Dirty old towns

Plays del Rey, Crestline, Las Vegas & DTLA

Earlier this week I drove Nuvia up to LAX so she could catch a flight to Guangzhou. As much as I wanted to go with her, I have too much work to do here to justify another trip to China so soon after the last one, so I’m staying. But the trip to LA was eventful in a nostalgic kind of way.

We drove up from San Diego in the late morning and without really planning it we spent the afternoon in the part of town where I lived when I met Nuvia 20 years ago: Playa del Rey. We had lunch at a Thai place that had just opened when we first started going and wouldn’t you know it this year they’re celebrating 20 years in business. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the day.

Next we went to Tanner’s Coffee down by the beach across from Cantalini’s Salerno Beach Restaurant, The Harbor Room, and Mo’s Place, which are all still in business. Even The Shack is still going strong, through it was closed on Monday. I used to refer to PDR as Burbank-by-the-Beach and it was nice to see these funky little spots that give the Beach of Kings its character are still hanging on.

We walked north along the beach up to the channel that divides Playa del Rey from the Marina. (I set a scene in Make It Stop here.) We came back along the lagoon, the remnants of a misguided effort to turn the area into a resort, which was doomed to failure until the US Army Corp of Engineers built the channel that prevents the LA River from catastrophically flooding the area every few years.

We passed a Little League game in progress and nearly joined the queue at the snack bar. Is there anything more American than a little league snack bar? Instead, we settled onto a pair of stools at Mo’s to watch a bit of Dodger baseball before it was time to go to LAX and say farewell.

Playa del Rey

Love + Chaos

This Saturday at 2pm I’m part of a cool reading at Paper & Clay Books 23872 Lake Drive in Crestline, CA in the mountains north of LA. The event is called Love + Chaos and I’m going to read some new work with sex, drugs, and Joy Division. Doesn’t that sound awful?

I’m excited to read with my friend Hellin Kay, Starlite Pulp homey Brian Townsley, Ruth Nolan with whom I attended grad school in Flagstaff, AZ, and a bunch of other fabulous writers I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting.

Punk + Bowling

Memorial Day Weekend is coming and usually that means Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas but not this time since the venue has been sold to make room for more parking. If you’re missing the Punk Rock Bowling experience, check out this essay I wrote for New Noise Magazine about going to PRB 25 with Annie. It’s got a sweet pic that she took of me during the FLAG set. I’m writing in my notebook using David O Jones’s back as a desk and he’s standing next to Martin and Eloise Wong who are all good, good people. What a great memory.

Razor + Cake

The new issue of Razorcake is out and it’s a ripper. It’s got Dry Socket on the cover, One Punk’s Guide to Working at an Animal Shelter, and Part III of the epic John Reis interview. My column is about going to see Toledo Panic and Scunthorpe Yobs on the day of the No Kings March while a poem by James Jay rattled around my head. You should get it and read it cover to cover. Or, better yet, subscribe.

I’ll be back next week. Or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll run off to be Toledo Panic’s merch person this summer. (Apologies to Toledo Panic’s merch person; I didn’t meant to come for you like that.)

If you liked this newsletter you might also like my latest novel Make It Stop, or the paperback edition of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records, or my book with Bad Religion, or my book with Keith Morris. I have more books and zines for sale here but the supply is running low. Message from the Underworld comes out every Wednesday and is always available for free, but paid subscribers also get my deepest gratitude and Orca Alert! on most Sundays. It’s a weekly round-up of links about art, culture, crime, and killer whales. Since you’ve read this far, you might as well go ahead and pre-order my new novel…