It was foggy on the drive down but the skies cleared out once we arrived at the UCLA campus. We had tickets for Jared Diamond
Most of the stalls were run by publishers and booksellers. There were a few religious stalls - mostly new age religions. The first stall we stopped at was for vacations in Alberta, Canada. Tending the booth were two genuine Alberta park rangers. This excited the wife to no end. You see, her friend taught her the Alberty Ranger song and here was a chance to have her picture taken with a genuine Alberty Ranger. So, as we were posing with Ranger Roger (Yep ... that's his name) the wife broke out in song:
Well, you get the picture. My eyes were rolling and I'm sure my face was turning red. Meanwhile, Ranger Roger seemed to enjoy it - especially the Sex and Danger part.
"I want to be an Alberty Ranger ... Live a life of Sex and Danger ... In the morning ... In the evening ... aaannnnddd at night! ... Ranger Roger wants to be an Alberty Ranger ... Live a life of Sex and Danger ..."
After the picture taking we went on a food quest. We ended up with some Tri-Tip sandwiches that hit the spot. It was noon and the sun was really starting to beat down. As we walked around looking at the stalls and stuff, we noticed that lines were forming in front of the venues. Doing some investigations we found that the lines for ticket holders usually start up to two hours before the venue opens. This limited our options. There was no way we could see Jared Diamond and Mitch Albom/Frank McCourt because the times of the events overlapped. We decided that Mitch Albom and Frank McCourt were a higher priority. The wife had even brought a copy of Frank McCourt's book to get signed ( Teacher Man
There were a lot of people at this thing. About one third of the booths and events were aimed at children. My favorite was The World of Mr. Toast. I saw something that really weirded me out. A guy was pushing a stroller. Attached to the front of the stroller was a boom where a video camera was attached. The camera was pointed squarely at the kid in the stroller apparently recording every drop of drool that ran down the kid's chin while they strolled. Weird. I guess the guy was trying to prepare his kid for a world with no privacy.
I continued to walk around from one shady spot to another. I walked the Impeach Bush/Stop The Genocide gauntlet and eventually made my way back to Royce Hall and the wife. It turned out the wife and I were the first in line - possible the first time I have ever been first in line for an event like this.
The doors opened and we went in and found a good spot not too far from the stage. Mitch Albom ( Tuesdays With Morrie
The event ended and as people headed for the door, the wife noticed that the authors were signing autographs for the people in the front row. The wife made her way to the front. A lady - probably the author's handlers - was trying to get the authors to stop autographing. The wife said: "I've been a teacher for 22 years, please ..." and the lady looked at her and said: "OK, but your the last." The wife was so happy. She now has an autographed copy of Teacher Man.
Ray Bradbury was scheduled right after the Albom/McCourt event but we were both too tired and we had seen him live before at a bookstore where the wife had several copies of "Fahrenheit 451"
It was fun. We are thinking of going back next year. Well worth the drive. Next time though, if the weather is the same, a hat, sunglasses, and shorts will be on the list. A few pictures can be found here.
i've been wanting to go to this for a while. your comments are helping me move to make a trip to the big city.
ReplyDeleteCStrieby: Thanks for visiting Homer's Travels. I only managed to get there once but the festival of books is well worth the trip. A friend of mine went last year and had a great time.
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