After 15 years in L.A., my husband and I enjoyed our first Korean spa experience last night at Wi Spa in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. We decided to visit after my parents offered us overnight care for our littles, now 8 and 10, (not so little).
But first, a little backstory. We had gone back to our old L.A. neighborhood the previous weekend for an Indian dinner at Electric Lotus before attending our first concert at The Greek (Bastille) with the whole family. Seeing the old hood whet my appetite for a return visit, especially after seeing Joker advertised on the marquee outside the theater on Vermont Ave. I normally would have zero desire to see the movie, but with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, it was tops on my list. Joaquin, (or Leaf, as he was known in Tiger Beat in 1985) is the younger brother of River, who was my teenage heartthrob. I started following his career after seeing Stand By Me, which was really my coming of age movie, along with Goonies. I never watched all those Brat pack flicks with Molly Ringwald et. al but I loved Stand By Me with all my heart. Maybe it was because my father grew up in the fifties, maybe I just loved the greaser look but River was my guy. I learned about the family with gusto; the hippie parents raising their five children in a commune/cult in Puerto Rico. River was the oldest, followed by Rain, Liberty, Joaquin (Leaf) and Summer. I was fascinated. A couple of years later, in Spanish summer camp in MN, I bunked with a girl from California who said she was friends with Summer and knew Leaf in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. I was starstruck. Of course, River OD'd outside the Viper Room on Halloween 1993, when I was a sophomore in college.
For whatever reason, he's been on my mind of late. So, I knew i needed to see his brother in this role.
For our birthday date, we had a late brunch at Fred 62 and caught the 4:10 matinee of Joker. Afterwards, we ducked into the indie bookshop next door to the theater (Skylight Books), and then headed to Wi Spa in nearby Koreatown.
