For those of you who do not know who Tyrone Wells
is, you’re missing out. He’s an OC resident who got his start playing at McClain’s coffehouse in Fullerton. He’s grown over the last few years and has a huge following. Now is your chance to see him live AND help out an organization that provides homes for abandoned HIV and AIDS babies.

Unfortunately the flyer is pdf, so click here for the link!

I’d love to make this a giveaway, but I don’t have the connections or the money to do that. Besides, donations don’t work unless you pay for them!

Go support a local charity and local musician! I’ll be there….look for me!

Last month I accompanied my wife while she was tending to her horse in it’s new location, I decided to take a bike ride around Santiago/ Modjeska Canyon. Besides being in awe of the devastation the wildfires had created, I found a little jewel that I did not know even existed.
Run by Cal State Fullerton, the Tucker WIldlife Sanctuary houses a small natural history museum with preserved specimens of the local wildlife. Across the way from the museum is a wildlife sanctuary houses tortoises, turtles, a couple ponds, and of course birds. The bird porch is a great place to sit, take pictures of the birds, or just daydream. On top of the peacefulness and nature, the staff (I spoke with Kirk) is bright and enthusiastic about what they do. If you are a hiker, there are trails leading up from here. More information can be found on their site.

Check out the Metblogs Flickr Pool for photos took of the sanctuary.

If you have children or just want to see what wildlife Orange County has/ used to have, then I highly recommend you check it out.

With the Titans returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in thirty years, it would have been a tragedy if the game was not televised. Since UCLA is getting all of the coverage on Channel 2 (CBS), and USC is even getting television coverage, where were the Titans going to end up?

As it turns out, CBS reached a last minute deal with local station KDOC to air the Titans on Channel 56. Game time will be at 6:30pm, so for those of you stuck in traffic, don’t forget to set your DVR/TiVo before you leave for work.

Cal State Fullerton is also going to host watch parties at the following locations: Monitors and screens are to be set up in the Titan Student Union to allow students to watch the entire game thanks to KDOC in a group setting.

For Titans Fans on Campus

Titans living near campus are invited back for a game watch gathering at the Titan Student Union. Four big screens, comfortable seating, snacks and soft drinks will help make this game one to remember! http://asi.fullerton.edu/tsu/

For Local Titans
A game watch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Brian’s Beer and Billiards located in the Albertson’s shopping center on the corner of Yorba Linda Blvd and Placentia. Brian’s Beer and Billiards is an official Titan Athletic corporate sponsor and will be airing the game on their five Plasma screen TV’s. Patrons must be 21 years of age or older with proper identification. (My personal favorite, they have a ton of Titan gear)

UCI lost to the Cal State Fullerton Titans who whomped the ‘Eaters in the Big West Title game at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Titans will finally return to the tournament for the first time in thirty years.

What a sight to see Tuffy crowd surfing the “Orange Curtain!”

Now the Titans will wait and see who they will face in the first round.

UPDATE: The Titans are going to take on Wisconsin in the first round.

Well, well, this was an end to the BigWest Basketball season that I totally did not see coming. Just as the fans to the north are settling down after the big UCLA - USC show down in the Pac-10 Tournament, we here in the OC get to experience nearly the same thing, but this time it’s for all of the marbles.Cal State Fullerton is returning to the title game for the first time since 1982, when they then lost to Fresno State. The Titans have not won a title since 1978. The Anteaters of UC Irvine knocked out UC Santa Barbara, a team which was expected to win the tournament.So it’s the CSU versus the UC here in the OC. This game should be fun and I’m sure there will be plenty of seats at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena.  

The Titans beat the ‘Eaters to claim title of “Co-Champs of the Big West!” This is the best finish for the Cal State Fullerton Titans in Basketball in long time. Let’s hope they can make it through to March Madness. 

The Register is reporting that one of the largest crowds packed the stands at Titan Gym to watch the Titans take on Cal State Northridge.

While the crowd of 1,983, the largest crowd to see a CSUF home game this season, gave the Gym a big league atmosphere, the Titans lost to Northridge by 8-points.

This leaves the Titans a game and a 1/2 out of first place in the Big West Conference.

