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  #61  
Old Posted Nov 26, 2008, 2:50 AM
dragonsky dragonsky is offline
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Murakami animation studio coming to L.A.
5:00 AM, November 25, 2008

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, whose giant Buddha, bug-eyed monsters and magical mushrooms packed in huge crowds last year at the Museum of Contemporary Art, is putting down roots in Los Angeles. A multifaceted artist who embraces painting and sculpture, film and mass-produced goods as part of a single enterprise, he is planning to open an animation studio here next summer.

Often called Japan's Andy Warhol and headquartered in Tokyo, Murakami already has a studio in New York. But he has decided that Hollywood is the place to expand his filmmaking capabilities. The new studio will operate under the umbrella of Kaikai Kiki, his production and artist-management company.

Murakami3_5 "Animation and film have always been among my greatest influences, ever since I first saw 'Star Wars' and Hayao Miyazaki's films," Murakami said in a statement. "This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kaikai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film."

The company has leased a building on North Highland Avenue, to be adapted to the studio's needs. With 6,220 square feet of space on the first floor and 2,760 square feet on the second level, the facility is expected to accommodate about 30 employees, said Daniel Rappaport of Management 360, Kaikai Kiki's talent management firm in Los Angeles.

The studio's first project will be a feature-length animated film based on "Planting the Seeds," the shorts that premiered at Murakami's mid-career retrospective at MOCA, Rappaport said. It also created the Kanye West video for "Good Morning." The shorts also appeared last spring at the Brooklyn Museum's version of the exhibition and, more recently, at the 2008 CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas. The digitally animated works feature Kaikai and Kiki, the company's cartoon-character namesakes, traveling the world in a spaceship and learning to grow watermelons with the help of fertilizer, or "poop" as they gleefully call it.

-- Suzanne Muchnic

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...mi-studio.html

Takashi Murakami at MOCA
http://www.dezeen.com/2007/11/13/tak...akami-at-moca/
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  #62  
Old Posted Nov 26, 2008, 6:37 AM
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I wonder if "N. Highland Ave." means the office is located at the relatively recently remodeled CIM building...
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Old Posted Dec 7, 2008, 2:40 AM
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7107830.story


Chinese tours groups go house-hunting in U.S.

The cash-rich visitors are looking for bargains in the plunging market. The trips are part of a broader trend of individuals and businesses in China seeking greater investment opportunities abroad.
By Don Lee and David Pierson

December 7, 2008

Reporting from Los Angeles and Shanghai -- Caravans of cash-rich Chinese in Hummers and Lincoln Navigators have been weaving through American neighborhoods in recent months, looking for foreclosures and other bargain properties to buy.

With housing prices crashing in the U.S., home-buying trips to America are becoming one of the more popular tour group packages in China. New U.S. visa rules for Chinese tourists and a loosening of foreign investment policies by China have made it easier for people like Zhao Hongjun of Beijing to go house hunting across the Pacific.

The 48-year-old owner of a media company went on a two-week road trip through the U.S. last fall, visiting scenic sites and checking out properties from Los Angeles to New York. He's been following the swoon in prices ever since, and next month he's considering joining another prospecting group that is heading for San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, three of the hardest-hit housing markets in the U.S.

Zhao's budget: $1 million.

"L.A. is not bad; a lot of Chinese live there," he said, noting that he was interested in both apartments and houses.

The tours are a new twist on an old phenomenon.

Overseas Chinese have been buying Southern California properties for years. What's different now is that they are starting to do it in large groups and quite openly.

"Before, it was kind of private, a quiet thing among friends," said Jamie Lee, a Chinese American who runs the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau office in Beijing. "Now it's full-blown. . . . It's huge. Some of these groups "are talking about going every two weeks."

Chinese home-buying missions in the U.S. are part of a broader trend of individuals and businesses in China seeking greater investment opportunities abroad. This week government and business officials from China's southern Guangdong province will arrive in Los Angeles to create a regional chamber office.

Certainly, a wave of Chinese bottom fishers won't end the housing woes in Southern California, where by some measures the median price has sunk more than 40% since the spring and summer of 2007.

But it could help rev up sales in some places, including the UC Riverside area and the San Gabriel Valley, home to large Chinese American communities and mentioned by some potential buyers as places of interest.

Ling Chow, president of the San Gabriel-based Chinese American Real Estate Professionals Assn., says brokers and agents welcome the mainland tours -- anything to shake the doldrums of the market crash.

But Chow, who mostly serves mainland Chinese buyers, is more skeptical about any new wave of Chinese home buyers making a significant imprint. Unless they're willing to spend more than $400,000, they'll probably be disappointed in the available homes. Chinese are culturally inclined to buy new homes and prefer high-achieving school districts, demands that drive up prices.

Chow said Chinese buyers' affinity for paying in cash will benefit them during the credit crunch. Many of her mainland clients have paid with cash, often for mansions and condos in Arcadia, where they can begin the immigration process or leave their college-age children to live alone.

The Chinese do have a lot of cash to spend. The central government holds the biggest stockpile of foreign reserves in the world, nearly $2 trillion, most of it in dollars. And the Boston Consulting Group estimates that there were more than 391,000 millionaire households in mainland China last year, up from 310,000 reported the previous year.

Still, Beijing has been cautious about outward investment, given the uncertainties of the financial crisis and heavy losses that its sovereign wealth fund has sustained buying stakes in American financial institutions such as investment bank Morgan Stanley. In addition, China's economic growth has slowed sharply in recent months as the nation's exporters have been hurt by slumping U.S. demand, and China's own real estate market has been sluggish.

But home prices in the U.S. have fallen more sharply than in China, and many Chinese consider the American market highly alluring as a place to invest and live because of the United States' developed economy.

The purchasing tours in the U.S. grew out of similar trips by well-heeled Chinese back home.

Investors from Wenzhou and other entrepreneurial hot spots were known for chartering buses to visit such cities as Shanghai to shop for apartments. Now some of them are signing up with outfits like Soufun.com, the real estate website that is sponsoring the home-buying trip next month from Beijing to California and Nevada.

Liu Jian, chief operating officer at Soufun Holdings, said his group's tour would focus on homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000, just at or below the median for Southern California. More than 300 people have registered for the trip, which could last 10 days and cost each person about $2,200, excluding airfare.

"Many of them want to buy because they have actual needs to live there or for their children," Liu said. "They will hold the property for quite a long period."

James Chou of Coldwell Banker George Realty in Alhambra said he was preparing for several groups from China early next year, totaling up to 200 people. His firm will provide hotels and tour buses.

Chou said the potential investors were keen to see foreclosed homes, but he warned that it would be difficult to educate them about the home-buying process in such a short time. He said they had little understanding of single-family houses, coming from a country where most people live in urban apartments.

"I don't think they know much about he market here," Chou said.

Lee, of the L.A. Convention and Visitors Bureau, has mixed feelings about these gou fang tuan, Chinese for home-buying groups. On one hand, she says, they will be staying and eating and shopping in Los Angeles, pumping dollars into the local economy.

On the other hand, Lee has been working hard in China to publicize the biggest attractions of Los Angeles: its great weather, beaches, Hollywood and theme parks.

"I'm promoting tourism to L.A., but not to go to buy cheap houses," she said. "Are we that desperate?"

Mei Xinyu is ambivalent for a different reason. As a researcher for China's Ministry of Commerce, Mei doesn't want to see a rush of Chinese buying homes in the U.S. and getting burned.

"The housing price right now in the U.S. is fairly low already, but it's hard to say how long it will remain in the valley," he said.

Chinese investors, Mei added, should be careful to study the markets before plunging into them. In some places, they could face a backlash, just as there was when the Japanese went on a shopping spree in the U.S. during the 1980s. What's more, he warned, some American cities may not bounce back at all.

"China is still in the process of urbanization. It's unlikely to turn into ghost towns," he said. "But the U.S. is different."

Yuan Lixin says his group's tour to the U.S. is meant to address precisely that concern -- to give Chinese visitors a deeper understanding of the real life of America over 14 days, before they buy into the real estate there.

"What we sell is the culture, American culture," said Yuan, a planning department official at Beijing Youth, a newspaper enterprise that has organized group tours to the U.S. since late 2006.

The tours didn't start out as home-buying trips, but while driving across the continent in luxurious SUVs, people couldn't help but take notice of "For Sale" signs outside houses, including those that appeared to be empty, Yuan said.

"In many cases, members would stop the car and actively ask about the house situation," he said.

"Now because of the financial crisis, ordinary people in China also are starting to make large purchases in the U.S.," Yuan said. "In the past, people who traveled to the U.S. might carry back a large luggage with American goods. It's just that this time, what they bring back are [papers showing] hundreds of thousands of dollars of a house."
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  #64  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2009, 7:28 AM
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Freida Pinto shopping in Little India
On a recent visit to Southern California, "Slumdog Millionaire" actress Freida Pinto toured Artesia's Little India for the first time.





by The Los Angeles Times
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  #65  
Old Posted Feb 24, 2009, 9:38 AM
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2634061.story
From the Los Angeles Times

Japanese and Koreans learn to live together in harmony in L.A.'s Little Tokyo
As more Koreans moved into the Little Tokyo Towers senior housing complex, tensions grew between the historically contentious cultures. But community events have brought the residents together.
By Teresa Watanabe

February 23, 2009

Hongsun Kim has heard it all. When the number of Koreans began multiplying in Little Tokyo Towers a few years ago, complaints about them from Japanese residents quickly began to surface, the Los Angeles social worker said.

"They smell of garlic." "They don't follow the rules." "They're going to take over." Then, from the Koreans: "The Japanese are snooty." "They don't greet you in the elevator." "They disdain Korean culture." "They're trying to push us out."

As Korean residents and shop owners have increased their presence in Little Tokyo, the historic heart of Southern California's Japanese American community, the multicultural melding hasn't always been harmonious. Today, however, the tone in the towers -- a 300-unit senior housing facility on 3rd Street -- is strikingly different.

A Korean resident whose relatives were jailed for protesting Japan's colonization of his motherland is teaching his native language to a dozen of his Japanese neighbors. "Ga, gya, go, gyo," they intently repeated on a recent night, mimicking the sounds of the Korean alphabet as teacher Simon Yoon pointed them out on a whiteboard.

Residents recently held a New Year's party and debuted a Korean-Japanese bilingual newsletter called "Bridges" to share their cultures. On other nights, they belt out songs in both languages using a karaoke machine purchased by Korean residents -- who took care to include 2,500 Japanese songs. And in August, they attended a groundbreaking "harmony concert" featuring Japanese and Korean music and dance.

Over the last two years, the residents of Little Tokyo Towers have made their home a case study in containing cultural conflict and building cohesion -- a challenge faced by other Los Angeles ethnic neighborhoods, where new populations are joining long-settled ones. The task is particularly delicate when it comes to Japanese and Koreans, whose motherlands are burdened with a long history of conflict stemming from territorial disputes and historical grievances related to Japan's colonization of Korea in the early 20th century.

But the turnabout in Little Tokyo proves ethnic harmony is possible, Kim and others say.

"We want to show that in Little Tokyo, there are people who want to be good neighbors to each other regardless of the past and all of the conflicts we've experienced," Kim said. "If reconciliation can happen in Little Tokyo, then it could be a model for the city and for Japan and South Korea."

Hard-won insight

The rapprochement is led by people like Kim and Yoon, Korea natives fluent in Japanese who are able to connect with both sides.

Yoon, 86, with a genteel mien and impeccable style, grew up under Japan's colonial rule, where he recalls being forced to bow east to the Japanese emperor every day and sit with his arms raised in punishment for speaking Korean. His father-in-law spent nearly eight years in prison for pressing for Korean independence. "I learned Japanese to fight the Japanese," Yoon said.

But then, he said, his heart softened after a Japanese military doctor came to his village and labored to cure the local people of tuberculosis, even spending his own money on medicine for them. That, along with Christian teachings of forgiveness, compelled Yoon to work for reconciliation today.

Kim, 38, is a Christian minister and social worker who was born in Seoul and raised in Japan by his missionary parents. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1999 to work at the Little Tokyo Service Center.

But even though Kim glides easily between the Japanese and Korean languages, his own psychological journey between the two cultures hasn't always been easy. As a Korean in Japan, he said, he always felt isolated. Yet when he returned to South Korea for compulsory military service at 23, hoping to find a full sense of belonging, he said he was derided as a "half-Jap," beaten up and verbally abused every day in the army. The experience alienated him from his own culture and sharpened the divide he said he felt between his Korean heritage and Japanese upbringing.

But working for harmony between Korean and Japanese residents in Little Tokyo has helped him heal his own internal dissonance, Kim said.

"I recently found a connection between my inner state and the outside community," Kim said. "One side was always asking me to get rid of the other. But once I began to feel good about being as I am, I really wanted to prove objectively that the Japanese and Korean communities can get along really well . . . in Little Tokyo."

On the Japanese side, Kimie Takahashi has plunged into Korean-Japanese activities as a student in Yoon's Korean class, a member of a joint "better relations" committee and a contributor to the "Bridges" newsletter. Takahashi said she was grateful for Kim's devotion to Japanese seniors like herself -- he drives her to the hospital, for instance -- and wanted to support reconciliation activities.

The three friends, who communicate in Japanese, have had to navigate some touchy issues that began surfacing after more Koreans started moving into the towers about five years ago. Although Little Tokyo Towers has always had some multicultural residents, including Koreans, Chinese and African Americans, the population had been overwhelmingly ethnic Japanese since its development in 1975 by four Japanese American organizations.

Today, however, about one-third of the units are occupied by residents of Korean heritage, according to a Little Tokyo Service Center survey. Kim said more Koreans are moving to Little Tokyo because senior facilities in Koreatown are overcrowded, and despite historical tensions with Japanese, Koreans feel more comfortable in an Asian environment than a white or Latino one.

Contentious times

The facility's shifting demographics have raised hackles among some Japanese Americans. The Rev. Noriaki Ito of the nearby Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, a towers board member, said he has fielded complaints from some community members accusing the facility's management of taking bribes to move Koreans up the waiting list -- accusations the board investigated but found groundless, Ito said.

But Ito said fair housing laws and public subsidies prevent the board from discriminating against non-Japanese in accepting residents. "It's a difficult tightrope we're walking on," he said.

The growing complaints soon reached the ears of Kim and others at the service center. At monthly meetings with the facilities' leadership, the subject of the Korean influx would come up repeatedly, according to Evelyn Yoshimura of the service center.

"It was very ugly," Yoshimura said. "People would tell us we have to take a stand against Koreans and do something or they would take over."

The service center decided to do something -- but not what exclusionists had in mind. Two years ago, it sponsored a series of four films, two Japanese and two Korean, to share cultures and bring residents together. The idea was sparked when social workers visited a Japanese resident who often complained about Koreans -- only to see a poster of Korean drama star Bae Yong Jun in her apartment. The venture was considered a success, drawing 80 seniors who wrote in surveys afterward that the films opened their eyes to new aspects of each other's cultures.

