Tag: LA

SNOW — TOTO WE AREN’T IN LA ANY MORE!

Autumn_2007_2
Last week I took you to see this tree outside my office.  It was just lovely.  Then I went to LA and, as this storm was preparing to arrive, worked outside by the pool all afternoon.  Never have I been so aware of the good side of the left coast – where I lived so unhappily but have come to appreciate.

 
Snow_1107_road_2Back home tonight, which is Wednesday, it looks like this.  I seem to be on a real tear about seasons and changes.  I left a fiery display of falling leaves and returned just in time to welcome the magical silence that is my favorite part of an all-day snowfall.

I’m posting this on Friday, just before Shabbat.  Ending the week.
Thanking God.  Wishing I knew an angel named Earl. Remembering snowy
night time walks down Broadway with my kids.  And snow days.  And ski
lifts.

And back again to that old circle thing.  There isn’t much in life that doesn’t come in cycles, and if you observe the Sabbath, it begins at 4:30 in the depth of winter and 9:30 at the height of summer.  Jewish holidays too are built around harvest and planting, the moon and its cycles; it’s far more connected to the earth and its processes than I ever understood until we began living this observant life.  I wonder sometimes if, given my pleasure in the cycles and their passage, that pleasure isn’t yet another reason we ended up here.

Shabbat Shalom.

I LOVE LA — NO, REALLY

Mosaic_wide_pool
I’m sitting right here – next to the pool, at the Mosaic Hotel  in Beverly Hills, where we’ve been coming for years.  What a treat to be writing outside in December.  The whole time I lived here I complained – about the lack of "intellectual rigor", about the meanness of Hollywood (which, by the way, makes Washington politicians look like amateurs), about the lack of autumn foliage, about the spoiled kids and on and on.  I guess I still think a lot of those things, but when we drive in from the airport, passing all the pastel buildings, the sun shining, the air balmy and gentle – I remember the good things.  Maybe our East Coast weather builds character and a grounding in reality but this really is lovely.  At least for visiting.

It’s also different to come to LA as an observant Jew.   Orthodox Jews are a parallel universe – something like Harry Potter compared to the Muggles.  It’s a culture with, by necessity, many of its own institutions, the strengths of which are  determined largely by the size of the community.  LA has lots of observant and formally Orthodox Jews so there’s a spectrum of services — and standards.  Yeshiva girls in sweatshirts and leggings, every kind of kosher restaurant, schools, and of course, shuls.  Here’s little bit of what we’ve seen in the couple of hours we’ve been here on this trip.

Bnai_david This is B’nai David Judea, a modern Orthodox congregation on Pico near Robertson, in the heart of the Orthodox community.  We’ve been to services there a couple of times on Shabbat – it’s a lovely community and a beautiful sanctuary – and the congregation is young, hip, and in many cases, Hollywood.

Kosher_market
Just a block away there are several kosher groceries and delis.  Here’s one.

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And these guys – they’re the backbone of Jeff’s Gourmet Kosher sausage.  We’re taking lots home to our friends – there’s nothing like it near us.

Subway_wide_cropped_2
And this — this is a real, live, kosher Subway!  Not too shabby.

There’s more to LA than the stereotypes that were our reality when we lived here.  Lots that’s nice.  Sadly, the  ugliness and banality  conceals much of it;  only after a long absence (and  perhaps the added perspective of a religious community) that I, at least, have been able to see both sides.  So bring it on Randy Newman — it’s a great song.