Best of L.A.

Best Human's-Eye View of Pain
Best of L.A. 2004
At Ziba Salon, known for its henna-design work for Madonna and Gwen Stefani, there's no taking you into an aromatic private room or offer of fizzy water before an Indian aesthetician swoops down over your face, wielding a long piece of thread that's been looped and spiraled upon itself, the middle wound around her fingers and the ends held firmly between her clenched teeth. As she twists the string against your face, wayward eyebrow (or forehead, upper-lip, side) hair is yanked by its roots — krrk, krrk — and depending on your state of mind before getting into the chair, this can be tear-jerkingly painful or simply an itch. But in less than three minutes and $8 later, the threading torture — only Asians could come up with something like this, right? — has resulted in clean, voluptuously arched eyebrows that rival the curves in Utah's Arches National Park. —Phuong-Cac Nguyen

Best Book Hoarders
Best of L.A. 2004
The closing of Santa Monica's Midnight Special bookstore was a blow to the local literati, but Long Beach's artsy East Village has two shops that revive bibliophiles' hopes for the future of smalltime bookstores. The first is Open, which went from a failed idea for a magazine to a viable used-bookstore/art-gallery venture by Se Reed and Shea Gauer. The pair were already veterans in the bookshop industry, practically ensuring the success of the new store by combining their book-buying and managing experience from their days working together at a nearby indie bookstore. Stocking Gen-X and -Y faves like William T. Vollmann and Victor Pelevin, they also feature works from local writers and unique versions of titles, plus a miscellany of back issues. A few blocks away is the maze-like Acres of Books, which Ray Bradbury once called romantic because of its cache of over 1 million secondhand tomes that span 6.5 acres of shelves. Even the categorization method is interesting: The "wealth"" section branches into "wealthy people," "wealthy families" and then, curiously, "retirement." Like cities, this place needs a Thomas Guide. —Phuong-Cac Nguyen