Meanwhile, Yoon and others had started a "Good Neighbors" group of Korean residents in Little Tokyo Towers to help smooth over conflicts. Among other things, they began the joint karaoke nights, learned basic Japanese phrases and published an in-house newsletter asking Korean residents not to leave jars of kimchi outside their doors because Japanese weren't used to the smell.

Yoon went further, growing vegetables such as shiso, or chrysanthemum leaves, for Japanese residents who like to cook with them. He recently began offering the Korean-language classes, drawing a dozen students.

During a recent class, Takahashi scribbled down notes on the Korean alphabet and demonstrated her command of simple phrases such as kamsamnida, or thank you.

"Koreans are increasing in Little Tokyo, and if we can't speak with each other, we can't understand each other," she said.

About a year ago, Takahashi, Yoon and others formed the Little Tokyo Korean and Japanese Better Relations Committee. Their first major venture was the newsletter, which featured Yoon's comparison of Japanese and Korean New Year's traditions, Takahashi's article on the upcoming Japanese Girls' Day festival and other pieces.

But the emotional highlight so far has been the harmony concert organized last summer by Kim and sponsored by a Japanese church association. The concert featured Japanese and Korean traditional dance and music, an Asian American jazz group and three emcees speaking Japanese, Korean and English. Kim, putting on his pastor's hat and using the parable of the Good Samaritan, delivered a sermon about crossing boundaries to be caring neighbors.

The concert drew a full house of more than 150 people, half Korean and half Japanese. As a finale, the concertgoers held hands and recited in three languages, "Let's meet again."

The tensions have not entirely disappeared, and bilateral politics can easily cause tempers to flare anew. After Japan made what South Korea viewed as provocative statements last summer over disputed islets known as Takeshima or Tokdo, for instance, one Korean musician scheduled to perform at the harmony concert angrily pulled out.

But residents on both sides say the complaints about each other have markedly dropped.

"We would like people to know that there is not just conflict, but also harmony and hope," Kim said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
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Old Posted Apr 2, 2009, 7:40 AM
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,7250407.story
From the Los Angeles Times

A spicy turf battle in Koreatown
Campaign for a 'Little Bangladesh' angers residents who say they have worked to create a cultural destination.
By Alexandra Zavis and Corina Knoll

April 1, 2009

When Maminul Haque greets friends, he uses the Bangla "Kamon aachen!" When he is hungry, he drops by one of numerous Bangladeshi eateries for a plate of curry -- more spicy than the Indian version, devotees agree.

Although he is standing in the heart of Koreatown, he and many other Bangladeshi Americans say the name does not reflect all its inhabitants. Now, the community is seeking recognition of its own "Little Bangladesh" within the area west of downtown popularly known as Koreatown.

The proposal has angered longtime residents who have worked hard to promote the district as a Korean cultural destination and economic hub. City officials, meanwhile, worry that neither side is taking into account the full diversity of an area that is also home to many Latinos and Thai Americans, among others.

More than a name is at stake. Although largely symbolic, the recognition afforded by a special district designation can help establish a community within the cultural mosaic of Southern California, said Hamid Khan, executive director of the nonprofit South Asian Network. When noted on maps and street signs, it can also attract visitors and help local business.

When Margaret Ko moved to Los Angeles from Korea more than 30 years ago, Koreatown was not the mass of restaurants, stores and yogurt shops it is today. Over the years, the 65-year-old has proudly watched the community -- and its stature -- grow.

"It means power," she said as she hemmed a pair of pants inside the dry cleaners where she's worked for a decade. "Koreatown is already established. . . . Why can't they find another place?"

Next door at Meghna grocery, Mohammad Islam rang up orders of piping hot chicken and goat curry. The store is a gathering place for Bangladeshi immigrants who come to socialize, read a newspaper written in Bangla or watch soap operas filmed in their homeland. Islam, 26, said that although his family's business is flanked by Korean-owned stores, it would be nice if the Bangladeshi community was recognized.

"Most people don't know who we are, they know us as Indians," he said. "Maybe people should try to share a little bit."

In the ever-shifting Southern California ethnic landscape, turf tussles are not uncommon as new populations move into areas of long-settled residents.

Central Americans in the Pico-Union district and Japanese Americans in Little Tokyo have nervously monitored the expansion of Korean businesses and residents into their ethnic enclaves. In Artesia, some residents opposed proposals to designate Pioneer Boulevard as Little India because of the city's diverse ethnic makeup.

And a decade ago, the Thai community won a city designation of Thai Town along Hollywood Boulevard between Normandie and Western avenues -- only to see their district encircled soon after by Little Armenia.

Immigrants from the South Asian nation now known as Bangladesh have been moving to Los Angeles since at least the 1960s, driven by poverty and natural disasters. For many of them, Koreatown is the first port of call due to the neighborhood's low rent, cultural familiarity and business opportunities, Haque said.

Although the 2000 census counted just 157 Bangladeshis in Koreatown, a survey conducted five years later by the South Asian Network and the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research suggested a population of 6,000 to 8,000, Khan said.

Since then, the Bangladeshi American community says that its numbers have swelled to more than 10,000. Last year, proponents filed a petition with the city to designate the area from Third Street to Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue to Western Avenue as "Little Bangladesh."

The proposal would have taken out the heart of what most Angelenos think of as Koreatown, said Grace Yoo, executive director of the Korean American Coalition's Los Angeles chapter.

"There's so much in a name," she said. "This is where I get food I'm familiar with. It's where I come for ingredients that aren't available elsewhere. It's where I've been meeting up with my friends for decades. It's a piece of your own history. For someone else to come in and say sorry that's not it, really causes people to get heated."

Although the city never formally defined the neighborhood, Koreatown has been identified on maps since the 1980s. In February, members of the Korean American community filed their own petition asking the city to recognize Koreatown as the area from Melrose Avenue and Beverly Boulevard to the north; Pico and Olympic boulevards to the south; Vermont Avenue and Hoover Street to the east; and Wilton Place and Crenshaw Boulevard to the west.

After a series of meetings in December and January, Korean American representatives offered to recognize a much smaller section along Koreatown's eastern boundary as "Little Bangladesh." But Muhammad Hussain, a spokesman for the "Little Bangladesh" campaign, complained that there were very few Bangladeshis living in the proposed area.

City Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district includes Koreatown, said his priority was to find a solution that recognizes the full range of ethnic and cultural communities that make up the area.

"The issue here is how do we achieve the acknowledgment [Bangladeshi Americans] are seeking without having to shut anyone out," he said.

Many in the neighborhood would agree.

"Koreatown or Bangladeshtown -- it doesn't matter," said Kevin Lee, 34, owner of L.A. Korean Express, a mail service and supply shop that has many faithful Bangladeshi customers.

Nazmul Chowdhury, 43, serves a steady stream of Koreans at his Bangladeshi grocery, Deshi Food.

"That's the beauty of America," he said. "It's multicultural."

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

corina.knoll@latimes.com

Times staff writer Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.
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Old Posted Apr 7, 2009, 12:13 PM
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why the hell are those koreans so fucking territorial? they're in no danger of losing ground on the tiny bangladeshi community, and even if the improbable were to occur, such ebb and flow is the reality of big multicultural cities. get used to it. the worst part of it is labonge's position against a little bangladesh. on what official basis? Los Angeles politicians are spineless parasites.

Quote:
Koreans and Bangladeshis Vie in Los Angeles District

By MIRA JANG
Published: April 7, 2009
NY Times

LOS ANGELES — In the last 30 years or so, a six-square-mile area west of downtown Los Angeles has become an enclave of some 50,000 Korean-Americans, the largest concentration of Koreans in the country. The district is now commonly known as Koreatown.

