Spencer Kornhaber

Jonah Mowry and Daniel Mendez of OC Among Bullied Teens Honored at National Event

​Some Orange Countians are in the Bay Area this hour not to take in the sights this holiday weekend but to be featured speakers at a national anti-bullying event.The Monster March Against Teen Bullying, which pushed off at 10 a.m. and is to end at the steps of San Francisco City Hall, honors the l ... More >>

[UPDATED: Gypsy Lounge Benefit Tonight at Malone's Bar and Grill] Say Farewell to the Gypsy Lounge

​ UPDATE, JAN. 27, 3 P.M.: There will be a Gypsy Lounge benefit show at Malone's Bar and Grill in Santa Ana tonight. The lineup will include Rocco DeLuca, Chris Karn, Chris Paul Overall, Jameson (full band) and AJ DeGrasse. All proceeds will go directly to "Saving the Gypsy Lounge." Malone's Ba ... More >>

Lake Forest Files Lawsuit Against Two New Marijuana Clubs

​The city of Lake Forest has filed lawsuits against two medical marijuana dispensaries that recently opened shop there, according to an item posted yesterday by ex-Weekly staffer and current Patch editor Spencer Kornhaber, on his brand new website for Lake Forest. Kornhaber contacted both of the c ... More >>

Locally Grown

[Mental Notes] OC musicians talk about their scenes

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Spotted: The Spiffy Campaign Poster for Dustin Apodaca of Dusty Rhodes & the River Band

​Dusty Rhodes & the River Band gave what likely is one of their final performances at Saturday's OC Foodie Fest, and they brought the right amount of Skynyrd-inspired rocking to show why they'll be sorely missed. But don't despair too much: Out of the band's demise comes a sweet campaign poste ... More >>

Three Signs of OC in Japan

​OC Weekly sent this reporter to Japan for two weeks to study karaoke. Or, this reporter took a vacation. Not saying either way. Regardless, even in the land of the rising sun and the plentiful vending machine, Orange County wasn't ever far from mind. Three examples follow...

OC Weekly's 22 Wins Dominate Orange County Press Club Awards

​OC Weekly continues its winning ways in 2010, following up regional and national journalism honors with 22 awards from the Orange County Press Club last night.Multiple winners included Nick Schou, R. Scott Moxley, Gustavo Arellano, Spencer Kornhaber, Vickie Chang and the Navel Gazing news blog.

5 More Plausible, Purpose-Driven Explanations for Pastor Rick Warren Nearly Going Blind

​As our man Kevin Short tells you here, Rick Warren, tweeted this week that his eyes "were severely burned by a toxic poison" during a gardening mishap that nearly blinded Saddleback Church's Purpose Driven® pastor.We not only ain't buying this explanation--and by "we" I mean "Spencer Kornhaber, ... More >>

Drunk After Work: Brussels Bistro

Spencer Kornhaber / OC WeeklyBeer: Way more civilized in stemmed glasses.​The Place: Brussels Bistro, 222 Forest Ave, Laguna Beach; (949) 376-7955.The Hours: 4 to 7 p.m. dailyThe Deal: Draft Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Leffe Blonde, and house Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, each yours for $4 ... More >>

Sunday News Notes

​Sunday highlights from the local media include:NEW MOONINGThe annual mooning of Amtrak train passengers happened yesterday in Laguna Hills and the OC Register was there to take pictures and video of the "nearly 100" participants. For the front page of the local section story, the Reg published a ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Genkai Dana Point Resurrected

Spencer Kornhaber / OC WeeklyNow they open.​Genkai, the one consistently pretty-good sushi restaurant in Dana Point, shut down a couple months ago after a fire. Now, though... well, the sign above says it all.

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Say Your Final Goodbye to the Omelette Parlor This Weekend

​ The day is fast approaching when the Costa Mesa Omelette Parlor will close it doors, shut off its lights and stop serving scrumptious apple butter. That day would be May 31.So if you go to pay your respects and eat one last eggy item this weekend, be prepared for quite a crowd. But you ... More >>

Kogi Truck Sighting Out OC Weekly's Window!

