DOWNTOWN — Modern yoga comes with a lot of baggage and stereotypes. Some people think yoga involves the metaphysical, chanting, incense, ambient music, pretentious yogi hippies or yogi yuppies and outrageous pricing for instruction. Forget everything you think you know about yoga when talking to Bryan Kest. Kest moved to Santa Monica... Read more →

Double Feature Award Series Two long-standing studio empires — Fox and MGM — have combined to roll out the red carpet for some Oscar favorites packaged in pairs. (Fox/MGM) ‘The Abyss’/’Alien’   These special effects winners tell their stories in the deep sea and deep space. James Cameron... Read more →

“But life isn’t always about what we want, is it?” Told in multiple viewpoints, this book offers the story of Sarah who travels to a town in New York called Jonah to claim her inheritance. Her estranged father has died. She is hoping to go claim what is hers and get out without interfacing with anyone. She had not planned... Read more →

It’s called the sunshine vitamin because you can make it when you are in the sun. A general recommendation is 15 minutes of sun exposure three times per week. Vitamin D is different from all other nutrients in that the body can synthesize it with the help of sunlight from a precursor that the body makes from cholesterol. Technically,... Read more →

DOWNTOWN — So, maybe restaurant week was a misnomer. Santa Monica restaurants are folding up their fixe prix menus today as Dine L.A. comes to a close after a two-week encore. The event, originally scheduled to end on Feb. 6, got an extension because of the popularity of the reduced-price menus that allowed economy-conscious diners to... Read more →

The other day I was reading “Oliver’s Fruit Salad” to hungry tot-chefs in my kindergarten Books-for-Cooks class at Franklin Elementary School. The story is about a boy named Oliver, who, having recently helped his grandpa harvest juicy grapes and delicate pears from a backyard garden, refuses to eat the fruit his mom serves... Read more →

At the eight-week ultrasound, it was apparent even before the doctor said anything definitive. I looked at the monitor and there was just a space in a little black hole. I kept hoping as she moved the wand that she would stumble upon our child hiding, but no. No heartbeat, I heard her say. I must have turned pale because she told me to lean... Read more →

SMC — After the storm of foster care, domestic abuse and gang violence had passed, Jabril Muhammad found his voice. It’s a voice that comes through in an independently-produced film that tells the story of a boy who much like Muhammad experienced a challenging life growing up in the gang-ridden streets of Los Angeles,... Read more →

Each year Santa Monica Citywide Reads selects a book for the community to read together and meet to discuss. They have been doing this for seven years. This year they have chosen a story by Marianne Wiggins. It is called “The Shadow Catcher” and it is well done. She started writing back in 1970. She took time off from her... Read more →

‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ Woody Allen writes and directs this romantic tale set in that fine Spanish city. Friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), spending their summer in Spain, are two young American girls of different viewpoints on romance yet fall for the same Casanova artist Juan Antonio Gonzalo... Read more →