Rhapsodizing over Hollywood

It was an old girlfriend, an actress, who lured pianist Christopher O’Riley to Los Angeles. Six years later, she’s living in New York, married to someone else. He’s still here.

That is, he’s here when he isn’t performing his solo works around the globe. To grasp his range, consider his recent local shows. Last week, he played Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 with the USC Thornton Symphony in Cerritos. This weekend, he’s hosting the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival. On May 26, he’ll play his arrangements of Radiohead and Elliott Smith songs at UCLA.

O’Riley is also the host of the Public Radio International classical show “From the Top,” and his second album of Radiohead transcriptions, “Hold Me to This,” was released Tuesday.

Neighborly places

The Hollywood-Wilshire YMCA is the godsend of my life. If I’m home, I’m going to the Y first thing in the morning.

Before I moved into Beachwood Canyon from Topanga, I’d been scoping out the health clubs, asking people where they worked out. And they said, “The Y.” I had no experience with the Y whatsoever. It’s a world-class facility. The Hollywood Y has everything except tennis -- spinning, yoga, all kinds of things. I’m slave to the Stairmaster, and then do some weights. And when I travel, when I’m looking for a place to work out, the Y is always there, in downtown Birmingham or wherever.

Alex Donut is my reward. The coconut and maple doughnuts are beyond anything else available anywhere. To the people who rave about Krispy Kreme, Alex’s blows them away. It’s on Franklin Avenue at Argyle, in a little strip mall on the corner.

Most of things I like in L.A. are close to my house. The ArcLight, for instance, is the best place to see movies anywhere that I can name. The close second would be the big screen at the Chinese. I just love the care with which thing are presented at ArcLight. Also just down the hill, Amoeba Music is phenomenal.

For live music, Catalina Bar and Grill is a nice neighborhood place. Karrin Allyson is someone I saw there a little while back, and I really like the space. The even smaller place that’s across the street is the Hotel Cafe. I saw Dan Greenwood there -- she was an Australian pop singer who’s working here now. And Largo, for as vaunted as it is and high-profile as their calendar tends to get, it has really intimate presentation. I’ve seen Jon Brion and Brad Mehldau there.

Gotta robata

My absolute favorite restaurant is Katana on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. It’s basically a Japanese restaurant, but they’re famous for their robata, which is everything you can think of on skewers and cooked over charcoal. They have all kinds of great sushi too. It’s a pretty high-end restaurant, but it has all different areas -- an outdoor space, a few small dining rooms, and an indoor space by the kitchen. When anyone slinks by the chefs give a good shout.

Another place is Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi on West Channel Road in Santa Monica. Truffles figure prominently in the sauce of just about everything. It’s a very small but very crowded place. It’s not overly expensive or pretentious in the least, but I did see Michelle Pfeiffer the last time I was there.

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-- Robin Rauzi