movie night

In “The Paper,” the much anticipated mockumentary spinoff to “The Office,” Alex Edelman plays intrepid accountant/reporter Adam Cooper, part of the team tasked with reviving local newspaper “The Toledo Truth-Teller.” Edelman was also a writer and consulting producer for the show, which premieres on Peacock on Sept. 4 with all 10 episodes, and says the project gave him “the thing that is rarest in Los Angeles”: routine.

“It was a really wonderful routine,” he adds.

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.

Of course, routines must end and new routines must be created. Edelman, who won an Obie and a Special Tony for his stand-up show “Just For Us,” about attending a meeting of Nazis as an Orthodox Jew (it became the HBO original comedy special “Alex Edelman: Just For Us,” for which he won an Emmy), is back on the road and adding new dates for his current show, “What Are You Going to Do.” In his spare time, he’s working on a nonfiction book, “I Don’t Belong Here.”

The perfect Sunday, for Edelman, is always a little bit different, with currents of consistency woven through. (He calls himself a “recommendation machine,” which feels accurate.) There’s always a hike. There are always friends involved. There’s always food. There are plenty of laughs. But for all the tried-and-true recs, novelty is important too. “I guess my headline is, Sunday’s the day to try new things,” he says.

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

7 a.m.: Wake up and go on a coffee walk
On the weekends, I like to walk. The only thing left to do on planet Earth apparently is to get coffee. Do you know that our whole lives revolve around a series of silly little coffees? I only drink espresso drinks, which is a fact about me, which is very boring. I might walk between coffee stations, like a man journeying between oases. I’ll walk down and I’ll get to All Time and be like, do I want a coffee here or can I make it to Maru? And when I get to Maru, do I get a coffee here? Or can I make it to Camel? And then I’ll make it to Camel, which apparently is now called Handles? And I’m like, do I get a coffee here or do I go to Dinosaur? And then, do I do a coffee here or do I go to Tartine or LaLo in Silver Lake or Lamill, which is also in Silver Lake. It feels like a long time, but that’s only about an hour walk.

I might get some breakfast too. I like Telegrama or Friends and Family — a favorite there is the olive oil eggs. I spend a lot of my money at All Time. I like to get the thing they call “the B.O.A.T.” I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s really good.

8 a.m.: Get in a bit of writing
I like to park myself at Telegrama or Maru; you can find a little corner and really groove.

10 a.m.: Hike and have an adventure
I’m a keen weekend hiker. And I have hiking buddies. My friend [TV writer] Jenji [Kohan] and I started to do a thing in the pandemic where every weekend we would go hike somewhere and eat somewhere. I’ll hike with Jenji or my friend Rebecca or my friend Morgan. We’ll get after it. You hike with someone, you complain. It’s a lot of fun.

There are some really, really gorgeous hikes around Los Angeles. I use AllTrails to keep track of them. If we’re doing a hike out of town, we’ll go up to Santa Barbara or down into Orange County for one of the heavy beach hikes. Or any hikes with the word “Punchbowl” in them. And we’ll go to Charlie Brown Farms right afterwards.

We hike and eat and there’s always an adventure in there. We use the Atlas Obscura and go check out things, like, I heard there’s this weird store where this guy who makes things out of pop tabs or whatever it is. One of my favorite things is just getting to look at a little midcentury modern house I’ll never be able to afford. If there’s a house by Lautner or Neutra or Frank Lloyd Wright, sometimes we’ll take a schlep just for the house, to even just see from the street. One of the hikes in Malibu, Solstice, has an old Paul Williams house. It’s like a ruin.

1 p.m.: Lunchtime
We like going into the San Gabriel Valley and eating at Chengdu Taste in Alhambra or Bistro Na’s. I can’t eat pork or shellfish, so whatever falls within the electric fence, my lapsing Judaism. Whenever we drive south for a hike, we like to go to Pho 79 in the Anaheim area, or Garden Grove maybe. And I get something vegetarian or chicken or something like that.

2:30 p.m.: Thrifting and a snack
The thrift stores in Pasadena, those places are so good. Downtown, we always stop at the old mochi spot, Fugetsu-Do. They’ve been around for 117 years, even longer. I think they opened in 1903. On Sundays, sometimes the line can be long, but it’s worth waiting in. I like the regular rainbow-colored, strawberry-stained stuff. A thousand percent fruity or candy and no gelatin because of my Judaism.

