Why did I ever second guess myself? Those silly laughing bomb squad guys were the true culprits of unorganization in last Wednesday's terrorization simulation...
I would like to apologize to the Bakersfield's Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief who got me good with this email today. For a second there I swear my hands were glowing:
Mr. Belardes,
You've been under surveillance since acquiring the top secret nuclear
deactivation device that fell into your hands. It's highly radioactive
and shouldn't be handled with out proper protection. Your life may be
in danger...... just kidding.
Nice blog..appreciate the humor of this situation (hope you can
appreciate mine). That looks like a sounding device we use but it's not ours.
It must belong to the police department bomb squad. I'll forward this
to the person in charge of the bomb squad and have him give you a call.
Maybe on you next entry you could let people who view know that it
wasn't the Fire Department's equipment. It took a lot of work on our part
to put this drill together and I wouldn't want to come off as careless
and frivolous (not that PD is). Lately it seems Police and Firefighters
have become the focus of ill will... must be some kind of
bizarro reverse parallel universe thing happening.
Thanks Nick for picking the device up and notifying us.
Kirk Blair
Deputy Fire Chief
Bakersfield Fire Department
This just in:
Bryan of the KOOKOONAUTS is back! Listen to the interview on KRAB Radio 106.1 FM tonight between 8:30 and 10 pm. Sunday October 30, 2005. Remember daylight savings time- fall behind...Buzz will talk about January 7th show at Robobank Arena "Condors and Kookoonauts" the new "Growing Up Fighting" Hockey CD with Nick Belardes and the recovery from his brutal attack.
A dead Lord of Bakersfield attended secret informant Steve-O's House on Haunted Hill 2 Friday night, also a tribute to deceased friend of Steve-O's, Scott Holcombe. There was a big event at the bloody-windowed house where the Lord haunted a little bit with a camera and two ladies who were the good and bad conscience of Bakersfield Lord from the grave, 'Ted Frotts'. He snuck around upstairs and downstairs and took some interesting photos of musicians, murderers, travsvestites, mad doctors, Big Fro-dudes, sweet bunnies, and a very bling rapper named King Mark before disappearing into the night with his conscience barely intact...
Vocalist, 'Big Daddy' Ruben Val Verde - From Ritual to Romance
For some reason Ted Frotts liked this photo...
David and Macario - From Ritual to Romance
Bunny girl at the entrance to the Fortune Teller
I think the guy in the middle is from News for the Paperboy
Rapper - King Mark (on left)
Skeleton eating hair as if it were cotton candy
Peeking at the conscience of Ted Frotts
News for the Paperboy from behind a sprite's wing
Bakersfield Lord from the Grave:
Ted Frotts
Yes, it's on sale starting yesterday. (I know I forgot to blog it).
Coming soon to Border's Books! (Just got in the door there)
Hopefully Borders Visalia, Borders Las Vegas, and various LA locations soon...
In the meantime, please go to Russo's...
Enough about Delsar Sensors. Even though we're on Day 3 since the fire department lost that expensive part of their search and rescue kit. Maybe I should have sent that email to Harvey Hall.
I just got this image in of a French release for a Soulsteppers vinyl 45 record that uses an N.L. photo on the backside.
Viva la France!
I hope I get a copy. It's an honor to have a photo used in such a way. I did the latest Filthies cover too...
DJ and Soulsteppers guru Mike sent me an email with the 45 artwork and also wrote about a big DJ all-nighter on November 5th:
Don't forget the 5th is the inaugural Central Soul Club allniter at Jerry's. Rare soul from 10pm to 5am! ...All guest DJ's are from the UK, now living in the states. Some were involved in the birthing stages of the scene; at Wigan Casino etc.
Sounds like a perfect day on November 5th: N.L. Belardes book release party from 2-5 PM at Lengthwise Brewery where Norfolk, the Filthies, Mento Buru, Fatt Katt and the Vonzippers, Nunez, and Gary Enns from the Dalloways are going to perform as well as some book readings from me... then that night, Myndsick will perform at the Condors Home at the Rabobank from 6-7PM outside and inside the arena during the first intermission. After the game grab some food and then head over to the DJ Central Soul Club all-nighter. Now that's a perfect day!