The Los Angeles neighborhood known as Koreatown has the largest concentration of Koreans in the country.
But on the city’s official maps, Koreatown is nowhere to be found, because until 2006 Los Angeles had no formal process for designating neighborhoods, whether well recognized or little known. Korean civic groups say they always simply assumed that the area was officially Koreatown.

They were surprised, then, when an application was filed with the city clerk’s office in October to name dozens of square blocks in what they consider the heart of the neighborhood. The name sought was Little Bangladesh.

The application, submitted by a committee of the growing number of Bangladeshis in Los Angeles, has brought a struggle between two mainly immigrant groups that reflects the complexities of negotiating space and official recognition in an increasingly crowded urban center.

The last official count of the Bangladeshi population, in the 2000 census, showed only 1,700 in all of Los Angeles County. But the Bangladeshi consul general here, Abu Zafar, estimates that there are now 10,000 to 15,000 in Los Angeles and some 25,000 in Southern California, making the region the nation’s second-largest home to Bangladeshis, after New York City.

In what the Koreans thought was Koreatown, a handful of Bangladeshi stores have cropped up, Mr. Zafar said, and the community is growing as a result of migration from out of state.

Moshurul Huda, a member of the Little Bangladesh Project, the committee that filed for official designation, said of the effort, “We just want to show our pride for future generations.”

But that goal is shared by the other side.

“We don’t want to seem like bullies, but this is Koreatown,” said Chang Lee, chairman of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles. “We will fight for it.”

So the federation, along with several other community groups, filed its own application last month, asking that six square miles between downtown and Hancock Park, an area including the proposed Little Bangladesh, be officially Koreatown.

“This cross-ethnic tension is somewhat new,” said Jan Lin, a sociology professor at Occidental College here whose specialty is ethnic enclaves. “Historically, it’s been whites against nonwhites as new immigrants move into established white neighborhoods.”

But the tension is not surprising, Mr. Lin said, given the tendency of immigrant groups to live in close proximity to one another. In Hollywood, Thai Town is inside Little Armenia. Little Tokyo and Chinatown occupy distinct but neighboring spaces downtown. And a Salvadoran business corridor lies adjacent to Koreatown.

Korean immigrants, who withstood the 1992 riots here, began transforming the city’s core in the 1970s from a depressed neighborhood into what is today a business and social hub so large and dotted with so many Korean-language signs that it has been compared to Seoul. Formal recognition would bolster tourism there and help preserve ethnic heritage, Mr. Lin said.

Bangladeshi leaders acknowledge the de facto existence of Koreatown; many of them live or work in Korean-owned buildings.

“But we have the same aspirations as the Koreans,” said Shamim Ahmed, a Bangladeshi vice consul. “Having a sign doesn’t mean we own it. It’s just symbolic.”

Symbolism also resonates strongly with many Koreans, but their objections to the Little Bangladesh designation, they say, go further. The Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council wrote a letter to the city opposing it on the ground that it would cause “irreparable harm” to Koreatown’s commercial ambitions and cultural influence.

Either designation requires a majority vote of the City Council, and prospects for an official Koreatown appear brighter than those for Little Bangladesh, which is opposed by Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents much of the area.

“Koreatown has been around for so long that it predates any regulation,” Mr. LaBonge said in an interview. “It’s just as formal, and justified. It is Koreatown.”

Mr. LaBonge has recommended that the Little Bangladesh Project instead erect a monument at a local park as a starting point for a possible future name designation, perhaps of a nearby area.

“I want to see that they are invested in the area,” he said, “and that they’re here to stay.”

Korean leaders say that there is room for a Little Bangladesh, but that there are boundaries.

“It’s nice to embrace other communities,” said Brad Lee, a member of the Koreatown neighborhood council’s board, “as long as it’s not in our backyard. Or in our front yard.
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  #68  
Old Posted Apr 8, 2009, 1:55 AM
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why the hell are those koreans so fucking territorial? they're in no danger of losing ground on the tiny bangladeshi community, and even if the improbable were to occur, such ebb and flow is the reality of big multicultural cities. get used to it. the worst part of it is labonge's position against a little bangladesh. on what official basis? Los Angeles politicians are spineless parasites.
I agree. I say LET them have a Little Bangladesh. Koreatown has grown so huge anyway.
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Old Posted Apr 22, 2009, 1:04 AM
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Originally Posted by edluva View Post
why the hell are those koreans so fucking territorial? they're in no danger of losing ground on the tiny bangladeshi community, and even if the improbable were to occur, such ebb and flow is the reality of big multicultural cities. get used to it. the worst part of it is labonge's position against a little bangladesh. on what official basis? Los Angeles politicians are spineless parasites.
haha yeah those fucking territorial koreans... what else can you expect from a people hailing from a tiny-ass peninsula sandwiched in between two big dogs... its like my moms chihuahua yapping at any big german shepherd or doberman that walks by
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Old Posted Apr 26, 2009, 9:27 PM
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StethJeff StethJeff is offline
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Does anyone know how many Ethiopians it took (population-wise) for the city to designate Little Ethiopia? Same goes for Little Armenia.
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Old Posted May 4, 2009, 4:50 AM
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Downtown’s Costco, With a Thai Twist
Asian-Themed Mega-Market Caters to Restaurants and Residents
by Ryan Vaillancourt
The Los Angeles Downtown News
Published: Friday, May 1, 2009 4:01 PM PDT

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Downtown has a grocery store so big it could store airplanes, or at least it feels that way. And it’s not Ralphs.

East of Chinatown, at 1100 N. Main St., LAX-C is a mega-store stocked with tons (literally) of produce, fresh fish, frozen meats and other foodstuffs. Described by many as a sort-of Thai Costco because of its vast selection of Thai and other Asian products, it primarily caters to small restaurants looking to save by buying in bulk.

But amidst the 50-pound bags of yellow onions, 45-pound boxes of butchered lamb and 25-pound bags of rice, there is an array of foods and household items that make LAX-C a viable, one-stop grocery option for Downtown residents.

“The average new person walking in a place like that, they’ll be overwhelmed, but I do know that especially in the Chinese community you have many brothers and sisters, families, who are still close and they’ll buy in bulk and share,” said George Yu, executive director of the Chinatown Business Improvement District.

LAX-C started as a small market in Chinatown and, according to its website, has expanded into the largest Thai-owned company in the United States. Company owners did not return multiple calls requesting an interview.

The LAX-C kitchen and grocery emporium is about a block east of the Metro Gold Line Chinatown station and a half-mile north of Philippe The Original. Also included on the sprawling property are a Thai language bookstore and the headquarters of a Thai newspaper.

On the weekends, a food stand in the parking lot sells sweet coconut cakes and succulent pork or beef satay.

But the focus is definitely LAX-C, a common stop for many Los Angeles restaurateurs and a smaller, knowing clientele of individuals looking for bargains on groceries.

“It’s just like when we go to Costco, we figure out how to buy in bulk and save, but just not with as fancy packaging,” Yu said.

Grocery List

LAX-C is a gold mine for anyone who knows how to prepare Asian or southeast Asian cuisine. Aisles with ceiling-high racks stock dozens, if not hundreds, of different kinds of noodles.

One section sells dozens of specialty Asian flours (there’s all-purpose white and wheat flour too), and bags of tempura batter. Soy sauce, fish sauce and plum sauce are among a litany of bottles of flavoring. Most of the produce, including lemon grass, Japanese eggplants, zucchinis, snow peas and green onions, comes stuffed in plastic bags.

The meat section may disappoint a shopper looking to pick up a couple of steaks, but customers planning a barbecue are in the right place.

