A Very Ellroy Christmas

Of all the various holiday events in Los Angeles this year, Esotouric has come up with by far the coolest: The James Ellroy Digs L.A. Bus Tour.

The tour takes place Saturday, Dec. 22, and it looks like Esotouric added a second date, on Dec. 29. Sadly, it appears both events are already sold out; I'm sure you can at least get your name on the waiting list for one of the $60 tickets.

Here are the details:

Passengers on "James Ellroy Digs L.A." will gather at Arnie Morton's downtown bar (opened specially for our party), then accompany the author in a luxurious coach class bus on an uncensored time travel journey to tony Hancock Park, where he stalked his teenage classmates and later broke into houses. . . to the Hollywood flats to explore some of the heinous 1950s murder cases that fascinated him as a youth and continue to feed his obsessions. . . and out to El Monte, where his mother Geneva was murdered, the unsolved crime that runs through all his work, from "The Black Dahlia" to "My Dark Places."

James Ellroy says, "I dig L.A. because I'm from here. My parents hatched me in a cool locale. I'm desperate to impress people, I'm a good talker, I know a shitload about L.A. and I want to share it. On this tour, you'll get L.A. crime and social history on an unparalleled AND intimate scale."

Sadly, I haven't been able to take an Esotouric tour yet; that's definitely on my list as a "must" for 2008.