San Juan Capistrano

Los Rios Rock School

Coach House

[UPDATED with Schools' Rejection:] Derek Reeve, San Juan Capistrano Council's Goofball Pro Tem, Calls for Arming Teachers

See the update at the end of this post where school officials reject the idea of arming teachers.ORIGINAL POST, DEC. 20, 2:36 P.M.: As you may have noticed since the tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Navel Gazing has been overcome by this foreign feeling of public service, sharing with our m ... More >>

Anti-DUI Deputies Flood Streets of Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano Tonight

If you're driving south tonight--or north from South County--you may want to program your GPS to avoid the cities of Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.That's because the Orange County Sheriff's Department, which patrols all three, is holding "saturation patrols" from 8 tonight through ... More >>

5 West Coast Film Festival Classics That Must Be Seen on the Big Screen

The great thing about the second annual West Coast Film Festival is it gives people of a certain age a chance to see classic films on the big screen that they have probably only taken in before on small screens.Running Sunday through Thursday, this year's run flashes 22 films in San Juan Capistrano' ... More >>

DREAM Activists Drop Pro-Immigrant Banners Along OC Freeway Overpasses

This is Gabriel San Roman with your morning traffic report: Activists with the Orange County DREAM Team and ACLAMO have dropped three banners along the 5 freeway in Anaheim, Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano at different rush hour times between 6-10 a.m. The coordinated effort is part of the 'Right ... More >>

Derek Reeve, SJC Councilman in News All Year for Knuckleheadedness and Plagiarism, Scoffs at Integrity of His Middle Eastern Students

​Lawyer, educator and San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Derek Reeve has been called out this year for advocating guns in city parks, naming a family dog after the Islamic prophet Muhammad and plagiarizing the writings of others. The last knock cost the freeway flyer instructor a gig at Concordia ... More >>

Capistrano School Program To Teach Kids in Chinese

​Ni hao. Recognizing that China is set to become the next global superpower and that Mandarin is the most-spoken language in the world, Capistrano Unified School District trustees approved what will be the county's first Chinese-English language program.  Those in the program, which ... More >>

Rancho Mission Viejo Rodeo

Oaks Blenheim Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park

[UPDATED with Ban Maintained:] Councilman Wants to Allow Guns in San Juan Capistrano Parks

​UPDATE, JULY 20, HIGH NOON: A San Juan Capistrano city councilman's proposal to legalize the carrying of unloaded guns in city parks was . . . wait for it . . . shot down by his colleagues Tuesday night.The City Council voted 3-1 to continue outlawing the firearms, with the lone dissent coming fr ... More >>

This Week: San Juan Capistrano Hosts Inaugural Restaurant Week

Photo by JC VeraSol de Sur's Dave Emery ​Here we go. San Juan Capistrano joins, well, just about every other city on the Restaurant Week bandwagon. But a deal's a deal.Spurred by the city's Chamber of Commerce, this week (from May 16-22) about twenty San Juan Capistrano restaurants will offer a sp ... More >>

[CORRECTED] Juaneño Indians Again Denied Federal Recognition

Late Juaneño Chief Clarence Lobo​*CORRECTION: The number of Juaneño Band members and percentage who the federal government recognized as demonstrating descent from the historical Indian tribe at San Juan Capistrano Mission has been changed since the original version of this post was publishe ... More >>

OC Can Still Play . . . Until Sunday

Art GuevaraSan Juan Capistrano Piano​Those 20 artfully painted pianos that have been donated and spread across our county for the past couple of weeks as part of Pacific Symphony's "OC Can You Play?" project are still around, but not for much longer. Having started on Jan. 16, the series comes to ... More >>

Santa Claus vs. the City of San Juan Capistrano

​Yes, Virginia, there is a blow-up Santa Claus. A great big one tethered to Buy My Bikes on Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano. Owner Jim Curwood says the holiday display attracts customers.But city Scrooges say, "Bah, humbug." They say the jolly old fat man is an eyesore. They say Curwood i ... More >>

Orange County Interwebs Horror Show Surfs Cities

​This week's Orange County Interwebs Horror Show goes from city to city to see what is being said about them on the Interwebs. Mayors, chambers of commerce officials and visitors and convention bureaucrats may want to skip this one. (Especially in Fullerton, Santa Ana, Mission Viejo, Huntington Be ... More >>

This Week in Food: Bad Tequila Bottles, Bánh Mì Rip-Offs, and Heather Graham!

​Here's another terrible tequila bottle to ponder: the so-phallic-it's-embarrassing Asombroso. I've had their tequila, and it makes gutter water taste downright Cabernet. Bad-looking tequila bottles were on the agenda this week, along with other issues, all after the jump!

South County, Tell Us Where To Eat!

​Gentle readers, we are a large and diverse county. We have enclaves of ethnic wonder: Little Saigon and Santa Ana are just the start. The problem is that these places are, by and large, in the northern half of the county (and Irvine). As such, our coverage might be perceived to have a (slight) no ... More >>

San Juan Capistrano 4th of July Celebration

The Sports Park

Proudly Anti-Illegals ... in San Juan Capistrano?

​SJC Americans, a San Juan Capistrano activist group opposed to illegal immigration, is rallying Saturday to rah-rah Arizona's controversial new immigration law.

Brad Gates, Space Cowboy

The ex-sheriff's open-space dealmaking has some in San Juan Capistrano crying foul

Farewell to Swallows

Mission San Juan Capistrano

[Hey, You!] Joy to the World

Incoming: Iron Butterfly at the Coach House

Veteran southern California psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly, best known for their massive 1968 hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," is coming to the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Friday, July 3. $15 tickets are already on sale. This isn't normally the type of show we'd dedicate too much space on h ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Paula Poundstone

Coash House

Long Beach Museum Express Bus Seems Pretty Magic

Mission San Juan CapistranoYeah yeah yeah, it's a Long Beach thing, but look where the Museum Express bus, which starts running June 2, goes this year: the Bowers Museum; California Science Center; Museum of Natural History; Getty Museum; Getty Villa; Griffith Park Observatory; Hollywood Museum; Hun ... More >>

Reminder: Pedo-Priest Apologists to be Honored This Friday at Mission SJC

Just a reminder to folks that this Friday evening, at Mission San Juan Capistrano's Basilica, Orange Bishop Tod D. Brown will bestow some of his nearest and dearest pedo-priest apologists with papal honors, a ceremony that proves Pope Benedict XVI is still clueless about too much and that Brown and ... More >>

Long Beach Couple Shocked (Shocked!) At SJC 'Debauchery'

Stephen Glauser / Flickr / Creative CommonsThe Capistrano Insider posted last week an entertaining, slightly depressing exchange between Capistrano Dispatch editor Jonathan Volzke and a Long Beach husband and wife who were considering moving to San Juan Capistrano. That is, they were considering mov ... More >>

St. Joseph's Day Swallows Train Tour

Mission San Juan Capistrano

TONIGHT: Donavon Frankenreiter and Gary Jules at The Coach House

Laguna Beach's masterfully mellow Donavon Frankenreiter is poised to chill folks out for two consecutive nights at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, tonight and tomorrow. Check out our review of his latest release here. Opening up is Gary Jules, known best for his totally depressing cover of " ... More >>

David Belardes, OC's Most Controversial Native American Leader, Draws a Line in the Cemetery

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

To Do Tonight 2/2

Immigrant Lives in the OC & Beyond Exhibit, until May 1 The UCI Langson Library presents a photo exhibit examining the lives of those who have taken that giant leap, legally or not, and showing how they have contributed throughout history to the development of our region. University of ... More >>

To Do Tonight 12/1

Rock Band Monday,  9 p.m.The video game that pays. Best band wins $50.Chronic Cantina,  1870 Harbor Blvd. Costa Mesa, CAPortrayal/Betrayal, until December 18Going beyond the superficial and trivial reading of a portrait.Long Beach City College, 4901 E Carson St., Long Beach, CA 562-938 ... More >>

Tonight: Army Navy, The Shys at The Coach House

Army Navy—an excellent power-pop band from LA, returns to Orange County tonight with a show at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. It's a surprisingly hip show for that venue; not trying to talk out of class or anything, but their next two shows after this are the Bacon Brothers and Stephen ... More >>

Curiosity Carts

Mission San Juan Capistrano

This Week in the OC Weekly

Racist Reductio ad Absurdum: Ahistoric Minutemen

**Originally posted August 6; moved up because of a funny update, which follows original post! Last week, the Campo Minutemen sent out a mass email railing about the mural shown to the left at Marco F. Foster Middle School in San Juan Capistrano. The message sent by one Cheryl Burns is so priceless ... More >>

Say Adios to Ignacio Lujano This Saturday

We failed, Orange County, to keep 84-year-old Ignacio Lujano in the San Juan Capistrano orange groves he's tended to for the past 38 years. His son Alex texted me today that his papi is having a big yard sale this weekend before moving in the next couple of weeks to Lake Elsinore. City officials, in ... More >>

When San Juan Capistrano Boots Ignacio Lujano From His Orange Groves, OC's Citrus Era Will End

Virunga Roots

Samba Mapangala

This Hole-in-the-Wall Life

Cute cue

This Saturday in Migrating Bird Chic

Watch the skies. For on St. Joseph's Day, March 19, the swallows were to return to Mission San Juan Capistrano. What? Not yet? Well, let's hope they have the common courtesy to make an appearance at tomorow's Swallows Day Parade in SJC. Yes, that's right, everyone, their grandparents and their kids ... More >>

This Week in Irish Musical Merriment

Grada

San Juan Capistrano

El Rancho Much Too Grande

When theyre stuck in traffic, San Juan Capistrano residents should thank Joe Soto

Less Whining By More Wining

Appreciating the ways of the oenophile at Tannins

Shes a Brick . . . Wall

Revisiting a Friendship at LHirondelle

San Juan Capistrano

Before Disneyland, there was the mission

Searching for Swallows

THE MISSION

Re-created Miracles