Lifestyle
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Taylor Tomlinson
Taylor Tomlinson, the comedian and writer who has hosted the CBS talk and variety show “After Midnight” for two seasons, has lived in Los Angeles for nine years. But thanks to a robust stand-up schedule (her now-in-progress Save Me tour has 76 dates booked across North America and Europe through January, including an L.A. hometown show scheduled for Aug. 10 at the Greek Theatre), she’s only around L.A. for about 20 Sundays a year.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
“I try to do two weekends on the road a month,” Tomlinson said. “But sometimes it ends up being three. Usually my Sundays are spent flying home, and I’m doing my leisurely things on a Tuesday at noon.”
She was more than happy to plot out a Sunday plan that doesn’t involve “a layover sitting in a coffee shop in the Phoenix airport.” It would start with making some matcha and head toward a close with sushi and a movie. In between, she’d hit a flea market, a bookstore (to score some spiral-ring notebooks) and the outdoor spaces at the Huntington.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
9 a.m.: Whisk up some morning matcha
In my perfect world, I’d fall asleep at midnight and get nine hours of sleep, which would be perfect. I am not somebody who can handle coffee because I get headaches. So I usually make matcha at home with unsweetened almond milk, and I add cinnamon and usually use a little bit of vanilla protein shake as creamer in it. And I do it iced.
I go to a lot of coffee shops when I’m on the road and always have to ask if their matcha is presweetened, because a lot of places make it with honey or sugar already in it. But more mainstream places are getting unsweetened, ceremonial-grade matcha, and that’s what I use. I’ve got one of those bamboo whisks, and I like the whole routine of boiling water and then whisking in the matcha powder. I really feel like I’m doing something.
9:30 a.m.: Back to bed with a book
Then I’d bring my matcha back to the bed and I’d read for a bit. I really struggle with letting myself read for fun because, for a long time, I wouldn’t read anything that wasn’t teaching me something or had some sort of self-improvement element to it or was about comedy or business.
I’m working on a book of my own right now, so I’m currently reading Chuck Palahniuk‘s “Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different,” and for fun I’m reading “The Dragon Republic,” the second book in R.F. Kuang’s “The Poppy War” series.
10:15 a.m.: Self-scramble some breakfast
I like going out to breakfast when I’m on the road but, when I’m home, I like to cook for myself. So I’ll do a scramble with some eggs, turkey, zucchini, spinach and bell pepper and then top it with some avocado.
11:45 a.m.: Make for the Melrose Trading Post
This might [sound like] a really basic Sunday, but I’m not in L.A. very much. So I would go to the Melrose Trading Post [flea market] over at Fairfax High School with some friends because it’s a way to socialize. Zach Noe Towers and Sophie Buddle and I do [stand-up comedy on] the road a lot together, and when we’re home on a weekend, this is something we do together.
I’ve bought a lot of leather jackets there. I have way too many jackets — an insane collection of jackets. It’s a real problem. I bought a weird lamp there. I think the last thing I bought there was this wardrobe [from J. Martin Furniture] that was green, and they said they would paint it any color I wanted and have it delivered. So I had them paint it a dusty rose that matches the flowers on these vintage pillows I had just gotten for my bed. The wardrobe fills out the one blank wall I had left in the bedroom. It’s really cute and makes me really happy.
They have food and music and stuff to drink too. Last time we went, we got some Thai food from a truck and hung out for a bit.
2 p.m.: Vroom over to Vroman’s
From there I’d head to Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, which I hadn’t been to until very recently. It’s a huge independent bookstore, and they have literally everything there — books, gifts [and] stationery — so I’d probably buy a notebook. I’ve got so many notebooks. The two things I overbuy the most are vintage jackets and notebooks. I use different types of notebooks for different [purposes], but they’ve all got to be spiral-ring.
I like [notebooks] that are long and skinny for my set lists. I like stenographer’s notebooks for new jokes because [the pages] have a line down the middle; I use one side for jokes I know work and one side for jokes I’m not sure about yet. And I like a really big notebook to journal in. Then there are the kind I find at flea market vendors when I’m on the road where they turn old children’s books into notebooks and leave part of the [original book] text in between the [blank] pages. This one [she holds aloft a spiral-ring notebook with the title “Peter Pan” on the cover] is by Red Barn Collections. I think I picked it up at a flea market in Salt Lake City.
