New Santa Ana | Tag Archives: vern nelson

If liberal 69th A.D. candidate Julio Perez is gay, does it really matter?

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Editor Posted in 2012 Elections, Democratic Party, Elections, Julio Perez, Labor, LGBTQ, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana 8 Comments

Apparently one of my readers insinuated that liberal Democrat Julio Perez, who is running for the 69th Assembly District (in last place according to a recent poll) is gay.

I tried to find the comment but could not. However it appears to have set off Orange Juice bloggers Greg Diamond and Vern Nelson. Diamond in fact immediately began to threaten me and he said that he would use the courts to force me to give up the IP address of the commenter who apparently insinuated that Perez is gay. Continue reading→

Introducing the new OC Politics blog

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Editor Posted in 2012 Elections, Blogs, Elections, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana 11 Comments

Yes its true – I launched a new Orange County political blog on New Year’s Day. I am calling it the “Orange County Politics Blog.”

As many of you may know, I started Orange County’s first political blog, the Orange Juice, back in 2003. It became Orange County’s top political blog and I believe that one of the reasons for that was our dedication to being an alternative to the red and blue blogs in the O.C. Continue reading→

Sanchez supports blowing millions on high speed rail and the postal service

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Editor Posted in Jobs, Labor, Loretta Sanchez, Santa Ana, Transportation 4 Comments

What has gotten into Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez? She used to be somewhat fiscally conservative but lately she has really lost it. For example, she testified in Congress this week that we need high speed rail – and her “evidence” was that she used to have to wait up to 45 minutes to take off in private jets, before she was in Congress. And her kicker was talking about the shutdown of part of the 60 Freeway, after a gasoline tanker burned up and damaged an overpass.

Here’s the question – how would high speed rail fix any of this? The biggest downside is the cost of building it but beyond that rail has a limitation that airplanes don’t have – it travels only from point A to point B. You can fly from John Wayne Airport virtually anywhere of note. A high speed rail line that goes from Orange County to Sacramento will eventually get you to Northern California, but what if you wanted to go to Las Vegas? Or Phoenix? You would be out of luck – and even worse, as a taxpayer you would still be stuck subsidizing the rail line. Continue reading→

OJ blog editor Vern Nelson proves he can play the piano at the Artists Village

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Editor Posted in Arts and Culture, Music, Santa Ana 5 Comments

Well, that was fun. Orange Juice blog editor Vern Nelson showed up at Downtown Santa Ana’s Artists Village today to tickle the keys, in the plaza by the Gypsy Den, as part of “O.C. Can You Play?,” an event sponsored by the Pacific Symphony.

As part of this event, 20 brand new pianos, which were donated by various piano manufacturers, were painted, by local artists, and staged all over Orange County. There are three of them at South Coast Plaza, one at the Great Park, one in the Artists Village and another in Fountain Valley – which is where I drove Nelson afterwards.

Nelson had great fun playing George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” He also tackled Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and he played a bit of David Bowie’s “Changes,” just for me.

It should be noted that our friends at Downtown, Inc., were the ones who brought the piano to the Artists Village. They signed the agreement with the Pacific Symphony, got the permits from the City of Santa Ana, arranged for a local artist to paint the piano, and had it delivered to the Artists Village.

The piano has now been relocated to the foyer of the Santora building and it may be moved again in the next three weeks. We will keep our readers posted.

The piano at the Artists Village will be there through Feb. 6. Come on by and play a tune – and be sure to shoot some video and post it on YouTube.

Visit all 20 pianos for a chance to win 2 season tickets to a Classical, Pops or Summer series! Or just visit 3 pianos for 20% off your next ticket purchase! Click here to read more about that.

Bonus! Here is a friend of Vern’s: