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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Charlie Puth

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Charlie Puth

When pop singer-songwriter Charlie Puth first began visiting Los Angeles in the early 2010s, he remembers landing at a house near Mount Olympus with an incredible view. Though he‘d only recently become a legal adult, he’d already built a following as a YouTuber, posting covers and singing intro songs for popular creators on the platform. That day in Laurel Canyon, he looked out over the sprawling metropolis.

“And in a very like ‘Entourage’ way, I was like, I will live here one day, and I will make it in the city,” he said.

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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.

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Fast-forward to today, the Grammy-nominated hitmaker has charted 13 Billboard Hot 100 songs, worked with everyone from Elton John to Selena Gomez and is considered underrated by the most famous pop star in the world. As of this week, he also has his own heavily-improvised six-episode Roku Original comedy series, “The Charlie Puth Show,” where the New Jersey-native parodies the absurdity of the entertainment industry.

“We poke fun at that the egregious, unapologetic agents saying, ‘You’ve sold millions of records, but it’s time to do a reality show,’ ” he said.

And up until a recent move to Santa Barbara, Puth fulfilled his dream of living in Los Angeles, where he still often spends Sundays chasing caloric Valhalla and doing “the opposite” of his job so he “can remain sane.” Below, the “Hero” singer shares his ideal Sunday in Los Angeles.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

7 a.m.: Rise and sweat

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I’m waking up. I walk down either Carla Ridge or run up Loma Vista, up in Trousedale [Estates], and get exhausted. That’s about an hour. Just get a good sweat.

8 a.m.: One shake, two shake

I immediately cancel out that wonderful workout with a big breakfast burrito from Dialog [Cafe] and a date shake. But I’m not going to Dialog. I’m Postmating it and tipping my driver well.

I’m very hungry. I’ve just run up a huge mountain, so I’m eating that and simultaneously ordering the Paul Saladino raw shake from Erewhon. The meat one. I love that shake. And I always get a bone broth from Erewhon, too. So the day hasn’t even started, and I’ve spent an absurd amount of money on ordered food. I’m living in La La Land.

9 a.m.: Pool hang

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I take a shower, and if it’s nice out, I’m fortunate enough to have a pool, and jump in that. Maybe see what a couple friends are doing.

10:30 a.m.: Group brain rot

I love having company over. I’ll call my friend Adam, I’ll call my friend Jeff, who works at my record label, and we will just watch brain-rot TikToks.

You don’t want to know stuff that I show my wife. Brooke [Sansone]’s, like: ‘I don’t even know what kind of response I can garner up for this.’ I’m looking at a meatball — and it has two eyeballs on it, like Stick Stickly from Nickelodeon. And it says “Meatball Martin is calling you.” And there’s a sound of like an iPhone ringing. And that’s the TikTok. My friends and I just die laughing. [We can spend] easily, nine hours [doing that]. We’ll start to get headaches from being on our phones too much.

I hope you weren’t thinking that, ‘Oh, I go up Runyon Canyon or Fryman Canyon, where I go to the Getty. I go to Zuma Beach. I go to the Greystone Mansion or I go down to South Central and get some really great homemade brisket. Or we go to Woon on the East side, Silver Lake and then at night, dancing.’ I know all those amazing places exist. I go to all those places during the week. It’s just Sunday, and so I just want to be home.

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12 p.m.: Get him to the Greek

It’s Sunday, so we’re ordering Matū cheesesteaks in Beverly Hills. Right on the dot at noon. It’s a delicious option for lunch. And if we’re feeling adventurous, we will take the car and go down to Go Greek on Bedford [Drive] and just get an after-cheesesteak yogurt. It’s an upscale frozen Greek yogurt place. It’s a local place and it is really good.

[Building a yogurt cup] starts healthy, but then come the gummy worms and the chocolate chips.

3 p.m.: Mall crawl

I’ll put on a little hat, some sunglasses and we’ll run to the Westfield Mall down in Century City. We’re moving slow, a lot of food’s in us.

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It’s the best mall ever. We don’t even buy anything. We just walk around. Walking is such a reward after going through that insane parking garage to get into that mall. I just like to be among the people and not get noticed and not have it be a big deal. It kind of grounds me.

