Category Archives: Travel

“If You Are Going To Try, Go All The Way” – Charles Bukowski

Bukowski’s autobiographical anti-hero, Henry Chinaski: ‘The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.”  – Ham On Rye 1982

Bukowski’s Los Angeles Tour:

5124 De Longpre, Hollywood – residence 1964-1973. Post Office, Notes from a Dirty Old Man, South of No North, Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, The Days Run Away like Horses, and Factotum written there.

Frolic Room (6245 Hollywood Blvd) – Alcohol.

Musso & Frank Grill (6667 Hollywood Blvd) – Alcohol. Ruben no longer.

Pink Elephant Liquor Store (1836 N Western Ave, Los Feliz) – Alcohol.

Richard J. Riordan Central Library (630 W 5th St., Los Angeles) – Books.

USPS Terminal Annex (900 N Alameda St., Los Angeles) – Work 1952-1955 and 1958-1969.

Cole’s French Dip (118 East 6th St., Los Angeles) – Alcohol.

Smog Cutter (864 N. Vrigil Ave., Los Angeles) – Alcohol

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center  (681 Venice Blvd, Venice) – Shrine.

Barkowski (2819 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica) – Shrine.

Santa Anita Racetrack – Horses.

Huntington Library (1151 Oxford Rd, San Marino) – Papers.

San PedroResidence. 1978-1994. Ham on Rye. Near Bandini Street and Elementary school (Fante).

Downtown Books (414 W 6th St, San Pedro) – Books.

Green Hills Memorial Park Cemetery (27501 S Western Ave, Rancho Palos Verdes, Plot: Ocean View #875) – Grave. “Henry Charles Bukowski, Jr. — Hank — “Don’t try” — 1920-1994.”

While you’re at it… more infamous drinking establishments in Los Angeles

Neon: the 20th Century’s Sign of the Times

“…a city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.” – Nelson Algren

Click Here For Many More Examples of Classic Neon

An Ode to Woody and Jack

Road Trip

Autobiography: back in high school I was moved to a new state and a new school. I didn’t take to it too well and ended missing the last half of my sophomore year. I just never showed up. The new school didn’t know who I was and never even bothered find out where I was!

Looking back, ironically, it was during that period that I acquired what turned out to be a most influential education–  I began reading what I wanted to read rather than what someone else wanted me to read. And some of the first books I picked up–  Jack Kerouac’s On The Road and Dharma Bums and Woody Guthrie’s Bound For Glory— changed my life. After that all I wanted to do was hit the road, and so I did. I spent much of the next five years ramblin’, by thumb, by Hound, and with friends, traversing much of the country and western Canada. I made it to nearly every state, many of the national parks, and a ton of concerts and festivals along the way. With countless hours and miles of two-lane blacktop under my feet I learned what an amazing place this country really is– equal parts beautiful, intimidating, scary and awe-inspiring. So here’s to Woody and Jack:

Take it easy, but take it” — Woody Guthrie