Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
Even though he’s 22 years old, Chi Vang looks like your typical Orange County teenager. On a hot day in late June, he sits quietly on the couch inside the living room of his childhood home, a modest two-story stucco house in a Westminster cul-de-sac bordered by a small park with a swing set and jungle …
Zov's Cafe Bakery N Bar is in one of those neighborhood centers that looks like every other neighborhood center you've ever seen. You know the kind: the sprawling parking lot, the transplanted palm trees, the name-brand “anchor” supermarket, and of course, the cluster of eateries, huddled together and stuccoed in dull browns and pastels. This formula …
At 6:45 a.m., I'm awakened in my bed at the Little Saigon Inn by a worrisome text message from a man who's already told me enough disturbing tales to keep me in nightmares for weeks. “I'm on my way to the gym. The Mercedes is still parked outside. I should make him some coffee, perhaps. The …
Like God, if Under Byen didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent them. This Danish guitar-less ensemble are a perfectly 2007 phenom. They have as many girls as guys, two percussionists, a string section, a saw player and, on their new Samme Stof Som Stof disc (“Same Fabric as Fabric”), a penchant for creaky beauty …
Sporting a fluffy Mohawk-mullet, Nazi SS lightning bolts over his Adam’s apple and an orange jail jumpsuit, infamous Southern California criminal Billy Joe Johnson emerges in public on June 6. He lands not on the blue-collar streets of Costa Mesa, which helped groom him into a monster, but in a Santa Ana courtroom. The setting …
One of the most gruesome episodes in the U.S. war on Iraq began calmly enough as two SUVs with darkened windows negotiated the dense traffic of downtown Fallujah. It was the morning of March 31, 2004, and the vehicles—each containing two American civilians guarding kitchen supplies for the U.S. military—belonged to Blackwater USA, the world's …
Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone is conspiring to overthrow the government of Laos these days? Apparently, Vang Pao, a former Laotion general from Orange County, and Harrison Ulrich Jack, a retired California National Guard lieutenant colonel, were arrested this morning and accused of doing just that. The San Francisco Chronicle …
Trying to describe the cinema of Japanese animator Satoshi Kon is a mighty task indeed. Many have attempted to do so, with mixed results. Roger Corman, upon seeing Kon's feature directorial debut, Perfect Blue, said, “If Alfred Hitchcock partnered with Walt Disney, they'd make a picture like this.” After a screening of his latest, Paprika, at …
When Mexico finally takes over the United States (editor's note: already happened!), historians will look back on the fence separating California from Mexico as folk art. Seriously, ever seen it? The Mexican side is filled with memorials, graffiti, posters, murals—critics would treasure it on the same level as the Watts Towers if it wasn't created …
Vanilla Coke is back! You might not have realized that it went away, of course, especially if you eat regularly at Rubio's, the only major food chain to keep it on its soda fountains. But yeah, they replaced it with Black Cherry Vanilla a while back, which was decent but not as tasty. Now plain …
You can say many things about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, but you can't say it doesn't give you your money's worth. For 167 minutes, you get familiar characters, elaborate set pieces, visual spectacle, multiple double-crosses (some genuinely unexpected), epic battles, thoroughly un-Disney-like blood and guts, and some impressively weird moments that would never …
Coachella has overtaken Lollapalooza as the major gathering of alt-music tribes. For three days in Indio, California, music fanatics congregate to hear sanity-threatening numbers of bands in intense heat and nipple-hardening cold. Braving Coachella's elements, vile toilets and clogged parking lots has become a rite of passage for adventurous hipsters. This year's fest abounds with …