We’ll probably stay there for like 45 minutes and then take the car to Silver Lake, where the real eats are at.

5:00 p.m.: The feast continues

We go to Burgers Never Say Die. They have soft serve too. I’ll get chocolate vanilla swirl with a side of four burgers and cheese sauce. They have really good cheese sauce there. I don’t know how they do it. Actually, yes, I do. I know how they do it. They fry their french fries in beef tallow, which is what McDonald’s used to do, and that’s why they taste so crispy and nice.

That’s when I take my hat off, because we’re in Silver Lake, and you see everybody doing the same thing as me and my buddies. So we’ll just eat that on the hood of the car.

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7:00 p.m.: Artisanal Diet Coke and a movie

Then we’ll, you know, we’re in L.A., so we’re driving a lot. And if it’s not too traffick-y, which it shouldn’t be, we’ll hit the 405 and get off at the Palisades. And there’s actually a movie theater in the Palisades Village. The last thing I saw there was “Tick, Tick… Boom!” with Andrew Garfield. [Sings “Come to Your Senses”]

They have really, really good Diet Coke there. It just remains crispy. It’s way different than having it out of the can, fresher than the bottle. It’s mixed within the machine. And it just remains spicy. I drink Diet Cokes by the sleeve. It’s like, I’m a Pez dispenser of Diet Coke.

9 p.m.: Evening snack

Since we’re on the West side, we might as well. If we’re still hungry, we’ll go to Eduardo’s [Border Grill], which is a really, really wonderful burrito spot.

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9:45 p.m.: Fourth dessert

Then we’re ending the evening with more ice cream. We’re going to the Bigg Chill in Westwood. I love Los Angeles. Living in Los Angeles changed my life. It also changed my weight.

Anybody reading this, you can eat whatever you want in Los Angeles, you can go to Matsuhisa. You can do your Nobu. You can do anything you want, as long as you run up Loma Vista. That’s how you burn the cals.

10 p.m.: Demo tape drive

After that, we are driving around looking at all the nice houses in either Hancock Park or on Beverly in Beverly Hills, just listening to demos. A lot of my friends are in the music industry, so we’re just listening to what songs are coming out, what songs they’re working on, what songs I’m working on. All my records are basically mixed in the car, even if the sound system is a little wonky, I still want to hear it on a car stereo sound system, because that’s how people are going to listen to the music.

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That’s the great thing about L.A., is that you can just remain inspired, because there’s creatives all around.

I don’t know a ton about Hancock Park, but I do admire how the streets are kind of an S-shape curve. And I did research on it one day. Why are the streets like that? [It’s] so people don’t drive quickly. That’s how it was designed a really long time ago. They could have easily made the road straight, but it’s more dramatic for the road to be an S-shaped curve, I guess.

11 p.m.: ‘Toks and Sopranos

Anticipating that Monday is going to be a pretty busy day, I try get back home at like 11 to shine the night off with some last-minute brain rot ’Toks. And say goodbye to my friends and watch “Sopranos” with my wife. I think James Gandolfini is one of the best actors of our time. May he rest in peace.

It’s a series that I can watch over and over and over again, because it’s based on where I’m from, New Jersey, so I feel some sort of affection towards it. It’s just seeing the intro of Elizabeth, N.J., which is what you see when you land at Newark Airport and all the factories. There’s something that is just very reminiscent of home, even though I didn’t live at the factory.

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12 a.m.: Bedtime

I do my best to just not look at the phone, but it never works. I’m sure I get 30% less great sleep. But that’s a wonderful Sunday to me. Sunday full of relaxation.

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N.F.L. Style Will Never Beat N.B.A. Style

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N.F.L. Style Will Never Beat N.B.A. Style

You want to see some real fashion ingenuity? Watch the N.F.L. draft.

I’m not saying it’s all good, but where else are you going to see someone in a double-breasted suit made by a company better known for making yoga pants? Or an Abercrombie & Fitch suit jacket so short that it exposes the belt loops on the pants beneath?

