Archive for the ‘health’ Category
Ride Nekkid
“The difference between being ‘naked’ and being ‘nekkid’ is, that when you are naked, you have no clothes on. However, when you are nekkid, you have no clothes on and you are up to something.” — Tom Robbins, “Skinny Legs and All”
This Saturday, happening in 70 cities and 20 countries across the globe, is World Naked Bike Ride day — a world-wide celebration of all things bicycle and body-image. Anyone with a bike and a willingness to go balls-out (or, y’know, whatever-out) is welcome to join. And as part of my quest to make the unsuspecting civilians of Los Angeles see things they can’t unsee, I too will be participating. Ladies, please, CALM YOURSELVES.
Is nudity mandatory? Not at all — this thing is “bare as you dare.” (Although for anyone who’s seen me with my shirt off, it’ll be more like “bear as you dare”– zing!) Everyone’s going to meet in Echo Park at 1:30 PM for a body-decorating party, with the ride leaving at 4 PM sharp. It’ll be a medium-paced 13-mile loop around the East Side, ending in a barbecue/after-party at a to-be-disclosed location. (Please say “Pat Robertson’s house”, please say “Pat Robertson’s house.”) RSVP on Facebook to get ride directions and info.
We’re gonna get a medal for this one, kids.
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WHAT: World Naked Bike Ride Day
WHEN: Saturday, June 12th, pre-ride at 1:30, ride at 4
WHERE: Echo Park (rsvp for details)
$$$: Free
The Shire Is Secretly in Los Feliz
People talk about Runyon Canyon as being an “escape from the city.” Nonsense, I tell you — Runyon is basically a Crunch’s gym with sunlight. I see more Blackberry users there than at Insert Upscale-Beverly-Hills-Restaurant-That-I-Don’t-Go-To Here. If you want a real escape from the city, listen close…
Hidden directly off Los Feliz Blvd, right around the corner where it turns into Western, there’s a hidden woodland oasis that looks like something straight out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s subconscious. I’m talking about a place called Ferndell Park — which, you notice, even has a vaguely Middle Earth-y sounding name. You turn in near the sculpture of the dancing bear, and from here, you follow a densely shaded path, ensconced in California sycamores, winding up along gently trickling streams, past wooden guide-barriers and under stone bridges. The sound of the distant traffic fades out, and is replaced by that of birds, running water, and even — that rarest of LA commodities — silence. And yet you are still only a short walk from snacks.
For short men with hairy feet, i.e. me, this place is a dream come true.
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WHAT: hidden LOTR-esque mini-hike
WHEN: good all year round
WHERE: Ferndell Park
$$$: Free
Get Panoramic
Along one of LA’s ugliest streets — a soul-deadening stretch of Jefferson Blvd that runs through the industrial sector of Culver City, past tinny warehouses and the graffiti-strewn cement banks of Ballona Creek — lies one of the city’s best views. Not on the street, mind you, but above it, in the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. From atop that unassuming hill, surrounded by fields of yellow flowers and winding garden paths, you can see from Catalina to Compton, from downtown to the Hollywood sign, from Century City to the Inland Empire, and everything in between.
As for how you get up to there, you have two choices — 1: automobile/bike, or 2: PAIN. And by that I mean, a set of steps that are like the brutish, inked-up, just-got-out-of-jail cousin to the Silverlake Stairs — haphazard slabs of stone, spaced unevenly in a dizzying line straight up the face of the mountain. They’re an infernal test of a workout (you know you’re in for a treat when the Yelp reviews say things like “Do not climb these stairs without first downloading ‘Ms. New Bootie’ by Bubba Sparxxx onto your Ipod; thinking of how nice this is going to make your ass look is the only thing that will prevent your imminent collapse.”) But that ordeal only makes the breath-stealing sights up top so much more rewarding.
You’ll notice the overlook doesn’t offer the same pastoral view of the city you’d get from, say, Paseo Miramar. Instead, it serves up a warts-and-all portrait of everything gorgeous and awful about our city — gleaming sun-bright towers and anonymous urban sprawl, nightmarishly teeming freeways and rolling green hills, blue ocean and beige smog, industrial and residential, rich and poor, the effing terrible and the ineffable.
