IMAXed Out

Illustration by Bob AulEdwards Theatre Circuit Inc. ended the five-year run of IMAX in Orange County on Aug. 1, closing the curtain on its large screen at the Irvine Spectrum and five other theaters in California, Texas and Idaho. Newport Beach-based Edwards, suffering the ill effects of hot-buttered bankruptcy proceedings, deemed its relationship with IMAX Corp. unprofitable. But don't look at this as a total loss. Ecstasy-fueled ravers are lined up around the block trying to snatch up those bulgy, uncomfortable IMAX goggles.

WE'RE ON A ROAD TO NOWHERE State water officials revealed on Aug. 1 that they are investigating whether polluted runoff from the San Joaquin Hills toll road is flowing into already gunky Newport Bay. You may recall that the same toll road has been blamed for the toxic runoff washing through Laguna Canyon and into Laguna Beach waters. And there are fears that extension of the Foothill South toll road through San Clemente could threaten San Mateo Creek, where steelhead trout once believed extinct were recently discovered. Highway runoff contains oil, gasoline, copper residue from brake-pad linings and other stuff you don't even wanna know about. It's feared that ingestion of these pollutants can sicken people and destroy natural habitats. But the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) is threatening a different habitat, according to an Aug. 6 Orange County Register story. The TCA recently sent 4,000 letters to South County residents along the 5 freeway warning them that their houses will have to be torn down for freeway widening if the Foothill South is not extended. Of course, the state transportation department—Caltrans—is responsible for widening freeways, not the shadowy, sorta-public, mostly private TCA. No, the TCA's just there to spook folks into accepting their financially and ecologically devastating roads to nowhere.

DIVIDE AND CONJUR Newport Beach Mayor Gary Adams is urging county supervisors to keep Newport Beach and Newport Coast in the same supervisorial district, according to an Aug. 4 story in the Newport Beach/Costa Mesa Daily Pilot. A redistricting plan tentatively approved by the Board of Stupes in July would put Newport Coast and Newport Beach in different districts. Unincorporated Newport Coast is not even part of the city of Newport Beach, but the city wants to annex the upscale area (much to the chagrin of many Newport Coast residents). Adams feels it would be unfair for the Newports to have two supervisors. Poor baby! Where was Adams during all those years white supervisors were carving the city of Santa Ana up like a Thanksgiving tamale to dilute brown power?

ALOHA AND GOODNIGHT Disney officials are trying to get the Aloha Bowl college football game moved from Hawaii to Edison Field in Anaheim—possibly by this Christmas, the Los Angeles Times reported on Aug. 4. Anaheim knows a thing or three about hosting lackluster college football games, having hosted the Freedom Bowl for years before it moved somewhere else and became the Corporate Shill of the Moment Weedwhacker Bowl or something like that. The Aloha Bowl hasn't been doing too well in the Pineapple State because not enough fans of mainland college teams are willing to cough up the big bucks to fly over and watch the game, and not many people who live on the islands go because, well, have you been there? There are much better ways to kill four hours in Hawaii than watch a fourth- or fifth-placed Pac-10 team battle it out against stiffs from the Big East. Disney comes out smelling like a Rose Bowl in several ways should it pull this off. The game is shown on Disney-owned ABC, and the teams, their families and their fans would clog up Disney hotels and theme parks in Anaheim. One problem: there's not much aloha spirit in Anaheim—of course, there wasn't much freedom either. How about renaming it the Ex-Lax Cool Mint Suppositories Pooh Bear Bowl?

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