I am also super honored to have one of my photos as the cover of this week's Mas Magazine. It was beautifully used. I also have an article in this week's Mas titled, "The Crisis of Ethnic Dualism in Latino California". And of course I am triple honored in this week's Mas because my Dia de Los Muertos puppets are shown in a related article as well as a nice quote from me about cross pollination and culturally festive days... you can find Mas Bakersfield at any of these locations.
Now this is citizen journalism...
Dear Bakersfield City Fire Department:
I was at work downtown on Wednesday during what I’m calling a ‘media event’ that was planned for months ahead of time. I knew about it at work through a series of corporate emails. The Bakersfield Californian cited city firefighters as indicating the event was a large multi-casualty drill that that was to overrun a four-block segment of downtown from 9 to 11 a.m., simulating a bombing and hazardous materials contamination. The event was scheduled to test the medical response system’s ability to prepare for actual emergencies. Participating agencies are supposed to get a formal critique showing where the areas in their response can be strengthened…
Let me just begin that critique.
I was in the vicinity of downtown today. In fact, I was in the very parking lot where the simulated bomb went off. To my surprise, I found a device just sitting in the parking structure...
In my wild-eyed conspiratorial thinking I at first I thought I’d found some kind of trigger device that helps the bomb squad detonate explosives. I definitely didn’t want that lying around…
I then did what many corporate working folks do. I went to my job and forgot about the outside world...
Until I got home.
Then my curiosity got the best of me. I searched online for what the device could be. I mean, did the device belong to the fire department, the police department, or was this something mayor Harvey Hall carried around with him during his Wednesday morning photo-op? I needed to find out. I did see a bazillion media folk wandering around from my perch on Wednesday. I wondered why so many folks were on-hand. I wondered why I was a looky-loo myself…
After careful research I’m guessing this device belongs to the fire department search and rescue. A Delsar Sensor is not a cheap toy. Lives depend on it as part of a search and rescue kit that I’m certain is paid for by Kern County tax dollars.
It’s a rather bright neon-coated sensor too. I’m surprised it was left behind. Was it because the event started a few minutes late? Was the mayor distracting? Are there more Delsar Sensors missing?
You’d think careful inventory would have been taken to assure all pieces of the kit were accounted for. I mean, the media event was Wednesday. And I just found this device sitting in the open in broad daylight on Friday?
Please contact me so this sensor can be returned to its search and rescue case and help save lives…
Hey arts community. You've been supported for 11 months... Please come and show your support in return. It would be so appreciated!
I'll have two costumed appearances as a Lord of Bakersfield:
Oct 28th - Friday night at the House on Haunted Hill 2 - Jungle Cafe
Oct 29th - Saturday night at Montgomery World Plaza
There's the radio and TV appearances...
Then the BOOK RELEASE PARTY and signing...
Nov 5th - Lengthwise 2-5 PM (You're so invited to that)
Nov 6th 1-3PM - big book signing at Russo's in the Marketplace
I wonder if the music and art community will come out and support...
Just who is Matildakay? Go to matildakay.com today and you’ll see an interesting blog about identity; not really a full blown identity crisis, though sort of, and you can help. Sure, we all want to know who we are, where we come from and where we are going, and Matildakay is no different. In a revealing blog, Matildakay has just let her readers in on a secret, not that she was adopted, but that she is now searching for her identity. Only now she’s asking reader opinion before she perhaps lets us in on her next big secret: finding out who she really is. A blogger/novelist, Matildakay is one of the most widely read bloggers in the Bakersfield blog community. I’ve personally known her for more than 25 years and I can tell you I think she’s French: that head of dark curly hair and light-skinned facial features that make me think I’m looking at some Parisian, fresh from a café on cobblestone streets. And you beg to differ? Read her blog and let her know your opinion…
Months ago when I heard a local musician complain about Dante Esperanza, my initial reaction was I got pissed off. I didn’t know Dante Esperanza personally. But I didn’t have a beef with them. Someone had said, “Their music is too repetitive.” What did I care if it was repetitive or not? I just care whether I like someone's music or not. Hell, Beethoven gets repetitive; So is Rachmoninov for that matter. And so in my rebelliousness, I put two or three Dante Esperanza songs on one of my first podcasts. It was a quiet musical protest. Here was a band who had only been together a few months and they had a CD of 20 or so songs? Hallelujah that’s prolific!
