Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Esotouric to offer literary bus tours and discounts

July is For Bookworms with Esotouric's Chandler, Bukowski and Fante Literary Bus Tours Discounts

WHAT: Esotouric's July literary bus tours in Los Angeles: Raymond Chandler (Sat 7/11), Charles Bukowski (Sat 7/18), John Fante (Sat 7/25)

COST: Regular price $58/person (15% off for KCRW and KPCC members) per tour. Special offer: ride any two July literary tours for $96 (save $20) or ride all three for $134 (save $40). Contact Esotouric to reserve.

MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

This July, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric offers three bookish bus tours of LA literary landmarks, focusing on the lives and work of Raymond Chandler, Charles Bukowski and John Fante. They're also offering a special promotional ticket celebrating LA's literary legacy. Passengers can ride any one of the tours at the regular $58 rate, ride two and save $20, or ride all three and save $40. For more info or to reserve visit http://www.esotouric.com and see the "July Literary Tour Discounts" links in the left sidebar.

ABOUT THE TOURS:

1) RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES (Sat, July 11)- Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler's LA, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer's bow. The tour goes down the mean streets that shaped his fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour trip through downtown and Hollywood: The Los Angeles Athletic Club, Musso & Frank, the Hotel Van Nuys and a stop at Scoops Gelato in East Hollywood for a complementary sampling of avant garde ice cream master Tai Kim's unexpected flavors, which have in the past included the Chandler-inspired Bacon-Caramel and Nicotine (made with crushed Nicorette gum). For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/chandler

2) CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S LOS ANGELES (Sat, July 18)- This tour focuses on the poet and novelist's great passions: writing, screwing and LA. We'll take in the canonical locations of his life and myth: the Postal Annex Terminal where he gathered the material for "Post Office," his recently-landmarked East Hollywood bungalow where he briefly experimented with marriage and fatherhood, his favorite liquor store, and more. Along the way, we'll explore the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk's rich innerlife. For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/buk

3) JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL (Sat, July 25)- Fante was cult hero Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask the Dust" the film Robert Towne wanted to make after "Chinatown," and he is honored with an annual festival in Italy, but here in LA, his name often gets a shrug. Yet Fante might be the funniest, most heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as his subject. This tour is a chance to discover a great writer and the lost downtown he celebrated, through the words of tour guide Richard Schave and his special guest, Fante's daughter Vickie Fante Cohen. We follow in the footsteps of Fante and his anti-hero Arturo Bandini, from the lost Bunker Hill Victorian rooming houses where Fante starved and dreamed of fame, the main library where Bukowski discovered himself, Skid Row bars where b-girls pocketed his royalty payments, the Grand Central Market where kindly Japanese farmers gave him free oranges and to Angelus Plaza retirement home to see Kay Martin's stunning paintings of Bunker Hill's doomed mansions. For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/fante

Get on one, two or all three of Esotouric's July literary tours to discover how deeply the city informs the work of three of its most fascinating writers, and the secret spots where their creative spirits can still be felt.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sat June 20 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: Route 66 architecture tour
Thurs July 9 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat July 11 - Raymond Chandler's LA
Sat July 18 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Sat July 25 ­ John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill
Sat Aug 1 - The Real Black Dahlia Saturday
Sat Aug 8 - Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Aug 13 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Aug 15 - Blood & Dumplings
Sat Aug 22 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat Aug 29 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

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