Matthew and I met up with his friend Jason on Fairfax Bvd. – he was a one man events calendar according to Matthew.

We ambled into Family, a wonderful narrow shop with high ceilings. On the radio (I thought) played the KPFP broadcast that I had heard earlier on the radio in the car as I drove into LA. It turned out that it was coming from the iPod behind the counter – the guy behind the counter hardly noticed me – The shop sold book comics and art on the walls, mostly in the LA grotesque style which consisted of lots of skulls mainly… to simply describe it a shop simply does not do it justice – it is a reference point to many of the cultural directions that this town has. There was a section groaning under the weight of Bukowski novels. I saw three compilations of stories by Richard Brautigan and countless other goodies. In the end I settled for a novel by the guitarist John Fahey, How Bluegrass Ruined My Life. I have to finish Jupiters Travels by Ted Simon first.

Outside a huge man with shorts was barking into a cell phone. Jason whispered that he was a very influential guy who has an evening slot on KPFA. He flew out to Iraq to report on the war during the ‘Shock and Awe’ bombing.

We nipped next door into the Nova cafe. Outside two ‘dudes’ were seated watching Forbidden Planet on a little DVD player. Inside we walked under a huge lime green luminous rubber blanket like a close-up shot of an aliens intestines. At the end of the room behind the DJ was a 10 foot luminous octopus like creature and on the wall next to us played an animation of constant whirling starry space images. The waitress a pretty dark haired girl about 4 foot tall – like a Victorian fairy brought our drinks and I peered at the walls which were covered with plastic science fiction and monster figures, detritus from a thousand breakfast of champions .