Ever just want to get away from it all, steal a boat, and throw your luck in with the sea? Sure, the waves and typhoons and kraken will be ready to send you to the deep, but better water than Donald Trump, you know? Thankfully, we at OC Weekly have a fleet ready should the worst happen thanks to our newish owner, boat-show-and-mag magnate Duncan McIntosh. He's assured us an ocean-worthy dinghy in case of catastrophe or any subpoenas we need to escape—HELL YA!
That's about all I got as an intro for the theme of this issue (besides the awesome full-page cartoons of Weekly cartoonist Luke McGarry), but what I'm especially excited about—besides the loads and loads of blurbs highlighting all the wonderful, amazing things available in Orange County (and Long Beach, and Pomona, and even Whittier—hey, we're in a conquering mode at this infernal rag)—is that we're publishing photos of some of the winners for the first time in a decade. The old owners always handcuffed us to specific themes, forcing every illustration or photo to reflect a year's particular theme (that's why in 2007, we had a cowboy slam-dunking—um, okay). Now, we're thrilled to show and not just tell you the must-eat spots, the must-visit boutiques, the must-hike canyons and the must-smoke dispensaries.
Gracias as always for reading us, and start patronizing these places and second-guessing us at ocweekly.com and Facebook/Snapchat/Twitter/Instagram/MySpace/LiveJournal/Western Union!
With contributions from Dustin Ames, Gustavo Arellano, Dave Barton, Joel Beers, Lisa Black, Isabella Cano, Mary Carreon, Matt Coker, Denise De La Cruz, Mercedes Del Real, Robert Flores, Edwin Goei, Angel Grady, Taylor Hamby, Nate Jackson, Dave Lieberman, Patrice Marsters, R. Scott Moxley, Aimee Murillo, Sophia Perricone, Gabriel San Román, Cynthia Rebolledo, Nick Schou and Christopher Toland.
