Subject: Telecommunications Sector

• Dude, you're ruining your career

  Does anyone recognize "Chad" from his Alltel wireless' recent spate of lame serialized commercials? He plays this sort of blond self-important dickhead behind a kiosk in the mall. His rivals, a wimpy bag of nerds representing the other wireless carriers, are always conspiring to make him stop offering his superior Aryan "My circle" cellular plan, to which he pompously stares at them with his lake-blue eyes and ridicules their love of Dungeons and Dragons. Well, you know what, "Chad"? You work a

  May 25, 2007

• Overheard in the Courthouse

  "But I thought the cops couldn't hear me talk on Nextel." --Twentysomething criminal defendant, who ridiculously believed police couldn't monitor his Nextel walkie-talkie "chirp" communications, to his annoyed lawyer in an Orange County courthouse hallway, Sept. 7, 2007.

  September 8, 2007

• CANCELED: Velvet Revolver in Irvine

  Friday's VR show at the Verizon Wireless (Irvine Meadows) Amphitheater has been canceled due to ongoing fire-related health concerns. The show, with Alice in Chains and Sparta, was to be band's final U.S. gig before stops in Japan and Australia. A Live Nation rep said the show has been *tentatively* rescheduled for December 12 at the Gibson Amphitheater, meaning a trek up to Universal City for O.C. fans of Scott Weiland, Slash, and Co.

  October 25, 2007

• XM Merges With Sirius

  Earlier today, the Justice Department approved Sirius Satellite Radio's proposed $4.59 billion (!) aquisition of satellite old-schooler XM Satellite Radio. This decision created one single US satellite radio provider. In response to questions fearing a monopoly, the Justice Dept. said " the combined company won't be able to raise prices profitably because of competition from such forms of audio entertainment as broadcast radio and MP3 players." Read the rest of the article here.

  March 24, 2008

• Victory Through Tote Bags

  October 31, 2002

• Telcom Critics Could Have Issues With Obama Pick

  A telecommunications executive today resigned from his director's seat at Newport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies to work at the White House as Barack Obama's director of presidential personnel.Obama can thus expect heavy scrutiny from net-neutrality advocates fearful of Donald H. Gips' closeness to power. Neutrality proponents, who include Google, warn that telecom companies are heavily lobbying U.S. politicians to impose a tiered service model at the expense of other companies and the gener

  January 16, 2009

• Incoming: MX Live Fest with Alejandra Guzman and Aleks Syntek

  Even if you're still trying to figure out last night's Lost season premiere, perhaps you can take some solace in the announcement of this Latin rock show, MX Live Fest at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on March 21. The bill includes  headliner Alejandra Guzman (pictured, Google image searching her name gave me some...interesting results), Aleks Syntek, Moenia, Moderatto, Fobia, the Kumbia All Starz and more, with comedian Adal Ramones serving as MC.Tickets are on sale tomorrow (Fri

  January 22, 2009

• Incoming: No Doubt Returns to Orange County! Eventually.

  Full tour dates have finally been announced for archetypal OC success stories No Doubt's tour with Paramore--we've known for a while that they were going on tour at some point and the first date would be May 3 at the Bamboozle Festival in NJ, but now we've got the whole sched, and the three month-ish tour will close out with two dates at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine--where they had a mini-reunion during the encore of one of Gwen Stefani's solo shows back in June 2007--on July 31 a

  February 25, 2009

• Incoming: Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

  Let's get let's get let's get rocked. Def Leppard, Poison (pictured, duh) and Cheap Trick are coming to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on August 30. Tickets are on sale 11 a.m. this Saturday, March 7. No word on prices yet, or if the arsenal of Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels skanks will be anywhere near the premises.

  March 3, 2009

• NKOTB!!!!!!!!!!!

  The recently reunited New Kids on the Block are coming to Irvine. The question is, are you ready?The group plays July 10 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and tickets go on sale Saturday, which means interested parties should probably start lining up asap. Now, I could go on and take all sorts of cheap shots at NKOTB. But I won't. I'd like to think I'm above that, even though I'm sure I could come up with a good one.But I sure as hell would like to know who in 2009 is going to this and how in the

  April 14, 2009

• Rascal Flatts; Jessica Simpson

  March 12, 2009

• Trendzilla

  "These newfangled phones are incredibly handy—letting us respond to e-mails from the boss whenever and wherever we want."

  September 27, 2007

• Travel Alternatives

  Sultry Spanish Nights

  August 9, 2007

• Extreme Projectiles

  Sounds of the Underground Summer 2007 Tour

  August 2, 2007

• WEENIES!

  May 26, 2005

• God Rules!

  October 16, 2003

• Haiku-O-Rama!