A 44-pound box of boneless pork “butts” (it’s actually the shoulder), which is most commonly used to slow roast and turn into pulled pork, costs $50.60, or $1.15 per pound (at Ralphs, it goes for $2.49 per pound). A 40-pound box of frozen Australian lamb costs $63.75, or $1.59 per pound. A 15-pound box of oxtails goes for $2.25 per pound; mainstream supermarkets commonly charge more than $4 per pound.

About 70% of the store’s customer base is Los Angeles-area restaurants, said Arturo Chia, a store manager. The inventory, which Chia estimated is 85% Asian food, is mostly imported from China, Thailand and Taiwan.

One of the most practical sections in LAX-C for household shoppers is the seafood area, where Maine lobsters go for $11.99 per pound ($14.99 per pound at Raphs) and dozens of whole, fresh fish including rock cod, tilapia and catfish are on ice. It’s also next to a mini-restaurant that sells plates of noodles, meat and papaya salad.

The store’s toiletries section has all the regulars: toothpaste, shaving necessities and nail polish. It also has an aisle devoted to Thai healing remedies that require some fluency of Thai, or a bold curiosity to try foreign, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals.

Then there is the decor section that probably satisfies the designers of the city’s Asian eateries. A warehouse-sized showroom is full of imported furniture, southeast Asian musical instruments and sculptures.

A four-foot elephant statue carved out of wood is $2,495, and there is also a wide selection of five-foot-tall gongs, man-sized Buddhas and a half-dozen mannequins modeling exquisite, silk Thai dresses.

“I think people would be very interested to find out about these places,” Yu said.

LAX-C is at 1100 N. Main St., (323) 343-0030 or lax-c.com.
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Old Posted May 4, 2009, 8:18 AM
edluva edluva is offline
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Does anyone know how many Ethiopians it took (population-wise) for the city to designate Little Ethiopia? Same goes for Little Armenia.
it's not about numbers. it's politics. there are probably at least as many if not more bengalis in the area than there are ethiopians
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Old Posted Jul 23, 2009, 3:56 AM
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L.A.'s global sandwich offerings
Southern California's sandwiches offer the world on toasty bread. Napkin, please.
By Linda Burum
From the Los Angeles Times
July 22, 2009

As soon as you place your order at Pita Pockets in Northridge, a cook slaps a soft round of dough onto the wall of a blazing tandoor-like oven. After a few moments, a bubbly disk of laffa, catacombed with air pockets and rich with yeasty char, is ready to be filled. Next a counterman slathers the chewy flatbread with lemony hummus, then loads it with grilled vegetables or juicy marinated kebabs.

The hefty hand-held feast -- just one culture's take on the sandwich -- doesn't quite fit the dictionary's narrow definition: "food between slices of bread," but in L.A.'s sandwich universe this stuffed laffa has lots of delicious company.

Take pav bhaji, the Mumbai street vendor's answer to burgers. The rich vegetable curry, mounded onto slider-style buns, draws droves of homesick expats to Little India's snack shops. Mexico's mighty pambazo, a chile-sauce-drenched roll heaped with chorizo and potato filling, then drizzled with crema, is finding its way onto more and more menus. And gua bao, a steamed round of flatbread folded over great slabs of juicy roasted pork -- the Chinese equivalent of a towering pastrami on rye -- was rarely found outside Taiwanese dives and Chinese bakeries until its recent appearance at Take a Bao in Century City, where the fillings run to spicy Thai peanut chicken and pomegranate glazed steak.

Age-old tradition

L.A. sandwiches span the millenniums from wraps made with saj, a primitive Lebanese flatbread baked on a dome-shaped cast iron grill like the one at Cafe' du Liban in Tarzana, to hip-ified cross-cultural experiments by the latest Kogi-inspired mobile vendors.

It's not only about trying something new. Sandwiches from the hands of dedicated purveyors are treated like revered works of art.

The Croatian pljeskavica, at Pavich's Brick Oven Pizzeria in San Pedro, is one such example. Owner Zdenko Pavic slides hand-size rounds of dough into the oven to bake somun, unmistakably a descendant of pita. The spongy bread drinks up savory juices from the cevapcici filling, a sausage-like beef and onion patty that's baked inside.

Being in California, Pavic endows his pljeskavica with burger-like qualities by adding roasted bell pepper, lettuce, tomato, pickled onion and dollops of a homemade garlic sauce that's potent enough to keep a crowd of vampires at bay.

To most Americans a pita sandwich means shawarma, falafel or maybe doner kebab. But two very differently constructed sandwiches -- both filled with raw ingredients and heated panini style -- still fly under the mainstream radar.

Arayes, the Middle Eastern cousin of pljeskavica and standard fare in many family-run Armenian and Lebanese restaurants, reaches perfection at Koko's restaurant near Van Nuys. Listed as Arayes-Maria on the menu, its fresh herb-laden chopped lamb and beef filling is sprinkled with toasted pine nuts before the arayes is grilled over an open flame. The pita crisps as the juicy meat and bread meld. Slivers of raw white onion, minced parsley and a lemon wedge served alongside brighten the richness.

At Bibi's Warmstone Cafe' the oven burns all day, turning out the shop's baked goods and its Israeli specialty, tostees. These are based on pita-like Jerusalem bagels or on their slightly sweeter cousins, sesame-encrusted pitas, both typically sold from pushcarts beside Jerusalem's ancient city walls. Bibi's counterman slashes open the bread, stuffs in feta, olives and the house sauce or puts in mozzarella sluiced with marinara, then slips it into the oven until the molten filling nearly oozes through the pita's pores.

Asian food rarely brings to mind sandwiches, but roujiamo, a sloppy Joe-style pork sandwich from Xi'an, is a delicious reminder that large-scale wheat milling made its way along the Silk Road from the Near East, a technique that put all sorts of breads on northern China's menu. The typical street food version of the sandwich is a feather-light bun filled with juicy, fatty rotisserie pork and drizzled with a kicky chile sauce.

A more refined roujiamo surfaced at Three Family Village in Rowland Heights, listed on the menu with 40 other northern-style "pastries." Its crisp-topped baked bun is dense and layered. Rich carnitas-like roasted pork cubes piled inside are topped with tangy pickled leafy greens.

Neatly lined up in the take-out departments of Japanese markets are the inevitable Japanese paeans to the sandwich: the spaghetti sando, the croquet sando and occasionally chow mein in a French-style bun. The Japanese have clearly done their own thing with bread since the days it was used only for school children's lunches after the Second World War.

For those with a love of Japanese flavors there's the miso-marinated Jidori chicken baguette at the maid-themed Royal/T Cafe' in Culver City. Salty, yeasty miso never dominates the delicate meat, and a subtle tingle of heat from the red radish sprout garnish brings the sandwich flavors into perfect focus. Sushi lovers may be drawn in by the spicy tuna tartare, rimmed with avocado and wasabi on a raft of sourdough.

Cultural fusion

The world's sandwich menu changed radically when colonialism united disparate ingredients from old and new countries. The milieu that inspired the now-familiar Cubano and the French-Vietnamese banh mi also spawned pav bhaji, the curry-laden buns beloved in Indian communities around the world. Fashioned after breads introduced by Portuguese merchants, the buns became the base for a quick lunch for textile millworkers. As with American burgers and hot dogs, pav bhaji's garnishes are an essential element. People spike up the flavor with chopped onion, tomato, fresh jalapeno slices and lemon juice according to taste.

Many Indian vegetarian restaurants and snack shops (Annapurna in Culver City and Tirupathi Bhimas in Artesia) sell pav bhaji, but Standard Sweets & Snacks in Artesia's Little India also adds the spicier pav vada to its small sandwich lineup. This tongue-scalding potato-bean patty, laced with fresh herbs on pav rolls and smeared with spicy chutney, puts chile lovers into a reverie.

