“We’ve given out over $500,000 in student scholarships to kids that are much like Ben, that are independent and strong and hardworking and love the ocean like him.” — Jake Janz (Brother-In-Law of fallen lifeguard, Ben Carlson)

“I think the The Ben Carlson Foundation represents the best of Newport Beach. It’s all about, like I said, turning a tragedy into a legacy. The money that we’re raising as I look right now on the website, the Ben Did Go 10.0, we’re at $395,000 raised, which I think is a record. This is the 10th anniversary, this is the 10th year.”
— Joe Stapleton (Newport Beach Mayor)

“And if you’d asked me when I was 12 years old what I wanted to be, I would have said I wanna be a professional basketball player. But, you know, reality comes crashing down at a certain point in your later teens. You realize, I don’t think anyone’s gonna pay me to play basketball. And then I was, you know, I like music, and I played guitar, I played bass at that point. But I, it just, it didn’t even seem like a plausible thing to me. So, I mean, I went with what I thought I could actually do, and so I ended up getting in the business. But I didn’t make that decision til I was, you know, probably 21 years old. But, yeah, if you’re asking me now, looking back on it, would it have been fun to have been a professional musician that was successful at that? Yeah. That sounds pretty good. [How tall are you, Pete?] I’m six seven. [Dang.]”
— Pete Nordstrom, President of Nordstrom, Inc.

“[So, you know, how crazy has it gotten on stage playing with the Descendents?] Well, I mean, we just have people coming up and. you know, diving off the stage all the time, the stage divers. I tend to go down into the moat, what I call the moat, which is that little bit right before the barrier. And I just give the mic to kids and they just scream into it. And I just like to kind of commune with those people and just have a good time.” —Milo Aukerman (Descendents, Lead Vocals)

“[You wrote a lot of checks to me when I was broke for a long time. You did.] Well, you picked it up. I’m proud of what you what you’re doing and what you’ve accomplished. I mean, when you look back on where you were at certain times and where you are now, you have made spectacular progress, and you’re well known in your industry. [Well, you know, you’re my inspiration. You always have been, always will be. You wanna go to lunch now, you’re probably starving] Yes.” —Norman 'NB" Trenton, The PoorDad, interviewed on his 102nd Birthday

“But, yeah, I’m very proud of the Laguna Wall. If your listeners are listening in, go check out the new one. Get a picture in front of it. Come by the gallery. That gallery is actually, when I’m in Laguna, that’s where I live, above the gallery. Don’t tell anybody, but that’s my studio upstairs. The view up there is staggering.”
—Robert Wyland (American Conservationist & Mural Artist of Life-Size Whales and Sea Life)

“[Didn’t your parents or somebody tell you you need to pick one path, either a DJ or a lawyer, and then you while you were DJing, you stumbled into becoming a representative for social influencers, right?] Yeah. So, I feel like everybody kinda would tell me that you can’t do both. You can’t be a lawyer. You can’t be a DJ. You can’t be in the professional world and then also be in, like, the entertainment world. It’s kind of like the, I guess, the forbidden fruit. But, you know, for me, it just never really mattered.” —Farshad Dehbozorgi,Esq. (Lawyer, DJ, Artist)

“[On his Jack In The Box audition at age three and a half] And when I went in, the last thing my Mom said is Rodney, you know, eat with manners. Don’t talk with food in your mouth. And sure enough, every kid that walked in got their own burger. So I had this burger in front of me, and the guy asked me my name. He told me to take a bite. He says, well, how do you like it? And the last thing I told him, I said, I can’t talk about it. Don’t ask me because I’m not going to tell you because I got food in my mouth. And he died laughing. That’s what clinched a commercial for me.” — Rodney Allen Rippy (Former Child Actor, Television Personality)

“We’ve been going strong the whole time. It’s just that we’ve been in the underground mode. And you know, one thing about the underground, the underground never fails you. The pop culture might, but the underground never fails, you know. Because we know with every tree, the tree may look big on the top, but it’s even wider and sturdier on the bottom, underground where all the roots are.” — Angelo Moore AKA Dr. MaddVibe (Fishbone Frontman, Author, Artist)

“Everybody was starting to become a band. They started getting other people to hang out with them, and eventually it morphed into what became The Germs which was on the single “Forming” that I did which was the first record. It was airable, but at that time nobody would have aired it except for Rodney. He really came into our corner and he played it as soon as we gave it to him. He played it that next Saturday.”
— Chris Ashford - What Records (First DIY single by The Germs)

“I mean, it’s great to play with other surf bands, but we’re having success out playing with, you know, tribute bands, cover bands, original bands, blues bands. We played with a yacht rock band over the weekend, and people loved us, you know. I think surf music itself, it’s fun music. People love to dance and have a good time. And I think if you love to dance and have a good time, surf music’s for you, especially the instrumental stuff because it’s great guitar music too.” —Deven Berryhill (The Tourmaliners, Frontman & Guitarist)

