French Girl With Mother By Venice's Norman Ollestad

I'm all excited because there is a new book by my friend Norman Ollestad coming out this coming Tuesday (October 11th)! French Girl With Mother is Ollestad's first fictional novel, after becoming a New York Times best seller with his incredible memoir Crazy For The Storm.

Most writers will tell you that they write from what they know, and for Ollestad, his decades of travel informed his latest book. He had been thinking about a torrid love affair he'd had with a French girl in his 20's, and the "shadow life" that he could have almost had ... like what if I'd gotten on that train? What if I had helped that friend hide money all over Europe? What if, what if, what if ... and the story just unfolded in his mind from there.

Ollestad has always held a fascination for art and artists, hence his main character is an artist who finds his muses in a French mother and daughter who he wants to create portraits of ... and it all takes off from there in what Booklist is calling "A unique, atmospheric literary thriller". Ollestad told me today (over coffee at the French Market) that French Girl With Mother continues his theme from his other books that if you want to find out about yourself or become a better person in your life, you have to go into the guts of a storm, whatever your storm is. To generate whatever you're trying to generate (a book, music, art ...), you can't shy away from the things that will test you or be intense, because that's how you find out about yourself, and what you're capable of. And that's why I can't wait to read this one!

We have to wait until Tuesday to get our copy of French Girl With Mother ... UNLESS you come to Venice and visit Small World Books, where it's available right now. And where I'm headed right now.

Ollestad will be reading from his latest book and holding a book signing at Diesel Books in Brentwood on Sunday, October 16th at 3:00 pm.

Read The Circle - By Dave Eggers

With the weather cooling down and even some slight precipitation in Venice recently, it's that faintly perceptible shift of the seasons that we do get here that makes you want to just stay in and read sometimes.  That was my feeling last week, and it perfectly aligned with the arrival of the new novel/cautionary tale by Dave Eggers, The Circle.

Eggers has long been one of my very favorite living authors and inspirations (he founded the excellent 826 tutoring centers across the country), and he proves to me why with every new project he does. This one should be required reading for every person in the world to read, or be read to. After being at dinner recently and being the absolute only person not looking at my phone, I've had many a conversation about how social media is really making us all more anti-social. It's sad. I rebel.

The Circle addresses this - to the extreme. The Circle is like a all-encompassing Facebook, that links every account you have and everyone can keep track of exactly where you are and what you're doing, even to the point of full "transparency," where cameras show what everyone (including Governments) are doing at all times. If you don't agree to transparency, then you're instantly suspicious. This kind of life is a complete nightmare to me, but it's not too hard to see it coming to fruition. This is Orwell's 1984, for now.

This is a super important book, that I flew through, enjoying every page, all while mounting concern for the reality of it all grew in my mind. Please read The Circle, and let's have some good discussions about it/figure out how to save each other and the world. 


*Happy Birthday, B!

The Lit Show With Suzy Williams

Suzy Williams and her excellent band ("The Cracked Binding Quintette") brought back the ever-popular Lit Show to Beyond Baroque, and a blast was had by all. This unique - and educational - show is great because it's all songs by famous authors that you may not have known also dabbled in songwriting. Writers like Dorothy Parker and Langston Hughes. John Steinbeck and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Even "Willie The Shake," as Suzy calls Shakespeare.

Gerry Fialka introduced his darling wife Suzy, dressed to the nines in an evening gown and platinum blonde wig to open the show. She greeted the packed house with "Hello, Gentle Readers!" and then we all sang along to the show's theme, "The Liiiiiiiiiiit Show." Then we were off and transported to the future (via Ray Bradbury), the Dustbowl (via Steinbeck), Ireland (James Joyce) and even the Monte Carlo Moon (courtesy of Fitzgerald).

As great as all of the songs are, so are Williams' asides ... "John Thomas, who took a vow of poetry, I mean poverty, (shrug) ... Same thing." Draping herself across Brad Kay's piano, sultry Suzy said, "I'm Lucy and you're Shroeder, Boss." Or in acting out Tom Joad's speech with actor Sam Clay, Williams said, "Steinbeck is my MAN. He's all about spirituality and socialism, my two favorite things!" I love Suzy Williams. Especially because she dedicated that number to myself and Greta Cobar, and we were delighted.

I think my favorite line of the evening was when Suzy sang about Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his dog, "He doesn't hate the Police, he just has no use for them." Yep.

Singing Fitzgerald's "Fie! Fie! Fifi!", Williams began by saying, "This is 17 year old Fitz, but he's already bitter, partying and loving the Riviera." When we sang along to Tim Finnegan's Wake, a real rouser, Williams said, "You pretty much wanna brawl with someone when you sing that song." You kinda do, and we're peaceniks. Oh, the power of music!

