As if the earthquake I felt this morning wasn’t enough, there was the hail.

In May.

Wasn’t it like, a hundred degrees just four days ago?

Gulp.

With the heat and the humidity today, this would be a good time to test the polling feature of the OC Metblog:

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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.  

Anyone who thinks that the nearest “Culture” with a capital C can only be found in Los Angeles is sorely mistaken.

On Saturday, I was the lucky guest of the Pacific Symphony as they hosted the 8th Annual Amercian Composers Festival at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Whew, ok, shall we shorten that to RHSCH? It was my first visit to the new hall, which opened in back in September of 2006. I’m a little late, I know. I found it to be very beautiful, even though I am not usually a fan of modern architecture. All I can say is that if you don’t like curves and circles, this hall is not for you. I think the only square things there were the doors. But that’s a good thing.

This year’s festival theme focused on music inspired by the American frontier, simply entitled “The West.” There were wonderful suites by Aaron Copeland and Ferde Grofe, the West Coast premiere of Four Strict Songs by composer Lou Harrison, as well as world premieres of two others. Curt Cacioppo debuted his Crying for Justice, and Stephen Scott his Vikings of the Sunrise: Pacific Crossroads.

They were all gorgeous. Four Strict Songs also included the Pacific Chorale, who are also fantastic. The concert hall has a very intimate feel, seating only two thousand. I much prefer this to the huge halls where the orchestra are so far away that you can barely see the bows of the violinists without binoculars, opera glasses. Hello Dorothy Chandler and Hollywood Bowl, I’m talking to you!

But the highlight of the night for both my husband and me was without a doubt Vikings of the Sunrise: Pacific Crossroads which was performed on a bowed piano, accompanied by the Pacific Symphony. What is a bowed piano, you might ask? Well, picture a piano with the top taken completely off. Then, a group of musicians, in this case the Bowed Piano Ensemble, gathers around and plays the inside of the piano. Using nylon wire, fishing wire, small hammers, and guitar picks, they utilize the entire piano to produce a symphony of sounds. It is utterly fascinating to watch, and they even had a camera mounted on the piano so that the audience could see them working close up on the large screens.

Here’s a YouTube (of a different piece, though) so that you can get a better idea:

I would highly recommend checking out the goings on at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The person responsible for taking the rams from Angel Stadium in Anaheim to St. Louis, has died.

The LA Times reported that she passed away at the age of 80. For those of you who remember, Georgia moved the Rams from the Southern California area to St. Louis in 1995.

Back then the team was nothing to write home about and Angel Stadium had ugly bright orange seats and no outfield seating.

We’ve been trying to get an NFL team back ever since the Rams left.

Happy New Year from all of us at Metroblogging OC!

to see the DWP light display, I have one word for you.

Don’t.

We happened to be in the area this past Sunday, as we spent the day at the newly-remodeld-to-us Griffith Observatory. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and of the countless times I have been to Griffith Observatory, I don’t ever remember the views being so spectacular. If you haven’t checked out the Observatory, I highly recommend it, even though parking is (as always) a bitch.

Anyhoo, since the light display was down at the zoo entrance, we decided to go. Big mistake. Once you turn onto Crystal Springs Drive, you are stuck. There is no way you can go, oh crap, this is going to take too long and change your mind. You are in it for the long haul. And while the display was sort of interesting, there was no way it was worth the 40 minutes we spent idling in bumper to bumper traffic waiting to see it.

But if you do decide to ignore my advie, make sure you position yourself in the left lane. Because if you are in the right lane, you will be playing a futile game of attempting look around all of the hulking SUV’s to see the displays, which are all positioned on the left side!

Way to go, DWP! Let’s get thousands of cars idling for 90+ minutes just to see your self-congratulating light display! I love your eco-conciousness! Not to mention the traffic created on the 5 from the people waiting to get off at Los Feliz, which backs up quickly.

I have dubbed August “Musical Theater” month for myself, as I went and saw Wicked in LA a couple weeks ago, and saw Mamma Mia yesterday.

Aaaaand, I just have to say that Orange County totally dresses better than LA. LA was funky but not in a good way, while OC was fairly classy and upscale.

What makes that worse for LA was that Mamma Mia was a Sunday matinee whilst Wicked was a weekend night performance, and we still kicked butt.

According to the LA Times, the Orange County Health Care Agency has issued a warning for people seeking to ignite their libido via mollusk this weekend.

Ok, well, they didn’t exactly put it that way, but go here for the article.

In short, stay away from the oysters!

Because I think it’s kind of important and because I will be visiting Angel Stadium for the upcoming Yankees series, I wish to point out that Angel Stadium is now going to hire night crews to clean up all the trash directly after the games instead of leaving it all there for 12+ hours.

Well, duh.

And while I think their goal of having no violations is a good one, why did it change only after all the publicity and deserved outrage?

I suppose I should be glad that things will hopefully get better, but it makes me feel jaded that their fans weren’t important enough to make it a priority from the day they received their first violation.

*Please tell me you know what song this is. A hundred points for the person who names the band!