Introducing pepperandbutter dot com

Chris Alfaro, putting on airs. Santa Ana musician/DJ/entrepreneur Free the Robots (Chris Alfaro) alerts us that his soon-coming club/restaurant The Crosby now has a video blog (wittily titled Kenny Bloggins) that will provide several entertaining hours of “mindless escapism.” It includes the first episode of Free the Robots Cribs: Essential viewing. And it's not like …

Fight Club

Our favorite OC boxer, Ronny Rios, came home this week after a decisive and controversial loss at the Olympic trials in Houston. The potent, artful boxer says he's ready to refocus, turning his sights to his pro career and to finishing out his senior year in high school. “It's time to move on,” he says. …

Busywork, Detroit Bar, August 29, 2007

The Pity Party (photo by ionnehendrix) The Pity Party are in mid-set as I arrive at Detroit Bar, projecting an LA-hipster refraction of the White Stripes—on first impression. But female drummer/vocalist/keyboardist Heisenflei and guitarist/vocalist Maurice-Robert quickly quash that knee-jerk reaction with an approach to rock that's far less trad than Jack and Meg's. The Pity …

Face Off

If anyone had watched Tina Thi Tran open the front door of her nondescript rented house on Forrest Lane in the heart of Little Saigon at 12:15 p.m. on June 14, 2005, they wouldn't have guessed they were looking at an undisputed giant among Orange County's criminal masterminds. Why should they? Standing at 4-foot-8, Tran might …

Love's Labor Lost

“Down with communists!” yells the Vietnamese man with the wide-brimmed hat into a bullhorn. “Down! Down! Down!” respond a line of flag-waving folks, some holding umbrellas bearing South Vietnam's red stripes to shield themselves from the late Sunday sun. Had you been on historic Main Street in Garden Grove any Saturday for the past month, …

No Street Cred

The county's biggest public worker union called on all OC factions — Republicans, Democrats and all those in-between — to join them in a countywide recall effort to remove County Treasurer-Tax Collector, Chriss Street, from office. The County's money manager is under investigation by the Orange County DA's office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Department …