Subject: Book Reviews

• Cry, The Beloved Country

  March 19, 2009

• Tapping the Source... and maybe your phone

  Perhaps because it's in the Drinking Issue, Cornel Bonca's review of Paula L. Woods' new novel Strange Bedfellows (featured in Selected Reviews from the Weekly on the sidebar) reminded me both of my own experiences with bad novels and my favorite quote from one very good novel, Waguih Ghali's Beer in the Snooker Club: What do people who do not drink do on such occasions? Face the facts perhaps. But facing a fact is one thing, and overcoming it is another. Cognac was going to overcome the facts.

  March 14, 2006

• MEChA Redux

  Longtime OC Weekly readers will remember my 2003 cover story on how conservatives use the Chicano students group MEChA to smear politicians. Read the latest update in in today's Times, where I argue MEChA isn't racist. Have at it, boyos!

  June 15, 2006

• Pumped Up On Reading

  Many, many books get delivered to the Weekly. Some of them are likely Very Important Books that Very Serious Thinkers would spend much time mulling over. But some of them are little escapist gems of chick lit, my own frothy, guilty pleasure. I've been scooping up books from the receptionist's office, mostly based on titles and cover images, for a couple of months now. And since our lovely and talented Web Editor is begging people to blog, well, I thought a mid-summer book blast might get her off

  July 11, 2007

• OC Pastors Jihadi Appeasers?

  That's what the Michelle Malkins and Jonathan Constantines of the world will undoubtedly screech once this open letter of apology to Muslims by Christian pastors percolates through the blogosphere. The letter--which appeared Nov. 18 as a full-page ad in the New York Times--is an ecumenical overture to Muslim scholars after 138 of them signed a letter in October urging peace between each others' religions. Among the Christian signers with Orange County ties: Rick "Purpose-Driven Life" Warren and

  November 26, 2007

• Third Party results from Tuesday

  Just in case there are any others out there... As expected, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney were the overwhelming #1 and #2 choices. Both candidates also appeared on ballots for the Peace & Freedom Party, and came out #1 and #2 there as well. West Virginia actor Jesse Johnson got my vote...and exactly 23 others in OC. Final tallies, from the LA Times: GREEN PARTY Nader 940 McKinney 237 Elaine Brown 59 (despite having dropped out of both the race and the party) Kat Swift 34 Jared Ball 25 (al

  February 7, 2008

• Ask a Mexican Wins Same Award As Brad Pitt!

  Buried deep in the pages of something called the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer was an Associated Press dispatch revealing that your favorite wab is amongst the winners of this year's Civies, an award given out by the Americans for More Civility, a group of exactly two people. In announcing my honor, the organization said that the Mexican "offered something novel to the immigration debate: a few laughs ..." Other winners this year included retired Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O'Connor and Brad Pit

  February 17, 2008

• Laguna Greeter Earns National Nod

  Details is a so-so magazine, an Esquire for guys whose idea of manliness is Aaron Carter. Much better is the writing chops of editor-at-large Jeff Gordinier in his new book, X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but can Still Keep Everything from Sucking. And we love that, in his intro, he gives a shout-out to the legendary eccentric, Eiler Larsen, the Greeter of Laguna Beach. Apparently Gordinier worked at an ice cream shop a couple of feet away from Greeter's Corner, where he expla

  March 26, 2008

• Kat Von D

  March 19, 2009

• To Do Tonight 6/9

  Karaoke Madness, 9 p.m. Oh the madness! Hogue Barmichael's 3950 Campus Dr. Newport Beach, CA 92660 949-261-6270 Joyride Mondays, 8 p.m. I can ride the joy with no handlebars. The Pike Bar & Grill 1836 E. Fourth St. Long Beach, CA 90802 562-437-4453 To The 5th Dimension!, all day New gallery. New dimension. Hibbleton Art Gallery 112 W. Wilshire Ave. Fullerton CA 92832 Torture is a Moral Issue: Chrisitans, Jews, Muslims and People of Conscience Speak, 7 p.m. George Hunsinger, Professor of Syste

  June 9, 2008

• This Week in the OC Weekly

  September 12, 2008

• Scheer Dick

  The rumbling you hear from the direction of Yorba Linda is not the sound from Jason Bay's home run last night finally hitting the turf. It's from Richard M. Nixon spinning in his grave! The HOR-ROR!!! This is because the grounds of the beloved presidential library and birthplace that surround his hallowed crypt will host an appearance by that liberal rabble-rouser Robert Scheer. Bob Scheer?!? WTF?!? Were Hugh Hewitt, Bruce Hershenson, Laura Ingraham, Henry the K and Trickie Dickie's White Ho

  October 2, 2008

• The Ineluctable Modality of the Marginal

  March 22, 2001

• RIP Rockie Gardiner

  The Weekly has learned that our resident astronomer passed on to the land of the stars. Rochelle "Rockie" Gardiner died at age 70 on October 31. Rockie was the author of the Rockie Horoscope that has graced the pages of our paper since 1995. Read the full obit here. She will be greatly missed.

  November 5, 2008

• Los Angeles Times is Talkin' Shit!

  Call it more progressive (read: adult) editorial stance, a copyeditor's error, or a raised middle-finger to the paper's days of branding itself a "family newspaper," I have to admit being tickled at the sight of the word "shit" popping up in today's print edition of the LA Times. It's right there on page 22 of what's left of the Calendar section, in a book review feature: the un-altered title of the new book of essays by Steve Lowe, Alan McArthur and Brendan Hay: Is It Just Me or Is Everything

  November 21, 2008

• Margaret Hyde Signing

  June 4, 2009

• The Real Iranian Housewife of Orange County Gets a TV Pilot

  Ho-hum, another TV show based on the "Orange County" experience. At least this one holds the promise of being something other than the usual rich & bitchen exploits of the Botoxed coastal-living set. Firoozeh Dumas, whose debut book Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America was based on the Iranian-born author's tales of growing up in Newport Beach, reports on her website that ABC has a Funny in Farsi pilot going into production.  "This is the fi

  February 17, 2009

• John Taylor Describes His Last Day on the Job at Nixon Library

  John H. Taylor, who left his longtime gig as the executive director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation to lead St. John Chrysostom Episcopal Church and School as the Rancho Santa Margarita church's vicar, describes the events of his last day on the job in Yorba Linda here.It was highlighted by a visit from Edward Nixon, Dick's younger brother and the sole survivor among Hannah and Frank Nixon's five boys, who recounted childhood tales, hawked his new book The Nixons: A Fami

  February 18, 2009

• Derrick Brown Loves You at Midnight

  February 12, 2009

• Passare I Popcorn

  January 15, 2009

• Paperback Writer

  January 1, 2009

• Anne of Green Gables

  December 18, 2008

• Good Works

  November 20, 2008

• Dese and Dose

  August 7, 2008

• Dragging On

  June 12, 2008

• Love Them Madly

  June 5, 2008

• Raw Salman

  March 27, 2008

• Zot Wot?

  March 27, 2008

• Prettier Things

  March 20, 2008

• Don’t Call Me Shirley

  December 6, 2007

• Calendario Girls

  March 29, 2007

• Andean Express

  Libreria Martinez

  April 23, 2009

• 'Never Be Daunted'

  Hes not a stalker, just a smart guy from a small university who makes it a habit to befriend the worlds greatest artists

  February 1, 2007

• People We Know

  The characters in two graphic novels remind us of ourselves

  December 14, 2006

• Selling Out

  August 31, 2006

• It Makes Television Smart

  March 9, 2006

• Homage to Babylonia

  October 7, 2004

• Burning Bush

  June 10, 2004

• Burning Bush

  May 6, 2004

• Wood vs. God

  July 3, 2003

• The Great Uncorking

  December 19, 2002

• Dyke Dicks

  November 28, 2002

• One Angry Cowboy

  November 23, 2000

• My So-Called Political Life

  December 23, 1999

• La Casa Garcia Releases New Book

  Last month, I wrote about the surprisingly good flautas offered by La Casa Garcia in Anaheim. It's not the county's best Mexican-American joint (though does belongs among the top 10), but owner Frank Garcia is a true Mexi-mensch; his annual We Give Thanks Thanksgiving dinners is the stuff of legend, and guarantees him a spot in heaven. You can read about Garcia's story in a new book, We Give Thanks: A Book About Frank Garcia and His Legacy: Restauranteur and Philanthropist. More than mere vanity

  April 30, 2009

• Women's Festival

  May 14, 2009

• Sunday Salon: A Woman Changed, Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1930s

  May 14, 2009

• Pajamarama

  January 29, 2009

• 'Slave Hunter' Co-Author Christine Buckley Wears Her Journalism on Her Sleeve

  July 2, 2009

• Poet Richard Beban Reading

  September 3, 2009