Orange County News Blog

Courtesy of Flickr user armadillo444

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So on Wednesday night, the new Fantasmic! dragon at Disneyland had its first fully successful run and the geeks rejoiced. It was supposed to be up Monday, but was delayed due to technical difficulties. And on Tuesday, it had its first run but was not spitting fire.

As for Wednesday, when I actually went . . . well, let's just say that it's been years since I've seen the show so I don't remember what the old model looks like but . . . let me get this out of the way now.

Oh my God! That thing is so freakin' awesome! I want to take one home!

More pictures, responses, and video after the jump.

The clamor outside is made scarier by the fact that it's muffled, as if the kids next door are watching a slasher-flick at full blast. Felt in the stomach and feet: an incessant, pulse-heightening pound, bass-heavy and rhythmic from the stomping and drumming. Leaking through the doors into the ears: unintelligible barking, harsh talk, car horns and the occasional awful shriek.

To the "patriots" at the California Coalition for Immigration Reform's special meeting about "THE DEADLY THREAT OF ISLAM TO AMERICA," within the yellowing walls of the Garden Grove Womens Club, it sounds like jihad. The noisy Muslims outside aren't protesters; they're evidence. When the patriots entered the building, all they saw was a group of about 20 kids, standing on Chapman Avenue with signs and flags. But more than an hour into Wednesday's meeting -- the first CCIR gathering featuring a panel of speakers from the anti-Muslim Act! for America organization -- the racket outside becomes unmistakable in light of the information the guest speakers present: It must be the roar of a brown mob ululating, shouting "Death to Amerikkka!" in brusque Farsi, Molotov-ing Cadillac and impaling random passers-by.

But these patriots will be strong, they will be brave, they will as be fearless as Christmas. Christmas Atanous -- that's the woman up on stage, behind the eagle-adorned lectern, the slightly swarthy lady with to-the-shoulder Cleopatra hair and turquoise eyeshadow. She's incredible: Born in Iran as an Assyrian Christian (yes, they speak the same language as Jesus!), she endured unspeakable suffering at the hands of Muslims. She's seen family members murdered. She was forced to read that "unholy book," the Koran. She lived in a society where a Christian life was worth less -- literally worth less, she says -- than a donkey. So she came to America, the best nation on Earth.

Sarah Palin invigorated the conservative base with her surprisingly poised speech to GOP delegates last night, kicking new life into what had been a ho-hum convention previously “highlighed” by the Dead Man Talking triad (George W. Bush, Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman). Clockwork's favorite scene: delegates sporting “The Hottest VP From the Coolest State” buttons berating the media for being sexist toward America's favorite hockey mom.

Palin's performance certainly perked up Hugh Hewitt's ear hairs. Irvine's anti-mainstream-media mogul quickly put up posts praising the speech (“She Winds. She Shoots. She Scores”) and mocking the evil MSM for running away from their previous criticisms of her (“The Palin Breakout, Part 4”).

Of course, as there were parts I-III before that last post, Hughcifer obviously championed this veep pick long before she adjusted her shiny new eyeglass frames to focus in on the Teleprompter Wednesday night. One particular issue where the theocons find common ground, common hunting ground, involves protecting polar bears.

They're agin' it!

"With my brother in the mental state he's in since Iraq, nothing would surprise me."

That's Matt Needham talking about his brother, a 25-year-old who reportedly served two Army tours in Iraq before coming home to a plush San Clemente condo and allegedly beating his 19-year-old girlfriend to death.

Shortly before 11 p.m. Monday, deputies were called to 15 Paseo Luna -- in the same condominium complex as the photo shown here -- by a woman who said she had been in a dispute with another woman inside the condo and wanted to be escorted inside to retrieve property. But deputies were greeted at the door by the suspect, who was completely nude and combative.

Veering through the local bar hoppers in Fullerton, I found the Hibbleton Gallery and it's first exhibition TO THE FIFTH DIMENSION! At first I didn’t know what it was, or where it was, but there it was right there next to the Back Alley Bar with a sidewalk of hipster art fanatics talking about the scene.

This being the opening night of the gallery, it was expected to be a bit crowded and claustrophobic, but that's what you get when you go to any small show in Orange County.

The inside also met my expectations—a small room filled with people drinking wine and hardly paying attention to the artwork. It could be that these hipsters had arrived early and had already made the rounds leaving time only for socializing, but if that's the case, it made it difficult to absorb the art on display. See, they wouldn’t move. However, through my discourteous actions of wedging myself between hipster and art, I got to see what was being offered.

Artist Jason Jones (Japanland!) who describes his art as “super-enjoyable, decoupage-ish, melancholy, and whimsical,” lived up to his words. I was stuck on his work for a majority of the time that I in attendance, and contemplated even purchasing a piece. It was something that I had fun looking at, and would love to have in my house… Unfortunately, I had to use the $200 to fill up my gas tank to get home. But I do love the creatures that he’s created.

Though most of the featured artists have been exhibited throughout Orange County and Long Beach, it was fun to see them all in one location in a part of Fullerton that could have used some culture. The gallery hopes to focus on works from the latest underground, pop surrealist, outsider, graffiti, lowbrow, street, and subculture artists. I hope they live up to it, as I plan to return to see more.

