I did't quit my day job, as the saying goes, but close friends know that I write songs occasionally. One early song I wrote in my 20s was called "Sydney Says", a reference to Sydney Omarr, longtime astrologer for the LA times whose column I read as a teen (and probably too long after). My parents kept a box of random things from my youth in their home here in a closet downstairs. Rummaging through I’ll find forgotten cassette recordings of silly songs like that one, many old photos and some love letters, and a surprising amount of horoscopes, mostly from birthdays, clipped out and filed away.

The song I wrote pokes fun at myself for belief in any such thing... each verse gets progressively worse for the narrator, starting with a flat tire, then losing a job, and later his cat in a breakup. In the last verses his house burns down. But the chorus all along is ironic, happy and hopeful, with an uplifting Sydney says it’s gonna be OK! Sydney says it’s going to be a great day!… Sydney says I’m gonna find true love by May (or something like that).

That song suggests I knew by 25 that I was ridiculous looking to the heavens for answers, but I guess I’ve never totally let that go, still some seeds from my religious uprearing when my young heart was growing. But when the improbable happens and buildings actually burn - and when the world at large seems to be on fire in so many other ways, it’s hard not to look for any glimmer of hope, any positive message or sign of some divine direction amid the chaos.

Maybe it's absurd, but I'll take anything these days. And so, in Trader Joes, thinking of Sydney Omarr this week, Dionne Warwick started playing overhead, and I broke down a little. She too spent many years promoting similar stretches, with her Psychic Friends Network long ago. And while know she and Sydney and many others offer no practical guidance… her message reached me, through the Trader Joes speakers, even if the lyrics were someone else's words:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some but for everyone...


It's gonna be OK.

All love,
Daniel

Tonight: THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS...Merlot & Sauvignon Blanc
2023 Isa Wines Don’t Quit Your Day Job Merlot
2022 Château Beynat Abracadabra Merlot
2016 Château Moulin Canon-Fronsac
2023 Hacienda La Lomita Sauvignon Blanc
2023 Von Winning Sauvignon Blanc II
2023 Domaine de Reuilly Les Pierres Plates Reuilly Blanc
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm

SATURDAY 2/1: Wines of Chile
2023 Bodegas Etchart Cafayate Torrontés
2024 Louis-Antoine Luyt Carrizal Pipeño Blanco
2023 Viña Maitia Aupa Pipeño Tinto
2024 Louis-Antoine Luyt Pilen Alto Pais
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until close

Thanks to all who came out this week for Yuji Ishikata, our guest chef for Welcome Wednesdays, our comfort food pop-up series. Welcome Wednesdays continue next week, stay tuned via IG for details and offerings :)