ExplosivePR - press release

Downtown L.A. tour celebrates of novelist John Fante's centennial

kim — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:59:59 -0400

For immediate release

July 7, 2009

Downtown L.A. tour celebrates of novelist John Fante's centennial

WHAT: Esotouric's "John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill" bus and walking tour
WHEN: Saturday July 25, 12pm-4pm, departs from Lincoln Heights/ Cypress Gold Line Metro station
COST: $58/person.
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
RELATED TOURS: Esotouric's July literary series also includes RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LA on July 11 and CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S LA on July 18.

LOS ANGELES- This July, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric offers three bookish tours of L.A. literary landmarks, focusing on the lives and work of Raymond Chandler, Charles Bukowski and John Fante. A special promotional ticket celebrating the city's literary legacy lets passengers 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.

On July 25 Esotouric rolls out its very occasional literary bus and walking tour, JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL. Public interest is high, as John Fante's 100th birthday in April was the occasion of a sold-out Zocolo panel discussion at the Hammer Museum and a lively and one of the more eclectic gatherings ever seen at the last Skid Row bar, the King Edward Saloon.

This tour is a chance to discover a great writer and the lost downtown he celebrated, through the narration of Esotouric's Richard Schave, the L.A. historian who is the new Director of the Downtown L.A. Art Walk, with his special guest Vickie Fante Cohen, the author's daughter (and bratty teenage heroine of his late short stories).

John Fante was cult hero Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask the Dust" was the film Robert Towne wanted to make after "Chinatown" (it finally was made in 2006 starring Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, and Donald Sutherland) and he is honored with an annual festival in Italy—but in 21st Century Los Angeles, his name often gets a shrug. That's too bad, because Fante might be the funniest, most heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as his subject.

Downtown Los Angeles is a neighborhood to watch, with huge crowds attending the monthly Art Walk, and some of the hottest bars and restaurants in the city. But the New Downtown exists on the footprint of a fascinating old neighborhood whose stories are in danger of being lost.

Many of Esotouric's tours are devoted to revealing this lost downtown, from the crimes of Hotel Horrors to the burlesque and freak show delights of Main Street Vice, the secret post war woman's history of The Real Black Dahlia to the architectural anthropology of The Many Downtowns. On JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS OF BUNKER HILL, passengers walk and ride 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 he roamed the stacks (and later, where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust"), the Skid Row bars where b-girls pocketed his royalty payments, the Grand Central Market where kindly Japanese farmers gave the poor writer free oranges, to the retirement home Angelus Plaza to see Kay Martin's stunning paintings of Bunker Hill's mansions just before the city condemned them

Get on the bus to bask in the spirit of the weird old L.A. that's not there anymore, where a poor Italian-American Colorado kid could sell a novel, become a screenwriter, and inspire a new generation of writers just by telling the raw and funny truth.

To learn more about Esotouric's forthcoming tour of John Fante's Bunker Hill, visit
http://www.esotouric.com/fante

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
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
Thurs Sept 10 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Sept 12 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat Sept 19 - John Buntin's L.A. Noir (debut)
Thurs Oct 8- The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Oct 10 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat Oct 17 – Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat Oct 31 - Save the date for a Halloween surprise tour!
Sun Nov 1 – Reyner Banham Loves LA: South LA
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Dec 10 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings

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

Tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews, as is John Fante's daughter Vickie Fante Cohen. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Guided walking tours of the Downtown Art Walk with L.A.'s favorite tour guides

kim — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:57:39 -0400

For immediate release

3 July 2009

Guided walking tours of the Downtown Art Walk with L.A.'s favorite tour guides

WHAT: Downtown LA Art Walk, the hottest grassroots cultural event in Southern California has become a Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation
WHEN: Art Walk is every second Thursday from 12pm-9pm with free walking tours starting at 6:30pm; private tours from Director Richard Schave are available on request throughout the month
WHO: Free public tours from Art Walk Director Richard Schave (Esotouric bus adventures), Anne Block (Take My Mother Please) and Mike the PoeT (Museum of Neon Art)
WHERE: Tours depart from Lost Souls Cafe, 124 W. 4th Street, LA, CA 90013
WHEN: July 9 - Richard's tour (6:30-7:30pm), Mike's tour (7:30-8:30pm), Anne's tour (8:00-9:00pm)
COST: The Art Walk is always free, so are the walking tours
INFO: http://www.downtownartwalk.com/artwalks-7-7-09 or (213) 784-2598.

LOS ANGELES- The Downtown L.A. Art Walk, held on the second Thursday of the month year round, is the great success stories of the neighborhood's revival. Launched in 2004 by a small group of true believers in what was then the western edge of Skid Row, the event now draws upwards of 6000 people, and includes live music, a thriving bar and restaurant scene, book signings, and of course art on view in dozens of galleries.

Five years on, the Art Walk has just become a non-profit organization dedicated to building on the community's good work and making downtown Los Angeles even more of a cultural destination for great art, good company and exciting urban experiences.

To celebrate Art Walk's fresh direction, the July 9 Art Walk features the debut of a series of free guided walking tours hosted by some of L.A.'s favorite tour guides: Richard Schave (incoming Director of the Art Walk, and co-owner of Esotouric bus adventures), Mike the PoeT (the rhyming author of "I Am Alive in Los Angeles" and host of the Museum of Neon Art bus tour) and Anne Block (owner of the Take My Mother Please custom tour service). Each tour guide brings their unique spin to the neighborhood, and will show Art Walk regulars or first-timers a side of the Art Walk sure to fascinate and inspire.

For more about the tour guides or to reserve, visit the Walking Tour page
http://www.downtownartwalk.com/artwalks-7-7-09

Also see Richard Schave's Esotouric, http://www.esotouric.com
Anne Block's Take My Mother Please, http://www.takemymotherplease.com/
And Mike the PoeT's myspace, http://www.myspace.com/mikethepoet

Journalists on assignment are encouraged to come Downtown and learn all about the Art Walk on the public walking tours (just visit the link above and reserve your spot on one or more tours) or to schedule a private tour with Art Walk Director Richard Schave. And all three tour guides are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Explore the Gritty Side of L.A. Literature With A Charles Bukowski Bus Tour

kim — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:55:54 -0400

For immediate release

July 1, 2009

Explore the Gritty Side of L.A. Literature With A Charles Bukowski Bus Tour

WHAT: Esotouric's "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A." bus tour
WHEN: Saturday July 18, 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.
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
RELATED TOURS: Esotouric's July literary series also includes RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LA on July 11 and JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL on July 25.

LOS ANGELES- 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. A special promotional ticket celebrating LA's literary legacy lets passengers 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.

The second tour in the series rolls on July 18, when Esotouric 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.

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.

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.

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 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
Thurs Sept 10 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Sept 12 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat Sept 19 - John Buntin's L.A. Noir (debut)
Thurs Oct 8- The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Oct 10 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat Oct 17 – Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sun Nov 1 – Reyner Banham Loves LA: South LA
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Dec 10 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings

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

Tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Urgent call to protect Whittier Narrows wildlife sanctuary from development

kim — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:25:12 -0400

For immediate release

June 29, 2009

No community support for $30M Discovery Center at EIR meeting

Project that would demolish existing nature center and destroy wildlife habitat in Whittier Narrows is roundly criticized. Natural Area is 'my Yosemite,' says one speaker.

SOUTH EL MONTE, Calif. (June 29, 2009) — Residents of area communities and supporters of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area strongly criticized and rejected a controversial $30 million regional watershed visitor center proposed for the county Natural Area during a public meeting held Wednesday at South El Monte High School to discuss the project and its recently released draft environmental impact report.

No member of the community spoke in favor of the proposal during the meeting.

