Sign that reads "It Ain't Where You're From It's Where You've Been"

Sign out­side Drift­wood in Sil­ver Lake
  1. I had my first I-live-in-LA celebrity sight­ing. Hur­ley from Lost. I didn’t even watch Lost. I want a celebrity sight­ing refund.
  2. At some point, we had to stop lis­ten­ing to the Good Food pod­cast because it just depressed us. (You try lis­ten­ing to the bounty of avail­able pro­duce when your only option is a mango.) Now that we can actu­ally go to the Santa Mon­ica Farmer’s Mar­ket, and lis­ten to Good Food on Sat­ur­day morn­ings, well, OK, I get it. Cal­i­for­nia, your food doesn’t suck.
  3. Harry and I went hik­ing yes­ter­day in Cold­wa­ter Canyon Park. I parked the car, looked at the map and started walk­ing. We walk and walk, I see a path going uphill, decide “I should go up” and climb. Finally, I start head­ing down­hill and see a park­ing lot. I am pleas­antly tired, a lit­tle bit dusty, and ready to go home. Harry is pooped. I look around the park­ing lot and don’t see my car. I ask a woman where I am in rela­tion to the park­ing lot I parked in. She tells me I have to go back up the hill. The one I just climbed. We walked together for a while and she talked non-stop about her hyp­nother­apy and hyp­no­birthing and how she pho­tographs ghosts. All of this was pre­sented in a fairly no-BS, earnest mat­ter. I thank her for return­ing me to my car and point­ing out how to get to George Clooney’s house.Harry the dog, tired and on a picnic table
  4. Then Ryan and I went to our first show at the Hol­ly­wood Bowl, Pave­ment and Sonic Youth. OK, LA, another thing you need to never com­plain about. This venue is gor­geous, you’re sur­rounded by beau­ti­ful scenery and you can bring your own food. As some­one whose musi­cal tastes solid­i­fied around 1995, this was my dream bill. (Add the Mag­netic Fields if you want the tri­fecta, maybe.) My sis­ter saw Pave­ment a few weeks ago in Kansas City and remarked to me later that every­one was so old—I’m pretty sure she means me too. I did a lot of show math while watch­ing the set. I saw Pave­ment for the first time in 1994—16 years ago. Who was I then? Some­how I felt that same sense of won­der, of this is my favorite band and I don’t want them to ever stop play­ing but tem­pered with “It’s 10:30 and I’m tired.” They played a good set—including all-time faves “Front­wards,” “Grounded,” and “Sum­mer Babe,” and ended with “Here.” The last line—“Last time, last time is the best time”—felt fit­ting yet melancholy.