Lords of Bakersfield-style attempt by The Rock and Roll Farm to intimidate novelist - By N.L. Belardes
Good grief, I thought I was done expressing the word on the street about Jerry’s Pizza. I mean, downtown is really dead these days what with murders, Gigantic being gone and Wing Wah’s being gutted as if some cowboy DeNiro shrugged his shoulders, smirked and flicked his cigarette into the Chinese food restaurant window...
Perhaps I recently experienced an attempt at intimidation because I didn’t post Mr. Berg’s last letter sent to me back on April 23rd. I’m sorry, Mr. Berg. I hadn’t heard any stories lately other than Chris of Ridikule complaining that he and his band were ignored. But then, how many Bakersfield bands does that make?
I had become bored with the Jerry’s Pizza articles. I thought enough had been stated on either side. You know, I’m not a journalist. I’m not held by journalistic standards. I’m not trained per say, as a journalist, and yet kind of journalist-like I wonder if it is Mr. Berg who has been writing to me all along? Do email letters prove who a source is? I don’t know. I doubt it. All of this could be hogwash… Maybe Nate Berg really is someone who sits around and actually frets about the direction of kids these days… I doubt it.
Perhaps there are other reasons altogether as to why this supposed Mr. Berg would suddenly attempt to intimidate me, a novelist who simply blogs about the word on the street. Perhaps he thinks there is backlash from my articles and so Mr. Berg feels it necessary to intimidate or ‘get back at’ me. And why? For expressing my opinion of the news on the street? That’s hilarious. Does he think I have power over the people, when I don’t? I don’t tell people what to do. I didn’t organize a boycott. The bands did. I don’t even know if it has had any effect. Is there even truly a boycott? And how many bands are involved? I don’t know. I reported about the boycott. But I haven’t substantiated it by interviewing Jerry’s Pizza.
People don’t make up their minds whether to boycott or not simply because I wrote an article. Don’t build me up, Mr. Berg. I don’t have that kind of influence. I report. And you want to end my reporting? Ending my reporting and my freedom to express my opinion doesn’t end the word on the street! Simple as that. Maybe some kind of nilly-willy secret Lords of Bakersfield style machinations of the Rock and Roll Farm are going on that I’m not aware of as the alleged Nazi-like controllers of downtown music scene seek to take away my freedom of speech… I’m sure there are such secret meetings. “Und vey shall put an end to free musick und art speech!” they might say in their secret Eagle’s Nest of the music scene meetings. But who cares if there are such meetings? This is a free country and they have the right to conduct whatever meetings they want. I don’t spend my time wondering much about Jerry’s Pizza and how they conduct business. OK, I admit that’s about .0001% of my time… Let them conduct business how they want. If bands don’t want to change business acumen, well I certainly can’t and won’t try. It’s not my place. I just report what I have heard, and that includes on both sides... Has Jerry’s lost business? Is that what this is about? Once again… I’m just a reporter. Tell the accusing bands not to use the word ‘Nazi’. It was the Black Jerks who I witnessed in their leading punk youth to mock the alleged intimidator with “Hail Nate Berg! Hail Nate Berg!” I was just the novelist in the crowd.
But my readers want to know what’s going on, what happened that I am writing like I’m another of the alleged victims of the supposed baseball bat of poor consciousness…
Let’s start here, back in April, when this supposed Mr. Berg sent a letter claiming that he would no longer write on Jerry’s Pizza topic to me. I didn’t post it because I was yawning as I read it. I have novels to write. I’m too busy to always be worrying about Jerry’s Pizza ripping off bands and making them pay to play, or canceling shows, or not paying folks… even the gossip gets worn out.
The letter from April 23:
this will serve as the last letter I will officially write to you people at the present time, PLEASE READ THE LETTERS CLEARLY AND CAREFULLY SO THERE IS NO MISUNDERSTANDING. this is my final word on the issue, i am very busy guy and there are a lot of people counting on me in the music industry all over Bakersfield, Fresno and the world to have my A-game, that i cannot jump everytime a Chantal, or Dennis, or Alex Rodriguez is feeling a little left out..