Spencer KornhaberThis looks vaguely familiar...​Just goes to show you, if you write ninety hellazillion stories & blog posts about them, they will come. Yes, that is the Kogi Korean BBQ truck. And yes, that is the parking lot of the John Wayne-adjacent cluster of battleship-gray office buildin ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Last Night: The Antlers, Phantogram at Detroit Bar

Spencer Kornhaber / OC WeeklyThe Antlers' Peter Silberman, fittingly blurry.​The Hype: The trembling noise and the trembling vocals on last year's Hospice earned the Antlers major buzz as mortality-and-morality-obsessed decedents of, say, Arcade Fire and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. And ... More >>

Live from Coachella: Local Natives Deliver, Deerhunter Improvises

  Spencer Kornhaber / OC Weekly Local Natives, not at Detroit Bar​"Lo-cal Na-tives, Lo-cal Na-tives!" The chant went up about ten minutes before the OC expats were scheduled to take the stage in the Gobi Tent. A gaggle of girls in front of me, whose median age couldn't have been highe ... More >>

Live from Coachella: Camera Obscura, Girls, Beach House

Spencer Kornhaber Beach House bucks the odds and entertains​Whoa, found the press tent. For some reason, there aren't any shirtless people here, unlike in the other areas of the festival. Weird.In other news, getting into Coachella today was a lot easier than it was Friday. And the bands ha ... More >>

K-Pop Go the Wonder Girls

[Mental Notes] Also: The condiment artists at Burger Records, Pop Noir's quest for southern hospitality

From the Irvine Tea Party: It's Not Okay to F*ck Obama

Spencer Kornhaber / OC WeeklyA Wheel of Fortune joke? Really?​That sign seems mean, right? Well, some people at today's tea party at the Irvine Auto Center agreed. They knew that scummy media types (ahem) would take pictures of it. So they made it go away.

Friday: Pop Noir Conquers a Crowd at UCSD

Spencer Kornhaber / OC WeeklyNo, we didn't bring a real camera.​Being a snazzily dressed member of a well-liked, dance-rockin' local band: Seems cool, right? But you've got to put up with some bullshit if you want to make it big. Like taking gigs at college campuses an hour south of where anyone k ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

The Weekly Used as Propaganda in Mission Viejo Recall

The news story in the latest dead-tree version of the Weekly is about the attempted recall of Mission Viejo mayor Lance MacLean. MacLean seems to think he's got a chance of surviving the recall because of a few well-publicized setbacks for his political foes.That doesn't mean the campaign's over by ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Friday Night: Living Suns, Union Line, Steelwells, Rye Douglas Band at House of Blues

Spencer KornhaberThe Living Suns​The Hype: Some of Orange County's most drooled-about bands come together in a high-profile venue. Who has been drooling over these bands? Plenty of fans and, well, us! We've spotlighted all these groups: Living Suns here, the Union Line here, the Steelwells here, t ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

A Weekend of Lines n' Numbers for Climate Action

Spencer Kornhaber / OC Weekly​The International Day of Climate Action came and went, and global warming has been solved. What? Oh, sorry. It's still a problem. But at least some people tried to do something about it.This was true in Orange County. I stopped by the 350.org event in San Clemente on ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Heard Mentality: Headed to Street Scene!

​Seeing as how we're the closest Village Voice Media paper to San Diego, we feel a profound sense of obligation to cover this weekend's Street Scene festival. Yes, that's right, obligation--not the opportunity to hang out in the Gaslamp District checking out awesome bands. It's all about obligatio ... More >>

What You Missed: BlizzCon, Epicenter, Musicians Swap Meet

​Oh, hello there. So what'd you miss this weekend this time?Well, first off: It was the annual nuuuurd pilgrimage to Anaheim Convention Center on Friday through Saturday--that's right, BlizzCon!The official gathering for all things Blizzard (you know, that giant video game company based in Irvine ... More >>

Slideshow: Epicenter and Pomona Fairplex, Musicians Swap Meet at Old World Village

​Do you like to rock? Yes? Well, if so, you probably already were at Saturday's Epicenter show at the Pomona Fairplex in (um, let me guess this one) Pomona. Artists included: Alice in Chains, Linkin Park, Tool, Atreyu, Wolfmother and heaps more. So you were probably totally there, rocking out. Oh, ... More >>

