Mailander, Shannon, and Markland
The Tam O’Shanter
Atwater Village
3:00 PM
Mailander, looking hale and hearty after all he’s been through with Lynn’s grueling and punishing chemotherapy cycles, in fact he’s downright jovial. I had forgotten what a calming, soothing voice he has and how his every response in conversational ebb and flow is well-considered and without pause.
Mailander enjoys meeting David Markland, online columnist for KNBC and Blogging L.A. and there is plenty of gossip about BLA contributors. Do you know what Ruth 666 once told Markland at a party? Were you aware that Jason Burns is actually a good writer and that Sean Bonner has a Beanie Baby collection? Sean also has all of the BLA contributors under some kind of mind control thing where they are left rendered helpless against an insatiable desire to point out assinine parking, backed up by photographic evidence. This is what Markland told us.
Mailander suggested that I was somehow in my milieu in North Beach, living among artists, writers, poets, musicians, painters, saloon keepers, book store clerks … and he is correct. I did so belong to that Bohemian scene — it still exists in North Beach, folks — but it’s also, as I pointed out to Joseph, a precarious Eugene O’Neill lifestyle that I opted out of.
So now I’m living a semi-tranquil lifestyle in Las Vegas, writing and caring for my ailing mother and doing this 8-day L.A. flyover and reconnecting with a city that I finally realize, after an absence of a year and a half, I really and truly love. There’s a vibrancy here. A hum. A center.
John Shannon. John was there, of course, looking a little more gaunt than I last saw him but still with the beard and the booming, wisdom-laced voice and playful eyes and astute knowledge of contemporary literature. John speaks fondly and affectionately of his wife; they recently bought a house together in Topanga. John knocked back ten Dewars and waters and stumbled out of the bar screaming “Jack Liffey is a fucking asshole!”
That’s the last we saw of John. But we have it on good authority that he’s heading towards Bakersfield.
Mailander’s Take: Pub Scrawl
Previously in Return to L.A., Briefly: San Fernando Road: In The Dismal Swamp
not heard of this guy–may check him out–sounds interesting
I only made it as far as the India Sweets and Spices down the block and fell on my face. But Jack was watching over me and helped me up.
What part of “off the record” did you not understand? Jacobs, Jacobs, Jacobs…
I have to say that those are one of the best old fashioneds in LA. I can warm up to the cherry served outside the drink like that because the drink is sweet enough. It’s a Tam novelty but I like the concept.
So Shannon of Topanga ‘ad a wee deoch-an-dorus on the way out? Must have been the Burns bicentenary poster!
I’m not certain that the words “off the record” are in Rodger’s vocabulary.
Sounds like much fun!
I only hope dear Jack Liffey watches over John if he does make it to Bakersfield, so the devils don’t get him! If I was John, I’d stay as far away from there as I could now - Dewars emboldened or not.
It was fun, Julie, but in a laid-back kind of way.
Hey, everybody. Sorry I didn’t chime in today; was shooting all day. The same deal tomorrow and Wednesday and then on Thursday we’re, sadly, back on the road to Las Vegas.
Will you be moving back to LA in the near future?
…
I hope so, Kitty, though probably not soon enough for my taste.