Notebook -- Steve Marble

Some headlines that just won’t go away...

Amphitheater to remain silent

Yep. The only noise the old concert venue has made in years has been in

the courts. Pacific Amphitheatre, the 10-acre facility tucked on the far

corner of the Orange County Fairgrounds, was officially closed down in

late 1995. John Lee Hooker and Robert Cray had been scheduled to perform

at a blues festival that year, but the show was canceled when the fair’s

board of directors discovered that severe noise restrictions pretty much

guaranteed that the most exciting thing they could host would be a mime

convention. Mime Fest 2000, anyone?

And yet, four years later, the amphitheater continues to be a solid

headline maker, one of the latest being a judge’s decision to slap two

neighborhood women with a $4.4-million judgment. Their crime? Complaining

about noisy concerts.

Costa Mesa to sell fireworks

While fires char the hills around Southern California and authorities

hold their breath, and neighboring towns plead with them to grow up and

act like adults, Costa Mesa gets goofy once again and OKs the sale of

fireworks.

Road work slated for Costa Mesa Freeway

Ah yes, if this road were a person, you’d call 911 right now. The freeway

has been in the triage tent for years, undergoing one painful surgery

after another. Everywhere you look there are orange cones, traffic jams

and little signs reminding you that your Measure M dollars are at work.

And you curse the day you voted for that ballot measure.

The latest is a multiyear redo of the onramps from the San Diego Freeway.

So, has all this roadwork improved traffic flow on the freeway? Who

knows, the work never stops long enough for anyone to find out.

Fashion Island boasts nation’s tallest tree

For a few years of self-cleansing, the Irvine Co. took the high road by

foregoing the standard mile-high Christmas tree in favor of some kind of

environmentally sensitive display. Didn’t take, though. So the owners of

Fashion Island took to whacking down trees again.

This year, their tree was the biggest in the nation. Couple of years ago

they had that distinction, too. That is until a nasty Santa Ana kicked up

and sheered off the top, reducing the tree to second-highest status.

Landon to play Scrooge, again

For 20 years, Hal Landon Jr. has played the role of Scrooge in the annual

“Christmas Carol” production at South Coast Repertory. He plays it so

well you wonder if he has trouble coming out of character. But every year

his return is heralded as major news. Wouldn’t it be news, like, if he

didn’t, like, return?

Santoyo shaves head for charity

Oscar Santoyo, director of the west Costa Mesa outreach facility Save Our

Youth, shaves his head every year in the name of charity. You think,

maybe, one of these years it won’t come back? His hair, that is?

El Toro funds sought

Millions have been spent on this fight now, the money flowing from both

north and south. And it’s doubtful that it will stop any time soon. The

fight over the former Marine Corps base no longer is a political battle;

it’s a corporation with more consultants and lawyers than a Fortune 500

company.

Tars win!

And I suppose they do. I checked the database, at random, and found that

headline or some variation of it published 28 times in one three-month

period. The Newport Harbor Sailors, as they are more properly known, have

been on some kind of crazy run lately. The football team won the CIF

championship, the girls volleyball team won the state championship, the

girls tennis team made it to the finals and the boys water polo team went

deep into the playoff before losing to El Toro High. You’re kidding? It’s

always that dang El Toro thing...

School repair bill grows

Many of the schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District are in

shoddy repair, make no mistake. And the district doesn’t have enough

money to make all the fixes. Think that’s true, too. But every time you

step away for half a minute, the tab’s gone up. Quick, pass a bond before

it swallows us.

* STEVE MARBLE is managing editor of Times Community News. He may be

reached by e-mail at o7 Steve.Marble@latimes.comf7 .