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Over at our food blog, Gustavo Arellano (perhaps you've heard of him) rather amusingly skewered the many more unfortunate choices in our recent "Best of OC" readers' poll: Starbucks for best coffee, Chipotle for best burrito. Not so insightful or adventurous, you see, kind of the equivalent of giving Titanic "best movie about a boat sinking" or scrambled "best way to prepare an egg." Yawn.

Of course, there were reader picks for music and culture categories, as well. But unlike Gustavo, we're more than willing to give our readers benefit of the doubt--these are highly subjective matters, after all, and we're no more experts than anyone else is, except we're more likely to be at local shows struggling desperately to look cool.

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​It's OK. We've all had those moments. You're reading Heard Mentality at home, work, or risking your life by checking it on your cell phone in traffic (safety first, please, but we appreciate your dedication). You start thinking "yeah, reading what Albert says is great, but if there were only a way I could hear his rich baritone deliver these wonderful, wonderful words!" Well, you'll have a chance to fulfill those deep-seated desires, sort of, by hearing me on KUCI today, where I'll be on (most of) the locals-only Press Pass Music show, hosted by friend of the blog Ashley Eliot. It's from noon to 2 p.m., and please do give us a call and request some Orange County tunes at (949) UCI-KUCI. We're going to play some BLOK, who are performing tomorrow at the Lucky Owl, that much is guaranteed. Everything else, less so. (Exciting! Right?)

This week in Local's Only, I was fortunate to get the low down on I&I, a group of legit up-and-comers in the OC rap game. In the article that you may or may not have read (those on the latter category click HERE. ) I reference a little bit of their music video for the song "Listen Up", a formidable anthem for fans of our steadfast underground hip hop scene. In this video though, the group (consisting of emcees Irawnik and Insanity as well as DJ Kamoflage) are spending some time above ground in SanTana on Harbor Blvd. and Fifth St. rapping their hearts out. Watching the video, you can't help but wonder how many outtakes consisted of cars honking at them or the cops rolling up. Either way, it's definitely worth a look. Try not to get offended at all the dudes flipping you off.

Don't forget, these guys are opening up for E-40 tonight at The Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana. More info HERE.

Yep, I'm OC Weekly's man at BlizzCon, the annual two-day convention for Irvine-based computer gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment. It's at the Anaheim Convention Center. I've got some lovely memories of Blizzard's real-time strategy games, but you'll hear more of that with the coverage. For now, I'm here to say:

1. Follow the BlizzCon action on OC Weekly's Twitter.
2. Check out that video up there! It's a taste of the fun to come. Actually, I was probably more psyched before I saw it. But still, pretty funny if you love World of Warcraft, I imagine. Kind of like the "Barbie Girl" of massively multiplayer roleplaying games. And that maiden in the blue? A Chapman alum.

Plus: Ozzy Osbourne will be playing! I will be geeking out over Starcraft 2! Stay tuned!

So my visit to New York tomorrow won't be nearly as cool as this video, but it'll give you an idea of what sorts of things I'll be doing there. I've never been to NYC, so needless to say, I'm fired up. See ya in a week.

Yep, you can say goodbye to the old Heard Mentality blog banner--what with its raucous silhouette person dance party--and hello to the new one, up at the top of the page, with an adorable little orange wearing adorable headphones. (Is it creepy to call a piece of fruit "adorable"? Probably, right?)

Those aren't the only changes to the blog here, as you've surely, hopefully noticed by now.

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Maybe you noticed I didn't blog last week. Or maybe you didn't. OK, you probably didn't. Anyway, I hit the road and spent the week in Portland, Ore., a city I hope to call home one day.

The trip was amazing -- tons of killer vegan food, the weather was nice and the beer flowed all day and all night. But perhaps the coolest part of the vacation was the fact that I "discovered" Amy Winehouse.

Yes folks, three years after she became a household name, I finally heard Back to Black and guess what? It's pretty effing good.

In all fairness, my girlfriend has been into the record since it came out, but I've heard only bits and pieces of it through my bathroom door (she listens to it in the shower, like, all the time).


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Ben Goetting

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You've got to love the refreshing straight-forwardness that comes with calling your event a "thing." Like the North Park Music Thing, a music and media conference next weekend at the Lafayette Hotel & Suites in San Diego. There's an opening night concert Friday, August 7 at the Casbah, headlined by fairly supergroup Midnight Rivals (featuring, among others, members of Rocket From the Crypt and Louis XIV), two days of workshops and panels on August 8 and 9, and a street festival that Sunday including the Night Marchers, pictured, Avi Buffalo, Black Heart Procession and the "yes, they still exist!" Presidents of the United States of America. Only $25 for everything.

Why is this relevant to Orange County? Well, one of the workshops features a very special (yes, feel free to interpret "special" in any dersive of juvenile way you would like) guest. Description after the jump!

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Ok, I admit, the idea of a new band t-shirt isn't all that exciting. I mean, I'm sure something like this happens every hour of the day. But this one is different. For me, anyway.

Last night I was running along the bike path in Long Beach when I saw Hirax frontman Katon DePena and his wife Anne. We exchanged waves, but didn't stop because as all of us knew, when a person is running, you don't interrupt.

You still with me? Good. So about an hour later I'm at the local Ralphs when a long-haired dude walks in wearing a...(wait for it, wait for it) HIRAX T-SHIRT!!!

Then I get home and I get this email from Katon saying there's a new Hirax shirt available by clicking here. You gotta admit, that's too many random instances for me not to report on this.   

From 1993 to 1995 MTV aired a sketch comedy show called The State, which launched the careers of future comic superstars--er, stars--Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, David Wain (the three awesome dudes from Stella) and Reno 911's Thomas Lennon, Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney. (Not to mention Ken Marino, from Veronica Mars and Party Down and a bunch of other stuff. And Joe Lo Truglio, who's now on Reno 911 and had that great cameo in Superbad. And Michael Patrick Jann, who directed Drop Dead Gorgeous. And Todd Holoubek and Kevin Allison, who haven't done so much, or, at all since.)

For me and many other people my age, it was a huge influence on what type of stuff I find funny. Essentially, it's my favorite show ever. And now it's finally on DVD, after years of of rumor, innuendo and release dates that were later scrapped. Given the many false starts and like, 14 years or dreaming about such a day (even though I admittedly didn't know what a DVD was in 1995), I said I wouldn't believe it until I held the DVD in my hand, even though a firm July 14 release date was announced a few weeks ago.



Now I believe.

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