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).

An imagined conversation deep within the halls of Lionsgate’s marketing department, a year or so ago...

SUIT 1: Curses! Those dastardly critics have finally realized that when we don’t show one of our horror movies to them in advance, that means it sucks!

SUIT 2: Screw ‘em. Critics all hate horror movies anyway. Besides, that godawful EPIC MOVIE did fine for Fox with no reviews.

SUIT 1: Yeah, for like one day, until people realized the critics were right. They’re starting to catch on! Now the public has some idea that movies not screened for review are bad!

SUIT 2: Hmmmm....Hey, I have an idea. Let’s just never show any of our horror movies to critics, ever. That way they’ll be faked out, and have no idea whether the movie really sucks or not! Plus, we’ll sell about 40 more tickets by making them pay!

SUIT 1 (suddenly becoming a Guinness commercial): Brilliant!

SUIT 2: Brilliant! (both proceed to get drunk).

Yes, this is a long-winded way of saying that just because Lionsgate doesn’t screen a horror movie for review, doesn’t mean it sucks, even if sometimes it does. This week, we have THE EYE, and it doesn’t suck. It’s far from brilliant, but as weekend multiplex popcorn fare, it mostly gets the job done.

UPDATE: Photos are up.

By Amanda Parsons and Erin DeWitt

When the press release for a Newport Beach bachelor auction came across our desks, we were all over that shit. And when we heard there was going to be an open bar? The deal got even sweeter.

You would think that a room full of eligible men, free flowing alcohol and some B-list reality TV stars would make for a fun evening.

It didn’t.

After approximately five Miller Lites from my favorite OC bartender Ife (he works at both Cafe Tu Tu Tango and The Auld Dubliner), I had a decision to make: which midnight movie to see?

CLOVERFIELD would clearly have been the best option, but I had already seen it. That left two options:

27 DRESSES
Pluses: Katherine Heigl's hot, and Malin Akerman is both hot and amazingly talented. And Judy Greer as the trainwreck supporting character; I've liked her since THE SPECIALS. I think Cyclops from X-men is also in it.
Minuses: Sounds exactly like THE WEDDING PLANNER, which really sucked, and starred Jennifer Lopez. But I repeat myself.

MAD MONEY
Minuses: Stupid title that sounds like a bad rap song (see also HOW SHE MOVE, opening next week). Queen Latifah hasn't been in any good movie I can remember since HOUSE PARTY 2 (yes, CHICAGO included, though ICE AGE 2 was semi-okay).
Pluses: Ted Danson and Stephen Root. And it has Katie Holmes, who's extremely easy for a critic to make fun of. Also the movie's kind of an underdog opening against a big monster action movie and a wedding-based chick flick.

I went with MAD MONEY. And it isn't terrible. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, so be it.

"I hate going to the Philippines, like, against my will," Pinoy standup comic Rex Navarrete tells the mostly-Filipino crowd at the Irvine Improv club Tuesday night, recalling teen summers in San Francisco he was forced to trade in for drugged plane rides back to the motherland. . .where he stayed with his superstitious aunt in her provincial fortress of a home, just a seven hour jeepney ride from the airport.

The place is a little more than half full, with folks picking at their spicy chicken strips and calamari, trying not to choke as they bowl over with laughter. Some fondly remember the weirdness of home; others unfamiliar with the culture sit wide-eyed next to their Pinay girlfriends with "He's kidding, right? Right?!" looks on their faces.

But Navarrete preaches the truth - we freaking Flips really do have relatives who send SPAM (ahem, "special ham"), Toblerone, broken appliances and down blankets our family on the archipelago will never need back to the Philippines in large cardboard boxes. We're no stranger to that strange wealthy and wacky Imelda-esque "tita" (auntie) who lives behind 20 foot walls lined with broken glass at the top so the street kids won't climb over. Y'know, that same tita who believes evil "dwende" (dwarves) live in the backyard and the woods beyond it, and that "Kapres" (smoking giants) live in trees, and that one shouldn't climb the roof at night lest the "mananangals" (flying vampire-like old biddies without legs) steal the unborn child within you.

acting on a tip from my very good pal harris (all-around sexy kid and one-half of local up-and-comers senior recreation), i purchased kelley stoltz's below the branches off iTunes about 25 minutes ago (having made an unrelated purchase of guided by voices' bee thousand--i lost my old copy--15 minutes prior). so far, i can tell dude's going to be my new favorite obsession, seeing how he's equal parts brian wilson, emmitt rhodes and richard swift. annnnnnd the beautiful last track, "no world like the world," just faded into what comes next in my iTunes library: kelly osbourne's "one word." annnnnd i can't bring myself to skip this song, because i actually totally love it. it's an absolute visage rip-off. too bad theo isn't here in the office. i'd crank it up. (also: today i could not stop listening to rogue wave's "publish my love" and "love's lost guarantee". just saying.)

