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A great part of any trip out west is visiting my relatives.
My uncle Tim lives in Susanville near Reno. He owns a little town called Seneca in the Feather River Gorge just south of Lake Amanor, a couple hours north of Nevada City, in Gold Country. All Seneca has to offer the world is a tiny little bar, that Uncle Tim runs. But it’s famous in the area. Anyway, that area has still been snowed in when I’ve done my spring bike visit, so I haven’t visited Uncle Tim lately. It’s a bit of a drive from the Bay anyway. Someday!
Instead, after riding bikes up north I like to head south to the Hollywood Hills to visit my other aunt and uncle there. They have an old bungalow with various verandas and patios overlooking the city. They’re getting on in years but they like to get out once a day for lunch or dinner. So, my, we do have a nice time. It’s so great that they show us the town when we visit! What a rare chance it is to have family who have been living in those Hills since the late 50’s and who are part of the culture and who are so willing to share it with us.
What I like to do is work on my laptop, out on a patio, then when it’s time for dinner, out we go.
An inspirational place to work!
Whenever I run into people in LA it’s inspiring. OK, the same goes for Nor Calif. Everyone seems to be out there on purpose. They might have a dayjob but they’re working on something on the side. Plenty are in “the biz” in some way. Plenty are in bands. But there’s creativity of all and every kind out there.
What was wonderful is that wherever I went I never ran into a minimall zombie or nonverbal sullen teen. By and large, people make eye contact! They interact! I got a sense of intention, of something going on, of an effort being made, of some kind, even a small one, no matter where I went, that was refreshing. Even a scuttling homeless lady asked me about the news late one night in a direct, honest way before hustling off into the shrubbery—she seemed more on the ball than the exurbians I run into. Obviously, nowhere is perfect, and LA surely has as many wingnuts, sportsfans, NASCAR buffs, lotto players, TV watchers and SUV worshippers as anywhere.
When I got home I mentioned my LA observation to Roland (local guru and housesitter) and he said that of course now I have to learn how to see those kinds of people here, too. I suppose it’s the going out of my way that I don’t do. And it’s the difference in the everyday people you just bump into that I noticed.
But I did go out of my way to finally meet an Internet bike pal, Rick Risemberg, and his wife Gina and her famous bike, Vivian. Great folks! Rick runs the BicycleFixation.com website and produces a line of fancy wool bike knickers. One evening they showed me a fine corner of bike culture in LA. All in one little neighborhood was a dandy bike shop, Orange 20—full of stylish citybikes and fixies. And a bike repair school. And a vegan restaurant run by a bike school person. And a homemade ice cream shop. Bikies were out and about the streets there, I tell ya. It was very nice hanging out with those folks and their pals out near the corner of Melrose and Heliotrope. Even the street name makes me think of bikes!
I noticed that LA had many, many more bike riders than when I visited last 2 years ago. And these bike riders are all doing something, it seemed. Their bikes had some style. Each one seemed to be making at least a bit of a statement and very often much more so. Lots of gals were out on their citybikes, too. …Posses of skateboarders and fixie riders. Lots of human-powered mobility going down!
Rick was encouraging me to use mass transit every time we emailed. I wanted to do a bike ride as well, but that didn’t work out. Still, he gave me the transit contacts every time. I finally did take the subway from Hollywood to downtown: no traffic! It’s a great thing. He’s a fan of the buses, too, so they’re probably also somehow better than cars…probably in every way. (Do they get less caught up in traffic? Mass transit is magic so I’d say probably so!)
Silver Lake also seemed like a nifty neighborhood… Lots of little hangouts, bike riders. $2.99 ceviche. Location: I’d guess Hollywood & Vermont. It’s also near the Dresden Room, a kitschy nightclub and a tiny first-run movie theater with a cafe adjoining it. Plus…Skylight Books…a shop that will soon be carrying all 8 of the ULA PRESS titles that I’m presently launching nationwide! (They’re our very first full-line account!)
A guy from LA who I talked to on the Starlight train that I took along the coast down from the Bay told me about what he called his most favorite place in his whole life, and it’s located right in downtown Hollywood: the Magic Castle. It’s a private club for magicians and their friends (you have to have a magician’s union card to get in). You go there for dinner and to see magic done close-up in various rooms throughout the castle. It’s apparently a serious and over-the-top place and it’s been there for decades. If you think you might have a chance to get in, here’s their site: www.magiccastle.com
Someday I’ll figure out how to take a bike along on the whole of this trip. Right now, I just FedEx it to and fro the bike spot. That costs $50 compared to $80 to take it on the plane. It would be awkward carting it around in friend’s cars, too—my bike luggage goes in the bike box. Hmmm…the obvious solution is a high-performance folding bike… All signs point to a Bike Friday, don’t they. We’ll see!
Actually, they rent sweet bikes right down the street at Hollywood Blvd. at the Hollywood Pro bike shop. High-end road bikes go for $35 a half-day. They also sell the sweet Casserole. What a mustard! www.salsacycles.com/casserollCompSS08.html
I really appreciate doing a mix of new and old outings with my aunt and uncle. They’ve lived in the Hills since ’58 and have been going to places like Musso’s for just as long. But even at the new places we went to they seemed to longtime friends of the staff. It’s what they do. They’re both tall/big people. I think that on occasion they stand out. Fun for all, it seems to me. My uncle is a man of few words and sometimes they have a boom behind them but he’s an appreciater and I think that people appreciate that. My uncle exposed me to jazz and classical music when I was younger. He would play his music for hours a day on a big sound system at rather high sound levels. “This is God talking to us,” he says.
When the jacaranda are in bloom.
Chairs at “Alcove,” a courtyard cafe.
A new house going up behind my relatives’. (Nice hardwood garage door.)
An estate sale at one of the Last Hippies of the Hills, who’d just died. Ramshackle hangout to be replaced by million-dollar box, one assumes.
Window display at the huge, wacky Soap Plant toy store and gallery.
Little movie house and cafe on, I think, Vermont just down from the Dresden Room and the Boulangerie. Nice part of town.
The “Orange 20” bike shop at Melrose and Heliotrope. Lotsa stylin’ bikes.
Roadside flowers.
The guys at Providence.
Kent at Providence.
We all went out for charcuterie at BLD. Dang, that was good. It took an hour to nibble through that tray of cheese and cured meats.
One of 3 outdoor places scattered here around the hillside where I can read and work.
The little door below the house going to the room where I stay.
