L.A. Fashion District Shopping Tour

Monday-Saturday with advance reservation, 10:30 a.m. Three hours of walking and shopping with a guide in the nation’s largest fashion district. $36 per person.

Call (213) 683-9715 or urbanshoppingadventures.com.

Coming occurrences of this event:

  • Thursday, October 18, 2007
  • Friday, October 19, 2007
  • Saturday, October 20, 2007
  • Sunday, October 21, 2007
  • Monday, October 22, 2007
  • Tuesday, October 23, 2007
  • Wednesday, October 24, 2007
  • Thursday, October 25, 2007
  • Friday, October 26, 2007
  • Saturday, October 27, 2007
  • Sunday, October 28, 2007
  • Monday, October 29, 2007
  • Tuesday, October 30, 2007
  • Wednesday, October 31, 2007
  • Thursday, November 01, 2007
  • Friday, November 02, 2007
  • Saturday, November 03, 2007
  • Sunday, November 04, 2007
  • Monday, November 05, 2007
  • Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Š Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to redistribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, …

Big Ideas

L.A. Phil Mixes It Up With Famous Finns,

New Works and a Glimpse of the Future

by Julie Riggott

Bigger is better when it comes to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed about working with Esa-Pekka [Salonen] is that ideas can’t be big enough,” said Chad Smith, who as vice president of artistic planning interprets and implements the music director’s vision for the Phil.

The new season brings a variety of programming. After the gala opening night with celebrity soprano RenĂŠe Fleming on Thursday, Oct. 4, the Phil has three festivals featuring orchestral works complemented by new music, symposia and other events: Sibelius Unbound, the International Youth Orchestra Festival and Concrete Frequency.

“We have to scale our projects bigger. Our audiences expect it, the city expects it, our orchestra expects it, and, indeed, Esa-Pekka expects it,” Smith said.

The season kicks off this Thursday with a program of French and Italian music by Ravel, Berlioz

…

Whip ‘Um Good

Whip 'Um Good

REDCAT Season-Opener Jumps Into the Worlds of Performance and Amnesia

by Daria Benedict

The phrase “avant garde” gets applied fairly frequently in the 21st century, if not always accurately, as the tag is sometimes affixed to anything just slightly out of the mainstream. A production opening this week at the REDCAT theater, however, lives up to the name.

On Wednesday, Sept. 26, New York-based Cynthia Hopkins kicks off the 2007-2008 REDCAT season with Must Don’t Whip ‘Um. The Los Angeles premiere of the multimedia narrative spectacle will play a run of five shows through Sept. 30. It is a sequel/prequel to Accidental Nostalgia, the first in a trilogy exploring the pros and cons of amnesia. Hopkins is quick to point out that you do not have to know anything about the first installment to see or understand part two.

Must Don’t Whip ‘Um combines music, video, dance, set design, lighting and theater to tell two parallel and intermingling narratives about

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Howser Finds New York in Downtown

KCET Series Continues With the ‘Film Shoots’ Episode

by Jon Regardie

In the first few months of his “Downtown” series, KCET television host Huell Hoswer has discovered community treasures including the Eastern Columbia Building, the Los Angeles State Historic Park and the Downtown Art Walk. In an episode that airs this week, however, he encounters something that many in Downtown probably would not expect: New York City.

For the episode titled “Film Shoots,” Howser drops by the set of the TV show “CSI: NY,” much of which is actually shot in Downtown Los Angeles, not the Big Apple. It’s the latest in a long, long line of productions that have masked Downtown as New York, or many other cities (Baltimore, Washington, D.C., etc.), for that matter.

In the episode, Howser chats with some of the show’s actors, and explores one of Downtown’s most common sights – the film crews and their loads of trucks and production workers.

“Film Shoots” airs

…

Little Radio’s Big Problem

Little Radio’s Big Problem

Royalty Rules Could Force a Change for Downtown Internet Pioneer

by Evan George

When Dave Conway founded Little Radio, a Downtown-based Internet radio station, he was sending out clandestine playlists to friends using illegal rooftop antennas.

Three years later, Little Radio is a multimedia company that deals in brand marketing, event planning, rock shows and even the sale of environmentally friendly electric cars. Its five employees work in two large rehabbed warehouses in the Industrial District.

