Wednesday, July 26, 2006

thee Oh See!


orange county. that is where i grew up and grew out. i moved when i was 25 to seattle only to move back to so. cal (to boyle heights no less) but what is it about oc that has people love and hate it so much. there was a time when people were embarrassed to 'admit' they were from orange county due to the (sometimes true) reputation of it being a vapid land void of any culture. oc was in many ways the younger runt brother or sister to LA in my mind. i don't think this stigma still surrounds oc any longer due to the even more vacuous television shows like THE OC and LAGUNA BEACH - both of which i watched ten minutes of each and discovered MELROSE PLACE never left the air, instead the reincarnation was present. i leave this weekend to the OC to see family, sun in the sun and eat mexican food that tastes good. really good. i am very proud to be from Orangutan County and everytime i am there i think that and i think i can't wait to leave - i am so glad i do not live there any longer.

see the above image of a flier for U2? that artifact was for a show in anaheim march 16, 1981. at that time i was writing for flipside fanzine http://www.flipsidefanzine.com/ and i interviewed three quarters of U2 (the drummer did not want to be interviewed). get this, i did not submit this to flipside - which later was probably a good thing considering later i would do more reputable interviews like PAUL WELLER - i submitted my piece to a start up magazine by some woman named STORMY KNIGHT. i kid you not about both my interview and her name. btw, she put a member of the BOOMTOWN RATS on the cover since they were already 'established'.
i actually rode my bicycle to this club (where later i would see bands like the Plugz, Blasters, among many others [i was told later SLAYER would play there often too!]) and took my sisters tape recorder to hear bono pontificate about being in the US. i actually think i have the tape of this interview...they were all quite nice and what not but i can also tell you that i had friends tell me immediately after this show that U2 sucked, i sucked for telling them about it and al k., editor of Flipside told me he would print the interview if i wanted to give it to him but i can still recall the look on his face and he was just being nice. OC, thanks the memories.

1 comment:

Ben Calvin said...

We’re driving to Irvine Saturday. Will be there for a week. Call us if you’re around. Want to go to Disneyland?

Have you seen this guy? http://elmomonster.blogspot.com/ Good O.C. food blogger.

Ben