Enter Buck City Podcast #18, aptly titled, “Psychedelic Country Blues.” Give it a listen and you’ll find out it’s all about Dante Esperanza. They came on the show to play live, to talk shop, and even graciously allowed J.B. of Johnny Clash to play violin with them. They didn’t have to do that. But they did. Meet Duncan McKnight, Brandon Williams and Shaun Tidwell and see them perform at the Munoz Gym on Octover 29th...
You have to listen to Episode Eighteen, and if you're an artist, in a band, or in theatre, you're going to want to do a podcast. Why? Because a podcast can be downloaded and listened to over and over again. It's not just a one-time radio thing... Go to the podcast and blog homepage and click on one of the chicklets, subscribe, or just wimp out and download the MP3 of Episode Eighteen, 'Psychedelic Country Blues'... If you do click on a chicklet, try podnova or podcast alley. But don't discount iTunes. The Buck City Podcast is now on iTunes, Podfeed, Podnova, Podcast, PodcastHostDirectory, PodTower, Podcast Directory, Podcast Pickle, Podcasting News, podcaster world, Odeo.com and Podfeeder... and yes, I did say iTunes! That's the biggie. Go ahead and look, you'll see the Buck City Podcast right there in the music directory...
And no, you don't have to have a MAC to download iTunes. Just go to apple.com and download right now! It's great! A perfect search engine for podcasts, a great look and feel, and you can listen with ease, with auto updates!
Coming soon: Nunez, Vanity Avenue, local writers and more!
You know, Bakersfield Californian columnist, Robert Price, A.K.A. ‘Stubble the Lords Hunter’ had my book for a few weeks now. I wasn’t sure if he was burning pages out of it, reading it, or if he’d handed his copy to those creepy old timers still judging Bakersfield’s wayward youth from their dark Star Chamber. Of course he wouldn’t be… He’s not one of them…
Price wrote a nice plug for the novel in today’s edition of the Bakersfield Californian. He plugged the November 6th book signing at Russo's in the marketplace and Noveltown as the Southern Central Valley’s up-and-coming imprint, even though he did call me a “wild-eyed conspiracy theorist”. I love it! That’s what I get for jabbing him for months now with my fun-loving ‘Stubble the Lords Hunter’ quips…
Seriously, here are some words to chew on to make you think about your local newspaper, the Bakersfield Californian, and perhaps even get you to pick up a copy of Lords: Part One to see if the novel really is redundant, or just following a time-line and connecting new dots in a strangely macabre urban myth:
Lords: Part One is not much different in intent than Dominick Dunne’s A Season of Purgatory, which plainly analyzed, is good fiction, though based on actual murders (in Dunne’s case, the Skakel murders). As a novelist I did buy into certain Star Chamber theories, but that may not be too far off from the truth as the Californian does implicate all those so-called Star Chamber folks (except for a very few I added) in Robert Price’s 2003 articles. If I am a “wild-eyed conspiracy” theorist, then perhaps Price is implying the Californian has made a few conspiracy-doozies of their own while connecting conspiracy dots in the Price articles. It plainly is conspiracy-thinking for a local newspaper to leave such urban mythmaking for the collective consciousness to theorize and grow fearsome over. I just took that to the next psychological level, and in literary form. Go read the 2003 articles: Glenn Fitts—a possible Lord; Stan Harper—a possible Lord; Ted Fritts—a possible Lord; Tommy Tarver—a possible Lord; Robert Mistriel—a possible Lord, and so on... are they or aren’t they? The Californian leads you on a path of urban myth-making, and then makes you, the reader, decide for yourself… it’s a nice carrot to dangle and I picture Robert Price in similar fashion to me, dancing, and skipping along in front of the reader with a bamboo fishing pole and candy-coated carrot for the reader to chase after…
