Fire Knife of Samoa presents the 6th Annual Fire Knife Championships in Anaheim on Saturday, September 5th and Sunday, September 6th (4 PM to 10 PM). The event is located outdoors at the Pearson Park Amphitheater, 401 N. Lemon St., Anaheim, CA, 92805.

So, the wifey and I attended last year’s event and had ‘spec-freaking-tacular’ time! The contest is “hosted by the actual descendants of Freddie Letuli, the man who literally invented the concept of adding fire to the traditional knife dances the warriors performed before and after battles”. Last year was so fun we’re planning on attending again on the night of the final competition (that’s Sunday for those keeping track). I know the poster says 4PM but we showed up at 6 PM and it was perfect – the sun was setting, the heat dissipated and the night sky was literally on fire!

Anyone care to meet us there for some fun out of the sun? Maybe we can have have drinkies at Hotel Menage afterwards?

Before the year 2000, Verizon Wireless Ampitheater was known as Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. In the 1980’s the amphitheater employed a teenaged Tom Dumont as a burger cook. While it is every budding musicians dream to make it big, Tom has fulfilled that dream. A few years later he became the guitarist for No Doubt, arguably the biggest music act to come out of Orange County. With a career spanning over twenty years, their music has evolved from their Ska roots to the a Grammy Award winning Pop powerhouse. Not only have they grown musically, but the No Doubt family has grown in size and geographically. Despite that growth, the band still has deep roots in Orange County. Now a resident of Long Beach, Tom grew up in Irvine, and has lived in Orange and Anaheim along the way. Recently I had the pleasure to sit down with guitarist Tom and ask him some questions relating to his experiences with the band and his ties with Orange County.

Jeff Donaldson: Growing up in Orange County, I know you ventured to Irvine Meadows / Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at least once as a teen/ young adult. My first concert there was Berlin and Talk Talk. Do you remember the first concert you went to go see there? Who did you go to see?

Tom Dumont: Actually my first memories of Irvine Meadows was as an employee. I grew up in Irvine, and when I turned 16 I got a job there, literally flipping hamburgers in the concession stands…I worked there every summer for at least 4 or 5 years. I just loved music and I usually got off the grill early enough to catch most of the headliners set. If there was a band playing that I really liked, I’d sneak in using my employee badge and shirt. So basically in the 80’s I saw almost everyone who played there. I loved it. And quickly moved up from burgers to beer sales to managing stands. I was ambitious :)

J: What was your favorite or most memorable concert at Irvine Meadows / Verizon Wireless Amphitheater? It could be as a performer or spectator. Why?

TD:Most memorable would be when No Doubt opened for Ziggy Marley there in 1990. I think we were the first of 5 bands that day. We were still a local band with no record deal. Although we had great shows headlining clubs in those days, playing at Irvine was a very big deal obviously and for my own reasons as well (see answer above.) I think our upcoming 4 night stand there will even top that though!
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At last, spring has come to Orange County! I allowed those two terrible months of cold weather (I had ice on my car!!!), but now it’s time to get back to the best reason to live in Southern California……warm, sunny, beautiful days like this one. As I drove over the hill to Santiago Canyon College for some school stuff, I could see it was gong to be a beautifully clear day. I just hoped it would stick around long enough for me to take some pics. As you can tell, it did.

As soon as I finished my clinical work, I sprinted up to Orange Hill Restaurant. Not for their lackluster food, but for the view they have of the entire North County area. It’s easy to forget just how close to the ocean we all are here, thanks to traffic, wonky streets and freeways and the flat land. But as you can see, we’re really not too far at all.

I took some more pics, which you can see after the jump —–>
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Professional skater Ryan Sheckler will host the 20th Anniversary celebration is on February 22nd from 10:20am-3pm at the Grand Reopening of their original loacation: 1862 Placentia Avenue, Costa Mesa Ca 92627. The first 200 customers will be eligible for a raffle of prizes, $0.20 fish tacos will be sold during the celebration, and word has it that there will be a secret new menu item.

Wahoo’s Fish Taco’shas been an integral part of the Orange County surf and skate culture. Early on they would sponsor local events and in turn, they developed a loyal following. In the 90’s there was hardly a surf contest where Wing would not show up with grub for all the participants. In addition to being at the events and a part of the culture, their first restaurant location was close to where many of the local surf/skate companies (Like QuiksilverVolcom, and Billabong) had there headquarters. They soon developed a loyal following.
I love Wahoo’s and have been going there since they opened. Even as they have expanded their enterprise to beyond Orange County, the food is still the same refreshing food I remember enjoying after a long day at the beach. (Yes, at one time I actually went to the beach.)

