Sure been quite ’round the old OC Metblog, hasn’t it?

I’ve been otherwise occupied with my new baby Katherine (Born June 18). Seeing as she was born in Orange County and spent time at two prominent OC hospitals, she’ll be a new regular fixture here. We’ll go on all sorts of OC adventures and write about them. Santa Ana Zoo, here we come!

In other OC news (of the type I post), The next meeting of the Orange County Atheists will be held on Thursday, August 17 at 7:30pm at the International House of Pancakes at 18542 MacArthur Blvd in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport. A map to the location is available here. Please RSVP at our website forum if you can attend. Hope everyone can make it!

What’s new, Orange County? What kind of stories would you like to see here? Let us know!

Well, sleeping in this morning was out of the question as Mother Nature decided to kick me out of bed.

It was so bad this morning that the lightning lit up my room and car alarms were set off up and down my block. This is all the result of the record heat wave that has hit california. Normally I can say its bearable as it used to be a dry heat, not any more its sticky hot.

For those of you who want to know what causes lightning (other then some diety bowling a strike) check out the Sciencedude.

The OC Fair Concert series always has a great group of performers. In the past Counting Crows, Beck, Flogging Molly, and others have performed to packed houses of fair goers stuffed with deep fried twinkes and trying to get their balance back after the tilt-o-whirl. Last night’s concert was no different Peeping Tom and Gnarls Barkley delivered a great night of entertainment.

I don’t know much about Peeping Tom, the group wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t understand the words to his songs (of course that’s not the point sometimes). The speakers were turned up way past 11 and made it muddled. Some in the crowd knew who Peeping Tom was and they rocked out, I just enjoyed my beer and hot dog as I waited for Gnarls.

Gnarls remained true to his stick with the entire band coming out dressed in a costume. Last night they came out dressed as tennis players, which I’m not sure if it was a homage to The OC. If there ever was an event that looked like something out of an Orange County based Television show, last night’s crowd could have been considered “Open Casting.” The crowd knew most of Gnarl’s short song list (he only has one CD out) and we all pretty much rocked out. “Crazy” the only song that Gnarls is mostly known for, was saved for the middle of the show, and it re-energized the crowd for the last three songs.

Overall, Gnarls Barkley was a great concert and a great continuation of performers that have rocked the Pacific Amphitheater over the years. Once again the OC Fair stands out on top of other county fairs in both value and entertainment.

With the Orange County Fair heading towards the end, and for those of you who havn’t had enough deep fried twinkies yet, there are some good concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre left:

Tomorrow is Gnarls Barkley (I’ll be in attendence and will blog it when I get home tomorrow)

Saturday brings us Velvet Revolver

All-American Rejects – July 26th

Paul Simon – July 28th

The Moody Blues – July 30th

The Full Concert Schedule is here

The Orange County Metroblog would like to welcome the newest Metroblog: Sacramento.



This makes for the fourth Metroblog in California, we have more metroblogs then some countries, and the 49th Metroblog in the Metroblog network.

July 17th, 1955 Disneyland opened its doors to 30,000 special guests a day before the official opening and millions (I’m sure it’s a bigger number) of families have been dragged to the “Mouse House” and local “Apes” (Annual Passholders) have been lost in the park ever since.

Besides the fact that the water fountains didn’t work, the concrete and the paint was still wet, and the park was still trying to finish up for the official opening on the 18th, “D-Land” (as us locals call it) spawned a billion dollar media empire the likes that have never been seen before. Synergy was not yet in the media lexicon as Walt combined his theme park with his studio ambitions. Art Linkletter welcomed the public to the new park and actress Irene Dunne christened the Mark Twain.

Walt welcomed guest to his new park with the following speech:

“To all who come to this happy place – welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past…and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America…with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

Shocked. The giant photo that I mentioned in my post “Everybody smile” actually worked. AP is reporting that the photograph will probably set the record for the world’s largest photograph. The non-profit Legacy Group showed off their creation in an old hanger at former MCAS El Toro and shows the old control towers, manhole covers, and even a portable toilet.

