Blog

Hot AG Adriano Goldschmied Styles
05.15.14
In the market for coveted denim? You won’t want to miss the AG trunk show at Solutions the Premier Denim Store in Newport Beach running today through Sunday. You’ll be the first to shop the latest styles from AG this summer season. During the trunk show, you’ll save 15% off all AG purchases for men and women. The hottest styles from AG are white denim and boyfriend jeans, and Solutions will have plenty of sizes for you to choose from.
Solutions can also style you with great dresses, tops, and accessories for the upcoming summer season.
Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Solutions is at 1719 Westcliff Drive in Newport Beach. 949.650.0479.
20qs

Ahmed Younis
05.14.14
Adjunct Professor at Chapman University, College of Educational Studies, Writer, Former Senior Analyst at Gallop
1. If you had to begin a different career, what would you do?
Hotel Manager. It allows you to engage with people in epic experiences. Vacations, work trips to different countries; it allows you to be in a nice environment all day, and wear nice suits as a core component of your engagements. It allows you to build images that people can hold onto for a very long time as part of their identity and relationship development. Traveling and eating are very important to my life, and in another life I would definitely go into Hotel Restaurant Management.
2. What’s your most prized possession?
I think I would say my American passport. The fact that my parents came as immigrants to America, and I’ve been to many countries that I could not go to countries if it weren’t for an American passport. American citizenship gives us global currency and allows us to see realities in all corners of the earth that need to be changed and engage with people who want to see them change.
3. Favorite drink?
Sugar cane juice. In Egypt and a lot of countries in the global south, sugar cane grows like weeds and its use is varied, but there is a machine where you can put the stock of sugar cane into one end of the machine and on the other end comes out the sugar cane juice. My second favorite drink would have to be Guarana from Brazil.
4. What are you most proud of?
My ability to roll with the punches. I find myself gravitating toward experiences that give me fulfillment and excitement. Changing places, jobs, environments allows me to thrive. I am proud of my versatility and malleability. That comes with a strong support system. Finding a way to grind through hardship.
5. Fantasy purchase?
The Los Angeles Lakers.
6. What can’t you live without?
Freedom. I’ve lived in countries where you don’t have the freedom to say what you believe, or to write what you feel politically, you don’t have the freedom to participate in the public square. I’ve actually been in realities where my inhibited freedom led to a great deal of frustration. I can’t live without the freedom to speak and the freedom to act or the freedom to live without the ability to pursue what I believe is right.
7. What’s next on your “to do” list?
TED TALK.
8. Biggest regret?
I think part of me regrets growing up in the public sphere. I’ve been giving talks since I was 15 and 16, and from 16-25 those years you are really just on a journey to understand who you are and I did a lot of that in a public sphere on a microphone or on a TV screen, and I think the biggest regret of my life, even though it gave me the 10,000 hours to be one of the best at it, is having succeeded in something I always wanted. I regret most growing on screen and on stage. Then again it was my greatest blessing. It allowed me to grow honestly. A more private developmental experience might have led to the development of a different person.
9. Cause that you’re most interested/involved in?
People believing in themselves. People believing in their own capacity to achieve things, and people believing in their own capacity to change the reality they live or the reality around them. That is the only reason I am here, the only reason I got out was because I did what I wanted to do. Most of the people that I meet have no clue how powerful and brilliant they are, and I think part of that is a function of the society that we live in, part of it is a function of being in this part of America at this moment in history, but I think the thing that matters to me the most is your perception of yourself.
10. Your dream day in Orange County?
It would start with a helicopter ride from Santa Ana, over to Pelican Hill, and then play a round of golf, 18 holes, have lunch at the Coliseum half way through, and have dinner on a duffy in Newport Harbor. Me and my amazing wife, Yasmine.
11. Favorite place for breakfast
Schooner or Later in Long Beach on the harbor.
12. What was the best day of your life?
The day I realized I could hit my driver consistently regardless of circumstance.
13. Last concert that you went to?
Damian Marley, Ziggy Marley, and Stephen Marley at the Hollywood Bowl. I was invited by Omar Offendum, the great rapper and poet, and we had an amazing night a few months ago.
14. Favorite vacation spot?
Lake Cuomo, Bellagio, Italy.
15. If you had to live somewhere else, where would you like to move?
Washington DC. Washington is the Paris of America. It is a gorgeous city. I have a love affair with DC.
16. Favorite books?
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire because it’s a book about the spirit and its ability to revolt against the unjust.
The Tao of the Wu by the Rza – a brilliant and poetic account of philosophies that gave rise to the Wu Tang Clan.
17. Favorite restaurants in Orange County?
Panini Café, Fig & Olive, Bodhi Tree, but I think my favorite restaurant in OC is definitely Open Sesame in the LBC.
