people ask, tony, do you have a girlfriend?

and i say LA is my lady

shes always warm. so warm i havent used my heater in the 8 years that ive lived in hollywood. shes never cold unless i deserve it .

la is like 17 girlfriends all in one. drive from venice to south central to koreatown to east la and you’ll see some of it. truck up through the valley and westwood and little armenia and thai town and you’ll see that maybe its more like 42 girlfriends all in one.

the cars are great. the art is great. the food is beyond delicious. f paris. f italy. f vegas. theres so much music here that its not unusual for there to be Bob Dylan, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Three 6 Mafia, and Louden Wainright III all in different locales on a Wednesday night.

the houses are beautiful, the mountains are right there, the beach is right here, the desert is right over there. skateboards, snowboards, boogie boards, and surfboards fill each of our closets.

i also hear theres good shopping here. i know that theres Santee Alley and the venice board walk and their are outlet stores a short drive out of the county.

people talk about our schools being so so. i say YOUR schools are so so! the times just launched our huge Schools database which is more than so so.

but mostly i love LA for the people. i know thats weird to say cuz lots of people say that there are only shallow evil materialistic people out here. but the joke is, those are only the transplants from new york. i love all the transplants cuz theyre from everywhere. but i also love the natives. typically the most mellow people you’ll meet cuz theyve seen it all.

combined you get one of the best examples of melting pot anywhere in the world. which is why i celebrate LA’s 227th birthday… with the theme song of 227:

maeko has a special post on her blog

Yesterday, hardest hike and distance of my life: nine or so miles of the treacherous Kalalau trail along the Na’pali coast (google for more info–if you ever brave it, it it will be the hardest thing you ever do, I promise). On our way back after about 5.5 miles of single track seriously hard, muddy, move-2 inches-off-the-trail-and-you-plummet-to-a-horrible-horrible-death-among-the paradise-cliffs, N started running far ahead of me, leaving me panting and frustrated and slipping over muddy rocks and roots to catch up.

I finally caught up to chew him out along one of the switchbacks on the trail, overlooking the aquamarine jewel waters washing onto Hanakapiai beach. He was fiddling with his Camelbak and I was prepping myself to rip him a new one. He spun around and in his hands was a silver little box. Sweaty, muddy, and grinning nervously ear to ear, N knelt on a slippery, red rock, opened the box, and said, “So, you think this wait was worth it?” At that point I burst into tears and he had to hold me until I regained verbal capability. About three or four minutes later, N said, “I didn’t get your answer!” To which I hiccuped, “You didn’t ask the Question!”

He got on his knee again, and asked, “Will you marry me?”

find out the answer here

two years ago this month i met the lovely maeko after reading her beautifully designed blog for a while, and not only was she a super hot tamale but she was really funny and very smart. we only had an hour to lunch because she had a crazy job, but it was really cool and she was one of the most interesting people i met on my trip around america.

and definitely the brightest moment in my little stop in the motor city.