Yes, Virginia, There Are Hipsters in OC

LA TIMESFINDS HIPSTERS 
Remember when the LA Times discovered Echo Park? That was funny. Well, now its hipster radar has reached Orange County—all the way to Costa Mesa's Detroit Bar, in fact. Last week, it published a story titled "Detroit Bar Revs Up Orange County's Music Scene," written by Nate Jackson (who spent some time with us as an intern and Clubs Editor). Now, don't get us wrong—we love Detroit Bar, and we love Nate. And we agree with many of the points in the article, such as that LA audiences drive an hour to see acts when local shows are sold out and that "Detroit Bar functions as part of a constellation of relevant local venues. . . . A packed local gig at Detroit Bar carries the proud imprint of paid dues. Short of playing the House of Blues [in Anaheim] or the Grove, it's a declaration that an artist is making serious noise in the local scene." It just seems that, well, that's hardly news, and the LA Times is a decade too late in reporting it. From a May 27 Heard Mentality blog post.

AVALON PROTESTS SOBRIETY
Costa Mesa watering hole Avalon Bar held an anti-sobriety protest last week, and no, it wasn't just a marketing gimmick. Bartender Phil Popper (not his real name) explained the group's goals: "I wanted to rally our customers together for a greater good and get our collective voice going as one against something. . . . It dawned on me that the one thing we do have in common is drinking alcohol . . . since I know most all of them from coming out to the place where we sell it to them." The bar scheduled three protests: For the first, people held signs supplied by the bar, walked in a circle and yelled out random words at cars passing by. After that, protesters drank cheap beers inside Avalon. A future protest, says Popper, involves "coordinating all of our detractors and critics to come out to the Avalon Bar for a pro-sobriety march. The march route begins at the door of the Avalon Bar, winds down Superior Hill, makes a right turn onto 45th Street, leads across the sand and into the ocean." To the people on Facebook who are mad about the protest, Popper responds that they "can go rain on someone else's parade. This is a bar. People drink and hook up. People have fun. We aren't protesting being sober; we're protesting not drinking. I'm also protesting people with no sense of humor and Newport Beach Parking Enforcement." From a May 27 post by Ryan Ritchie.