Hip

The wait for tables is getting longer at Buck's, a popular breakfast spot for the tech elite and a weather vane for the Silicon Valley economy. Here, like everywhere else, Facebook is the talk of the town. "Charles Schwab was in the restaurant the other day, and I asked him to hook me up with some Facebook shares," said Jamis MacNiven, owner of Buck's, in the wealthy suburban enclave of Woodside. "He told me even he can't get Facebook shares. " The new tech boom officially gets underway Friday when Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rings Nasdaq's opening bell remotely from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, launching the largest initial public offering of stock in Silicon Valley history.

Many interested parties pondered exactly how injured Chris Paul was Friday, eyeballing the All-Star guard's every movement to see if a sprained hip was enough to slow down a player Memphis defenders had yet to control. When it turned out that Paul - yes, Chris Paul - was human and that he wouldn't be his usual dominant, unstoppable, clutch self, it meant another Clipper suddenly had some impossibly large sneakers to fill. Eric Bledsoe wasn't sure before the game if he would get that chance against Memphis in Game 6 at Staples Center.

Lying down on the floor with your legs resting against a wall is an excellent way to relax and re-energize. These two poses are especially helpful for stretching and relaxing your inner thigh and hip muscles. It's best to do them after a workout or whenever you have time to stay in the positions for a while. Start by lying on your right side, knees bent toward your chest, with your buttocks close to a sturdy wall. Roll onto your back and straighten your legs against the wall. Straighten both legs out to the sides and slide them down the wall as low as you can, making sure they are on the same level.

In the run-up to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which starts Friday, we've been anticipating not just the music and art but also the independent sense of style that will be on display. Here are some of the standouts who will hit the stages in Indio over the next two weekends. Their looks are bound to turn heads at the increasingly fashion-focused festival. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals For the last few years, Grace Potter, the leggy singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist fronting Waitsfield, Vt.'s Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, has been working a Tina Turner-Marianne Faithfull vibe, favoring sparkly, fringed mini-dresses inspired by the 1960s and '70s.

Teenagers in black jeans and hoodies sit sipping vodka on the sidewalk. At a venue down a few blocks of graffiti-covered walls, a man in a shark costume belts out rock songs. Outside a dance club, well-paid fashion designers mingle with street punks and transvestite prostitutes. It's far from the tropical sun, sex and samba image of Brazil that looms large in the mind of tourists. Rapid change is gripping Brazil, especially Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America and the most expensive in the Western Hemisphere.

Hip and knee replacement surgery is supposed to alleviate pain and allow people to move better and lead a more active lifestyle. A new study published recently in the journal Orthopedics shows that could be the case, because weight loss may be one side effect of getting new knees and hips. Researchers looked at pre- and post-surgery weight in 196 randomly selected patients who had hip or knee replacement surgery from 2005 to 2007 due to osteoarthritis. Their body mass index was noted before surgery, and patients were followed for an average 20 months.

Speaking for cheerleaders everywhere, cheers for Mike Downey! TAMMI BUCKNER Long Beach

Rock journalist Barney Hoskyns asserts that "if it hadn't been for factors like [Charles] Manson, the Beach Boys wouldn't be seen [by some] as quite so hip today" (Pop Eye, July 14). While the group's descent into darkness is indeed a bizarre footnote, the only reason the Beach Boys are so hip today is that, yet again, a new generation of young musicians has discovered the genius of Brian Wilson. Tabloid headlines, like musical fashions, come and go, but the works of composers like Schubert and Gershwin--and yes, Brian Wilson--remain permanently hip. NEAL McCABE Los Angeles

RE Mary McNamara's article on Brentwood ("90049 Is the Recall's Hip ZIP," Aug 5): Brentwood is also known as a neighborhood of wonderful religious congregations, among them St. Martin of Tours, Brentwood Presbyterian Church and University Synagogue. And inside each spiritual home are Brentwood's citizens trying to make a better world, in their own way. Rabbi Morley T. Feinstein University Synagogue Los Angeles

It was a November evening when darkness comes early, and my husband and I were going to our grandson's birthday party. The entrance to the house was unlit and the walk was bumpy. We had almost reached the gate when I made my grand fall, missing a step and landing on my left hip on the concrete. Many hands helped me up, but I was unable to put weight on my left leg. After a glass of wine, I felt no pain. So it was on with the party. The next morning I had a light breakfast: one tangerine from our tree, one poached egg and a cup of decaf.

The reality of the height and speed at which I was traveling didn't hit me until almost halfway through the zip-lining course. Joel Hunt, my 23-year-old guide, told me that the fourth and highest line -- the one I was about to ride -- was known as the most spine-tingling. I quickly found out why. After easing off a wooden platform secured to a Douglas fir, I sailed through a cluster of treetops and then watched as the ground gave way below me. Suddenly, I was 30 stories in the air, hurtling toward a mountain, the oaks and pines and streams that litter the floor of the San Gabriels smirking up at me, the Mojave Desert on my left, Hunt just a tiny, faraway speck on the side of a massive cliff toward which I seemed to be careening at 45 to 65 miles per hour.

