Friends, old and new

This weekend I went down to LA to see my good friend Kat and to see Thee Oh NOs play. They played at a fancy little club called Bordello, right across the street from Joe Shea's old loft downtown. OH, I wish he was still there, he had just emailed me only 2 days prior to say he had left the building. All night long I kept wanting to run across the street and introduce him to my friend David, the drummer for Thee Oh NOs. I wanted to show David Joe's impressive studio and art collection. The show was great. Fun was had. It worked to lift me out of my blue mood that I seem to have been in for days now, only for the mood to return upon waking the next day. Jamie came out and DJ LEE from the Rockaround was there too. Lots of good music, and I danced for their ENTIRE set in 4 inch high heels! Ouch!
The next morning it was breakfast in the rain at Auntie Em's Kitchen, one of my favorite cafes near Kat's house. They sell the most scrumptious red velvet cupcakes! Then it was over to Galco's Soda Pop Shop, the supermarket of soda pops. I got cucumber soda and rose petal soda and Zots candy. Mmmmm, a throw-back from when I was a kid! The Soda Pop shop is one of my favorite stops in LA. The 10,000-square-foot shop still looks like a timeworn Italian deli, down to the chipped linoleum and faded 1950's sign out front. But the half-dozen aisles are now lined with over 500 varieties of soda and 425 of beer, both new and long forgotten. Among the most interesting are Manhattan Special Espresso Coffee Soda, a mud-like drink loaded with caffeine; Red Ribbon Cherry Supreme, which is neon pink (I HAD to have one); and Jamaica's Hot Hot Hot, a ginger beer so spicy that it almost burns your lips. Most are packaged in old-fashioned glass bottles.
Several exotic brands come from distant shores, like Sangaria Ramune, a melon-flavored Japanese soda with a marble in the bottle; and Kolashampan, a cream soda from El Salvador. The owner, Mr. Nese is always there when I go,

and he is friendly and helpful from the moment you walk in. Whenever possible, he tries to carry sodas with natural ingredients. Nuky Rose Soda, one of my favorites, is made from crushed rose petals, and Plantation Style Mint Julep from Pennsylvania is flavored with real mint. I'm starting to sound like an ad, but I really love the Soda Pop Shop!

It's nice to see old friends like Kat and David. It makes me nostalgic for the old days, and makes me realize that I work far too much and I should take short trips like that much more often. I also love to see the architecture in other cities. I forget that everything isn't the Disneyesque white stucco and red tiled roofs of Santa Barbara. I saw so many little Craftsman bungalows and garishly painted houses I could barely drive without being a lookie-loo. I need to get out more!