secret stairs #35

Hello, and welcome back after the long weekend. I have to confess I've been little off over the last three days and did not accomplish everything I wanted to--like hitting up my favorite beach in Malibu. Mostly I felt as grey and sluggish as the weather. Oh well, it happens sometimes.

One bright spot in my weekend was that I explored new a Secret Stairs walk. If you've been reading this blog, you know I'm a huge fan of the book, Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles by my friend Charles Fleming. It just happened to be Chaz's birthday on Sunday, so completing Walk #35 was nice little bit of harmonic convergence.

Chaz recently released his new book, Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the hidden Trails of Los Angeles. I--and my dog--are so excited about this! A whole new book filled with little-known places in the city to discover. Yea!



FYI--Walk #35 is a tour of the many spiritual sites in the Eastern part of the Hollywood Hills. It begins at Franklin and Vine, right alongside the 101 Freeway. First stop is the Vedanta Society, a meditation center and monastery founded by Swami Prabhavananda, a disciple of the Indian ascetic Ramakrishna.



It was actually my second time visiting the temple--the first was when I took Esotouric Bus Adventures' Maja's Mysteries Tour (all of their unique L.A. tours are highly recommended) led by my friend Maja the White Witch. If you've never caught one of Maja's Magic School lectures, covering different topics of the occult and magick arts, I recommend those, too. She hosts her series at another one of the Hill's spiritual sites, the Annie Besant Lodge on Beachwood Drive.

There's a lot of spiritual energy in them Hills. But I digress--let's continue with the walk. The main site on the walk is the Krotona Society, once a center for Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, now a community of apartments. If you're subtle about it, you can go check out the tranquil courtyard with koi pond. It's a lovely oasis.

Another of my favorite sites on this walk is Hollymont Castle, the former mansion of Barbara Stanwyck, rumored to be haunted. It's now occupied by pianist Dexter Grey and surrounded by a bunch of funky statues. You will be mine one day, crazy haunted mansion. 

I passed more classic homes once owned Hollywood stars like Jeanette MacDonald and Hopalong Cassidy, along with the most stunning Moorcrest Estate, originally home to Mary Astor and Charlie Chaplin, now to Andy Samberg and Joanna Newsom.

Former home of the awesome Barbara Stanwyck, soon to be mine (insert evil laugh)

Driving home, I decided to wind through the Hills and discovered a new entrance to the Hollywood Reservoir off Deep Dell Place (well, new to me--there were lots of other people there). Really want to check this out some day. Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed in this part of the Hills.

It always amazes me that this is smack dab in the middle of the city

A couple more things to love:

This article on Russell the Cat who was horribly burned in a house fire and now provides love therapy to other animals at an Animal Emergency and Urgent Care Clinic captured my heart. Like 99.8% of the world's population, I am a sucker for different species of animals gettin' all snuggly with each other.

Photo via My Modern Metropolis

And since I've been remiss for the past couple of weeks, here's your Dog of the Week...it's Sandra Dee! Pretty Sandy is a one-year-old, 10-pound terrier/chihuahua mix. She's not yappy like most chis, but she's still in the play biting stage and will need a little training. She loves to eat and play and snuggle and is just fine in her crate. If you're interested in opening your home to this little love muffin, she's available to adopt at Dogs Without Borders today.

Photos (c) Dogs Without Borders

That's all for now, but I have lots more to share with you this week. Love, Lexa.

birthday.

Tuesday was my birthday--number 45. Yeah, I had to sit down for that, too. But I did some fun stuff, and I'd like to share it with you.

I thought about hitting the beach, then realized I haven't done a stair hike in a long time. A new one. So, I got out my Secret Stairs book and decided on the walk to the Griffith Observatory.

I highly recommend this book if you live in L.A., and not just because the author Charles Fleming, is a super cool dude and a friend. The hikes are ranked according to difficulty from 1-5--my favorite Beachwood Canyon walk is a 5 as is the Griffith Park hike.

It was a doozy! Took a few days for my body to recover. But it was a hot, beautiful and peaceful day--worth a few aches and bruises.

Afterwards, I was famished. I really wanted to take the day-off opportunity to eat lunch at Sqirl. Forget about this place on the weekends. The line is around the block. Alas, on this day, they closed at 2 p.m. for filming, and I had arrived at 2:02 p.m.

I put Plan B into effect and headed to my beloved Sage in Echo Park.

The Sushi Bowl at Sage

Next up was Lark cupcakes, followed by some sugary downtime checking out all the lovely friends who wished me happy birthday on Facebook.

Then it was back into the city for the event of the evening: a showing of Under the Skin accompanied by a live orchestra conducted by the film's 27-year-old composer Mica Levi (or Micachu). I can't tell you how much I loved this movie--but I'm going to try in an upcoming post about films from the past year.

Not only was this my favorite of 2014, but it's now cracked my all-time Top 10. It's one of those rare films where every piece--the cinematography, costumes, art direction and score--unite to create a vision that haunts you long after you see it. It was my second viewing of the film, and I couldn't stop thinking about it all week.

Seriously, I'll have to gather my thoughts on it and write more, but it was an amazing experience, and one of those that is so unique to living in Los Angeles (maybe New York, too, but whatever).

It was a great birthday! And I'll be back with more soon. Love, Lexa.