Robert Williams

* The painter, whose photo-realistic, cartoon-like works appeared in MOCA’s 1991 “Helter Skelter” show, has an anthology of his underground comics coming out later this year, “Hysteria and Remission.”

American Food: Over on Pico Boulevard, just west of La Cienega, there’s a lunch and breakfast place called Nick’s Coffee Shop. It’s been there since 1946. It’s like an old American, classic, Norman Rockwell diner--and those are really hard to find. It’s always crowded and the food is exceptional and, of course, it’s high in cholesterol. You know these are the things that make life dangerous. You pay for your indulgences.

No Wine Left: On the weekends, I go every so often to Bergamot Station in Santa Monica and hit all the galleries there, but there are favorites like Track 16, Patrick Painter Inc., Rosamund Felsen and Robert Berman. The openings there in the last year or two have been so intense, you can’t even get a car on the parking lot. So I’ll catch those shows sometimes on a day of the week when it’s not their openings.

The Red Baron: At Van Nuys Airport, there’s a restaurant right on the edge of it called the 94th Aero Squadron, and the whole place looks likes a movie prop from the First World War. It looks like a French chateau that’s been bombed. In other words, the roof is knocked out in places and there are sandbags, artillery gun emplacements and World War I fighting planes sitting around it.

No-Tell Motel: Sometimes when we travel, we like to go to rundown old motels, so me and my wife, Suzanne, can play like we’re young again, have secret affairs and stuff.

Prime Parking: I’ve got this closet life of being a hot rodder. That opens up a whole different avenue of entertainment on the weekends. The premier place in L.A. on Friday nights is Bob’s Big Boy on Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. Bob’s Big Boy was built in 1949 and it’s a historical monument. Plus you’ve got this colorful group of people hanging out there that vary from hot rodders to muscle car builders to Hells Angels.

Hot rodding: I have two ’72 Fords and my wife has a ’34 Ford and ’57 T-Bird. I like to go for a drive up on Mulholland or over on Sepulveda next to the 405. There’s other small two-lane roads in the Valley where I can go out and drive late at night. It’s really fun to take a hot rod out on an old lonely road and open it up. It’s very infantile, but it’s a great pleasure.