It’s Saturday, May 1, 2004, and the ... [more]
Culture
The Evolution Of Coachella’s Campgrounds
It’s Saturday, May 1, 2004, and the desert heat is comparable to Dante’s eighth ring of hell. But the Pixies, Kraftwerk, Hieroglyphics, LCD Soundsystem, (old school) Black Keys and Living Legends played day one of Coachella, so it almost doesn’t matter. Radiohead closed out the main stage leaving those who witnessed the magic in […]
From Flowers to 4/20 to Coachella, April Is a Month of Magic
April is a magical month. It’s the first month of spring, meaning poppies and wild flowers color California’s hillsides. It’s the month the unofficial international day of weed is celebrated, which is a big deal this year considering it’s the first rotation of 4/20 under the state’s new legislation. April’s also the commencement of festival […]
A Diverse Lineup Takes Center Stage at South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival
Twenty-one years ago, the following names graced the inaugural Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF), South Coast Repertory’s foray into the mostly uncharted (at least on the Left Coast) waters of new plays: Richard Greenberg, Anthony Clarvoe, Cusi Cram, John Glore, Jessica Hagedorn, Howard Korder, Chris Van Groningen, Karen Zacarias. Okay, okay, that was supposed to be […]
Designer Betsey Johnson Shares Her Guide to Living and Loving with Style
When it comes to matters of happiness, career and style, Betsey Johnson’s advice on all three are essentially the same: “decide it, then do it.” The iconic fashion designer knows there’s a time and place to be superfluous (which is to say, often) but when it comes to success in all aspects of life, […]
11 LGBT Punk and Metal Artists Who Made An Impact
If there’s at least one positive thing we’ve learned in the ongoing chaotic aftermath of the Trump administration, it’s that as a modern civilized society, we can’t take things like diversity and inclusion for granted. When it comes to musical genres like punk rock and heavy metal, one should keep in mind that there have […]
Lost In OC: Deep-Throating Tide Pods and Other Life Mistakes
I have never, intentionally at least, snorted a condom up my nose. I have yet to ingest a Tide Pod, though it can’t be worse than the sea urchin I ate in Laguna Beach in 1987. I got on a plane, flew two states away and still couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth. […]
The Well-Curated ‘LA ATTITUDE’ Show at Sue Greenwood Fine Art Captures the City’s Intimidating Spirit
One of the most important talents a curator can possess is corraling artists in one place and making it seem as if their works belong together. Sue Greenwood has done just that, bringing a trio of Los Angeles painters—William Wray, Scott Yeskel and Danny McCaw—into her Laguna Beach gallery, with the resulting exhibition, “LA ATTITUDE,” […]
Revisiting the Legacy of Sam’s Seafood, Sunset Beach’s Original Polynesian Palace
The buildings that have stood at what’s now 16278 Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach or Surfside (call it what you want, just don’t DARE call it Huntington Beach around a local) have weathered their fair share of storms over the years. They’ve endured the tradewinds of new development, a flaming inferno and even Hurricane […]
Party for Leonora Carrington This Friday at Makara Center for the Arts
We are all invited to a birthday party for artist and writer extraordinaire Leonora Carrington, but an RSVP is required for the free event. Hosted by SanTana’s Makara Center for the Arts, the celebration will have two special guests: the surrealist’s son and grandson. Leonora Carrington‘s art and writing can’t get enough celebration as far […]
A Ghost Is Resurrected at the Bowers With ‘American Visionary: John F. Kennedy’s Life and Times’
I.F. Stone once described John F. Kennedy as “simply an optical illusion,” and nowhere is that more evident than in “American Visionary: John F. Kennedy’s Life and Times,” the curated showing of Kennedy photographs now at the Bowers Museum. Tracing the life of the 35th president of the United States from his privileged birth to […]
OCC’s ‘Jim DeFrance: A Retrospective’ Is a Graceful Ode to Life’s Release
The deep emotion in curator Tom Dowling’s voice is palpable as he slips on his glasses and leans in to examine his late friend Jim DeFrance’s work. As his hand runs over the graceful curves of the rippling carved-wood sculpture Rainbow, his fingers touch here, there and down under, highlighting the spots, scrapes and gouges […]
Lost In OC: How High Will You Be When the Big One Hits?
