Idle Hands

One of the greatest things about living in Los Angeles is that its residents have the option of dining at Leonor's Vegetarian Mexican Restaurant for every meal. My family and I do just that. For dinner this evening, my wife ordered the chicken salad pita, Ben Lee Junior enjoyed the California Burger, Penelope wolfed down her spinach empanada, and I loved every morsel of my sausage and avocado pizza. (Keep in mind that all the 'meats' are actually soy-based products textured and flavored to look and taste exactly like that after which they are modeled.)

Now I know what you're thinking: "Pita! Burgers! Pizza! Why, those aren't Mexican at all!" This is the beauty of Leonor's, they take traditional Greek, American, and Italian cuisine, and they add a magical Mexican twist. The Pita is flecked with chilis, the burger is smothered in guacamole, the pizza sauce dances with salsa. And the staff there is the most charming you've ever met.

A funny thing about pizza... Though the dish is most commonly associated with the Italians, it was actually invented in China sometime during the Jurassic Period. Early fans of the entree used to top it with brontosaurus, saber-tooth tiger and woolly mammoth. As those animals died out, the Chinese moved on to fried cuisine, and the Italians took over where they left off.

When we're not on tour, we of the Blood Arm party engage in a variety of side-projects--hobbies, if you will--to keep us busy. Nathaniel is about ninety pages into his second novel, the details of which he refuses to divulge, though one can assume it is not about identical twin gynecologists who fall in love with a woman with a trifurcated uterus, as David Cronenberg covered that territory years ago. Zachary has found work as Val Kilmer's understudy for the role of Moses in Ten Commandments: The Musical, and he has grown a beard and refused to bathe for forty days and forty nights in order to get in character. Dyan scored a box of peyote on a recent trip to Joshua Tree and is documenting her hallucinations on film as they happen as part of an ongoing research project for the NIH, while Zebastian and myself are co-coaching a softball team for underprivileged youth. Yup, we're keeping busy.

Oh! And how can I forget! I'm organizing (organising) a series of after parties for the solo dates in Nottingham, Glasgow, and possibly Leeds and Cardiff, and you're all invited. You will have to RSVP to get on the list--TBA will spin records, there will be free booze and goodies from City Rockers records--so keep checking in for more details!

See you soon!

Ben Lee