JERRY BOOKS ALL AGES SHOWS FOR PEOPLE OF ALL TYPES, SEXES, RELIGION, HAIRCOLORS, ETHNICICITYS,....etc. We run thing by the books, with legal permits required for such an operation. If you have any hurt feelings please come by the club, i will personally purchase a slice of pizza and beverage for you and try to requit your personal grievance with quiet graceful conversation
Nathan Berg
Well there, now the supposed last letter to N.L. from Nathan Berg has been posted, a letter that marks the end of all discussion on the Rock and Roll Farm, right? My getting bored with the topic just wasn’t good enough… You know, I hate to get all Harry Potter on this matter, but this guy sounds like Severus Snape babbling at the Harry Potters of the world for being Harry Potters no less… never got Severus anywhere either, other than his blood boiling because someone out there spent a few seconds pointing out what very well just may be the truth… that Snape simply lives to intimidate Potter.
And if my articles on the Rock and Roll farm aren’t the truth? Well I never said it was, either… Maybe there was never intimidation. Maybe it isn’t even a baseball bat that folks saw in their faces at all; maybe this Nate Berg character is more like a Tinkerbell flittering about the downtown music scene with a wand of glittery goodness saying in her high-pitched nasally voice what Rodney King has said all along… Maybe he’s just mad because he’s not on Enrique’s list of best or worst dressed! Well I didn’t make it either! (And then someone like Danielle Belton does; it’s so unfair).
Which brings me to a problem with the Rock and Roll Farm I have that I would never have had with a… Gigantic… where the more literary-minded hipsters hung out… where the crowd wasn’t always as dark as the basement walls. But then, they're gone...
Of course, I haven’t mentioned before that I had seen firsthand what happens when a family starts hanging out at Jerry’s as my once sweet niece fell victim to the aura of the Rock and Roll Farm. Once a straight ‘A’ student’s grades start slipping, well, who do you blame? Parents, peers, environment? Oh, many, some, or all… and oh she dressed the part, and, why for goodness sake did her parents not trust her down there alone? They partied right alongside her. Because they didn’t trust her, or… just who or what did they not trust? And to what bitter end? Fueling the Rock and Roll Farm nonetheless. And skewing a young kid’s mind as to what is cool. Such a poor innocent girl, duped into thinking that Jerry’s Pizza was… dare I say it again? Cool? What did this Rock and Roll Farm do to this once sweet girl who ended up with a sassy and rebellious attitude, and a goth look to match? She has a right to dress and act how she likes. I like the goth look on some people. But then my point isn’t the look, my point is: doesn’t the baseball bat of poor consciousness care what affect Jerry’s Pizza has on kids? Or does he not care what kids do… it’s just about the money. Well that’s fine. But don’t I always say on here that kids are our future? Ask yourself, what does the word on the street say about Jerry’s kids? I won’t even repeat it here, although I will point out that there were two murders that one fateful night… one at the hands of… And keep in mind, I have said nothing of allegations I have heard about drugs, serious threats to kill people, or, and most dastardly of all… of the horrid meatball sandwich I had that wasn’t a meatball sandwich at all. Drowned in red sauce, it was three meatballs, bread, and a sea of sauce. I couldn’t even pick it up! I started to eat it with a fork… I wanted to take it to Kenny Mount for a proper embalming. I had never planned on stooping to the point where I had to remember that wilted sandwich, or talk about the horrors of seeing my niece transform because Jerry’s Pizza was her holy hang out for her eternal lost goth youth… ugghh… doing my best at a Jim Carey gag… one more time…
But let’s get back to the intimidation that took place today via email today. First off, it was uncalled for. Here is this supposed Nate Berg claiming that I wronged his grandfather because I used the word, ‘Nazi’. Now if that isn’t preposterous. For one, you can’t compare apples to oranges. If his grandfather were to write to me, I would surely say, “Sir, this issue has nothing to do with Nazi atrocities more than 60 years ago in death camps. Sorry you took offense. Nazis did a lot more than just kill innocents in death camps. They were a complex political organization of which the death camps played but one aspect. I do not dishonor survivors of such atrocities. I speak out against oppression.” But then I would add, “Sir, it has come to my attention in the news that there is deep debate in Israel these days about what could be construed of as similar oppression as that under the Nazis with how Israel oppresses Christian, Jew, and Muslim Palestinians… what do you think about that sir? Is it OK to oppress? Your great grandson’s website claims racial and ethnic equality in an American pizza parlor…” And then we would go off on a completely different tangent because that discussion has more meaning than wasting time talking about a Rock and Roll Farm and their alleged Nazi-like activities of intimidation and coercion in Bakersfield, California.
Let’s take a look at the letter I received today under the threatening subject heading, “Belardes… Tsk Tsk” and then I will provide further analysis.
