Re: RARA-AVIS: Article in GQ

Mario Taboada (matrxtech@sprintmail.com)
Thu, 04 Jun 1998 10:24:28 +0000 Duane:

<<It's possible to say that Chandler's stories seem believable today
because the world they depict seems like some exotic golden age these
days. A fantasy world that might actually have existed. Hell, we're
talking about LA after all . . . it's still some sort of fantasy
world.>>

Indeed, there's nothing like LA. During the years I lived there, I saw,
heard, and experienced things that seemed directly taken out of fiction.
One night my garage got broken into; the next morning, I put a new
padlock on the roll-up door and joked with my wife that perhaps they
would come back the next day and steal the padlock, too. Well, they did.

I even "staged" an LA scene on the day we moved away: I left four
partially full bottles of liquor, carefully arranged, in the alley
behind our house, across from an enormous pile of discarded household
items (which, to be on topic and preempt administrative wrath, included
several of Robert Parker's Spenser novels). Within 45 minutes, three
bums had discovered the booty and were having themselves a regular party
- both with the stuff and the liquor. I took several good pictures,
which indeed seem to be out of a movie.

Another time, a bum knocked on my door to complain that when digging in
my garbage bins he had been bitten by a rat!

But enough of this - we are a serious list.

Regards,

Mario Taboada
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