about sex, we are actually somewhat reserved when it comes to the real thing. Of
course, Karen is married and Rick and Shelley are going steady, and I am dating myself obviously, so all were happy and slept soundly.
The second day consisted of waking up.
Okay, okay. We woke up and then went to look for Beyond Baroque. After 4 hours of looking for it we found it and the bookstore was closed. So we went to the evening locale, but not before letting Rick take a nap, while we shopped at some mall, and getting our grubby little hands on some Chinese food. I had Beef Chow Fun which was totally delicious and I recommend Lucky
Star if you are ever in Orange, California.
So that night we went to the Gypsy Den, and the host is this really nice guy named Jaimes Palacio, who happens to be a respected legend in the LA Area scene and has a cult following in Las Vegas for his poem "Bad Poet Man." This open mike was almost all poets, and all of decent to excellent quality. Kerrie Avila was featuring from the San Diego area that night, and she waxed rhyme and spun stories from memory. Jaimes also did us the honor of reading "Bad Poet Man," Of course he has moved onto more concerned satirical and lyrical poetry, but was happy to oblige our sophomoric taste in parodies.
We went up like the night before in the order of our appearance in the chapbook with myself leading off, and Shelley following, and Karen and Rick finishing the night off. What can I say? I was brilliant. No not really, I sucked. Okay, I was brilliant. Pretty much I read in order; Upstaged, In California
Deeper, The Night I Lost My Banana, I Must Be Dating Myself, and Loneliness. I read the same stuff the night before with the exception of the banana one.
Shelley did her "clinical studies show," poem about pressures to have a family and the stereotypes of women in our society.
Karen did her "seeing God on the tip of my Dildo" poem which of course is funny and serious. She has the uncanny ability to explore the darkest corners of experience and then find healing balm in laughter.
And Rick read his "What Would Jesus Do?" poem about the Barnes and Noble expellation. The audience appreciated his wit, and his insightful opinions on censorship. Plus he made his pokes at the academics too.
After the reading, Jaimes got a photo of us with his penguin. After all the reading is called "Penguins Hooked on Macaronics."
So we said our tearful goodbyes to SoCal and got on a toll road and scrounged for some change to pay the automated toll booth. And buzzed out of Santa Ana at about 1030 PM arriving in Vegas shortly after 3 am. We were detoured off of East Tropicana because of that Robbery and Shooting that happened at the Rum Runner. But we all got home safely and I was in bed by 4 am.
Thanks to Rick for doing all the driving.
I just went along for the ride.
Thanks to Karen for doing all the planning
and to Shelley for doing all the navigating
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Created 22 July 2000