This city is a movie set - an ice cream truck facade chiming down the street, drawing all the starry eyed children to its door, only to serve them rubber grapes. Clothing is costuming worn to create the image one thinks is in demand. Personalities are cheap accessories with lots of glitter, but exchanged three times a day. Even the housing is disposable, made to be exploited and discarded into the urban sprawl of extravagance. Los Angeles, CA: you gotta love it for what it is.

A very Hollywood friend of mine, Geoff, had an epiphany the last time we were together. He said, "The strangest thing, Tonya Kay: I notice when a raw foodist talks to you, they look you straight in the eye" (italics added to emphasize Geoff's emphasis). He is certainly correct in this observation. In fact, I can always tell a raw foodist from a cooked food eater by three things: the bright, hydrated, youthful glow to their skin, their passionate love affair with life, and the clarity and presence of their gaze. It is uncanny. And a trait the majority of glittery ice cream truck industry hopefuls populating southern California simply do not possess.

I always say that if you can judge a religion by the people it puts out, then Raw Veganism is one of the greatest; filled with optimistic, healthy, earth conscious people who are absolutely in love with life. For 6 weeks this summer, Brendan Brazier and I toured the United States and Canada's health conferences, raw festivals and vegetarian fairs and were surrounded by the support and love of the tight raw community. Returning to Los Angeles was quite a brick wall in contrast. I wanted to ask everyone I saw, the guy in the BMW convertible, the centerfold with the push up bra, "What's so wrong, guys?"

Face it; life is good! And now - finally - all my discombobulated rays of Los Angeles sunshine, we have a place of refuge right in Hollywood where you can look someone deeply in the eyes and feed your body all the colors of the rainbow: the Taste of the Goddess Cafe on Santa Monica Blvd.. The cafe was opened in July 2004 by two young women whose hands now personally prepare the fare, and is host to raw support groups, health education classes and quite possibly the perfect salad: arame, dulse, nori, cucumber, clover sprouts and avocado atop romaine lettuce with a sesame dressing.

I actually ordered next to a celebrity on my first visit to the Taste of the Goddess Cafe - a blond guy with a nasal voice who is famous enough that even this non-television-watcher is aware that he has his own show, though I couldn't tell you for the life of me what his name is and am not interested enough to figure it out. What I do know however, is that he, myself and an overwhelming number of people on the movie set are including more raw foods into their diets, discovering an elevated level of health, and are falling so in love with nature's religion that we simply can not be bothered with puffed up pasta or greasy skin potato chips ever again.

Raw Vegan Book of Genesis: Rubber grapes beget rubber grapes. Life begets life.

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