On the whole, the style on display at the N.F.L. draft last night was very overeager senior formal: a lot of suits in colors beyond basic blue. The quarterback Ty Simpson wore a custom suit by the athleisure label Alo, which, I have to say, looked better than I would have envisioned had you said the words “Alo Yoga suit” to me.

I thought it might have been from Suitsupply, but the conspicuous “Alo” pin on his right lapel put that idea to rest. Simpson, smartly, unfastened that beacon before appearing onstage as the 13th pick to the Los Angeles Rams. He had, perhaps, satisfied his contractual obligations by that point.

Earlier in the evening, as the wide receiver Carnell Tate threw up his arms in exaltation after being picked fourth by the Tennessee Titans, his cropped Abercrombie & Fitch jacket revealed a swatch of rib cage. He looked like a mâitre d’ who had just hit the Mega Millions.

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During the N.B.A.’s extended fashion awakening, its draft has become a sandbox for luxury brands to cozy up to would-be endorsers. The Frenchman Victor Wembanyama broke a kind of cashmere ceiling when he wore Louis Vuitton to go first overall in the 2023 N.B.A. draft.

The N.F.L. draft has none of that. The brands you see are often not brands at all, but custom tailors that reach the league’s neophytes through a whisper network among players. The draft is also a platform to raise the curtain on longer-term brand deals that better suit these rookies. We may, for instance, never see Simpson in a suit again. Nearly every photo from his time at Alabama shows him in a T-shirt or hoodie. It makes sense for him to sign with Alo.

Football is the most mainstream of American cultural entities. And it’s one that still hasn’t, in spite of the league’s best efforts, taken off overseas. Few players, save some quarterbacks and a tight end who happens to be engaged to a pop star, feel bigger than the game itself. If you’re a new-to-the-league linebacker, you’ll most likely never harness the star power to grab the attention of Armani, but you might have just the right pull for Abercrombie.

The N.F.L. draft is therefore one of the few red carpets where the brands worn by the athletes may also be worn by those watching at home. How many people watching the Oscars will ever own clothes from Louis Vuitton or Chanel? People may comment online about Lady Gaga wearing Matières Fécales to the Grammys, but how many of those fans and viewers could afford to buy clothes from it?



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Yesterday, I published a deep dive into how a newish crop of Japanese designers are soaking up all the attention in men’s fashion right now. This was a piece I was writing in my head long before I sat down and finally started typing. I remember sitting at a fashion show in Paris over a year ago — I believe it was Dior — and being asked by my seatmate if I’d made it over to a showroom in the Marais to check out A.Presse. That Tokyo-based brand is now part of a vanguard of Japanese labels that, on many days, seems to be all anyone in fashion wants to talk about. I spent months talking with designers, store owners and big-time shoppers to make sense of why these brands have kicked up so much buzz and, more than that, what makes their clothes so great. You can read the story here.


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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tig Notaro

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tig Notaro

Thirty years ago, comedian and actor Tig Notaro didn’t have a clear direction in life, so she followed some childhood friends who wanted to get into entertainment to Los Angeles. Secretly wanting to do stand-up, Notaro decided to try her luck at various outlets in town, which became the start of her successful career.

“I stayed on my friends’ couch near the Hollywood Improv on Melrose, and a couple months later, got my own studio apartment in the Miracle Mile area,” Notaro says. “I love all the options for everything in L.A. — the entertainment, the restaurants. I like to stay active. So many people love the hiking options in Los Angeles, and I’m one of them.”

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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.

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Notaro appears in Season 3 of Apple TV’s “The Morning Show” and is a series regular on Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” as she was on “Star Trek: Discovery.” She’s also a touring stand-up comic and hosts “Handsome,” a comedy podcast, with Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin. The trio will be taping a live show May 4 at the Wiltern with the cast of Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives.” The live shows include interviews, but also “incorporate some ridiculous things,” she says. For example, upon hearing that some of the hosts always wanted to learn to tap dance, Notaro “hired a tap instructor to come to our live show in Austin and teach us how to tap dance in front of the audience.”

Notaro lives near Hollywood with her wife, actor Stephanie Allynne, their 9-year-old fraternal twin boys, Max and Finn, and three cats, Fluff, Linus and Skip. When she’s not touring, her ideal Sundays include sampling vegan restaurants, wandering through bookstores or museums, and doing something physically active with the family.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

6 a.m.: Up with the kids

Because we have active children, we still wake up at 6 a.m. or 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, but there’s not as much of a rush to get going. Stephanie and I will often have coffee and chat in the living room together. I love that part of the day. Stephanie may cook breakfast, but Max and Finn are pretty self-sufficient and can make certain little meals for themselves. Max is really starting to take an interest in cooking, so he’d make breakfast for himself. Our family is vegan, but he eats eggs, so he makes himself an egg sandwich with avocado a lot of times.

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9 a.m.: Daily morning walk

After breakfast, we usually have a morning walk around our neighborhood. That’s a daily thing I like to do, regardless of what’s going on. Now that I’m not touring as much, tennis is back on the schedule. So I’d go to Plummer Park in West Hollywood and play for a while, then join the family for lunch.

11:30 a.m.: Hike with a side of chickpea sandwich

I love Trails, a cafe in Griffith Park, where you can eat outdoors. It serves simple food, and has good vegan options. I usually get their chickpea salad sandwich. The food there is great. Afterward, we’d visit Griffith Observatory, where there’s lots to see. There are lots of great trails in the park, so we’d go for an hour hike before leaving.

3 p.m.: Browse the shelves for rock biographies

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Bookstores are fun, so we’d head downtown for the Last Bookstore, which is in a historic building with lots of vintage books. I really love all things plant-based, and I’m a very big music fanatic. So I love to look for vegan books, nutrition books, rock biographies and autobiographies. It’s just fun to browse around the stacks.

If we didn’t go to the bookstore, we’d probably go to LACMA. Our sons are huge fans of art and want to go for each new exhibit. They love Hockney, Basquiat and Picasso, to name a few.

4 p.m.: Cuddle with cuties at a cat cafe

We’d then make a quick stop at [Crumbs & Whiskers], a kitten and cat cafe on Melrose for coffee, snacks and to pet the cats. It’s best to make reservations in advance. There’s cats all around the place that need to be adopted. You can visit and pet them, or find a new roommate. I’d love to take some home, but we already have three.

5:30 p.m. Italian or sushi, but make it vegan

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We’re an early dinner family. One restaurant we like is Pura Vita in West Hollywood. It’s the greatest vegan Italian food, and for non-vegans, nobody ever knows the difference. It’s the first 100% plant-based Italian restaurant in the United States. They make an incredible kale salad and I love the San Gennaro pizza. It’s got cashew mozzarella, tomato sauce, Italian sausage crumble and more.

Then there’s Planta in Marina del Rey. It’s right on the harbor and you can sit outside and look at the boats coming in and out. They have sushi, salads and other plant-based entrees. They’ve got a really great spicy tuna roll that’s made out of watermelon. They are magicians.

Or there’s Crossroads Kitchen in West Hollywood. They play the best classic rock, and the atmosphere is upscale, fine dining. The appetizers that we always get are called Moroccan Cigars, which are vegan meat substitutes fried in a rolled batter. I really like the grilled lion’s mane steak, their mushroom steak with truffle potatoes, or the scallopini Milanese, that has a chicken or tofu option. I get the chicken with arugula on top. I always love to have a decaf espresso with dessert, which is either a brownie sundae or banana pudding.

7:30 p.m.: Comfort watch or word games

After dinner, the kids often like to watch an episode of “Friends,” a show that all ages enjoy, sports or “The Simpsons.” Or we’d play a game where each of us will add a word to a sentence and create a weird or funny long sentence until one of our sons says period. Then they’ll try and remember the whole sentence and repeat it back.

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9:30 p.m.: Bubble bath then bed

The boys usually go to bed at 8:30 p.m. and bedtime for us is 9:30 p.m. Stephanie and I would read or chat. I like to take a bubble bath, if people must know. The best Sundays for me mean finding a good balance of relaxing and being active. I feel very lucky that my family and I can do those things together.

