James Ellroy on public radio

LA Confidential author James Ellroy recently delivered an intense monologue for listeners of Los Angeles's Zócalo "public square lecture series" at the Central Library. The event was broadcast locally by KPCC, and I think you will agree this is the stuff of radio legend. It was a welcome treat for my ears while driving on a dark highway; I can also imagine listening at home, particularly during stormy weather and in the company of a wood fire.

Listen online.

Alice Waters

On Thursday I went to see chef Alice Waters speak at a local church, in an event organized by the local independent bookstore Vromans. Alice Waters is the chef and founder of the Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse. The restaurant is famous for its use of local, seasonal ingredients (funny that that should be ground-breaking), and, at least amongst budget-conscious Berkeley students, for being very expensive. (I lived across the street for three years and have yet to patronize the restaurant.) Mrs. Waters said she started the restaurant in a Berkeley house with a group of friends and a budget of $10,000.

I found the talk interesting and inspiring, even if she came across as a bit snooty. I was interested to hear of a project in Berkeley called the "edible schoolyard," in which the kids tend gardens and eat their crops. Ms. Waters quipped "If they grow it, kids will eat anything--even if it's kale," to some laughter. She complained that a local restaurant serves Malaysian shrimp when our own New Orleans shrimpboats are suffering. She urged that a course on food be introduced in the core K-12 curriculum, just like PE was once introduced. Maybe she overstated the case, but it doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

(I wondered whether she had heard of Pasadena's own Dervaes Gardens, an economically self-sufficient organic farm located in a family's backyard and recently written up in the Los Angeles Times.)

Mrs. Waters and her friends are currently putting together an event called "Slow Food Nation," and a "World's Fair of Food" to take place in San Francisco on Labor Day of next year.

I left the talk wanting to sink my teeth into a fresh heirloom tomato.