OTC Anaheim
I Know I Can, I Know I Can
To people from southern California the acronym OC means Orange County. That’s where I am as I write this. To be more exact, Anaheim.
To the rest of the English speaking world OC means Obsessive Compulsive.
Except for a relatively brief love affair with all things British in the mid 1960’s It seems that almost everything trendy since the advent of movies and television originated in either New York City or the Los Angeles area including Orange County.
Now before I get a ton of mail listing a hundred exceptions and blasting me for cultural regionalism, keep in mind that I’ve lived my whole life in Canada. I have no reason to be biased towards any area having grown up in a place whose only well known brands are Mounties and Hockey.
“Oops” my American friends might be saying “Now he’ll get flamed by his Canadian readers”.
No I won’t. They’re too busy protesting the lack of bicycle lanes in Toronto or trying to get their weed delivered through our clogged postal service to waste time on me.
I should, however, include the Trudeaus and Gordon Lightfoot as important international icons who had no association with Manhattan or Hollywood.
Back to the Orange County District or more familiarly, the OCD.
I’m not suggesting that everyone here washes their hands twenty times a day or counts every step from the Crystal Cathedral to Sleeping Beauty Castle but let’s face it, old Walt had to be compelled large to rip up thousands of acres of lush orange groves and build an amusement park so zombie kids with blank stares and mouse ears could drain their parent’s savings accounts and melt their Visa cards.
Also, televangelist Robert Schuller needed a scary amount of grim determination to have over ten thousand window panes glued together forming the largest glass structure in the world, a completed project incidentally that he was never able to pay for despite soliciting donations from around the world. The ministry fell into bankruptcy and the Crystal Cathedral was sold in 2011 to the Catholic diocese in Orange County for 57.5 million dollars………………..
From 40 miles north you can hear Jed Clampet saying:
“Wee Dogies….you could feed a few orphans with that”
What does this have to do with trends? Well, just that OCD, as well as being a legitimate disorder, was number one on the pop psychology charts for years before recently getting bumped off by Narcissists versus Empaths. That trend is to be short lived however, with Gaslighting challenging the top position and Myers-Briggs right behind it.. With self-help being such a huge money making industry you can bet there will be many more mind hit parade bullets before it’s over.
REMEMBER ANAL?
I thought it had dropped out of trendy conversation., but just last year I went to the local grocery store on a weekday and there was a whole bunch of parking spots. Given the choice, I’ll always park away from other cars because I like the room. It’s easier to pull in and out and there’s less chance of dinging someone else with my door or getting dinged. So I find a nice deserted spot, lock my truck and proceed to do my shopping. Fifteen minutes or so later with my Tang, Saltines and Captain Crunch resolutely purchased and bagged, I stroll out to the parking lot and I can’t believe what I see. Some jackass has parked right beside my truck. Even worse he is on the right side with only about 18 inches to open his driver side door.
I am pissed. And curious. I decide to wait and see what a moron with this degree of idiocy looks like and to have a word with him about parking etiquette.
After a few minutes a six foot plus hulk arrives and starts to wedge himself between the two vehicles.
“Excuse me sir” i say pleasantly “I’m baffled. With all of these spots available why did you park so close to me?”
“It’s not that close” he says gruffly “Why are you being so anal?”
“Anal!” I laughingly exclaim “Okay, you been watching Dr. Phil, haven’t you?”
At that point he turns around and begins narrowing the distance between us.
“Just asking” I say, the survival wimp making an appearance “Have a nice night”
“Goddam bully” I say under my breath.
I jump in my truck and pull out while he is still thinking about returning the pleasantry.
I’M OKAY YOU’RE F**KED
Anaheim and the Erroneous Zones
Orange County is fine, don’t get me wrong. But it’s being squashed by LA. Look at a map of southern California. LA is an elephant sleeping near an Anaheim mouse. If Jumbo even twitches Orange County registers .5 on the psychological richter scale.
There is an NHL hockey team. The Mighty Ducks. Home ice is the Duck Pond. While other expansion teams have chosen noble names like Nordique, Predators, Avalanche the dizzyland folks have chosen to name the team after a hapless cartoon character with great big webbed feet. Hockey is not a game for wusses. The team name should denote fierceness and aggression. Not “I’m Donald Duck and I don’t give a fuck”
Where we almost always play in Anaheim
There’s a place, not too far from the Duck Pond called officially…… ‘City National Grove Of Anaheim’. That’s way too many syllables so we call it simply The Grove. We’ve been doing shows there for years.
Our show there last week was one of our best I thought. I don’t know if anyone had a perfect game, I sure didn’t, but the spirit was there.