Coming back from the Kitty tonight, I decided to take the 405 to Mulholland. As Rebecca and I had been the only ones to show up, we called it an early night. She didn't want to stay out too terribly late and I had gotten in three songs before midnight, all of which were good, and I wasn't feeling an overpowering need to keep the party going. The fact that the place had gone from almost empty to practically packed in two hours helped cement the decision. I'd gone from helping out Our Lovely Hostess by singing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up" while she fiddled with the soundboard to bringing down the house with a couple old standby's (Freedom '90 and my now-infamous rendition of Baby One More Time). None of the regular folks were there, not even RJ, though we were graced with a visit from Wendy's friend Stacy, who intimidated the crowd by singing Alicia Keys better than Alicia Keys. Hopefully, she'll be famous one day, since she's got fifty times more talent than those twats on MTV.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, so after all that, I cruised Mulholland, something I haven't done since about September or so. I'd kept meaning to go back, of course, but I'd just never gotten around to it. There weren't many cars on the road, so I was only mildly reckless. In all honesty, I wanted to check out the views again, so I kept it fairly slow so I could take my eyes off the road for a few seconds and check out the city lights. After sundown is the only time the valley looks good and it was nice to get an eyeful, even if I didn't stop (illegally) at any of the overlooks. I did find one that I hadn't noticed before and so I may go back to it if I feel like braving the western end again.That'll be during the daytime, of course. All the overlooks are closed at sundown and stopping on Mulholland itself will get you a ticket. The key, really, is to find the ones nearest the side streets, which you can park on, walk over, and hang out with an eye for the cops. Weeknights are safer than weekend nights, obviously and I suspect the western end (i.e., west of Laurel Canyon) is less heavily patrolled than the eastern end (east of Laurel Canyon). Still, one of the most accessible outlooks (re: no gates) is the Universal City one, which has a nearby side street and is on the eastern side. I'm sure I've talked about it before. (I don't remember the side street, but if you really want to find it, lemme know...)

So, that took half an hour. Spent another going from Hollywood to home, thanks to not driving particularly quickly and just catching a lot of red lights. Guess I wasn't in the mood to break the speed limit tonight.

Anyway...