Global Los Angeles

[pesto]

Great picture of Our Lady. It's an underappreciated architectural work due to its simplicity and muted tones. Christ down at ground level and the organ as a vision of heaven is a nice metaphor; an actual representation of God is not going to be as effective as blinding light and majestic sounds.

Interesting to see if Gomez can exploit the good will that follows any new guy. He's supposed to be conservative and tough. It will be interesting to see if the local Catholics (and non-Cathlocis) are ready for a guy who won't tell you that what you're doing is perfectly OK.

[VZN]

In L.A., pizza goes global

Brami's Kosher Pizza in Reseda bakes the impossible. Somehow stuffed inside a thin disc of malawach — a Yemeni flatbread as dense and flaky as a hundred layers of phyllo — is a pizza. Mozzarella oozes with each bite from between the crisp sheets of dough, bringing with it tangy crumbles of feta, diced tomatoes and briny green olives. At its edge, the crust is pinched into an almost pastry-like braid, sealed just well enough to contain that cheesy filling.

There are traditional kosher pizzas on the menu — rabbinically approved reproductions of the classics — but at Eli and Shelly Brami's restaurant, the malawach pizza is a creation apart. It's as Israeli as it is American, a unique melding of culinary concepts that reflects the cross-cultural pizza boom spreading across Southern California.

Just as certain city blocks contain the cuisines of a half-dozen different countries, pizza in Los Angeles doesn't conform to one nationality — it practically circumnavigates the globe.

There are South American pizzas shaped by decades of Italian immigration and Croatian pizzas forged along the shores of the Mediterranean. Korean and Japanese corporations have taken to testing their unique interpretations of pizza on L.A.'s international appetite. And some foreign pies defy classification altogether, labeled as pizzas by restaurants and diners searching for a simple descriptor. It's all part of the naturalization process.

A purist's definition of pizza might not apply among such diversity. Take for instance Guelaguetza's clayuda, which some refer to as Oaxacan pizza: a parchment-thin tortilla smeared with asiento (rendered pork fat) and black beans and topped with cheese, lettuce and slabs of meat spread across the tortilla like continents cast off into separate hemispheres.

Others consider the lahmajune from 60-plus-year-old A. Partamian Bakery to be Armenian pizza. The flatbread is completely covered with a ruddy, gamey mix of ground lamb, tomatoes, bell pepper and spices and baked until it borders on blackened. Unlike some more brittle versions made elsewhere, lahmajune from the West Adams shop is as pliant as a New York slice.

These are inexact incarnations — pizzas not by birth but by adoption. Still, there's credence in such classifications. At Pasadena's Old Sasoon Bakery, the Georgian breakfast flatbread khachapuri can't help but recall an oblong, egg-topped pizza. The Geragosian family's Armenian-by-way-of-Syria bakery produces a superior version of the canoe-shaped staple, capped with a blend of Middle Eastern cheeses and a cracked egg. Drag a piece of the khachapuri's billowy, bready crust through the egg to release a tidal flow of yolk that flavors every inch of this morning meal.

Pizza-like mankousheh at Forn Al Hara in Anaheim also blurs boundaries. Fresh out of the oven, its crust is charred and blistered with pockets of air as taut as overinflated balloons. When it's cooked with cheese and sujuk, a peppery, cumin-shocked beef sausage freed here from its casing and transformed into a meaty spread, the Levantine flatbread shares more than a passing resemblance to pizza.

Maybe it's just another unpredictable result of globalization, but previously pizza-less countries have developed their own distinct creations. Waves of Italian immigration brought pizza to Argentina, and Mercado Buenos Aires imports that South American style to Van Nuys. Each slice of its Buenos Aires pizza is crowned with a piece of cured ham, a sliver of roasted bell pepper and a single green olive.

Costa Mesa's months-old Il Dolce Pizzeria highlights another pizza of Argentine invention, the fugazzeta. From owner Roberto Bignes' wood-fired oven comes not the typical focaccia-like fugazzeta, but one with a chewy Neapolitan crust, airy at its edges and thin as a pane of glass at its center. The powerfully simple fugazzeta is sauce-free, spotted with milky patches of house-made fior di latte cheese and blanketed with julienned sweet onions and a dusting of oregano.

Sometimes it's all about the sauce. So it is at Dean's Pizza in Long Beach, a true fusion that's part Thai restaurant, part pizzeria. Its parallel menus are mostly kept separate, but there is one notable intersection: the Thai curry pizza.

Dean's uses a red curry sauce redolent of kaffir lime and lemongrass that burns with a subtle, creeping heat. Curry pizza here can be constructed virtually to anyone's liking, with a choice of toppings (think pepperoni and pineapple) or without them altogether (the lactose-averse can order the pizza without cheese). Try reconstructing something close to a traditional red curry with a pizza of chicken or tofu and bell peppers.

L.A. has also become a testing ground for foreign pizza chains informed by the strip-mall standard American franchises that have set up shop abroad. But don't expect pedestrian localizations of Pizza Hut. Instead, inspired overseas entrepreneurs have been taking the basics and building them into peculiar pizzas that go beyond the boundaries of convention.

Seoul-born Mr. Pizza Factory's Koreatown branch is the only one of its kind in the U.S. Consider the bulgogi and seafood pizzas first, but ultimately opt for the Potato Gold: potato wedges, bacon, corn, crushed tortilla chips, cheese and a drizzle of sour cream. It recalls a plate of potato skins you might find at a sports-bar happy hour until you reach the layer of sugary sweet potato paste buried deep within the doughy crust. It's a bracing surprise.

Similarly startling is Strawberry Cones, a Japanese chain that recently opened its first U.S. restaurant in San Gabriel. Its early signature might be the teriyaki mochi chicken pizza: a rice-flour crust covered with cubed chicken, red onions, mozzarella and Romano, teriyaki sauce, a squirt of mayonnaise, shards of dried seaweed and mochi, squares of glutinous rice superheated until they can be stretched like cheese.

There's also a line of "ninja pizzas" whose crusts are colored a pronounced gray by powdered chikutan, Japanese bamboo charcoal regarded for its mineral richness. On the salmon and avocado pizza, the chikutan crust tastes a bit like the sea air that swirls above a beach bonfire.

Until recently, you could even find Filipino pizza, multicultural pies topped with fatty pork sisig, Spanish sardines or chicken adobo. But don't take its disappearance as a sign of waning pizza popularity — there are more global offerings on the horizon.

San Pedro's Pavich's Brick Oven Pizzeria is about to open a second location that owner Zdenko Pavic hopes will start cooking by May. It will have not only dedicated seating but also an expanded menu to complement its mammoth Croatian pizza laced with purplish ribbons of Balkan smoked beef.

Also coming soon is Bella Vista, a Brazilian pizza buffet on track to open this month in Culver City's Brazilian Mall. As owner Marcelo Gomez describes it, the restaurant will operate like an all-you-can-eat churrascaria, with waiters bringing dozens of different pizzas straight to the table until you can take no more. Among the Portuguese-style pies and seafood-intensive slices, it might be the dessert pizzas that prove most distinct, concentrating on fruit-focused pairings like banana and cinnamon and guava paste and cheese.

However you slice them, these international interpretations of pizza, each more unexpected than the last, prove that in Los Angeles, the world truly is flat.

Only in L.A. Is there any other city who has something like this going on right now?

[milquetoast]

Pizza is a good indicator of globalness .............. globality ......... globalnicity ..... globalnationality!

[ThaiSiamese]

Sometimes it's all about the sauce. So it is at Dean's Pizza in Long Beach, a true fusion that's part Thai restaurant, part pizzeria. Its parallel menus are mostly kept separate, but there is one notable intersection: the Thai curry pizza.

Thai curry pizza? I wonder what it looks like.

[pesto]

curry seems pretty natural for pizza (or flat bread). But I assume the cheese has to go. You can put curry on pooris or naan which comes to something similar.

[VZN]

The accent on Brits

Members of the Sunday lunch crowd at the Palihouse in West Hollywood have been known to order dishes that don't appear on most local menus: "toad in the hole," "potted pork belly" and "sticky toffee pudding." Many of those same diners have been known to tuck their copies of the Guardian UK under an arm as they gather there to partake of the 6-month-old Sunday roast, sitting at long farmhouse tables and rubbing shoulders with other Brits who call Los Angeles home.

Or they meet up at the Brit breakfast club at hot spot Cecconi's or party at Soho House, the newly opened members-only social club in West Hollywood. And they may very well encounter one another at BritWeek LA, which in fact turns out to be about three weeks of events including programs that focus on design and fashion, an appearance by Jeff Beck and enough "salutes," "receptions" and "galas" to fill the social calendar of a mere mortal for a year.

It seems as though England is having a "moment" in Los Angeles. Hollywood especially seems to be awash in English accents, an asset in a town where native speech is typified by a certain laziness in inflection and use of the word "like."

"There is definitely an increase of Brits recently," says Oliver Trevena, an actor from East Sussex, England, and one of the hosts of Palihouse's Sunday roast who relocated to Los Angeles five years ago. "My accent is not as special anymore," he jokes, adding that his Hollywood United soccer team, which once counted four "token" Brits, is now dominated by his countrymen.

