And where the rubber meets the road, yeah/Where the hot meets the cold/Poor meet the soul/Where the young meet the old/Truth be told I got somethin’ on my mind/Y’all gotta know.

 Wow. That’s good shit. I say it aloud. “Who is this?”

The People
Sometimes it’s hard to live in a city and feel comfortable with people all of the time but the people of The Valley are some of the nicest folks I’ve ever met. They remind me of the people I grew up with. They have families and regular jobs and the majority of the people who live in The Valley do so because they were born here and grew up here. I was born and raised in the South and, growing up, often heard stereotyped descriptions of Southerners, as a whole, such as, “People from the South are racist, redneck, backwards, ignorant, Bible-thumping dumbasses” or “You mean, they smoke pot in Arkansas?” I would often find myself explaining to “ignorant yankees” that each Southern state carries with it its own brand and flair, not all Southern accents are the same and not every Southerner has had the same “raisings.”

Like the South, Los Angeles is often stereotyped but, in reality, it’s an extremely diverse, richly cultural city boasting different “towns.” I came out to Los Angeles in the fall of 1984. During the next six years I lived in various neighborhoods including Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Atwater and Burbank. Being the rambling woman that I was back then, I tried out Nashville for a while but, happily, moved back to Los Angeles in 2001. After I returned, I moved around from Burbank to North Hollywood and then to Silver Lake. But when it came to deciding where I wanted to live, if I could live anywhere in Los Angeles, I chose the neighborhood of Studio City, in The Valley.

LET’S SAY YOU ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE blessed with extraordinary musical talent. You hook up with a few like-minded musicians who appreciate the same rhythms. You start jamming together, playing some gigs for friends or frats and something starts to click. The music is good, very good. The audience digs it and you gain a following. Bookers are interested. You officially form a band. You all agree this is a major commitment and how you want to earn your livelihood. You are excited. This can be huge—the start of something BIG.

WHEN DISCUSSING GOD, IT MUST BE DETERMINED what one’s definition of God is. For some people, God is a faceless entity that moves through all things, a life force. For others, God is a man who walked the earth and died on a cross for your sins. Historically, God could also be called the Ocean, the Sun or the Moon, or even a flying monster made of spaghetti. There have literally been thousands of Gods posited throughout our history. For the purposes of this discussion I’ll identify God by his Judeo-Christian definition, being that I was born into a Jewish household and reside in the United States of America. Is there any validity to the literal insistence of God? I honestly don’t know, but I don’t think so. If you are reading this, it means that you’re interested in my perspective. If you aren’t then you should just stop reading now and I will take no offense.