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WHAT: Urban hike with an amazing view
WHEN: Good all year round
WHERE: West Jefferson Blvd, Culver City
$$$: Free
Mass Uprising
You hav
en’t really lived until you’ve gone flying down Wilshire Blvd on a bicycle at 10 o’clock at night surrounded by a speeding mob of 300 hundred other cyclists — and this Friday, you have the opportunity to do just that. Critical Mass is world-wide celebration of bike culture, happening once a month in different cities all around the globe, wherein hordes of pedal-enthusiasts take to the night-time streets and let their freak flags fly. The event’s moniker comes from a phenomenon in which traffic is compelled to a stand-still once a high enough number of bikes take over the road. (This doesn’t, however, give you license to be a dick to passing motorists and/or the cops — this means you, idiot from last month who wowed the world with his creativity by yelling “I smell bacon” at the LAPD. Guys like you make me wish Daryl Gates was still alive.)
The ride starts at 7:30 PM sharp, at the Western/Wilshire metro station. Bring your wheels, helmet, an extra tube, water, and learn the call-outs. And most importantly, bring front and rear lights — crucial for obvious safety reasons, as well as being part of the magical visual effect you get when you crest a hill and look down upon a moving river of blinking red luminescence. For the three hours of contained anarchy that go along with CM taking to the streets, there’s no better way to spend a Friday night.
For more information, check out their Facebook page.
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WHAT: Crazy night-time bike ride
WHEN: Friday April 30th — meet up at 6:30, ride at :730
WHERE: Wilshire/Western metro station
$$$: Free
Running from the Paparazzi
Have you always wanted to be famous, but know you don’t have what it takes to become a star (i.e. a sex tape where Ray-J pees on you?) Fear not — because on April 24th, we’re all getting famous. No, this does not involve guns, put those down. STOP THAT.
Full disclosure: I’m one of the guys throwing this event. Now here’s how it works: we meet at noon in front of the WME building, where we run a winding, three-mile obstacle course through Beverly Hills. Hidden throughout the course will be packs of photographers. Your goal is to make it to the finish line without them getting a picture of your full face.
Scattered along the way will be hidden caches of “identity concealers”, i.e. low-brimmed hats and those sunglasses that put a black bar over your eyes. (We were going to offer ski masks, and then remembered ski masks + sprinting through Beverly Hills in broad daylight = “Officer, these cuffs are too tight.”)
Got a camera and the ability to be sneaky? We want you. Got a pair of running shoes and a well-developed flight sensibility? We want you. (Costumes are also encouraged.) The race starts at noon, but paparazzi are required to show up at 11 AM so we can get you vultures in your respective hiding places.
Afterward, in a stirring tribute to something that would totally happen in real life, the celebrities and the paparazzi will meet up for a beer at the Writer’s Bar in the L’Ermitage Hotel.
Be sure to RSVP for the event on Facebook.
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WHAT: Celebrities Vs. Paparazzi footrace
WHEN: April 24th, noon-1 PM (Paparazzi to meet at 11 AM)
WHERE: Starting at the WME building
$$$: Free
Do Tread On Me
I am totally not the guy for this. In my seven years in LA, I never once booked myself any kind of massage, no matter what kind of ache-causing weekend shenanigans I got myself into; I simply went by my dad’s credo of “When sore, drink more.”
Then, after doing the LA Marathon (and thus becoming the first person in history ever to run 26.2 miles while sobbing continuously), I discovered that my body had magically invented new ways to be in pain, causing me to walk like Frankenstein after having his prostate examined by Captain Hook. It was bad.
Luckily, a friend suggested the Pho Siam Thai Spa, and let me say: this place turned out be populated with miracle workers. Tiny, middle-aged, Asian miracle-workers that step on you. A dimly lit, teak-walled, two-story enclave situated just south of Echo Park (by the late, great L’Keg Gallery), Pho Siam has three major things going for it.
1: THEY’RE CHEAP. $30 bucks for half an hour, or $50 for an hour. Which, by LA massage studio standards, is practically ski-ball tickets.
2: THEY’RE AMAZING. You know that scene in Fight Club where Helena Bonham Carter has just finished having sexy-time with Brad Pitt, and she has that look of exhausted, marrow-deep satisfaction as she flops down next to him? That’s what you look like when you walk out of here. It will make you want a cigarette, regardless of whether you actually smoke.
3: THEY’RE OPEN LATE. Not, like, sleazy late (they close at 10:30 pm); it’s a cool spot to take a date.
Trust me: let them walk all over you.
