When I travel, I always make a point of buying a book from a local independent bookstore, written by a local author. The White Album by Joan Didion from Time Tested Books in my hometown, Sacramento. The Gay Place by Billy Lee Brammer from Book People in Austin. A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko from Bright Side Bookshop in Flagstaff. And so forth. Thanks to our writer Ryan D'Agostino, I've got a new spot to add to my list: Mystery Pier Books in West Hollywood, where the local writer might be, oh, I dunno, Ryan Coogler. Especially if you're still riding a post-Oscars high, I recommend checking out Ryan's interview with Mystery Pier's owners, Harvey and Louis Jason, below. – Kevin Dupzyk, contributing editor |
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Mystery Pier Books is in a tiny cottage just off Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, but it just might be where you score a Sinners script—signed by Michael B. Jordan. |
When Harvey Jason, a veteran character actor, was finishing his work on The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1996, he found himself in a golf cart zipping across the Universal Pictures lot with the film's director, Steven Spielberg. "After this movie, I'm going to open a bookstore," he told Spielberg. He says Spielberg laughed and looked at him as if he were crazy. About a year later, Jason and his son Louis opened Mystery Pier Books in a tiny cottage just off Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. They sell only fine first editions, many of them signed by the authors. They also deal in bound screenplays, the actual "shooting scripts" used on set. The day before the Academy Awards, a shooting script for Sinners, signed in black sharpie by director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan, sat on their desk awaiting its leather binding. They predicted it would sell for a good price after the Oscars. The Jasons are affable and knowledgeable, chatty if you like but happy to leave you to browsing. Rare bookstores can be stuffy, pretentious places; Mystery Pier is friendly. They cater to an A-list Hollywood clientele (one wall is hung with photos of Harvey and some of his regulars: Flea, Seth MacFarlane, Diane Keaton, Johnny Depp, and others) and also to any non-famous book lover who finds their way down the narrow alley to the shop, which, when you find it, feels like finding Narnia. |
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I didn't think it was possible, but the Sunday Gobshite Shows have become immeasurably worse, so immeasurably worse that I find myself pining for the comedy stylings of Fred Barnes and Morton Kondracke. To be fair, this time around, it's not entirely the fault of the hosts and their panelists. The source of this weekly degradation of both language and the truth is entirely caused by the incredible legion of liars, grifters, incompetents, otherwise unemployables, and belligerent dickwads with whom El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago has surrounded himself and inflicted upon the rest of us. And it starts at the top. Doing one of his very bizarre stand-ups in the aisle of Air Force One, the president was asked about why 5,000 members of the American military were needed for duty in the totally obliterated country of Iran. Hilarity ensued. |
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In a sea of stretchy slacks, sure, you can stand out with traditional khaki pants and chinos, not the comfy jogger ones. But raw denim is the real off-duty standout, a style of pant whose following borders on fanatical. The editors of this magazine are those stiff-legged men breaking in their jeans, explaining in-detail how superior they are to your regular, comfortable denim. If you're not in the club yet, let us explain: Raw denim refers to denim that hasn't undergone any washing, softening, or shrinking treatments. While that does make them uncomfortable and rigid at first, over time they fade and morph to your proportions in a more personal way. But it's mainly about the look. |
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