The project, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center, would dramatically increase the human footprint within the only wildlife sanctuary on the San Gabriel River, located between the Montebello and Puente Hills. It would replace the existing 2,000-square-foot nature center with a building nearly 10 times bigger, and it would destroy important wildlife habitat within a county Significant Ecological Area to build a 150-car parking lot and other manmade features.

The project is being pushed by a four-agency joint powers authority, which consists of two municipal water districts, a state conservancy and the county department of parks and recreation.

After a summary of the project and the EIR given by county staff and employees of the firm that prepared the report, 12 individuals spoke during the meeting's public comment period.

Citing a wide-range of concerns, the speakers questioned not only the conclusions drawn by the report and its methodology but many of the assumptions and objectives underlying the discovery center project.

Jessica Olive Nava, of Pico Rivera, said she took exception with the characterization of local residents as underserved and disadvantaged. Rather, Nava said, she felt privileged to live so close to the Natural Area.

"I feel the Natural Area is my Yosemite," she said. "I have found that it is not only a sanctuary for wildlife but for myself as well as many others."

Nava and other speakers also expressed concern about the possible loss of existing outdoor education and recreation programs and opportunities.

"I have seen beautiful birds, colorful butterflies, flowers and families having lunch" at the Natural Area, Nava said.

Susan McLean said many school-age children visit the Natural Area, "seeing for the first time what wildlife looks like up close."

They can "walk on a trail, hear an owl hooting high up in the tree, see a hawk circling in the updraft and, if they are lucky, watch one swoop down from the sky to fetch its next meal," she said.

Other speakers criticized the proposal on its likely high costs for construction, operation and maintenance; its probable introduction of user fees; and the failure of discovery center member agencies to look at more economical alternatives.

Julio Bermejo, of San Gabriel, said that it was unlikely that member agencies would be able or willing to fully pay the costs of the discovery center as claimed in the EIR and that fees likely would be charged, as they are in other areas of the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area and at some county museums.

"If fees are introduced," he said, "access will be reduced to the community."

Henrietta Correa Salazar and Michael Barba, both of Pico Rivera, said existing water education programs in southeast Los Angeles County and in Orange County showed that the discovery center is unnecessary.

Correa Salazar showed colorful inserts from the local daily newspaper that discussed local watersheds and encouraged water conservation. "All they need now is a mobile exhibit, and you've got the discovery center," she said.

Barba said three Orange County and Los Angeles County water agencies are successfully using a mobile water education program to reach tens of thousands of students in their schools.

In FY 2008, two municipal water districts used the program to provide science education to approximately 90,000 students. In FY 2009, the third water company joined the mobile education program, and the goal was increased to 110,000 students.

The discovery center would see a maximum of 25,000 students annually, according to the EIR.

Other speakers said they did not see the sense in building a nature center that would destroy the nature the facility is supposed to interpret and open to the community.

The criticism echoed the views of the county's Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory Committee, which said "there is an irony in ripping out nature to make it available."

On May 5, 2008, the committee rejected the discovery center proposal as being "incompatible" with the Whittier Narrows SEA, criticizing the size and location of the project and the apparent failure to consider alternative sites adequately.

Maria Sauceda, of El Monte, told Wednesday's audience and county and Discovery Center Authority staff that she questioned the joint powers authority's commitment to meeting the needs and desires of the community.

She said the community had expressed its opposition to the project on previous occasions, but that it appears to be proceeding in spite of the community's wishes.

"You hear all the public comments: 'Don't do this,' 'Leave it alone,' 'Let it be,'" she said. "Are you really listening to the public, or is it just what the agencies want to do and not hear what the people say who live here?"

The public comment period for the discovery center EIR closes on Aug. 3, 2009.

Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area
Campaign to save Whittier Narrows Natural Area

About the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area
The Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the preservation of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area and neighboring lands as open space corridors. We promote and assist with restoration and educational uses of the Natural Area that are compatible with the conservation of plant and animal habitat and migration, historical resources, water quality, and public health and safety. Web site: http://naturalareafriends.net

Contact: Jim Odling, (323) 227-1822
P.O. Box 3522
South El Monte, CA 91733
http://naturalareafriends.net
infoATnaturalareafriendsDOTnet

LA's Time Travel Blog 1947project Takes On Downtown's Historic Core

kim — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:34:08 -0400

For immediate release

June 22, 2009

LA's Time Travel Blog 1947project Takes On Downtown's Historic Core

WHAT: The launch of In SRO Land ("lost lore of the historic core"), the newest 1947project time travel blog
WHERE: http://www.insroland.org
WHY: Blog creator Kim Cooper's husband Richard Schave is the new Director of the Downtown LA Art Walk; Kim's response is to explore the history of the Art Walk neighborhood
PREVIOUSLY: http://www.1947project.com and http://www.onbunkerhill.org

LOS ANGELES- Each spring, L.A.'s popular time travel blog 1947project reinvents itself. For the first three years, that meant creator Kim Cooper announced which year's newspapers the bloggers will be scouring for incredible forgotten tales of crime and infamy (1947, 1927 and 1907 have all been featured).

But last year's 1947project was different.

Gone was the chronological crime-a-day format--though there's always room for a great murder. The ON BUNKER HILL blog was a house-by-house survey of the great old downtown residential neighborhood that was demolished to create the high rise district that shares its name, but none of its charms. The contributors, including authors, librarians, bloggers, psychologists, film scholars, art historians, artists and tour guides, dug deep into historic archives to uncover fascinating tales of more than a century of life on old Bunker Hill.

Now, the 1947project bloggers turn their attention to the greater downtown LA area, with a new website called IN SRO LAND, subtitled "lost lore of the Historic Core." The site went quietly live last week, and is online at http://www.insroland.org with stories of burlesque rivalry, Skid Row murder sprees, obnoxious Edwardian rich kids and painfully tight underwear, with even wilder tales to come.

The blog's contributors are an eclectic mix of social historians and journalists, and include KIM COOPER (1947project creator, Esotouric bus adventures), BARBARA BOGAEV (public radio host "Weekend America" and "Fresh Air"), JOHN BUNTIN (author of the forthcoming book "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City"), ROB CLAMPETT (producer of " Beany and Cecil: The Special Edition" volumes 1 & 2, and manager of the Bob Clampett animation archives), ADRIENNE CREW (LAObserved, LABrainTerrain), DIANA GOODWIN (architectural historian), TONY MOSTROM (co-author of "Death in Paradise: A History of the L.A. Department of Coroner"), JOAN RENNER (tour guide for Esotouric bus adventures and the Los Angeles Conservancy, Vintage Powder Room blog) and RICHARD SCHAVE (Esotouric bus adventures, incoming director of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk). Additional contributors will be joining the team as the project develops.

InSROLand.org explores the forgotten history of Downtown LA, up the grand entertainment boulevard of Broadway (where SRO means "Standing Room Only") and down the mean streets of Main (where SRO stands for "Single Room Occupancy," shorthand for a rented room with a sink in the corner, shared toilet down the hall). Between these two poles, straddling the financial center of Spring Street, modern Los Angeles was born.

IN SRO LAND, the blog, you'll find the real stories behind legendary theaters, hotels and shopping destinations, from the developers and visionaries who built them, to the celebrities and ordinary citizens who enjoyed them. You'll also meet the long-dead lowlife elements whose misuse of public space is as fascinating to contemporary readers as it was offensive in its time.

IN SRO LAND is home to cops and killers, stars and fans, architects and decorators, dancers nude and clothed, freak shows, classic Vaudeville, street preachers and blues shouters, dreamers and schemers, shoplifters, slumming millionaires, pulp writers, bar keepers, finger men and B-girls, the innocent and the profane. Tune in often to discover the lost lore of the Historic Core, and the fascinating souls who made this town their own.