4 p.m.: Catching up on books
Since we’re downtown, I’ll stop by the Last Bookstore. I also really love Skylight. And I love a used bookstore. I love a browse.

I like reading and listening to music on a Sunday. For a while, I was rationing out my friend Taffy Akner’s last book, “Long Island Compromise.” I’d read a couple of chunks every Sunday until I ran out. I just bought a couple of plays by Kimberly Bellflower and Noah Haidle. And I am reading Carrie Courogen’s “Miss May Does Not Exist” about Elaine May, who I worship and actually met once at a friend’s house.

7 p.m.: Pizza and movie night at Phil’s
I have a friend, Phil, who sometimes makes Sunday his movie night. His house has a little pizza oven. Phil will have pizza made in the style of the pizza from Mozza, which he loves. And we’ll watch movies on a projector. I watched “A New Leaf” there and enjoyed it very much, speaking of Elaine May.

9:30 p.m.: A stand-up set
Late in the day, my favorite thing to do is stand-up comedy. There are a lot of good places to perform in Los Angeles. So I’d do a late spot at the Comedy Store, the Lyric Hyperion, Laugh Factory or Dynasty Typewriter.

11 p.m.: Late-night meal
I’m out late, especially for Los Angeles. And there’s nowhere to eat very late at night in Los Angeles, unless you’re going to venture into Koreatown, where there’s Dan Sung Sa. I love to eat late and hey, we’re four meals deep, but that’s fine. Or Canter’s is open until 11:30 on Sunday. And Same Same Thai on Sunset is open until 11. They do something called khao soi, which is really hard to find in a lot of places. So I’ll sometimes get a really late night khao soi.

12 a.m.: Scrolling, reading, maybe a phone call or two
I’m up for a bit. I watch, I’ll scroll. I’ll scroll until I drift off, which I shouldn’t. Or I’ll call friends in London who are just waking up, stand-up comics. My friend Josie Long was in Glasgow, and sometimes I’ll call her, or I’ll catch my friend Isobel, who’s a composer, who’s in Europe all the time. But in my ideal situation, I’m asleep by 1. I’ll read this book by Lizzy Goodman called “Meet Me in the Bathroom,” or I’ll listen to this podcast called “Search Engine” by PJ Vogt, and sort of drift off.

The 24th summer of movies under the stars at Hollywood Forever Cemetery will begin Memorial Day weekend when Cinespia screens “The Big Lebowski” on May 24.

The next night comes a 30th anniversary presentation of “Clueless,” followed by a May 31 screening of “Blue Velvet” and tribute to director David Lynch, who died in January.

Cinespia, which is teaming with Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video to present the summer series, is selling tickets now for those three shows. The organization hasn’t released the rest of the schedule yet, but typically screens about 30 movies per year at Hollywood Forever and other venues including the Greek Theatre and Los Angeles Historic Park, ending around Halloween.

At Hollywood Forever, the final resting place of Hollywood and music stars such as Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Johnny Ramone, films are projected onto a mausoleum wall and moviegoers sit and sprawl on the cemetery’s Fairbanks Lawn (an open area with no graves). Movie nights usually feature DJs before and after the show, along with free photo booths featuring scenes inspired by films.

The Cinespia shows at Hollywood Forever typically cost $29.99 per adult and attract up to 4,000 guests, who are allowed to bring their own blankets, food, and drinks (including beer and wine). The setup includes concession stands and a beer and wine bar. Parking fees on those nights run $24 to $36.

The Cinespia organization was born in 2002, when its first cemetery screening was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 thriller “Strangers on a Train.”

“The Big Lebowski” (1998), which starred Jeff Bridges, was directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. “Clueless” (1995), a teen comedy, starred Alicia Silverstone and was directed by Amy Heckerling. “Blue Velvet” (1986) was written and directed by Lynch. It starred Kyle MacLachan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern.

With a toddler, a Shih Tzu and several chickens, actor Poppy Liu has a full house.

“I’m raising so many beings,” said the “Hacks” star, who recently appeared in the Netflix drama series “No Good Deed” and will star alongside Tessa Thompson in the streamer’s upcoming series “His and Hers.”