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WHAT: Nighttime Echo Park massage studio
WHEN: Monday – Sunday, 9 AM – 10:30 PM
WHERE: Pho Siam Thai Spa
$$$: $30 for half an hour — cash only
The Joys Of Getting Stranded
Let’s pretend it’s a Sunday morning. The weather is beautiful, the skies are bright, your hangover has started to dissipate, the half-dressed stranger has been kicked out of your house, and by God, it’s time to carpe the damn diem. My advice: first carpe your bike (or rent one), and then head down to The Strand.
A stretch of winding concrete path spanning 30 miles south from Will Rogers State Beach, The Strand offers a perfect way to take in the case of Multiple Personality Disorder from which our coast suffers so gloriously.
I started at the Redondo Pier and headed north, pedaling past the frat-tastic beach parties of Hermosa, cruising by a beached ship that street-artists had turned into a mural, watching surfers ride the (possibly radioactive) waves beyond the power plants, floated through the laconic East-Coast-fishing-village vibes of Manhattan, gliding under howling jetliners and through the boombox soul music and mouth-watering barbecue smoke of Dockweiler, zipping alongside sailboats in Marina Del Rey, dodging meth-heads and performance artists (po-tay-to, po-tah-to?) in Venice, stopping to play Tarzan on the swing-rings in Santa Monica, before finally heading up through the windswept sands adjacent to the PCH, where the trail died out.
Turning around to ride home in the afternoon sun, ocean air whistling past, I found myself mentally stealing (and slightly misappropriating) a line Edward Norton said in Keeping The Faith: “Anyone who doesn’t live here must, on some level, be kidding themselves.”
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WHAT: Bike path along every beach in LA
WHEN: Good all year round
WHERE: Starts in Redondo, ends at Will Rogers State Beach
$$$: Free
No Stairway
Ok, so — who wants to spend an entire day walking up and down an endless series of concrete stairs?
You do, if you want to see multiple sides of this crazy, beautiful, depraved city all at once. Back before cars became the primary mode of transportation in LA (like way back in the day), residents of Silverlake/Echo Park had to access their homes via a series of staircases built directly into the hillsides. Because they didn’t have roads, or cars to drive on the roads, which didn’t exist. Shit was rough then, son.
Luckily for us, the past’s necessity has become the present’s excellent-way-to-kill-a-Sunday — part urban adventure, part scavenger hunt. Here’s the map.
You start just off of Sunset Blvd, by one of those Mexican polka-nightclubs that you secretly have always wanted to go into, and head up the Music Box Stairs, made famous for Laurel and Hardy’s inability to get a piano down them.
From here, you spill down across the Junction, and up into the hills where the houses become smaller, hobbit-like, obscured by vines and greenery. You tramp up along Griffith Park and resist the urge to go into Hard Times Pizza. (Or you don’t; I’m not judging.) You pass a glass-walled stilt-house where someone told you Scarlett Johansson lives. You wait for Scarlett Johansson to come out. She doesn’t. You ramble onward, along the reservoir and past hidden parks. You dodge crack vials on the steps leading down to a gypsy-camp ensconced off Glendale. You take in views of the city that look like something Terrance Mallick might shoot. You get lost a lot, and feel a strange sense of accomplishment every time you track down an elusive set of steps. “I’m never using a stairmaster again,” you think to yourself.
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WHAT: Urban adventuring in Silverlake
WHEN: Good all year round
WHERE: Start on Vendome St, just south of Sunset
$$$: Free
Paseo Miramar: The Best Time You’ll Ever Have Getting Kicked In The Face
A couple miles north of Sunset Blvd in the Palisades lies Paseo Miramar, a five-mile hike that gives you some of the most gobsmacking views of the Pacific Ocean you’ll ever witness.
But first, you must pay a price.
I’m not going to lie to you: the first two miles of this thing — a steep, winding, seemingly endless incline up the canyon, with each corner promising relief that never comes — are going to kick you in the face. They are going to kick the faces of your friends, your pets, your distant family members, and your unborn children. Add a ponytail to them and they’d be Steven Segal in Out For Justice. Your suffering is going to be legendary.
But then, after about 45 minutes, something magical happens: your body accepts its fate. And before you know it, the incline levels out, and you’re slaloming down through green tree-tunnels and past wetlands and up through fields of high, honey-colored grass. Finally, you hit the top and there’s a wooden bench waiting for you. You flop down and drink in the views of the rolling Palisades, the muted sprawl of the city, the toy-sized Santa Monica Ferris Wheel in the distance, and that sheet of blue rippling from the crescent edges of the continent. It’s all yours.
