For 40 years, the World Famous VIP Records and Tapes was central Long Beach’s cornerstone. Not only was it the mecca of G-funk, but it also provided a cool place to pass the time while shielded from the ills of street life on Pacific Coast Highway and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. For those who […]
Newsletter Edit
Dana Watch: Doggone Dana
Softball question to a sitting member of the House of Representatives from a Voice of America (VOA) China interviewer: “So Chinese New Year is just around the corner; is there any message you want to say to our audience in China?” Answer from Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Putin’s Concubine): “Well, let me just note . . […]
Political Football: Dallas Cowboys vs. Seattle Seahawks
Dallas update: You’ve no doubt heard the tragic story of Botham Jean, shot to death in his own apartment by a Dallas cop who claimed she mistakenly thought it was her apartment. Now, it would be unfair to say this was something that could only happen in Dallas, as it could, of course, happen anywhere […]
Seal Beach’s Still Life Tattoo Brings Suicide Awareness to the Tattoo Community
Tattoos and suicide awareness generally aren’t two topics that get discussed together too often, but Tim Shelton is looking to change that. On September 21 and 28, Shelton will be tattooing from a special flash sheet of designs (primarily related to suicide awareness) called Tattoos For Life and donating the profits to The Trevor Project […]
Holy Fraud! Ashley Bemis’ Alleged History of Deception Before the Holy Fire
As the Weekly reported last week, many OC residents were shocked to discover that Ashley Bemis swindled $11 thousand from good Samaritans in the wake of the Holy Fire. According to Carrie Braun, a spokesperson for the OC Sheriff’s Department (OCSD), Bemis created a fake husband named Shane Goodman who Bemis claimed was battling the […]
New Pervy Charges for Teacher Suspected of Putting Semen in OC Students’ Flutes
Remember the story from last year about the music teacher accused of possibly giving semen-filled flutes to students in Fountain Valley, the Fullerton, Newport-Mesa and Capistrano Unified school districts as well as elsewhere in Southern California? It was an apparent crime so heinous that the Weekly had dual reports Oct. 2 on our news and […]
OCDA Cuts Deal to Thwart Public Hearing into Jail Phone Surveillance Scandal
Days after OC Weekly’s August revelation that ethical issues tied to jailhouse telephone surveillance by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) for two years had stalled the severe pending punishment of a defendant, prosecutors quietly gave a sweetheart deal rather than surrender subpoenaed records and undergo public hearings into potential law enforcement perjury. As a result […]
Vote, Damn It
I once did an internet search on a musician I was considering doing a project with, and I found intense chat-room volleys discussing him, with one side insisting he was the worst asshole in the music business, while others argued with equal vehemence that he was merely one of the worst. You don’t find that […]
Political Football: Indianapolis Colts v. Washington Say-It-to-My-Face-I-Dare-You’s
Indianapolis update: Indiana is, of course, the “Hoosier State.” What’s a Hoosier? No one seems to know. Oh, the answer is probably out there, it’s just that who wants to take the time to find out something about Indiana. It’s an odd state. Though it lays claim to being a bastion of rock-ribbed Midwestern values, […]
Woman Guilty as Accessory In Fiancé’s Committed Double Orange County Murder
An Orange County jury this afternoon found onetime theater actor Rachel Buffett guilty of two felony counts of accessory after the fact in a bizarre double 2010 homicide that won international attention. Daniel Wozniak, Buffett’s boyfriend she planned to marry days after the gruesome crimes, is already sitting on California’s death row inside San Quentin […]
Dana Rohrabacher Gets “Handeled” by the Tune “Har-ley Rou-da”
In these very pages (virtual and otherwise), Vern Nelson has been referred to as “a humorless, knee-jerk Democratic Party loyalist.” As everyone knows, we have never been wrong. However, we must admit to getting a chuckle out of Nelson’s latest project. I know, snowflakes. The source of the guffaw involves Nelson’s lyrics and piano playing, […]
Hardball California Republican Strategist Jimmy Camp Takes on the President
For decades, Orange County’s Jimmy Camp has served as a prized political consultant not only for California’s conservatives, but also for the likes of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Camp’s Democrat counterparts see him as a triple threat: inexhaustible, creative and fearless. He once donned a chicken outfit to publicly […]
Irvine Cocaine Deal Turned Murder Case Gets Re-Examined
A California Court of Appeal in Santa Ana this week granted rare habeas corpus relief to a prison inmate incarcerated for a special-circumstances homicide, this one the 2006 Super Bowl Sunday robbery and murder of an Irvine cocaine dealer. For 47-year-old Stephen Joseph Bennett, the ruling means his sentence will go from spending the remainder […]
Santa Ana to Be Hit with a Perfect Storm of Tiki Events
Escape is in the air! This Saturday, fans of tiki culture can sail the mystical seas to two very colorful events in Santa Ana. During the day, Original Mike’s restaurant will host the Tiki Island Expo, an event that will feature live music, food, drinks, and an extensive assortment of vendors selling tiki-centric wares. Then, […]
Political Football: Jacksonville Jaguars v. New York Giants
JACKSONVILLE UPDATE: Last week, Ron DeSantis, who represents the suburbs outside Jacksonville, won Florida’s Republican primary for governor utilizing TV ads showing him helping his daughter “build a wall” made of paper bricks and reading Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal to his infant son; we assume junior will next be introduced to the beloved […]
At the 25-Year Mark, QFilm Fest Is as Relevant as Ever
UPDATE: Mapplethorpe and Wild Nights with Emily are Big QFilm Award Winners As my colleague Aimee Murillo mentioned in her Horrible Imaginings Film Festival preview last week, September is when the fall film festival season kicks off, so it is fitting that the 25th anniversary of Long Beach’s longest-running film fest happens in the beginning […]
Dana Watch: R.I.P., GOP?
The FBI, Secret Service and U.S. intelligence agencies in 2015 blamed sophisticated attacks of computers at the State Department and other sensitive parts of the White House on Russian hackers who were likely working for that country’s President Vladimir Putin. A year later, after Wikileaks released emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and other […]
What Would Neil Think? Rating OC’s Fall Productions Before They Happen
Neil Simon died last month. Based on what we saw on social media, lots of people took it hard. Palpable was the anguish, sincere were the remembrances of this most commercially successful of playwrights (who died at the ripe age of 91), barbed were the attacks on the snooty-nosed contingent who don’t consider the appellation […]
Say It Ain’t Shohei: Ohtani Needs Tommy John Surgery
Read it and weep, Angels fans: Shohei Ohtani needs Tommy John surgery. The Halos announced the sad fact via Twitter today. The pitching and hitting double-threat from Japan had previously said he felt good after his most recent start on Sunday. Then came a report he suffered a sore back and elbow unrelated to the […]
Dana Watch: My Man Manafort
Because of the multiple felony convictions of Paul Manafort, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Putin’s Slime Bucket) says he will donate to a local charity the $1,000 Donald Trump’s former campaign manager donated to the congressman . . . in 2013. The timing filled Harley Rouda, the Democrat facing Rohrabacher in November’s race for the 48th Congressional […]
Anaheim Dissolves Disney Subsidies, Declares Peace on Backs of Resort Workers
An earthquake unexpectedly shook things up at Anaheim city hall during last night’s council meeting. Long after the tremors calmed, council members sought to end rumbles of another sort with the Disneyland Resort over two controversial subsidy agreements. At the Mouse’s request, they unanimously voted to end $267 million in bed-tax subsidies for a planned […]
