I have a wonderful new assistant, Monica, shown here with me at the Love-Powered Diet launch at the Peter Max Studio in late May. Today we went up to 125th Street with the intention of doing a video-blog around the Michael Jackson tribute at the Apollo Theater. A camera malfunction kept me from being able to post that (if the problem gets solved, I’ll post it later in the week), but I’m so glad we went. There were thousands and thousands of people and so much love. I believe that love from here helps people make their way on the other side. Michael should make his way just fine.

And tonight we were both at the luxurious raw-food restaurant Pure Food and Wine for another

book launch, this one for Sarma Melngailis’s new book, Living Raw Food: Get the Glow with More Organic Recipes from Pure Food and Wine. The book, brand new today from HarperCollins, is chock-full of delicious, enlivening recipes for extraordinary dishes that don’t require an oven or stove. Tonight at the party, I kept hearing people say “This is amazing!” with every taste of another yummy hors d’oeuvres. That’s the thing with raw food when it’s done right: it’s not just tasty: it’s extraordinary, other-worldly almost. And this book contains not only scores of fabulous recipes but a great deal of solid info on the living-food lifestyle. 

And I had the rare NYC treat of getting a ride home in a friend’s car. We don’t tend to have cars in New York, but Kendra Coppey of Barefoot Tiger, in-home personal training, yoga, and nutrition, has one of those adorable little Smart Cars. She’s my neighbor and offered me a ride. I’d never been in one of these tiny cars before. It was surprisingly roomy in the front seat (there is no back seat) and when she parked in a space that didn’t look big enough for a respectable bicycle, I was duly impressed. 

My conclusion: life is far from perfect but it sure is good.