In Echo Park, southeast of Hollywood, the lit-hip tone set by iconic bohos like Charles Bukowski and John Fante, and later Tom Waits and Elliott Smith, endures.

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Lars is one of the most likable, well-rounded members of the bunch, and he displays why on "True Player for Real, " which references everyone from Charles Bukowski to John Peel to Descartes to tasered University of Florida student Andrew Meyer.

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The Doors' vibe "has more to do with Charles Bukowski than it does with Farrah Fawcett, " said John Doe of punk band X, a friend of Manzarek's for more than 30 years, referring to the poet and 'Charlie's Angels' star, respectively.

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Charles Bukowski, who died in 1994, shares with Mr Simic a quality which is highly characteristic of American verse from Walt Whitman on a casualness of address, some feeling that the person speaking to us is the not-so-perfect human being next door.

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Buckley Jr. and Charles Bukowski.

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Charles Bukowski famously said that for most of the time he was trying to break into writing, he survived on one candy bar a day (Bukowski could never be accused of not transacting with his audience, even if he was hammered when he did).

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