It feels like I’m spending my life at the library nowadays. There are surely many far worse fates. The LA Central Library’s ALOUD series of free lectures continues to attract me back, with an ever fascinating array of guests.  Last week, I had seen Walter Kirn speak on his book Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever.  That was an enjoyable program, and Kirn is extremely personable; but for this post, I will comment on last night’s talk with Tamim Ansary, who was presented and interviewed by Amir Hussain (a co-presentation of ALOUD and The Center for Global Understanding).  The title of Ansary’s book matches his talk: Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes.

Of all the talks I have heard at ALOUD, I found Ansary to be the most engaged and fascinating speaker to date. (more…)

Update: It appears that Mrs. Lulu has snuck into the blog again.  The following contains her observations of a delightful lecture at L.A.’s magnificent Central Library.

Last night, Lulu and I attended one of the LA Central Library’s free lectures in their wonderful ALOUD series:  George Lakoff, “The Public Mind:  A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics, In Conversation with Ian Masters”

We were both particularly excited about this talk since we had studied Lakoff in graduate school.  For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a cognitive scientist and linguist  at UC Berkely, whose interdisciplinary work focuses on investigating the ways in which linguistic and cognitive structures (e.g., metaphors, prototypes, frames) shape perception and social life.

A central theme of last night’s discussion was the way in which the framing mechanisms of public discourse have been controlled by the Republicans [...] (more…)

Hat tip to Tricia S. for informing me that David Sedaris will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove tomorrow night to speak about his book “When You Are Engulfed in Flames,” a collection of writings on smoking, quitting smoking and other related tales. He will be appearing at 7:00 PM. This is one of my favorite of all of Sedaris’ books. I also have this one on my iPod. Definitely check him out tomorrow night if you can. He is amazing and hilarious.

Barnes & Noble at The Grove at Farmers Market
189 Grove Drive, Suite K 30, Los Angeles, CA 90036

There are always interesting events to attend in L.A. Book signings, art openings, good DJs spinning cool music, cocktail parties. They’re everywhere. Rarely do you find them all in one place, though.

The event that will gather all of those elements together, the one I’m most looking forward to this weekend, is the release party for a great new travel guide by Phoung-Cac Nguyen.

Follow me past the jump for more about “Total São Paulo,” art, and music. Did I mention complimentary cocktails? (more…)

Back in March, I wrote about Chaparral’s upcoming focus on noir, and now I’m here to tell you about Switchblade, PM Press‘ new imprint wholly devoted to noir. The two inaugural offerings from Switchblade both take place in Los Angeles. Gary Phillips’ The Jook imagines the would-be come-back of a pro football player after LA gets a new franchise. “Just as it seems he might be getting back in the flow, he’s enraptured by Wilma Wells, the leggy and brainy lawyer for the team–who has a ruthless game plan all her own.” Summer Brenner’s I-5 tells a story of all sorts of traffic–sex trafficking, crime, and freeways.

Switchblade bills itself as ”a different slice of hardboiled fiction where the dreamers and the schemers, the dispossessed and the damned, and the hobos and the rebels tango at the edge of society.” You can get a taste of the hardboiled goodness tomorrow night at the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood and Thursday night at Skylight in Los Feliz. (An aside: I just noticed while writing this post, that Lawrence Block and George Pelecanos will be at the Mystery Bookstore on the 19th. Wow.) Sadly, I cannot make either event, but I hope to manage the private launch party nonetheless (shameless, I know). I am assured the absinthe will flow freely.

It is not advisable, nor was it ever, to lead a Dada life.

– Andrei Codrescu

The Los Angeles Public Library runs a wonderful speaker series called ALOUD (really it is “lectures, readings, performances & discussions” according to its billing) at the Central Library). These sessions are free of charge, but it is a good idea to reserve tickets in advance, since they sometimes “sell out.” Better still, readers should definitely subscribe to the mailing list to get helpful reminders of what is coming up.

This Tuesday I had the great pleasure of seeing a relic of DADA, in from LA, New Orleans’ and Louisiana State University’s Andrei Codrescu. Somewhere before his LA to LA trip, our poet had some vampiric Transylvanian origin, much as did his favorite subject of the evening Samy Rosenstock (sometimes known by the more Romanian sounding “Tristan Tzara”), and also did Codrescu’s charming young interlocutor Oana Sanziana Marian (Transylvanian Yankee poet).

(more…)

If I hear one more report about the swine flu, the stumbling economy or the diminished box-office expectations for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I might just do something drastic. Like blog about it.

But wait, what’s this? Don’t scroll down yet! Someone’s answered my desperate plea.

