Esotouric™

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Erik Davis is a San Francisco-based writer, culture critic, and independent scholar. He is the author of "TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, as well as a short critical volume on "Led Zeppelin IV." In addition to his regular column in Arthur Magazine, Davis contributes to scores of other magazines and his essays have been included in over a dozen books. He won a Maggie award for his "San Francisco Magazine" profile of the Internet entrepreneur and UFO contactee Joe Firmage, while "The New Yorker" has recognized his expertise in the works of the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. He lectures frequently on topics ranging from electronic music to the evolution of consciousness. Erik hosts the occasional Visionary Hollywood tour.

Crime novelist and memoirist James Ellroy hosts occasional James Ellroy Digs L.A. tours, a highly personal journey into the psycho-geography of the region that made him, and that informs such best selling books as "L.A. Confidential," "The Black Dahlia" and "My Dark Places." These tours are enormously popular and sell out upon listing. If you want to be on the next one, we suggest you subscribe to our email list.

UPDATE October 4 8am: We have space on today's tour and invite you to come to the Bodhi Tree by 10:30am with $64 cash or a check to buy your ticket before we depart. A map is below, and if you valet park, it will be free with a $10 purchase.

Tour Summary

We are now selling tickets for this tour via the paypal link below. If you'd like to come to the Bodhi Tree on tour morning and pay cash or check (space permitting), please call 323-223-2767 or email to reserve. We regret that we can accept no discounts, coupons or season pass tickets on this special event.

There are no paper tickets: your name will be on a list at the bus door. Check in is at 10:30am for a 11am sharp departure from the Bodhi Tree in West Hollywood, where we recommend you valet park as well. Validation is free with a purchase of $10 or more. To that end, there will be a book signing inside the Bodhi Tree after the tour for Erik’s book, as well as a few other relevant texts by local authors.

MAP

Food and drink are permitted and suggested; no audio or video-taping without permission. We regret that there are no refunds for passengers who miss the bus.

Tour Summary

Click here to purchase David Smay's book about Tom Waits.

This is the definitive tour of Tom Waits' formative creative life in Los Angeles, and the people, places and late night pastries that shaped it.

Calling all rain dogs, gin-soaked boys and Gun Street girls! Climb aboard as your hosts David Smay (author of the new 33 1/3 series book on "Swordfishtrombones") and Esotouric's Kim Cooper (a Zoetrope Studios intern who'll tell how she used teenage subterfuge to arrange a private concert by Tom) lead you on a scrupulously researched ride through Tom's epic misdeeds and shenanigans, from the Trashing of the Troubadour to epic nights at the Tropicana.

And oh, there are such tales to tell, from food fights with L.A. Punks and smackdowns with L.A. Police. We'll crawl through the Sewers of Paris, tattle on the Ivar Theater, and get the lowdown on Tom's legendary performances at the Wiltern and elsewhere. Before departing for points rural, Tom left his mark all over L.A., from Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios to Sunset Sound to Skid Row. We'll show you where Tom found his true love and collaborator, Kathleen Brennan, and how all the pieces came together to transform a drunken, desperate singer into the multi-faceted, multi-media artist he'd become.

Raised near San Diego, Tom Waits launched his musical career in L.A., signing with David Geffen's Asylum Records in 1972, living at the raunchy Tropicana Hotel (where he sawed off the kitchen drain board so his piano would fit), and building a reputation as a songwriter willing to risk his own health and sanity to get inside the sad sack characters that peopled songs like "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)," "On The Nickel" and "Pasties And A G-string (At The Two O'clock Club)."

By 1980, Tom was 31 and starting to feel the effects of his hard living. While scoring the music to Francis Ford Coppola's "One From The Heart," he met Kathleen Brennan, whose influence would completely transform his life and his art. After a whirlwind courtship the pair married and began a 28-year creative and personal partnership, beginning with the revolutionary album "Swordfishtrombones," the subject of tour host David Smay's new book.

Marking the symbolic passage from lonesome bar hopping to family joys and sobriety, the tour begins at an important downtown site. Passengers gather in the King Edward Saloon, the last surviving Skid Row bar with the Christmas 2007 loss of Craby Joe's, before boarding Esotouric's luxury coach class bus, where the mood is set with vintage photos and live footage.

"Crawling Down Cahuenga" spans Tom's personal city, from The Nickel (aka Skid Row) to once-ratty West Hollywood, favorite strip clubs and midnight diners, recording studios, night clubs, record labels and film studios, before rolling back downtown for a last tipple at the King Edward Saloon.

ABOUT THE HOSTS: Longtime collaborators David Smay and Kim Cooper co-edited the books "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth" ("quite simply the most fun music book I have ever read." -Bucketfull of Brains) and "Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed" ("the perfect book for the advanced record collector" -Ear Candy) before penning their solo 33 1/3 series books on Tom Waits and Neutral Milk Hotel. Kim gives Esotouric's rock history and true crime tours. David Smay lives in San Francisco, where he is working on a history of the Beats.

Singer-songwriter Ruthann Friedman is our special guest on Esotouric's June 28 Where the Action Was tour, sharing her memories of the Sunset Strip scene of the 1960s and gracing Amoeba's stage for a free post-tour concert. Click here to buy a ticket on the bus. We asked Ruthann to give us a preview of some of the people who come to mind when she thinks back on those heady days.

