What Drove an Unemployed Actor to Set the World’s Record for Tree-Sitting in...
On July 4, 1982, 29-year-old Timothy Roy climbed to the top of a 15-foot wooden ladder and settled, unceremoniously and with little fanfare, into a 6-foot-by-8-foot treehouse perched above the eighth...
View ArticleKareem Tayyar’s Fictional, Preteen Adventure Puts Fountain Valley on the Map...
Driving through it on the 405 freeway, you’d be forgiven for missing Fountain Valley altogether. Or perhaps chuckling at its “A Nice Place to Live” motto and Chamber of Commerce-style boosterism of a...
View ArticleMinus Its Eccentric Onetime Owner, Sid Soffer, the Blue Beet Goes On and On ....
If the old adage about everyone having their 15 minutes of fame rings anywhere near true, the legend of Sid Soffer and his Blue Beet bar is easily pushing a full hour and a half. The maverick...
View ArticleMusical Theatre West’s 67-Year Journey to National Recognition
Before becoming a nationally recognized theater company, Musical Theatre West humbly began as the Whittier Civic Light Opera (CLO) in 1952. Around that time, Civic Light Operas were popping up all over...
View ArticleThe Poorman Cometh . . . Back
Just after 3 a.m. on June 17, 2017, roughly 41 years after he had made his radio debut, Rodney Bingenheimer, iconic radio DJ and the anointed “Mayor of the Sunset Strip,” walked out of the KROQ...
View ArticleRemembering the Time OC’s Wacky, Conservative, Talk-Show Host Wally George...
With perhaps the exception of Bob Dornan, there has never been a more visceral embodiment of Orange County’s conservative ethos than Wally George. Both accidentally poignant and intentionally brash,...
View ArticleAnarchy In the OC: Remembering Koo’s Café
Koo’s Café is one of those places that has enough history to fill a few books. If you ask 10 different people about their experiences with the place, chances are that you’ll end up with 10 completely...
View ArticleHow OC Legend Dean Torrence Put Huntington Beach on the Map
“I was just thinking of this place that I’ve been. It’s a secret beach, a real paradise. There are giant waves all day long every day of the year and plenty of girls. No hodads, no grammies—in fact,...
View ArticleWhy Ali Baba Motel’s Makeover of Convenience Matters
Some landmarks are illustrious ornate monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty, designed to provide individuals (even the recently arrived, non-European ones) with a sense of place and beauty. Others,...
View ArticleReliving the Joy of Atlantis Park
At some point in either the late 1980s or early 1990s, without a formal vote or apparently much fanfare, the name of what was once colloquially known as “Atlantis Park”—a 4-acre patch of open space...
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