Esotouric

Click here for info on a special edition of our popular Chandler tour, exclusively for Vroman's Bookstore customers and departing from their Pasadena store.

We will meet at Wells Fargo Tower next to California Pizza Kitchen at 11 am Sunday, August 5th.

Tour will last approximately 90 minutes. This is a walking tour with a fair amount of climbing due to the grade on the hill.

Before Kerouac, before Bukowski, there was John Fante, author of "Ask the Dust," "Dreams of Bunker Hill," "Full of Life," "The Road to Los Angeles" and "Wait Until Spring, Bandini." This five-novel cycle, written over sixty years, introduced the world to Arturo Bandini, an outspoken, down-and-out Mr. Hyde to Fante’s Dr. Jekyll. As Bunker Hill’s prodigal son, Fante-as-Bandini chronicles a forgotten Los Angeles neighborhood teeming with immigrants, criminals and dreamers like himself. With genuine compassion and wonderful craft, he sketches the hopes and dreams which fly round their heads, and in the process finds his own voice, a revelation which carries him all the way to Hollywood. On this 90 minute walking tour, we’ll explore the memories of Fante’s Bunker Hill, a neighborhood that has been erased, flattened, its mansions torn down, long since redeveloped by corporate and civic interests. Through visits to historic locations and crime scenes, we’ll evoke the ghosts of old Los Angeles and contrast the shiny new skyscrapers with the gritty hotels and flophouses they replaced.

Click on link below to purchase, or call 323-223-2767 or email to reserve.

Thursday afternoon note: Want to join us on the tour night, but haven't purchased tickets? We probably have room for you! Please phone Richard at 310-995-4591 to reserve, or take a chance and just bring cash to the Charlie O's departure location by 6:30pm.

Dress code (required for the Musso and Frank stop): on the Thursday night tour, no flip flops or tank tops; men must wear collared shirts.

This evening sees the debut of a new Esotouric bus adventure "Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles." Passengers on this special edition birthday tour will receive a mixed drink at Musso & Frank served by Bukowski's favorite bartender Ruben and a limited edition birthday souvenir featuring Tony Millionaire's Bukbird logo.

This tour will focus on Bukowski’s great passions: writing, screwing and Los Angeles. We’ll take in the canonical locations of his life and myth: the Postal Annex Terminal where he gathered the material for “Post Office,” the Mariposa Avenue apartment where he briefly experimented with marriage and fatherhood, the Delongpre Ave apartment where "Women" was written, one of his favorite bars Musso & Frank, and many other spots. Along the way, we’ll explore the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk’s rich inner life.

Tour will leave from Charlie O’s at the Alexandria Hotel downtown.

MAP

Check in is at 6.30 pm for a 7 pm sharp departure.

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: Our special guest is John Dullaghan, director of the documentary "Bukowski: Born into This" (2003), who 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. We will also 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. We are being given the special opportunity to remain in the restaurant after closing time, and will have a tour after the regular patrons leave. 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). 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.