View from hotel room

We arrived in new york around 11:pm which felt like dinner time for us Angelenos, but sleeping time for people in new york. For a city that never sleeps, there are relatively few people out on at 11 on a Thursday night. We dropped off our bags at The New Yorker and I had to see what our view was from the, gulp, 24th floor. 

Pretty nice.

We then headed to Tribeca, to Tribeca Canvas, a late night spot to grab a bite to eat. Their kitchen is open until 3:am. We were the only people there. We shared a lot of the late night menu, my favorite, a twist on what I can get in my own neighborhood in Koreatown, ddokbokki wrapped in seaweed. I loved the decor, almost like eating dinner in a forrest.

Then it was off to sample a couple cocktail bars before bedtime at 4:am

Stars-it's a terminal 3 thing baby

I have seen a fair share of celebrities in the seven plus years that I have lived here. A lot of them, if not all, have been documented on this blog. When I see these people I think, people will be excited to hear about this on the blog, but there hasn't been too many people I have been excited to see myself.  That was until going through security at LAX.

I hear the TSA security guards joking around, random whispers about Star Trek, Reading Rainbow and a guard who says loudly.

"Hey man, you taught me how to read"

I pass by him with all of my carry-on items and shoes balanced in my arms. I see LeVar Burton. It was kind of emotional the reaction I had. It felt strange, I was so star struck, so happy. I loved Reading Rainbow when I was a kid. I loved reading so much, I still do, and I think a lot of that had to do with that show. How it opened your imagination by reading.

I really wanted to say something to him, how much that show meant to me, how much I loved his interview on the new Larry King show with Bill Nye on the state of education in this country. I didn't, I figured it would come out as a jumble of words and leave me misty eyed, for no reason really.

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Have any of you been watching Mad Men? I have seen every episode. Things have really come out of left field this season. A great addition though to this season is Harry Hamlin. You may remember him from LA Law perhaps. He was in first class on my flight and he is very handsome.

Day of beauty

I have been spending a lot of time on the west side lately. In LA the east side and west side are very different, different in congestion, space and attitude. On this side the eastsiders say that westsiders have lululemon problems. I don't really know what that means, see through pants?

Perhaps it is because everyone is always carrying a yoga mat.

I kind of like the chill attitude, but mostly the farmers markets and opportunities to hike.

Here is one day where I did such a thing.

The one u2 album: part 3

When in Joshua Tree one must go and commune with them. Just be careful because all of the roads to get to them are extremely neglected.

We fortunately were in the park during blooming season. Joshua Trees are odd, spiny rough looking things that looked like someone pinned corsages to their hair like prom. The blooms were both beautiful and strangely out of place.

You can camp there and we saw a domino's delivery driver race over the potholes to get the pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less.

We wandered around the park for a bit, i didn't get the memo to bring sneakers and must have looked strange stopping every once and a while to shake sand out of my sandals. It didn't stop me from getting some interesting photos. The last few are from the ride back.

Land of misfit books: part 2 of field trip

There was this life sciences book I loved as a child. Published in 1963, it has the most beautiful drawings of aquatic sea life, forest biology including a hibernating bear in its den. It was fascinating and I never really realized how much that book had an effect on me until I picked up a copy of it at the Reanimation Library. All those drawing of aquatic sea life are now things I have seen in real life. I have been to mountains, deserts, and oceans which seemed so far away from the snowy plains and forests that I knew. Later I found out that you could scan the pages of books, but there was a woman there hogging the scanner and gave us the stink eye for even being in the same room as her. Oh temperamental artists in the desert.

We spent time looking at the books. I found a book that helps you fight cellulite. I am eating the wrong diet. Oops.

Desert traditions:part one of book club field trip

And speaking of books...

I am a part of a book club in which you do not have to read to take part in. The books are more of an excuse to get together than a reason. So far we have read or not read 16 books. Since it is more about the company than the reading i decided to try an experiment, a book club field trip to the Reanimation Library Joshua Tree Branch.

What is the Reanimation Library? Well it is a project to repurpose books that have fallen out of circulation. Read more about it here.

When I was volunteering at the last bookstore I helped a friend cull the labyrinth for interesting books like facercize for the Joshua Tree outpost and I was excited to see a new purpose for these books. I tried to enlist as many of the bookclubbers as i could, but alas there were only 2 that were game and one of those is not a member of bookclub.

There are a couple of desert traditions we always abide by whenever we take to trip out east we always get Date Shakes at Hadley's by the Cabazon dinosaurs and outlets and we alway eat at Pappy and Harriet's. This time we went into Pioneertown to see what that is all about. It reminded me the Forest History Center in my hometown, but this was definitely during off season there was no one there to teach us how to tie rope, there was no staged stampede at high noon. Oh well. Unfortunately the Jack Cass saloon was closed.

Pappy and Harriet's is a very interesting place and has the best people watching in the desert and has strangely big name bands that come through. That night Les Claypools duo de Twang was playing. I know you are probably who is that, but he was in a band called Primus who was big during the grunge time, also Cat Power, Queens of the Stone Age, Rufus Wainwright and his sister, etc. If you are ever out there check out their concert listings. It is outside where there are a million stars.

What am I reading?

All of this foodie exploration has led me to add tons of memoirs about chefs, food writers, food and plants onto my goodreads list. If you are a book addict like me, you should be on there. Stop reading my blog now and sign up. www.goodreads.com. I tend to just give things a star rating, but I love talking books so you could also email me at eyemheer2@gmail.com if you want to share books or are interested in a recommendation.

I am currently reading My Life in France by Julia Child. It is rather inspiring. She didn't really become the Julia child we all know until she was in her 40s. It is never too late to be who you want to be.

Plus I have a case of wanderlust and her descriptions of France, the markets, food, and people are pretty transportive. Unfortunately this book is making me hungry mid commute where there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

My goal again this year is to read less, but I am 6 books in in 4 months. I have liked so far Waterlily by Ella Cora Deloria and after never having read Truman Capote I devoured 2 of his books back to back, Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood. Both were great, but Tiffany's is definitely darker as a book.