Consumer Reports has criticized the safety testing that went into the Lap-Band weight-loss device, raising concerns about poor regulatory oversight of medical equipment implanted in U.S. patients. In a report issued Wednesday the consumer magazine also expressed concerns about risks related to surgical mesh, metal hips and certain cardiac devices. It highlighted how the federal government allows some products to be sold with little or no advance safety testing. Consumer Reports questioned the effectiveness of Allergan Inc.'s Lap-Band product and said government approval was based on a clinical study of only 299 patients.

Something curious has been happening on the music landscape lately. In the span of a few weeks, a jazz artist with a critically lauded new album has hit the late-night TV circuit with performances on the David Letterman and Jay Leno shows, debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard pop chart, and performed a packed-to-the-rafters showcase at Austin, Texas' annual rock 'n' roll smorgasbord, SXSW. And the strangest part? The musician's name isn't Esperanza Spalding. The artist in question is Houston-born pianist Robert Glasper, and his new album on Blue Note Records has become one of the top stories of the year by taking jazz to all sorts of unexpected places.

Want to sell stuff on Craigslist, but the idea of a blind meet-up gives you the heebie jeebies? Los Angeles-based HipSwap has the solution. The Silicon Beach start-up announced at South by Southwest this week the seven-city launch of its website and mobile app, a Craigslist- and eBay-like marketplace that connects local buyers and sellers -- with a twist. The company offers delivery service and, in true L.A. fashion, gives people a peek into the wardrobes and homes of celebrities.

Peter Bourjos said his bothersome right hip feels "good, normal, 100%," but the speedy Angels center fielder acknowledged he will probably undergo surgery after the season to repair some fraying of the labrum in the joint. He would have had the procedure this winter, but he did not undergo an MRI test, which also showed a bone bruise in the hip, until the week before Thanksgiving. With the operation requiring a six- to 12-week recovery, "it would have cut it too close to be ready by spring training," said Bourjos, who joined the Angels for their first full-squad workout Monday in Tempe Diablo Stadium.

The idea was simple -- but groundbreaking: Create a live showcase for black music, modeled on "American Bandstand. " Don Cornelius pulled $400 from his own pocket to launch the dance show on a local Chicago TV station in 1970. As host and executive producer of "Soul Train," he was soon at the throttle of a nationally syndicated television institution that was the first dance show to cater to the musical tastes of black teenagers and also helped bring black music, dance, fashion and style to mainstream America.

With reference to Carla Hall's "Downtown, a New Standard in Hip Hotels" (Weekend Escape, July 7): Hall must have visited a different Standard hotel from the one some friends and I visited. Instead of a "hot hangout," I found the rooftop bar area provided inadequate seating, rude waitresses, watered-down drinks and minute food portions at exorbitant prices. Instead of "hip downtowners," I found boys and girls playing at being "hip." The only part of Hall's story with which I concur is the quote from a local artist, "Wow, you're really slumming."

Re "It's Just Hip When a Congressman Is Asked to Strip," Jan 11: Rep. John D. Dingell's encounter with the security screeners at Reagan National Airport brought to mind a similar encounter of mine. When I passed through a security gate, my surgically placed metallic hip implant set off the alarms. I advised the gate attendant of my then-recent surgery, to which he replied with the now-familiar, "Please take it out, put it in the basket and walk through the gate again." Walter B. Christmas Palos Verdes Estates

Gina Rodriguez's life has changed since "Filly Brown" was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. Now everyone thinks she's rich and famous. After seeing a recent article about the 27-year-old's starring role in the hip-hop drama, Rodriguez's neighbor hit the actress up for money. "She was like, 'So, I have this project — I really want to be a yoga instructor, and all I need is $10,000 to set up this studio,'" Rodriguez recalled recently, eating some spicy edamame at Sushi Roku on West 3rd Street near the Beverly Center, the restaurant where she worked before quitting to act full-time two years ago. "I was like, 'Baby love, I ain't got no money for you. I can take your class and pay $20 for my sun salutation, but I just don't have it.'" Rodriguez may not be wealthy yet, but her lifestyle has already begun to shift.

It was a November evening when darkness comes early, and my husband and I were going to our grandson's birthday party. The entrance to the house was unlit and the walk was bumpy. We had almost reached the gate when I made my grand fall, missing a step and landing on my left hip on the concrete. Many hands helped me up, but I was unable to put weight on my left leg. After a glass of wine, I felt no pain. So it was on with the party. The next morning I had a light breakfast: one tangerine from our tree, one poached egg and a cup of decaf.