On Tuesday, while carpooling with a coworker to the Irvine Spectrum Center we noticed that a crew had a top of the Fox Sports Grill sign down. Jokingly I said “Another one bites the dust.”

Well, accordingly to the Orange County Register I wasn’t wrong. In addition to Fox, it looks as if the Fish Market is going/gone also.

It looks like Fox will need to update their website now with a picture of a location that is actually open.

It is kind of ironic due to the fact that last month I made a post in my personal blog when I notice a lot of bigger chain stores closing, while the little ones seemed to be able to stay open.

First, Dave showed us that three of the top 20 dancers from So You Think You Can Dance are from the OC. This morning I read that one of the 10 contestants on She’s Got the Look — the Top Model for the over-35 set — is from the OC. Tanya Hutchison, 45 and mother of five, is from Rancho Santa Margarita and has made it as one of the show’s four finalists.

I’m not necessarily recommending this show. While I think it’s admirable for TV to say that women over 35 can still be models, I generally cringe at the thought of reality shows involving wives and mothers from the OC. Consider Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County as the source of my disdain. (Sadly, the show will be returning for a third season.)

While normally TV shows wouldn’t count as city [county] based posts, I really want people to tune into the show. And seeing as 3 of the top 20 dancers are from Orange County, I’m using that as my excuse for posting.

If you don’t already watch this show, you’re missing out. My wife and I are dancers, so I know we’re more inclined to like this type of show than non-dancers. However, more and more of my non-dancing co-workers are watching the show and telling me how much they love it. Let’s meet our local dancers shall we?
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Remember this little movie in the early 80s starring a couple of young actors named Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy? It had something to do with a game called Global Thermonuclear War. Yep, I’m talking about WarGames!

Just as you were planning to relive your youth by checking out Pat Benatar at the OC Fair on August 1, now you can also catch WarGames in theaters! On July 24, 2008, the movie will be played in several theaters around Orange County in celebration of the upcoming release of a special 25th anniversary edition DVD.

The catch is that each theater will have just one showing, so if you want to go, best make those plans now and buy your tickets in advance. Participating theaters include: Irvine Spectrum, The Block, Tustin Legacy 14, Huntington Beach 20, Orange Stadium Promenade 25, Brea 22 East and the Garden Grove 16. Shows are at 7:30 P.M. and tickets are $10 each. Tickets can be purchased in advance through Fandango (except for The Block and Tustin Legacy 14).

[Image courtesy of Fandango.]

I’m not quite as fond of this year’s theme as I was of last year’s “Cowabunga!” but it will have to do.

Yes my friends, it’s that time of year again when we can drink large vats of lemonade and gorge on fried Twinkies! The OC Fair!

The fun begins on July 11 (and keeping with tradition, the first hour admission from noon to 1pm is freeeee!) until August 3rd. There are lots of other admission promotions, like free Kids Days on Tuesdays and July 23 from noon-6pm where you can donate five cans of food in exchange for admission. Go here to get the lowdown on all of them.

There are also some great concerts this year, including Paramore and Jack’s Mannequin, Seal, Emmylou Harris, MercyMe, Yaz and the Psych Furs, Dropkick Murphys, Fergie, B.B. King, Pat Benetar, the Scorpions and many more. Go here for the full concert schedule.

All in all, barring some sort of freakishly hot weather, which can never be discounted as a possibilty, it should be a good time.

I am just crossing my fingers that this year they repeat the excellent concept of placing all the children’s activities in a nice, cool tent. That was pure genius.

I know the news is a day old, but the NHL suspended Ducks owner Henry Samueli after he pleaded guilty to backdating of options.While the team states that this “will not change the day-to-day operations of the team and the Samueli’s can still attend games as fans,” Henry cannot have a say in the operations of the team while under the leagues suspension. So readers, I ask you, should Henery Samueli remain as the owner of the Anaheim Ducks: 

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What’s old is new again. Sometimes, what’s new was already old before it even debuted. Ah yes, following the trends can be a hard thing to keep up with. After all, Anaheim (and The Mouse by proxy) eliminated all the fantastic Googie, space-age and coffee-shop elements from its resort district just before it started to become cool again. It takes real guts to tear down neon and replace it with cheap plastic and fluorescent lights and then pronounce it to be a tasteful improvement.

Anywho, the New York Times just ran an interesting article about the “identity crisis” facing nostalgia due to the modernization of classic characters from our childhood. A very small teeny tiny almost unnoticeable portion of the article dealt with Disneyland’s desire to update “Toontown, the section of Disneyland that Mickey calls home. One plan features an old-fashioned trolley, but Mr. Iger is not sure that is a smart idea. Will modern children know what an old-fashioned trolley is?”

The Toon Town gentrification rumor has been circulating for a little while. Of course the most notable comment I have heard is “they wouldn’t have to update the place if they hadn’t closed all the A-ticket attractions in Toon Town to begin with”. But I digress. My personal feelings are pretty clear. First I gaze out over Tomorrowland, seeing the aging decrepit People Mover track rotting in the California sun. Then I think about the Toon Town project (which is unofficial by the way) and I wonder to myself: Haven’t they got bigger fish to fry?

