Sports fans (and recovering drug addicts) definitely should checkout a copy of this month's Esquire with George Clooney on the cover. Journalist Mike Sager, formerly of the Washington Post and Rolling Stone, has written a fascinating article about the struggles of a onetime local star football star at Mater Dei and USC.

Singer-songwriters Jason Reeves, Brendan James and Amber Rubarth, who today began a two-week ride up the California coast on Vespas to raise awareness of global warming, make a stop at 7 p.m. Friday at Sutra Lounge, 1870 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa.
 
"It seems like back in the late '60s and early '70s, people turned to folk singers and songwriters for inspiration and answers to difficult questions," explained Reeves. "We were very motivated by that idea and hope to influence a new generation to become more environmentally aware as they grow up and take command of their future."
 
Reeves is a 23-year-old Iowa City native signed to Warner Bros. Records and touring to support his debut album, The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (and Other Frightening Tales). James, a Decca/Velour recording artist, has also been touring heavily to promote his debut, The Day is Brave. Brooklyn-based Rubarth is now touring the U.S. and Europe for her new CD New Green Lines.

Greenpeace has partnered with the artists to help deliver their message about global warming. More >>

Ray Parker is schedule to be aboard the last fully restored B-24J Liberator in the world when it lands around 1:45 p.m. Friday at Long Beach Airport. That may not mean much to you, but it does to Parker and organizers of the Wings of Freedom Tour.

Nearly 60 years ago, Parker was working for the Los Angeles Herald when the teletype machines went crazy with the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the Air Force the next day and became a navigator on a B-24 Liberator, his first mission being flown under the command of movie star-turned-pilot Jimmy Stewart. On Parker's 10th mission, his B-24 was shot down and he was captured by the Germans. During his last 14 months in Stalag Luft 1, he risked his life by secretly writing an underground newspaper that disseminated information and hope to the camp's 9,000 prisoners of war. Parker's flight Friday will be his first aboard a Liberator since his was shot down.

The nonprofit Collings Foundation's 110-city Wings of Freedom Tour, now in its 20th year, brings the rarely displayed WWII vintage Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator and North American P-51 Mustang to Long Beach Airport's Daugherty Field Friday through Tuesday. For a donation of $6 for children and $12 for adults, visitors get to explore the aircraft inside and out. Half-hour flights are also available, but they cost much more: $425 on either the B-17 or B-24 and $2,200 on the P-51 (or $3,200 for a full hour). Reservations are available by calling (800) 568-8924.

The planes will be displayed 2-5 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. the other days.

On the drive back from Rio Hondo College in Whittier yesterday, I managed to hear Angel Talk for the first time. It's the call-in show that follows any game by your Anaheim Angels and is hosted by Angels radio broadcaster Terry Smith. Yesterday, people called in whining about shortstop Erick Aybar not performing (although I saw him on Sportscenter's Top Plays yesterday...), how there are too many Halos fans who don't remember the lean years of the 1970s, and other such diamond minutiae. To be honest, I tuned out most of the back-and-forth between fans and Smith: pleasant enough, but dull. Besides, I'm a Cubs fan.

My inattention changed with one Tom of San Diego. He started his call by saying he was a longtime season-ticket holder until this year. His reason for not renewing? Too many Latinos on the team.

I was actually driving on the 5 Freeway at this point instead of texting away in traffic, so I couldn't take notes. But Tom's rationale will forever remain in my mind. He said that the recent influx of Latinos in the major leagues would ruin the "American" sport, that none of the Angels' Latino players spoke English and therefore "Americans" couldn't connect to the players (wonder what his response is to tow-headed kiddies and their Vlad Guerrero jerseys?) and that seeing the Angels' Latino players made any Halos home game seem as if "it was in Mexico," an absolutely hilarious proposition considering owner Arte Moreno and that the team's two players of Mexican heritage, third baseman Freddy Sandoval and closer Brian Fuentes, played college ball and are pochos. Of course, Tom wasn't racist, proclaiming he had friends of many races, but he just couldn't go to games anymore and support teams with so few Americans.