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It Started with a Midnight Swim and a Kiss Under the Stars

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It Started with a Midnight Swim and a Kiss Under the Stars

When Marian Sherry Lurio and Jonathan Buffington Nguyen met at a mutual friend’s wedding at Higgins Lake, Mich., in July 2022, both felt an immediate chemistry. As the evening progressed, they sat on the shore of the lake in Adirondack chairs under the stars, where they had their first kiss before joining others for a midnight plunge.

The two learned that the following weekend Ms. Lurio planned to attend a wedding in Philadelphia, where Mr. Nguyen lives, and before they had even exchanged numbers, they already had a first date on the books.

“I have a vivid memory of after we first met,” Mr. Nguyen said, “just feeling like I really better not screw this up.”

Before long, they were commuting between Philadelphia and New York City, where Ms. Lurio lives, spending weekends and the odd remote work days in one another’s apartments in Philadelphia and Manhattan. Within the first six months of dating, Mr. Nguyen joined Ms. Lurio’s family for Thanksgiving in Villanova, Pa., and, the following month, she met his family in Beavercreek, Ohio, at a surprise birthday party for Mr. Nguyen’s mother.

Ms. Lurio, 32, who grew up in Merion Station outside Philadelphia, works in investor relations administration at Flexpoint Ford, a private equity firm. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in history and psychology.

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Mr. Nguyen, also 32, was born in Knoxville, Tenn., and raised in Beavercreek, Ohio, from the age of 7. He graduated from Haverford College with a bachelor’s degree in political science and is now a director at Doyle Real Estate Advisors in Philadelphia.

Their long-distance relationship continued for the next few years. There were dates in Manhattan, vacations and beach trips to the Jersey Shore. They attended sporting events and discovered their shared appreciation of the 2003 film, “Love Actually.”

One evening, Mr. Nguyen recalled looking around Ms. Lurio’s small New York studio — strewed with clothes and the takeout meal they had ordered — and feeling “so comfortable and safe.” “I knew that this was something different than just sort of a fling,” he said.

It was an open question when they would move in together. In 2024, Ms. Lurio began the process of moving into Mr. Nguyen’s home in Philadelphia — even bringing her cat, Scott — but her plans changed midway when an opportunity arose to expand her role with her current employer.

Mr. Nguyen was on board with her decision. “It almost feels like stolen valor to call it ‘long distance,’ because it’s so easy from Philadelphia to New York,” Mr. Nguyen said. “The joke is, it’s easier to get to Philly from New York than to get to some parts of Brooklyn from Manhattan, right?”

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In January 2025, Mr. Nguyen visited Ms. Lurio in New York with more up his sleeve than spending the weekend. Together they had discussed marriage and bespoke rings, but when Mr. Nguyen left Ms. Lurio and an unfinished cheese plate at the bar of the Chelsea Hotel that Friday evening, she had no idea what was coming next.

“I remember texting Jonathan,” Ms. Lurio said, bewildered: “‘You didn’t go toward the bathroom!’” When a Lobby Bar server came and asked her to come outside, Ms. Lurio still didn’t realize what was happening until she was standing in the hallway, where Mr. Nguyen stood recreating a key moment from the film “Love Actually,” in which one character silently professes his love for another in writing by flashing a series of cue cards. There, in the storied Chelsea Hotel hallway still festooned with Christmas decorations, Mr. Nguyen shared his last card that said, “Will you marry me?”

They wed on April 11 in front of 200 guests at the Pump House, a covered space on the banks of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River. Mr. Nguyen’s sister, the Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen, who is ordained through the Unitarian Universalist Association, officiated.

Although formal attire was suggested, Ms. Lurio said that the ceremony was “pretty casual.” She and Jonathan got ready together, and their families served as their wedding parties.

“I said I wanted a five-minute wedding,” Ms. Lurio recalled, though the ceremony ended up lasting a little longer than that. During the ceremony, Ms. Nguyen read a homily and jokingly added that guests should not ask the bride and groom about their living arrangements, which will remain separate for the foreseeable future.

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While watching Ms. Lurio walk down the aisle, flanked by her parents, Mr. Nguyen said he remembered feeling at once grounded in the moment and also a sense of dazed joy: “Like, is this real? I felt very lucky in that moment — and also just excited for the party to start!”

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