Travelogue: California Again

This time on a book tour

Wednesday, October 9th: Skylight Books in LA with Jon Klassen

My Lyft driver picked me up at 6:30 am to go to the airport. I didn’t really feel like talking, but he grew on me and we talked the whole time anyway. He was a 69-year-old guy who grew up on a farm in Roseburg, Oregon. Right before he dropped me off, he told me about his wife of 50 years and how much he loves her.

I flew over a mountainous desert. Lots of tributaries wound down from the hills to connect with a big river but they were all dried up. In a region desolate and remote, I saw enormous, fragmented black grids on the ground and could not discern their purpose. Then I was over LA, which looked brown from the plane except for hundreds of jewel-like azure pools. 

Thursday, October 10: Day off in LA

Yesterday I left my pencil case in a sushi restaurant. Luckily Maile has some good pencils.

Tonight after dinner, my sister Erica drove me back to the sushi place to get my pencil case. I was grateful. I never really know how big the favor I am asking is when I ask to be driven somewhere in Los Angeles. We went to Target to buy a bathing suit because I forgot mine at home, but Erica had to pay for it because I forgot my wallet in the car.

When I got back to Maile’s, she was like, “Remember last time you came to LA, when you took a walk with your sister and thought you had lost your sunglasses?”

“Yes,” I said, “ We did the entire long loop again, retraced our steps, and then I found the sunglasses in the car between the seats."

Friday, October 11: The Book Catapult in San Diego with Maile Meloy

Maile and I drove to San Diego in the morning. We had lunch with Steve in La Jolla, looking out over the ocean. I eat a big salad with grilled chicken every day in Southern California. Everything has crunchy chickpeas all over it. I feel terrific, even though I already have a sunburn.

Saturday, October 12: Bart’s Books in Ojai with Lucy Bellwood

Maile, Erica, and I went to a fancy spa in Ojai. Today I had my big salad with grilled chicken by the pool.

After the event at Bart’s Books, in the rare book room, I spotted a 2nd printing of Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. If you happened to read the picture book gift guide I wrote last Christmas, you may remember the story: Mervyn Peake’s first book, published in 1939; the first printing was destroyed in the Blitz when a bomb fell on the warehouse that was storing it. Captain Slaughterboard wasn’t reprinted until 1945, making the second edition essentially the first edition. I love this book and could not believe my eyes. The owner of the bookstore said it had been there forever, probably waiting for me. I agreed and took it home.

Sunday, October 13: LA to Oakland

I took photos on the drive to the airport and made drawings of them on the plane. I was especially interested in the sky-high hedges guarding expensive homes and the patterns of the retaining walls on the highway.

There were some military planes (fighter jets?) on the tarmac when we landed. Everyone was excited about this. We all piled off the plane and started taking pictures. I didn’t really understand what the excitement was about, but when in Rome.

The planes took off but I soon saw them again, from the highway, doing synchronized tricks above the city, and then I understood.

We had dinner in Berkeley. Jude Law was eating a few tables away. I only saw the back of his head but Vanessa said he was extremely handsome.

Monday, October 14: Day off in Oakland

Wendy and I had foot massages and then ate tacos in the grass on Lake Merritt. When I got back to Mac and Taylor’s, it was getting dark and nobody was home so I let myself in through their twilit bedroom. I laughed when I saw what their kid had done to their bed.

Tuesday, October 15: Club Fugazi in San Francisco with Daniel Handler & Adrian Tomine

Today I met Dan Clowes, who is one of my greatest heroes. I was sweaty and starstruck but I managed to tell him about the Eightball-inspired mini comic I made and sent to him in college and about the postcard he sent back. It had a small self-portrait sketched on it and an encouraging message and it was at the time my most cherished possession. He was nice! I didn’t have time to say much more because I was sucked into another less nerve-wracking conversation, which was probably for the best.

After the event in North Beach I had a late dinner at an Italian place with Daniel (Handler), Lisa, and Adrian, who is another cartooning hero of mine. We all parted ways afterwards but I wasn’t ready to go home, under the spell as I was of nighttime North Beach. I wandered over to The Condor, a famous strip club, and told the barker at the door that I used to work there as a cocktail waitress back when it was briefly a sports bar in the late nineties. We struck up a conversation and an old woman who works there joined us. They invited me in to take a look around so I did. I stood sleepily in the near empty club where a woman was dancing for no-one and conjured some vague, grim memories of my year spent cocktailing there. Then I walked over to Specs and had a pint of Guinness and drew a picture of the bar in my sketchbook.

Then I took a Lyft back to Oakland.

Thursday, October 16: Copperfield’s in Petaluma with Mac Barnett

All our plans fell through today. We couldn’t see The Visitors at SFMOMA because the museum was closed. We couldn’t visit with Lena Wolff at her gallery show in Larkspur because something came up. Instead we spent a perfect day listening to country music in Mac’s ancient palsied Mercedes as it rolled over the golden hills and through the dark forests of Marin.

We stopped in Point Reyes and I said, “I have a buddy here. John Gnorski. He’s always inviting me to visit.” We signed some books at the excellent Point Reyes bookstore and when we stepped outside, someone called my name from a passing truck and I knew without looking up that it was John. We had a spare half hour before our event in Petaluma so we brought him and his wife Katie a bottle of wine to celebrate their new (to me) baby, and drank it in their kitchen.

My last meal in California was a late night dinner at In-N-Out. Somehow I’d never been. I was told to order my burger “animal style” so I did and it was all that.

Mac’s studio, where I sleep when I visit.

Lena Wolff’s show is up through November at Sarah Shephard Gallery

Nicasio, CA

John Gnorksi’s studio

At John and Katie’s house

Oh California. It’s hard to say goodbye. In an alternate life, I still live here, have lived here since 1998, and can’t imagine living anywhere else. That forever Californian still thrums in my breast. This place is never not calling to me.

Thanks to all the great independent bookstores who hosted me this week. Thanks to Jon, Maile, Lucy, and Mac for making these events so fun and sweet and dynamic. Thanks to everyone who came out to them.