A multimedia artist who knows more than one place to have fun

The star of a couple of underground Richard Kern films, “Right Side of My Brain” and “Fingered,” Lydia Lunch is an outspoken author, singer and spoken-word performer. She has recently collaborated with local lounge-noir band Anubian Lights, co-edited the forthcoming book of interviews and fiction “Sex & Guts,” and is the subject of an upcoming book, “Lady Lazarus: Confronting Lydia Lunch.”

The charms of Pico Boulevard

Sometimes, I get a wild hair and I have to go down Pico from one end to the other. I like the fact that there are signs there that look like they’ve been there since the ‘30s and ‘40s. Even though the restaurant or store might have turned over, the facade hasn’t changed. It still has that Americana, not-yet-gentrified feel. It’s sad about most of L.A. that it’s so incredibly gentrified, that you have to go outside of the city to find those pockets.

I especially like the area down near Normandie, where Pico goes from Korean to Greek Orthodox to Salvadoran to Cuban to Caribbean. The best Greek restaurant, while cruising the fabulous international stretch of Pico, is Papa Cristo’s at 2771 W. Pico. It’s situated up the block from a Greek Orthodox church. I also go into every botanica on that stretch.

Funky old bar

I like this place called the Gold Rail, which is in Glendale on Pacific. To me, going to a bar is like a doctor going to the emergency room on the weekend to hang out. Since I spend most of my time performing in bars and clubs, I don’t usually care to go to them. But I like the Gold Rail because it’s one of those funky, old, three-red-vinyl-broken-booths, decent-jukebox, bologna-sandwich-serving bars.

Glendale’s Taj Mahal

I love the Brand Library. The outside looks like the Taj Mahal. You drive up to the end of Grandview and it’s just this massive, palm-tree-lined street, and they have this pristine, white building on a hill. It’s an art library and gallery, and you can rent videos, CDs and books and there’s a gallery in the back. And then behind the library is this small Victorian house, where a silent-film director lived in the ‘30s. There’s also a big nature trail in the back.

Up before the roosters

My peak hours are like 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. I’m already up at 4 a.m. a lot of times, not still up, but waking up. You are pretty much free to walk around wherever you want to go at that time, but nothing is going to be open. It’s wonderful, like last night when there’s a full moon and you’re up and it’s 5 in the morning and it is hanging really low and fat. The moon looks different everywhere.

I like the quiet at that hour. If you get up at that time, you’re really in your own personal twilight zone. You can just get in a car, get on a bike or go out on foot and feel like you are the only person out there.

-- Adam Bregman