Tag Archive for ‘Food’

(365 Things that don’t suck about L.A.)

2. Jacaranda trees

The one thing I am always on L.A. about is the lack of trees. I love trees. I need trees. Trees are something I crave like coffee and charm bracelets. Lake Bluff is a Tree City USA and L.A. is definitely not.

Sure there are trees here—some great trees: eucalyptus, scrub oaks, and even maples. There are even a few streets in L.A. which I would consider tree-lined. There just aren’t enough of them. And, I know that horticulturists would disagree with me but to my mind palm trees are not trees and there are lots of those non-trees here.

The one tree that I love in L.A. is the jacaranda. I am including pictures of a jacaranda tree in this post, but, really, a picture does not do them justice. In person these purple trees are like something out of a dream or a Kurosawa film or an Elfin landscape in one of those Lord of the whatsit movies. There is something strangely feminine, poetic and romantic about these trees—perhaps it is the fragility of the flower and the short duration of their bloom.

In California, jacarandas bloom twice a year, in fall and spring. In spring they are SoCal’s version of cherry blossom trees only they don’t seem to be as appreciated; there are no jacaranda festivals or celebrations in their honour here in L.A. They, are instead hated by many and referred to by some as the rat of trees. I think it is perhaps because there is no scent to the blooms and because they are really messy to clean up when they shed. Maybe, like all of California, the jacarandas, need some distance from them to be fully appreciated.

The old joke about L.A. is that no one is really from here, while that is not entirely true, it is true that the jacaranda is not indigenous to California. You don’t have to come to L.A. to see them. They are also found in Australia, Africa, India, Central America, Caribbean, Mexico, and, in the states can also be seen, in Arizona and Florida.

According to legend, if you have a jacaranda blossom land on you it is good luck. Note to self: must sit under a jacaranda tree. If you want to sit under a jacaranda and get some good luck try the following places, as recommended by the L.A. Times, in order to hit the Jacaranda Jackpot: the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden on UCLA’s north campus; Traxx Restaurant at Union Station; Palm Drive in Beverly Hills; Elysian Park;and Victoria Avenue in the Crenshaw District. My favorite place for jacaranda trees is Fullerton but I am sure there are many other places to take in the ultra-violet views.

3. Chicken barbecue sandwich at Busy Bee Market in San Pedro
This place is not pretty. It is a liquor store in a working class neighborhood. Don’t be fooled. If you should dare to make the trip and wait in the long-long-line you will be rewarded with a sandwich that will make you wonder what it is they are serving at Subway or Quiznos as it is clearly not a sandwich. Sicilian BBQ chicken, marinara sauce, lettuce, mayo on amazingly soft Italian bread. This sandwich requires lots of napkins and it’s best not to eat it when wearing your best white linen trousers.

4. The Wayfarers Chapel
I am not sure if I love this place but I do like it and it certainly doesn’t suck. This glass chapel is an architectural marvel and a building that requires a whole lot of Windex. The chapel is in Portuguese Bend( where Joan Didion used to live) in the Palos Verdes Peninsula, just a stones throw from the Pacific Ocean.

For an agnostic I am kind of mad for churches. I like this one for several reasons:
* It was built by Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandson, Eric Lloyd Wright.
* Eric Lloyd was Rupert Pole’s half-brother who Anais Nin lived with in L.A.
* It is a Swedenborgian Church which is a religion you don’t hear about much. Helen Keller, William Blake, Robert Frost and Johnny Appleseed were all Swedenborgians. It seems a relaxed and groovy religion as it should be, people who go to glass churches shouldn’t throw stones.
*Jayne Mansfield, Brian Wilson, and Dennis Hopper were all married at the chapel. As was somebody on the TV show The O.C. I am most impressed with Dennis Hopper. I imagine him and Peter Fonda and his bride all riding up Palos Verdes Drive East on bikes. Or was that “Easy Rider”?
*Nature seems as much apart of the church as the architecture which appeals to me on a philosophical and architectural level.
* It has spectacular ocean views and gorgeous gardens.

Nin wrote this poem about the Wayfarers chapel:

The sun was pouring into it
like a million saints’ halos
the sea was glittering
beyond the glass.
the redwood trees were beginning
to peep into the church.

The beauty of the glass expanded the spirit,
let it loose among the clouds and in nature.
What a poetic concept of a church.
Not to enclose, in dimness, in stone,
in tombs, with votive candles burning,
but to free the spirit, to follow the clouds
to glitter with the sea, to grow
from the earth richly scented.

5. Huell Howser

Now, I am real
ly serious about this one. There are somethings I will not tolerate. I cannot abide racist jokes, homophobia and, less seriously but equally adamantly, I cannot stand anyone talking smack about my Huell Howser. There are people in my life and I am not naming names and it is certainly not He-weasel, that mock Huell’s “awe shucks enthusiasm” and it makes me crazy.

If you don’t live in California you likely don’t know Huell and you are missing out. Huell is the anti-me. He loves California. He loves it so much that he has a TV series called “California’s Gold” and “Visiting with Huell Howser” that shows on local PBS stations in which he shows his love of California by finding all that make California “golden”( yikes, it hurt to write that). I watch his show not because I am eager to learn about the best of California or discover a persimmon farm run by Japanese immigrants or a belly dancing festival in Glendale or a shop in L.A. that sells highly unusual instruments, but rather to see Huell so excited about these things. I watch his shows to watch Huell’s passion. I am a sucker for passion and this is a man that oozes with it. When Joseph Campbell was talking about following your bliss he was talking about Huell and his love of the Golden state.

I have a secret fantasy of running into Huell one day and telling him how much I admire his enthusiasm and how much I missed him when I lived in Chicago and how they have a bad version of his show in Chicago with a guy in a safari hat but that show sucked—-but I fear I wouldn’t have the nerve. Huell, I hope you Google yourself and find this post because I think you are California Gold.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l99Ek4YtTuw]
Five down and 360 more things to go.