Stick it right here, Laguna!

Laguna Beach is full of big-hearted people doing interesting, helpful, community- and world-enhancing activities. This blog is meant to highlight the many causes, events, and ideas that deserve attention from other Laguna locals that don't make it into the INDY, The COASTLINE-PILOT or the NEWS-POST. And it's a thumb in the eye of all things MTV show-related; we are secure in the knowledge that we aren't actually remotely similar to the the way we're portrayed, so let's not protest too much and just get on with all the positive aspects worth spending our time on.

If you're like me, you get all excited or riled up about an idea or opinion but daily life gets in the way of sending an e-mail blast or a letter to the editor. That, and I start to worry about annoying the long-suffering people in my address book with multiple e-mails that they may or may not care about. And I'd feel a bit silly directing anyone to a myspace page -- isn't that more for the young 'uns? With this blog, you can peruse the offerings and pay attention to whatever you want -- and ask questions, respond, sound off, or pass along information and ideas.

We'll use this as a place to post items of interest; let's make it our big, electronic cork board. Send me your stuff, and with minimal parsing, I will post it (although I reserve the right to edit/endorse/disallow items - hey, it was my idea!). The more complete your item -- with basic who, what, when, where, why, how much -- the better and more likely it is to get posted. If it needs a lot of work, I'll probably just dump it. Stuff that's already being highly promoted in the community may not get a lot of attention here. Those are a few ground rules; I'll probably make up more as we go.

In concept, THE LAGUNAN will help inform and direct anyone who wants to lead their Laguna life a bit richer and connected to the community. When I first moved to Laguna Beach 16 years ago, it would have been a great boon to know about the many unpublished, word-of-mouth local activities, businesses and organizations related to art, politics, families, music, film, neighborhoods, schools, grass-roots philanthropy opportunities and whatever else brings people together and forms the glue of a true community.

I crave that kind of connection and neighborliness; maybe you do, too. The Web makes it so easy. Here it is in its embryonic stage. Let's have a go and see where it takes us.

Love,

THE LAGUNAN