Southern California
Places
Places
This river goes through a city with the same name in Orange County. Its bike trail goes all the way to Newport Beach.
Santa Ana River
This 2025 animated movie musical features a girl group competing against a boy group who are actually demons- with music by the real-world girls group Twice.
KPop Demon Hunters
This young-teen book series from the 90's explored the supernatural and paranormal with characters such as Slappy the Dummy and The Haunted Mask.
Goosebumps
Born in England in 1979, this artist has 2 Grammys & is best known for her 2006 hit single with the lyrics:
Three little birds sat on my window
And they told me I don't need to worry
Corinne Bailey Rae
Formed in CA, this pop-punk band is led by bisexual Billie Joe Armstrong and is known for their songs like "American Idiot" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."
Green Day
This seaside neighborhood in LA was named for its canals with gondoliers and arched bridges. Today, only 1.5 miles of canals remain.
Venice
In this 1996 movie a drag queen puts the conservative parents of their son's fiance in drag to avoid publicity.
Birdcage/La Cage aux Folles
This 2021 bestselling memoir was written by the singer and guitarist of the band Japanese Breakfast.
Crying in H-Mart
This Mexican-American Artist is credited for breaking down gender barriers and catapulting the Tejano genre into mainstream media, with songs like "Como la Flor" and "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."
Selena
Started in the late 70s, this celebrated queer band is named for their large retro hairdos and is known for quirky lyrics such as "I got me a car, it's as big as a whale."
The B-52s
You'd be disappointed if you made a spelling error and ended up in this city in Riverside County for your summer vacation instead of France.
Perris
This animated film takes place in 1950s Japan, where two sisters meet a catbus and other wood spirits while waiting for their mother to return home from the hospital.
My Neighbor Totoro
This 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family in the style of "magical realism".
100 Years of Solitude
This 31 year-old rapper has 3 Grammys and is famous for her song "Savage," which accumulated more than 7.5 billion views on TikTok in March 2020.
Megan Thee Stallion
This girl group, made up of Tionne Watkins, Rozonda Thomas, and Lisa Lop, are famous for these hits "Waterfalls,” and “No Scrubs"
TLC
"The Danish Capital of America" in Santa Barbara County, known for its large windmills.
Solvang
This 2016 Academy Award-winning drama shows Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) growing up as a black gay man in Miami.
Moonlight
In this 1993 sci-fi novel, Lauren Olamina escapes an apocolyptic Los Angeles and starts a new religion after the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to 'make America great again'.
Parable of the Sower (or Earthseed series)
This jazz singer recorded over 200 albums and was the first African-American Woman to be awarded a Grammy. She was known for her musical phrasing and scat singing ability and for working with Duke Ellington & Count Basie.
Ella Fitzgerald
This vocal group was formed in 1985 by Nathan Morris & Marc Nelson in Pennsylvania, and is best-known for "End of the Road" and "Motownphilly"
Boyz II Men
In 1972, the Brown Berets occupied this part of California for three weeks, claiming that it was legally part of Mexico overlooked by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Catalina Island
RuPaul plays a conversion therapy camp counselor in this campy yet poignant 1999 coming-of-age story.
But I'm a Cheerleader
This Japanese author born in Tokyo in 1964 has a chosen first name of a fruit.
Banana Yoshimoto
This artist is famous for her album "Switched on Bach" and her musical score to Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange," as well as being the first transgender recipient of a Grammy Award.
Wendy Carlos
If you are a "BLINK", you are a fan of this girls group, known for "HYLT" and "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du."
BLACKPINK