But at heart – and by name – Little Radio remains centered around the web streaming of music that Conway calls the company’s “life blood and our heart and soul.” The free 24-hour radio station informs all of the other business endeavors, he said.

Not if the recording industry has anything to say about it.

In a ruling earlier this month, the Copyright Royalty Board, which manages fees that radio stations pay to the recording industry, upheld a decision to

…

Downtown Flaunts A Fashion of Its Own

Culver City Has Smashbox, but the Los Angeles Theatre Knows How to Party

by Kathleen Nye Flynn

I’m no fashion expert, but in the last few years I’ve snuck into my fair share of catwalk events. I’ve wiggled into Culver City’s biannual Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios a few times, either through the front door or the back.

So I had an inkling of what I was getting into when I showed up (through the front door) at Downtown’s first Fashion Week event in years, which began March 16. The two nights of shows at Broadway’s Los Angeles Theatre, I knew, had the potential to be memorable.

I arrived at the Friday night show just in time for Jared Gold’s collection. The theater’s ornate ceiling swooped above a crowd glammed out in avant-garde dresses, handmade hats and vintage styles.

The lustrous, colonnaded walls and wide, tumbling staircases, combined with the artsy folks on the guest list and DJs spinning tunes,

…

Coming Into Focus

With 162 Projects, Downtown Continues to Evolve

Coming Into Focus|With 162 Projects, Downtown Continues to Evolve

by Evan George, Andrew Haas-Roche, Kathryn Maese, Kathleen Nye Flynn and Jon Regardie

Excerpts from the list relating to arts, entertainment and culture follow. Complete list of 162 projects is here.

Development Map The traditionally slow winter period had little effect on the pace of development in Downtown Los Angeles. Over the last several months, even as temperatures dropped and people tended to remain indoors whenever possible, the community not only continued its residential revolution, but began adding the bells and whistles that mark the turn from a collection of separate housing complexes into an actual neighborhood.

In the last several months, in fact, the community began to come into focus, with the opening of nearly a dozen restaurants, bars and retail outlets – everything from the upscale J Restaurant & Lounge to a second installment of coffee shop Groundwork to two locales

…

Seams From the Screen

Hollywood Comes Downtown for FIDM’s Annual Costume Party

by Lea Lion

On a Friday morning, a motley crew of reporters is clamoring to get the stars’ attention. Photographers are snapping pictures in rapid-fire succession and TV cameras are rolling.

These types of scenes are ubiquitous in Los Angeles. What sets this one apart is that the stars are not famous actors and actresses. They are the behind-the-scenes people who make it all happen.

It is the day before the opening of the annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) museum in South Park, and the media has been invited for a preview (hence those clicking cameras). Featuring more than 100 costumes from 25 films, including outfits from all five films nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Costume Design, the show is a whole other type of blockbuster. The Downtown Los Angeles exhibit runs through April 5.

Three kimonos

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Best Business

Tap Into the Best

Best Business

Downtown’s Wonderland in Sales and Services


READERS’ CHOICE

  • Best Shopping Center:7+Fig
  • Best Local Florist: L.A. Flower Market
  • Best Local Grocery Store: Grand Central Market
  • Best Local Furniture Store: The Dock Downtown
  • Best Bargain Shopping: Santee Alley
  • Best Fitness Club: 24 Hour Fitness
  • Best Salon: Candolyn’s Salon & Day Spa
  • Best Spa: Bonaventure Club
  • Best Hotel for Your In-Laws: The Biltmore Hotel
  • Best Pharmacy: Rite Aid
  • Best Wi-Fi Hot Spot: Starbucks
  • Best Dentist: Dr. Don Mungcal, Downtown Dental
  • Best Residential/Loft Complex: Medici
  • Best Mom & Pop Shop: La Parrilla
  • Best Secret Parking Spot: Joe’s on Hope Street
  • Best Place to Blow $100: Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse
  • Best Medical Center: Good Samaritan Hospital
  • Best Carwash: Downtown Car Wash
  • Best Thing We Didn’t Think Of: Multiple WinnersEDITORS’ CHOICE
  • Best Acupuncture: Dr. Steven T. H. Chang
  • Best Florist: Unique Sarah Total Floral
  • Best Massage: Pho-Siam
  • Best Smoke Shop: Bloom’s General Store
  • Best New Market: Joe’s Downtown
…