Combo

The Open Borders Festival takes its title literally (it's housed in a former Borders bookstore) and figuratively (it breaks down all sorts of genre barriers). Artists as varied as Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, avant-rapper Murs, stoner-rock titans Entrance Band and country-cute combo He's My Brother She's My Sister all play what may be the most eclectic local fest in the Southland. Borders Books & Music, 125 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. Saturday to July 30, various times.

Save time and increase the intensity of your workouts by performing an upper body exercise and a lower body exercise at the same time. The combo move here will tighten and tone the fronts of your arms and the backs of your legs. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand over your right leg with your left leg pointed behind you. Lift your chest and pull your abs in toward your spine. Look straight ahead, and maintain your balance over your right leg as you contract your biceps (the muscles in the front of your arms)

Quarterback and wide receiver. Yin and yang. Actually, Baron Davis and Chris Kaman are more like the guys on one of those ubiquitous political shows on cable TV, talking over each other and even yelling. And, yes, keeping it worth watching . . . for better or worse. On Wednesday night, it was for the better. Kaman and Davis combined for 36 points in the Clippers' 120-95 rout of the Timberwolves at the Target Center. Of course, there were many more dimensions to the 25-point victory.

By day, Dr. Rupa Marya tends to critical-care patients at UC San Francisco, where she teaches intern physicians about communicating with people facing life and death decisions. By night, she sheds her last name, picks up a guitar and leads Rupa & the April Fishes, a rollicking world cabaret combo that has won an international following thanks largely to her poetically charged songs in Spanish, French and English. The band celebrates the release of its newest album, "Este Mundo," at the Mint on Friday, headlining a triple bill with the Chicano rockers Ollin and the flamenco hip-hop project Granada Doaba.

One has accounted for half his team's postseason wins. The other is responsible for more than a third of his team's runs. One set the tone in his team's two playoff series with dominating wins in the opening game. The other has hit home runs that erased deficits in three games his team came back to win. On their own, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and third baseman Alex Rodriguez can take over a game or a series. So when they're both playing at the top of their game at the same time, you get performances such as Tuesday, when Sabathia shut the Angels' bats down for eight innings while Rodriguez lighted their pitchers up, scoring three runs and driving in two in a 10-1 victory in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series that leaves the Yankees just a win short of the World Series.

While this year's Tour de France cyclists struggled to overcome rain, cold and hills, I took a four-day bike trip in Denmark, one of the most cycle-friendly nations in the world. It has more than 7,000 miles of safe, interconnected, sign-posted bike trails and -- get this -- no big hills. My 50-mile trip was hardly as long or as arduous as the Tour. I never tried to go fast because I wasn't competing for the yellow jersey.

Youthful ambition left John Hyden and Sean Scott without partners, so the 36-year-old veterans banded together. Turns out, experience has its benefits: Since teaming up, they have won two Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournaments this season, in Atlanta and Ocean City, Md., and are the top-seeded team at the Manhattan Beach Open this weekend.

For chocolate, a matcha made in heaven. At a glance, the cross-cultural dessert pairing of chocolate and matcha, the prized Japanese green tea powder, may not seem the sort of combination to elicit uncontrollable cravings. Among the many terms used to evoke matcha's elusively complex character -- grassy, spinachy, watercress-like, seaweedy, earthy, floral, herbaceous, aquatic, bitter -- barely a single one screams dessert.

This exercise combines movements to target your arm, abdominal, buttock and thigh muscles all at once. Don't be surprised if one leg is harder to balance on than the other -- we all have a more dominant side. That's why it's important to train them equally. -- Karen Voight 1 Begin by standing with feet together and hands at your sides. Lunge back with your left leg, bending both knees to 90 degrees. Make sure your right knee is directly above your right ankle.

Miriam Adam, the clarinetist for Grammy-winning quintet Imani Winds, sounded almost apologetic as she back-introduced the ensemble's first song in its opening set for Wayne Shorter, an evocative, dramatic piece from Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Clad in a candy-colored gown, she said something along the lines of how Wednesday night's Disney Hall audience wasn't expecting classical woodwind music to lead the way for one of the most famed saxophonists and composers jazz has ever known.