Monday, October 17, 2005

Goldbergs Galore!

Well, actually, there was only one current Goldberg (Tod) at the Westwood Borders last night, along with former Goldbergs Karen and Linda (Tod's sisters) and various family members. Tod's brother Lee was a mysterious no-show.

This was the official West Coast party to launch Tod's new anthology, Simplify, which has already garnered raves from the LA Times, the LA Weekly, and similar periodicals and broadsheets.

The Tod-lovers turned out in throngs, filling the chairs in the second-floor signing area and spilling out into the DVD/CD area. Tod, resplendent in his untucked striped shirt, read the crowd a story that was dark, funny, insightful, and horrifying all at the same time. Then, the strains of Neil Diamond filled the air -- also dark, funny, insightful and horrifying ("Hands/Touching hands/Reaching out/Touching me/Touching youuuuuu!") -- as the faithful lined up to get their crimson books personalized.

After Tod moved multiple books for Borders, we took him and his wonderful wife Wendy out to dinner at our neighborhood temple of all foods Jewish, Junior's Deli, before they sailed off to their desert home. All in all, a delightful evening. It's good to be reminded that I'm related to such entertaining people.

Photos below. For better composed and focused photos, see Linda and Karen's blog.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tod said you would love some of our Nana's kugel. Her kugel has a special place in our hearts and stomachs, too. Had I known, I would've been happy to make you one. We could've served that instead of cake! It may be a while until we meet at the next book event, but if you email me your email address (mine is colormetrue@gmail.com), I will email you the top secret kugel recipe. It is VERY easy to make.

Anonymous said...

It looked at first glance that you said Tod's fans "turned out in thongs." That would be a sight.