Is there a Ralph's around here?

Valley Girls, week two

Mal, her mom, the baby, & me have hardly left Studio City. I’ve gone into the office and driven to meetings—all business!—but mostly the family has been stationed happily here in the valley. We can walk to Ventura Blvd for coffee or the CVS.

Mal and I did venture out to night one of the Cure’s three-night LA stand. Mal wore pastels to the show, looked awesome, but was definitely murmuring, Oh I didn’t get the memo, as we walked into a 100% black-clad Hollywood Bowl.

After a few songs, Robert Smith announced a bug moving through the band, and that he thought he was patient zero. Brian texts me during night 2 to say they were a little sicker, and the show was slower and darker. I went back for night 3, had a little whiskey with Greg, and got solid setlist swaps from the first night.

I looked up Robert’s age. I don’t know what I expected—108 or 72?—but of course he’s only 64. Just 16 years older than me. At this point, you could say we’re roughly the same age. When I first heard the Cure, I’d recently gotten my license and was totally newborn to anything dark, outside, or weird. Robert would have been 32, having done Disintegration and working on Wish, and already he was a fuckin’ godfather to me, already he seemed a little old and weary. But the fucker did 3 shows in 3 days, each nearly 3 hours long, and all with a bug! I’d go see the tour if you’re able.

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The Ralph’s on Ventura & Coldwater Canyon is now my favorite piece of American Grocery Store architecture. It opened in 1972 as Hughes Market, designed by R. Leon Edgar, who was the architect for of the local chain’s buildings, but nothing else the internet remembers.

building pics lifted from here, sign pic from my phone

None of his other original buildings for Hughes Market remain in tact or recognizable today. This one reads like planet Hoth, but make it desert. Maybe George Lucas stopped by during a trip to LA to buy orange juice and potato chips, and snapped a few pics to remember the building’s exterior. It could be the valley’s version of the bay area myth that cargo cranes inspired Lucas’s AT-ATs in Empire Strikes Back.

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You guys, this HiHo Cheeseburger place?! Why hasn’t someone told me? Looks like there are four locations around LA. I’ve been twice in Studio City. It’s in the new outdoor mall at Sportsman’s Lodge. When I mention this area to local music industry dicks, they want to tell me about the glory days when the Sportsman’s parking lot was alive with idling tour buses posted up to rendezvous with band and crew members before hitting the road. I guess that was still going on until very recently. Whatever. I got a chocolate shake with the double cheeseburger both times.

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I’d never seen a hummingbird sit still until the other morning. There was one superflapping and zigzagging above me out on the patio. I was irritated that I couldn’t locate the actual bird, the speed demon, my eyes trailing behind the sound. When its wings stopped, the sound vanished from just above my head. I looked up and saw him perched on a branch, maybe three or four seconds, not long enough to get my phone out for a picture, then he whizzed away.

It’s been cloudy most of the trip, and sometimes chilly. I’ve had unusual weather during my last visits trips to LA. The time before this, it was crazy rain for days. Bit of a bummer to come to town and not see that sun and feel that perfect temp, but it’s also fun to see the city in different weathers.

A few days left here to see Dijon at Re:SET in San Diego and Pasadena, then I part ways with the fam and head to Sweden. I’ll try and do some more travel blogging and picture posting from there.

Best,
Adam

PS: It’s dope that my fave grocery store building in all of architectural history is a Ralph’s now. Would suck if it were a Vons.