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Look – another weekend rolls around, and hey we need an open thread for you all to discuss whatever and whomever with your characteristic decorum and f-bombs. But what to anchor this to? This is Vern here Saturday morning and I have to run off, but I can tell you what stories I’m working on and what exciting things are happening today, at least in Huntington Beach.
In the next week or two, just from me, you can be expecting stories about:
- the “Fullerton Rail District” – Tony Bushala’s and David Zenger’s new vision for an environmentally friendly, sustainable and preservationist swath of Fullerton west of the downtown district;
- depressing and infuriating update on the situation of Huntington Beach mobile home owners and how politicians failed them again and again while promising to protect them from the predations of greedy park owners like John Saunders LLC;
- Steve Sheldon’s new, innovative definitions of what constitutes a “conflict of interest” for people who want to be on the Citizens’ Advisory Committee advising the OCWD on the Poseidon scam – for example, anyone who’s ever expressed a critical opinion before or anyone who lives anywhere near the proposed monstrosity. (Says the guy who WORKED FOR POSEIDON for years and is now voting on them.)
- Where does Vince Sarmiento really live, and do any voters in Santa Ana (OR the useless DA) really give a rat’s ass? And will Roman Reyna be any better on the water board?
- A look back at the long amazing life of octogenarian activist Newport Beach activist Allan Beek. (No he hasn’t died!)
I hope to get some new stuff in as well from the always-fascinating Diane Goldstein, and I’m sure Greg Diamond has a few things in the hopper. Right now I gotta take off for this beach cleanup, I’m late:

Sat Feb 21, 8am to noon, Bolsa Chica State Beach between Seapoint & Warner on PCH
And then at 5:30 TODAY (Saturday the 21st) is the:
Greatest Piano Concert of the Year
(Huntington Beach Central Library)
Vern Nelson with special guests violinist Loghman Adhami and
John “Rock Doctor” Hoaglund on saxes and vocals
play:
Garth Brooks: Friends in Low Places
DEBUSSY, 1904: SUITE POUR LE PIANO “Je suis Charlie!”
- Prelude
- Sarabande
- Toccatta
2 more Torn-Back Songs:
- LUSH LIFE (Billy Strayhorn / Duke Ellington / Coltrane / VN)
- THAT’S AMORE (with Bluesette for middle section – singalong!)
Requested Beatles Singalong: While My Guitar Gently Weeps (by George)
WITH LOGHMAN ADHAMI, violinist:
- Mahtad (Greek folk song)
- Ghanbari (Loghman Adhami, arr by VN)
- Simple (Loghman Adhami, arr by VN)
By request: The Rain Song (Led Zeppelin)
BARTOK: TWO RUMANIAN DANCES, 1910
(intermission)
By request: DOCK OF THE BAY (Otis Redding)
and LET IT GO from Disney’s “Frozen” (instrumental)
JOHN “the Rock Doctor” HOAGLUND on sax and vocals does:
PINK FLOYD: Money… and Us and Them.
MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION
- Promenade
- Gnomus (a gnome-shaped nutcracker)
- Promenade
- The Old Castle (with Dr. Hoaglund on alto sax!)
- Promenade
- Children’s Playground at Tuilleries
- Bydlo (Oxen)
- Promenade
- Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
- Two Polish Jews, One Rich and One Poor
- Promenade
- The Marketplace at Limoges
- Catacombs / Promenade in the Catacombs
- The Hut of Baba Yaga
- The Great Gates of Kiev
ENCORE (if wished) THE WHO: LOVE REIGN O’ER ME!
I thought that bloviator was a local term…
“I’ve been there. That’s really what separates me from most of these other bloviators. I bloviate, but I bloviate about stuff I’ve seen. They bloviate about stuff that they haven’t.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/bill-oreilly-brian-williams-falklands-war
“Bloviate” has been used about Bill O’Reilly since long before the IDEA of Greg Diamond (not the reality) was a twinkle in the brains of Gustavo and Gabriel.
SANTA ANA — Former state Sen. Lou Correa raised multiple questions about mistakes and possible fraud in his narrow loss to Andrew Do for Orange County supervisor, but he said it would be too costly to try to overturn the results in a court.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/election-652024-loss-santa.html
i.e. doesn’t care enough. He’ll be OK. Lou will land on two feet.
Yeah. Had to drag it out just long enough to make it look good to hes peeps (if there are any).
He’ll land somewhere – like Solorio, maybe with a law firm pimping its government connections; or maybe lobbying. But it ain’t gonna be AG.
Workin’ on a piece right now.
Et voila!
There is ALWAYS Joe Dunn’s job at the bar!
Then he can be one with the people, like Joe and dine at $2,000. Steak dinners.
Your email address doesn’t check out, anonymous asshole, so your allegations are null and void. (I trashed this one as an anonymous attack, but Vern showed mercy.)
Convicted Killer Was Santa Ana Mayor’s Campaign Consultant
On Aug. 12, 2003, 19-year-old John P. Vega and his buddy Hugo Rivera got into a fight with the man they were staying with, a longtime friend they affectionately called “Grandpa.”
According to court records, the 38-year-old Grandpa, whose real name was Raul Aplizar Jimenez, was high on methamphetamine and Vega and Rivera claimed he had attacked Rivera with a knife. Then, in what they described to investigators as self-defense, Vega and Rivera bludgeoned to death their much smaller friend with a 30-pound dumbbell and a crowbar.
When the beating was over, there was blood spattered all over the walls of Jimenez’s home, court records show. His corpse lay face down in a pool of blood, his hands bound with shoelaces. The tools of his slaughter were hidden beneath a white pillow just a few feet from his battered skull, the records show.
http://voiceofoc.org/2015/02/convicted-killer-was-santa-ana-mayors-campaign-consultant/