Father-Son Weekend Part 2
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
This is about two pals, a father and son, hanging out for a weekend, bonding, learning from each other and eating stuff we would never eat at home.
Brad flew from Los Angeles to San Francisco Friday morning to visit one of his companies. He left L.A. at 7 am and was back at 2 pm. We met for lunch at Carney’s ,a famous Hamburger/Hot Dog joint on Sunset Strip. The yellow train on Sunset Blvd is cool but the hot dogs and hamburgers are overrated.
After lunch we were both sleepy. We went to our room at the Mondrian Hotel and took the now famous Feld nap. My father invented it. My brother, Charlie, and I perfected it. Brad, his brother, and two cousins are taking it to the next level. It is as things should progress.
We blew off a scheduled dinner downtown at Water Grill. The guys we were to meet got sick and cancelled. Brad and I walked along Sunset Strip to observe the beautiful people. There are also plenty of beautiful people at the Mondrian Sky Bar and the Pool Deck. It is a happening place.
During our walk we stopped at “Ketchup” for dinner. Its sign was cool. We were lucky to get a table after promising to eat fast. “Ketcup” was funky and unusual. They have a great menu for 20 to 35 year olds. The mac and cheese with five different flavors of ketchup was up there with the best. We talked two girls sitting at the next table into ordering it.
We had chocolate gelato at Café Pisano. After gelato Brad and I started to walk. We had a deep philosophical discussion. I love talking philosophy with Brad. These days I learn much more than I teach.
We continued down Sunset Set Strip until we got tired mentally and physically. A great kind of tired. Before retiring we needed a little more Mondrian Pool Deck.
The next morning I ran 3 miles. I was back without quadriceps pain. We had a breakfast meeting scheduled with Dov Seidman. I referred to Dov in a blog last week. Brad and Dov are good friends. Dov is one smart guy. He is a humanist. One of his views is the economic crisis is going to change society for the better. We will once again become human beings rather than human doers.
The healthcare industry needs some humanization.
The amazing thing to me is Brad and Dov’s generation have a broader view of the world and human potential than most of the group running the country. We sat and talked for two hours. Both of them ended up teaching me a lot.
Jason Mendelsohn and Ryan McIntyre told Brad that Pizzeria Mozza was the best pizza in the world. We took a cab to Pizzeria Mozza. The crazy thing about L.A. is that every cab ride is $30 or more. Traffic is everywhere. Brad’s IPhone has a link to calling a cab by email. His Iphone GPS tells us where the traffic jams are. Since the jams are everywhere it didn’t help much.
We got to Pizzeria Mozza at 11 am. They do not open until 12 pm. So we walked about 3 miles down Melrose just talking. The conversation was invigorating. Jason was correct. It is great pizza. I remember my first date with Cecelia 50 years ago. We had pizza is a hole in the wall on Boston Post Road and Gunhill Road in the Bronx run by an Italian family. Today’s pizza is the only one that matched that pizza. My recollection could be clouded by love at first sight.
I wanted to see the Contemporary Museum of Art and the L.A. Symphony Hall. Another $30 cab ride without air conditioning. The museum’s permanent collect was fabulous. It has a Rothko room that is as good as the Rothko Chapel in Houston. I thought the Dan Bradberry exhibit was mediocre.
Frank Gehry’s Symphony Hall was cool but not his best work. Bilbao is better.
There were no cabs in downtown L.A. on Saturday afternoon. We walked two miles to Oblong’s office for a demonstration from John Offenkopper. He and Kevin Parent (cofounders) were Brad’s fraternity brothers at MIT. So many kids in that fraternity were so smart.
John was Stephen Spielberg’s technical adviser in “The Minority Report”. He converted the fantasy into reality. Children born in 2010 will not have heard of a keyboard and a mouse is just as my granddaughter has not heard of a typewriter. They will be replaced by finger and hand motions.
Marty drove downtown to see the Oblong demonstration. He drove brad and me to the Mondrian. (I appreciate the fact that it was out of his way). The Feld guys needed a nap but we had cancelled our reservation for 7pm at Asiadecuba. We figured we ought to try to get a table at the pool at 6 pm. What a scene! The meal was also good. We were so sleepy after dinner. We slept from 8 pm to 7 am Sunday. I haven’t slept 11 hours straight in 40 years. .
Mark Suster twittered Brad on Saturday and asked if he could meet us for breakfast on Sunday. Brad did not know Mark. Brad googled him on his Iphone. He then twittered him a yes at the Mondrian Asia Cuba at 8.30 a.m. It is an instant world out there folks.
The breakfast meeting was wonderful. Again I learned how things are done in the New World. I got on the airplane again invigorated by a wonderful weekend of just hanging out with my son.
Next is a weekend with Daniel. We are just waiting for him to pick the weekend.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.