The British Consulate estimates that there are an estimated 200,000 Brits living in Los Angeles County (out of 10 million plus people), the majority in the Santa Monica area. Perhaps it just seems as if every fourth person we encounter greets newcomers with "Hello, luv." Nonetheless, the social and cultural landscape of Los Angeles is abounding with references to Britannia.

A community group called Brits in LA — whose members touch base via Facebook — has seen a dramatic increase in activity, with people attending events, such as a weekly Brit breakfast or volunteering for airport runs and posting listings for cars, jobs and restaurant recommendations. Members don't necessarily have to be British (although about 85% are). "You just have to like us," says Eileen Lee, a founding member of the group.

BritWeek LA, an annual event that aims to educate people about British culture and promote the contributions of L.A.'s British population, is perhaps the most prominent example of L.A.'s Brit moment.

Bob Pierce, a former consul general in Los Angeles, started BritWeek in Los Angeles four years ago with television producer Nigel Lythgoe (who's also a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance"). The events were popular enough that similar functions are being held in Orange County and San Francisco this year.

"We felt that with how many Brits there were in L.A. doing interesting and prominent things it was worth bringing all of that together," Pierce says.

Starting April 17 and running through May 7, the "week" includes an appearance by designer Zandra Rhodes at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, a gala dinner with Sir Richard Branson and an art show of British artists. Ye Olde King's Head Pub in Santa Monica will host events ranging from a darts tournament to a British karaoke night. Not surprisingly, Pierce extols the virtues of British food, especially British food in Los Angeles. A number of restaurants will include British food items on their menus and the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills is staging a "Royal Afternoon Tea."

Left coast attractions

If you're wondering why the British are coming (apart from seeking out our temperate climate) several transplants interviewed for this article cited a certain "can do" attitude as a key attraction.

Pierce says there are three factors that explain the allure of the City of Angels: "There is an innovative culture here that's not one of cynicism or inhibiting ideas, even crazy ideas. Another is the eclecticism of the place, and it's not just a one-industry thing.

"There is a very significant scientific community here and a lot of business innovation. I cannot think of another city, with the possible exception of London, that has this to offer in a fairly small radius .

"And third is the sense of optimism," he added. "Even when the headlines and economy are bad, somehow here people don't allow themselves to be completely crushed. And at the best of times there's tremendous optimism."

In the five years he's lived here, Pierce has witnessed a steady stream of people moving from England to Los Angeles.

"It's certainly becoming a trend, a huge trend, to move here," says Nikki Pennie, a fashion stylist who moved from London to Los Angeles a year ago and now styles celebrities for red-carpet appearances. "More and more of my friends who are in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties want to move out here from London. Especially if they're not attached and career-driven, then there are definitely a lot of career opportunities here. Four to five years ago, people would have naturally moved to New York. Now they're coming here."

It's not easy. "Coming here" requires an 0-1 visa to be able to work in a specific field over a period of several months to several years, and obtaining it can be a trying and tedious process. "If someone is coming to L.A. to work in the arts or entertainment, you have to be really, really special," says Encino-based immigration lawyer Bernard Sidman, whose British clients make up about half of his business. "The bar has really been [raised]."

"You must really be at the top of your game and have the press to prove it," says Catherine Lyn Scott, an entertainment publicist whose L.A.-based agency represents only British actors and actresses. "Some TV shows will not even accept an 0-1 visa [from an actor], in case it expires while filming. They require a green card."

Pennie's process to obtain a work visa was lengthy. Among other things, she had to collect more than 50 letters of recommendation from fashion stylists and editors in the U.K. to finalize her documentation.

That level of determination appeals to the expats.

The Brits "who come here are so different," says Darren Darnborough, an actor and another founding member of Brits in LA. "It's like, ‘Hats off to you. I respect whatever you did to get here. I respect you because it's hard.' "

Adds Zen Freeman, a DJ and co-host of Palihouse's Sunday roast: "With a strong work ethnic, one can advance a lot quicker here. I find it very refreshing to be in a city where every Brit is here for a reason. When they're a specialist in their field and good at their job, they are generally going to have an interesting personality."

Hollywood, of course, has been a lure for Brits for decades. In the 1930s, L.A.'s expat community was large enough to field its own cricket team. Their numbers included notable architects, artists and writers such as Christopher Isherwood, who famously addressed skeptics of the city when stating why he loved living here saying, "Either they understand it's the only place or they don't."

The ranks of present-day transplants still include writers and artists, and actors and TV personalities continue their exodus across the pond. (Think Simon Cowell, Cat Deeley and Gordon Ramsay for starters.)