I wish the basketball program could reach the level of the CSUF Baseball program. Then the Titans could build a larger fan and donor base for a possible return to college football.

With the recent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda (right across the street from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library), there was a story of another true life horror taking place…

…in a movie theater.

At the AMC theater in Fullerton two movie patrons were stabbed during a showing of the horror film “The Signal.” Slashfilm (the blog, not a slasher flick) reports that an unknown man started stabbing at the seats and then started to stab two people in front of him as the movie was playing. The theater paused the film due to the stabbing.

When the film resumed the first scene involved a stabbing.

Slashfilm is wondering: “Is the Signal real?”

Or is this just the work of a mentally deranged man? Discuss…

Tesco’s (a British retail giant) foray into the small-format grocery store has arrived in Orange County! So the Missus and I took ourselves, as well as our green-earth-hippie-Wiccan-gay-sensibilities down to the brand spanking new Fresh and Easy (hey it’s named after me!) on the corner of Main and Chapman in Orange. The new neighborhood grocer occupies what was once The Good Guys and then sat empty and derelict for far too long.

What was waiting behind the shiny new exterior shell of the building was anyone’s guess. I’ll tell you what we didn’t expect: Empty shelves - loads of them. When we breezed through the whooshing automatic doors we were met with shelf after shelf of bareness in the Produce and preprepared foods section.

As it turns out we weren’t the only ones to notice this problem. An article in Fortune recently detailed the stock-level issues as well. The CEO “chalked the shortfall up to unexpected demand for Fresh & Easy’s ready-to-eat meals” but when we queried an employee they blamed the shortfalls on the store’s complete “lack of back-of-house storage”. In other words, there is no storeroom and what is on the floor is the only stock the market has. She also said the stock levels were higher in the morning right after deliveries. Well, Okie dokie then.

Empty shelves aside, the store was a charm-free hybrid of Trader Joes meets Vons meets liquor store. Half Fresh and Easy store brand and half national brands, most of it healthy and most of it very reasonably priced. It’s an odd sort of shopping experience, but not an unpleasant one. Paired with the new Mother’s Market that’s opening just around the corner, F&E brings a much needed quasi-healthy shopping option to an area that was devoid of it.

Will I go back? Yes. Will I make it a regular stop for my shopping needs? Maybe. Hopefully time will allow them to iron out their stock-level issues and help them to thrive in the neighborhood.

New locations are open (or opening soon) in La Palma, Buena Park, Fullerton and yet another location in Orange. Anaheim seems conspicuously absent from that list - F&E seems like a perfect fit for the Resort district. Has anyone else tried this or a different location? What did you think? Will they survive in SoCal?

This morning I was escorting my mother to John Wayne Airport for her return to the wet and dreary weather of the Oregon Coast when what to my wandering eyes should appear? No, it wasn’t a sleigh and eight reindeer. Instead it was Little Richard and eight members of his entourage. What exactly does one do when Little Richard flags them down and shouts “Merry Christmas! How’re y’all doin’?”

In my line of work I bump into celebrities often enough, so it’s rare that I’m at a loss for words but in this case his verbal outburst took me off guard. Of course on the inside I was screaming “YOU ‘INVENTED’ ROCK AND ROLL” and “OH MY GOD HOW MUCH PLASTIC SURGURY HAVE YOU HAD ANYWAY?” but outwardly I was wearing a thick layer of elegant distain and vague disinterest.

Normally the OC-rule-of-celebrity-encounters dictates that you treat them like anyone else (especially if they are A-Listers) and let them go about their business. After all they deserve their privacy and this isn’t exactly a paparazzi hot spot. Also, based on our proximity to LA you can expect to see them pretty much everywhere you go.

However, when the (non A-List) celebrity is wearing a big fur coat, sitting in wheelchair surrounded by an entourage and is yelling at you to come say hello, then I suppose you should oblige. So we did just that - essentially we wished him a Happy Holiday and went on our merry way. My mom was thrilled and I was amused.

So Merry Christmas to you Little Richard and thanks for being so friendly and making my Mom’s day! You rock (literally).