Beatique

Tag: Little Tokyo

  • Hey, Nana, Let’s Go to the Mall

    Nana Apt 707 display at Little Tokyo Galleria 9/06/26 (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    The Nana Apartment 707 display for BKawaii’s market at Little Tokyo Galleria, Sunday, September 6. (Pic: Liz O.)

    On Sunday, Little Tokyo Galleria was bustling in a way that I had never seen before. Maybe it was the rain that fluctuated between a drizzly L.A. storm and a for real storm throughout the day. Maybe it was the combination of Labor Day Weekend and a Dodgers game that evening. IDK, but I like to think it was Nana. 

    The Little Tokyo Galleria is a very small, quiet indoor mall on the edge of the neighborhood that borders the Arts District and Skid Row. Outside of a grocery store and Daiso, it’s best known locally for Max Karaoke Studio and the bowling alley XLanes. On the weekends, though, the second floor of the three-story building hosts marketplaces that are similar to the artist alleys at fan conventions. People sell anime-related fan art, cute jewelry and accessories, plus vintage clothes, at stalls that are set up throughout the common area. On this particular Sunday, a group called Bkawaii organized a market inspired by the manga (and anime) Nana called Apt. 707. 

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  • Little Tokyo: Where the Nerds and Jocks Converge

    Wizards Crew One Piece Dodgers mural in Little Tokyo (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    One Piece meets Dodgers baseball in Wizard’s Crew’s Little Tokyo mural. (Pic: Liz O.)

    There’s a Dodgers/One Piece mashup mural standing on a short, strip mall wall right outside the Little Tokyo Metro station and it’s probably the best visual representation of the neighborhood at this moment. Monkey D. Luffy, the manga/anime’s main protagonist, is pitching with a rubbery arm that curves into a D and O as he releases the ball, an IYKYK reference from artists Wizard’s Crew for those who have at least some familiarity with One Piece. The rest of the Dodgers name trails behind the character in ribbon-like cursive writing, bringing together the two pastimes that have been driving hordes of visitors to this historic, downtown Los Angeles neighborhood in recent years- anime and baseball. 

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  • Heaven 17 Was Right, ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’

    Heaven 17 "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" 45 RPM vinyl single (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Heaven 17 “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”

    The right record will always find you at the right time. Take last Saturday afternoon as an example. I was in Little Tokyo, flipping through 45s at Salt Box and just happened to come across “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang,” the 1981 single from Heaven 17. Did I have this? Did it matter? Even if I did have a copy, I could use another one because this nearly 45-year-old song is the jam for right now. Or, rather, it should be the jam for right now. 

    I didn’t even have to listen to the song for the earworm to bury itself in my brain. “Have you heard it on the news?” it goes,  “About this fascist groove thang.” 

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  • New Fontaines D.C. and Everything Else You Heard at Splash! at The Mermaid 2/23/25

    Two skulls in a heart at The Mermaid bar in Little Tokyo Los Angeles (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Heart and skulls at The Mermaid 2/23/25 (Pic: Liz O.)

    Fontaines D.C. dropped a new track last week, “It’s Amazing to Be Young” and the song was one of two from the Irish band to turn up in my set for Splash! at the Mermaid last night. Another new-ish tune worth mentioning is “The Silence That Remains” by The Horrors, which is from their forthcoming album, Night Life. It’s out on March 21 and I’m really looking forward to it. 

    Recent releases from Optometry, Mogwai, Dustbowl Champion and FKA Twigs also made it into the Splash! set, but since there are no genre limitations for this night, I tend to play whatever is stuck in my head in the days leading up to the gig. Tracey Ullman’s cover of “They Don’t Know” was that song earlier last week until it was dislodged by the most persistent earworm I’ve had in a while. I’ll reveal what that song is tomorrow, but it is somewhere on this five-hour set list, so maybe you’ll figure it out before then.  

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  • Go See Giant Robot Biennale 5 at Little Tokyo’s Japanese American National Museum

    Yoskay Yamamoto "Moonage Daydream" installation with Luke Chueh painting in background at Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo for Giant Robot Biennale 5. (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Yoskay Yamamoto’s installation “Moonage Daydream” with painting by Luke Chueh in the background at Giant Robot Biennale 5. (Pic: Liz O.)

    It’s a been a minute, but the Giant Robot Biennale is back. Between 2007 and 2015, the group exhibition developed by Erik Nakamura and the Japanese American National Museum popped up roughly every other year, bringing together a cross-section of artists that you might recognize from shows at the GR2 Gallery in West L.A., or from the pages of the magazine Giant Robot, which ran from 1994 until 2010 and helped introduce audiences to artists like Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara. 

