Michael York

* The actor reprises his role as Basil Exposition in “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”

Mad About L.A.: I’ve lived here more than 20 years but I’m still finding out things, still settling in. What I love that’s happened is the growth in cultural institutions here--the fact that we have great museums and more opening every year. And an opera company. Chamber music in historic homes. Great, significant buildings being built, such as Disney Hall. On a Friday night I’d like nothing better than to go to the opera. Peter Hemmings, the director who will be leaving next year, has done such a marvelous job building the L.A. Opera.

Music and Markets: Saturday morning Duff Murphy has his “Opera Show” on KUSC-FM (91.5). That’s something to look forward to all week. That comes after breakfast in the garden at our house in West Hollywood, with the newspapers. I love going to the weekend street markets--this incredible touch of medieval Europe that has survived. It’s a great thing in L.A. to be with people, in a crowd, tasting and buying.

Photo Finish: My wife, Pat, is a photographer, so we like to browse the photographic galleries that are springing up like mushrooms after rain on La Brea and the Colorado section of Santa Monica. Also, we go to LACMA to look at great art. Or the Getty, which is worth mentioning. It’s not just the art that it holds, but the building itself. It’s iconic. I have a sense it’s like what the Sydney Opera House did for that city--one great building that symbolizes the city in search of excellence.

Wild Westside: Sunday morning, in Beverly Hills itself, there’s a little part of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area. Adjoining one of the most affluent cities in the world is complete wilderness. It’s great to go there and see the native plants and flowers. It’s surreal.

Odd Requests: I have a list of the odd little museums I want to see: Bibleland in Silver Lake, the Banana Museum in Altadena, the Merle Norman “Tower of Beauty” in Sylmar. And I want to try to arrange to go to the Huntington to see the cactus garden by moonlight.