Month: November 2004

Old Town, New Town

Ever since I found out there was actually an area called “Old Town Irvine,” I’ve found the idea somewhere between funny, pretentious, and oxymoronic. Looking at nearby cities, we have Old Town Orange, a collection of streets with shop buildings dating back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, centered around an actual traffic circle. The place could have been the model for Disneyland’s Main Street. There’s Old Town Tustin, another collection of streets with shops going back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, with contemporary houses nearby for good measure.

Then, there’s Old Town Irvine, a couple of barns that have been converted into restaurants and a motel. Why? Because there effectively is no Old Town Irvine — it sprang whole from a designer’s master plan in the late 1960s. Most people assume UCI is named after the city, but it actually predates the city of Irvine. Both were named after the Irvine Ranch (or possibly the Irvine Company or the Irvine family — all three are tied together) on which they were built. Maybe 50 years from now there really will be an “old town” — and it’ll probably be Northwood or Woodbridge or something. But the name will already have been trademarked by the shopping center, so they won’t be able to use it.

Movie Turnover

There was a story on NPR today about the evolution of the term blockbuster from simply meaning a movie that’s very successful to meaning a particular type of movie (the overblown summer action flick). It got me thinking about the increased number of movie theaters in the area, and then is it really that big an increase, or is it just in line with population growth?

Then I realized: nearly every movie theater I’ve been to in the past couple of years, I remember being new. And all the ones I remember going to as a kid are gone or, if they’re lucky, converted into art house cinema.

  • AMC Orange Mall? Gone. I think it’s part of the Wal-Mart parking lot now.
  • Edwards Town Center? I think the building is still there, but I’m not so sure.
  • The Cinedome? Long gone, and whatever replaced it was also recently razed to the ground.
  • Those theaters across the street from South Coast Plaza? Finally closed down a few years ago.
  • Edwards Woodbridge? Sold off and became a second-run theater.
  • Edwards University? Art-house.
  • South Coast Village? (Not that I remember going there much, if at all.) Art-house.

In fact, the only one I remember going to regularly that’s still first-run is Edwards Hutton Center, and I have a vague feeling it might have been new at the time. At least, I think it was still there the last time I drove past it. With so many other theaters around, I’m not sure I’ve actually been there since high school.

Big Newport has escaped the encroachment of the new, mainly because it’s, well, the biggest screen this side of the Rockies (according to legend, anyway). And I’ve probably been to University and South Coast Village more often since they became art houses than I did “back in the day.”

Don’t touch that tract, you don’t know where it’s been!

I already find it disturbing that someone decided it was a good idea to leave a religious tract—really, an ad for a particular church—in a public restroom stall. (Imagine the circumstances under which someone will read it. Or better yet, don’t.) I find it more disturbing that the church it advertises is located in Temecula, at least 60 miles away, in another county, on the other side of a small mountain range, and a minimum one-hour drive in good traffic. But most of all, I find it disturbing that it’s the second time it’s happened.

I suppose if there are people in the building who commute from Riverside, they’d be closer, but still…a bathroom stall? If you’re going to advertise in a public restroom, the least you can do is use a sign, or a one-sided postcard—something people won’t have to touch to get the details.

GPL Enforcement Squad!

I dreamed I was working on a Mac version of the Dillo web browser*. But I mixed it with some sort of commercial code, and the resulting program violated the GPL**. The next thing I knew, someone was shooting at me with a machine gun. I kept trying to walk out of a (hotel?) lobby, but every time someone started shooting. At one point they were in a helicopter, at one point they may have just been up in a building across the street, and at one point they were definitely in a hot air balloon. I’d duck back inside, or put up my hands to get them to stop shooting, but every time I walked back out, they started up again.

* An ultra-small, ultra-fast browser that’s low on features, but runs well even on old hardware.

** About the GPL

Semi-Random Thought of the Day

Just what is so “Fun” about “Fun Size!” candy? Did they look at the gap between “Bite Sized” and “Regular Size” and say, “Hey, we need another size in here, should we call it ‘Mini Size’ or something?” “Nah, that sounds small, we don’t want that! Let’s pick something that sounds appealing, something that sounds like fun. Hey, why not just call it ‘Fun Size?’”

(Inspired by the bowl of leftover Halloween candy sitting on the receptionist’s desk.)

Current Mood: 🤔contemplative
Current Music: the drone of the tape drive that I eventually want to get off my desk and into the server room

From the department of… huh?

Last night I dreamed that John Ashcroft was following me around the cereal aisle in the grocery store. After a bit he introduced himself: “Hi, I’m John Ashcroft. We met briefly in a shopping mall in Washington, DC ten years ago.” And since this was a dream, I started remembering the previous meeting. Which was essentially the same as the other one. Just about the point that I started to say “Oh, yeah, I remember now!” he was gone.

Current Mood: 😕confused

Politics, press, and lip service

Was listening to the White House press conference on the way to work. Someone said “Mr. President, you may not have had a chance to hear this, but it appears Yasser Arafat has passed away. What are your thoughts?”

Now, this turns out to be inaccurate, but at the time my reaction was a mix of “Holy $#!7” and “Maybe the Israeli/Palestinian peace process can get somewhere now.” It’s sad, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Arafat is perhaps the Palestinians’ biggest obstacle to peace, and they don’t see it. (Although now that I think about it, an interesting parallel can be made over here: no matter how clear it is that Bush is likely to keep us at war, people still voted for him in droves.) Perhaps Arafat being ill and out of the region will help other Palestinian leaders work towards a peace settlement. At least W has figured out by now that resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is important. If he’d caught onto that at the beginning of his first term, instead of virtually abandoning the region, things might be a lot less messy today.

Meanwhile, Bush has again promised to be a “uniter, not a divider,” (as if that held last time) and is calling for the support of Kerry voters. Peter David put it this way: “I assure you I will give Bush as much of a chance as the GOP gave Clinton.” Here’s a hint: there are reasons we voted against you. Look into them, attempt to compromise, and maybe you’ll get people supporting some of your policies. Ignore them and you’ll just see more anger.

Depending on how they are handled, I can get behind things like fighting the AIDS epidemic, reigniting the space program, even simplifying the tax code. But there’s no way I’ll support your overwhelmingly conservative social agenda, there’s no way I’ll support poorly-planned unilateral preemptive strikes based on flawed intelligence, and there’s no way I’ll support financing the nation on the credit card model. People are worried enough about individual Americans living in debt up to their eyeballs, but it goes all the way to the top. (Fiscal responsibility? Sure, I’d like to see some.)

Elections and the other DoD

Props to the brave souls standing out on a street corner in the heart of Irvine waving Kerry/Edwards signs!

No, seriously, they need better props — the Bush/Cheney people across the street had a 6-foot banner, and the Kerry/Edwards people only had regular stake-in-the-front-yard signs. Although they did at least have a US flag to go with them, something the BC supporters did not.

Also, woke up to an interesting combination of music this morning: First, Dans Macabre. Then, after a snooze cycle, Stars and Stripes Forever. Elections from beyond the grave? What is this, Chicago? (Admittedly, to judge by the signs outside the OC Conservative Resource Center, they actually are running Reagan for office again… but I digress.)