Huell Howser has started his new series focusing on Downtown LA and begins at the Chop Suey Cafe. Andrew Moyle at LA Downtown News finds him in a dark brown noir cubicle:
"If you depend on local news to get some idea of where we live and what we're all about, there's your first big problem right there," Howser said as he sat at a table in the restaurant at the site of the former Far East Cafe. "I think most people are somewhat hesitant to come Downtown because they have this stereotypical view that this is where so many problems are that they just don't want to come into contact with that. So they just stay away." Instead, Howser said he'll try to root out real-life stories of Downtown and get people excited about what he sees as an area swirling with history and potential. He expects to do 20 to 30 episodes on the community.
Huell look at California via California's Gold and Visiting with Huell Howser seems to pull us in (along with cameraman Louie) keeping our curiosity in the small stories. Huell has been Downtown many times before, giving a viewing audience tours of Asian Noodles from Chinatown, the last citrus tree in Little Tokyo as well as the CalTrans Building, Downtown Public Art, Clifton's Cafeteria and the Herald Examiner Building, all told like southerner telling a story to family back home. Which he is. As a native of Tennessee he shares something with transplants and the neighborhood bloggers––to connect with community and the outcome is making everyone a local.
Huell, if you chance upon this this blog, welcome back to Downtown. We have a story request; Please, can YOU find the truth behind who created the first French Dip? Was it Coles or Phillipes? It's one of Downtown's great mysteries.
* Huell update, a year later.
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