The Normal classic “Warm Leatherette” from 1978 made it onto the mixtapes of many listeners of “The Rock of the Eighties” on KROQ. How could it not? Those siren-like instrumentals. Those monotone vocals by Daniel Miller. Those ultra-dark lyrics. A tear of petrol Is in your eye. Quick, let’s make love Before we die. “Warm […]
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Contemplating ‘Costuming the Leading Ladies of Shakespeare: From Stratford to Orange County’ at UC Irvine
The first work of Shakespeare’s I ever saw performed was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. On the giant white-box set, the lovers swung on trapezes, and acrobatic tricks amazed with shimmering props. It enthralled my 13-year-old self, creating the delusion that all Shakespeare was done just like that. Much later, I learned that the production was […]
The Experience of Finding, Then Eating Chef Peter Hung’s Banh Xeo Is Like Traveling to Southeast Asia
You walk toward Saigon Supermarket realizing that in the more than two decades you’ve spent eating and shopping in Little Saigon, thinking you’ve explored every nook and cranny, you haven’t been here before. When the sliding doors of the market open, you immediately detect the smell of fried fish. It’s faint, but from the online […]
Slumlord’s Buena Park Mansion Protested By Tenants Set to Be Evicted Near USC
A yellow Sureway bus arrived in a quiet, upscale Buena Park neighborhood near Coyote Hills on Sunday afternoon. One by one, dozens of tenants set to be evicted from an apartment complex a block from USC in Los Angeles exited with protest signs in hand. The residents readied to march before the multimillion-dollar, majestic, white […]
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait Goes to Puerto Rico
Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait spent April 9 touring the Puerto Rican city of Guaynabo, just outside of San Juan. The trip—hosted by the city’s mayor, Angel Pérez Otero—had one goal: to emphasize the recovery process under way after the devastation left by Hurricane Maria in mid-September 2017. The Mayor Exchange program, funded by the New […]
Why Back to the Beach is Good Enough to Be the “Coachella of Ska”
If there was any year for a ska resurgence, John Feldmann and Travis Barker say now’s the time to “pick it up.” “There was a point in time where being in a ska band wasn’t the coolest thing to ever be,” remembers Feldmann, frontman of Goldfinger and music producer of bands like Blink-182, The Used, […]
Dana Watch: Slime Baugh
Scott Baugh, the former California Assembly Republican leader and Orange County GOP chairman, should feel honored. The re-election campaign for Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Cambridge Analytica) put out its first mailer sliming a candidate seeking the incumbent’s coastal Orange County congressional seat. However, the mailer’s target is not one of the six Democrats who have been […]
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 […]
Heirloom Farmhouse Kitchen at the New Marriott Irvine Spectrum Is Aimed at Millennials, Connoisseurs of Good Food
From the outside, the new Marriott Irvine Spectrum resembles another one of Irvine’s yawn-inducing office towers. Built with equal portions of glass, steel and concrete, it’s a square-shaped skyscraper that’s neither tall nor architecturally distinctive. The inside, however, is a different story. Marriott invested its $120 million budget in making it, in its own words, […]
The Tanning of Coachella: Beyoncé, Blackness, and the Collision of Cultures
In 2011, music executive and advertising guru Steve Stoute, released his book The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. Stoute analyzed how Black culture permeated mainstream America, going as far as proposing its swell helped Barack Obama get elected. Stoute and his readership may be […]
Your Coachella Food Guide
Coachella continues to up its game each year. So it’s no surprise that 2018’s food lineup is just as good as the musical one. Here’s our list of must-eat bites for this (and next) weekend’s fest. PIZZANISTA The thin-crust, New York-style pies have earned Pizzanista a ’za seal of approval from just about everyone. Since […]
OVSD Trustee Sues HB Blogger for Violent Threats, Gets Temporary Restraining Order
Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin is as tough as they come, but even she has legal limits. Attorneys for the school board member filed a lawsuit on Mar. 22 in Orange County Superior Court against Huntington Beach blogger Chuck Johnson for defamation, harassment and making criminal threats against an elected public official. Johnson […]
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. […]
Did ’70s Sci-Fi Cinema Nail Our Looming Brave New World?
In the 1970s, Hollywood was hell-bent on scaring the bejesus out of audiences with futuristic dystopias, churning out iconic, outrageous, science-fiction stories that imagined—and warned of—horrific “things to come.” But just how accurate were these filmmakers’ visions, most of which were believed far too insane to ever come to pass? Hold our Moscow mule! ROLLERBALL […]
Ditch the Utensils and Eat With Your Hands at Bawarchi Biryanis in Lake Forest
After several hours and multiple hand washings, my fingers still bear the aroma of the leftover biryani I ate. It’s because, for the first time, I used my bare hands to consume the entire plate. I was copying the two Indian gents at Bawarchi Biryanis. When I saw how they ate, I was mesmerized. In […]
Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas Mocks Court of Appeal’s Snitch Ruling
Before letting police officers answer questions on the witness stand about possible crimes, prosecutors usually establish credibility by eliciting their work experience. Most cops impressively recall the day, month and year of every promotion, even in multidecade careers. But recently inside a Little Saigon-area courtroom, Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) deputy Cyril Foster appeared […]
How the Coachella 2018 Set Times Conflict and Compliment Each Other
Damn, Coachella. Not only do you knowingly keep us in suspense every year as we wait for the moment to start planning every hour of our festival experience, but now you make us skip dinner to salivate over your newly released festival set times for 2018. Whether it leaves you filled with joy or aching […]
Coachella 2018 Comes Correct With the Rock, Despite What the Haters Say
Dissonant groans among music fans shriek toward a fever pitch annually, in the earliest days of the year grâce à the unveiling of Coachella’s polarizing line up. Lately though, the complaints have taken on somewhat of a theme; the festivals distance from the “Rock ’N Roll” acts that brought the desert event to prominence from […]
Alice Bag’s Blueprint Teaches the Power of Activism With Attitude
Whenever Alice Bag takes the stage, class is in session. Whether she’s playing in the belly of a dive bar or a large theater, the punk icon from East LA and former schoolteacher looks into a crowd of fans young and old and knows they’ll absorb chaos from the pit as well as the wisdom […]
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 […]
