John Wayne

Brian's Beer and Billiards Offers Solace Far From the Maddening Coeds

[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 >>

[UPDATED with Corroboration:] Sheriff's Deputy and Control Tower Supposedly See Orange UFO West of John Wayne Airport

See the update at the end of this post about a sighting in the same area 12 hours before.ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 7, 10:03 A.M.: An Orange County sheriff's deputy--or someone identifying themselves as an Orange County sheriff's deputy working John Wayne Airport--saw an orange object emitting a bright lig ... More >>

Who are Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson Gonna Call?

The Royer Mansion in Orange, Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana and John Wayne's old tub the Wild Goose in Newport Harbor have company when it comes to being well-known haunted places in Orange County.It's the Huntington Harbour home that Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson either share or shared depending on ... More >>

'80s Movie Night: Gleaming the Cube

The CAMP

Long Beach Airport Ranked Second-Most Affordable in U.S., But John Wayne is No. 6?

The surprising thing is not that Long Beach Airport wound up No. 2 on Cheapflights' 2012 Airport Affordability Index. Besides being easy to get in and out of, having plenty of parking and being the regional hub for JetBlue and its individual passenger teevees, LGB often proves to be a departure poin ... More >>

OC Bookly Interview: Victoria Patterson

This week, class-conscious literary star and local girl makes good Victoria Patterson makes bad, very bad, or at least naughty in this, OC Bookly's first author interview. Patterson, whose take on alienation, greed and South County luxury-life mores comes with plenty of winning characterization, sty ... More >>

Newport Beach Restaurant That Once Hosted John Wayne Closes

Photo by Jonathan Ho​The Arches, a restaurant that once hosted the likes of John Wayne and Shirley Temple at its original location where A Restaurant now stands, moved to its 29th St. location in 2007 and then over to 1617 Westcliff Drive. Now that location is closed. The restaurant was the first ... More >>

Drunk After Work: Agora

The Place: Agora, 1830 Main St., Irvine, (949) 222-9910; www.agorachurrascaria.com. The Hours: Daily 3-7 p.m.The Deal: $10-$12 caipirinhas, martinis and mojitos. $6-$10 wines by the glass. Only in the bar area: $9 for one trip to the hot food sides and salad bar. $4 for 3 small bites of churra ... More >>

"Mexican" Coke on Continental Airlines

Dave Lieberman"You're taking a picture of the Coke can?" "Yes." "O-o-okay."​I was in Washington, D.C., last week, and on my first leg flight from John Wayne to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, I asked for a Coke to settle my stomach. It had a very familiar taste; imagine my surprise ... More >>

A Summary of Restaurant Closings For The Last Couple of Months

Edwin Goei​Summarizing what's happened in a few months of restaurant closures in a list is a morbid, depressing task; but it is a duty we must do once in a while. With so many restaurants coming and going, I am not going to cover them all, and most times, there's already a new place ready to jump ... More >>

Airport Airspace Changes Prompted by Mid-Air Collision Warnings Come in for Criticism

​Looking up at the skies over north Costa Mesa a couple weeks ago produced a most disturbing site: a JetBlue plane making its normal descent into Long Beach Airport was passed maybe 100 feet above by another airliner heading for either LAX or the landing line at John Wayne Airport. Maybe that's a ... More >>

Orange Bits: Runner Runner, Cypress Hill, Avi Buffalo

Runner Runner: Good promo pic, or the best?​This week, no one wrote about Orange County music. Well, some people did. But less than usual. Step it up, blogosphere...

DePillo Café, Costa Mesa: It's What's For Lunch

​It's often the way: The blander the location, the better the food. That's why strip-mall restaurants are some of the best in the world.Nowhere is this more evident than at DePillo, a little family-run lunch spot in Costa Mesa that I highly recommend.Not that its setting is awful, but it's in an i ... More >>

Looking Back at 2008: The Celeb-Reality Edition

It was Oliver Wendell Holmes who opined that a new truth is better than an old celebrity-tinged news item, or at least he would have opined that had he lived in our celeb-obsessed times. So it is in that spirit these 15 Orange County brushes with famous folks in '08 are unveiled.   1) Newpo ... More >>

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] More Shameless Self-Promotion (Buy Gustavo's New Book!)

Google-Proof A Restaurant Brings Affordability to Newport Beach

Petey Callahan Bilks OC Catholics But Good

It's been a rough half-year for Peter Callahan of the Tustin law firm Callahan, McCune & Willis, mostly because of his big mouth. The head lawyer for the Catholic Diocese of Orange sex-abuse scandal unwittingly revealed in September the sealed amount Bishop Tod D. Brown gave to a statutory rapist, b ... More >>

What you missed over the weekend: Part VIII

Hungover from Super Bowl Sunday? Us too. (Yes, even those of us who aren't the biggest football nuts by a long shot. . .but when stranded in SFO waiting to head back to John Wayne, there aren't too many entertainment options.) Anyway, we obviously didn't go hog wild on Super Bowl coverage around her ... More >>

John Wayne Threatened with Oblivion Again

The Orange County Register reported yesterday that various lords of Orange County are meeting and spending cash "to cash in on the pop-culture phenomenon that is Orange County." I'll closely examine our constant reinvention in my biography-memoir of la naranja next fall, but one thing bears worth no ... More >>

Golden Arches

Sauces made of velvet and class in Newport Beach

Comic Con 2007: Real-D

In addition to the Beowulf , more 3-D stuff was demo'ed. Oops, I mean "stereoscopic." That's the term the owners of the Real-D company prefer to "3-D." The CEO and president were there. I didn't bother to take down their names because I doubt you care. Anyway, this is the new 3-D system that was u ... More >>

Letters

'And when I say "you," I am referring to white America. I purposely left that "white" uncapitalized'

Welcome to the Grindhouse

Newport Beach Film Festival is our very own cinematic grab bag

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Cinammon bun fun at Side Street Cafe

Special Screenings

Movie of the Week: The Adventures of Don Juan

Nguyen Wins

Garden Grove city councilmember Janet Nguyen is seems the winner of yesterday's special election in the Board of Supervisor's First District. The vote count currently on the Registrar of Voters website gives Nguyen a 52 vote margin of victory over second place finisher Trung Nguyen. The big story ... More >>

Special Screenings

Movie of the Week: The Searchers

Matt Costa

The musician shares some of his favorite things

Trendzilla

Top-of-the-list sandal for guys: the flip-flop

Commie Girl

Cinco De Me! Of meat and mariachis, Vidal Sassoon, and (ladies and gentlemen) Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Simplifying the Unsimplifiable

A sadly unhuman Stalag 17

Diary of a Mad County

June 30-July 7

Whiskey Tango 909er

Episode 16

Of Ants and Men

Diary of a Mad County

Undeserved Self-Abuse!

Diary of a mad county

If I Were Gordon Dillow

How to write geriatric!

35 Great Things About Summer in Orange County

Cab Tab

Add to the countys mammoth failures (bankruptcy, toll roads, El Toro) one more

The Year in Bits:July - December

Gifts for Pets

True Grit, With a Side of Pie

Welcome to Long Breach Airport

Interdeath Service Provider

Meet your makeronline!

Disneyland Stops Here

Was the county ever serious about a two-airport system?

Put-Down Central

Something's Stinky

El Toro Airport Watch No. 97