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 love having chickens because it feels grounding to eat eggs from my own backyard,” she explained. “I was really devastated when two of them got picked off by coyotes. I was concerned about the mental health of the third one. It’s like, ‘At this point, you’re my pet. I’m concerned that you have depression.’”

When we speak, the hyper-organized, bullet journal-loving Liu has already planned her perfect Sunday down to the hour. “I put together a schedule,” she prefaced. “Normally I might do this over the course of two days, but I’m going to do it all in one very ambitious Sunday.”

In a departure from many of the other new parents interviewed for this column, Liu chose to imagine a perfect Sunday with “robust child care” that she would spend largely alone. “My day would look really different if it was a full day with my toddler,” she said. “It would be a lot of the parks that we go to, the baby gym, Descanso Gardens and stuff like that. But I actually decided to do my solo day because I feel really private about my toddler, and I want to preserve all the parks we go to. I really like that we can be there, just the two of us, kind of incognito.”

On the agenda for Liu’s perfect solo Sunday? “Exciting” fruit, acupuncture and multiple sweet drinks.

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

8:30 a.m.: Wake up with baby

Right now, my baby is going through a bit of sleep regression because I was out of town for a little bit. So now that I’m back, they’re very, very clingy, which I think is so cute, and so we’ve been co-sleeping. They love to wake up and then turn to look at me and just hold my face in their little hands and go, “Mama.” You can see the relief when they wake up; there’s a moment of disorientation and then they turn around and see me and they’re like, “Ah.” We just lay on the pillow, just smiling [at each other].

10 a.m.: Window shop while enjoying a fresh smoothie

On Figueroa Street in Highland Park there’s a smoothie stand called Tropical Juice LA where I love to go to get a green juice or some kind of smoothie. And because Figueroa has a ton of cute little shops on it, I just get my little juice and walk around. I’m often going to Wasteland or the Bearded Beagle to go thrifting. Kitchen Mouse is there, which is good for a coffee, breakfast and to meet a friend. Cookbook has a nice wine selection, and there’s a florist right next to Tropical Juice LA for when I get fresh flowers. It’s a nice walking street.

10:30 a.m.: Personal training

I then go to see my personal trainer at South Pas Fitness. It’s a 10-minute drive from the juice place. Her name is Nailah Jamerson; she’s amazing. I’ve been seeing her for a year now. Usually we just do weights, and if I see her twice in a week, I’ll do an upper-body day and a lower-body day. When she asked me what my goals are, I was like, “I want to be toned, but also I want a huge butt. Like fattest ass, tiniest waist.”

11:30 a.m.: Acupuncture recovery

Right after, I see my acupuncturist, because I’ve trained, my muscles are sore and now I want to relax them. My acupuncturist, who I love, her name is Sau Sum and she’s at Dear Song Acupuncture in Pasadena. She’s such an empath and very intuitive too.

I feel like she’s very much a healer in the real sense. Every single time she checks all the things: looks at my tongue, checks my pulse, looks at my complexion — all of it — but also mentally and emotionally [checks] where I’m at too. We’ll have two-hour-long sessions sometimes. She’ll do acupuncture, cupping, moxa — which is the cigar [therapy incorporating burning mugwort] over acupressure points. One week I missed [talk] therapy and she ended up being my therapist. I was talking to her and ended up crying a bunch. And I was like, “Oh, this is what I needed in therapy.”

1 p.m.: Quick bite at Amara Café

Right next to my acupuncturist’s place in Pasadena is this really, really yummy Venezuelan place called Amara Café. They’re a mom-and-pop shop. I didn’t know what Venezuelan food was before [I started going here], but it’s awesome. It’s hearty but also kind of snack-ish, and there’s a lot of “stuff inside of a thing that you can hold,” which I love. I don’t even know the names of the dishes, but they have a lot of pictures there so you can be like, “that looks awesome.” And they also have coffee. I like my coffee milky and sweet like a dessert. If I’m feeling spicy, I’ll get a latte, always with a nondairy milk. I want it to taste like candy, like a melted chocolate bar.

3 p.m.: Trek to Koreatown for fresh fruit

On this particular Sunday, I’m really craving fresh fruit, so I make a little bit of a trek to K-town to go to Co Co Fruit, which is this mom-and-pop fruit store with the yummiest exciting fruit: hairy lychee, longan. I don’t love eating dragon fruit, but I find it to be beautiful. Sometimes my mom will get sugar cane. The majority of Chinese or Asian fruits, there’s just a nostalgia about them for me, and they’re always interesting and strangely shaped.