Masochism: it has its upsides.
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WHAT: Hike in the Palisades
WHEN: Good all year round
WHERE: Trail starts at the top of Paseo Miramar Rd
$$$: Free
Midnight Rambler
“Don’t do it. You’ll get
eaten by coyotes.” This is usually the response I get when I tell people I want to go night-hiking in Griffith Park. “Nonsense,” I tell them, “I am a large, imposing adult male, not Jessica Simpson’s dog. Besides, the coyote presence up there is seriously over-reported.”
The first thing I saw when I got there was a coyote. Cold chillin’ in the parking lot by the merry-go-round. Humans — we only pretend we run this town.
Three times a week for the past few years, the Sierra Club has been leading after-dark hikes up into the mountains between Hollywood and Glendale. A crowd of 60 or so adventurers gathers in the upper carousel parking lot, where individual groups form based on speed/trail difficulty (I chose a “3+” i.e. “medium” hike.) Then, lead by a central-casting Greek grandfather named Yanni, we were off, twenty silhouettes loping into the darkened hills.
Your eyes adjust to the gloom as you ascend a thin, winding trail, up through what Bob Dylan described as “haunted, frightened trees”, branches stripped by last year’s fires and looking like something from a Tim Burton movie in the moonlight. You climb under giant fallen logs and bushwhack through overgrowth. The sound of the freeway gives way to a chorus of chirping crickets and croaking frogs, and then silence — the soundtrack best suited to the spooky majesty of the landscape. You crest a hill and the entire Los Angeles valley, from downtown to the ocean, opens up below like a massive, glowing cauldron. “I feel like Batman right now,” you think to myself. (Seriously, you think that.) Two hours and six miles later, you’re back in the city — sweaty, dusty-streaked and happy.
Don’t be fooled, dear humans; the coyotes know where it’s at.
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WHAT: Night Hike
WHEN: Tues, Wed, Thurs, starting at 6:45 PM
WHERE: Griffith Park — meet at the upper carousel parking lot
$$$: Free
Get Your Parkour On
Remember back in the 80’s, when no self-respecting action movie could come out without ninjas? We have reached that golden point again, my friends — only now instead of black-clad Asian stereotypes kicking Michael Dudikoff in his blow-dried head, we’ve got a French style of street acrobatics known as Parkour. It involves sprinting, scrambling up walls, vaulting over obstacles, and generally looking like a complete bad-ass. (See CASINO ROYALE, LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, the DISTRICT B-13 flicks… even the space-smurfs in AVATAR are doing it.)
Now if you, like me, are more of an “armchair bad-ass” and don’t want to risk breaking your spine while leaping over the bike-rack outside Taco Bell, The Los Angeles School of Gymnastics has the perfect thing for you: Thursday Night “Intro to Parkour” Classes — where a ridiculously skilled instructor will teach you basic rolls, vaults, and climbs, and the floor is made of nice, cushy padding for when you fall. There is no size, skill, or experience level requirement (I’ve taken the class before, and was given nothing but warm encouragement and great coaching, despite most of my maneuvers looking like something from “Kung Fu Panda” before the panda learns kung-fu.)
You never know; this time next year, you could be making a dazzling escape down a set of scaffolding while taunting Bruce Willis. Register by emailing pkcali@gmail.com.
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WHAT: Parkour Lessons
WHEN: Every Thursday, 8:15 pm – 9:45 pm
WHERE: LA School of Gymnastics
$$$: $15 per class
LA App: Recyc-all
So it’s been a while since the cell phone was invented. Also, there have been a few upgrades since that 386 with a 40mb hard drive. So maybe you have some old tech lying around. Old tech that you’re thinking you kept for the sake of nostalgia. Or perhaps one day you wanted to show your kids what a video game system was like when you still had to use your hands. In any case, the lovely gurus at Engadget put together an extremely comprehensive list of where to recycle just about any tech you’ve got.
Check it out here.
And let us know if it actually works!