That doesn’t seem too far off from what character Simon Sundale does in my novel, Lords: Part One as the newspaper publisher. In the story he takes advantage of urban myths whether proven or unproven to gain more readership... especially of apocalyptic beliefs during a devastating dust storm. Here’s conspiracy-making in the 1970s about God-sent natural disasters waylaying the Kern countryside along with pop culture movie sensations blended with fears of alien invasions. Go to your local library and read the old newspapers for yourself and see if you agree/disagree. Look at the movie ads, read the stories, and get an apocalyptic feel for Bakersfield 30 years ago. Then think about the Lords of Bakersfield news articles of 2003: Conspiracy-making in the new Millennium? You bet. Robert Price and the Bakersfield Californian are right there with me, wild-eyed and gaining readership because they have made us all think there just might be Lords of Bakersfield out there in the distant past and not-so-distant and murderous present…
*Sidenote: I loved it when dozens of media folk (TV, Radio, and Print) all wandered downtown today for the big terror media op at 9am. I posted pictures at 9:24am and quite possibly beat them all in good grassroots blogger style…
The simulated bomb just went off. The mayor lurked on the streetcorner in perfect photo-op fashion. Bomb squad boys laughed as the bomb went off... Bodies lined the streets...
Would you feel safe?
While the media looky-loos gawked...
Yes, it’s true. This Friday October 28th I will be in character on Friday night at the House on Haunted Hill 2 Halloween Party at the Jungle Café. It’s fitting. One of the dastardly haunts in Lords: Part One is certainly an old ghost mansion in the Oleander area. So, I and a few associates from Noveltown will be on-hand selling books and hanging out with screaming musicians 'From Ritual to Romance' as well as out-of-the-crypt DJs, a macabre fortune teller and more. This is the first official book signing and it couldn’t be more fitting for the creepiest book ever out of Bakersfield, California. Oh yes, this is your perfect Halloween book for Bakersfield. Come and get a copy and then read it before Halloween so you can be totally creeped out… You’re going to want to go and say you bought N.L.’s book on the first official day it was available…
You can view the entire schedule of book signings here… always more being added…
And please, don’t forget the official book release party on November 5th from 2-5PM. The book release party is for the music scene and by the music scene and will feature acoustic sets from: the Filthies, Norfolk, Fatt Katt and the Vonzippers, Nunez, the Dalloways, and Mento Buru’s first ever acoustic set! I will give a few readings too… and don’t forget the book signing the next day at Russo’s at the marketplace on November 6th at 1PM
A few years ago I read a history book on Buck Owens by a friend of mine named Katherine Burke. It’s her graduate thesis and is a marvelous read that deserves to be published by a university press somewhere. I’m actually not sure if her work was published and I can’t remember the title for the life of me. What I do remember is a chapter on the Bakersfield bible belt. That old Okie Dust Bowl migration transplanted an entire church-going culture from the South into the Grapes-of-Wrath Central Valley, and is part of the reason why there’s a church on every corner here in the conservative landscapes of Bakersfield.
Why do I even bring this topic up? I got an email from Brent Hicks of Bite Me Cookies. He's also in the classic rock band, Rockfish. Rockfish is a Christian band that has trouble booking gigs because, well, they sound too much like Jimi Hendrix. Now these guys are good and I recently heard a tale about them playing an Edison Highway tent revival which reminded me of Katherine Burke’s chapter on early country music and church revivals… it’s an interesting topic, though I still don’t feel the Latino contribution has been fully explored in its contribution to the Bakersfield Sound… Anyway, being a storyteller myself, I love stories. Here’s Brent’s letter of the old tent revival…
On Thursday afternoon, I got a call from a pastor's
wife. Emma Coffman said she was from the First
Baptist Church of Edison. She said she knew that it
was last minute, but the music they had planned for
Saturday had just backed out. Emma said she got our
band's name from Jesus Shack. Would we be available
to play a Saturday afternoon tent revival? She
sounded so enthusiastic when I said we would. I
warned her that our music was Christian classic rock
and blues. Somehow Emma conveyed to me that she was
at a computer, and I told her to check Rockfishmusic
on My Space. She listened to it and still seemed just
as enthusiastic.
