Winter Lala land

I got that feeling in my head right when I landed in L.A. of things you associate with places-almost like object identification. In-and-Out Burger, skaters, restaurants with the new catchy idea. As Biggie says, 'Back to Cali'. I get to see brother Patrick and wife Trina and their 3 month old minnow, Ella. Hopefully we can fit in a few family dinners at their house, one with the cast. but I realized I forgot. NOW their schedules revolve around Ella! None of this hanging out after 10 shit. No. It's inside, pumping, burping, lights out. Which is also part of the reason I decided instead of staying with the rest of the cast downtown or with papa Patrick I decided to go Venice beach style, in a cool little pastel and wooded bungalow just 1 block from the beach. I'm staying with Lee from the cast and Julian, Hairs head wardrobe assistant, maybe the best dressed Colombian you'll ever meet. probably the only guy, other than Lee actually, who can also pull off sporting Vintage world war 1 sunglasses [with visors on the side] without a question.

Last night Pat asked if I was hungry and YES I was. 'A-Frame', it's called. The owner, this guy 'Papi' Chulo, had a been garnering good buzz and a big following for his taco truck here in LA and now had opened this new restaurant. If you look close enough at the shape of the place, you'll realize it used to be an IHOP..hence 'A Frame'.   But now it was stripped down to bare wood. and with it are some cool overhead lighting, orange and brown sturdy IKEA tables. The idea-a southern Cali picnic. You're encouraged to eat with your hands, talk to your neighbors picnic style. With dishes like roasted beer chicken, Nori spiced kettle corn [with cornpops cereal], diced kimchee, Coconut clam chowder [like Tom Kah]. Plates you share and pass and chat. even though, if your neighbors were like ours, youd rather pretend they weren't there to be honest. Trina brought Ella too. She told me the social restaurant noise against Ella's ears was actually good. Luckily we didn't have any insane or loud neighbors. The actual food was all right. On one hand I love LA that people actually are interesting and creative enough for coming up with something like this. On the other, In trying to recreate something as simple and wonderful as picnicing with others, eating with your hands, etc, somewhere in your creation you miss the focus of what your really trying to do. And the focus i think is good, honest food. If you can have the other stuff, great! But maybe its more of an ease off and let US discover it thing. Even our waiter looked a little too excited and talked a mile a minute. It couldv'e been my post flight crabiness for all I know...but I'll trust my gut on this one.

Charlies brush with death

Me and Nyah

Joan of Arc 'aka' Lucy

Charlie almost had his right ass cheek handed to him on a platter by Earthquake the race horse. [More on that in a sec]. 15 minutes outside of Portland's city limits my brother Tim, his wife Sandi, Lucy & I drove out to the countryside to visit Casey, my sister in law, and her 3 month old [my niece] Nyah and 4 year old [nephew] Ryder. They live in Portola CA but are in town visiting Casey's dad and stepmom.  Mostly because I'm rarely able to visit, I couldn't pass up the pleasure of seeing the blue eyed siblings before I hightailed it to LA. The soundtrack to the week [and the drive to the country] was Arcade Fires 'Sprawl II'. Every time we get in the car and on the road, Tim'll turn up the radio and tune it to CD and all we hear is the 80's organ swell straight into Regine Chassagne's  voice...'This is Lucy's favorite' Tim says now for the 5th time since I've seen him now, like a judge just stating the facts. and not only Lucys favorite. I think, at least for the time being, it was mine and Tim's current favorite too.

Tim, Ryder, and Dayton

We pull in to the farm and Charlie jumps out and runs around in the same 'I'm meant to be here' energy he had in Sedona but a little more disoriented. I turn my head and see him already down by the 2 horse corrals, testing out what these massive creatures were made of. He knew the fence was obviosuly the dividing line and it was up to his balls whether he was gonna sneak under the electrical wire or not. Later, while everyone was in the barn, Tim and I see Charlie back at the same spot, again- face to face with Earthquake the race horse. now REALLY itching to go in, like it was his duty, Charlie BOLTS under the fence and Earthquake takes off toward charlies heels kicking inches from Charlies butt. Charlie is running for life fully knowing he's about 3 seconds from being Chinese food, he runs under the fence with his back hair raised looking like he was wondering for a second if he was still in one piece. I kissed Ryder and Nyah and Casey goodbye and we sped downtown. I was most definitely flirting with making it back to the theatre by 1/2 hour. And when I arrived [on time thank you], I couldnt believe I was in the mountains 15 minutes ago.

Earthquake: "Don't be an idiot"

Charlie: "What planet are YOU from?"

Earhquake to White Lightening: "Should I just scare him or turn him into Chinese?"

Charlie: "Geronimo!"

Last night in Portland

After our last show in Portland yesterday, while the rest of the cast went to Mary's strip club, Tim had one more spot to take me before I left-The Horse Brass [I'll get to that]. by the way, as a whole, Portland's audience has been the most responsive thus far...for 2 reasons. 1-Portland is notorious as a Hair minded 'Be yourself' city anyways. Their motto prominently displayed on the bumpers of many a hatchback Subaru here: 'Keep Portland Weird', it states, always leaning in the direction of the message of the show that Margaret Mead proclaims in the 1st act-

'i wish every mother and father in this theater would go home tonight and tell their kids 'Be Free-no guilt. Be whoever you are, do whatever you want to do...just as long as you don't hurt anybody'. I'm biased of course but seriously how often do we go to shows leaving with THAT  to think about? And an old philanthropists being the one to share this with us, not any of the hippies. And 2-Portland is a city that can recognize that a message like this never gets old. Time will pass and new inventions will come through our hands but being able to see something like this as relevant today as it was 40 years ago is not always easy, even for an entire city. But they get it. This is why, unless it becomes impossible to find employment here, this could move up to #1 for my best choices for places to move for sure.

The Horse Brass-a dark British pub of a spot. large wood columns, cask beers, a no-nonsense beer menu that explained more about each beer than a good wine bar would explain about wine. And a towering bartender with a foot long beard and arms permanently fixed about 2 inches off his side. think a Paul Bunyan version of Bluto [Popeye]. And friendly. everyone opens up conversation here like they already know the guy they just met will 100 % feel the same way. And they're right. Every time. Its like a big eco-minded fraternal order of beard sporting goodness. Btwn the both us, we ordered the turkey pot pie and the pastrami on dark rye.

Bartender: You want your Sandwich hot or cold?
Tim and I: Hot! [with a laugh. Tim and I both know food too well to be dining on a cold pastrami with Cheddar]

They each arrived in front of us very simply plated along side homemade potato chips. I tried the pot pie 1st. My fork cut through the flaky pastry and right through the pulled turkey, peas, and potato. And no gravy? it didn't need any. Just a flavorful rustic little meat pie, evenly salted and good textures all around. Onto the Pastrami. No frills, just a few cuts with melted swiss and tomato. I remembered from Katz's in NYC, the right way to have pastrami, other than 6 inches high, was simply on rye with yellow mustard. So I added a little mustard dollop on my plate to dip and it made all the difference. After fully into both, I really was surprised at how tasty they both were and then couldn't decide which was better. The food better be good here. So far I've noticed here, because every place that serves rinks HAS to serve food, and with that comes more demand for quality, anytime you order food here, you're never going to get something that tastes bad. At worst mediocre. at worst!