  May 30, 2002

• No Dial Tone

  September 9, 1999

• Incoming: Snoop Dogg, Slightly Stoopid and Stephen Marley at Verizon in July

  Conventional wisdom says that smoking pot makes you lazy, but here comes Snoop Dogg, back up in our area this coming July, just a little more than six months after his day-after-Christmas 2008 Glass House show. (That our Ryan Ritchie reviewed here.) The industrious young(ish) man will be coming to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on July 11, along with Slightly Stoopid and Stephen Marley. The whole shebang is called, wait for it, the "Blazed & Confused Tour."Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. this

  April 27, 2009

• KROQ Weenie Roast lineup announced

  The 2009 version of KROQ's annual summer blowout, the Weenie Roast y Fiesta, is hitting the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater May 16. That's like less than two weeks away, so get on it. Bands include Weezer (who still don't have or bassist Matt Sharp back in the band, even though everyone knows they should), Kings of Leon, Jimmy Eat World, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rancid, Silversun Pickups, the Airborne Toxic Event, Cage the Elephant and White Lies on the main stage and Hollywood Undead, Asher Roth, Anberli

  May 5, 2009

• Another Day, Another Cell Tower Rejected

  Joshua Peters / LunchboxUnlimitedThe proposed Woodbridge (Irvine) cell-tower mentioned in the opening to the cell-madness story in the latest Weekly has, unsurprisingly, been canned. As our story noted, residents were skeptical when T-Mobile presented its plan in an informational meeting on April 29 at the Woodbridge Village Association. A day after the meeting, T-Mobile zoning and governmental affairs manager Joe Thompson told me he didn't think the cell tower in Springacre Park would ever be b

  May 7, 2009

• Cell Phone Towers Make Waves, Angry OC Residents Cry Cancer

  May 7, 2009

• KROQ's Weenie Roast

  May 14, 2009

• Is That a Cell Tower Near Your Playground or Are You Happy to See Me?

  What are you doing here?UPDATED WITH COMMENT FROM THE CITY...Weekly editor Ted Kissell encountered more than the usual wet heads, skinned knees and freckled faces scooting into his neighborhood Harbour View Elementary School in Huntington Beach this morning. He also ran into parents pissed off not about grades, ineffective teachers or stale bake sale items (this time), but a cell-phone tower.Indeed, folks are so hung up over T-Mobile USA's faux-tree tower--which is not the one shown here but is

  April 23, 2009

• Cheap lawn tickets on sale today

  Concert promoters LiveNation are offering a pretty good deal for upcoming shows at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (and other venues across the country that, if you are reading the OC Weekly, you probably don't care that much about). The catch is, it's good only today.Anyone who buys lawn tickets to shows at the mega Irvine venue will pay only $24.99. And to make the deal even sweeter, there are no additional fees. Yeah, you're sitting a mile away, but the lawn's where all the good weed is, so

  June 17, 2009

• With Arms Wide Open (Again)

  A recently reunited Creed is performing Sept. 30 at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Insert your own joke here. The show was actually announced back in April, but now it's totally official and all that.Staind opens. Tickets go on sale Saturday, June 27, at 10 a.m. through Live Nation.

  June 24, 2009

• Live Nation Going 'All-In' Today

  The Fray kicking back.Sure, it's fun to hate Live Nation for being a giant corporation that seems to control every big concert tour in the world, but they're making it pretty tough to do so this summer. Since starting "no service fee Wednesdays" last month, they've (as one might guess) dropped those nasty service fees (I just paid $9.50 per ticket for a non-Live Nation show--ouchies!) that are a big reason people hate Live Nation/Ticketmaster/etc. so much. Nothing really worse than the feeling o

  July 8, 2009

• Slideshow: Saturday's No Doubt, Paramore, the Sounds Concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

  Andrew Youssef​It's No Doubt Central around here. Amanda Parsons threw up the setlist from Friday's show, and here are Andrew Youssef's pictures Gwen, Tony, Tom and Adrian-filled from Saturday's way beyond sold-out gig (he couldn't even stay past three songs, poor guy). Coming up: John Gilhooley's doubtlessly dazzling shots from Sunday night at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, and a review of Tuesday night's final Irvine show, with supporting act Katy Perry stepping in for Paramore. (The Sounds

  August 3, 2009

• Dave Matthews Band; Switchfoot

  September 10, 2009

• Go Fest 2009

  October 1, 2009

• Judge Allows Scary-To-Parents HB Cell Tower Suit To Continue

  ​Back in April, we brought you a heartwarming tale of civic involvement, governmental responsiveness and corporate accountability that's just the kind of thing we all thought we'd see more of in Barack Obama's America 2.0.We're talking about the case of Huntington Beach's Harbour View Elementary School, where T-Mobile sought to build a cell-phone tower disguised as a tree. The city council had given T-Mobile the OK without alerting most of the school's parents -- including, full disclosure, We

  October 12, 2009