Q&A with Farai Chideya

For most people, the migration goes East to West, from New York to Los Angeles. But Farai Chideya, the former host of NPR’s canceled show News and Notes, is a making a return trip. She just moved to New York after four years in Los Angeles. My former boss (full disclosure: we worked together on her site Pop + Politics), and we met in New York but bonded in L.A., where we had a few of my more memorable nights out in the city since moving here. Farai was back in the city just three weeks after she left it to promote her first novel (and third book), Kiss the Sky,, which is about a former rock-star-turned-music-critic-turned TV host named Sky embarking on a re-ignition of her rock career and fooling around with two very bad men. Much of the book takes place in nightclubs, and each chapter is the name of a song (The Buggles, “Video Killed the Radio Star"; Bryan Adams, “Summer of 69”; Beenie Man, “Romie”). During our chat, Farai told us some L.A. stories, and we discussed the merits of L.A. living, the difficulties of navigating nightlife in the vast metropolis (the driving, the driving, the driving), and the reasons she left the City of Angels.

You are a New Yorker who lived here for four years while working at NPR. You’ve moved back to New York. What was the hardest thing to adjust to living here? And what is the hardest thing about moving back to New York?
I love cities with a center. I love cities where there’s a downtown or a gathering place, and New York is the perfect city for that. You have Astor place, you have Central Park, Prospect Park, Times Square. It’s a city with many centers and a great public transportation system. L.A. is a car city. It was, for me, a really lonely city compared to New York, because I love seeing people on the street and just participating in their lives for even a second. Here, you’re alone in your car, with your CD and your cell phone. But that wasn’t enough for me. For a while, I also worked a shift that started at 4am which killed my social life ... I was never quite the right person for this city. I think it’s a great city for couples more than singles.

Tell me a bit about your new novel. There’s a nightlife aspect to it?
When I first moved to New York, I was almost 21 years old. I would go out four nights a week till four in the morning and shut the place down. Like the Limelight, The Palace de Beaute, the Tunnel, and the Red Zone. I loved going to the gay clubs, like the Palace de Beaute, where you could see Ru Paul before he got famous.

Did you spend much time in L.A. clubs when you first moved here?
I did in the beginning, when I worked a regular shift for 18 months, and then I was the host. When I was here I would go mainly to Santa Monica for Zanzibar—great music and dancing. I don’t want to be in a profiley club. If I am gonna be at a club, I’m gonna be on the floor. There are also all these Burning Man, ravey things going on. I love those things. I would go to more Burner things, to world music, and soul music, and go out to hear Garth Trinidad. I never went out in L.A. as much as I did in New York. I never went to that Booty mash up night. I always wanted to go but it was way on the East Side, I was way on the West Side. The geography got in the way of me clubbing. In New York, if you party and you get on the subway, you are not responsible for your behavior. In L.A., you have to be hyper vigilant about your sobriety and being awake. There are huge public safety issues here with going out.

You were into the Burner scene here?
There’s a Burner place in New York, Rubilad. But here there is just so much space—there’s a huge warehouse district, and things like the Burner scene thrive in space. People can bring huge contraptions that they have on the playa and throw them in the parking lot, and then you have a psychedelic, adults-only carnival. And there are no noise restrictions and plenty of parking.

Music figures prominently in your book; what band or album most influenced you when you were younger? And what do you think of the so-called blipster movement?
The book has a 90-song playlist; a bunch of short chapters; each chapter has a song that sets the tone. It comes out of iPod culture, even though I started using the music as a device long before iPods were super popular. The playlist mentality works well for me. I grew up in a household with an African father, an American mother who traveled extensively; she lived in Morocco, hitchhiked through Nigeria, went to France—she was a hot international mama.

As a kid, we listened to Charles Aznavour—he’s like the Tony Bennett of France. We’d listen to Moroccan pop music in Arabic. We’d listen to War from L.A., Harry Belafonte, Bob Marley, as well as American pop music. I grew up in a home with a global music remix going on all the time. As for the Blipsters—I’m someone who, when I was a freshman in college in 87, had a fauxhawk died blue on top. I dressed in all black. I hung out with a multi-culti crew, a mixed gay-straight crew, which was unusual in general. There’d be me, who’s black, a couple of Asians, a gay white guy, and we’d go to Landsdowne street, to DV8. We’d go listen to Bauhaus, the Smiths, all that stuff, gothy dance industrial. It was just part of who I was.

Describe your perfect LA day—and night.
Wake up earlyish, like 6, watch the sunlight change as you have coffee reading a newspaper, chilling out, head out of the house at 8 and stroll around the neighborhood, in Culver City, where there are flowers blooming all year, walk up the hill. Take a shower, go to the Getty, see some art, take a nap on the lawn. Before the 405 gets crazy, head downtown and have cocktails and snacks at the roof of the Standard, and go to see a band at the Wiltern, and then if you are not the designated driver, have another cocktail and head home.

What the best L.A secret you can share?
There’s a good dive bar on Culver Boulevard called Backstage. It’s just like cheap and divey, but it’s across from Sony studios, so you get a random mix of hipsters, alcoholics, and studio types because it’s cheap and conveniently located. A little grubby. But also cheap good food, like sliders and fries. Did I mention cheap?

What’s the best work of art—film, book, or short story—that best represents Los Angeles?
Chinatown. When he cuts through his nose ... It’s a great scene. It’s all about artifice. L.A. has changed but things are not what they seem. Like fake tits, et cetera.

What’s the most annoying cliché about Los Angeles?
That the people are vapid. Most of the vapid people came from outside of L.A. and moved here. The people from L.A. are really down to earth.

What do you think of this quote from Neil Simon: “When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and 72 in Los Angeles.”
That’s pretty good—but I also like the 80 degrees and sunny thing: “What’s the weather in L.A.? 80 and sunny. What’s the IQ and temperament of people in L.A.?: 80 and sunny.”

That’s cruel.
It is cruel. It’s largely—but not entirely—wrong.

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