Monday, February 15, 2010

Tom Waits, Mickey Cohen and more featured on Estouric tours

L.A. Legends Tom Waits, Mickey Cohen and Sister Aimee Feature in Esotouric's Spring Tours

WHAT/WHEN: Esotouric's Spring series of special event guest hosted bus tours: "Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release" (March 20), "Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A." (April 3), John Buntin's L.A. Noir (April 10)

WHERE: "Maja's Mysteries" and "L.A. Noir" depart from Clifton's Cafeteria (7th & Broadway, Downtown LA); "Tom Waits" departs King Edward Saloon (5th & Los Angeles Streets, Downtown LA)

COST: Each tour costs $62/person, snack included

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

Over three Saturdays in March and April Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, offers a trio of three very special bus tours hosted by acclaimed writers who bring their unique insights to some of the city's most compelling characters and locations.

Esotouric is a family business, with its repertoire of sixteen tours all researched, written and hosted by Richard Schave and his wife Kim Cooper.

But for these special events, Esotouric spotlights three remarkable writers whose stories bring new facets to the company's bus adventures: religious historian Maja D'Aoust, music critic David Smay and true crime writer John Buntin. The result is a series of unique tours that are a must for curious Angelenos looking to expand their understanding of the place.

For these occasional special events, Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper have worked intimately with their hand-picked guest hosts, adapting their ideas from books and lectures to fit into the unique structure of a guided bus tour, and training them in the secrets of bus tour hosting, as only Esotouric can. These provocative explorations offer a fresh way of looking at local history, and bring the written word to life in three extraordinary experiences. Going far beyond the typical author's bookstore reading or radio interview, on each one of these rolling salons fans get a chance to connect deeply with an author and their work, explore the creative process, discover fascinating secret corners of the city and become a participant in an evolving story.

ABOUT THE TOURS:

On March 20, Maja D'Aoust (pronounced MAH-ja da-OO), popular lecturer at the Philosophical Research Society and author of "The Secret Source," hosts the debut of MAJA'S MYSTERIES: RAPTURE & RELEASE, a tour that goes deep into the spiritual history of Hollywood, where some of the most eclectic faiths of the 20th century were founded and flourished, some of which still utilize exquisite historic buildings. Come explore tantric Vedic practices, the Pentecostal rapture, the channeled Venusian stylings of an alien entity and other fascinating paths to salvation with in-depth tours of The Aetherius Society, the Theosophical Krotona Apartments, Echo Park's Parsonage of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson and The Vedanta Society. For more info about Maja's tour, including her video message, visit http://www.esotouric.com/maja2

Then on April 3, San Francisco writer David Smay makes his annual visit to Los Angeles to bring his 33 1/3 series book "Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones'" alive as the very popular bus tour CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' L.A. Departing from the city's last surviving Skid Row bar, the King Edward Saloon in downtown L.A., where the young Waits honed his ear to the American vernacular and scored Ralph Waite's film "On The Nickel," this fan's delight tour travels deep into the singer's pre-fame days in Echo Park and Hollywood, through wild times at the Tropicana Motel and brawls with the punks at the Troubadour, to Francis Ford Coppola's failed Zoetrope Studios experiment, where Waits met his wife Kathleen Brennan and transformed his life and music. For more on David Smay and his tour through Tom Waits' Los Angeles, visit http://www.esotouric.com/waits

And finally, on April 10, direct from Washington D.C., John Buntin hosts the second excursion of L.A. NOIR, his tour based on the book of the same name, that uncovers the secret criminal history that inspired writers and filmmakers for generations and profoundly shaped the city. John Buntin's guided tour of the haunts, hits, and harems where some of the most shocking and influential moments of 20th century crime history played out features two men whose rivalry profoundly shaped L.A. -- notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and his nemesis, controversial police chief William H. Parker. From Prohibition through the 1960s, their struggle convulsed the city, intersecting with the agendas and ambitions of J. Edgar Hoover and Bobby Kennedy, Mike Wallace and Billy Graham, Lana Turner and Malcolm X, and inspiring writers from Raymond Chandler to James Ellroy. Its outcome shaped American policing and the L.A. history, fueling racial distrust that sparked the Watts riots and continues to this day. Come take the tour of the book that novelist Michael Connelly calls "fascinating, flat out entertaining" and historian Kevin Starr calls "a tour de force of non-fiction narrative." For more on John Buntin's tour and book, including his video message, visit http://www.esotouric.com/lanoir

Come ride these tours for a revealing time travel journey into the spiritual, musical and criminal history of Los Angeles, on Esotouric's Spring series of guest star tours.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (guest tours starred)
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sun Feb 21 - Joan Renner lecture "How the 'Bob' Changed History" (American Cinematheque)
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
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles*
Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City*
Sat April 3 ­ Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.*
Sat April 10 ­ John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 24 ­ Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare

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

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