Book tour diary 2

The Listen to This book tour has roared down the West Coast, causing indescribable scenes of chacona frenzy and dithyrambic lamentation in one city after another. I'm tremendously grateful to all those who invited me to speak, came out to see me, picked up copies of my book(s), and shared favorite bass lines. I have more appearances in the coming week: a reading at Book Court in Brooklyn tomorrow night (Friday), the Westport Library in Connecticut on Monday, the Free Library of Philadelphia on Tuesday, conversations with Andrew Patner and John Luther Adams in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday, and a final Chacona at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday.

The not always sun-kissed Pacific Northwest had a spell of glorious weather while I was there. During the flight from Seattle to Portland, I had this view of Mount St. Helens, with, I believe, Mount Adams in the background:

Yes, Farrar, Straus and Giroux rented a vintage B-17 Flying Fortress for the tour. I had a lovely event that night at Powell's Books, which is a strong contender for the title of the greatest bookstore that ever was or will be:

The Portland aiport was wrapped in an oddly magical haze:

On landing in Berkeley, I made the obligatory stop at the Cheeseboard, inarguably the world's greatest pizza:

I appeared in Berkeley's august Cal Performances series and also spoke to the UC Berkeley music department, where none other than Richard Taruskin honored me with an introduction — more entertaining and eloquent than the main event. I was considerably more relaxed when I visited the West Coast Live show the following day, alongside author and blogger Jonah Lehrer. I'm afraid that neither of us matches the literary fame of Tucker Max:

Mediocre pizza in Sausalito was the perfect cure for a sudden onset of Traveling Author Personality Disorder:

Each day in the Bay Area I woke up to a beloved view (thanks as ever to Danny, Hilary, Josh, and Stephanie):

On my way to speak at California Lectures in Sacramento — the Crest Theatre is seen at the top of this post — I drove through the Sacramento River Delta, avoiding the boredom of Highway 80. Here's the massive Antioch Bridge:

Rio Vista was once the scene of a memorable visit from Humphrey the Humpback Whale:

I flew down to Los Angeles the following day to appear in the Los Angeles Public Library ALOUD series. Everything in LA was strangely wet. It's almost as if water were falling from the sky:

My West Coast stint ended at the imaginatively curated Arts & Lectures series at UC Santa Barbara. Laurie Anderson had appeared there the previous night. You wouldn't believe the mess she made of the dressing room:

I could easily have lingered in Santa Barbara a little while: