People have been asking how the literary scene looks here in L.A. If this past week was any indication, it’s pretty sweet. Here are some mini-reviews of the shows I got to see over the past five days:
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA SHOW
In only their second episode, this reading series has the makings of a local institution. Caitlin Parrish delivered an excellent monologue at the opening, and every reader (including my dear friend Mary Hamilton) delivered unique, touching, funny pieces. Michael Roberts’s piece on Astronaut Michael Collins was a standout. I’m looking forward to seeing how this show will evolve, with local connections in film, acting, stage writing, etc etc. For now, it was nice to see a show that has its roots in Chicago and Austin — made me feel less homesick.
THE NERVOUS BREAKDOWN @ BOOK SOUP
This was my first chance to check out Book Soup, a great bookstore in West Hollywood. My friend J. Ryan and I made the rounds of the store before the reading started and found new offerings from presses small and large. I picked up the crazy/wonderful If ‘n’ Oof, which is shaping up to be my favorite graphic novel of 2011. The reading itself was good, strong writing all around. My favorite was a Ben Loory story about dads. Greg Olear was a new discovery that I immediately loved. More writing about dads, read very well. Afterwards, my pals and I went to Chik-fil-A and ate nuggets and that was cool.
TONGUE & GROOVE @ THE HOTEL CAFE
This was last night’s offering, at a dim quiet bar that made for the perfect venue. Everyone was good and my favorite was John Jodzio, who I had no idea writes these screamingly funny/absurd short stories. Both my companions snapped up his book Get In If You Want To Live. After the reading, we went out for tacos and I finally had lengua and it was great, as promised. I tongue-kissed the taco. That’s enough.
This week I’m going to try and make it to the Dagoberto Gilb reading downtown (I only just heard about this one, need to find a listing for it). It’s fun to live in a big city! I’m missing friends back home in Austin a lot, though. Need to figure out that tesseract trick so I can squish both cities together in four-dimensional space or whatever.
