Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Esotouric to offer Charles Bukowski tour and art walk talk

L.A. Literary Lion Charles Bukowski Roars with a Bus Tour and Art Walk Talk

WHAT: Esotouric's "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A." bus tour

WHEN: Saturday November 7, 12pm-4pm, departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N Alameda, Downtown LA

COST: $58/person, includes coffee and donuts served at Bukowski's favorite Pink Elephant Liquor Store.

OTHER BUKOWSKI HAPPENINGS:
Thursday, October 8, at the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, journalist Marco Mannone hosts a conversational Salon on Bukowski in the 21st Century (5:30pm-7ish, Clifton's Cafeteria, Broadway at 7th, free),

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

On November 7, Esotouric, the company whose offbeat bus tours expose LA's secret history, rolls out its popular and occasional Charles Bukowski bus tour, HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN. The tour departs from Philippe The Original, the legendary downtown sandwich shop where postal worker Bukowski often ate while employed across the street at the brutal Terminal Annex sorting facility.

Girls Gone Wild Magazine says the Bukowski tour is "the polar opposite of those double-decker tourist traps that schlep rubes past Tom Cruise's house and the Hollywood sign." And Forth Magazine's Marco Mannone raves about an experience "filled with so much wit and insight into not only Bukowski, but lost parts of Los Angeles."

HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN spans Bukowski's personal city, from the Skid Row bars where he tuned his young writer's ear to the voices of old rummies to the once-genteel Crown Hill apartments where he fought with his first love Jane, favorite bars and liquor stores, "Barfly" locations to the downtown library, where he discovered his "God," novelist John Fante. German born, Bukowski spent most of his life in L.A., working for the US Postal Service, as "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columnist for the underground press and writing the screenplay for the autobiographical "Barfly." The city and its characters are everywhere in the work, so this tour celebrates the artist within his city with visits to places that were important to him and to his work.

The tour includes a stop at Pink Elephant Liquor in East Hollywood for complementary coffee and donuts, though many riders also pick up a little something stronger for the road.

The tour is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the forces behind the recent successful campaign to have Bukowski's one-time bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood declared an historic-cultural monument.

In his capacity as the newly named Director of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, tour host Richard Schave has invited journalist Marco Mannone to lead a Salon discussion on Bukowski in the 21st Century as part of the October 8 Art Walk. The Salon is a series of free programs at the historic Clifton's Cafeteria on Broadway at 7th, a lifelong favorite dining destination for Bukowski, who celebrated the restaurants in one of his late, biographical poems. The Salon offers an opportunity for culturally curious Angelenos to come together and explore ideas in a convivial atmosphere, scheduled early on Art Walk evenings to leave plenty of time for self-guided post-Salon exploration. Marco Mannone's free Art Walk Bukowski Salon runs from 5:30pm-7ish, overlapping with Maja D'Aoust's Salon on Prestidigitation and Metaphysics (5pm-6:30pm).

Esotouric has made its name with true crime bus tours (Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential) and explorations of literary LA (Raymond Chandler, John Fante, James M. Cain). Now they turn their creative attentions to Bukowski, the prolific poet, novelist and screenwriter whose rough-hewn tales of boozing, wild women and rotten jobs never obscure the deep vein of sweetness and hope that runs through all his work.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Thurs Oct 8- Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat Oct 10 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat Oct 17 ­ Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat Oct 24­ Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat Oct 31 ­ Maja's Mysteries spiritual L.A. tour (debut)
Sun Nov 1 ­ East Side Babylon crime bus tour (debut)
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 - Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 ­ Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Dec 10 - Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 ­ Blood & Dumplings

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

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