Homage

A travel tip: On a recent cruise to Alaska, we were offered optional city/area tours in each of the three cities we were to visit. Each tour was about $29. We decided not to purchase those tours and to visit the cities by ourselves. However, after arriving in each city, we found that independent tour companies were there to greet the ship. Those independent tour guides offered the same tour at $10-$12.50 per person. We took them up on this bargain and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. MARSHALL FOX Santa Barbara

Bob Osborne, the "Oz-man," as some of his students called him, was the sort of person you were glad to find peering at you across a dinner table because he loved so many things and spoke so well about them. But of all his passions, it was the sand of Southern California's beaches that he loved best. As would befit a sedimentologist and chairman of USC's department of geology, Oz knew everything there was to know about sand.

José Eber, the veteran hairdresser instantly recognizable by his long blond locks and jazzy cowboy hats, has launched a new salon in Beverly Hills, blocks from his former hair haven on Via Rodeo. The two-floor, 8,500-square-foot José Eber salon, formerly home to Christie's auction house, is a sprawling ode to old-school glamour, featuring 30-foot ceilings, enormous, quirky art works (by collage artist Terence Lawlor), an 18-foot sofa peppered with velvet pillows, and — on everything from the walls to the swivel chairs — the color purple, in homage to Eber's longtime friend and client, Elizabeth Taylor.

Occidental Petroleum shareholders ousted Chairman and former Chief Executive Ray Irani in a dramatic annual meeting that signaled the end of an era for the storied oil and gas producer. It concluded a nearly three-decade run as a director of the Los Angeles company for the 78-year-old Irani. He first took the reins as CEO in 1990 from oil industry legend Armand Hammer. Back then, Occidental was considered something of a joke in the industry, with far-flung holdings in such odd areas as film production and horse and cattle breeding.

Tracey White's initial impression of "Django Unchained," Quentin Tarantino's new slave-era shoot-'em-up extravaganza, could be summed up in three words: smart, funny and ugly. Sitting through a recent screening in Beverly Hills, the L.A. costume designer was mostly absorbed and found herself laughing aloud at particularly outrageous moments. But White, who is black, said her feelings evolved significantly. Two days after reflecting on the matter of slavery and Tarantino's treatment, she pronounced the movie mostly ugly.

When it comes to L.A. shopping and style, it doesn't get much more legendary than Fred Segal. The retailer ? who set up his first Fred Segal shop almost 50 years ago in West Hollywood ? is a trendsetter, and the various stores he's operated over the years have always doubled as incubators for cutting-edge SoCal style. And now his daughter, Annie Segal, is bringing back some of her dad's greatest hits with Fred Segal Originals ? a new collection and boutique that launched Thursday inside the sprawling Fred Segal complex in Santa Monica.

Even before the morning dew dried on the knolls of Rose Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary in Whittier on Saturday, hundreds of Chinese families were lined up outside the gate, their cars packed with bountiful offerings: fruit, noodle and vegetable dishes, whole roasted pigs. The long procession of cars -- 15,000 to 20,000 are expected through this afternoon -- meandered up the steep pathways to the west side of the cemetery, where many of Southern California's Chinese are buried.