Berkeley

Duffy's: Too Dumb for Berkeley, But Perfect for OCC!

[Editor's Note: We all know local music and dive bars go hand-in-hand. So in the interest of merging the two together on Heard Mentality, we bring you our newest nightlife column Dive, Dive, My Darling. Read as our bold web editor, Taylor "Hellcat" Hamby, stumbles into the dive bar scene every week ... More >>

Local Cambodians Diss State Voter Guides

Members of the sizable Cambodian population in Orange County and Long Beach have a problem with state voter guides printed in the language most are familiar with, Khmer:The guides are too complex.

Cold War Kids - Berkeley Studios - March 6, 2013

Cold War Kids Berkeley StudiosMarch 6, 2013Over the past month or so, the Cold War Kids have been playing small shows in Southern California, highlighted by a local show at The Observatory late last month. They've been showcasing new material from their forthcoming album, Dear Miss Lonely Heart ... More >>

Nick 13 Sparks Up Another Year of October Flame, This Time in Pomona

Octoberflame is a tradition that Tiger Army has kept going since the late '00s. Now in its fifth year, this spooky, psychobilly tradition started because they wanted to give the SoCal psychobilly scene the same kind of Halloween spirit that they had in their Berkeley stomping grounds up north. "I li ... More >>

We Get Mail: Summer (California) Reading from Heyday

The Bibliofella provides full employment to the UPS guy, Fed Ex and the world's greatest mail carrier, Cherry out of Silverado P.O.  Among the boxes delivered to Shangri-Bib are dozens of catalogs, fun to browse through, from big commercial publishers, tiny little presses like Copper Canyo ... More >>

Celebrate Berkeley Dog's Anniversary With UC Irvine Deal: 99-Cent Franks

Summertime blues means cravings for deep fried fair food and grilling essentials, like burgers and dogs. For a snappy Costco food court alternative, head down to Berkeley Dog this weekend for a promotion that would make any dollar store proud: 99-cent German Frankfurters for lunch!The mini chain nor ... More >>

Newport Beach Film Festival's Social Network

A curated sample of socially relevant offerings at the 2012 festival

Ooh La La! A YouTube Video of The Anti-Santiago Creek Bike Trail Protest

Courtesy of the Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance​It's been a while since we checked in on the tempest in a teapot known as the proposed Santiago Creek bicycle trail--you know, the last quarter mile connecting Villa Park and inland Orange with the newly-secured Santa Ana River Trail? It's the one t ... More >>

Narcisco Romanes Blando: Ugly Police Mugshot Poser Accused of Touching Patients Sexually

​Prosecutors of today's ugly mug poser, Narcisco Romanes Blando, put it best: "There was no medical reason or necessity for the defendant to touch the victim's vagina." Not unless the physician's assistant at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Mission Viejo was practicing an alternative medici ... More >>

[UPDATED with UCI Chief "Appalled":] UC Protesters Get Help From Above to Stop Campus Cops' Baton Jabs and Pepper Spraying

​UPDATE, NOV. 23, 10:24 A.M.: UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake has issued a statement where he says that he is "appalled" by the police response to peaceful demonstrators on other campuses as witnessed in recent YouTube videos. The brutal actions violate UC policies, procedures and the sense of ... More >>

Cooking: Chez Panisse--But What's a Panisse?

Dave LiebermanPanisses and some dandelion--yes, dandelion--empanadas I made the other day.​You've all heard of Chez Panisse, Alice Waters' breakout restaurant in Berkeley. You can't have avoided mention of it--and it is, to be fair, an outstanding restaurant. But if you aren't French, specifically ... More >>

All Female Hip-Hop Group earthStonez Offer 'Audio Therapy' for Free

​In need of some Audio Therapy? The earthStonez will see you now. The Los Angeles and Las Vegas-based underground collective of female hip-hop musicians, have finally released their anticipated full-length album. The multiracial group, which once rolled six deep but has since reconfigured to f ... More >>

No. 20: Chicken Pie at La Palma Chicken Pie Shop

ProfessorSalt.comChicken pie dinner at La Palma Chicken Pie Shop​This 100 Favorites Dishes feature is all about comfort foods for this writer. Granted, I  include tacos de tripas and fish pho in that category, but it also embraces American classics like chicken pie. In Orange County, old-scho ... More >>

No. 21: Mac and Cheese at Ecco

ProfessorSalt.comFontina, gorgonzola and pancetta mac and cheese​You'd think a mac and cheese would be simple to pull off for a restaurant kitchen, but you'd be wrong. Never mind the technical difficulties of making a cheese sauce creamy-smooth,  balancing the flavor profiles and so on, we're ... More >>

Low Pay for Airline Pilots "Threatens" the Country

​A couple months ago, I almost blogged something that claimed regional airline pilots earn an average of $14,000 a year. Believing that to be a typo--pilots are rolling in it, right?--I moved on to something more important, like Octomom boxing an East Coast skank.However, the nonprofit investigati ... More >>

No. 23: ABC Burger at Peter's Gourmade Grill

​When Peter's Gourmade Grill opened last year, they staked a sign into the lawn across the off-ramp of the 55 freeway. The sign steered you toward a gas station, which just happens to host a terrific, if oddball, take-out restaurant.The first thing I ever tried in the early days of the restaurant, ... More >>

No. 56: Bacon Hash Dog at Berkeley Dog

ProfessorSalt.comBacon. Hashbrown. Dog.​Some things sell themselves: sex and bacon, to name two. The most savvy marketers know you just need to whisper those words, or show a well-shot photo, and the mere mention will hook into your brain like a stainless steel gaff-hook.  The less you talk a ... More >>

Berkeley Dog To Soft Open Across From UC Irvine This Saturday. Grand Opening May 12.

