Great Fair

A friend of mine who happens to have a vested interest suggested that I blog tonight about the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Since I'm getting as sick of writing about Bush/Cheney/Rove Co. malfeasance, maladministration and criminal acts as I am of living through them, I thought I'd jot a few thoughts about this welcome annual event.

I grew up on the East Coast with a staunch prejudice against Los Angeles. Sure, I loved the movies, but back in the 70's and 80's we thought California was an alternately glistening and seedy cultural vacuum, populated solely by airheads and egotists. While some of this can't be denied, it's events like the Book Festival that gainsay all that nonsense.

Sure, L.A. culture has grown by leaps and bound in the 15 years since I arrived, but it's attracted some of the best and the brightest minds in art, music and literature since the 1920's when the film industry was first being solidified, and certainly the 1930's when so many European emigres came running from the rising fascist tide and fell in love with America here.

I took my two boys today to see a panel featuring authors Brett Paesel (Mommies Who Drink), Christopher Noxon (Rejuvenile) and my close friend, Erika Schickel (You're Not the Boss of Me). I had a chance to chat with all three at the post-panel signing, and later got the story from Erika of her conversation with James Ellroy, one of my top faves, who sounded just as charming and manic as I'd have imagined.

The Festival is held every year on the UCLA campus, rows of book tents big and small pitched along the concrete and brick walkways of the school, with various stages including a huge kids stage. (I'll admit to having been to the Barney "concert" on that stage several years ago. Like the Stones, for three-year olds.) The variety is infinite, the panels and one-on-ones highly desirable, it's a great place to get lost.

While I didn't have that option with the kids in tow and wished we could have stayed longer, the event is a testament not only to the organizers and current Los Angeles Times Book Editor David Ulin, it's all part of the strange and wondrous high-meets-low culture of our town, this sprawling, diverse, niche-filled city of the future that those of us who have been born or, especially, drawn here can be proud to call home.