Originals

With Operation Get My Kid to Appreciate Opera a success, I figured I would try my luck at the next cultural frontier: The ballet. Each month I’ll be taking my children to unlikely kid-friendly events as a challenge to see what they are capable of understanding and enjoying. Last month was a shocking success as I took […]

John Updike wrote that the movies of Old-Hollywood hoofer Gene Kelly were “cheerfully industrial,” but Kelly’s stuff is wilder and more unsettling than that. Think of the muted end of the Singin’ in the Rain routine—his films contain the recurrent threat that his dancing characters might be arrested for public disturbance. If Kelly’s feverish grin worried movie

Elizabeth Street interviews Jessica Alba about her new book, raising kids, and her business, The Honest Company. Jessica Alba may be best-known for her onscreen roles as cool and sexy action heroines, but we’re more interested in the incredible work she’s done with her business, The Honest Company, which makes cleaning, beauty, and baby products without

Working moms today have a new manifesto—Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, the new book from Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. The much-buzzed-about book, which hits stores this week (and promptly climbed to #1 on the Amazon bestseller list), is a rallying cry for women to “lean in” to their careers and

Boots—as Nancy Sinatra fans know—are made for walking. But with such a vast selection of styles to choose from, it’s not so easy to find the perfect wear-all-day pair. Cue Stuart Weitzman’s 5050 boot. Chic and sleek enough to wear to work (it’d look great with a blazer) yet practical enough to run after the kids

Today is International Women’s Day. (Read: It’s the perfect day to reach out to a woman who has inpired you and say thank you.) It could be your mom, your favorite college professor, or even a blogger you’ve never met. So today, we’re choosing bloggers we love: Design Mom’s Gabby Blair, Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman, and Little Green Notebook’s Jenny Komenda.

KID FRIENDLY: Address: 6360 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, US Website: www.arclightcinemas.com Phone: 323 464 1478 Would you pay five dollars to eliminate loud audiences, poor screen views, and uncomfortable seating that are sadly the too-standard movie theater expectations? Given that the already steep price of movies comes with no guarantee of a good time, it sounds like

KID FRIENDLY: Address: 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, US Website: www.huntington.org Phone: 626 405 2203 Railroad and real estate Henry E. Huntington was an avid art collector, historian, and horticulturist. His estate in San Marino houses his collection and impressive gardens. Among the best is the 9-acre Japanese garden, complete with a 19th-century Japanese house, and the

OCCUPATION: Professional actress currently seen on ABC’s Cougartown MY STYLE: Eclectic I LOVE L.A. BECAUSE: Los Angeles is so easy with kids. There are amazing parks and indoor play spaces. There are farmers’ markets every day of the week somewhere in the city. There are tons of kid-friendly restaurants. Chateau Marmont Perched on a hillside

Holiday tunes for one and all A bit tired of the same old songs, we asked Mindy Thomas, program director and host of The Absolutely Mindy Show on SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live (channel 78), for a recommendations to have an rocking (or soulful or world folky) holiday season. “Sunny Christmas” by Rennee & Jeremy Album:  Sunny Christmas For