After checking with the other members of the band, our
keyboardist was the only one who wasn't available to
play that Saturday. But Rockfish had played as a
three-piece for quite some time, so the three of us
agreed to play the tent revival.
Emma told us they had a P.A. system, a stage and about
50 seats. They would be serving a barbecue dinner
(deep pit pig and goat). After about a 20-minute
drive out Highway 58, taking the Edison turnoff, I
drove past the tent the first time. I didn't see it
because it was recessed on a dirt lot. The tent was
red, white and blue. It was quaintly decorated with
artificial flowers.
We were warmly greeted and helped with our equipment.
The band was set up in no time. They started the
generator, and we were able to take a sound check and
see that everything was working.
We played music to a cross-mix of grandmothers,
thirtysomethings, teenagers and young children. We
think they liked the music. We played all of our
songs and said "thank you" and mentioned that we had a
CD for sale.
It was a humbling performance, but it was where we
felt God had called us to play.
There you have it, Nick, the big tent revival through
rose colored glasses.
Thanks,
Brent
I recently saw Kevin Lively and Caroline Clark’s production of the Hobbit. I went out on media night where the staff had kindly build a sandwich tower and a chocolate waterfall in a wonderful display for the local media. Of course I wouldn’t shun the Hobbit or kid actors. There were 60 kids from the Boys and Girls homes to check out the production…and I was more than glad to be on-hand.
The Hobbit ended today at 2pm, but let me tell you this was one of the coolest local plays I have ever been to. I’m a big fan of the Hobbit and when I was a kid delving into fantasies, I read the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit at least four times each. Of course that was before I got into more classical forms of literature; but then, the Lord of the Rings was created by one of the most classical literary minds of the modern age.
The play adaptation by Brainerd Duffield and directed by Kevin Lively and Caroline Clark is a tribute to Tolkien, slapstick, and the great child and adult actors in the Bakersfield area...
The show featured an incredible performance by Chris Orta as Bilbo Baggins. This curly dark-haired youth was last seen in The BCT’s production of Peter Pan and has an incredible amount of potential in theatre and beyond. His performance as a rather uppity adult-like yet childish Bilbo was believable, although I sometimes wished his voice was just a bit louder…
The Hobbit had the most interesting Gandalf and Gollum(s) I could have ever imagined. Gandalf was played by Angela Poncetta and offered Tolkienesque wizardry through another gender perspective. Strangely, I think this Gandalf captures how behind every great man (men) is an even greater woman. She was entertaining to say the least, and comical in her seeking of the map to the Desolation of Smaug… As for the Gollums, they were portrayed in a simultaneous dualistic acting job that was pulled off magnificently by Ben and Jenna Lejeune. I can’t even begin to describe how they both talked simultaneously, yet didn’t, yet finished each other’s sentences as they slunk about the stage, intimidating the childish heart of the appointed thief of Smaug’s treasure, Bilbo.
Meathead from KRAB radio’s Meathead and Desi show was the voice of Smaug and added to the great comedy of the show. Oh, it was slapstick. But who doesn’t like cheesy slapstick like when one of the dwarves yelled, “Lend me your ears!” and all the dwarves threw rubber ears his way.
The show also featured a funny dance number between the Mirkwood elves and Goblins that helped make up the large ensemble cast... you can view the entire cast list and more photos here...
The show may be over, but all of the actors as well as Bakersfield Community Theatre and shows by these great directors are going to keep coming our way. I have been so busy lately that I want to publicly apologize to Kevin Lively for falling so far behind. If it weren’t for recently laughing like crazy at Enrique Fuentes Dysfunctional Theatre Review of the play, I might have pushed off my own review even longer. Stay tuned for lots more from the BCT!
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