Van Dyke Parks: Mentor...boyfriend...fearless leader at the first Renaissance Fair where we (he, several of the Association members and I) walked arm in arm over the dusty roads and flowering hills selling our fresh picked "psychedelic" flowers...(everything there was being sold as "psychedelic")...and singing "Mister Tambourine Man" over and over again...some things have lodged in my memory and are always readily available to make me feel cheerful...this is one of those memories. I have always been thankful for the time I spent with him as he is such an enormous talent and brilliant musician, composer, lyricist and friend.

Doctor John (Mac Rebennack) : We were together for a short time. He was one of the absolutely nicest and most gentle people I remember, also one of the most talented and hard working... He used to leave cryptic notes on the windshield of my Volkswagen beetle...(I almost spelled it Beatle... talk about having a major effect on the English language...) He brought his friends up from New Orleans and put them all up in a hotel on Melrose Avenue. I was about 21 at the time and walking in to that room with all the blinds down scared me so much I backed away...

The Association: Lived with Russ Giguere and Jim Yester and Gary Alexander in an old house off Melrose near Vermont Avenue in L.A. Had many good times. We had visitors like Donovan and Tandyn Almer and lots of folks who later became famous (like they did)...It was a wild time...we were poor but happy. I once had a boyfriend sleep over who was gone in the morning but left a full sized portrait of himself on the ceiling...ooo was I in trouble.

The Jefferson Airplane: Dated Jorma Kaukonen for a very short while...Lived on the corner of Fell and Cole in the Haight with Marty Balin and Jack Cassidy and his girlfriend Ginger Jackson (who became one of my best friends for life)...At the time I thought I was going to replace Signe Anderson as their singer but...they found Grace Slick and that was that...No blame...she was much more ready than I to make them a big success...and she did...

David Crosby: Kind to let me stay in the downstairs apartment in his house in Beverly Glenn. It was there I wrote "Windy" and then got together with Jorma's brother Peter Kaukonen after which we set about forming our band Petrus.

Neil Young: Met him through Dickie Davis who was the first "manager" for the Buffalo Springfield. The band members from Canada were all staying in a cheap motel in Hollywood and Neil got sick so Dickie asked me if I could put him up...so I played earth mother and slept on the couch so he could recover on my bed...Saw him several times after that and I believe he would remember who I am without much trouble...

Steven Stills: I don't remember where we met but I do remember him wanting a girl to sing with him...I don't recall if it was as a duo or background...but I did not sing "black" enough for him...he was absolutely certain that he was going to be successful in the music business and he worked very hard to achieve what he did...(he once came to my house looking for dinner)...

Frank Zappa: Another musician who was certain of his eventual success. I met him when I was playing at a very late hoot at the Troubadour...He came up to me afterwards and told me I didn't "play like a girl"...at the time I was flattered but now I would probably say something rude in return...His band played at the Action a small club on Santa Monica Blvd. He moved his band "The Mother's" (the record company had not yet added "of invention" to their name to make it more palatable for middle America)...across the street from my place in on of those old fairyland complexes built in the twenties with peaked roofs and gingerbread leaded windows. That is another story for another time. We hung out some...

Ken Kesey: We spent a weekend in my place on Wonderland Avenue in Laurel Canyon along with my friend Ginger (who had been one of his Merry Pranksters)...ordered food up from Greenblatt's Deli down the hill and wasted three days cozying up to a tank of nitrous oxide...

Spent an evening cruising Filmore with Janis Joplin and PigPen looking for hot smokey links and sipping Southern Comfort...

Want to hear more of Ruthann's stories, or ask questions about your favorite sixties people? Get on the Where the Action Was bus at noon on June 28, then hear her free 3pm concert at Amoeba Music in Hollywood. Click here to buy a ticket on the bus.

The tour’s rendezvous point is Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. Not only will depature take place there, but all ticket sales as well. Please call them to reserve seats: (626) 449-5320.

For more information about the tour please see the TOUR SUMMARY page.

The bus will leave at Noon sharp. Check-in is a half hour before at 11.30am in the bookstore parking lot. Please be on time. Neither time, tide, nor the bus will wait. The tour is four hours with a gelato stop at Scoop's midway through the tour.

Food and drink are permitted and suggested; no audio or video-taping without permission.

TOUR SUMMARY

Instructions for passengers:

Want to ride on Saturday but don't have a ticket yet? Just call Richard at 310-995-4591 to reserve, and be at Philippe's at 10:30am with cash or check for your seat. There are no paper tickets: your name will be on a list at the bus door. Check in is at 10:30am for a 11am sharp departure from Philippe The Original in downtown Los Angeles, just across from Union Station.

MAP

Tickets can be ordered online until the morning of the tour. For last minute bookings, please feel free to call 310-995-4591 after 8am on tour day, and if there are seats available, you can reserve a spot and pay with cash at the bus.

Food and drink are permitted and suggested; no audio or video-taping without permission. We regret that there are no refunds for passengers who miss the bus.

PARKING: There are a couple of pay lots in the immediate vicinity of Philippe’s, along New High Street one block north and parallel to Alameda. Please do not park in the restaurant lot. You may also choose to arrive by train at Union Station, which is a block from the restaurant.

TOUR SUMMARY

Tour Summary

Vegetarian passengers, please contact us several days before departure to ensure we order dumplings you can enjoy. If using a gift certificate, please note that this tour has an additional $5 dumpling fee, payable in cash or check at the bus door.

Need to reach us on tour day? Please phone Richard at 213-915-8687 after 8am.
Instructions for passengers:

There are no paper tickets: your name will be on a list at the bus door. Check in is at 11:30am for a 12pm sharp departure from the Lincoln Heights/Cypress Gold Line Metro station.

MAP

tour summary