My sweet mother usually saves me The Calendar Weekend section of Thursday’s Los Angeles Times. I would put a link to it, but now you have to pay to read it (in itself a controversy).

Do I flip through my prized section overwhelmed with desire to see what fabulous things are happening in LA this coming weekend? No. Unfortunately, none of LA’s papers get me excited about what’s going on in and around LA. Yes, there are good things going on here. I know I bring up NYC sometimes and you all know I love it, but I live in LA because I want to, unless anyone knows of a job in France? The Village Voice and Time Out- NY were my favorite NYC publications. I still miss them. They got me excited about all the things to do, and the graphics and writing were pleasing. Maybe I am just too much of an aestheticist? Somethings I find things to do via LAObserved

Back to Calendar Weekend. I flip through The News and Reviews, The Arts, The Alternatives, Going Out, Staying In and With the Kids (ugh!) to the last page and my favorite section: My Favorite Weekend. This section asks stars and singers (not super-famous ones) about their ideal weekend in Los Angeles! Sounds cheesy, eh? I just like knowing what other people do on the weekend. I imagine that there are people who find fabulous things to do in LA that I have never heard of. But, time and time again they dine at the same restaurants, go hiking in the same mountains and worst of all-- out my favorite Malibu beaches.

Annoying people (stars?) like Carter Oosterhouse from TLC’s “Trading Spaces” reveal disgustingly healthy things like, ‘I try to mountain bike and run as much as I can. I like to bike up the Hollywood hills’ or promote Angeleno’s penchant for dressing down, ‘Moustache [Café] has a wonderful French menu…it’s not too upscale—I can go in there with flip-flops on.’

Liz Phair let us know last Thursday that ‘Los Angeles is a great place to write songs. I like to drive through residential neighborhoods and make up stories about the people I see.’ Which neighborhoods Liz? How could the interviewer not have pressed for this detail?

When stars like Phair reveal they love to book rooms in fancy/hip hotels like the Chateau Marmont or Four Seasons Hotel to write songs, I get jealous. Jealousy is an emotion I rarely feel. What’s the point? But I love hotels. After 9/11 I took a solo trip to a hip Palm Springs hotel. I swam, ate, read and didn’t do any writing.