Berkeley Dog​Berkeley Dog's third and newest outlet soft opens tomorrow at the University Center, across from UC Irvine. Finally, the hot dog stand that emulates (and is supplied by) Top Dog in Berkeley fulfills its purpose: to feed a collegiate body in need of sausage sandwich sustenance. It's ot ... More >>

Local Cassette Review: 'Last Exit in Berkeley' by Roman Candles

Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If you're an OC musician or band with something new to offer--vinyl single, full-length album, CD, cassette--we want to hear from you! Send copies, along with any photos and PR material, to Beat Blvd., c/o OC Weekly, 2975 Red Hill ... More >>

Berkeley Dog to Open Third Sausage Kitchen Across From UCI

Berkeley Dog on Facebook​As you read here about this time last year, Berkeley Dog was putting the finishing touches of its first store in Mission Viejo. Now, the wiener stand--which is supplied and endorsed by Top Dog in Berkeley, itself a local legend the way Pink's is here (but perhaps with less ... More >>

Battle: New School Gourmet Sausages

ProfessorSalt.comBerkeley Dog's bratwurst with chili and cheese​Gourmet hot doggeries have opened in the Southland in recent years despite a shabby economy, because gussied-up sausage sandwiches give good value for your dining-out dollar. Faced with newish restaurants as varied as Wurstküche, S ... More >>

Green Day

Verison Wireless Amphitheatre

High-Speed Rail Plan Slammed by Berkeley; Curt Pringle in Senator's Cross Hairs

​California's planned high-speed rail system has been the target of varied criticism, including from Orange County state assemblywoman Diane Harkey who wants to kill the thing outright. Now, a study from UC Berekely--funded by the high-speed rail authority--says the entire project is based on ride ... More >>

Berkeley Dog To Open In Mission Viejo This Weekend With Free Frankfurters

Berkeley Dog on Facebook​The Chowhounds have been discussing a new hot dog joint called Berkeley Dog which officially opens this Saturday, May 1st, in Mission Viejo. The new eatery, though not officially affliated with a popular Berkeley sausage house chain called Top Dog, has aligned itself ... More >>

Alice Waters Speaks At the LA Times Festival of Books

Doyenne of the locavore movement, defender of the schoolyard organic garden and quintessential Berkeleyite Alice Waters spoke at the L.A. Times Festival of Books yesterday morning. A crowd of nearly a thousand gathered to watch her present, completely extemporaneously, a series of demonstrations on ... More >>

The Morning Benders at Detroit Bar, March 27

Beth StirnamanChris Chu, singer of the Morning Benders.​Click here for the slideshow!The Hype: In the past four years, Berkeley indie-pop quartet the Morning Benders have dropped two self-released EPs (Loose Change and Boarded Door), released one full-length album (2008's Talking Through Tin Cans) ... More >>

This Weekend: Many Good Bands at Detroit Bar... Plus Carson Daly People

Timothy NorrisThe Morning Benders reinterpreting The Hangover​If you're not at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa for at least one of the next three nights then, well, we just don't know what.A bold claim, but here's the evidence...

Cult Novel 'Youth In Revolt' Must Continue Its Search for a Worthy Adaptation

Life on the Veg: Au Lac Vegetarian Restaurant in Fountain Valley

Humanese, if you please.​ It's unfortunate, but after a few years spent living up in Berkeley I can safely say that, here in SoCal, most restaurateurs treat veganism as more of a novelty than a lifestyle. From the premium pricing of upscale establishments such as Costa Mesa's 118 Degrees to being ... More >>

Torture Memo Author Finds Friends and Foes at Chapman U

Perhaps some of you have a conservative uncle who says stupid things. You know, like the U.S. is not in debt to China, or that Barack Obama is a socialist or that George W. Bush won his presidential elections. Mine recently repeated the Bill O'Reilly/Rush Limbaugh/Attila the Hun yarn about all the s ... More >>

Wildfires Just a Sneak Preview?

Ted Soqui shot this in Yorba Linda the weekend past. See his amazing slideshow here. Now that the fires have been contained, heroes have been identified, firefighting techniques have been blasted, causes have been zeroed in on, and our Last Action Hero Governor has likened the disaster to one of th ... More >>

First shocker of the night!

ABC calls Utah for Romney! Which is like calling Berkeley for Kucinich...

Bringing Back the Adorb

The Queers

Congrats To KUCI And Cold War Kids...

..for honorable nominations in this year's Plug Awards. Wha Plug? Indie backpatters sez: PLUG is different from all of the institutional accolades for the music industry – the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, GRAMMY Awards, Teen Choice Awards, MTV Music Award ... More >>

This Is the Voice

The Gossip could follow a botched cockfight

Bad Medicine

Fullerton is certainly full of something these days. Last month the Fullerton Planning Commission approved a resolution to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in their city. In fact, all the resolution woul accomplish is a violation of California law; that and a major buzz-kill to Jay's Paradise, the ... More >>

Avanti Cafe

Keg Stand!

The Spurgeon, a haven for meeting supernice people

Fleshies for Fantasy

A Very PhilDickian Existence

Minority Report author Philip K. Dick found Orange Countys truth stranger than science fiction

Letters

What Is It About the Gay Heroin Addicts?

Monique Powell on boys, bands and bananas in the bathtub

Bring on the End Times

Is clonejesus.com for real?

Bucky Ball

Spew-O-Rific

Dance Hall Crashers get pissed

Wavy Vegetarian Gravy

Rutabegorz is still groovy

Wavy Vegetarian Gravy

Rutabegorz is still groovy

PRESS RELEASES

Shit People Sent Us, 1999

Clams

And other realities of life on the road

Sexual Heaving

Old flames, penis sheaths and Apaches lifting my dress