Bukday: Lost Weekend - A Celebration of Inebriation and Publication (Aug 15-19 2007) (1 Viewer)

[esotouric]

Esotouric and Fleur de Lethal Productions are pleased to announce Bukday, a series of congenial events honoring the beloved L.A. author Charles Bukowski during his birthday week. It all happens August 15-19, 2007 in downtown Los Angeles

We hope you'll join us for some or all of the happenings, which include bus tours, a book club gathering, art show, live music, readings, screenings, pub crawl and brunch. Details are on the Bukday webpage, under the sign of Tony Millionaire's Bukbird.

Kim
Esotouric
http://www.esotouric.com

 

[esotouric]

With the start of the Bukday festivities only a week away (we hope to see many of you at the Nobody Reads in LA book club meeting on 8/15), we wanted to clarify the differences between the two runs of the Haunts of a Dirty Old Man tour of significant scenes from Bukowski's life in Los Angeles, for anyone thinking of getting on the bus.

We'd also like to announce that the Red Eye Brunch on Sunday has changed times and location. All details are here, and reservations are recommended.

ABOUT THE TOURS: The Thursday night birthday tour and the Saturday day tour are slightly different, with both offering unique elements that might appeal to particular passengers. In addition to all the shared stops on both tours, please note the following differences.

On Thursday night : we will be joined on the bus by Nat Dickoff, a CalTech theoretical physics dropout and longtime resident of SRO (single room occupancy) hotels on skid row, for a guided tour and Q&A about downtown down and out lifestyles, his experiences living in the celebrated Morrison Hotel (as seen on the Doors album of that name) and how gentrification is changing the community. We will visit the Central Reading Room at the Los Angeles Public Library, where Bukowski discovered his "God," the Bunker Hill novelist John Fante. We will close the tour at closing time at Musso and Frank, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood and a great favorite of Bukowski's, to toast the bard on his birthday with last call (first drink on us) served by his favorite bartender, Ruben. Each passenger will receive a limited edition souvenir featuring Tony Millionaire's Bukbird logo.

On Saturday: we will have a special behind-the-scenes tour of the mail carrier sorting facility near the Terminal Annex, where Bukowski worked for a dozen years (Terminal Annex is no longer a sorting facility). Iris Berry, poetess and friend of Bukowski's, will be our honored guest on the bus. We will visit Musso and Frank, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood and a great favorite of Bukowski's, where you can enjoy the atmosphere and purchase a drink.

more info: http://www.bukday.com

 

[Short Bus]

[ Each passenger will receive a limited edition souvenir featuring Tony Millionaire's Bukbird logo.

Well if I get the Bukbird logo then it must be a great deal.

Taken from the Bukday itinerary.
"and enjoy gelato master Tai Kim's flavors inspired by Bukowski's life and work"

Is there really one born every minute???

 

[esotouric]

and one more special detail from the Thursday night tour

Just added: We are being given the special opportunity to remain in the restaurant after closing time, and will have a tour of Musso and Frank after the regular patrons leave.

 

[mjp]

Touring the PO annex now is kind of like touring the crumbling skeleton of an auto plant in Detroit to get a feel for what making cars is like. It won't be the same, you'll never know what it was like until you stand there in the same spot doing the same thing every day for years.

Other than that, I think we can go to Musso and Frank's and drive up and down DeLongpre and gawk at skid row ourselves without paying you $75 for the privilege. But what do I know, I'm not your target audience. I'm sure you'll sell tickets. A lot of people go for that kind of thing.

 

[ROC]

you'll never know what it was like until you stand there in the same spot doing the same thing every day for years.

Now that sounds like a fun tour!

Sign me up. ;)

 

[mjp]

Speaking from experience - 7 years in front of one printing press in particular - I can say that's one tour no one should have to take.

Just rename the thing the Magical Misery Tour. Jesus christ, who wants to see the terminal annex (the source of so much pain and dead wasted years spent doing work so mindless that it's now done by machines) and skid row?

I keep trying to ignore the bus trip - what do I care? But every time it pops up here, the worse it stinks.

But what do I know.

 

[cirerita]

The Stinking Tour seems appropriate, I agree with you...

 

[bospress.net]

I guess that my issue is that this person that posts this info only has ever posted info on these bus tours (things that make HIM money). Seems to me that if he was interested in Bukowski and not just making a buck off of Buk that he would talk about something that does not make him money. Maybe join in on the conversation without appearing to see dollar signs.

Sorry in advance if I'm reading him wrong, but that is the impression that I get.

Bill

 

[Bukfan]

It seems like it's just another tour dreamed up by a bus tour company dealing in "esoteric" bus tours. I wonder what'll be the next tour. Maybe a tour to Jim Morrison's old drinking haunts - on his birthday, of course...:rolleyes:

 

[haunfort]

good thing Bukowski is dead
he no doubt would have thrown empty bottles of booze at your buses as they toured by

 

[Rekrab]

I could go either way on this one. It is mindless commercialism, and weirdly surreal, touring the Terminal Annex post office, where Buk was miserable and barely tolerated, and yet, tours can be a great way to see something quickly, with deeper understanding. We did the Alcatraz tour (a mere $30 including the boat ride -- great deal) and were blown away by how cool it was. Yet the prisioners surely hated the place, and suffered there (mostly well deserved, I'm sure). What stands out in my mind is how a place -- it's character, it's meaning -- changes. A grim prision becomes a historic landmark and tourist destination, a boring and stressful workplace becomes a literary landmark. I enjoy seeing such places, but I keep telling myself it ain't the same -- it's a ghost of what it was. $75 is a bit steep for the Buk tour, but if you gotta get inside that building that was killing him every day for years, it may be worth it.