So I ask you this:

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Care to elaborate? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

In 1998 a new Tomorrowland debuted at Disneyland. It featured an empty Submarine lagoon, an old rickety Space Mountain, a transplanted attraction from Florida and an ill-advised and ill-fated new attraction called the Rocket Rods. The later would close before the turn of the century and the transplant, Innoventions, would eventually become a mere shadow of its Florida predecessor.

These days Tomorrowland is fresher and sharper than the “new” version unleashed in 1998. Space Mountain is a sparkling gem, Buzz Lightyear has taken up residence in the Circlevision Theater, a gleaming new fleet of monorails are on the tracks and the Submarines are once again cruising through the icy blue waters of the lagoon. But what of Innoventions? Is it still the attraction that time forgot? The answer is a resounding “no”.

The bottom floor of the old Carousel Theater, the current home of Innoventions, is under major construction. The Mayor of Tomorrowland (that’s Tom Morrow for you layman) got his eviction notice and the Innoventions Dream House is moving in. The sprawling interactive, live action, free form exhibit will span the entire bottom floor including the rotating outer ring. It’s real technology on display that you can touch and feel. You don’t have to settle for watching Cast Members demonstrate how the technology works, you will have the ability to walk right into the modern abode and put it to use yourself – no restrictions.

The exhibit features every technological marvel they could cram in and a character family that wanders through the house interacting with guests and living out the daily dramas of being a modern family in a modern home. It’s like nothing you’ve encountered in any Disney Park around the world. So keep your balls peeled to see how the new concept works. Will the openly accessible techno-toys prove to be too troublesome to manage and maintain? Only time will tell.

What I can tell you is, the new Dream House is finally living up to what Innoventions has been promising all along: new technology in everyday application. Are you sure this doesn’t belong in Fantasyland? [smirk] All joking aside, it’s a smart and welcome addition to the new new Tomorrowland. Now if only they would bring back the People Mover.

Are you ready to get in a really really really long line? The construction walls are just about to come down over at Disney’s California Adventure in the Paradise Pier district and Toy Story Midway Mania is almost ready for the public’s prying eyes. The attraction with the overly wordy title is in its final test and adjust phase as I type this.

Long Story Short: You get in a vehicle, pop on some 3-D glasses and play several different, interactive computer generated midway style games. On your journey you’ll shoot darts, hoops, suctions cups and pies from your own personal “gun” and score points. When you’re done, you’ll get a score. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds.

Good: The technology on display here is staggering. One of the simplest and most dazzling effects is how the projectiles that splat, soar and careen their way onto the 3-D targets actually appear as if they are coming from the “gun” mounted to the front of your vehicle. Other 4-D effects serve to enhance the experience, like puffs of air when you pop a balloon or a light splash of water when you hit a wet target. It’s great fun and immensely entertaining.

Bad: There is no story here. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. The very best Disneyland attractions are the ones that place you in the middle of a story in progress or at the least a highly themed environment. Beloved attractions tell a story. Also-rans do not. On Midway Mania you get in, you play the games and you get off – it’s like Buzz Light Year’s Astro Blasters on steroids without a plot. It’s all whiz and no bang.

Ugly: The ride vehicles are technically superior but strange in shape and size. Also there’s no clever disguise of a mine car, bobsled or jeep. It’s just a big weird behemothey thing you sit in to facilitate the game play.

Odd: It was noted among quite a few male riders exiting the attraction that firing the “gun” (an unusual device that requires you to yank repeatedly on a cord every time you want to fire) bears a resemblance to **ahem** a certain type of gratification. Females may not get it but the guys on board spotted the similarities immediately. One fellow even claimed to be blind after riding. You may want to steer clear of unsupervised packs of teenage boys.

So there you have it. Toy Story Midway Mania is spectacular display of a superior technology hindered only by it’s lack of story. It really doesn’t matter what I think anyway because people are going to love this attraction! It’s the type of family friendly fair that plays directly to the Disneyland faithful and the Pixar devoted. In other words everyone on the planet is going to be scrambling to ride it over and over again.

It isn’t bad enough that the ticket brokers go ahead and take the best concert tickets, leaving it so that even if you are “first” to get tickets, the best are already gone.

No, the Orange County Fair directors have to step in and take their unfair share as well.

The LA Times reported that Fair directors get up to twenty-six premimum orchestra tickets apiece. That compares to the four they get in LA county, and those are in the bleacher sections. And the biggest winner? Deborah Carona, wife of our esteemed former Sheriff, with 1,100 tickets over the past two years.

And this is when in three of the past five years, the concert series has lost money. Gee, I wonder why.

State regulators are urging the directors to change the policy, but the President of the board states, “It isn’t an easy thing to work out.”

Oh, how so?

Stop giving yourself so many freebies.

Sounds pretty easy to me.