Self Portrait At Johnie's

I think about Los Angeles a lot. To tell you the truth though, if someone said to me "You can't ever go back to the US again", I don't know if I'd be that disappointed.

I do miss bottomless cups of coffee, gigantic pizzas', huge breakfasts, Latino culture, Mexican food, The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian ... and, of course, bacon. Real bacon. Not "streaky bacon". But bacony bacon that tastes like bacon.

Ohhh, bacon ...

Johnie's is ... was ... a diner on the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire. It's food was never very good. I remember ordering some sourdough toast there once long, long, long ago and what I got back was - or it certainly seemed to be - white toast painted yellow with a butter substitute and sprinkled liberally with salt.

Still, an American diner - all that grease and bacon and bottomless cups of coffee ... and bacon.