You guys, I’m so excited about this. Virgin America is my favorite airline to fly and now they’ll be flying out of Orange County! I became a “founding member” of their frequent flyer program Elevate when I signed up before their first plane even left the ground 2 summers ago. I heard about what they had planned and saw the pictures of what was to come and I was sold. My first flight with them was in February last year and it was an amazing (I’m realizing I use that word far too much….but in this case it’s true). Thanks to a storm over New York we ended up on the plane for almost 8 hours, but thanks to all of the special features of the plane, including the large comfy seats, leg room and Red, the seat-back computer system, time flew by almost too fast (no pun intended). In fact, I just recently got their credit card to help me build miles.

Oh, and did I mention it’s SUPER DUPER CHEAP?!?!

If you ever get to fly with them, I’m quite sure you won’t regret it and you’ll be spoiled, never wanting to fly another airline again.
I only hope they start service to New York from John Wayne……maybe I’ll start a petition. Anyone wanna sign??
Almost forgot. Service starts April 30

As is not uncommon for me, I had a weekday off today. My big plans for the day included playing WoW, doing laundry and maybe hitting up the grocery store if I felt like living it up. See, I hate having weekdays off because all my friends work during the week, leaving me with no one to play with.
Today, however, my wife decided to play hooky from work! Aside from a little breeze gale force gust here and there, it was really going to be a beautiful day and I was happy it wouldn’t go to waste.

We decided we would head out to Huntington Beach for some lunch at Ruby’s on the pier.
BEST. DECISION. EVER.

As you can see it was an awful day out. Click below to see more pictures of the terrible conditions in HB.
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Rhys Millen, world champion drifter and amazing stunt car driver will attempt an amazing task tonight. He will do a backflip in an off-road racing truck. That’s right, a backflip off of a ramp!
There’s more info here at Red Bull’s “New Year No Limits” site. Click down at the bottom where it has the name Rhys Millen.

He was to attempt this last year, but he screwed up in practice and broke his back. I’ve provided the video here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RavPi16b4IQ[/youtube]

“Why does this apply to OC?? He’s doing it in Vegas!!!!”

Rhys lives in San Clemente, and I’m happy to say I dine with him on a regular basis, so I’m all about giving him props on the interwebs!! Also, all of the practicing took place at the El Toro base! I got to go see it in person and it’s pretty insane! I would supply the cameraphone video I have, but I’d rather you just tune in.

ESPN!!! Tonight!!!! DO IT!
[/straight-boy moment]

*UPDATE* He made it all the way around, but he rolled the truck and wasn’t able to drive away. He’ll be doing this again I’m sure…..

Just before Christmas, my wife and I like to drive around Old Towne Orange and check out all the Christmas lights on display on all the cute old houses. After the tree lighting 2 Sundays ago, we rode our bikes around town to enjoy the lights. To my surprise, a lot of people still hadn’t put up their lights. But there was one house in particular that stood out to me.

Oh I know it doesn’t look like much, but keep reading and you’ll see the glory of this little house.
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Tonight as I looked out my window I saw something that both stood out and made me smile. A single house on the hill opposite my apartment with Christmas Holiday lights on it. I know in Orange County there are some houses with amazing displays, some simple, some that would make Clark Griswold jealous. I hope to share some of my favorites in the coming weeks. Where are your favorite displays of light?

My apologies to joz at LAMetblogs. I promise I didn’t steal your “Halloweenie” line on purpose. :-)

I am.

I have to admit. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I love, love, love getting dressed up and going out to see what everyone else came up with that I didn’t. I love making my costumes from scratch, or at least putting something together that no one else has.

SUCKS TO YOUR PRE-MADE COSTUMES!!!

This year, however, thanks to an early morning school call-time the next day and limited budget, I’m recycling an old costume. I’m still gonna look better than everyone else though, don’t worry. ;-)

Every year I go to the West Hollywood Street Festival. There are over 500,000 people just like me with insane costumes, who really make me feel at home and not so weird. Plus I usually see many of my friends there. They have live performances on many different radio station stages of big name musicians too! My favorite was 2 years ago when Kevin Federline got boo’d off the KIIS stage. :-)

What do you like to do??? Are there fun things to do in Orange County??