Oh, the people were dressed finely and when I arrived, I thought, "this ain't no raw fooder party - I don't know anyone here."

Except for the chef, Melissa Davidson, that is - a collected, spiritually mature, recent-transient-now-settled-in-Redondo-Beach with her own raw restaurant, Terra Bella Cafe.

Melissa wore a fashionable mini scarf and this farmtown girl from southern Michigan kinda didn't understand such things. Let's face it: in an area with real winters - I'm talking real winters - scarves aren't worn to look sophisticated, which Melissa most certainly exemplified, but to keep your lungs from getting ice crystals in them. Think about the truth of that, you soft southern Californians bless your souls - real ice in your lungs.

There was fortunately no threat of ice or frost or any kind of inclement weather for four or more months in Redondo Beach, CA, so the well-timed opening of Terra Bella Cafe spilled out onto the after-dark streets. People sipping organic wine paired with sunflower sprout salad and real cacao chocolate tort. I, however, got drunk on the Kombucha, not the wine; a fermented mushroom tea containing trace amounts of alcohol as a zymolisis byproduct. It's a good life when you are so clean you can actually get drunk off of tea. Or get high from a breath of fresh air. Or trip by getting off on the dance floor.

Like last nite at Hollywood's House of Blues... You know, all day I was imagining dancing and then I was finally there - VIPed into the Foundation Room. My mind was crazy free and I left the two captivating men who escorted me to find the dance floor - the center of the dance floor - and start the circle up. And go off like I don't care who's watching because Photek (Photeck! Photek!) was headlining - a Drum and Bass dj whom you can't purchase music from corporately because it's his own label that he records anything and everything on and honestly, why would you want a recording of this anyhow - the art is in the real-time divinatory spinning. Drum and Bass is live, let the speakers move you pushing down to go up grounding in to lift off spending more time in the air than on the floor dancing like Spirit is an old family friend music.

When on the dance floor, Spirit knows me well.

And spirited was the moment, for audience and performer, when I held out my lighter-fluid-soaked wicks for that captivating man to with a lighter set aflame. Right there on the sidewalk, in front of Terra Bella Cafe, with more than 40 jovial people cheering me on. I was pretty sure open flame on Redondo's shopping district sidewalk was illegal, and was also pretty sure the police couldn't catch me in the 4 minutes it takes for that fluid to burn off. Spirit, let's go.

I spun fire fire at the raw food restaurant grand opening. Earlier a musician played an electric set out of his Westfalia - amplifiers on the roof, a nerdy/cool three piece band, The Vaudevilles, strummed in back of the restaurant and a man with a flower tucked behind his ear poured Kombucha shots to raw vegans, drunk on tea, howling at the moon and dancing to DJ Brooke inside the cafe.

Then I saw Ron Gilmore, the producer of The UNcooking Show, a DVD I played a role in. Ron's been working out. Then I hugged Debbie Merrill, the host of the Wacky LA television show I was a guest on. Debbie glitters like Vegas. Then Light, the yoga instructor, poked over for a hug before he left. An event would not be and event without Light's blessing. Suddenly raw fooders were coming out of the woodwork! And to make it official, there was Robin from The Living Temple. It was officially then that I decided this was a raw fooder party ... I knew everyone there.

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I wanted to be a football player first. Before I even knew what it meant to "be", let alone could even comprehend growing up, what I wanted to "be when I grew up" first, before anything else, was a football player.

I was 3 years old when the subject was breached. I wore a humongous football helmet around the house and ran with no seeming direction - sometimes in circles, sometimes into walls due to oversized helmet vision - whenever a game was on television. But I also wore a mask and bounced on a spring hourse when Zoro was on. And acted out every A.A. Milnes character on the stage of my childhood bed when I was read "Whinnie the Pooh" bedtime stories. Think I was a do-er, right from the beginning?

Oh, how early we display our unique personalities...

I guessed his name right away - the man behind the counter. I just knew the man singing and chopping tomatoes had to be the chef himself. Who also turned out to be the owner, himself. Right in the heart of Salt Lake City's funky Sugar House neighborhood, next to the political-statement bumber sticker store. And the metaphysical book store. Third door down; tobacco and glass pipes. But proudly on this corner, with singing chopping chefs and abundant natural light; Living Cuisine Cafe, serving entirely organic, raw fare. The exact kind of joint I wanted to spend my 4th-year-raw anniversary.


Chef Omar Pure Heart's Nigerian and Lebanese upbringing makes for an exciting selection of dishes gigantic with texture and exotic in spice combinations; like a perfectly-crumbling-crust pizza with a delightfully unAmerican pesto.

Immediately after completeing shcool in Lebenon, our singing chef and his mother moved across seas to Utah, where Omar attended engeneiring university and his mother opened up the renowned Lebonese restaurant, Mazza Cafe, in the 2 million-person big/little city. Omar studied Geophysical Engineering for years before awakening to raw food for himself. Indeed the story of Living Cuisine Cafe seems unlikely indeed (but Chef Omar Pure Heart would certainly say it was divine): he went all the way for his love of raw vegan food, abandoned engeniering studies and opened Living Cuisine Cafe in July 2005 on only $3,000.

And now he stands with one assistant behind the counter just radiating - just radiating light with a smile as blinding as the Boneville Salt Flats, as he relishes the feel of a knife through a tomato and concentrates on feeding his customers. He knows he is feeding their souls and he knows the importance of his work. I've never seen a man bask in such genuine pleasure from slicing a tomato.

The kiwi-cacao pie, with macadamia creme, chocolate mousse and a gentle berry sauce was served in a heart shaped bowl. It feels good to eat food prepared with this much love. Heck, it feels good just to be in proximity of people as radiant as Chef Omar Pure Heart - people who have truly come alive.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive.
What the world needs is people who have come alive."

My parents told me I could do it. They didn't giggle, they didn't tease, they just said, "You'll be the best football player ever, Honey," as I tackled another wall. When I was 8 they told me I'd be a fantastic children's book illistrator. When I was 11 I was a horror author and at 16 I was a tattoo artist, but the entire time I think I really knew it was dance - and they told me I could to that, too. All that matterred it that I had something to love and I believed it was possible.

What would life be if we, like Chef Omar Pure Heart, against all odds, believed we could do anything and then did it? Like a song in the kitchen, like the infectious blinding smile, like a knife through a tomato when we live our love.

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