Los Angeles, Fourth Night: The Echo (Saturday, 10 July 2010)

Saturday night at The Echo we staged New Texture: Words & Music, a revue that was our most ambitious of the week by far. With ten rotating performers, the full program ran close to three hours, with much of our fantastic audience staying with us for the whole evening! But then, considering the stellar lineup we had, perhaps it's not so surprising...

It was an incredible evening.

Thank you Liz, Alex at Stories; Sebastian, Damara and co. at The Echo

Josh Alan Friedman LIVE at Sideshow Books, Los Angeles!

Writer/musician JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN returns to Los Angeles for an evening of music and quality lit at Sideshow Books in West L.A. He'll be reading and signing his latest book, BLACK CRACKER, and playing a set of his famous atomic acoustic blues. Join us this Friday and paint the weekend BLACK!

Sideshow Books
11323 Idaho Ave
Los Angeles 90025
(310) 428-4631
Friday June 10, 8 pm

About Sideshow Books:

Used and Rare Books, Magazines, Original Art, with focus on Pulp Fiction, Crime, Art, Photography, Cinema, Music, Beat, Underground, Surfing, Esoterica, Erotica and Collectible Children's Books.


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Josh Alan Friedman LIVE at Alias Books East, Los Angeles!

Writer/musician JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN returns to Los Angeles for an evening of music and quality lit at Alias Books East in Atwater Village. He'll be reading and signing his latest book, BLACK CRACKER, and playing a set of his famous atomic acoustic blues. Join us this Thursday and paint the weekend BLACK!

Alias Books East
3163 Glendale Boulevard
Los Angeles 90039
(323) 661-9000
Thursday June 10, 8 pm

About Alias Books East:

Alias Books East is an open shop located in the heart of Atwater Village at 3163 Glendale Blvd. We carry a wide variety of subjects with an emphasis on literature, film and the arts. We're always looking to buy books, collections, and whole libraries. For more information feel free to email us at aliasbookseast@gmail.com or call (323) 661-9000 during business hours. The store is open 7 days a week from 10am until 10pm.


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A Musical Service With Rev. Raymond Branch Sunday April 17 in Los Angeles!

Reverend Raymond Branch and the Heavenly Rainbow Baptist church invite you to a special service and fundraiser to help defray the cost of much-needed repairs to the Heavenly Rainbow Baptist Church. All are welcome, and donations in any amount are very much needed and appreciated.

A musical service with Reverend Branch is an unforgettable experience, whether you share his faith or simply enjoy his music. Spend Sunday the 17th in South Los Angeles. No hype, no frills, just Reverend Raymond Branch singing his heart out at the Heavenly Rainbow. Services begin at 3:30.

If you're unable to attend but would like to contribute, please use the "Donate" button at the top of Rev. Branch's website here.


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photo © 2011 Wyatt Doyle

Los Angeles, Fourth Day: Mystery and Imagination (Saturday, 8 July 2010)

On Saturday afternoon we visited Mystery and Imagination in Glendale to read and pay tribute to the great George Clayton Johnson on the occasion of his 81st (!) birthday.
George is the writer of classic episodes of The Twilight Zone ("Kick the Can," "Nothing in the Dark," "A Game of Pool"), Star Trek ("The Man Trap"), Route 66, Kung Fu and more. He's also the creator of Logan's Run (with William F. Nolan) and Ocean's 11. He's a unique, agile thinker who, through his semi-annual lecture series on writing and creativity (events hosted by Mystery and Imagination at no charge) continues to educate, illuminate and inspire.

George Clayton Johnson

Josh Alan Friedman plays before reading from his novel
Black Cracker (Wyatt Doyle Books)

Our warmest thanks to Malcolm and Christine, John and Eric at Mystery and Imagination. And of course, many, many happy returns to George Clayton Johnson!

photos © 2010 Wyatt Doyle

Los Angeles, Third Night: Alias Books (Friday, 9 July 2010)

On Friday afternoon, Josh Alan Friedman met again with Luke Ford, this time for a wide-ranging, on-camera conversation in downtown Los Angeles. It's Josh Alan's My Dinner With Andre. You can watch the epic interview in full and read Luke's commentary on LukeFord.net here.

