Charles Bukowski celebration Nov. 7

November 7 ­ A Citywide Celebration of Los Angeles Writer Charles Bukowski

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:
At 7pm also on November 7, Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena presents "An Evening with Bukowski's Friends" (free)

MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767 (Esotouric) and http://www.vromansbookstore.com/bukowski or call 626-449-5320 (Vroman's)

November 7 is shaping up to be Bukowski Day in L.A. ­ come be part of some or all of it, with Esotouric and Vroman's Bookstore.

At noon, 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 that Esotouric's Charles 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. 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.

The Bukowski bus tour concludes at 4pm in Downtown Los Angeles, leaving plenty of time to regroup by 7 pm at the venerable Pasadena bookstore Vroman's as it offers a free event AN EVENING WITH BUKOWSKI'S FRIENDS, a rare opportunity to hear from the writer's close associates and loved ones as they read his work and share rare photos.

At this celebration of the lifeand work of Charles Bukowski. Sue Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington and lead archivist of Bukowski's writings, will present a slide presentation of Bukowski's life through photos. She will be joined by the writer's widow Linda Lee Bukowski, poet SA Griffin (reading from a new Bukowski book, "The Continual Condition"), and John Dullaghan, director of the acclaimed documentary film "Bukowski: Born Into This.

"Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 ­ Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 ­ Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Thurs Dec 10 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 ­ Blood & Dumplings
Sat January 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Thurs Jan 14 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tour
Sat January 16 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat January 30 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour
Sun Feb 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Thurs Feb 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Feb 13 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Thurs March 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

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