by Ed Fuentes
TOURISTS IN TUNNELS: Wes Zelio, bartender and co-manager of the Chop Suey Café in the Far East Building on 1st Street in Little Tokyo, soberly reports seeing a man, face in the shadows and wearing a T-shirt, in the brick-walled basement of the building, which dates back to the late-19th century. The man disappears when the lights go on. . –– You Take it Down! No, You Take it Down! Other staffers at Chop Suey have also reported such sightings, and some won’t go downstairs alone anymore. . –– Ghost Tunnels: “Don’t tell me that—I’m still trying to get over the ghost I hear wanders at Adobe Avila,” says a guide at the Chinese American Museum (CAM) located at El Pueblo next to Olvera St. weighing in on the Far East Building sightings. But we really wanted to talk to her about the legends of tunnels under Old-Old Chinatown—an area currently occupied by Union Station. . –– It’s one of the most frequently asked questions at CAM—seems everyone has heard of a friend of a friend who once took a tour of the tunnels. “I don’t know about the tunnels, but I know there are no tours,” the guide said. . –– Wonder if the guy in the basement at the Far East Café can tell us where the tours start?
HOLE IN THE ART COMMUNITY: Artist Fumiko Amano, a communications bridge between the Arts District and Gallery Row, reports she’s leaving her co-director position at Pharamka Art at 5th and Main on January 30 to focus on her own work. . ––Let’s promo her for a change: Amano is working on her new series called DREAM, collages of Japanese comic strips and non-painting artworks, as well as her paintings inspired by the “urban noise and vibe.”
FILLING HOLES : At the south entrance to Gallery Row—9th Street between Broadway & Main/Spring—there is flurry of lunch and soon-to-be-dinner spots targeting Downtown lofties . . –– There’s a Chinese restaurant owned by the same family for three generations; two French-inspired cafes—one owned by a Kor/Am and the other by a Latino/American; a seafood-and-pasta grill owned a Kor/Am family that includes a cheery UCLA student; a Brazilian cafe with a real Brazilian in the kitchen; and a Persian place with Glatt Kosher certification . . –– Try and recreate that at LA Live.
PAST AS PROLOGUE: DDD glimpsed plenty of potential at a recent book signing for Linda Gordon’s and Gary Y. Okihiro’s “Impounded,” held at the at Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Little Tokyo. The book is a photographic essay based Dorothea Lange’s work with the Japanese/American communities uprooted and then held at interment camps during WWII. The images at one time were censored by the feds. There’s enough there for another powerful exhibition, like the current “Manzanar” that runs at JANM until February 18. John Esaki, Director of Media Art Center for the museum, says there’s even more. “We are still trying to get the negatives (of Langes’ photography). They are stored away in the National Archives.”
