UNDERRATED / OVERRATED

ACADEMY 6 THEATER

Specializing in second-run flicks that have long since slid out of top-tier theaters, this Pasadena theater (1003 E. Colorado Blvd.) may be the poor country cousin of Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, which is just down the street. But where else can you get $3 movies and $1 hot dogs on a Saturday night?

RIDING TO WORK

With gas at a whopping $4.50 a gallon, it’s time to either get down with public transportation or hop on a bicycle. With the Metro, you get to take a little stroll to the station and listen to your iPod or read before work. With your bike, you can up the exercise (though you may have to towel off in the bathroom once you get to the office). Either way, you can save some bucks and smugly congratulate yourself for living green.

SUMMER SCARVES

Just because it’s 110 degrees at 11 p.m. doesn’t mean you can’t bedeck yourself in colorful neck plumage. Surely someone has summer mittens and earmuffs in a sketchbook somewhere.

--

THE NEW IPHONE’S GPS SYSTEM

Combine the new edition of Apple’s iPhone with your Facebook profile and your friends can track your movements all around town. So now our daily routine of home to work to the bar to the urgent care clinic to the drunk tank to home again will be broadcast to anyone on Facebook. Sweet.

RAW MILK

It’s not that it’s bad. Far from it. But it doesn’t taste any different than fresh, delicious, pasteurized whole milk. What’s all the hype about?

ECHO PARK GENTRIFICATION

At a time when the cost of living is soaring through the roof, Echo Park -- former bastion of low rents and cheap eats -- is opening a string of pricey new bars and restaurants. In a move fraught with unintended irony, the most expensive one -- Josef Centeno’s Lot 1 Cafe -- opened on Cinco de Mayo. We’ll take the Tacos Ariza taco truck over all the hype and save our money for groceries and gas.