"It's a logical next step, especially for actors who want to make it in film," Scott says. "There's more work, and it pays so much more. Hollywood is the world's stage, and this is the place to be to take your career to the top."

Scott says she has witnessed a recent surge of actors coming from England to L.A. to audition for roles.

"The floodgates really opened with the success of Hugh Laurie in ‘House,' " says Robert Thompson, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. "It's a trend we started seeing back in 2007 when there were 20 or so pilots being made with Brits playing significant roles."

Thompson says that the trend continues in present-day Hollywood due to the growing globalization of the American TV industry and Tinseltown's never-ending desire for new faces. "By going to the British pool of talent, you can get fresh faces that haven't yet been seen."

Meanwhile anyone stopping by the Palihouse on a Sunday shouldn't be shocked by the ubiquity of the English accent or to see Victoria Beckham enjoying the traditional British fare with her kids.

"You'll always bump into someone else from England who you didn't even know had moved here. There's always a smattering of British celebs here as well," says journalist and regular Palihouse patron Tony Horkins, who, during his first visit to the Sunday roast, witnessed the Beckhams and their brood enjoying some sticky toffee pudding. "You really can't go wrong with sticky toffee pudding."

It's no surprise that Brits love L.A. and California (I know some personally...). Check this site out:

http://www.californiacalling.co.uk/winner

Look at all of those videos. That's a lot of Brits who want to come here to experience the L.A./California lifestyle and culture. Cool stuff.

[kidA]

I think we should do the same thing as well...go over there and have little Angeleno breakfasts!

[klamedia]

You mean juevos rancheros with a side of chicharones?

[pesto]

The NY, London, LA connection is an obvious one since those cities tend to focus on the arts (commercial and avant garde), advertising, public relations, media, international transactions, import-export, services to wealthy individuals (from investments to couture to hair styling).

The openness has always been key. LA's historic lack of "culture" (which really means "lack of subservience to older European and East Coast culture") has been what has allowed it to make a unique imprint on the world although being a young city lacking institutions.

The bad news is that it is easy to fall into watching what other cities do and becoming just like them. The good news is that the people attracted here tend to be those looking to breakaway from limits in their old homes and bring their energy and disrespect here.

[milquetoast]

1920 - 2010

JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH

At the start of his presidency, he steered the Olympic movement

through two successive political boycotts; an American-led western boycott

of the 1980 Moscow Olympics followed by an

eastern bloc retaliation in 1984 at Los Angeles

The Los Angeles games were, however, a financial success and represented a clear

break with the past with its focal sport of athletics now fully professional

.

A QUARTER CENTURY LATER

LOS ANGELES' OLYMPIC GAMES REMAIN THE GOLD STANDARD

.

By the time the 1984 Olympic Games fired off the fireworks of the closing ceremonies,

the way the Games were marketed and produced had been changed permanently. A/P

.

In many ways, Peter Ueberroth looks at the uncomfortable bickering over the billions of dollars the Olympics produce as a good thing.
It means they are still thriving, a quarter century after the Los Angeles Games that gave us Carl Lewis, Mary Lou Retton and Mary Decker also revolutionized an Olympic movement that was on the verge of extinction.

The 25th anniversary of the opening ceremonies in Los Angeles was Tuesday. In an interview, Ueberroth acknowledged some of the current problems that plague the Olympics -- with tension between the U.S. and International Olympic Committees at the top of the list.

"Do some people get a little crazy when there's a lot of money on the table, the way there is today? Yeah, they do," Ueberroth said. "But you can look beyond that. The L.A. Games are a very good part of the heritage."

Los Angeles was awarded the games in 1978, with the Olympics still reeling from the tragedies of Munich and the financial disaster of Montreal, which carried $1.5 billion in debt out of the 1976 Games -- a bill that wasn't paid off until 2006. Local and national governments footed the bills back then, and the mayor of Montreal infamously said the Olympics were such a proven winner that the city could "no more have a deficit, than a man can have a baby."

Los Angeles was seriously considering giving them back, when the idea to turn the games into a privately financed endeavor came about.

That led to the hiring of Ueberroth, who helped the L.A. Games turn a profit of $233 million. He sharply reduced the number of sponsors but increased what they paid, a model that has proven to be a winner over time. He maximized payments for TV rights, which today represent the biggest chunk of money taken in by the IOC, but back then were negotiated directly between the networks and the local organizing committees.

