Yeah, there really wouldn't be much to show for Tom in San Francisco, actually.

Maybe, but we want Corwood here! Who cares about this Tom guy!?!

Yeah, there really wouldn't be much to show for Tom in San Francisco, actually. The theater where he shot Big Time, and uh...where they did the video for "Blow, Wind, Blow" and...that's about it. The Paramount in Oakland where he's had some major shows.

I thought he was born up that way, or was he born in Southern CA as well?

I thought he was born up that way, or was he born in Southern CA as well?

He was born in Whittier (near LA), but grew up around San Diego. His dad kind of bounced around (he was a Spanish teacher, and you know how ramblin' they are...) so they moved back and forth between cities near LA and San Diego. They even spent six months in a trailer down in Mexico.

Then his dad took off when Tom was about 10-11, and they settled in San Diego. That's where he worked at the Napoleone Pizza House starting at about age 14. They only had Ray Charles and Dinah Washington on the jukebox. It was in National City, which was a sailor haunt. There was a Mexican Cinema across the street and a tattoo parlor next door.

He's never lived in SF or the immediate Bay Area, though he currently resides near Petaluma (where Winona Ryder grew up on a hippie commune) and Sebastapol. Easy drive to San Francisco. He's been here since the late eighties.

Man, I'd love to go out for that, and the reading!

I know! It sounds like alot of fun - also informative.

I am hoping to come to both the bus trip and the reading and want to bring my assistant and her fiance. She LOVES Waits--has a tattoo on her shoulder of a brandy glass with the words "stirring my brandy with a nail". I don't know if Jason is in town yet--he may have to go to Chicago that weekend.

I am hoping to come to both the bus trip and the reading and want to bring my assistant and her fiance.

Oh hell yeah! I love this.

Excitement! I've never been to LA before. I'm looking forward to experiencing your ubiquitous movie stars who shoot at people on the freeway while racing to air bars under the Hollywood sign.

There was some talk of including some Richard Thompson LA landmarks on the tour, but these were hampered by: a) I have no idea where exactly the major RT events took place in LA and b) they're all incredibly depressing, anyway ("Okay, if you look to your right, you can see the piss-stained alley where Linda got drunk and fell in the gutter shortly before the hysterical dysphonia took her voice away for twenty years. Use a flash, people!"). One of the great things about David's book is that his subject is fundamentally a love story. My story took place pretty much at the other end of things.

Tonight was interesting. I went and saw Love Cats and hopped in a cab to catch 2/3rds of Mindless Self Indulgence.

Sorta didn't suck.

Oh, and there was hand twinyness with me and faux-Robert Smith during Caterpillar. It was distressingly awesome.

Question for the night:

Why is Jimmy Urine so charming?

And we love it when Frank is a little pudgy and biting his lip all concentraty-face and Jamia is grinning at him.