18. Biggest accomplishment?
Going from being a young adult to an adult, which was turning off the underdog narrative tape on replay, and turning on a tape that related to being a part of the solving class. Decreasing my sense of what was owed to me, right and wrong, justice and injustice, and things that young people are very consumed with, and moving to a place where I am a part of finding solutions and being in a place where I can try and find third options of doing things. My biggest accomplishment has been moving from someone that opinionates to somebody that solves.
19. What’s your biggest fear?
Not fully actualizing. Either by choice or by distraction.
20. Secret most people don’t know about you?
My spirit requires a lot of upkeep. A lot of people see me as someone who is positive and is helping them to be positive, and I think there is an assumption that that comes easily or that but requires hard work. It is difficult for me to explain that this posture requires maintenance and requires people telling me that I am able or capable of succeeding. I think what a lot of people don’t know about me is that I have a heavy reliance on people in my inner circle: my wife, my brother, my parents, my friends, and all of our extended family that helps me keep the positivity and keeps the train moving so others have the opportunity to jump on it. I think in many ways I am a mirror of what is at home or what I interact with.
Follow Greer on Pinterest
from the blog
- 09.02.26 – Newport Dunes Celebrates Labor Day Weekend With Live Music, Beach Movies and Waterfront Fun
- 09.02.26 – Pacific Symphony Opens New Era with Joshua Bell, Celebrates Shelley’s First Season
- 08.30.26 – VOX Kitchen Brings Modern Chifa Flavor to Aliso Viejo
- 08.29.26 – Outpost Kitchen Refreshes Menu for National Better Breakfast Month
- 08.29.26 – Blind Boys of Alabama Bring Seven Decades of Gospel to Musco Center
- 08.26.26 – Chef Turned Author Launches New Thriller Series
- 08.25.26 – Landers Supply House Celebrates Grand Opening at The LAB Anti-Mall
- 08.24.26 – Sushi Roku Debuts New Small Plates and Signature Sushi
- 08.23.26 – Cozy Earth’s Biggest Sale Comes to Corona del Mar
- 08.23.26 – Marriott Irvine Spectrum Offers Shuttle Pass for Daisy Chain Fields Festival
- 08.20.26 – Europa Village Unveils Lucia at the Cave, a New Wine Cave Cocktail Lounge
- 08.20.26 – Mercado González Brings Mexican Marketplace Experience to La Habra
- 08.20.26 – Righteous Brothers to Headline Charity Concerts at Lido Theater
- 08.17.26 – Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts
- 08.17.26 – Habana Turns the Lights Down for Weekly Candlelight Dinners
- 08.16.26 – Prince St. Pizza’s Black Currant Big Apple Pie Lands in Costa Mesa
- 08.14.26 – Jonathan Alcala Named Executive Chef at Temecula Creek Inn
- 08.11.26 – Anaheim White House Marks 39 Years With Italian-Style Anniversary Dinner
- 08.11.26 – Rent The Runway Warehouse Sale Comes to Tustin
- 08.08.26 – Silver Oak Comes to the Pier: 21 Oceanfront’s One-Night Wine Dinner
More Daily Doses
- 08.30.26 – Zov’s Mediterranean Restaurant Set to Open on 17th Street in Costa Mesa
- 08.29.26 – Sweet Arrival: Levain Bakery Opens First Orange County Location at Fashion Island
- 08.26.26 – OCAPICA’s Tastemakers of Orange County Celebrates 10 Years of Community-Driven Cuisine
- 08.24.26 – Katella Commons Adds Five More Reasons to Get Hungry at OCVIBE
- 08.24.26 – Telefèric Barcelona Brings Spanish Flavor to Fashion Island
- 08.20.26 – Pacific Wine & Food Classic Returns to Newport Beach in September
- 08.18.26 – Dream Glow Festival Returns to Celebrate the Beauty of Chinese Culture
- 08.13.26 – Z SUPPLY Pops Up at Lido Marina Village With New Denim Collection
- 08.11.26 – Inside Eichholtz’s New SOCO Showroom
- 08.10.26 – Good Together House: Laguna Beach’s Home for the Extraordinary and Unexpected
- 08.06.26 – Kei Concepts Expands ROL Hand Roll Bar with New La Habra Location
- 08.04.26 – Anaheim’s Sixth Annual World Taste Returns to the Packing District
- 08.02.26 – ‘Gala of the Stars’ Returns to Segerstrom for 17th Year
- 07.24.26 – LJ’s Lounge Brings Soul-Infused Dining and Music to Triangle Square
- 07.19.26 – Inside Reecess, Newport Beach’s New Wellness Destination
- 07.14.26 – Life Time Opens Resort-Style Athletic Club in Brea
- 07.14.26 – Flea Style Brings Its Hat Bar Concept Home to Laguna Beach
- 07.13.26 – Gordon Ramsay Opens The Carnaby at Downtown Disney
- 07.08.26 – Noble Ace Debuts in Laguna Beach’s Historic Heisler Building
- 07.05.26 – Pageant of the Masters Returns to Laguna Beach With ‘The Greatest of All Time’
