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• Best Beetle Mechanic
  Wabbit Wepair
  By the time I coasted my ailing new Beetle down Abbot Kinney Boulevard to Wabbit Wepair, my dashboard was lit up with more warnings than a tilted pinball machine. Punching my accelerator to the floor gained me roughly 10 mph per half-mile, despite my having just paid $1,073.49 to a well-meaning... More >>
• Best Vet for Crazy Cat ladies
  Westside Hospital for Cats
  If cats were to design their own hospital, it would be the Westside Hospital for Cats. As the name implies, the state-of-the-art, full-service feline-health center is "cats only," so that the cats don't get stressed by the presence of lesser species, like dogs, parakeets, turtles, fish, lizards,... More >>
• Best Independent Car Mechanic
  Donny Wong, Far East Auto Service
  I was fighting a weight machine in the Hollywood Bally's when my cell phone vibrated. It was a man from a big-chain tire shop, but not the guy I'd left my car with 20 minutes ago. That first guy, Joe, had been all about the tires, which made sense, since I had left my car there to replace my... More >>
• Best Cutters
  L.A. Final Cut Pro Users' Group
  Every fourth Wednesday of the month is L.A. Final Cut Pro Users' Group night in Hollywood's Barns­dall Art Park, where filmmakers of every stripe congregate to explore different aspects of FCP editing software. As movie editing goes, Final Cut Pro is the Coke to Avid's Pepsi (or is it the... More >>
• Best Place to Indulge Your Inner Author
  Scribble Press
  Lovingly crafting the words and sentences that may eventually give birth to a bound, beautifully designed tome is the true joy of writing. But most writers know that the real labor is finding a publisher. Well, shelf your pain. You only need to spend a morning — or an entire day, if you'd... More >>
• Best Surfing Instructor
  Kai Sanson, Zuma Surf and Swim Training
  Kai Sanson takes you to a beach where the surf rolls in slowly. He has a key to the gate; the security guards know him. Even on a Saturday morning, there are no more than five or six surfers on the half-mile-wide beach. He walks with you down to the water, tells you how to assess the scene and... More >>
• Best Lost Art Found
  Aardvark Letterpress
  Luis Ocon is 71 by now. He mostly just comes in and spins the machines, and tinkers around sometimes. But back in the '60s in Mexico City, he was setting slugs with the best of 'em. Then, the California-dreaming linotype operator made his way to the USA and pressed on to Hollywood, where he got... More >>
• Best Writer's Block Party
  826LA East
  The Echo Park Time Travel Mart on Sunset Boulevard is not what it seems. A sign across the otherwise unremarkable building reads: "Whenever You Are, We're Already Then." Inside you will find dinosaur eggs incubating on shelves, sand-filled bottles of "Time," (five minutes, $5.99; one day, $9.99;... More >>
• Best Doggy Ride
  Super Shmuttle
  With vans whose yellow-and-blue exteriors were inspired by the human van service, Super Shmuttle drivers often get asked how much they charge for a ride to the airport. The answer varies, depending on whether the passenger wants to stop at the vet first. After walking dogs for 18 years, owner... More >>
• Best Doggy Day Camp
  Wagville
  It's hard being a working parent when you have to leave the dog alone all by herself for the day (before she's old enough for kindergarten, of course). For those dog owners who don't want to hire a nanny, Wagville offers a daycare and boarding package comparable to summer camp. Small and large... More >>
• Best No-Frills Eyebrow Wax and Tint
  Simply the Best Nail
  Anastasia in Beverly Hills it's not. The only attempts at decorating in this beige, bleak Vietnamese-run joint in Hollywood are the pots of fake flowers — and the colorful stacked bottles of polish, whose chemical aromas greet you like a slap in the face. This bare-bones shop is... More >>
• Best Bodywork: Budget Thai Massage
  Chiang Mai
  In a town oozing with Rolfers, shiatsu masters, neuromuscular therapists and Thai massage hotties, you'd think that finding the best, or at least a best bodyworker would be a snap. You'd think. There are variables to consider: schooling, skill, talent, energy, presence, quality of touch; plus... More >>
• Best Bodywork: House Calls
  Kelly Ronan Garey
  Still in the realms of the affordable, Kelly Ronan Garey makes house calls. Trained in a slew of healing modalities, including polarity therapy and reflexology, Garey's got that wide-eyed, innocent Midwest thing going, even though he's from the Bay area. His deep tissue is rock solid, but it's... More >>
• Best Bodywork: Pain Spotter
  Amy Marquet
  When the odd demon holes up in my shoulder, and my body goes into full-fledged revolt, I turn to Amy Marquet's tenacious hands and aromatherapy arsenal. The tiny spitfire with a wild Aquarian imagination and 16 years of experience under her (neatly trimmed) fingernails has a talent for finding... More >>
• Best Bodywork: Best Magic Touch
  Aradhana Silvermoon
  When I'm in need of nurturing and a dose of sparkle, I call upon Aradhana Silvermoon. A Topanga girl with the relaxed disposition and vegan sandals to prove it, Silvermoon comes armed with her hemp satchel full of lotions and potions and essential oils — fairy dust too. Equal parts... More >>
• Best Bodywork: Clearing Blocks, Knots and Lingering Mommy Issues
  Carolyn Jacques at Côte d'Azur
  Carolyn Jacques takes an amalga-mated kitchen-sink approach to bodywork. A Native American, she taps into the tribal healing techniques coursing through her veins, along with Maori (ouch!) modalities, Qigong, cord cutting, traditional massage, reflexology, aromatherapy and quantum healing. I met... More >>
• Best Bodywork: Overall
  Julian Walker
