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Five Meals to Keep the Summer Wind Blowing . . .

MARISCOSLICENCIADO#2 This place sells Sinaloan seafood but lies landlocked in the same decaying commercial pocket JC Fandango calls paradise. Their best seller is aguachile, ceviche writ amazing: scores of chilled shrimp, cucumbers, red onions and tomatoes crammed onto a large molcajete—the mortar-and-pestle contraption used by Mexicans since before Jesus. Aguachile is an incredible contradiction: light …

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!A Todos Bailar el Cover!

The modus operandi of Orange County vatospunkosManic Hispanic is to transform punk classics into pochopoems such as “The INS Took My Novia Away” and “Brand New Impala.” But don't think this shtick is original—ripping off American songs is a proud Mexican music tradition that dates to the time mariachi groups turned “Beer Barrel Polka” into …

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FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

20Fingers(BeestAnghosht). (Iran) Mania Akbari directs and co-stars (with Bijan Daneshmand) in this dramatic exploration of the relationship between an Iranian man and woman. We see them through a series of seven conversations, chronicling the ups and downs of their relationship as they struggle to define their roles as individuals and a couple within the traditions …

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Bare, Ruined Choirs

Five feet, nine inches tall, in armpit hair, a Panama-style hat advertising Corona beer, and a vest made to resemble a serape, the often-shirtless Jose Teo Ochoa would not be your first choice for spokesman. But if you stand in the back yard outside 1103 N. Broadway and holler long enough, he's usually the guy …

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Give Him Some Water so He Wont Die

Photo by Aubrey EdwardsSouth By Southwest, the yearly Austin, Texas, music-industry extravaganza-cum-smorgasbord, takes 1,300 bands from around the globe; stirs in a generous helping of record-label cretins, glassy-eyed music critics and eerily robotic publicists; adds copious amounts of barbecue, Tex-Mex and Shiner Bock beer, sprinkled with a dozen squirts of whatever that stuff was oozing …

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Diary of a Mad County

Wednesday, March 9 This just in: final election results show Ted Crisellhas come from way behind to defeat a field of 11 and lose the LA mayoral election. Crisell, well-known to Orange County poll watchers—and you know who you are—as a man who can lose with the worst of them, edges out rival BruceHarryDarianto take …

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The (Not So) Odd Couple

I Need This Now by Ali SmithSometimestwopeople—likeSonnyandCher or Donny and Marie—are greater together than they could ever be apart. But sometimes, like Nick and Jessica or you and your last boyfriend, a partnership means only atrophy, crabbiness and a bitter ennui. Sometimes two people are less than the sum of their parts. Such is the …

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No Justice for Bassim

Photo by John GilhooleyForthepastfewSaturdayevenings,upto 150 people have gathered outside the Madrid Apartments in Mission Viejo for a candlelight vigil. Their goal: obtain justice for 20-year-old Bassim Chmait, an aspiring rap artist and Saddleback College business major who was fatally shot in the head on Feb. 5. They're angry because the man who pulled the trigger, …

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Youth of Today

Photo by Theo DouglasGeneric Youth is maybe the kind of store your coolest friend would have had in high school, if you'd had money. You could have done a lot of things if you'd had some money or a dad who saw the value in old Paint by Number paintings, Polo rugby shirts, Pierre Cardin …

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Diary of A Mad County

Wednesday, Jan. 26 Today, George W. Bush, holding the first press conference of his second term, says, “I firmly planted the flag of liberty for all to see that the United States of America hears their concerns and believes in their aspirations.” Let me just adjust the balance for clarity. He said, “I firmly planted …

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