A squad of pimped out low riders parked alongside the front entrance of the Honda Center last Saturday afternoon. They bounced up and down almost as if nodding along to the beats from the DJ booth that stood outside the entrance while DJ Cancun Joey and DJ Fana spun funk vinyl and got the mood […]
About Jeanette Duran
George Sanchez Beat the Odds to Make OC Funk Fest a Phenomenon
It’s around sunset on a Saturday night in Santa Ana, 1992. Cars slowly cruise through the city’s working-class neighborhoods on the way to a house party at the loudest casa on Bristol Street. You pull up with friends in a loaded El Camino. After a knock on the door, a 12-year-old Chicano opens up and […]
Firme Sundays Brings Backyard Party Vibes To The House Of Blues Foundation Room
Sunday, the last day of the weekend, usually consists of continuing your consumption of alcohol preferable mimosas, bloody marys or micheladas to avoid hangovers from previous nights of fun. In OC, Curious Entertainment helps make your Sundays the best kind of Fundays with their Firme Sundays Event. For three years, the event’s celebration of old […]
SanTana Restaurants Create Community DJ Culture With Open Turntables
Open mics and karaoke make up the bulk of the low-budget entertainment found in most of our local restaurants and bars. But in Downtown Santa Ana good times are about to start spinning with two separate restaurants giving audiences and aspiring artists a different spin on sign-up sheet stardom–with open turntables. The comeback of vinyl […]
Three OC Sex-Industry Workers Share Their Personal Experiences—In All Their Gory, Glorious Detail
Editor’s Note: For this year’s annual sex issue, OC Weekly spoke to three sex workers in Orange County. Their stories are gritty and graphic, but they also reveal a sense of personal pride, dignity and even humor in a profession that, despite being known as the world’s oldest, remains tainted with shame, scorn and, perhaps […]
Lawsuit Continues Over Alleged Sexual Harassment by Original Mike’s Manager
A civil trial that began on Dec. 4 is scheduled to continue on Monday in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by five former female employees of Original Mike’s Restaurant against downtown Santa Ana developer Michael Frederick Harrah. Although Harrah is named in the lawsuit, it is actually one of his employees, Juan Jose Orozco, a […]
‘The Longest Night’ Combines Art and the Issue of Homelessness
A homeless man and women sit on bench right across the street from Melisa Finds Gallery where inside Joshua Correa, an artist, and David Duran, an activist, prepare for The Longest Night art exhibit. An exhibit that will feature the many faces of homelessness through work of art. The show is brought together by Hope4Restoration, […]
OC Block Party Brings Old-School Flavor to the Streets of Santa Ana
A new tradition kicked off last Saturday when The Orange County Block Party created by Curious Entertainment debuted in Downtown SanTana. Curious Entertainment has been holding the down the funk scene in Orange County for a couple of years with their events like Firme Sunday and Funk Fest. The Orange County Block Party however was […]
County Begins Public Hours on Santa Ana River Trail On Veterans Day
On Friday November 10, 2017, Orange County began enforcing public hours on the Santa Ana River Trail from Huntington Beach to Anaheim. The East side of River Trail will remain open during the hours of 7 am to 6 pm beginning Wednesday November 15. On the day before the evacuations around 12 pm, the Orange […]
Orange County Block Party Brings Fresh Grooves and Old-School Fun to SanTana
Funk, merengue, hip-hop and norteñas of all different genres will take center stage this Saturday, for The Orange County Block Party. The inaugural event, produced by Curious Entertainment, All Star and The Wire Entertainment, mixes cultures and unique sounds for a festival in Downtown SanTana. The eclectic lineup includes Vaughan Mason, Tha Dogg pound, Too Short, Ramon Ayala, […]
Trump Supporters Protest DACA Town Hall Meeting
Garden Grove Unified School District held an informational meeting about AB 540 and the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at Clinton Elementary School on Saturday when uninvited guests arrived. Before the event could even begin, the meeting was taken over by five protesters, led by Arthur Schaper, a member of “We The People” […]
“Taco Trucks At Every Mosque” Goes to Rosarito for Cross-Border Latino-Muslim Unity…and Tacos!
After wildly successful events in SanTana, Garden Grove and San Diego, Rida Hamida and Ben Vazquez decided to take their “Tacos at Every Mosque” Muslim-Mexican unity tour to a seemingly unlikely place: Rosarito. The seaside town of gabacho debauchery nowadays has a mosque, Masjid El Noor, and they welcomed Hamida and Vazquez to set up […]
Activists Protest Against Halos’ Proposed Anti-Homeless Wall Outside Angel Stadium
As your Anaheim Angels of Anaheim took on the Texas Rangers on Friday, about 20 homeless advocates took on the Halos in the street. Protesters gathered at the intersection of World Champion Way and Rampart to inform fans of how Arte Moreno is demanding a 12-foot wall across their parking lot to cover up the […]
Forget Trump’s Wall: Angels Ask County for 12 ft.-High Fence to Keep Out Homeless from Stadium
For the past couple of years, your Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have remained surprisingly quiet about the the homeless that live feet away from their parking lot—so close, in fact, that tailgaters frequently hook the homies up. But, in the spirit of these times, the Halos think that the best way to solve a […]
Micah’s Way Forges a Different Path Forward in Helping OC’s Homeless
Through small acts of kindness—thats how Micah’s Way took its form and has been helping struggling people for 14 years. “It began while we were cooking with The Catholic Worker and we looked at each other and thought, ‘We can do more than this,’” says Dominick Corradino, the non-profit’s Board President. Their first step to […]
Homeless Man Found Dead by 4th St Market in Santa Ana
Fruit vendors set up their stands and a young lady cleaned up the windows of a clothing store yesterday morning as Santa Ana police detectives investigated the death of a homeless man just in front of the parking lot next to 4th Street Market. A white male said to be around 60 years of age […]
“Sleep-Out” Protest Outside Disneyland by Homeless Advocates Ends Because of Sprinklers
“No justice, no peace, no more homeless on the street” about 80 people chanted outside the gates of Disneyland Friday night, just before they tried to sleep out overnight there to draw attention to Anaheim’s growing homeless population. The event was organized by activist Jeanine Robbins as part of a “Summer of the People” effort […]
Huntington Beach Wants to Evict Nonprofit That Helps Homeless—Again
On June 29th, Beach Cities Interfaith Services (BCIS) Executive Director Karen Maurer received a letter from the city of Huntington Beach giving them until August 14th to terminate all client services and August 22nd to vacate the Surf City-owned premises. The nonprofit has been around for over 30 years, established to offer help to homeless […]
Fountain Valley Homeless Community on Santa Ana River Trail Pushed Out by County Workers
“We might just stay here for a good while,” a homeless man named Ron told an OC Weekly reporter a month ago when we profiled the relatively bucolic homeless encampment that had set up on the Fountain Valley portion of the Santa Ana River trail. But as of June 19, there is no signs of […]
OC Funk Fest Packs the Pacific Amphitheater
OC Funk Fest Pacific Amphitheater 6/10/2017 There’s a reason why the classic sounds of old school funk will never go out of style. Aside from compelling our bodies to move to the infectious grooves many of us grew up on, it transports us back to a time and place when music was at its best. […]
A Homeless Man’s Bike Collection Lead to Residents and Politicians Siccing Police on Him
“I have a clean conscience and I sleep peacefully knowing well I’ve never stolen anything from anyone.” says Abeleno De Jesus Jimenez in Spanish. He’s been homeless on the Santa Ana River Trail for more than two years, currently living in an encampment made of wood and green tarps surrounded by bike parts. It’s this […]