  My real, true, honest injun' any day, everyday favorite is Julian Walker. His own body-mind integrative Big Sky Bodywork and compassionate fingers have the ability to move energy through my body like lightning bolts of sensation while guiding me to breathe the blocks out of my muscles myself. Of... More >>
• Best Bodywork: Best of the Best
  Tracy Feldstein
  Tracy Feldstein is a bodywork goddess. Trained in a zillion modalities, from Swedish deep tissue to Hawaiian lomilomi, her motto is "it feels good . . . when I stop." I could go on and on about her sensitive intuition, her Herculean strength, her dazzling personality and her cutting sense of... More >>
• Best Hands-On Healing
  One Healing's Jill Heinrich
  Jill Heinrich is a Westside massage therapist and Reiki master practicing at her One Healing studio in Brentwood. But calling her a massage therapist would be like saying Pavarotti was a crooner. Heinrich's work is more than routine massage; through bodywork, she explores the interconnectedness... More >>
• Best SuperSexy Traction
  Leroy R. Perry Jr.'s Sportscience Institute
  Walking into Dr. Leroy Perry's International Sportscience Institute's '80s-opulent octagonal waiting room is like entering a time warp. Hanging above the emerald green carpet is a framed photograph of Elizabeth Taylor, circa 1986, dwarfed by puffy sleeves and shoulder pads, autographed with... More >>
• Best Progressive Optimal-Health Tools: Detox
  iZO Cleanze
  It's L.A. There's a juice joint, an acupuncturist and a yoga studio on every corner. Everything's organic, everyone's eating right for their blood type and optimal health's yours for the taking. Just a few steps beyond the standard Reiki and Reishi regimes lie some of L.A.'s best stops on the... More >>
• Best Progressive Optimal-Health Tools: Card Knowledge
  Tarot Study Group
  To heal the infinite wellspring that is your subconscious, head to Pacific Nexus Gallery/Temple of Thelema's Tarot Study Group, a bimonthly gathering in Venice. Led by the temple's bigwig Zeph Bender, the study group focuses on one of the Major Arcana (suits) of the Aleister... More >>
• Best Progressive Optimal-Health Tools: Crystal Consultant (1 Comment)
  Nicole Hoegl
  If heady Hermetic occult orders aren't your thing, or even if they are, there's plenty of guidance to be found in the mineral world. Need protection from negative energy? Looking for clarity? Love? Abundance? Let personal crystal consultant Nicole Hoegl match you up with your perfect rock.... More >>
• Best Progressive Optimal-Health Tools: Color Therapy
  Healing Waters
  After a harrowing shamanic ceremony in which I pulled handful after handful of dark, gooey matter out of my heart, I was suddenly in dire, desperate need of emerald green. Jennifer at Healing Waters helped me to find the perfect shade, in the perfect medium. From brightly hued color-therapy oils... More >>
• Best Progressive Optimal-Health Tools: Energy Center Tune-Up
  Charisse Landise
  Sometimes superfoods and shiatsu just aren't enough to balance you. Charisse Landise can tune up your energy centers with one of her mind-blowing chakra readings. OH MY GOD. Not only is Charisse supremely tapped in and clairvoyant up the yin-yang, but she also boasts ultrarefined translation... More >>
• Best Progressive Optimal-Health Tools: Face Regeneration in a Jar (1 Comment)
  Ascended Health's I Am Beautiful Oil
  You've tended to your inner landscape — now give a little love to your complexion. Ascended Health's I Am Beautiful facial-regeneration oil is the best all-natural face care product I've found. Oxygenated oils are infused with marine phytoplankton and healing herbs and imprinted with Lemurian... More >>
• Best Party Line
  CUT-FOOT Hot Line
  There was life before text messaging. In L.A., there has been the enduring (310) CUT-FOOT hot line, a daily, two-minute-long recorded bulletin of some of the coolest events happening in the city. My experience with the hot line, now into my speed dial, was one of forgetting and then remembering... More >>
• Best Close-Up Magic Class
  Mark Wilson and Nani Darnell's Magic III
  The magazine Magic calls Mark Wilson one of the 10 most influential American magicians of modern times, in the same crowd as Houdini. And The New York Times says he's "probably this nation's leading authority on magic." Yet for the price of a couple of decent tickets to a ball game, you can... More >>
• Best Pit Bull Whisperer
  Kyle Schwab, Smashface Rescue
  Kyle Schwab's passion for underappreciated, misunderstood canines has gotten him in trouble over the years. It started during his senior year at Beverly Hills High School, when his father kicked him out of the house for bringing home a white boxer. In the years since, the former personal... More >>
• Best Weekend-Excess Redemption
  Griffith Park Composting Workshops
  When repenting is due after a weekend of rule-breaking, head to the hills for Griffith Park's composting workshops. On the fourth Saturday of every month, the park crew puts on morning classes that offer instruction in the best methods of composting for every type of home dweller. Come prepared... More >>
• Best Music for Cars
  KXLU
  Phil Collins should never have been allowed to happen. I also don't need to hear "Love Come Down" three times a day — or ever, come to think of it. And "Maybe I'm Amazed" is brilliant, but Maybe I'm No Longer Amazed when it plays while I drive the same stretch of road at the same time on... More >>
• Best Film School As Incendiary Device
  Inner-City Filmmakers
  Schmuel Gelbfisz would sit up in his platinum casket and the ghost of Jimmy Stewart would run down the Walk of Fame screaming, "It's a wonderful life" if they could see what was popping off at Inner-City Filmmakers. Ol' Schmuel (a.k.a. Samuel Goldwyn) never imagined this. I promise. ICF is an... More >>