3 p.m.: Head to the Huntington
If I didn’t sit and write in the cafe at Vroman’s, I’d head to the Huntington. I’ve been a member there for years, and sometimes when I have a whole day off, I’ll go there for a while. I’d either go to the side area where there are a few chairs and sit and read or go to one of the benches that overlook the Japanese garden. If I was writing, I’d do that in the cafe.
5:30 p.m.: Sushi in Studio City
Since the Huntington closes at 5 p.m., I’d head to this sushi place in Studio City that I love called Sushi Tomoki that opens at 5:30. I like to get there right when it opens because it fills up so fast. And it’s so good, and the service is fast even when they’re packed.
7 p.m.: Take in a movie at Universal CityWalk
Since I’m in Studio City and my group of friends and I are all AMC Stubs A-List members, I’d go to Universal CityWalk to catch a movie. CityWalk is what it is, but it’s close to the sushi place. And the AMC theater there is really good. If you go with a bunch of friends, you can split the cost of parking. I love to talk about the movie afterward, so instead of just standing by the car talking about it, we can walk around [CityWalk] and talk about it. The last thing I saw there was “Paddington in Peru.”
10:30 p.m.: Tea time before bedtime
At this point it’s probably pretty late when I get home, so I’d probably drink some tea — I do a licorice or a ginger tea at night — shower and then read for a while. Or maybe do some journaling or doomscrolling in bed, depending on what my mood is. And hopefully fall asleep by midnight.
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Lifestyle
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Keiko Agena
Keiko Agena likes to create moments of coziness — not just on Sundays, but whenever she possibly can.
“Oh, there’s my rice cooker,” she says when she hears the sound in her Arts District home. “We’re making steel-cut oatmeal in the rice cooker, which by the way, is a game changer. I used to have to baby it and watch it, but now I can just put it in there and forget it.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
The 52-year-old actor, who played music-loving bestie Lane Kim in the beloved series “Gilmore Girls,” delights in specific comforts like a bowl of warm oats, talking about Enneagram numbers and watching cooking competitions with her husband, Shin Kawasaki.
“It sounds so simple, but I look forward so much to spending time on the couch,” Agena says with a laugh.
It is time that she’s intentional about protecting, especially amid her kaleidoscope of projects. Over the last couple of years, Agena starred in Lloyd Suh’s moving play “The Chinese Lady” in Atlanta, acted in Netflix’s “The Residence,” showcased her artwork in her first feature exhibit, “Hep Tones” (some of her ink and pencil drawings are still for sale), and performed regularly on the L.A. improv circuit. And her work endures with “Gilmore Girls,” which turns 25 this year. Agena narrated the audiobook for “Meet Me at Luke’s,” a guide that draws life lessons from the series, and is featured in the upcoming “Gilmore Girls” documentary “Drink Coffee, Talk Fast.”
She shares with us her perfect Sunday in L.A., which begins before sunrise.
5 a.m.: Morning solitude
I like to be up early-early, like 5 a.m. I like that feeling of everything being quiet. I’ll go into the other room and do Duolingo on my phone. I am a little addicted to social media, so the Duolingo is not just to learn Japanese, but also to keep me from scrolling. Like, if I’m going to do something on my phone, this is better for me. I think my streak is 146. Shin is Japanese, from Toyama. So I’ve been meaning to learn Japanese for a while. For him and his mom.
Then I’ll do [the writing practice] Morning Pages. I don’t know when I learned about Julia Cameron’s book [“The Artist’s Way”] — probably around 2000. I know a lot of people do it handwritten, but I’m a little paranoid about people, like, finding it after I die. So if I have it on my computer and it’s password protected, I can be really honest.
Then a lot of times, I’ll go back to bed. Shin, as a musician, works at night, and so he wakes up a lot later. So I’ll fall back asleep and wake up with him.
9 a.m.: Gimme that bread
I don’t do coffee anymore because it’s a little too tough for my system, but I’ll walk with Shin to Eightfold Coffee in the Arts District. It’s tiny but very chill. Then we’re going to Bliss Bakery inside the Little Tokyo Market Place. We get these tapioca bread balls. If you make any kind of sandwich that you would normally make, but use that bread instead, it ups the game. It’s life-changing. The Little Tokyo Market Place is not fancy or anything, but it has everything that you would want. There’s Korean food. They have a little sushi place in there. You can get premade Korean banchan and hot food in their hot food section. They also have a really good nuts section. It’s just one big table with all these nuts, just piles and piles.