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  • Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita on March 26, 2024

    A mermaid skeleton at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    I forgot to take pics, so here’s an old one of a mermaid skeleton at The Mermaid that I saw right before the night started. (Pic: Liz O.)

    I popped into The Mermaid at the last minute on Tuesday to play about 90 minutes of music for Dolce Vita. I knew that there was a screening of Dave Attell’s Netflix special happening beforehand. What I didn’t know, however, was that Dave Attell was actually going to make an appearance. We didn’t meet, but it was wild to be in the same room as him because I loved Insomniac. 

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  • Here’s What I Played at Dolce Vita on March 5, 2024

    Jalapeño and pineapple wontons at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo Los Angeles (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)
    Jalapeño and pineapple wontons at The Mermaid. (Pic: Liz O.)

    It was a little unexpected, but I did turn up at The Mermaid on Tuesday night to provide the music for the first half of Dolce Vita. I also didn’t have a chance to eat dinner beforehand, which led to another unexpected delight. The jalapeño and pineapple wontons at The Mermaid are amazing. I hadn’t had them before last night and loved them. Even with the chili sauce, they won’t set your mouth on fire. It’s more of a subtle sweet-and-spicy hybrid. Plus, they are shaped like starfish, which I find endearing. 

    Anyhow, here’s what you may have heard if you were at The Mermaid between 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night. 

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  • Here’s What I Played for Dolce Vita at The Mermaid on January 16, 2024

    Photo of skulls on the wall at The Mermaid in Little Tokyo Los Angeles (Photo: Liz Ohanesian)

    For as long as I’ve been DJing, I’ve been keeping track of my set lists. Somewhere in my, er, archives (really, boxes of folders that I haven’t gone through since college), there are probably old playlists of my KXLU shows and crumpled bits of paper from my early club sets. I started sharing the set lists online before social media mostly so that people who went to the clubs could familiarize themselves with the new music and people who weren’t in L.A. knew where they could dance to Ladytron or Miss Kittin or whoever when they visited our fine city. (And, that actually worked, I did meet people from as far as London and Berlin who saw my set list in some electro-indie-whatever forum.)

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  • L.A. Music Events: January 11 – January 17, 2024

    Flyer for Bowie Nite at Club Underground Grand Star Jazz Club Los Angeles on January 12, 2024 with DJ Larry G. DJ Liz O. and make-up artist Miho

    You have two chances to catch me in the DJ booth this week. First up is Club Underground’s Bowie Nite this Friday, January 12, at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown. Underground is taking over both floors of the Grand Star this week, with Larry G. playing open to close on the main floor and me, Liz O., doing the same on the second floor. Discounted tickets are available now via either Dice and Eventbrite. 

    The Grand Star is located at 943 N. Broadway, Los Angeles 90012. It’s inside Chinatown’s Central Plaza, right next to the Bruce Lee statue. Both street and lot parking is available in the neighborhood. The venue is also right across Broadway from Metro’s A Line station in Chinatown. Party starts at 9:30 p.m. and it is a 21+ event. 

    On Tuesday, January 16, you’ll find me at The Mermaid loaded up with Italo disco jams for L.A. Industrial’s weekly party, Dolce Vita. There’s no cover and it’s 21+, so stop by with your pals for some tasty cocktails and a soundtrack filled with tunes by the likes of Fancy, Fun Fun, Ken Laszlo, Sabrina and more. 

    The Mermaid is located at 428 E. 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. There’s typically loads of free parking available after 9 p.m., which is the same time that Dolce Vita starts. The bar is also a (very) short walk from Metro’s A/E line stop in Little Tokyo. 

    As for the rest of the week, here are my picks. 

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  • New Year, New Vinyl

    Records from Musical Youth, Detroit Grand Pubahs, Body of Light inside Going Underground Records in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles from "New Year, New Vinyl" by Liz Ohanesian
    Records from Musical Youth, Detroit Grand Pubahs and Body of Light inside Going Underground Records (Pic: Liz O.)

    My first quandary of 2024 occurred late in the afternoon on January 1 inside Going Underground Records as I quickly flipped through a crate of indie releases alphabetized by the letter F. There, I found Kate Fagan I Don’t Want to Be Too Cool and Future Islands As Long As You Are on vinyl, both of which I could use in my collection. But, when it comes to new vinyl, I need to exhibit some restraint. Which should I choose? 

    In the end, I chose neither. 

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