 

[mjp]

Alcatraz is still Alcatraz though.

The annex has not been preserved as it was in the years that Bukowski worked there. You won't see row after row of "cubbyholes" or the slanted stools they leaned against as they threw the mail. All that stuff was replaced by 30 foot long machines a long, long time ago. It's not the same place. If it was the same place it certainly would have the same kind of historical and human interest that a place like Alcatraz has.

And Musso and Frank - come on. It isn't like he was there every week. If you want to go sit in a restaurant he went to hundreds of times, come down to San Pedro and take your busload of hipsters to the Senfuku Japanese restaurant on 6th street. Then you're only a few miles from his grave site at Green Hills, which would seem to be a place that you would want to visit on a Bukowski (Magical Misery) Tour.

 

[esotouric]

Bukday is more than the bus tours

There are five days of Bukday activities, many of them free or low cost. The $75 birthday night tour is $20 more than the Saturday tour, which includes a drink and a souvenir. Bus tours are unavoidably expensive, but we're making a point of promoting several Bukowski-themed activities that require little or no cash to participate and where all are welcome.

Among the other Bukday events:
Weds 8/15 - Nobody Reads in LA Book club discussion of "Post Office" at Charlie O's, Free, 7pm-9pm
Fri 8/17 - Ice Cream Social at Scoops ($2/scoop), 9pm-10pm
Sat 8/18, Lazy Lush Club pub crawl, $20/$15 for members
Sun 8/19 - Red Eye Brunch and open reading, Cafe Metropol, 11am-2pm

Esotouric isn't a bus company trying to cash in on Bukowski's celebrity--we're a loose knit group of writers and scholars in love with Los Angeles and striving to generate discussion and respect for its artists, buildings and past. This Bukowski tour grew out of our John Fante tour, and our work with the Fante family to gain recognition for Fante with a street naming or official square designation. We're currently talking with city officials and business owners about doing something similar for Bukowski. Also, tour host Richard Schave has been reading Bukowski since he was 15.

If you're curious about what Esotouric does, or how different our tours are from standard bus tours, please see some of the press clips at http://www.esotouric.com/press

 

[mjp]

Esotouric isn't a bus company trying to cash in on Bukowski's celebrity--we're a loose knit group of writers and scholars in love with Los Angeles and striving to generate discussion and respect for its artists, buildings and past.

Can't argue with that.

 

[esotouric]

No arguing here

Well, thanks! And just fyi for anyone interested, the Tony Millionaire Bukday t-shirts are in stock now (design above, shirts are available in Men's and Women's sizes in gray, brown and blue), and we're taking pre-orders on the limited edition fine art poster (design below) which will be printed next month by plasticmuse. These will be available at the Bukday events next week, or online here. We're pretty happy with how they turned out, hope you like 'em too.

 

[bospress.net]

now THAT is a pretty poster.

Please let me know how it is being printed. Is it being printed on a laser printer? serigraph? lithograph? Silkscreen?

Also, the same on the shirt. Is it an iron on or is it being silkscreened?

Again. It is really a sharp design.

Bill

 

[esotouric]

Silkscreen all the way

Glad you like it! The posters are being silkscreened by a very gifted artist (also the designer), plasticmuse. The adult shirts too were professionally silkscreened. (The kids shirts, steins, etc through the other links on the Bukday swag page are print on demand items, and printing info should be on those websites once you click through to a particular item.)

 

[bospress.net]

sweet....


Thanks.
Bill

 

[esotouric]

A special guest on the birthday tour

There will be a special guest on the Thursday night birthday tour: John Dullaghan, director of the documentary "Bukowski: Born into This" (2003) will be on the bus to discuss his experiences making the film and to remember Red Stodolsky, the late owner of Baroque Books in Hollywood.

 

[Bukfan]

Now, THAT sounds interesting!

 

[esotouric]

And in Tony Millionaire swag news, The Bukbird has found a happy home atop a cork-bottomed beer coaster.

http://www.esotouric.com/coaster

buk buk buk,
Kim

 

[jordan]

scoops, eh? if anyone lives in LA (i don't anymore, sadly), it's worth checking this place out. i know it sounds hokey - ice cream flavors based on buk's life and work - but the guy at scoops could find a way to make "cheap wine and flour pancake" into a tasty ice cream flavor, i shit you not.

plus, it has vegan ice cream, and that's rare. and i'm not even on the payroll!

 

[Joe Batters]

Did anyone actually take the tour? Am I missing something? You shilled that tour forever! How come no feedback, eso?

 

[esotouric]

The tours and all the Bukday events were a lot of fun, with the highlights for me being the after-hours birthday night stop at Musso & Frank, John Dullaghan's stories about making "Bukowski: Born Into This" and the tour Mary gave us of the postal carrier's annex. Maybe some people who were on the bus will chime in with their feedback.

 

[xxedgexx]

I went to the tour and it was great. The nice thing is that the Esotouric people are actually interested in giving a real educational tour. I've been on others that were more about self promotion then giving a real tour. Esotouric was a breath of fresh air and I actually learned a lot...well, unless the alcohol won the fight over my brain cells. Myself and friends got the 6 pack for Miller High life pounders coupled with a couple flasks and we had a blast. I was especially happy to see where the Seven G's used to be...I had always wondered.

Anyway, I encourage anyone in the LA area to check out their tours. It's a good time and Kim and Richard really know their stuff.

-jeremy