In no order except I’m a little hungry right now.
1. Cafe Gratitude. The delicious food, the affirming food names (“I am fortified” being my favorite,) the question of the day. It’s a level of earnestness that explodes irony on contact. http://cafegratitude.com/
2. Golden Bridge Yoga. Tej Kaur Khalsa is the most inspiring person I’ve met in years. And the lunch buffet is amazing. http://www.goldenbridgeyoga.com/
3. Griffith Park. Beautiful. Walk up the hill from The Trails Cafe to the Observatory and feel like you’re in another world. Take a lavender cookie with you. (Yes, there’s a pattern here, I’m a little hungry.) http://www.thetrailslosfeliz.com/ http://www.griffithobs.org/
4. Geniuses abounding, particularly musical ones to jam with. Yes, there is an astonishing number of musical geniuses living here, but even better, there’s an endless parade of visiting musical geniuses to jam with too. Okay, that probably would have been higher on the list if I’d eaten dinner.
5. Largo any time I want it. http://www.largo-la.com/
6. The LA Philharmonic. The LA Phil performing Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” at Disney Hall was the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. http://www.laphil.com/
7. LA County Museum of Art. I’d visit LACMA periodically if all they had was “Metropolis” by Chris Burden and “Band” by Richard Serra. But in fact they have tons of other great stuff too. http://www.lacma.org/
8. The Help Group. A school serving children with special needs and developmental delays which has changed our lives in wonderful ways. This also might have been way higher if I weren’t still a bit peckish. www.thehelpgroup.org/
9. El Matador Beach. And this year I’m going to go more.
(This amazing picture from Craig Wolf’s photoblog. If you haven’t heard my band Semisonic’s song “El Matador,” from All About Chemistry, you might want to listen to it while looking at Craig Wolf’s pictures.)