For more info on IN SRO LAND, or to explore the first posts, please visit http://www.insroland.org

1947project founder Kim Cooper and the blog's contributors are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Follow in the Footsteps of Philip Marlowe thru Raymond Chandler's Downtown and Hollywood

kim — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:59:02 -0400

For immediate release

June 20, 2009

Follow in the Footsteps of Philip Marlowe thru Raymond Chandler's Downtown and Hollywood

WHAT: "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place" bus tour
WHEN: Saturday July 11, 12pm-4pm, departs from Lincoln Heights/Cypress Metro Station
COST: Regular price $58/person (15% off for KCRW and KPCC members), including Chandler-themed gelato from Scoops. 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
RELATED TOURS: Esotouric's July literary series includes CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S LA on July 18 and JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL on July 25.

LOS ANGELES- 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.

The series begins on July 11, when Esotouric presents a tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler, and his personal relationship to the mean streets of Hollywood and Downtown LA, where he lived, worked and set his stories.

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow.

Join Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, the LA Athletic Club, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, and much, much more. On this tour, you'll discover why an unassuming stretch of Olive Street near Pershing Square is much more deserving of the Raymond Chandler Square designation than the Hollywood corner that bears the honored name.

Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink. As the bus rolls from point to point, your guide Richard Schave draw the lines between Chandler's life and his fiction, offering insight into his peculiar marriage to the much-older Cissy, the enigmatic redhead who appears in many forms in his short stories and novels.

The tour includes 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).

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

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

kim — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:14:45 -0400

For immediate release

June 15, 2009

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

LOS ANGELES- 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 mre. Along the way, we’ll explore the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk’s rich inner life. 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 him, 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

Staycation, Route 66 Style: Father's Day bus tour reveals the retro jewels in L.A.'s own backyard

kim — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:25:51 -0400

For immediate release

June 1, 2009

Staycation, Route 66 Style: Father's Day bus tour reveals the retro jewels in L.A.'s own backyard

WHAT: Esotouric presents Route 66, a San Gabriel Valley bus tour in the "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles" architecture and urbanism series
WHEN: Saturday June 20, 11am-4pm
COST: $58, or save $25 on four tours with a Season Pass
FATHERS DAY SPECIAL: Bring your dad and his ticket is just $6.60 (this offer requires pre-reservation)
WHERE: Tours departs from Philippe the Original, 1001 N. Alameda, downtown Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES- Savvy travelers know that the most incredible adventures are often found close to home. This June, join Esotouric, the offbeat bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret heart of Los Angeles, as they host an excursion deep into the San Gabriel Valley, along America's most historic highway.

Because if you think the best of Route 66 is hundreds of miles from L.A., you'd best think again. When Esotouric's Route 66 bus tour departs from Philippe's French Dip in downtown on June 20, passengers are in for a five-hour tour packed with stunning retro jewels plucked from L.A.'s own backyard.

And for this special Father's Day edition of the tour, Esotouric is giving a discount to dads who accompany their children on the bus: dad's seat is just $6.60 with pre-reservation.

On the ROUTE 66 tour, hosted by Richard Schave, several dozen intrepid urban explorers will board a luxury coach class bus and head due East along the old Mother Road (an affectionate nickname for historic Route 66) to explore how Southern California welcomed newcomers for much of the 20th Century. Route 66 only exists today in small fragments, but many of the unique attractions that dotted its length survive and flourish today.

The ROUTE 66 tour explores California's original mass transit corridor and the building of its dream, from climate to citrus industry, TB hospitals to candyflake car culture.

Highlights in the June 2009 edition include a tour of E. Wald Ward Farm (the oldest surviving commercial citrus facility in LA, where passengers can buy scrumptious preserves and almond-filled olives to take home), a visit to the Durrell Historical Museum of Azusa, a stroll through the halls and private rooms of Robert Stacy Judd's 1924 masterpiece The Aztec Motel (and yes, it's haunted), a visit to the astonishing Egypto-manic Covina Bowl bowling alley (once the 24-hour hub of community entertainment and still a popular destination), and tucked among vast cleared fields awaiting new development a stop at the homes of the feuding Slauson Sisters (hidden gems of Azusa lore and family dynamics, and a reminder of how fragile ecologies fall to the incessant crush of progress). Passengers will also view the evocative bungalows of old Monrovia accompanied by host Richard Schave's lively rendition of a vintage bungalow booster tune.

