Part of my morning routine

For weeks, without fail, I notice this reader at the corner of Beverly and Crescent Heights. He's always there waiting for the bus and I always see him with a book. And for weeks I always mean to pull over and talk to him but I'm either running late or in someone else's car or just wanting to remain in my own little world before my work day gets started. I finally make a mental note to remember to pull over to speak to him lest my almost daily sightings come to an end. With my dime in the meter this buys me 12 minutes to get a conversation in before work.

I open the floodgates by confessing to Yohei that I've been eyeing him for weeks. With his interest piqued I explain myself and with a big smile he lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh ok, for a second I thought you were going to mock me or something."

Yohei just started this book. It's in Japanese and about a real-life incident that occured in the 80's about a CEO of a huge company and a conspiracy revolving around him (in a nutshell). He loves reading about other people - intrigued by biographies (or documentaries as he initially referred to them). If it's non-fiction then he's fair game. It's been his genre of choice for as long as he could remember! As a child he read alot of history books, mainly concerning the period post WWII. When asked what in particular he found fascinating about post WWII he could not say. "It just was."



Since he had a fascination about other people I wondered if he would want to write a book about his own life for others to read. Definitely not! But he wouldn't mind writing a biography about the Beach Boys, namely about Al Jardine. Yohei felt he was underrated, the one who was always in the background. He would like to interview him and ask him what it's like to have been part of the Beach Boys for all these years. Yohei is a musician himself (been into music for many years but really started hunkering down these past 4-5 years) hence being drawn to another musician.

Being the girl with an attention to detail (and sounding like a total stalker) I mention that I noticed he was reading a book with a green cover last week. Yohei laughs and was impressed with the memory and eagle eye! It was another Japanese book however the book before that was "Songs In The Key Of Z" by Irwin Chusid. It's a book about "outsider music...outside art" - offbeat art with no real rules, per se, and makes no sense but it makes sense only to the artist himself. "It's crazy beauty and I like this type of art." It's like jazz, very non-sensical but just...is. No restraints. Outside the box.

He's off to work in Beverly Hills but I'm sure I'll see him perched on the same planter in front of the Michael Kohn Gallery (which happens to be showing David Korty's art). Before I walked away Yohei gave me a little chuckle. "I'm so glad I wasn't reading a biography on, say, Jenna Jameson today!" Oh the things I could've found out about him if I had!

What do you like to read in the morning before you get your day started?