never did make it out to see jessica dobson or the image bulletin last night; got caught up with a 12 pack of pbr and a guided by voices dvd instead. but there's lots going on this weekend/next week, beginning tonight withfuture days at memphis santora (dj eyad) and awaysted youth at avalon bar (dj rob). i really should post these things earlier, i realize. also, don't miss the lewbowski fest west bowling party tomorrow night (see amanda parson's pick of the week; for a real hoot, you can google search my name and find the lebowski fest message boards where all the dudes from last year, upset that i had called them nerds and the like, wished a horrible death from v.d. upon me. rad!) and then, uh, don't miss jon stewart making his famous friends (and you) laugh on sunday.

next week: drop everything and set up camp at the prospector for brad lindsay (on tuesday), model airplanes (on thursday) and senior recreation (on saturday). there's also a super cool matthew sweet/susanna hoffs show at hotel cafe on wednesday, but it's invite-only and only those (like me) who kiss the asses of the shout! factory folks get to go.

oh. man. kenny loggins just came up on the playlist. me thinks it's time for the weekend. i'll leave you with this: cute overload. and for when you get to work on monday morning: gorilla vs. bear, your new favorite mp3 blog.

p.s.: thanks to my co-workers ben f. and bill c. for joining me in shotgunning p.b.r's earlier this afternoon. i had never shotgunned a beer before (even during four shitfaced years at notre dame) but given our upcoming drinking issue, a little research was in order. i'm happy to report it was, uh, successful.

recent experiments in listening to the same songs over and over and over (and over) again have proven that the following songs have pay little (to no) heed to the law of diminishing returns (which i actually know nothing about, having slept through an entire semester of a.p. economics in high school): destroyer's "painter in your pocket" and kenny loggins' "i'm alright".

now, those i've talked to about this have completely ignored my musings on destroyer (citing lack of familiarity) and claimed, in regards to kenny, that zero of zero is zero. funny. but wrong!
but there are specific reasons why i have been able to listen to no other songs than these two for the last week, and i'd like to address them:

a) i purchased my first entire album from iTunes last week, destroyer's destroyer's rubies. it is very, very good. so good, in fact, someone over at pitchfork decided to spend more than 30 seconds on a strong and throughtful and dead-on review of it. the "endlessly catchy" track "painter in your pocket", as matt lemay notes, "opens with a stark acoustic guitar intro, then unexpectedly builds up more bounce and swing than any Destroyer song to date. By the time the song reaches its final chorus, it has attained a blissful, sing-songy energy that hasn't really graced any Destroyer record since Streethawk." iTunes reports i've listened to the track some 51 times to date, but the number is actually probably nearer 80 or 90, given the drives to and from work where i've listened to it on repeat. curious as to what it sounds like? think bowie, updated as a scarf-wearing vancouver hipster for your listening pleasure. it's available from iTunes and it will change your life. more destroyer gems, including the equally fantastic "european oils" (that guitar solo!) and "3000 flowers" (not to mention "an actor's revenge" from 2004's your blues) can be found on destroyer's myspace page.

b) knowing my (absolutely unabashed and not-ironic-at-all) affinity for hall and oates and michael mcdonald, my friends directed me over to channel101.com's yacht rock, a digi-cam spoof of all things '70s lite rawk. it's nearly flawless in its references, especially on episode three, where kenny loggins breaks with his yacht rock comrades over "i'm alright". a new episode was recently added. watch episodes one through six and then get educated on how warren g.'s sampling of michael mcdonald's "i keep forgettin'" really went down. you, too, will realize after this a certain indisputable truth about our existence on this planet: the second coming is among us, and his name is kenny loggins.

also worthy of note: caught an excellent night of rock on monday at detroit bar. it was the final night of big bear-based rockers ann lynn's residency. at the end of a solid set of sweet, soft indie/country songs, they covered the faces' "ooh la la", wilco's "jesus don't cry" and (shockingly!) peter gabriel's "mercy street" (so great!) and will probably go on to do bigger things than you or i will because their lead singer looks like henry thomas and sings like ben gibbard. openers slings were even better, decorating the stage with robotic dinosaurs and a volcano rigged with red christmas lights and a fog machine. they'll be at dipiazza's in long beach on april 5. in the meantime, check out jessica dobson at biola tonight (an early 8:45 show) and then the image bulletin at detroit bar afterwards (they go on at ten or so).

stay tuned: kevin from fielding now books and promotes shows at the prospector in long beach every first and last tuesday of the month. earlier this week we caught madman moon, next week i'll be back for brad lindsay. lots of great music happening around these parts in the next couple weeks. don't miss out.
and finally: coworker patty alerted me to a great site earlier this week. if you love peeps, you may want to tread with care. the good news is they don't have hearts: peep surgery.

and thus ends my innaugural post.