Sunday, October 16, 2011

Help me I think I'm falling...in love with Laurel Canyon




We've been thinking lots lately about the genius of Laurel Canyon in the 60s- a lovely canyon of a neighborhood that was a bit of a counterculture playground back then- if you were lucky enough to live there in those heady times when anything seemed possible, you would have counted Frank Zappa, Jim Morrison, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Love as your neighbors. And our favorite and most inspiring resident from that time? Joni Mitchell, whose home was forever all of ours in the song "Our House", written for her by Graham Nash, who spent much time there as her lover. She was so incredibly beautiful and somehow always had the right lyrics to suit any mood, due in no small part to the lovely backdrop she had as inspiration- Laurel Canyon is one of those LA neighborhoods that makes you happy to be alive- it's cool but not pretentious, and still maintains a bohemian free spirtedness that embodies LA style for us, and inspires us to this day. It must have been a magic time to sit in Joni's house, sunlight dappling through an open window, with Zappa a block or so away crafting up some beautiful insanity. We also adored the Lisa Cholodenko directed "Laurel Canyon" of some years back, where a cooler than thou Frances McDormand steals the show as wacky record producer and lives in pretty much the house of our dreams...there's just something about that place that is so inspired- and is one of LA's true gems. Going to channel young, beautiful Joni the rest of the week...