Los Angeles Leisure

Master Wong: Chinese Reflexology Spa Treatments for a Song in Los Angeles

Head to the streets of Beijing or Shanghai and you will find a foot massage salon storefront on nearly every corner offering therapeutic comforts for the price of a latte and scone at your local Starbuck’s. Head to the Chinese neighborhoods of Los Angeles and find reflexology spas like Master Wong that hit the spot for not much more money.

Melrose Trading Post: Where cheap and elite meet

At the Melrose Trading Post, a Sunday flea market in West Hollywood, shopping faces off with the recession and comes out on top.

Pershing Square: L.A. Christmas on Ice

Who says there’s no weather in Los Angeles? OK, there’s no weather in Los Angeles, but at least there’s ice and even a little faux snow and it all happens on a little historic patch of land in the middle of downtown L.A.

L.A. Flea Market: Scratching the itch for cool come as you are shopping

If you think the world does not have enough stuff, think again. Stuff is what the new L.A. Flea Market is all about and the stuff flies through the nearly 500 vendors to the estimated 13,000 – 25,000 people who can’t get enough of it.

Runyon Canyon: Walking with the stars (and their dogs)

For those who would prefer to hike with the stars, Runyon Canyon "peaking" out above the Hollywood neon should be the path of choice for nature shows and the latest in exercise chic. The three-mile roundtrip hike ascends about 400 feet to views that can see all the way to Catalina Island on a clear day.

Ojai: LA’s little hidden valley of wholesome

Hidden in the eucalyptus groves in a valley hideaway an hour north of Los Angeles is Ojai, a tiny town of horse farms and hiking, where New Age practitioners and city refugees converge in a cow town that seems to be stuck in the 1960s. You won’t even notice when you get there and if you blink you might go too far. But if you stop and stay awhile you’ll find a place with which you just might fall in love.

Behind the Scenes at the Home of the Oscars

The Kodak Theatre has long been a focus of curiosity to visitors of star-struck Hollywood. The 3,222-seat theater has been home to the Academy Awards every year since opening in 2001 when, come Oscar time, Hollywood is ablaze in hot red carpet madness. But the rest of the year, the Kodak is available for the rest of us and easily seen through a $15, 30-minute tour.

LACMA Spreads its Wings

LA has a new museum – make that a new wing of a museum. When the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Pavilion (think: the couple that brought us POM Wonderful, the hyped miracle drink made from pomegranates) opened last month on the rolling sprawl of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) it become the largest purpose-built, naturally-lit museum space in the world.

Los Angeles Fashion District: The Best Fashions are Found Downtown

The 100 blocks of downtown Los Angeles, known as the LA Fashion District, bring much more than cut cloth and streets full of color. This is LA’s answer to The Bazaar, the meeting place of commodities and cultures where you can buy just about anything for just about any price.

Poolside Pampering, Vegas Style

The Spa has moved outside at Caesars and Flamingo and a little pleasure in an already pleasurable day can go along way for preparing for what the evening brings.

Hollywood Farmers' Market: Part eating, part Eden

Bring your patience with your appetite and head out to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market held every Sunday at famous Hollywood and Vine (or as Disney would have it, Hollywood & Dine) from 8 am to 1 pm.

Behind the Ball Game at Dodger Stadium

The ball game is only a stone’s throw away at LA’s Dodger Stadium.

Wi Spa, Los Angeles: A Haven for Healing 24/7

Los Angeles spas rarely get the buzz for being open – as in all the time. One Los Angeles spa open 24/7 (and not because of the midnight fantasies it may deliver) is Wi Spa, Los Angeles, a place of detoxification and pampering in Koreatown.

Surf's Up at the Annenberg Beach House

Santa Monica has a new stylish beach club with wide open doors.

Downtown Art Walk: Downtown becomes a canvas

Los Angeles's monthly Downtown Art Walks are a colorful tradition of celebration and scene-making.

Small World Books: Great Beach Reads in Venice

Looking for some good reads by the beach? Small World Books in Venice can help. This little LA institution is right off the Boardwalk and provides a shelter from the storm of snake charmers, fortune readers, end of the world predictors, skaters and boarders, and … crowds.

Tapping the Grape in LA's Wine Country

Just north of Los Angeles in the rolling hills of Malibu is LA's own secret little Napa Valley.

Kate Somerville: Many Faces of Kate

Kate Somerville is to beautiful faces what water is to thirst. She quenches her clients with home grown remedies developed and tested and tested again by her team of doctors, medical practitioners and aestheticians providing treatments for skin that can be found only in LA.

Glen Ivy: LA's Club Mud

Glen Ivy Hot Springs is a healthy sojourn from city life in LA.

Showtime at the Studios

Make studio audience magic in LA as a clapping and laughing member of a taping, whether The Jay Leno Show, the Jimmy Kimmel Show, The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, even the venerable Price is Right. Getting in is as simple as getting a table at Mozza on Melrose. Go on line, make a reservation, get to the venue early, get on line – and wait. And wait. Unless, of course, you know someone. Once in, you don’t just sit there. You work. You laugh loudly and frequently. And you clap loudly and frequ

Legally Blonde with Kim Vo

MGM Mirage’s “hair apparent” has earned the moniker of “Makeover King” from the biggest salons in Hollywood. Kim Vo, whose hair caressing products now have an exclusive presence at Barney’s, has a hair lair in Las Vegas at the Mirage Hotel, complete with “mojito hairtinis” for thirsty manes and “bayalage” hair painting treatments by the King himself every Monday. Kim Vo Salon keeps a Carnaby Street meets Studio 16 appeal in wide-open spaces decked in black, whites