It is powerful, indeed. From brawling to tearing up in no time flat, like I did when Williams sang the beautiful "A Song Of Love" by Lewis Carroll. I admire Suzy so much, because she is a true performer, who throws every inch of her tiny frame into every word and note. You FEEL the songs.

The crowd stood and cheered for Suzy and her talented gentlemen (Brad Kay, Danny Moynahan, Marcus Gerakos, Peter Marshall and Don Allen), and ran home to mark calenders for next year's Lit Show. Thank yous to all involved in this year's smash ... What a fantastic night in Venice!

Leon Hendrix Reading at Small World Books

It was one of those nights when there's just too much going on, and you have to make some choices. I was cool to juggle some stuff, but what I knew I did not want to miss was Leon Hendrix reading from his new book, Jimi Hendrix - A Brother's Story at Small World Books on the Venice Boardwalk last night. I raced over there before the sun even set, and found myself a chair in the little back area of my very favorite book store. Mr. Hendrix was still at The Sidewalk Cafe next door, having a little happy hour, so it was very relaxed and no rush ... appropriate for the location, for sure.

I chatted with some local folks I know, and then Leon Hendrix walked up, held out his hand and asked my name. In his silky black shirt and lots of jewelry, he was pretty smooth at 64. Maybe even more so by his clear groove, as I gleaned from the aroma that there had been a recent sharing of a j on the Boardwalk prior to his entrance. Smooth.

It was standing room only left as Hendrix proclaimed that this was his very first book reading and signing ever! Here in Venice ... I love that. He got right to it and read a passage from a chapter called "Vagabond Gypsy Boys". It felt like he was more comfortable just talking and sharing anecdotes than exactly reading from the book. This turned out to be a treat, as he said that some of the stories he shared weren't in the book, so bonus. Jimi was always called "Buster" as a boy, we were told, as his real name was Johnny Alan Hendrix, but Johnny was the name of their Mom's new boyfriend, so their Dad made him change his name to Jimmy Marshall Hendrix. He couldn't get used to that, so he made everyone call him "Buster", after the Flash Gordon actor he loved, Buster Crabbe. Buster!

Hendrix spoke about how he and Jimi ate horse meat hamburgers and they were the best in the world, and it's a shame you can't get them anymore. He said that Jimi played music with Tommy Chong ("Who had a band before his pot career ..."), and that his first gig ever was with Ray Charles, because at 16, he was the best guitarist in Seattle for the job. That his first recording job ever was some striptease music for Jayne Mansfield in Louisiana.

Someone asked what books Jimi liked or was influenced by, and Leon said he'd never seen Jimi read a book ... "He just seemed to know that stuff already".  The whole time he was talking, you could really see in him a little kid that deeply looked up to and missed his big brother. He seemed happy and haunted at the same time, if that makes sense.

Someone else asked if it was true that Jimi started out playing on a broom. This was true, but more as an air guitar play thing that he'd sing along to. He first PLAYED on a ukulele from someone's garage sale that had only one string. He found he could make different sounds by loosening or tightening the tuner on that one string, and that was how he learned to bend each string to do so, so much.

He was a leftie, and his Dad thought left handedness was from the Devil ..."Which was funny, considering he had 6 fingers!" That was laugh out loud. He went on to say that Dad would tie string around his extra appendage until it would shrivel up and fall off after tightening it for about 6 months ... but then they would grow back!! Freak out. Jimi and Leon would wait until their Dad fell asleep drunk and bring in the neighbor kids to terrify them with the extra fingers on their Dad. While funny, I almost wish I didn't know this stuff existed. Shivvvvvvvver.  ANYway ... when Dad would come in, Jimi would flip the guitar over to play right handed so he wouldn't get yelled at for being the Devil. So he could play left, right, upside down, backwards ... "He was a genius," Leon said, with a shrug of pure fact.

He read one more small paragraph, squinting without his glasses ("This guy didn't write the book good.") and then shut it and said, "Anyway, that's enough. Read the book." He's pretty funny, Leon. I get the feeling he'd be fun to hang out with. He was itching to get to the just hang out part of the event, you could tell. Then someone asked why it took him so long to write this book. Leon replied that he realized that in all the other books on Jimi Hendrix out there, all the best quotes were his, so he decided to write his own book. "And it will be the last book on Jimi." Said firmly.

With that, the line formed to get books signed and take pictures and ask more questions. Through it all, and in looking him in the eye while talking, you can see how much pride and pain live in this man who so clearly loved - and loves - his brother.

I can't wait to read all these stories, especially now that I saw the heart of where they came from.

Smooth.