Chapter 9

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

Page numbers refer to editions with 369 pages, where the story begins on page 1. Not sure if there are other editions with variant pagination. Please let us know otherwise.

Page 125

Jurgensen's
Jurgensen's was an upscale, gourmet grocery store with locations in Beverly Hills, Pasadena, and throughout greater LA.

Hokusai's famous Great Wave off Kanagawa
You can see that image here.

Page 128

Dark Shadows. . . The Collins family . . . parallel time
Dark Shadows was an innovative TV show in the late 1960's and early 70's that focuses on the Collins family. The show included many Gothic elements, including vampires, zombies, and witches. It also played with time travel and parallel universes in which the same character would be played by different actors or the same actor would play different characters.

Hanon
Hanon was a 19th-century French piano teacher and composer. He's most famous for developing exercises for piano students.

Farfisa
One of the first electric keyboards/organs used in rock and roll. More here.

Page 130

George Formby
George Formby, Jr. performed "Leaning on a Lamppost" (written by Noel Gay) which Herman's Hermits covered. Tyrone Slothrop, protagonist of Gravity's Rainbow is described as "sort of an American George Formby, if you can imagine such a thing."

Page 131

Donna Lee
Donna Lee, way more than Coy's usual 1 or 2 note solos.

abrazo
Spanish for hug.

Page 132

third ballet position
here

louche
Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.

Page 146

"Cootie food!"
What Doc means is "le coup de foudre," aka "bolt of lightning." This echos Reef's 'rounder Italian'; "Say surly topple!" he would scream..." (page 889) from Against the Day.

Page 148

massé shots
In billiards, a massé shot is when a player strikes a ball with the cue at a sharp angle and causes the ball to curve drastically or even eventually reverse direction. Here's an example. Some pool halls (like this one) forbid this kind of shot because it often leads to scratching or tearing of the felt.