Stacks gives the Queen Mary good merchandising
Stacks is more than the newest gift shop on the Queen Mary: it’s also the first retail venture to open on Long Beach’s iconic and long-struggling attraction since Delaware North, the massive amusement-property-management company, came aboard late last September. It’s a very credible and encouraging debut.
The merchandise is well-chosen [...]

Sound Snacks records music for you at the ready

PHOTO by JEFFREY R. GOULD
Shakespeare wrote that youth is nimble, while age is lame. Two Long Beach musicians are proving that you don’t have to move—or tour—to live creatively once youth is in the rear-view mirror.
Veterans of many bands, tours, gigs, recording sessions, showcases and much music-industry [...]

Pups saddle up to the Pawbar at Belmont Shore’s Pussy & Pooch

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
The Belmont Shore retail nook that was once occupied by Wiskers now belongs to Pussy & Pooch, but the two shops’ shared affinity for cats and dogs is purely coincidental: P&P was already looking to expand from its flagship location in [...]

Forget 2010: Make your New Year’s resolution today at Naples Fitness Studio

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Since opening in Dec. 2006, Naples Fitness Studio has provided personal training to area residents—from a 13-year-old Junior Olympic water polo player to an 87-year-old woman and fitness seekers of all ages in between—led by owner David Rosett, who sees an [...]

BEST USE OF STUDENT LOANS: THE ACADEMY The Academy is an eclectic unisex boutique sandwiched between a specialty bike shop and an upscale sneaker dealer on the recently renovated portion of First St. Started in October of 2005 using leftover art-school funds, the Academy is like a handpicked, Long Beach-centric Urban Outfitters, selling whatever silk-soft [...]

Duke and Duchess of Bixby Knolls

PHOTO by SUZANNE MAPES
“We’re quite involved in the community,” begins Gillian Klinkert, explaining her rather rapid ascent from everyday Bixby Knolls resident to, um, how to put this . . . neighborhood royalty? Yep. Really. Gillian is the “Duchess of Bixby Knolls”—and not just because she has the perfect English [...]

Fingerprintsaholic

PHOTO by DAVID THORNTON
Buying stuff hasn’t always meant watching some cash-register jockey whip your ATM card through a little slot. Once, you paid cash, and you knew the person taking your money down at the lumber yard or the store, in the men’s department or at the car dealer—especially at the car dealer. Your word [...]

Connect with yourself at Everyday Zen

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Massages are typically regarded as a means to an end, the end being temporary relief from back or neck pain, or relaxation, or both. In the hands of a good therapist, this is an end fairly easily reached: you tune out, the therapist does her job [...]

Long Beach squeezes in another thrift store
Ours most certainly isn’t a city that wants for thrift stores, from the multiple Salvation Army and Goodwill outlets to our varied consignment and antique spots (not to mention bankable favorites like Out of the Closet and cute curiosities like the Assistance League Thrift Shop—hello, rich lady clothes!). But [...]

Turn your lawn into a natural wonder with Apiana Native Landscaping

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
We’re standing at the edge of a small garden on the campus of Fremont Elementary School when Brady Redman pulls a few leaves from one of the plants below and hands them to me. “Rub those in your hands and then smell [...]