Mesa

The song was empty without words, and the band members knew it as they played inside the Santa Ana union hall on Saturday. There was no "pardon me, boy," or "dinner in the diner," but "Chattanooga Choo Choo," somehow still felt right. It was Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke's signature arrangement--a song for which he earned the first gold record in history when it sold 1.2 million copies.

As gang violence increases from San Clemente to La Habra, gangs have become a growing concern throughout Orange County and a Priority for police and the district attorney's office. Gangs of all kinds operate within the county. Some are so-called "territorial" or "turf" gangs, whose members believe they control specific areas; others are considered "nomadic," operating in various places in he county with no special turf. Some are considered violent; some are not.

A planned parade by an Ottoman military marching band in Hollywood has been canceled because of objections by Armenian groups who said the event was an affront to victims of the 1915-1918 Armenian genocide. The genocide claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern-day republic of Turkey. The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place. The permit for the parade, scheduled for next Monday on Hollywood Boulevard, was pulled Wednesday, an official at the Los Angeles Police Commission said.

Ahh, the languid days of September, when Labor Day and the end of summer beckons people to swimming pools, beaches, barbecues . . . and pruning shears. For gardeners whose plant collections include scented geraniums or regal geraniums (better known as Martha Washington geraniums), September is the time to prune and shape their bushes in preparation for the bloom season. "It's important to prune now to plan for next year," said Kay Moore, who tends 100 different geraniums at her Costa Mesa home.

JERUSALEM - If the Messiah descends from the Mount of Olives as foretold in the Bible, America's two biggest Christian broadcasters are well-positioned to cover it live thanks to recent acquisitions of adjacent Jerusalem studios on a hill overlooking the Old City. Texas-based Daystar Television Network already beams a 24-hour-a-day live webcam from its terrace. Not to be outdone, Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network last month bought the building next door. The dueling studios are part of an aggressive push by U.S. evangelical broadcasters seeking to gain a stronger foothold in the holy city.

Edith Malek calls herself the clematis queen of Orange County. She's on a mission to encourage every California household to grow at least one of the vining plants in its garden. The plants produce an abundance of showy flowers. "I'm fascinated with them," she says. "They're magic. They climb into a boring bush that doesn't bloom and transform it." Because the vines are thin and fragile, these plants can be used in conjunction with large shrubs, trees or climbing roses.

The trustee running bankrupt Newport Beach home builder Baldwin Co. has sued the firm's owners, brothers Alfred and James Baldwin, claiming they want to resurrect their development empire by wresting the rights to thousands of acres of valuable land from the business that bears their name. Bankruptcy trustee David Gould argues that the brothers are jeopardizing his efforts to nurse Baldwin Co. through a reorganization and repay more than $250 million in debts.

Shame and the British. They go together like tea and crumpets, Sandhurst and Sid Vicious.  But South Coast Repertory's broad staging of Alan Ayckbourn's exercise in indignity, “Absurd Person Singular,” makes you yearn wistfully for more cheeky snaps of Prince Harry in Vegas. Ayckbourn's set-up is simple genius: Over three acts, we follow three couples at three Christmas parties in as many years, all seen from various kitchens. At the top, boorish entrepreneur Sidney (JD Cullum)

Every time it rains here, Kris Holstrom knowingly breaks the law. Holstrom's violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain. But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom's property is not hers to keep.

Orange County will soon join Dallas in the limelight of a television series. The success of the new series, however, will not be measured in Nielsen ratings but in the yen it can attract; the show is targeted for Japanese businessmen. The three-hour, three-part series portraying Orange County's business and investment potential is scheduled to air early this summer in Los Angeles on Channel 18's Japan News Magazine and later on two major networks in Japan.