Peter Ueberroth understands there are both positives and negatives to the legacy of the 1984 Games. "Do some people get a little crazy when there's a lot of money on the table, the way there is today? Yeah, they do," he said. "But you can look beyond that. The L.A. Games are a very good part of the heritage." "It was a paradigm shift," said Edwin Moses, who took the athlete's oath at the opening ceremonies, and later won a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles. "The explosion of corporate sponsorship changed the look of all sports, maybe pro sports, most of all."
Ueberroth was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year for making those games a success, and they were memorable for more than the bottom line.

.

.

• Lewis won four gold medals, matching the record haul of Jesse Owens in Berlin in 1936.

• Decker was a favorite in the 3,000 meters, only to see her hopes squashed when she got tangled with Zola Budd and had to be carried off the track in tears -- one of the most heartbreaking, and made-for-TV, moments in Olympic history.

Lionel Cironneau/Associated PressThe Los Angeles Games produced a multitude of new heroes -- such as gymnast Mary Lou Retton -- who became commercial successes well after the games ended.

.

• Retton became a household name, winning the gymnastics all-around with her perfect 10s on the floor and vault and getting swallowed up in hugs from her coach, Bela Karolyi.

.

• Shooter Xu Haifeng became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic medal. China did not honor the Soviet Union's call for a boycott -- a gesture Ueberroth believes was invaluable for the long-term health of the Olympics.

• In fact, the Soviet boycott of the games backfired on most fronts, maybe most notably because it allowed so many more Americans to win medals and become famous, which stoked greater interest in the Olympic movement in the world's biggest media market.

Ueberroth gave credit to former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch for making the L.A. template a permanent part of the Games instead of merely handing it off to the next hosts, Seoul, South Korea.

The template has been replicated and refined numerous times and the Olympics have thrived. They are now the ultimate brand name in sports, a biennial event that stands above almost every other sporting event for athletes, media, fans and sponsors.

"The results were much better than any expectations," Samaranch wrote in a letter Ueberroth read to a gathering that met to celebrate the 25th anniversary. "The L.A. Games meant the beginning of a new era in the games' concept and organization. L.A. delivered and its organizational success generated vast interest from cities to become, themselves, organizers, when for 1984, L.A. was the only bidder."

Of course, the success has also begat the current strife between international leaders and those in the United States. They are fighting over the way TV and sponsorship money is shared, as well as the recent USOC plan to start its own Olympic TV network.

But Ueberroth doesn't let today's problems dim his outlook or tarnish his feelings about the legacy of Los Angeles. As one small example of the success, he points to the rise of hundreds of Olympic athletes over the past two decades from countries that couldn't afford to run their own programs without the financial help of a rich Olympic movement.

"I think there's never a perfect world, but back then, nobody would put on an Olympic Games," Ueberroth said. "They were in the worst position of all. If we didn't do it privately, it wouldn't happen. So overall, things are much better."

BOB KEIM

[pesto]

Samaranch was 2/3 Fascist and 1/3 criminal. Probably did more to hold back the Olympics than anyone, with his fixation on excluding professionals, favoring sports his friends liked and making judgements based on whim. Bribery was not only condoned, it was expected; it was a right of the elites that ran the Olympics.

He was the epitome of elitist arrogance who was given power by wealthy friends and did nothing competent except by coincidence. Ueberroth and LA were a lucky break for him.

[Cibele Zimmerman]

[DinoVabec]

Originally Posted by Cibele Zimmerman

You have some problem or what?

[milquetoast]

Hey! It's D-Bone! How ya doin?

[DinoVabec]

Originally Posted by milquetoast

Hey! It's D-Bone! How ya doin?

Well, it's ok..I guess..Not so well these days..
What's goin' on on the west coast? Haven't been here for a while..

[milquetoast]

Me neither ....

[saiholmes]

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Times

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

[saiholmes]

[saiholmes]

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.

[VZN]

Aussies Push L.A. Tourism to New Heights

Roughly 25.7 million tourists photo-snapped, food-spotted and Star-toured it through Los Angeles last year, up from 23.8 million in 2009. Yet of all the domestic and international visitors that spent a combined $13.1 billion on hotels, restaurants and theme parks in 2010, most came from Australia. That's a first, according to the Daily Breeze.

Why are Aussies flocking to our shores? Though we'd like to think it's for our culture and our food and our uniquely LA vibe, we suspect it's not for our beaches. Expanded flight routes from Los Angeles to Australia have been credited with the surge in visits from down under last year.

Visitors from three other countries topped the tourism list for 2010 - tourists from China increased 80 percent, travelers from South Korea are up 54 percent and visits from Japan are up 25 percent.

Mayor Villaraigosa called the figures "impressive" and said "tourism is the city's largest and most lucrative industry, generating billions each year and employing countless Angelenos."