“A lot of them are set in the middle of a story. So something happened before. You’re looking at something, and then something’s gonna happen later, which I did to kind of engage people so they’d look at the art longer, you know, and try and figure out what was going on. [Give me one one of your favorites.] Oh, I think one of my favorites is set in Palm Springs, and it’s in one of those classic mid-century modern houses. It’s a cocktail party and there’s a dead bird on the floor and people at the party are looking appalled. And then if you look to the far right of the painting, there’s a woman in an evening gown and she’s hiding a gun behind her back. So, you know, you gotta figure out what the story is, basically.” —Josh Agle AKA Shag (Painter, Designer, Illustrator)

“[On his early roles in Stand By Me and Lost Boys] It’s just a job. I was a kid. I did what I was told. You know? What matters to me is the work I’m gonna do today because that’s what really matters. You know? It’s where we are today, what we’re living today, what’s our experience today. The past is the past and it’s gone. You can’t change it. You can’t fix it. It is what it is. It’s all about moving forward and having the right attitude and a positive attitude. For all the kicks, for all the hits, for all the shoves that I’ve taken throughout my life, one thing that I can teach you and tell you, or a pearl of wisdom I can give you, is always smile in the face of adversity. And keep a positive attitude, keep the faith, and things will always turn around as long as we have another day to live.” —Corey Feldman (Actor, Producer, Director, Musician)

“[On writing a memoir honoring his wife, Christina] It was very cathartic, and I got it all out. And I was able to tell our story. And, you know, she was a wonderful, wonderful, beautiful human being. So I wanna make sure people know that she was, just, you know, a great lady. And we have a foundation that we set up in her honor. It’s called the Christina Mauser Foundation, and we give scholarships to young women going into playing sports in college, that, you know, aren’t getting scholarships. So we give them scholarships based on their character and what they’re like with their teammates and just, you know, how hard they work and kind of embody what Christina stood for.”
—Matt Mauser (Matt Mauser Big Band, Tijuana Dogs)

“I feel like if I go back to the initial audition I did for this film, there’s not that much information given to the actor about the project and the role. But I paid attention to one little detail that told me that he works for a tyrant. And because I grew up in communism - I grew up in the 80’s in Poland and East Germany, both communist countries - so I experienced communism til I was about 11 years old. I kind of had a feeling, you know, like, what it is to work for a tyrant, what it is to work for a dictator, and being a general, being the head of the army. I had to show toughness in front of other people, but absolute and complete obedience in front of him.” —Martin Harris (Actor, Writer, Producer, Plays Boravian General in James Gunn’s Superman)

“The Jimmy Dale Trio is more, so like we tip the hat to my Dad. I'm starting to bleed in a couple of my own songs in the set, which are watered-down Kill Jill songs. I take the lyrics out, and I kinda write a guitar melody over them and make them really surfy, but I still keep it like power surf, like Dad tone, you know, not the thin guitar strings and over the top reverb. I keep it true to my Dad's tone.” —Jimmy Dale (The Jimmy Dale Trio, Son of Dick Dale, King of Surf Guitar)

“So I think my favorite thing is just doing the really large extravagant grazing tables. I think creatively that’s where I have the most fun, and I think that’s where we shine as a company. You can just bring in so many different cheeses and dips and spreads and cured meats, and you just make this, like, spectacular presentation that really elevates any event or gathering that you go to.” —Alyssa Paine (Newport Charcuterie, Founder & Creative Director)

“I mean, first of all, you have people that - the internet has obviously changed things incredibly, Facebook and all of that - and people write stuff that you just know is wrong, right? You say that’s not right. And people become experts on things that they were never a part of, and that tends to bother me. If I do write a book or record something, I’m gonna call it Setting the Record Straight, right? What really happened because I was there every day. In fact, I lived at the radio.”
—The Insane Darrell Wayne (Radio Personality and DJ)

“[Did he deliver all of you guys when your Mom got pregnant and, you know, had you?] Yes, he did. He delivered most of us kids. He delivered me, I know that for sure. And then most of my brothers were born in Hawaii, so they have the distinction of being blessed by Duke Kahanamoku, which I’m sure was a great experience and, you know, obviously something I wish I would have gotten. But that’s cool, whatever.”
—Joshua Paskowitz (Paskowitz Surfing Family)

“[Speaking of crazy, how crazy did it get in those early days?] You were lucky if the show actually happened because, you know, there’s a lot of halls rented out without permits and people selling alcohol illegally, and the police, even if it was a legitimate show, the police just didn’t really like the way the punks looked. And they really weren’t singing about peace and love like hippies, which obviously the police didn’t like that scene, and these punkers come up and think about destroying the system and changing things in a more aggressive way. They just wanted to come in break up shows and wreak havoc and attack the people, unprovoked most of the time.” —Greg Hetson (Guitarist, Circle Jerks, Bad Religion)