Early Evening in Sunset Junction

Tired of being in my house, I decided to take an early evening stroll down the street to Sunset Junction, grab a coffee and read my book. There's something I love about the early evening in Los Angeles during the summer, I can wear short sleeves. The heat from the day lingers, it gets trapped in the asphalt, and warms the ground.

The first thing I notice as I hit Sunset is the new gelato store across the street. It took the place of at least three Mexican owned, trinket and cell phone accessory stores. I never understood how those stores survived. I think the $2.45 gelato cones and $3.25 French Drip coffees will do much better business.

Despite the temptation for gelato, I stick with the game plan and head towards Casbah. I pass a store that sells soap, they are having a party. I wanted to stop, but I did not have a tattoo, which seemed to be a prerequisite for attendance.

Inside Casbah was a line. A girl at table full of Silverlake types talked about how she admired her friend's older sister when she was younger - I believed she used the term, punk cool. I always find it weird when people older than 15 talk about how cool someone is. Cool. I think there's a good college thesis to be written on "Cool."

There's a beautiful Japanese girl sitting at a table with a guy, presumably her boyfriend. They were obviously visiting from Japan. They seemed to be having fun. I imagine it will be one of their fonder memories of Los Angeles, the discovery of a nice little coffee shop on Sunset Junction. Going out around Los Angeles, the beauty of women never ceases to impress me. I'm pretty sure the prettiest girls in the world hang out in L.A..

I get my coffee and a lemon bar and sit outside to read. L.A. isn't a great town to read in. It's noisy. San Francisco is a reading town. I read a couple of chapters and think to myself, I need to read more. I'm still reading Larry MucMurtry's All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers. Laugh out loud moments.

I feel a Brian DePalma night.