Viewing Laguna Art Museum’s “Tony DeLap: A Retrospective” is like being in the audience of a magic act. Not because of the repetitious images of floating ladies and card tricks placed throughout the show. Not even because the artist has been an actual magician most of his life. Rather, it’s because, as with any decent […]
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Fantastic Films You Don’t Want to Miss at the 2018 Newport Beach Film Festival
A genre that has been skyrocketing in popularity in the past year is science fiction, evident in the steady rise of television shows, films and programs available through online-streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime: Blade Runner 2049, Bright, The Lure, The Void, Altered Carbon, Legion and The Handmaid’s Tale are just a number […]
Despite the Movies, Godfather of Ganja Cheech Marin Defies What It Means to be a Stoner
“Hey, you wanna get high, man?” The camera pulls back to show a 1964 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport driving along the coast. “Does Howdy Doody got wooden balls, man?” “I’ve got a joint here that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.” The next shot shows the infamous godfathers of cannabis: Richard “Cheech” Marin, with […]
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 […]
Our Inaugural Guide to Orange County’s World-Class Breweries
Orange County’s brewing history goes back as far as the 1850s, when Anaheim was founded as a German colony and its residents quickly turned the city into one of Southern California’s main beer hubs. Brewing thrived in this vast agricultural region despite homegrown temperance movements until the national ban on alcohol wiped out whatever was […]
Former LA Times and OC Register Reporter Clark Sharon, Now Homeless, Spends His Days Reading the Papers He Once Wrote For
Clark Sharon sits at a table in the far corner of the Santa Ana Public Library, beside floor-to-ceiling windows. Everything he owns is next to him in a few reusable grocery bags, neatly filled with food, clothing and other necessities. At 65 years old, Sharon has a slight build that doesn’t quite fill out his […]
Cop-Protected Orange County Snitch Avoids Murder Beefs With Laughable Tales
Minutes before 10 on the morning of July 14, 2016, five heavily armed Anaheim Police Department (APD) officers wearing ballistic vests took positions outside a one-bedroom, one-bath, 740-square-foot, $200,000 condo in Whittier. Officers waited cautiously for the emergence of Bryan Jason Goldstein, a 32-year-old associate of Southern California white-supremacist gangsters. To gain a judge’s approval […]
In Praise of Orange County’s Cherished Brunch Spots of Yesteryear
Orange County is awash with trendy new restaurants catering to the latest food crazes, and brunch is no exception. And while nobody can deny the delight of drinking hand-crafted, bacon-infused Bloody Marys in the company of bearded hipsters, we instead pay tribute to the county’s cherished collection of old-school breakfast institutions, those reliable purveyors of […]
Federal Judge Clears the Way for Santa Ana Riverbed Evictions to Continue
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter sat at a fold-up table this morning during a court hearing held in the parking lot of the Honda Center. Just across the way, the fate of the last remnants of a homeless encampment alongside the Santa Ana Riverbed awaited his decision. Lawsuits filed on behalf of several […]
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 […]
Shave Lives: Long Beach’s Most Un-Famous Famous Band Look Back on 25 Years of Making Music
Surrounded by mounted steer skulls and spiffed up in his favorite red, Hey, Koolaid! T-shirt, a snappy scarf and a porkpie hat, Dave Cornblum squinted under the bright lights from behind his thick, black frames. The singer for the decades-deep, Long Beach band Shave looked out and smiled contentedly at the small sea of friends […]
Sex and Excess: Sex Cells Celebrates One Very Memorable Year of Clubbing in LA
There’s a myriad of music and dance-driven events to choose from every night in LA. But the shindigs and clubs that last, and ultimately become the stuff of after-dark legend and lore, always seem to push things further, visually and thematically, creating an energy and excitement that you mark your calendar for, plan your outfit […]
Meet Lorn Conner: The Happy Coachella Guy
Coachella’s longest-running unofficial art piece sports a safari hat, sunglasses, green board shorts and an orange Hawaiian T-shirt. Unlike the rest of the massive, eye-catching installations brought to the festival every year, Lorn Conner (a.k.a. the Happy Coachella guy) is a small, anonymous dot on the Empire Polo Field who prefers to be heard instead […]