Movies of Myself

To all the ladies in the place with style and grace.

March 9th.

On March 9th, 1994 the poet Charles Bukowski died of leukemia at his home in Southern California. Three years later, March 9th, 1997: Notorious B.I.G. dies in an L.A. drive-by shooting.

Bukowski:

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, “I’m not going to make it,” but you laugh inside remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”

“I don’t hate people, I just feel better when they aren’t around.”

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live.”

Biggie:

"Thinkin' I'm gon' stop givin' L.A. props?
All I got is beef with those that violate me.
I shall annihilate thee.
Case closed, suitcase filled with clothes."

"Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis.
When I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this."

Get Money - Junior Mafia feat. Notorious B.I.G.

Gold Bug

As much as I hate to admit it, I am a suburban girl. I have lived almost my entire life in the suburbs and, even though I've made a concerted effort in the past few years to spend less of my time and money at big box stores and mini malls full of chain restaurants, those are the places where I grew up and they are where my comfort zone lies.

But there is a little store next to the back entrance of a parking garage in Old Town Pasadena and, even though it is just one street over from J. Crew and Pottery Barn and the Cheesecake Factory, it is in essence as far away from easy suburbia as you can imagine. It's called Gold Bug (named after the Edgar Allan Poe story) and it is my favorite place in the whole area.

It's a gorgeous and eerie place, packed full of the natural and the unreal. On every surface, on every countertop and wallspace you will see something delicate and beautiful, something that defines memento mori. All of your dreams and your nightmares are in here, resting side by side. It truly is like something out of a marvelous story and every time I visit I wonder if this is the time I will find a secret doorway in there or if a book I pick up will draw me literally into its pages. If you live nearby or visit the Los Angeles area, it is a must-see.

 

  

 

  

 

Gold Bug
22 East Union Street
Pasadena, California 91103
goldbugpasadena.com

At Least

Amusing Exchanges: The "this makes everything better" edition.

b: What are you doing over there?

l: I'm taping bubble wands to these dino bubbles. For some reason they weren't packaged inside the containers.

b: Why on earth would they make dinosaur bubbles?? They didn't have bubble fluid in the Jurrasic era.

l: Dude, you don't know. You weren't there.

b: Oh, so T-Rexes were all blowing bubbles in a field?

l: Yeah, I bet it was like their drug.

---.....---.....---.....---

b: I can't wait to have Brussels sprouts for dinner tonight! Woo woo!

l: Did you just cheer Brussels sprouts?

n: I like them, too. What's your favorite sauce to put on them?

b: Bacon.

---.....---.....---.....---

b: Don't you think that "Get Low" by Lil' Jon is pretty much the best song of all time?

p: Yeah, you know what? If there's a heaven, and you get to the gates, I bet you'll hear that song playing to welcome you in. 

b: You're so right! That's how you'll know it's the real heaven! If you don't hear "skeet, skeet, skeet", don't go in. It's a damn trick.

---.....---.....---.....---

b: If you really want to make things up to me, you can take us to dinner at Po' Folks next time I'm in L.A. They're supposed to have great fried chicken and "Kuntry" fried steaks.

k: At least they spelled it with a "k".

Nobody feels any pain.

A couple of weeks ago I started listening to an archived Morning Becomes Eclectic live session with Jeff Buckley on the KCRW site. Buckley, "extremely warm, very charismatic, and absolutely genuine", played in studio at the station a month before the release of his one and only studio album, Grace.

The session has become an almost nightly ritual for me. I'll put it on, lie in bed and wonder about what could have been if Buckley hadn't walked, fully-clothed and singing the chorus from Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love", into the Mississippi River on a late spring evening in 1997. What promises he would have fulfilled if he hadn't drowned during a spontaneous night swim the day before he was going to start recording again for his second record.

After the KCRW session ends each night I put on one more Buckley song, my favorite of his live recordings. It's a cover of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" and it comes from Buckley's Live at Sin-é double disc. The song is long at seven and a half minutes, but it's one of those songs that is able to coax more and more emotion out of you each time you hear it.

Just Like A Woman (Live) - Jeff Buckley

Every second of the cover is beautiful but the part that begins at about the 4'30" mark is just pure heartbreak.

But it was raining from the first
and I was dying there of thirst
so I came in here.
And your long-time curse hurts
but what's worse
is this pain in here.
Well, I can't stay in here.
Oh baby, ain't it clear that

I just can't fit.
I believe it's time for us to quit.
If we meet again
introduced as friends,
please don't let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world.