West Hollywood Book Fair

This past Sunday, I headed into West Hollywood for its annual book fair. This was the first time I’d actually been, even though the fair has been around for ten years. Held on the grounds surrounding the West Hollywood Library, in the shadow of the Blue Whale (aka the Pacific Design Center; see my visit a couple summers ago here), the fair isn’t as big as the vernal L.A. Times Festival of Books, but it still offered plenty to interest the literary Angeleno.

My first stop was the booth of Bill Cunningham, author of I Wonder What Became of Me, right by the entrance to the library. Last fall, as a side project, I edited Bill’s book, a fascinating look at his life and decades-long career building one of the most respected talent agencies in the world. A quick photo with Bill later, I was on my way to the food court, signed book tucked in my bag, with a promise to stop by the booth again on my way out. There was a variety of food trucks at the food court, including the Hungry Nomad and SliceTruck. I decided to grab a cherry slushy lemonade from A ROCKin ICE, which I ordered from a very happy and very friendly blonde guy dressed in a Hawaiian shirt. The slushy was delicious but it made my teeth look like they had escaped from a horror film. One guy made the mistake of asking me where I got my program, and probably did not expect that the short, harmless-looking curly-haired brunette would reveal a set of (what looked like) bleeding teeth.

My icy, teeth-staining slushy in hand, I set out to explore what else was on offer at the fair. I walked up to the Open Booth stage just in time for “Cats Throw Dark Shadows: From Actress to Author.” Julie Newmar, the original Catwoman, was wearing a pair of cat ears, completing her image as an eccentric creative spirit. Next I wandered over to the Comics, Graphic Novels & More stage and caught the “Comics to Screen & Back Again” panel, featuring, among others, Len Wein, co-creator of Swamp Thing and Wolverine. I don’t have a particularly avid interest in comics, but I find that people who do are usually pretty entertaining. My sister works at a collectible figures company, and while the guys she works with behave like total man-children, they are absolutely hilarious.

After wandering around a bit more, I slid by Bill’s booth again and said my goodbyes. Then it was back into the belly of the Blue Whale to find where I parked my car.

Plans for next weekend include scouring L.A.’s vintage furniture stores for a pair of nightstands. Have I mentioned that I’ve spent the last several weeks looking for nightstands? What? I’m picky.

Hello Again

A lot has changed since I last wrote on this blog. In September, I was jobless and hanging out in mid-city L.A., avoiding the heat of the Valley. I had only been back from New York for a few months. Since the fall, temps have cooled (and have now started to heat up again), I moved back to the Valley, and I now have a job (I even had two for a time).

My new job is in a completely different field than any of my previous jobs, which meant that there was a big learning curve when I first started. My brain was so overwhelmed for a while that I didn’t have any extra RAM (as my techie dad would say) to devote to my blog. Moving to the Valley also limited the amount of cultural opportunities/events to explore and chronicle. Lately, though, I find my thoughts straying back to my explorations of the summer and how satisfying it was to write about them. Now, whenever I visit a new place or do something out of the ordinary, I find myself composing blog posts in my head, thinking about how I would describe something and what details I would include.

Having decided to start writing my blog again, I’ve also decided to change the focus slightly. Although New York will still always hold a special place in my heart and I will always miss it, my life is here in L.A. And there are so many great things about living here that I want to focus on celebrating all there is to do in L.A. rather than trying to somehow console myself that I’m not in New York. Thus, while the name of my blog will still be “Falling in Love with L.A.,” it will be more about exploring what it means to love living in the City of Angels. That’s not to say I’ll never mention New York ever again. I don’t think you should ever forget the places you’ve been, especially the places that really get inside of you. But there’s so much to see in the world that you also have to be open to discovering new places. And maybe even rediscovering places, too.