10 a.m.: Nature without leaving the city
We’ll go to Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown. I like that place just because it’s very accessible. Like, they have accessible bathrooms and I’m always checking out whether a place has good bathrooms. We call it Flat Park because it’s a great walk. Like, you’re not really out in nature, but there’s a lot of greenery. You can take your shoes off and at least touch grass for a second.
11:30 a.m.: Lunch and TV cooking shows
One of my favorite salad-sandwich combos is at Cafe Dulce in Little Tokyo. A Korean cheesesteak and a kale salad. That’s always like a — bang, bang — good combo. So we might go there or Aloha Cafe, though it’s not fully open on Sundays. But I love it because I grew up in Hawaii. They have this great Chinese chicken salad and spam musubi and other Hawaiian food that is so good.
We’ll bring home food and watch something. Cooking competition shows are my cream of the crop. My favorite right now is “Tournament of Champions” because it’s blind tasting. To me, that’s the best way to do it. “The Great British Bake Off” is Shin’s favorite. He loves the nature and the accents as much as the actual cooking. He just loves the vibe, the slow pace of the whole thing.
I’m such a TV girl. I love spending time on the couch and eating a meal and watching something that’s appetizing with my favorite person in the world. I’m lucky because I get to do that a lot.
2 p.m.: Browse the aisles
I’ll go to this bookstore called Hennessey + Ingalls. I love art and architecture and design, but you can’t always buy these massive books. But you can go into this bookstore and look at them and it’s always chill.
If I have time, I’ll walk around art supply stores. Artist & Craftsman Supply is a good one. I’ll look at pens, pencils, stickers, tape, washi tape, different kinds of paper, charcoals. In my art, I try to find things that aren’t meant for that particular purpose, like little things in a hardware store that I’ll use it in a different way.
5 p.m.: Downtown L.A. in its glory
We really love to walk the Sixth Street Bridge. It’s architecturally beautiful and they’re building a huge park over there, so we’ll walk around and check it out, like, ‘Which trees are they planting? Can you see?’ We sort of dream about how it’s coming together. But the other beautiful thing about that walk is that if you go at sunset and you walk back toward downtown, it’s just gorgeous. Los Angeles doesn’t have the most majestic skyline, but it’s so picturesque in that moment.
6:30 p.m.: Cornbread and Enneagrams
I’ll head to the Park’s Finest in Echo Park. It’s Filipino barbecue. It’s just so savory and rich and a special hang. Their cornbread is really good. Oh, and the coconut beef, but I’m trying to eat less beef. They have a hot link medley. Oh my gosh, just looking at this menu right now, my mouth is watering. OK, I’ll stop.
One of my favorite things to do is ask friends about their Enneagram number. So the idea of sitting with friends over a good meal and asking them a bunch of personal questions about their childhood and what motivates them and what their parents were like and what their greatest fear is and then figure out what their Enneagram number is? That is a top-tier activity for me.
9 p.m.: Rally for improv
Because I get up so early, if 9 o’clock, I’m ready to go to sleep. But I am obsessed with improv, so on my ideal day, there’d be a show to do. There’s this place called World’s Greatest Improv School in Los Feliz. It’s tiny and they just opened a few years ago, but the vibe there is spectacular.
Then there’s another place where my heart is so invested in now called Outside In Theatre in Highland Park. Tamlyn Tomita and Daniel Blinkoff created it together and not only is the space gorgeous — I mean, they built it from scratch — they have interesting programming there all the time. They’re so supportive of communities that are not seen in mainstream art spaces. It’s my favorite place. Sometimes I’ll find myself in their lobby till 12 o’clock at night. The kind of people I like to hang around are the people that hang out in that space.
11 p.m.: Turn on the ASMR and shut down
I am firmly an ASMR girl and I have been for years. I have to find something to watch that will slow my brain down. Then it’s pretty consistent. I don’t last very long once I turn something on. My eyelids get heavy and it chills me out.
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