For the Love of Eve Babitz

7/15/21 -- In which I chronicle some of my favorite pieces of and by Eve Babitz.

She introduced Zappa to Dali, “got busted by G. Gordon Liddy,” and testified to a Senate committee that included one of the Kennedys (it’s hard to keep track of all the notable people worth name-dropping – even for Babitz). She designed iconic LP covers for Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, stopped by Janis Joplin’s hotel for an interview, and introduced Steve Martin to the idea of a totally white suit and Michael Franks to the title of his signature song, “Popsicle Toes.” She appeared briefly in “The Godfather, Part 2” (only the best of the trilogy for Babitz, naturally), consorted with the likes of Jim Morrison and Annie Leibovitz and Harrison Ford (while he was still a carpenter), and impetuously gathered lovers according to a few simple criteria – that they were either beautiful or beautifully talented. “In every young man’s life there is an Eve Babitz,” one of these lovers recalled. “It’s usually Eve Babitz.” (x)

2022 -- Found out that Eve passed away some months ago and today I had the urge to write. I found this draft and never forgot how much I learned about myself through Eve Babitz. I hate people and literature that hate LA. I love old glamour and newfound simplicity, and the fact that it is something that can only be so innately curated by oneself and is often times difficult to discover within another. I love myself and love life in a way that is near sardonic. Life is both so much and so little.

I hope Eve Babitz is somewhere in between heaven and hell dancing in some muted restaurant bar on some sort of narcotic, beautifully dressed.