One of Central America's greatest colonial mergings, the native wild turkey seasoned with local chiles and served on a European-style torpedo roll, is pan con pavo, El Salvador's national sandwich. Each day at the cheery Jaragua' near L.A.'s Koreatown, the kitchen braises two whole birds in tenderizing broth. Great swaths of the meat pulled off the bone are piled nearly as high as a Mayan pyramid onto buns doused with pan juices. The addition of a creamy cabbage slaw and a final fillip of spicy homemade curtido -- pickled cabbage -- creates the ideal balance of richness and zing.

At Got Kosher? Provisions in West L.A., the snappy smoked andouille sandwich travels deep into uncharted flavor territory. Layered over two lean links, seasoned with no less than three pepper varieties, is a tart-sweet caponata of minced eggplant and sweet peppers sparked with capers, vinegar and plump golden raisins. Tunisian-born proprietor Alain Cohen says his sausage sandwiches recall the French-Tunisian tastes he grew up with in Belleville, the North African/Jewish quarter of Paris. The shop's many choices include a splendid Tunisian merguez sandwich. Perfumed with cinnamon and redolent of fennel, it comes anointed with a peppery harissa sauce. The substantial sandwich buns -- house-baked rolls with a shiny pretzel glaze -- are Cohen's offbeat update of French petit pain. Go figure.

In Mexico, French bread endures as an indelible symbol of European influence on the country's food. The French-style-rolls known as bolillos elsewhere go by pan frances in the Yucata'n. As if to reinforce that connection, visionary Yucatecan chef Gilberto Cetina, at the Mercado La Paloma branch of his Chichen Itza restaurant, sends out his grilled pork poc chuc (and other sandwiches) on true French baguettes, preferring their firmer texture to sop up the sour-orange-and-garlic-instilled meat juice. The blend of char and tang (and a splash of fiery habanero salsa if you like) puts this sandwich over the top.

Tortas reach an evolved form at the misnamed Ya Ya's Burgers No. 2, a comfortable converted stand in Huntington Park. Ya Ya's sells 70 variations of the D.F.-style torta, an idea that might seem as gimmicky as the all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue. But each torta at this place is as precisely constructed as anything from a four-star kitchen. Choosing the best is impossible, but the Dagwoodesque Tepic-K, also known as the chile relleno torta, sheds light on the kitchen's baroque style. Atop a grilled roll loaded with avocado slices, a translucent smear of beans and crema, sits a beautifully roasted chile stuffed with melty Oaxaca cheese on a hefty slice of roast pork leg.

At Cook's Tortas in Monterey Park, the house-baked ciabatta-style sandwich rolls have a downright fancy pedigree. The owner's brother-in-law developed the restaurant's sourdough starter after a stint as head baker at Bouchon in Napa Valley's Yountville.

Cook's daily specials travel beyond the expected lengua and carne asada to include green mole, Spanish salt cod with sweet peppers and roast pork with Cuban garlic sauce. There's not a dud in the bunch, but the must-try masterpiece is the Veracruz-influenced pambaso. The roll, dipped in an intense chile sauce, holds a small mountain of potato cubes fried with dry-cured chorizo, revved up with chipotles and jalapenos and saturated with Mexican crema.

It would not be hyperbole to label Cook's sandwiches, or for that matter any of the Mexican sandwiches here, gourmet.

A more recent gustatory marriage, the carne asadabanh mi, at Zon Baguettes French-Vietnamese sandwich shop and bakery in Tustin, is owner Kim Ta's creation. Sizzling shards of tender marinated beef are stacked into a French-style torpedo roll so fresh from the shop's ovens it may still be warm. The meat's juices merge with the house-made mayonnaise and the soft crumb of the bread's interior to create a rich, saucy base for the beef and tart-hot pico de gallo garnish.

It may be a watershed for California sandwiches as it unites in the most delicious way imaginable the light Vietnamese-style crispy French bread with the northern Mexican ranchero meats introduced by Europeans. Look how far the sandwich has come.
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Old Posted Oct 25, 2009, 9:56 PM
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The deli capital? It's L.A.
That's the conclusion of 'Save the Deli' author David Sax. He explains why the City of Angels beats out New York and other contenders.
By Elina Shatkin
The Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2009

It was in rural Kansas, near the geographical center of America, that David Sax hit rock bottom in his search for the perfect deli sandwich. It happened innocently enough, in an Arby's. He had ordered a Reuben.

"What I got was this horrible abomination of plasticized cheese that tasted like it had come from a napalm plant," he says. "Meat that had been pressed and pumped and vacuumed and torn apart to increase its yield in water but had no flavor. Bread that was just white bread painted a dark rye color. It was horrendous. And it was microwaved. I had two bites and that was it."

But if Sax found the nadir of the Reuben, he also found its zenith. And -- perhaps surprisingly -- he didn't find it in New York, the birthplace of the Jewish deli; he found it here in Los Angeles.

"It's a very difficult business to be in," Sax says, "but the [delis] that are most inspiring, the ones that people cling to, the ones that people enshrine for years and years are the traditional Jewish delis. And Los Angeles just happens to have more of them than any city I've been to."

To die-hard deli aficionados and sandwich fans, this assertion is heresy. It certainly wasn't what Sax, a Toronto native who now lives in Brooklyn, expected to discover. But in "Save the Deli," a book that traces the rise and fall of Jewish delicatessens from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the suburbs of middle America, he makes that very claim.

On a two-month cross-country trip, Sax hit all the major deli hubs: Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and, of course, New York, even working for an evening as a counterman at the legendary Katz's deli on Manhattan's Lower East Side. But he also fanned out across North America to Denver; Detroit; Scottsdale, Ariz.; St. Louis; Cleveland; Las Vegas; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Montreal; Toronto; and a dozen other cities. He even made a trip across the Atlantic to visit delis in London, Brussels, Paris and Krakow, Poland, one of the birthplaces of the modern Jewish deli.

History in every bite

Bound by "a proclivity for garlic and onions, and a reverential worship of schmaltz, or rendered fat," Sax writes, the Ashkenazi Jewish cultures of Germany, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Russian empire developed kosher versions of local meat specialties. When centuries of diaspora living met America's abundant beef supply in New York in the late 1800s, the deli staples of pastrami, corned beef and tongue were born.

Selling from pushcarts, early Yiddish food vendors faced increasing restrictions (a familiar conflict to foodies aware of recent county and city attempts to curb taco trucks) and evolved to bricks-and-mortar restaurants. But it was America's obsession with the sandwich, according to Sax, that catapulted Jewish delis "from an obscure immigrant food to an American cuisine." In Los Angeles, delis had yet to make their mark; that would come later as the descendants of New York's first wave of Jewish settlers migrated west.

The 1930s were boom deli years, with a second generation of immigrants finding more stability and prosperity while catering to a clientele concentrated in New York's Jewish enclaves.

At the same time, the traditional kosher deli gave rise to the kosher-style deli, also known as the Jewish or New York deli, that predominates today. Uninhibited by dietary restrictions that forbade observant Jews from consuming meat and milk together, they broadened their menu and clientele. Ergo, the Reuben, the ultimate assimilated sandwich: corned beef and sauerkraut topped by Swiss cheese and creamy Russian dressing.

Driven by the rise of supermarkets, decreased Jewish immigration, changing eating habits, fewer mono-ethnically Jewish neighborhoods and uniquely low profit margins in the deli business, the post-World War II years marked the beginning of the decline for delis.