Friday night found us in West L.A. at Alias Books, one of the best-curated used bookstores in town. After a reading by Wyatt Doyle, Josh Alan Friedman, Josh Alan returned for a short but killer set on acoustic guitar. (You can see Josh Alan's performance of "Crossroads" from that evening on Black Cracker Online here.)

Josh Alan Friedman plays after reading from his novel
Black Cracker (Wyatt Doyle Books)

Thank you Alias Books for welcoming us for your very first reading event! We hope there will be many more to come.

photos © 2010 Wyatt Doyle

Los Angeles, Second Night: La Luz de Jesus Gallery (Thursday, 8 July 2010)

Our Thursday night at La Luz de Jesus Gallery got off to an auspicious start when we were named "Pick of the Week" by the L.A. Weekly. (Thank you, Michael Simmons!) You can read their enthusiastic recommendation in its entirety here.

Josh Alan Friedman reads from his novel Black Cracker (Wyatt Doyle Books)

Josh Alan plays "Famous & Poor" by request.

A fantastic evening, with a great audience. Our sincere appreciation to everyone at La Luz, especially Matt Kennedy and Billy Shire.

Josh Alan Friedman photo © 2010 Clayton Doyle; all others © 2010 Wyatt Doyle

Los Angeles, Second Day: Heavenly Rainbow Baptist Church (Thursday, 8 July 2010)

On Thursday, Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle traveled to South Los Angeles to visit the Reverend Raymond Branch of the Heavenly Rainbow Baptist Church at 10223 S. Western Ave.

Pastor Branch is the host of the Rainbow Gospel Hour, broadcasting from Inglewood since 1971. He can still be heard each and every Sunday morning, bright and early at 3:00 am PST on KTYM-AM 1460. (To listen to the Rainbow Gospel Hour online, click here and select the "Listen Live" button.)

After a lunch of Golden Bird fried chicken, fresh biscuits and collard greens, they adjourned to the pews, where Josh Alan picked out a blues and encouraged Rev. Branch to "put some church words on it":



To hear more music by Josh Alan, click here.

Visit Reverend Branch online here: PastorBranch.com

© 2010 Rev. Raymond Branch, Josh Alan, Wyatt Doyle

Los Angeles, First Night: Book Soup (Wednesday, 7 July 2010)

We can only hope Mr. Wodehouse was pleased to share the shelf with us.

Book Soup made us feel most welcome for our inaugural event, blogging enthusiastically in anticipation. Book Soup's blog post was subsequently "borrowed" by an alleged book review site that deployed an automated "paraphrasing" software on the swiped post, thus lending an appropriately bizarre patina to an already unusual night.


The entire evening was exhaustively documented by Luke Ford of LukeFord.net. You can read his thoughts and watch the video(s) on his website here.

Our grateful thanks to everyone at Book Soup, especially Jen, Julia, Ted, Joseph, Rebekah and Alex.

Book Soup photos © 2010 Wyatt Doyle

New Texture Nights in Los Angeles!

New Texture Nights kick off in Los Angeles this July, with live readings and performances by Josh Alan Friedman (Black Cracker) and Wyatt Doyle (Stop Requested). At most venues, Josh Alan - Czar of Atomic Acoustic Guitar - will play. (Listen to Josh Alan's music here.)

There are more events to come - check back often!

Here's the current schedule:

Wednesday July 7, 2010

7 pm
Book Soup
8818 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles 90069-2125
Josh Alan Friedman, and Wyatt Doyle reading

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Thursday July 8, 2010

6 pm
La Luz de Jesus Gallery / Wacko
4633 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles 90027-5413
Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle reading

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Friday July 9, 2010
7 pm
Alias Books (West)1650 Sawtelle Boulevard, Los Angeles 90025
Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle reading

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Saturday, July 10

2 pm
Mystery & Imagination / Bookfellows
238 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale 91203
George Clayton Johnson Birthday Celebration
George Clayton Johnson, Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle reading

6 pm - 9 pm
New Texture: Words & Music
@ The Echo
1822 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles 90026-3227
Josh Alan Friedman, Wyatt Doyle and Georgina Spelvin reading
Musical performances by Reverend Raymond Branch and Josh Alan
Special guests Sandee Curry, Paul Silva and Matt Kennedy

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Sunday, July 11

7 pm
Beyond Baroque
681 Venice Blvd., Venice 90291
Josh Alan Friedman and Wyatt Doyle reading