Check out the artists:
Chad Eaton (Timber!)

Sarah & Trevor Girard (Metasaurus)

Jason Jones (Japanland!)

View a photo slideshow of the opening here.

--Gabriel Ryan / OC Weekly

As much as I've always loved superheroes, I've always felt there was something just a little off-putting about Marvel head honcho Stan Lee, the person. And it isn't a righteous indignation thing about not giving his collaborators their due credit; Stan has relented on that score in later years, and Jack Kirby's dead now.

No, there's just something about him that feels really cheeseball, from the way he tends to address audiences as "True Believers" and is prone to exclamations like "Excelsior!" Also, it's not hard to run into Stan Lee if you live in L.A., as I did for many years. The guy attends any and everything he's invited to.

That said, many of the characters he created are indeed classic. I'm not sure how much imagination it takes to create a hybrid of spider and man, but will definitely grant that the Incredible Hulk (comic-book version; not so much Ang Lee's movie) is the best modern take on the classic werewolf/Mr. Hyde mythos. And how many Westerners would be familiar with Norse mythology were it not for Lee devoting a comic book to Thor? (As a kid I never could stand all the "thee's" and "thou's", though)

And after spending an hour with Stan Lee yesterday, at a guest lecture at UC Irvine, I have to say that he's actually better in large doses. Equal parts arrogance and self-deprecation, he's like an enthusiastic grandpa who's dying to be asked about his wartime adventures, except that the wars are all ones he made up himself.

Rather than offer a straightforward review of Culture Clash's Culture Clash in AmeriCCa at South Coast Repertory (anything these guys do is genius, and this show is no different), here's some notes from the Friday night premiere:

*FACES IN THE CROWD: Orange County Business Journal honcho Rick Reiff, legendary slumlord George Argyros and his gracious wife, Judy, and too many coffin dodgers to count.

*MOST SHAMELESS PLUG: In the very beginning, when Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza prepare to interview a day laborer played by Richard Montoya, Salinas shouted "Ask a Mexican, take one," in a shameless nod toward my column. Gracias, guys. The audience howled--but probably more out of their bigoted souls than recognition of the column.

*BIGGEST BOMB: When Culture Clash took a jab at Costa Mesa's Minuteman councilmember, Allan Mansoor. Almost no one laughed--since when does the California Coalition for Immigration Reform attend theater?

*LOUDEST AUDIENCE GASP: When Siguenza--in the role of a beach bum--remarked he had just accepted a teaching job at Mater Dei High. "I hear the girls are HOT!" Siguenza shouted, and the audience squirmed, no doubt aware about the school's kiddie-fiddling reputation.

*LOUDEST AUDIENCE LAUGH: When Montoya--in the role of a stoned San Francisco lesbian (don't ask; go see)--she bought her pot from a nephew who's going to graduate from Orange Coast College after 13 years. As a proud Pirate, I take offense to your slur, Richard: most of us take 6 years, tops.

We can go on, but instead urge all to buy tickets now if you want two hours of joy, pain, laughter and barbs directed at our fair county. Actually, the OC parts probably total 25 minutes, but you won't notice it--and it ends with Social D!

Below are snippets:

Octopus, plum wine, taiko drums, eco-chopsticks made of pressed wheat...all this and more at the Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove last night.

It is frequently said, by critics, of the romantic comedies that Hollywood churns out that “if you’ve ever seen a movie before, you know exactly what’s going to happen.” In the case of PENELOPE, one doesn’t even need to have seen celluloid projected upon screen.

As the opening phrase “Once upon a time” suggests, anyone who has ever heard a fairy tale knows what direction the story will take, though there is admittedly no evil step-parent in this case, and the only wicked witch is but a minor player who long ago placed a curse upon the Wilhern family that the next girl child born to them would have the face of a pig, until such time as one of her own kind could love her for who she is.

The Wilhern family live in a big country estate that is also somehow smack-dab in the middle of a city whose central core looks like New York, with outskirts cribbed from both London and the movie MOULIN ROUGE. Motor-scooters exist in this world, as do spy cameras and two way mirrors; yet reporters bang away on manual typewriters, and there is clearly no Internet, for if there were, pig-nosed Penelope (Christina Ricci) would have zero problem finding a man – there are undoubtedly porcine fetishists out there.

And they will surely beat off to this movie for ever and ever (finally, for them, something besides the Muppet Movies).

Most people wouldn’t bail out of the OC Weekly’s Savviest Singles party early to run and catch a midnight screening of Larry the Cable Guy’s brand new movie WITLESS PROTECTION. But that’s why you have me, and believe it or not, it’s the most fun part of my job. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.

It will very likely not surprise you that the pun contained in the title of this film is as clever as the humor gets. This is a movie in which an FBI agent is named “Agent Orange,” and a security firm is called Private Maximum Security (PMS, get it?). It is also a movie that begins by playing “Eye of the Tiger,” a cliché that ought to be put out of its misery since PERSEPOLIS came up with the last possible clever variation on its use (no I’m not going to explain that further – go see PERSEPOLIS. It’s damn good. You’ll like it. If you hate subtitles, there’s even an English version coming).