"In the 1930s there were something along the lines of 1,500 kosher delis in New York," Sax says. "Now, there are about two dozen in all of New York City. That's an 80% to 90% decline. This has been echoed in other cities around the country."

Yet Los Angeles delis have managed to thrive in a niche market. Acre for acre, Sax maintains that Southern California boasts "more delicatessens of higher quality, on average, than anywhere else in America." He commends Nate 'n Al in Beverly Hills; Factor's in Pico-Robertson; Junior's in West L.A.; Greenblatt's on the Sunset Strip; Art's in Studio City; Canter's in the Fairfax district; and the various Hat locations.

But Sax reserves his highest praise for Langer's, near MacArthur Park -- where the pastrami sandwich "encapsulates perfection at every turn" -- and Brent's in Northridge and Westlake Village -- which he calls "absolutely sensational."

Where New York delis tend to be cramped and covered in an intangible layer of old world schmutz, Los Angeles delis are the height of midcentury, suburban modernity. If New York delis are as intimate and familiar as your bubbe's kitchen, then Los Angeles delis, with their spacious banquettes, polite wait staff and abundant parking, are like younger, sexier spokesmodels for the deli world.

Metaphors aside, the most successful delis usually share three traits: They own their own land and aren't subject to harsh rent increases; they often keep the business in the family; and they don't skimp when it comes to the quality of their core deli fare.

"Any deli where you can order lobster should be suspect, even if you're not kosher," Sax says. But he's aware that rules are meant to be broken. Sax was initially skeptical of Brent's, because of its vast menu, but he was won over with one bite of their house-made kishke, a rarely served sausage made of beef intestines stuffed with schmaltz, matzo meal and, often, organ meat.

Community spirit

The other secret of L.A.'s delis is that its owners are a tight-knit bunch who usually cooperate with each other. When Nate 'n Al installed a new computer system, owners David and Mark Mendelsohn went around to other local delis to help them set up their computer systems. Sax can't imagine that happening elsewhere.

"I've been to delis, especially in Florida, and when you ask if there are any other delis, they say, 'There are no others,' even if you can see another deli in the strip mall across the street," Sax says. "The attitude that prevailed in New York for a long time is that if another deli goes out of business, 'Hey, more for me.' "

It's not simply a philosophical error but a pragmatic one, in Sax's opinion. If the deli, whether as a hallowed eatery or as the civilian repertoire of American Jewish culture is to be saved, then Los Angeles is the case study. "The more delis that there are, the more people are going to want to eat at delis because it's visible, it's there in their minds," Sax says. "I thought that was the lesson L.A. could teach everyone else."
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Old Posted Nov 10, 2009, 4:51 AM
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Hello Kitty: A cool cat turns 35
The 1970s Japanese cartoon character has her paws in many enterprises all over the world.
By Sophia Kercher
The Los Angeles Times
November 1, 2009

Hello Kitty is all grown up.

The docile little creature with red bow and yellow button nose turns 35 today. And just look at her now! At her inception in the 1970s, few could have known that the cute cartoon would become a global phenom complete with a theme park, TV series and restaurant featuring an image of her sweet whiskered face baked into bread.

Indeed, Ms. Kitty has come a long way from her Japanese homeland. Christian Dior, Cynthia Rowley, Betsey Johnson and Kimora Lee Simmons have all hopped on the Hello Kitty pop icon bandwagon over the years, whisking the kitten around the world in high style.

But back to the beginning: Hello Kitty was created in Japan, in 1974, by Shintaro Tsuji as part of his greeting card company Sanrio. After an in-house design contest, the little Sanrio kitten was born, and Hello Kitty quickly became popular, boosting Sanrio's sales in just two years and bringing her cute "kawaii" style to coin purses, diaries, stationery and notebooks. The childlike Sanrio cat quietly made its way to the United States in 1976, only two years after she was invented, and remained relatively dormant until the 1990s. As Hello Kitty matured into her late teens she was given her first boyfriend, Dear Daniel, an equally enigmatic fellow kitten with a spiky pompadour. Daniel tends to wear blue and, like Hello Kitty, he embodies the Sanrio values of sharing and friendship.

By 1995, the Sanrio star's fans were growing up along with the fetching feline, and not without frisky behavior: The New York Times that year noted that the kitty was popular in the rave scene. Hello Kitty fans in their late teens and early 20s took to wearing such Hello Kitty merchandise as barrettes, watches and backpacks equipped with supplies for all-night parties. In 1997, Hello Kitty was suspected of having a naughty streak -- going feral, maybe? -- when a licensee introduced a Hello Kitty shoulder massager that ended up being a popular item on adult store shelves. The massager was taken off the market after a couple of years, but Hello Kitty's introduction into sexuality was born. By this time, Hello Kitty had blown up in the U.S. with the help of Grammy-winning darling Mariah Carey and other seductive celebrities who were captivated by the critter.

At the start of the millennium, Hello Kitty pitter-pattered into adulthood with an assist from top designers, who helped her develop into a regal, elegant icon while keeping her youthful charm. For Kitty's 30th anniversary, the bouncy Betsey Johnson designed a flashy, three-tiered pink dress in honor of the kitten, while the chic Cynthia Rowley created a simple yet classic Hello Kitty design for an Airstream trailer. But nowhere has Hello Kitty's foray into adulthood been more present than in her collaboration with Kimora Lee Simmons, which began in 2004.

"I thought how can we make this bigger and better than just some little notepad?" Simmons says.

Simmons, designer for Baby Phat and Simmons Jewelry Co., crafted a line of high-end jewelry featuring Hello Kitty's face plated in diamonds and platinum, selling the top-dollar designs at tony stores such as Neiman Marcus. To those unfamiliar with the lure of the brand, the success of the jewelry has been surprising, but not for the model-mom-mogul.

"Who doesn't love Kitty? Everyone from Paris Hilton to me, to Kelly Ripa, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Tyra Banks, Iman. I mean everybody loves Kitty," Simmon says. She adds that though she is a woman in her 30s she adores the timeless inner youth that the Sanrio icon represents. Simmons even designed a blue pendant of the kitten for Vogue's editor-at-large Andre' Leon Talley.

This isn't the first time the moon-faced creature has made an impression on Vogue. Christian Dior featured his collection in Japanese Vogue in 2008 with the stubby white feline as a model for his designs. Further confirming Dior and Simmons' view of the pop icon as fit for grown-ups, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital recently opened its doors in Taiwan. The hospital chose the cartoon theme hoping to ease the stress of childbirth and increase business. The facility features Hello Kitty baby blankets and nurses in pink uniforms with kitten-themed aprons, proof that a whimsical world follows the feline along with her maturing fans.

In Los Angeles, Hello Kitty's birthday is being celebrated with a multi-week extravaganza. A birthday party today takes place at the site of a multidimensional exhibit titled "Three Apples" -- in the lore, Hello Kitty weighs as much as three apples -- which opened Oct. 23 and runs through Nov.15. The exhibit at Culver City's Royal/T cafe and art space, features more than 80 pop artists and designers including Amanda Visell, Frank Kozik, Natalia Fabia and Simone Legno showcasing their interpretations of the feline. Several other fashion-infused events are planned as well. (See details in accompanying story.)

The wave of celebrations -- including a sushi workshop, karaoke night and a Halloween party over the last few days -- suggests that Sanrio's little kitty has come a long way from her early years as a schoolgirl obsession.

Simone Legno, the L.A.-based designer/artist of the colorful tokidoki brand, grew up in Rome glued to anime TV shows, obsessed with the Japanese. Not surprisingly, he's ecstatic at displaying his art at the show. "It's a huge honor because Hello Kitty is the most iconic cute character," Legno says.

