I've been watching too much news, driving too much and warding off compassion fatigue. I go for the Joy. Located just under the verdant crags of the Hollywood Hills, O2 is L.A.'s first oxygen bar and it's the only place in town where you can legally stick something up your nose, inhale and get, well, kind of high. It owes its existence in part to Woody Harrelson, hemp impresario and Hollywood's man with a social conscience, and it fits right into a city where you can buy aromatherapy and herbal colon cleansers at your local grocery store. The building itself is festooned with a huge banner that reminds L.A. motorists to get their priorities straight.
Celebrities come and go.
There goes the halibut. Airhead has finally got the Joy going. Putting a cannula up your nose and breathing in charged oxygen is a little like inserting swizzle sticks in your nostrils and trying to inhale fizz. It takes a moment to get used to, but it's not altogether unpleasant, and I sit back for some sort of mildly euphoric experience. To my left, a couple leans back on a purple hemp cushion, quietly inhaling 02.