Media Matters Gives a Nod to Weekly Cover Story on Birthers

 A Media Matters rundown on the key nutbars in the "birthers" movement that claims Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. includes a couple plugs of Spencer Kornhaber's "Birth of an Obsession" June 19 cover story. The media watchdogs focus in particular on Kornhaber's reporting on Orly Taitz, th ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Slideshows: Doheny Blues Festival at Doheny State Beach, Earth Crisis at Chain Reaction

B.B. King? In Dana Point? Oh, it happened. This weekend, in fact, at the Doheny Blues Festival at Doheny State Beach. You might have read Spencer Kornhaber's blog about the two-day event. (If you didn't, for shame, but your chance to make up for it can be found here.) But, when reading that, if you' ... More >>

Aww, There's a Tea-Bagging Reunion Today

Spencer Kornhaber / OCWApril 15, 2009. Remember that? Best day of your life, right? Not just because you got to pay taxes, but rather because you got a chance to complain about paying those taxes. The Weekly, at least, had a pretty good time at last month's tax-hating/liberals-bashing Tea Party in S ... More >>

Last Weekend: Doheny Blues Festival

Spencer Kornhaber / OCWElvin Bishop came into the crowd! He's old.Last Weekend: Doheny Blues FestivalBetter Than: A cloudy day at the beach without alcohol.As mentioned in the brief preview, I don't know anything about blues music. High-brow critic types like to say that pop and rock are where "The ... More >>

Pop Noir Score Gigs Opening for Doves

Costa Mesa dancey-electro trio Pop Noir will be opening up for noted English indie rockers Doves (also a trio! weird!) during two of their southern California dates this week--Thursday at the House of Blues in San Diego, and Friday right here (well, "here," relatively speaking) at the House of Blues ... More >>

(Not) Live from Coachella: The N00b Reflects

Spencer KornhaberThe "Hand of Man" crushes autos.While Albert's still sweating it out (literally! ha!) at some polo field in the desert, my Coachella experience -- my first Coachella experience -- is over. But it was fun. Why? Top things about Saturday from a neophyte:This is a good festival. Water ... More >>

Heard Mentality: Gone Coachella-in'!

Oh yes. We're road tripping out early in the morn' to the beautiful (sure, why not?) Empire Polo Field for Coachella. I'll be there all three days; my blogging brethren Spencer Kornhaber and Nate Jackson are also hitting the event for a couple days and just might share their thoughts.You won't be ab ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Don Henley Threatens The Weekly! Will Chuck DeVore Give In?

Steve Jurvetson / Flickr / WikiMedia CommonsThis Don Henley photo licensed under Creative Commons, so hopefully we won't get sued for using it.We just received a scary letter from the law firm representing Eagles member Don Henley. The gist: Take down that blog-embedded video of Assemblyman Chuck De ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

TONIGHT: Ra Ra Riot, Cut Off Your Hands at Detroit Bar

Are you sick of hearing about Ra Ra Riot yet? Y'know, the indie band from Syracuse that have been riding a crest of Vampire Weekend-esque buzz for the past few months. Well, you can stop hearing about them and actually hear them, tonight at Detroit Bar. Their record, The Rhumb Line, was Rolling Ston ... More >>

Slideshow: of Montreal at the Glass House

of Montreal is known for their garish stage shows, so why not take a look at our pictures from last night's show at the Glass House in Pomona from Chad Sengstock? So colorful! Our guy Spencer Kornhaber was there and will have a full report coming later today.

TONIGHT: of Montreal at the Glass House

Noted indie poppers/Elephant 6 collective members/eccentric personalities/Outback Steakhouse pitchmen of Montreal are in concert tonight at the Glass House. Can't make it out there? Our very own Spencer Kornhaber will be there, and will have a full review up here tomorrow. We'll also have photos fro ... More >>

This Week in the OC Weekly

In "South Side Story" Daffodil J. Altan investigates whether a popular legal weapon is putting an end to a 30-year-old gang rivalry in South County or just catching innocent bystanders in its net.And Spencer Kornhaber takes a look at Mission Viejo Councilwoman Cathy Schlicht in "Woman on a Mission. ... More >>

This Week in the OC Weekly

In "Cry-Baby" R. Scott Moxley relays how ex-Sheriff Mike Carona used all the weapons in his arsenal to trick the jury in his federal trial, and still lost.And Spencer Kornhaber takes a look at the problems of the Capistrano Unified School Board in "Political Animals." Have they been solved after th ... More >>