As for the adorable Japanese kitten's future in 2010? Her popularity shows no signs of slowing. Lady Gaga was recently shot by famed photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani swathed in a remarkable gown of stuffed Hello Kittys. Janet Hsu, president of Sanrio Global Consumer Products, expects to keep welcoming up-and-coming designers to the Hello Kitty family, and knowing the little Nov. 1 Scorpio, there will be some mischief along the way.

Royal/T Cafe
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
www.royal-t.org




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Old Posted Oct 9, 2010, 2:49 AM
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Sriracha chili-sauce factory to spice up a bleak lot in Irwindale
Huy Fong Foods, known for the hot sauce with the rooster on the label, is building a 655,000-square-foot, $40-million headquarters and factory. It could be the county's biggest commercial development started this year.
By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times
October 9, 2010

The building that is likely to be the biggest commercial real estate development started in Los Angeles County this year is not part of a movie studio, aerospace venture or other type of business readily associated with the area.

It's all about hot sauce.

Huy Fong Foods, best known as the maker of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce with a rooster depicted on the label, broke ground this week on a 655,000-square-foot, $40-million headquarters and factory in Irwindale.

The project will nearly triple the space occupied by Huy Fong, which now operates out of two buildings in Rosemead that it will give up when the new facility is finished.

Demand for the product has increased every year for the last 30 years, said David Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant who said he founded the company when he couldn't find hot sauce he liked. In 1980, Tran rented 2,500 square feet in Chinatown and started making sauce from chilies he bought at Grand Central Market. He delivered the final product to Asian markets in a Chevy van.

The company currently makes more than 20 million bottles of the spicy concoction annually by working around the clock.

"We are at full capacity," Tran said. "We need a bigger building to make the hot sauce."

Huy Fong rolls out 100 tons of the red stuff a day now and will increase its volume "rapidly" in the new facility, Tran said. The company aims to increase its manufacturing capacity tenfold by 2016 to meet projected demand.

Employment at the company is expected to triple when the move is made to the new facility. Currently, Huy Fong has 70 workers during jalapeno season in the summer and fall when the peppers are pouring in, said operations manager Donna Lam.

Construction is being overseen by Seventh Street Development, a Long Beach real estate company selected by the city of Irwindale to develop the blighted 23-acre site at Azusa Canyon Road and Cypress Street that had been vacant for more than a decade.

The site was mentioned in a recent Times story about redevelopment properties that were earmarked by cities for affordable housing — in accordance with state law — but not used entirely for that purpose.

Irwindale will finance most of Huy Fong's $15-million purchase of the property. Seventh Street expects to finish the Huy Fong building by next fall.

Like most companies that move to new quarters, Huy Fong won't be moving far.

"With many of its employees living in the area, it was important to Huy Fong to stay in the San Gabriel Valley, which has been its home since 1987," said Craig Furniss, a principal at Seventh Street Development. "Irwindale was one of the few areas able to accommodate Huy Fong's space requirement and still make financial sense."

The new building will have such environmentally friendly attributes as a white reflective roof, skylights and storm-water catch basins. The California Mission-style building will include 26,000 square feet of office space, 150,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 480,000 square feet of warehouse space under one roof. Huy Fong needs lots of room to store sauce crushed during pepper season so it can keep bottling year-round.

Sriracha (sree-rah-chah) is a traditional Southeast Asian sauce named after a Thai seaside town. Tran's garlicky interpretation uses whole chilies, seeds and all, and comes out thicker than typical Louisiana-style hot sauces. That's the way he likes it.

"Almost any meal I eat with hot sauce," he said.
Read More: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...41,print.story
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  #77  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2010, 2:45 AM
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  #78  
Old Posted Nov 11, 2010, 4:44 PM
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Video Link

Far*East Movement (abbreviated FM) is an electro/hop quartet based in Los Angeles, California, created in 2003. Members Kev Nish (Chinese/Japanese American), Prohgress (Korean American), J-Splif (Korean American), and DJ Virman (Filipino American) represent different generations of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Filipino ancestry within the Asian American community. Their single "Like a G6" hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and on iTunes as well in late October, 2010[4]. Far East Movement also has the distinction of being the first Asian-American group to earn a top ten hit in the mainstream pop charts.
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Old Posted Apr 2, 2011, 12:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Los Angeles Times

Freeway signs in Montebello take note of Armenian genocide
The signs next to the Pomona Freeway direct motorists to the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument, which draws thousands of Armenians each April 24 to commemorate the 1915 massacre. Armenians say a freeway marker could lead to wider acknowledgement of the deaths of 1.5 million.
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times
April 2, 2011

It's only a sign.

But the large green message board unveiled next to the Pomona Freeway packed an emotional punch for those gathered Friday in Montebello.

"Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument Next Exit," it reads.

A pair of the directional signs, authorized by the state Legislature, point the way to a memorial tower above Garfield Avenue that commemorates the attempt a century ago to eliminate Armenians from the Ottoman Empire.

People of Armenian descent from throughout Los Angeles gathered beneath the tower to thank state officials for recognizing their history — and for perhaps leading the way to what they hope is wider acknowledgement of the massacre of 1.5 million people.

Leaders of modern-day Turkey dispute the "genocide" label. The United States, worried about U.S.-Turkish relations, has not taken a formal position on the subject.

The directional signs will likely send "shockwaves" through those who fail to recognize the impact that the killings and deportations still have on Armenians around the world, said Grigor Hovhannisyan, Armenia's consul general.

"This is an international event that will be heard around the world," agreed Levon Kirakosian, a Glendale lawyer who helped organize the ceremony.

"These words are now nailed on the wall for all to see."

Legislation authorizing the signs was authored by state Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier), who recalled growing up in Montebello and being influenced by his boyhood best friend's Armenian grandmother.

"This is not just another freeway sign," Calderon told the crowd of about 200.

The six-legged memorial tower, dedicated in 1968, draws thousands of Armenians each April 24 to commemorate the 1915 massacre. Calderon described the tower as "a beacon that stands in the night" for human rights.

Although there are few living survivors of the massacre — ceremony organizers say one of them, Montebello resident Hrant Zeitounzian, was 100 when he died Wednesday— Los Angeles-area Armenians labor to keep their history alive among younger generations.

"We're here today because of the hard work of our grandparents and great-grandparents," said Kevork Tutunjian, a 25-year-old writer from Glendale. "I'll make sure this monument resonates with my great-grandkids."

Garabed Armoudikian, 61, a Pasadena service station operator, held Armenian and American flags as he watched the ceremony. He predicted that the display will prompt discussion among those who travel the Pomona Freeway and who may be unaware of Armenian history.

And that's a good sign, Armoudikian said.
Read More: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2490459.story
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  #80  
Old Posted Sep 15, 2011, 5:01 PM
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'A Night at the Moulin Rouge' at the Hollywood Bowl

Originally posted in Los Angeles Times

'A Night at the Moulin Rouge' at the Hollywood Bowl

Gallic-themed classics.

September 15, 2011

MUSIC

There'll be no Nicole Kidman ballads at this version of "A Night at the Moulin Rouge: A Magical Evening in Paris," but there will be fireworks and a rowdy display of Parisian music with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. They'll perform "An American in Paris" and other Gallic-themed classics, with the dancers from the legendary venue. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., L.A. 8:30 p.m Fri.-Sat., 7:30 p.m. Sun. $11-$134.


http://hbowl.com/moulin

Less topic/more event...but I'll be working at the show, and thought perhaps it would be of interest to the multicultural newsies in this forum (longtime lurker, first time poster!).
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