Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
Orange County's Leading Source Of News, Culture And Entertainment
You have every right to hate Michael Chabon. One of the first stars to come out of UC Irvine's master of fine arts program, his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh—which is disarmingly innocent in observation, effortlessly sophisticated in style—was a best-seller when he was 24. (He came in under the media radar that picked …
Art by Bob AulWhen the Surfrider Foundation launched its Web site (www.surfrider.org) in 1995, it had a grandiose budget of $0. Last year, that zoomed to $25,000; this year, site producer Mark Babski expects it to hit $45,000, and next year, he's predicting he'll get $60K to run the site. And the great thing, Babski …
Over the years, OC Weekly and the Darnel Squad—which eschews shaving, cosmetics, antiperspirant, deodorant soaps and daily showering—have enjoyed a sort of love-to-mock/hate relationship. When a Darnel Squad meeting announcement did not appear in our Calendar mere days after it was mailed, founder Julie Mandrake sent us a blistering letter accusing us of censorship in …
Maybe you're assuming that our Beach N Beer Guide will provide you with tips for sneaking a few brews onto the seashore. Maybe you're hoping that our Beach N Beer Guide will regale you with funny stories of inebriation that all end up with somebody face-down in the sand or scuba diving for Davey Jones' …
In a surreal and tragic two weeks, Orange County's press relentlessly whipped up terror that Littleton-style school slaughter perpetrated by dark-side fuzzy-lipped gunboys brandishing heavy steel “could happen here” (even though none had) and then was blindsided by the county's first real school murders: a grisly massacre of preschoolers by a middle-aged man wielding a …
Photo by Keith MayA grieving family once showed up at the Orange County Animal Shelter in Orange with a dead pet. It was a Sunday, and the shelter was closed to the public. They picked up the intercom at the front gate and spoke with a shelter worker inside about disposing of the body. A …
Photo by Jack GouldIf it wasn't for the gallbladder and the cows, Sister Mary Elizabeth might never have started the AIDS Education Global Information Service (AEGIS). The American Catholic nun runs “the largest HIV/AIDS Web site in the world” (www.aegis.com) from a room in her parents' San Juan Capistrano home. Founded as a bulletin-board service …
The shooting massacre at a suburban Denver high school did more than send an entire nation into mourning. It sent us into a headlong search for possible explanations: bad parents, jock culture, dangerous ideas, violent images. All have come under scrutiny, much to the consternation of those who point out that dysfunctional families operating in …
100,000 FLUSHESAs he does almost every morning, Corky went for a run along Aliso Beach on Jan. 7, 1997. After working up a sweat, he dove into the ocean for a swim several hundred yards north of where the mouth of Aliso Creek pours into Laguna Beach's emerald waters. “I jumped in, and it was …
On April 7, Bloomberg News (www.bloomberg.com) woke up to discover it had an evil twin on the Internet. That morning, someone had posted a site identical to the respected financial news service's, reporting that the Tustin high-tech company PairGain Technologies Inc. was being acquired by the Israeli company ECI Telecom Ltd. for $1.35 billion. Eager …
Photo by Jack GouldIn November 1997, local government officials and business executives gathered at the 18th annual Anaheim Prayer Breakfast and asked God to make Anaheim a “first-rate city.” They also ate sausage and eggs, bashed Bill and Hillary Clinton, and heard inspiring words from then-Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner. “This …
Photo by Jeanne RiceIn September 1996, LA rap star Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas. Six months later, East Coast rapper Notorious B.I.G. was shot in his car in what many saw as retaliation for Shakur's death, the violent coda to a deadly feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers. On April …