The Reyner Banham Loves LA series of Esotouric bus adventures provides fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, San Gabriel Valley residents and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath. Come ride and see for yourself.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sun June 7 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: South LA architecture tour
Thurs June 11 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat June 13 - Vroman's edition: Blood & Dumplings
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, please visit http://www.esotouric.com
For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham
And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Offbeat South L.A. architecture bus tour featured in Montreal lecture series

kim — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:51:09 -0400

For immediate release

May 20, 2009

Offbeat South L.A. architecture bus tour featured in Montreal lecture series

"I learned to drive in order to read Los Angeles in the original" -Reyner Banham, "Architecture of Four Ecologies" (1971)

WHAT: Esotouric presents "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South Los Angeles" architecture / urbanism bus tour and Richard Schave's tour-inspired lecture
WHEN: Bus tour is Sunday, June 7 from 11am-4pm; "Learning from... Los Angeles" lecture at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal on Thursday, May 28 at 7pm
COST: bus tour costs $58, lecture is free
WHERE: Bus tour departs from Philippe's downtown, tour covers Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs, Downey, East L.A.; lecture at Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal
BUS TOUR INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767
LECTURE INFO: http://montrealtalk.notlong.com, 514-939-7000

LOS ANGELES- There is no urban experience as location-based as a guided bus tour, and yet on May 28, one of L.A.'s most provocative bus tours goes international, as Esotouric's Richard Schave presents a lecture at Montreal's prestigious Canadian Centre for Architecture based on his "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South Los Angeles" tour. The bus tour itself rolls on Sunday, June 7.

Turning the notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its ear, Esotouric's least predictable bus adventure delves deep into the uncharted wonders of South Los Angeles, where some of the city's most compelling and unexpected landmarks rub elbows with stucco taquerias and seemingly endless sprawl.

Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who host Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the four tours in the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series (South LA, Route 66, The New Chinatowns and The Lowdown On Downtown) offer a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history, mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together.

This Esotouric bus adventure begins downtown and works its way south through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and through the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s seldom-seen gems. The bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the evolution of the city from Spanish ranchos to the 'burbs. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and reach of the Southern California Dream.

Tour stops include:

Pueblo del Rio (1942). The first African-American housing development in LA, this mass-produced International Style public project was partly designed by Paul Williams and Richard Neutra.

The Gage Mansion (1808). The oldest adobe structure in L.A. County, this fascinating home sits in the middle of a 65-year-old trailer park on the banks of the Rio Hondo River in Bell Gardens. Between the layers of context at this site is the history of migration and growth in the Southland, from Spanish land grants to the dust bowl to the vast waves of stucco suburbs.

The Clarke Estate (1919). A recently rediscovered masterpiece by tilt-slab concrete innovator Irving Gill, this Mission Revival-inspired dwelling features symbolic leaves pressed into the walls and feels like a time capsule from a simpler California.

The Downey Space Plant (1929-present). It began as airplane factory carved out of a castor bean field and grew to be the hub of North American Aerospace development, before being sold off in pieces in the early 2000s. Currently it's a motion picture sound stage. Is the only long-term solution for this awe-inspiring, 160-acre space a vertically-integrated condominium and retail development?

East Los Angeles Train Station (1932). A prominent location in the 1946 film "The Postman Always Rings Twice," it was built to deal with congestion and overcrowding in the existing downtown terminals. Currently a picturesque Mission-style ruin in the shadow of the wacky Citadel shopping center, will it rise again as the rail lines reassert themselves?

Johnie's Broiler (1958/2009). A cautionary tale about historic preservation, this beloved Downey diner with its landmark neon sign was illegally demolished by a renter who wanted to park use cars in its place. The site was barred from further commercial use due to public outcry, and is now being restored as a Bob's Big Boy.

