You'd be hard-pressed to find someone with deeper local roots than Los Angeles-born Cheech Marin, who turned a '70s stoner comedy (as half of the duo Cheech & Chong) into a six-decade (and counting) film and television ). career, becoming a high-profile Chicano art collector along the way, all while living in the greater Los Angeles area.
To find out what the third-generation Angeleno's ideal Sunday would look like, we met him for lunch at one of his dining out options (Casa Nostra Ristorante in Pacific Palisades), where he painted a picture (see what we did there?) including voracious reading, multimedia multitasking, and performance salons with his wife Natasha, a classically trained pianist. (And yes, accompanied by many bowls of herbs, but always outside!)
In Sunday Funday, the people of Los Angeles tell us step by step their ideal Sunday in the city. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
In a nod to his upcoming role (as a battle-scarred World War II veteran) in the 1950s golf movie “The Long Game” (out April 12), here's a lineup Sunday locale I call “The Long Day” — Cheech selected to be a hole in one. However, you won't see one of Marin's most treasured must-sees, the Riverside Art Museum's Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture, in the following combination because it's in Riverside. but it comes highly Recommended, obviously.
7:30 am Light a bowl of soup
I wake up at the same time every day no matter where I am (7:30) and on a Sunday, one of the ideal things I would look for is to eat a bowl of Menudo. If I think it's going to take me a long time to get some Menudo, I'll have some Mexican soup I made the night before, usually meatballs or posole. The problem is that around here there is no good place to get Menudo. I lived on the north end of Malibu for about 40 years and it was easy to go from there to Oxnard to get it. There is a place called The glory right off the highway which has a great Menu. Living [in the Palisades] is more difficult. You're further away and then it's like you have to go to Mexico.
Then, after my morning shower, I meditate: I do Transcendental Meditation for 20 minutes twice a day, every day. I've been doing it since I was 19 years old.
8:30 to.meter. Light a plate of herbs
Then I go outside, look at the ocean, and light a bowl. I have this Gandalf[-style] pipe that our company [Cheech & Chong Glass] brands. I always tell them to send me 10 because[‘re glass and they] break.
9 am Browse the Sunday shows and stack the newspapers.
I turn on the news because it's Sunday when they can corral all these politicians on CNN, PBS, BBC and “Meet the Press.” [on NBC]. The only one I don't see is Fox: at 77 years old, I have only a few years left to live. I'll follow a guy who'll be in three [different] shows and [think,] “Are you telling the same lie or different lies? Oh, different lies. Interesting!” I also get two newspapers, the New York Times and the LA Times, and I stack them and go through them section by section as I watch. [TV].
11:30 am Pick up a guitar
So I'll be reading the papers and watching the shows at the same time and then, “Oh, there must be a game on somewhere,” so… another bowl! Then I head to my office, which has a great ocean view and where all my guitars and ukuleles are lined up (I have 13 guitars and about seven or eight ukuleles) and turn on whatever game is there. I'm a Lakers, Dodgers and Rams fan, but sometimes I watch a game and I don't even care if it looks like a good game and I play while I do it.
I have a giant collection of songbooks (hundreds of them) and I'll work on what I'm trying to learn while I watch. Right now I'm working on a reggae arrangement of a Paul Simon song called “I Do It for Your Love.”
At halftime, I go out and have another bowl, and then, since it's Sunday and I've successfully evaded any chores, I can read whatever book I'm reading at the time. I am about to start this brand new novel by a Mexican author, “You Dreamed of Empires” by Álvaro Enrigue, about when Cortés arrives. [and meets] Montezuma. Or, if I have an unread Walter Mosley book in the stack, I could read it or one of Daniel Silva's series about Gabriel Allon: the character is an Israeli assassin.
12:15 pm Motor to a movie
Sunday is a good day to go see a movie, so [Natasha and I] I would probably go to [Westfield] city of the century, which is great because it has a lot of movies and a lot of restaurants. Then we'll just play roulette. We just saw “Argylle” there.
3:30 pm Earn points at California Pizza Kitchen
If we're not too hungry, we'll just go to the food court, but if I really want to score some points, or if I have an ulterior motive, I'll take my wife to California Pizza Cuisine. She loves it there because she has food for children. and a full bar. They have spaghetti bolognese that is delicious because they cook the pasta perfectly. It is a very light tomato sauce with very little meat.
4pm Come in to pick up some codpieces
We could quickly pass by some of the clothing stores on the way out; I like Levi's. I'm a 501 guy. I have a technique for that button: Phhhhht! [makes a swift, one-handed unbuttoning motion]. That would be practically an afternoon. [After that,] We usually went home; Many times, my wife is working on a piece of music that she is going to play, so I go back to watch a game. Or if there is part of the newspaper that I have saved for later, which is usually the case, I go to my special reading room, the one with the cover on the seat, and finish reading and listen to her rehearse.
4:30 pm Stop by the store.
We could stop by the store on the way home if I have to pick up some ingredients for the dinner I'm making. one of the dishes [I like to make] It’s Marbella chicken from “The Silver Palate Cookbook.” The ingredients are chicken (obviously), usually thighs, prunes, Spanish olives, capers, onions, all the accompanying spices and then a good dose of wine and brown sugar on top when you bake it. Forks spectacular.
5:15 pm Stop for a 20-minute meditation break.
I will usually meditate a second time before I start cooking or whatever the evening's activities are.
6 pm Smoke a bowl, drink some bourbon, and make a dinner plan.
If I'm making dinner, it must be plate time! And I like bourbon, so I'll pick one I like (I'm drinking some Woodford Reserve Double Oaked right now), pour it into a glass with a large ice cube, and then go make dinner. Or if we go out to dinner nearby on a Sunday night, it will be Our House Restaurant — minestrone soup and papardelle d'antra [pasta in a duck ragout] are good – or sushi-moku; they almost always have new universities, with an emphasis on “fresh.”
6:30 pm Sunday hall scenario
I like to play the guitar as much as possible, so there is usually a part of Sunday where we both play music, her on the piano and me on the guitar. We even have a little cabaret act we put on called How Did This Guy Get That Girl? And sometimes on Sundays we have these rooms in our house. Usually it will be some hungry Russian traveling musician who stops by and stays with us. We will put together a program that could include a world-class violinist and Natasha will play. And I'll have some Chicano artists appear beforehand. [the performance] and show your work. If we do that, we will prepare dinner or order Russian food. [from Traktir in West Hollywood].
10:30 p.m. Watch “The West Wing” before 40 winks
On Sundays, I usually go to bed between 10 and 11 and watch some TV beforehand. I like watching “60 Minutes” and I am a big fan of “Ancient Aliens.” Maybe we'll watch a movie if I can keep my wife awake, because she's been rehearsing all day, but we're also about to finish watching “The West Wing.” [for the first time]. It's one of the best written shows I've ever seen.