7 p.m.: Dinner at Levant Bistro

After all of this, I go to Levant Bistro + Bake Shop in Silver Lake, which is amazing Lebanese food that’s also gluten-free. (I’m gluten-intolerant and I get eczema if I eat gluten.) I like to have a really leisurely dinner. Like I love a Spanish dinner, if you will, which just goes into the night. I don’t smoke cigarettes, but one where you’re smoking a proverbial cigarette and the wine is flowing. A leisurely dinner is a minimum hour and a half, two hours.

9 p.m.: Movie night

After this, I go to the AMC Atlantic Times Square to see a movie. It’s in a mall with a giant Daiso, so while I’m there, I’ll go to Daiso for things that I need at home and little fun stuff. Daiso is like a Japanese dollar store, but that is not doing it justice. You can get everything that you need there, and everything’s very cute. Daiso is where I’m getting the sweet-and-sour Hi-Chews that I’m sneaking into the movies.

And then as I’m waiting for my movie to start, I go across the street to Huge Tree, which is a Taiwanese spot, for a little snack. And then I also go down the street to Half and Half for a bubble tea. I like to get their kumquat tea, because I like that it’s not super sweet. I get boba grass jelly and aloe vera in it, 50% sweet, regular ice. I love all the little chewy things in there.

11:30 p.m.: Couch rotting before bed

After I get home, I’m couch rotting on TikTok for an hour as my wind down. Sometimes, on a good day, I’ll read a little bit before bed, but it’s just so much more fun to go on TikTok. Recently I got really into watching this person who finds furniture on the street and refurbishes it. Or Nate the hoof guy, who cleans the hooves of cows and horses. It could be good for my nervous system actually, because I’m watching ASMR.

In L.A., searching for a great yoga studio is a little like looking for a delicious taco, a well-stocked weed dispensary or a distractingly hot barista. No matter where you are in the city, chances are there’s one down the street from you — if not right next door. Yoga studios in particular have proliferated in the past few post-COVID years, offering up a dizzying array of styles, classes and vibes. So much so that the challenge of choosing the right one is sifting through an embarrassment of riches to find the space that fits you the best.

We’ve created this guide to help you with just that, regardless of where you might be on your yoga journey. If you’re brand new and looking for your first studio, we’ve got plenty of spaces that offer beginner and all-level classes. And if you’re a seasoned vet with a picture-perfect scorpion pose, this guide can help you expand your practice, or even just change things up for variety’s sake. (Always wanted to try out aerial yoga? Puppy yoga? Stand-up paddleboard yoga? We’ve got you covered.)

To make this list as useful as possible, we decided on a few parameters. First, every studio here has been visited by a Times reporter, so we can personally vouch for their quality, professionalism and overall atmosphere. Second, you won’t see any corporate chains like Corepower Yoga, Yoga Six or Hot 8 Yoga. Not because they aren’t great, but because you probably don’t need our help finding them. Instead, we’ve decided to focus on independent, locally grown businesses that offer something unique.

We also chose studios that make yoga accessible to as many people as possible — physically, geographically and even financially. In addition to being spread out across L.A. County, these businesses have classes that can meet you wherever you are, skill-wise. (If you’re looking for an especially gentle introduction, try looking for studios that offer chair yoga, restorative yoga or soothing yin sessions.) And since a monthly unlimited pass isn’t in everyone’s budget, we’ve also included beloved spaces like Power Yoga East and Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which offer daily donation-only or pay-what-you-wish classes.

Lastly, we made sure that each studio on this list has some kind of connection to its community. That might mean that the studio reflects the local spirit in a special way — like the beachfront views at Sol Seek in Manhattan Beach or the artsy skylight at Venice’s scene-y Open studio — or offers a unique outreach program, like the rabbi-led Shabbat sessions at Santa Monica’s Yogazan, or movie nights at Center for Yoga in Larchmont.

In the end, no two studios on this list are alike. Which means that whether you try one or all of them, you’re guaranteed an only-in-L.A. yoga experience. So go ahead and take a deep breath. Find a comfortable seated position. Set an intention — and let’s begin.

— Adam Markovitz