Even if you haven’t been in California long enough to experience one of our deluxe earthquakes, you’re already shook, I suspect. As a human, below our conscious minds, we have oodles of neurons devoted to the flee-or-fight instincts we relied upon during the epochs before we had iPhones and Jiffy Pop to sustain us. So […]
Rwandan Artist Emmanuel Nkuranga’s Vivid Work Comes to Casa Romantica
Artist Emmanuel Nkuranga is flying from his home in Kigali, Rwanda, but not in time for the opening reception of his solo show at Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens March 20 at 6 p.m. The self-taught artist’s painterly abstracts are a riot of color and energetic scrapes, plus a mix of textures and mediums. Think […]
For the Birds: Orange County Was Once the Ostrich Capital of the Nation
There’s something about central Orange County that attracts people to enter into bizarre enterprises involving animals and tourists. Yes, Walt Disney and his mouse are the most exemplary example, but the city has had a storied history filled with folks capitalizing on animalistic entertainment long before Disneyland took over. (In Anaheim, the Mouse owns you!) […]
Though Bumpy at Times, Cambodian Rock Band Is an Exhilarating Ride
Part play, part rock concert, part eccentric comedy set against the backdrop of the Cambodian genocide, Lauren Yee’s new play, Cambodian Rock Band, is many things stuffed into one undeniably entertaining package—stuffed being the operative term. Commissioned by South Coast Repertory (SCR), it’s now receiving its world-premiere production, and the play’s relative newness shows. While […]
Bruce Brown Tributes by Surfing Heritage & Culture Center
The Surfing Heritage & Culture Center (SHACC) has two ongoing tributes to the late, great filmmaker Bruce Brown, who passed away surrounded by loved ones in December of last year: The exhibit “Bruce Brown: A Life Well Lived” and the special-interest license plate that’s in the process of becoming available for California vehicles. Once a […]
Crimes of the Heart Is a Southern Gothic With Legs, But It Lags
Beth Henley won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1981 for Crimes of the Heart. What made it surprising wasn’t so much that the play wasn’t great (it was one of the more competent ones amid a meager lot of plays during a period of commercial transition in mainstream American theater), but her gender. She […]
Laguna Art Museum’s ‘Tony DeLap: A Retrospective’ Conjures the Thrills
“Tony DeLap: A Retrospective” begins where exhibits usually end at Laguna Art Museum, in the medium-sized gallery. It’s as if curator Peter Frank needed a larger space to contain DeLap’s great turning point in the early 1960s. Reminiscent of Joseph Cornell’s boxes, thick assemblages under glass hang on the left wall, including Charlie McCarthy (1963), […]
Historic Japanese Site in Huntington Beach Is in Danger of Being Torn Down for a Self-Storage Facility
There are currently five branches of Public Storage’s self-storage facilities in Huntington Beach, with talks of adding a sixth. Coincidentally, there are just five buildings that remain from the earliest days of the Japanese settlement in Orange County during the infancy of the 20th century in what is now Huntington Beach. On the corner of […]
The Most Important Play You’ll Ever See Is at Cal State Long Beach
The most important play you will ever see is currently in production at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB). Okay, that’s a bit hyperbolic, but after experiencing Dreamers: Aquí y Allá, a living piece of theater ripped from the proverbial headlines that directly addresses the uneasy, uncertain status of nearly a million people living in the […]
Survios Takes Arcades to the Next Level with Virtual Reality in Torrance
If you’re still thinking of an arcade as the type of place you can go to throw quarters into games like Street Fighter, Pac-Man, The House of the Dead, and that classic side-scrolling version of The Simpsons (where the buttons to play as Bart were pretty much always broken), then you’ll probably be surprised by […]