Ultimate Stairmaster
Tomorrow is the annual Stair Climb to the Top fundraiser for the downtown YMCA. This fundraiser involves climbing 75 stor
ies to the top of the U.S. bank building- the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Imagine how amazing your ass would feel after this feat? About 1,500 runners are expected to show up and complete the stairmaster in roughly 9 minutes, but for us fatties it probably takes around 20. The fundraising minimum is a hefty $100, but think of how cool it is that people have access to a fit and happy lifestyle downtown, courtesy of the YMCA? Plus, you can see hot (presumably) policemen and firemen race separately in full gear. On-site registration begins at 2pm. If you can’t make it or are just really not into climbing stairs, or don’t have $100 which is completely understandable, come hang out at the corresponding Hope street fair with live music, food, retail vendors, and a live jumbotron featuring the race.
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WHAT: Stair Climb to the Top
WHEN: Friday, 2pm
WHERE: U.S. bank building
$$$: a donation of at least 100, or free for the street fair
Quit smoking for free!
Now I know a lot of people who smoke, but none who consider themselves “smokers”. Almost all of them are theoretically in the long, sometimes years-long process of quitting, or at least considering thinking about the possibility quitting sometime in the nebulous future. I’ve heard that smoking can be pretty bad for you and stuff, so maybe it’s time.
Well, Ralph’s is here to help! They’ve teamed up with the LA County Department of Public Health to do something really cool – give away free stuff. At 47 participating Ralph’s grocery stores throughout our fair city, any smoker can simply walk up to the pharmacy and leave with a free goodie-bag chock-full of normally expensive nicotine gum and patches to assist in the quitting process.
Alternatively, people looking to get addicted to nicotine but too scared to take the full on plunge into smoking, this is a good way to start!
UPDATE: If you go, go to the pharmacy before you start shopping, because it takes them half an hour to prepare it for you.
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WHAT: Free nicotine gum and patches
WHERE: Any participating Ralph’s with a pharmacy
WHEN: While supplies last (30,000 kits will be given out in all)
$$$: Free! With the potential to save you money when you, you know, stop buying so many cigarettes. And then $2 refills for a year!
LA Deals
So with the State of the Economy and blah blah blah, you’re probably crapping yourself with the post-graduate stresses of real life setting in. Don’t worry. Today’s deals are geared toward helping you relax and gain the skills and supplies to cope.
• First, clean yourself up with a free SCOTT Extra Soft Toilet Tissue Double Roll and a 10ct travel pack of SCOTT Moist Wipes by filling out this form.
• Then hone your fast twitch money muscles with a free copy of Practical Money Skills at Home CD-ROM and gain financial control in your life.
• Round out your work by reading for pleasure (or insight) by taking 20% off at Barnes & Noble by using coupon code “D3A7V3V” (excludes textbooks, perorder, and Rosetta Stone series) until June 22. Also, if you sign up for the free Borders Rewards program, you can save 40% off one item at Borders with this coupon until June 21.
• With a sense of a accomplishment, TODAY ONLY, relax and kick back with either a free root beer float at your local-ish A&W Restaurant (until 8pm) or a free light smoothie from Orange Julius (must bring this coupon).
• Once you’ve cooled down, go run off the calories with a sweet pair of New Balance shoes at 70% off from 6pm.com because we know what white people BoredLA readers like. Offer good today only.
Get Stepped On For Cheap!
If you are like most readers of this website you are a young, rich Eastsider pretending to be an impoverished Eastsider with an “old soul,” and at this moment you are probably simultaneously reading this blog, and listening to a podcast of the Animal Collective on NPR. Like anyone though after a long day of Facebooking and sending your resume out to both the Jim Henson Company and Pitchfork Magazine you, dear reader need to relax. You want a spa, but you don’t want the other jazzercisers at Sweaty Sundays to think you are some bourgeoisie poser. How are you supposed to get your fix of decadent papering without losing your hipster street cred? The answer is simple my friends: Pho Siam Thai Spa.
At Pho Siam one can receive a facial, a foot massage, a waxing, or my personal favorite (and truthfully the only one I have tried) the Thai massage, all at incredibly reasonable prices. A Thai massage is a delightfully different experience from other forms of massage, usually done by a tiny Thai woman who uses not only her hands to massage you, but also her forearms, elbows, knees and feet (often they walk on your back and legs), not only applying pressure, but also stretching you into various yoga-esc poses, and at $40/hr it is the best value in massage around! Every massage I have received from Pho Siam is like a stress relief snowflake, each unique, relaxing and refreshing in its own way; I have never received the same massage twice.