WriteGirl and Pasadena Playhouse are teaming up this Sunday at 6 p.m. for a benefit performance called PlayWriteGirl. The event will feature scenes and monologues written by teen girls and performed by actors like Angela Bassett (ER), Kate Flannery (The Office) and JoBeth Williams (Dexter).

But what makes this event really special? The works they’ll be reading will be pieces created earlier that day–the result of professional women writers of all genres mentoring 150 aspiring writers.

Think of it as a creative stimulus package. Or as immunization against the doldrums. Or, well, you get the idea. Just support a good cause, okay?

Photo: Girls love writing. Courtesy of Paul-W via Flickr.

How close are we to losing independent bookstores?  We’ve seen the last of Dutton’s and much beloved Acres of Books in Long Beach closed last year; more recently, A Different Light flipped the switch.  Finally, tragically, to the outcry of chefs across the city, Cook’s Library will close on April 30.  When I dropped by a week ago, all books currently were discounted 40%, but this may increase as the shutter date draws near.

For the uninitiated, Cook’s Library sells (sold) cookbooks.  Nothing but cookbooks.  Cookbooks of every cuisine, ingredient, old and new.  The first time I visited, I was just floored with the amount and diversity of books; who knew that some of these books were still in print!  Old Julia Child books, older editions of Joy of Cooking, a few rare MFK Fishers.  I was a poor grad student then and couldn’t afford to pay the full retail price for any of the books I discovered, so I gleefully read what I could and checked out what I couldn’t at the library.  Therein lies the problem.

(more…)

I *just* found this out! You still have a few hours to tune in–it goes until 5p:

theprimespot.com

Presents A LIVE WEBCAST: STRANGERS WITH POETRY

Live from The Clamshell [apparently a converted garage in a mystery location here in LA!], Sunday, April 26, Noon to 5p

A live webcast of some of SoCal’s strongest poets, performing in an intimate (secret) venue. Hosted by G. Murray Thomas and Eric Morago, this will be an entertaining and enlightening session of spoken word. The featured performers will include:

R.D. “Raindog” Armstrong, founder and publisher of Lummox Press. His latest book is Fire and Rain.
James Bolt SoCal performance poet extraordinaire.
Mona Jean Cedar combines poetry, dance and ASL until a unique performance style.
Commoners & Kings (Jason O’Neal, Anthony Sims, and Dragonfly Jon): “We’re all common men striving to be kings, but when we get to be kings don’t forget to be common men.”
Scott Huestis, from Gizmo and Building 7,will be accompanying some of the poets on guitar.

A rare SoCal appearance by Lob, head of the Instagon Foundation. Poet, musician, artist, all-around creative master.
Eric Morago: A poet who blends page and performance, passion and humor, featured all around Southern California.
Mindy Nettifee, Long Beach’s poetry queen, author of Sleepyhead Assassins.
Gill S.O.T.U. “He be to soul what key be to lock.”
Rob “Ratpack Slim” Sturma, long-time host of Green and author of You Sensitive Bastard.
G. Murray Thomas, performance poet, former editor of Next…, author of Cows on the Freeway.
…and many more to be announced!

 

As per tradition, this morning’s L.A. Times contains a fold out, full page schedule of the newspaper’s annual Festival of Books, being held next weekend at UCLA (or check out the sked online). Without fail, the weekend itself always falls among other events that I have to choose between, such as The Cowboy Festival’s, but the book fest’s numerous free panels with authors and experts of assorted interests tends to always win out. But the bigger challenge is deciding which of the multi-track panels to pick among others scheduled at the same time.

This year, I’m looking right at the fest’s panels beginning Saturday’s 3 o’clock hour. I’m torn between “History: Unknown Los Angeles,” including panelist D.J. Waldie, and “The Future of News” with Times editor Russ Stanton. Also in the same hour: a California mystery novelist panel with Robert Crais, T. Jefferson Park, and Joseph Wambaugh, and another called “Humor & Race” with Lalo Alcaraz, moderated by Tod Goldberg. Again, all begining at either 3 or 3:30. Decisions, decisions!

Earlier in the day, scheduling picks are little easier, but still some sacrifices need to be made. “Status Update: Social Networking & New Media” at 10:30am is a no brainer - heck, Wil Wheaton is a panelist. ‘Nuff said. Even though it will run through  ”Future of Power & Partisanship” panel with Mickey Kaus beginning at 11:30am.

Fortunately, this still leaves enough gap in my schedule to head over to a “Broken Government” panel pitting Amy Goodman against Hugh Hewitt.

Sunday appears to have less challenges, but your mileage will vary depending on your own interests. (Mine tend to be: 1. The future or current state of news, 2. Anything to do with Southern California, 3. Current issues/politics.) For my heartbreaking Sunday choices, click here to read more.