Smith's weak response after the jump!
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The big question on the mind of anyone amid the crowds at Edwards Island Cinema at Fashion Island in Newport Beach Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday nights was: My God, don't these people work? And a second: Don't they know we're teetering on Depression? Finally: Buddy, can you spare a ticket?

 

The masses were expected at the Newport Beach Film Festival over the weekend, but Monday night's healthy crowd became Tuesday night's packed house which became Wednesday night's mob scene. Bet your house (if it hasn't gone into foreclosure) that the 2009 festival will be the biggest in the event's 10-year history.

Bounced out of other movies Monday night because paying moviegoers take precedence over those with press credentials dangling around their necks, I wound up finding an open seat for the Korea Spotlight film. Thanks to the generosity of the newish, Garden Grove-based Korean Cultural Center Orange County, my seat came with swag: an '09 day planner courtesy of the center's CEO Dr. Francis S. Lee, who noted Korean cinema is getting better and better.

Ji-Woo Jung's Modern Boy proved his point.

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Mystery solved?

I've been telling folks we're overdue in Orange County for a sensationally nasty, bizarre crime. You know: something akin to an abused, teenage male goat on a roof and an obviously satisfied ex-sheriff anxious for a party before his freedom is restricted. We're good here for that kind of news.

After essentially quarantining a CSULB student who has received a "probable positive test" (um, is it or isn't it?) for piggy flu, health officials on the Long Beach campus handed out surgical face masks to students on campus who have "been paranoid," according to a Press Telegram report.

Only problem with that approach is that those masks are basically useless, at least according to this report by health nut Mark Adams, and another report today by the BBC. Even the CDC doesn't know if they're of any use, stating on its website: "Very little is known about the benefits of wearing facemasks and respirators to help control the spread of pandemic flu." People are better off, the website says, staying home and avoiding big crowds. As of this moment, the CDC is about as useless as those masks.

Surgical masks used (obviously) during surgery, are intended to keep a surgeon's spit and other liquid particles from dropping into a patient's open wound. They're not intended to protect the surgeon from that patient's -- or anyone's -- cough or sneeze or any other invisible airborne excretion (which can fly in easily through the wide pockets on the sides of the masks). Even the fancier N95 mask, which has higher filtration capabilities for tiny air particles is questionable, at best, as far as prevention goes. The only real protection, according to Adams, are air tight gas masks, which are pricier, and make the piggy flu seem a whole hell of a lot scarier than the cutesy masks.

Rachanee Srisavasdi reports in today's Register that Orange County Sheriff-turned-felon Mike Carona will likely earn 12 cents to 40 cents per hour working as a painter, plumber, orderly, food server or groundskeeper during his 5.5-year stint--or 85 percent of that--at what most likely will be the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex.

A quick check of the interwebs reveals that Lompoc inmates generally work eight- or nine-hour shifts nine days every two weeks. Knowing how hard Carona toils, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and expect him to earn the full 40 cents per hour, nine hours per day, nine days every two weeks. Clockwork is no math major, but that is believed to come out to $3.60 per shift and $32.40 per paycheck.

Among the items Carona could thereby purchase with one paycheck include the paperback edition of the Field Guide to the Birds of Korea, a box of 36 tiger rings to be distributed to inmate friends like badges, concealed-weapon permits and assistant sheriff appointments and, a personal favorite, this Seamless V Top Cami from Chez and Terri lingerie, which should make our former top cop the hit of his cell block's Sadie Hawkins dance.

But, surely, our ex-sheriff is not the type to blow his wad on any Russian hook--erm--American product. Indeed, he would be better saving and spending in dribbles and drabs. For instance, long-term detainees owe it to themselves to purchase, for a steal at $7, Michael Santos' Strategy for Successful Prison Adjustment, which details how the author "used a quadrant theory to thrive through a 45-year prison term." Other essentials inside include stamps, envelopes, yoga books (as stretching helps deal with being confined to cell 22 hours per day), word-search games (to keep the mind sharp) and funny clippings (to maintain a good sense of humor).

Of course, there are also the "Mikessentials" he'll need such as protein powder, spray-on Rogaine and rotten fruit from Harry and David that the notorious martini-lover can use to make toilet vodka.More >>