If you are like me you will want your masseuse to apply as much pressure and pulverize every muscle with the brutal force of a Hulkamanic practicing pile drivers. If you are like most humans you will want a gentler touch, just be sure to tell the masseuse how you like it and they will be sensitive to your needs. Remember that although Pho Siam does have some private massage rooms, most massages take place in a large room where each patron is separated by only (but tastefully) draped curtains, so be sure to turn your cell phone off, and refrain from talking so as not to disturb the other guests. They do accept walk-ins, but reservations are recommended
Pho Siam also makes a unique spot for a romantic evening out, and if you play your cards right you just might catch a glimpse your date with their top off.
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WHAT: Thai Massage
WHEN: 9:00 am to 10:30pm daily
WHERE: Pho Siam Thai Massage
$$$: $40 for an hour massage (cash only
Speaking of Bicycles…
May is apparently Bicycle Month. If you haven’t noticed yet, the freeways have been covered in light up signs saying “Bike To Work Day! Share The Road!” The first time I saw it I thought, “I didn’t know today was Bike to Work Day.” Then I saw it the next day and thought, “I guess they forgot to take it down”. It took me about four days to catch on. Anyway, this week is officially Bike to Work Week. So, if possible, get on your bike and peddle your way to work! Make sure to bring a change of clothes, it’s freaking hot out!
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WHAT: Bicycle Month
WHEN: All May!
WHERE: Everywhere
$$$: Free… just need a bicycle
Women’s Creative Collective Skill-Share 2009 This Weekend
LA might be a little dreary this weekend, so grab your sunscreen and your copy of the Feminine Mystique (outdated reference?) and drive up to the delightfully convenient Southern California Desert. No no, Coachella is next weekend, THIS weekend is your chance to join an amazing movement of women at the First Annual Women’s Creative Collective Skill-Share. Women’s Creative Collective for Change is a group of women, based in Los Angeles, who get together to work together for positive change for the future and positive change for the representation of narratives of the past. The Skill-Share Retreat will feature yoga in the mornings, workshops throughout the day, hiking, meditation, creation, relaxation, and, of course, a drum circle or two. Follow this link to sign up. Women, men, and children are all welcome. This is one of those events that you’ll always remember. Make sure you check the website to sign up and make carpool arrangements. Everyone wants to help everyone make this an unforgetable weekend! If you want to get involved in another way, you can join WCCC’s writers workshop.
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WHAT: Womens Creative Collective Skill-Share Retreat
WHEN: Saturday and Sunday
WHERE: Sattleback Butte
$$$: free!
Run, Firecracker, Run!
**Thanks for the heads up, Sam! Info has been corrected**
As if last weekend’s Golden Dragon Parade wasn’t good enough, Chinatown is playing host to yet another awesome event this Saturday/Sunday. The 31st Annual Chinatown Firecracker Run starts Sunday at 8 AM sharp (or 8:30 if you’re doing the 10K instead of the 5k). What a great, healthy way to ring in the Year of the Ox! You can register on the day of the race.
If running isn’t your thing, don’t fret. On Saturday, you can join in the Firecracker Fun Bike Ride, a 20 mile course where you don’t have to worry about dodging traffic at all (!!!). It’s almost entirely flat and at the end of it, you get a t-shirt and a free carbo load meal. You can register there day of as well.
And for those of you who are completely sedentary, you’re not out of luck, either. There will be live entertainment and music both days. So, you know, fun for all!
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WHAT: Chinatown Firecracker 5k/10k Run
WHEN: Saturday, February 7th Bike @ 9:30, Sunday, February 8th Running @ 8 for the 5k and 8:30 for the 10k
WHERE: Chinatown Central Plaza
$$$: Race registration is $30, free entertainment for all
Duke it Out Old School
If you want to defend yourself on the mean streets of Los Angeles*, but prefer more traditional weapons, perhaps the Academy of Arms of Los Angeles has the answer. Instructor Shay Roberts will teach you how to fight in the style of medieval knights, starting with instruction in German Longsword and moving on from there. Sounds pretty badass to me.
The system seems pretty cool, as well. You pay $40 to use the studio space and take the classes, and that covers everything for the month. German Longsword classes are Thursday evenings and Saturday around lunchtime, they host free optional practices at Verdugo Park.
*I’m not a lawyer, but I think there probably might be some legal issues if you actually decided to carry a sword around L.A. Just sayin’…
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WHAT: Medieval Sword Fighting Classes @ The Academy of Arms
WHEN: Thursdays 7:30-9:30 PM
WHERE: Van Nuys Studio, 14547 Erwin St, 91411
$$$: 40 for a month of classes
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