‘Weird Al’ Yankovic

The comedic singer-songwriter recently released his 10th album, “Running With Scissors.”

Survival skills: Since I’m kind of a workaholic, I sleep as much as I can on the weekend. When I do go out, it’s usually for basic things like food because I’m a bachelor and I live alone. I don’t do a lot of cooking. If it requires more than one step, I generally don’t bother. If you have to open the can and heat it up, that’s a bit too much work for me.

No meat, please: Real Food Daily on La Cienega is one of my favorite restaurants. I’m a vegetarian, so it’s a real pleasure to be able to go in there and order absolutely anything on the menu. I usually get the daily special, but everything on the menu is wonderful. Toi on Sunset is another hang of mine--for Thai food. I eat there quite a bit. The Pad Thai is really good. That’s a favorite.

Dinner and a show: If I’m trying to impress a date, a fun place to go is Gardens of Taxco, a Mexican restaurant just off Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. It’s a gourmet restaurant, but it’s not stuffy or pretentious. It’s a very laid-back family restaurant with people who have worked there forever. There’s no written menu, so the waiter comes around to your table and delivers this flowery speech. It’s like a whole performance thing, very emotional. The waiter really invests himself into every performance of the menu. And the food is excellent.

Taking it to the streets: I like to go on long walks on the weekend. I live up in the hills above the Roxy, so sometimes I’ll just walk down to Sunset Boulevard and hang around the Sunset Plaza district. Browse around at Book Soup, look at the magazines for a while, go over to Tower Records or Tower Video.

Cinephile: I pretty much see every movie that comes out. I enjoy seeing the illusion of motion created by a rapidly projected series of still images. It still fascinates me. My favorite theater is the Cinerama Dome. It’s so mid-’60s futuristic. The acoustics are great, the screen is terrific. It’s a very cool place to see a movie.

Beachcomber Al: Another place I like to go, particularly with a date, is Venice Beach. It’s fun to rent a two-seater bicycle and leisurely ride along the bike path. You see the ocean on one side and the whole freak parade on the other side, so that’s always a lot of fun on a lazy day.