Even Our Sister Paper Thinks Orange County Is Lame

I'm not naive--I knew before coming here that Orange County didn't have the best reputation among outsiders (too conservative, not hip enough, not enough to do, etc.). I didn't think it was a big deal; where I come from doesn't exactly have the most street cred, either, and I've really enjoyed my time here thus far and find the stereotypes to be largely untrue. But the negative perception persists, even among one of our Village Voice Media sister papers, the SF Weekly, who had this to say last week in a write-up about OC's Cold War Kids on their music blog, All Shook Down:

Orange County is home to many things: atrocious freeways, Botox-infested facial features, affluent white people, and now piano-driven indie rock. It's a wonder how the immense talent of the Cold War Kids could emerge from such a cultural void, so go check them out April 28 at the Fillmore and be grateful that they aren't working at Banana Republic instead.

"Cultural void"? Ouchies! Are the freeways really so bad here? They seem pretty normal, and much worse in LA. As far as Botox and affluent white people, well, not among who I hang out with (maybe I need to trade up).

For the record, I think San Francisco is a lovely place. But is it really so supercool? I mean, come on, Arrested Development was set here; Full House was set there. Maybe Oscar Pascual was talking about the Orange County in Florida or North Carolina, those places probably suck pretty bad (oh no! I'm becoming what I hate!).

And working at the Banana Republic is certainly nothing to scoff at in these trying economic times.