Using the old pinhole camera technique, the group was able to take a picture using a gumball size hole in the hanger wall on a large sheet of photo paper. The exposure was set at 35 minutes and then placed in a 1-foot deep tray of solution. I used to do this in High School and it was always cool to see the pictures that you took develop into something right before your eyes.

Hopefully the picture can find a home in Orange County.

I finally got to see “A Scanner Darkly,” not in OC, but in LA. OK, so enough about LA, it was all about the Archlight theater in Hollywood and its great sound and screen experience.

Since this isn’t a post about LA, but a post about a movie based in Anaheim seven years from now, it’s going to be filed under the OC Metroblog. Linkletter’s vision of Phillip K. Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly” left a lot to be desired it also required me to scratch my head to figure out what the heck was going on. The artistic style of the film also made it more confusing, while I saw the reason for it to portray the Scramble Suits, it would have been better to sit in front of a kaleidoscope for two hours.

The rotoscoping technique that was used the entire time in the film had its flaws. In a couple scenes you can tell the artisans missed (the hood of the tow truck and the spokes of the mountain bike to name a few). From the Wired article on the creation of the movie I wasn’t going in with high expectations. In a couple scenes some of the local scenery shows up: The Tustin Market Place, the Santa Ana Water Tower, the Xerox Building, and the freeway signs on the 5 freeway. Outside of that the movie lacked a lot of the local flavor that would have made the movie more believable, such as South Coast Plaza, actually shots of Anaheim Stadium (instead of the brief mention) and use of the streets for some of the exterior shots (instead of shots of Arizona).

Overall the movie was too confusing and sent the audience on an acid trip of its own as we all tried to figure out who was who and what the heck was going on. Now I can’t say for sure if this vision of PKD’s “Scanner” confirms to what he wanted (as I have never read the book), but I’ll leave it up to those who have read the book to determine if the film follows the story.

Each day we leave our kids at school and trust that those in charge of their care are professionals — and adults who are above ticky-tacky pettiness let alone cheap political vendettas. In most cases, that is correct. If, on the other hand, you live within the Capistrano School District, there may be a reason for the intuitive feel that your kid is a pawn — a hostage.

Today, the OC Register reports that “Capistrano Unified School District kept lists of 150 families who supported last year’s board recall campaign” including such personal information as “where their children went to school.” Why would one need to know the schools that recall supporters’ children attended if one were not contemplating some form of retaliation? I know it may sound a little paranoid but I can guarantee you the list wasn’t kept to insure that little Johnny got an extra helping of warm apple pie at lunch.

Of course no one remembers anything — except for a “disgruntled former employee” — which might have been a code word for “whistle blower” only the person in question, David Smollar, didn’t blow any whistles when he claims he first became aware of the lists in May, 2005. The lists in question were not included in the response to a public records request from the recall supporters raising the possibility that the district was in violation of the California Public Records Act.

And if that weren’t enough, there’s a good chance that the lists were prepared at taxpayer expense — and before we’ve heard the last of this, they’ll probably cost the good taxpayers of San Juan Capistrano even more money that could’ve been spent on their kids. Except, of course, for little Johnny and the other kids on the list.

I just got the following press release in my inbox from the city of Anaheim:

“Anaheim Launches Live Access to City Council Meetings Via Streaming Video”

Anaheim is working with a San Francisco based company to provide streaming video coverage of Anaheim City Council meetings. A quote in the press release from Mayor Pringle (not the chips) claims that with the Earthlink Wireless network (which is open to other ISPs according to a News.com report) all residents can watch the paint dry and the grass grow the decisions that affect the city of Anaheim.

Pretty much anyone who has internet accesss can watch the city council meeting, you don’t need to have Earthlink to do so. Grancius, the company providing the streaming coverage also provides the same services to the cities of Long Beach, Sacramento, San Diego, Scottsdale, and Brentwood.