I met with Jenna at Soul for the first time today and I was so impressed. The salon is extremely…read moreclean and bright. The array of products used are professional and varied, but not overwhelming. Jenna let me explain what I was looking for, made me feel very comfortable and spent time on my hair, not making me feel rushed. It was such a lovely experience and well worth the wait as she is in high demand. I am so impressed with my overall experience and I love my cut! 5 stars all around for Jenna and Soul.

I booked an appointment at Soul as one of the hairdressers there used to cut my hair…read more Unfortunately she was unavailable until late January so I booked with another stylist. The booking site didn't list the stylist it simply made the booking. Long story short, the person who cut my hair was very personable and ambitious to get started. She asked what I was looking to do so I provided her with pictures of a couple of examples of people with similar facial structure and hairlines to mine. She confidently said "oh yeah, that looks good and it will be easy", and she promptly started. I had a feeling early on that it wasn't going to end well as she faced me away from the mirror and started cutting my hair with clippers. The first few cuts felt normal, low on the back and sides of my head. But then she proceeded to cut well up into the hairline near the top of my head and at strange angles. She made no provision for blending and simply shaved the hair using a very short guard. She then trimmed my bangs and after 8 minutes she said she was done. I was in shock and disappointed to say the least, and I didn't want her spending another second on my hair as it was already a disaster, and based on how she finished I didn't think she'd have the skills to try and save the haircut. In the end I got a very bad military style cut and that's certainly not what I had asked for. I'm not the type of person to make a big deal out of things so I said nothing and I truly didn't want her to try and fix it, so I paid for the cut and left the salon very disappointed and wondering what just happened. It's a good lesson learned for me. I made the assumption that I was clear in the description and expectation of the cut, and I was trusting in her skill set. I'm not doubting that she can cut hair but I didn't feel that she made any effort to style cut my hair but rather a quick and dirty clipper cut. There was no blending, texturizing, or finishing. It was bad, really bad. My circle of friends and colleagues seconded my opinion so I don't think I was too far off. I do know of very good stylists at Soul (Lizanne and Jenna!) and I will make every effort to ensure I see one of them the next time.

Went for Sunday brunch, opens at 12, lots of seniors even a bus full from Wpg…read more Brunch was very basic, 1 homemade soup , small salad bar, breakfast fast food, pancakes, bacon, potato patties, sausage patties You could order a custom ommelete 2 store bought desserts Champagne never did come out , just juice $17 after tip per person

The Harvest Moon Festival has been around for a long time! I remember my first time during the mid…read more2000s! Every year it seems to be bigger and better organized. This time, I came as a volunteer. I was stationed to direct vendor parking. After my shift, I enjoyed the festivities. Lots of performances throughout the day ranging from taiko drumming to chinese fan dance to live raffles! The mayor of Arcadia even came on stage to give a few words! The festival is organized systematically. All the food booths/trucks were in one area. Booths selling trinkets/toys/jewelry were in another section. Health care services were in another corner. Free flu shots available! Many vendors were enticing people to come up to their tables with spin-the-wheel games for free swag. Although, many stations required you to fill out your contact info. Some of the best swag came from Toyota and Wells Fargo. The weather was too hot so I didn't partake in too many vendor interaction. Suggestions for those coming in the future, bring a hat and water! Lots of shaded areas, but the sun is quite strong! Also, bring cash for food. Many food stands, particularly the Asian ones, didn't accept credit cards. Dogs are welcome, saw many cute doggies! I'll probably be back next year, maybe to volunteer again.

This review is for the 2015 LA18 Harvest Moon Festival…read more What an incredibly HOT day to host an outdoor festival. Goodness gracious it was absolutely sweltering. Despite the horrific weather, turnout was actually still quite decent. Many festival-goers sported large sunbrellas and hats in (futile) attempt to minimize the experience of hell-like temperatures while checking out everything that was there. From what I could observe, vendors were loosely organized into sections for food, religion, healthcare, and trinkets/misc. Performances lasted all throughout the day and included appearances by YouTube favorites such as WongFu, Jason Chen, Cathy Nguyen, and more. There were even inflatable games/contraptions for the kids behind all the booths! All the qualifications for being a family friendly event: check. However, while there was certainly a decent variety of vendors and entertainment, I felt that there could have been more. The entire event honestly looked very lazily put together and for this to be their 20th year hosting this, I was disappointed by the lack of effort. Compared to 626/OC Night Market (which is still relatively new!) and university involvement fairs/open house, this tiny festival definitely has a lot of room for improvement. Also, anyone else wondering why this event isn't held on the actual day of the moon festival?? I just don't understand because moon festival happens to fall on a Sunday this year anyway... Maybe it was the killer heat, maybe it was that last performance in which one of the musicians was acting suspiciously high, maybe I'm just upset my 23 year old self is too big to play on those inflatable slides, but whatever the case, I don't see myself coming back next year.