Love Lexa: mushrooms & movies.

Hello! We're back, after another lengthy absence. As always, I have a good excuse--I had another surgery and a couple rounds of chemo that knocked me on my ass. But, as I've said before, the blog must go on.

First, I'd like to share some information about mushrooms that I've learned during my treatment. I was recently talking to a friend of a friend about my cancer, when she told me her sister had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian and had so many tumors, eight of them were inoperable.

She began taking maitake, aka hen-of-the-woods, mushrooms, in the fraction D pill form. Today she is completely cancer free and her tumors are gone. The friend-of-a-friend also informed me that the whole family takes maitake fraction D now whenever they feel any kind of illness come on.

Maitake (Hen of the Woods) mushroom in its natural form.

It sounded too good to be true, a miracle cure. However, in doing a little googling and talking to my own oncologist, I found quite a bit of evidence to support this woman's experience. While the results are not conclusive or FDA-approved in the US, research on the benefits of maitake is positive, and my doctor gave me the OK to supplement my treatment with them.

So far, I have only tried maitake in its fraction D pill form. They are potent, stinky little things, and I hold my breath whenever I swallow them. But my doc told me they are delicious in their natural form, and I'm hoping to start cooking with them soon. You can find hen-of-the-woods mushroom at the Hollywood Farmers Market every Sunday.

I received another morsel of mushroom wisdom from my friend Olivia who told me about reishi, which also has medicinal properties. When I looked it up online, I was surprised to find that it has shown to alleviate the side effects of the exact kind of chemo I am on--Cisplatin! And if that wasn't enough of a coincidence, my friend Fran called me and asked if I needed anything while she was in Chinatown. A couple of hours later, she arrived on my doorstep with a big bag of reishi.

Too, too weird.

Reishi mushrooms look a lot like big chips of wood. I have been breaking them down in the Vitamix and boiling them into a tea with a piece of ginger. It's it a bit of work, but really good!

OK. Now about movies. I've been watching a lot of them. First let's talk a little about Nashville. I'm kind of embarrassed to say I've never seen it before, but there you go. Maybe it was better to watch it an at age where I could appreciate it. The first Robert Altman movie I ever saw was They Player, which I remember loving. Then Short Cuts which I loved less, because I didn't think it worked to take Carver's characters out of his Washington setting and plop them in L.A. Next was Pret-a-Porter, which was rather disastrous, social commentary on a subject the commentator knew nothing about.

But Nashville is where it all started, this documentary-style of film (or maybe it was M*A*S*H*), and I found it fascinating, a lot like watching Orson Welles' films--you can still understand how revolutionary the filmmaking was at the time. At first, it felt like work to watch it, but by the highway pileup scene, I was hooked. It was mesmerizing, meandering with the camera, weaving through the cast of characters. And the music was just gorgeous.

Ronee Blakely belts one out in Nashville. Amazing.

I also ventured out to the theaters this week to see Cold in July, a new thriller starring Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepherd and Don Johnson. A riveting, twisty-turny mystery in the first half, but unfortunately, it descends into sensational pulp in the second, with way too many plot holes for me to enjoy. But it did have wonderful atmosphere with lots of amusing late-80s touches.

Michael C. Hall and Vinessa Shaw as a small-town Texas couple.

One more film I'd like to give a nod to is Safety Not Guaranteed, which is available on Netflix streaming. This is a gem--an indie that's quirky, but not eye-rollingly so. Aubrey Plaza plays--well, Aubrey Plaza--like a dry, wisecracking, MTV's Daria come to life. Funny that her character's name is Darius. But she invests her role with emotional resonance and convinced me that she was falling in love with an oddball who may or may not have created a time machine and may or may not be completely bonkers. I really liked this one.

Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni play investigative journalist

interns in Safety Not Guaranteed.

I'm also excited for some upcoming films, courtesy of Last Remaining Seats, a summer series of classic movies presented in historic theaters, hosted by the Los Angeles Conservancy. I've been wanting to go for the past few summers, but these events sell out fast. Fortunately, my friend Vivian works as a docent for the Conservancy and has the scoop. It's good to have people on the inside.

On June 28, Citizen Kane is being presented at...

...the Orpheum Theater. Two showings in the afternoon and evening!

And on June 21st, we'll be seeing Back to the Future at...

...The Theater at the Ace Hotel (aka the United Artists theater) in downtown L.A. So excited to finally check this place out. (Also two showings, but both are SOLD OUT.)