Tropicana Bakery. Downey's most beloved Cuban sandwich and sweet shop, creators of such temptations as the Choco-Flan, the giant cake-and-fruit-filled Florentine cookie, and the Flan/Cheesecake layer cake. Passengers will enjoy a snack and conversation stop in this charming establishment.

These are just a few of the extraordinary buildings and stories passengers explore on the South L.A. edition of "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles," Esotouric's unique architectural tour series. The tour stops will also be explored in Richard Schave's May 28 lecture "Learning from... Los Angeles" at Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and event schedule:
Sat May 23 - Pasadena Confidential
Thurs May 28 - Richard Schave lectures at Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal
Sat May 30 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's SoCal Nightmare
Sun June 7 - South LA architecture tour
Thurs June 11 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat June 13 - Vroman's edition: Blood & Dumplings
Sat June 20 - 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 Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA

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

For more on Richard Schave's lecture about this tour in Montreal, visit
http://montrealtalk.notlong.com

For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham

And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

L.A. Bus Tour Traces Film Noir's Path from James M. Cain's Fiction to the Screen

kim — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:47:55 -0400

For immediate release

May 13, 2009

L.A. Bus Tour Traces Film Noir's Path from James M. Cain's Fiction to the Screen

WHAT: Esotouric's The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare tour
WHEN: Saturday May 30, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: Departing from Philippe The Original, 1001 Alameda, downtown LA
COST: $58/person (15% off for KCRW or KPCC members)
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767
SPECIAL OFFER: Anyone buying Esotouric tickets, season passes or gift certificates is entered into one of four May Mania drawings, for a chance to win a free Pair Pass for a future tour. One entry per ticket purchased.

LOS ANGELES- Southern California, 1931: Amongst the burgeoning urban sprawl built atop bulldozed orange groves and the bitter realization that you can't eat the sunshine, recent emigré James M. Cain found a kernel of truth and his voice. That voice would become the dominant note in the development of a unique American genre, Film Noir, which spawned the abiding Los Angeles myth of the solitary, relentless detective.

This four-hour luxury bus tour celebrates the life, work, myths and passions of hard-boiled American novelist James M. Cain through his best known books, "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Mildred Pierce" and "Double Indemnity," and how their screen adaptations shaped Film Noir.

How did East Coat sophisticate Cain go from editor of "The New Yorker" to populist novelist accused of writing dirty books? The tour explores the writer's life and work with a focus on his time in Southern California, where his observations on Malibu, Hollywood, Pasadena and the low rent 'burbs of Glendale are as provocative today as they were seventy years ago.

The tour also covers the artisans who transformed Cain's tales into movies, including Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner. "The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare" is a complex portrait of a fascinating character who was seduced and transformed by his time in the Southland, a hard working movie industry professional who sank into drink and despair, ultimately a uniquely Californian artist.

Hosted by Esotouric's Richard Schave, the tour departs from beloved dining landmark Philippe the Original, where passengers can enjoy delicious pie in honor of Mildred Pierce. The tour itself draws on Cain's essays, short stories, novels, films and the memories of his friends and colleagues to paint a portrait of LA in the 1930s and 1940s through the eyes of the writer. The tour spans Hollywood to Glendale and along old Route 66, and includes illuminating visits to Forest Lawn Memorial Park (site of the funeral of Mildred Pierce's "other" daughter, Ray), the Glendale Train Station where the "Double Indemnity" murder plot played out, and the punch line to a Billy Wilder joke so subtle, it's taken six decades for anyone to get. Get on the bus to share in the laughter and the pathos of Cain's So Cal.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Thurs May 14 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat May 16 - Weird West Adams
Sat May 23 - Pasadena Confidential
Sat May 30 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's SoCal Nightmare
Sun June 7 - South LA architecture tour
Thurs June 11 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat June 13 - Vroman's edition: Blood & Dumplings
Sat June 20 - Route 66 architecture tour
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 Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA

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

Tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.