Hello, this is off the record, friend. Did you ever wonder why The Blackboard ceased running stuff about Jerry's Pizza & Nate Berg in particular? They ran an racially insensitive piece referring to him as ticket Nazi. Just like you did. Your piece has been forwarded to the proper people and we are monitoring this situation carefully. I suggest a full apology, blog is fine, then leave him alone. He is of Russian Jewish descent, and only one of his Great Grandparents survived at Dachau.
Thanking You in masantoou
Nate Berg
Off the record? What? In a previous email it was indicated that nothing from this Berg fellow was ‘off the record’… He can’t turn ‘on’ the ‘off the record’ when he already wrote to me there would never be an ‘off the record’. And besides. I’m not a journalist. I’m a blogger and a novelist...yeah, I write a lot of fiction and truths and opinions…I never went to journalist school, so maybe I don’t even know what ‘off the record’ means…
To think that freedom of speech can be quelled with a threatening letter. Preposterous! To think that a history professor like myself, who has taken students to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and has spoken out about tolerance and racism and has lectured to no end on such subjects; that a professor such as myself who gets kids to have Descartian beliefs and to question all around them; that I have been told by students of a background very different from myself, “Mr. B., that was one of the coolest movies I ever saw. I would never have seen it, let alone understand this stuff about neurasthenic women in literature in a musical like Chicago if it weren’t for you! I didn’t know women were so oppressed! Thank you!” I have never been accused of being a racist until now… My great grandparents survived a Mexican Revolution. And my great grandmother took a bullet for it, but I’m not crying about it or threatening anyone. Here’s my response to the nastiness of Nate Berg with a heading of “Tsk Tsk Back… and shame on you”:
Dear Mr. Berg,
You can't intimidate me. You are assuming that I am
disgracing victims of the Holocaust. You are as wrong
as can be. I am not. I never once made such a
statement. I have a strong opinion of Jerry's Pizza
and supposed intimidators and I can use whatever
adjectives I like to describe such... although
intimidation of the alleged sort certainly could be
construed as Nazi-like to control people/businesses in
such ways... that is if such intimidation really
happens... On your own site you refer to yourself as a
regime... which backs up my use of such adjectives.
Using your own argument I could say then that that it
is about the same as you running a piece calling a
Chicano like me a fruit picker, which you did... which
I am not crying about, but which if the time comes can
be used right back at you... and no, this is not ‘off
the record’ since in the past you have given me full
permission to publish anything you write to me that
you send... I have it in your words. And no, I am not
your friend since you are threatening me.
Unbelievable that alleged greedy promoters like
yourself could stoop to such levels of harassment to
suggest that good folks like myself could not feel
remorse for the millions victimized by the Nazi
regime.
Shame on you.
Nick Belardes
And because I was angry for being threatened, I followed that up with…
By the way, just in case your feelings are that
sensitive, then a big fat "sorry" and a sloppy kiss,
hug and pat on the back, because your grandparent
would indeed be a hero for surviving the horrors of
death camps... I am also sorry that you are unable to
separate past from present, and adjectives from a
reality that others lived, not you...
Nick Belardes
Such Lords of Bakersfield style of intimidation. Such nonsense. Backtracking on his own words… and attempting to Shanghai and railroad me… To think that the Blackboard was forced to stop publishing articles on Nate Berg because they used the word, ‘Nazi’? This isn’t Germany where such talk, or adjective usage is taboo. And I’m not even sure if it is taboo there anymore. This is America, where my relatives fought and died to help save the world from fascism, and that included saving Holocaust victims from death camps. To drag a heroic grandfather into a debate over a pizza parlor turned Rock and Roll Farm is just shameful. To think I would talk about my own relatives in such a way; and if I did would demean them and their unique historical and culturally-defining experience... Historian David Hackett Fischer wrote a book on historical fallacies; it discusses how writers make jumps in logic as they attempt to frame questions about pursuing historical truths. I’m thinking about sending Nate Berg a copy…
Perhaps I recently experienced an attempt at intimidation because I didn’t post Mr. Berg’s last letter sent to me back on April 23rd. I’m sorry, Mr. Berg. I hadn’t heard any stories lately other than Chris of Ridikule complaining that he and his band were ignored. But then, how many Bakersfield bands does that make?
I had become bored with the Jerry’s Pizza articles. I thought enough had been stated on either side. You know, I’m not a journalist. I’m not held by journalistic standards. I’m not trained per say, as a journalist, and yet kind of journalist-like I wonder if it is Mr. Berg who has been writing to me all along? Do email letters prove who a source is? I don’t know. I doubt it. All of this could be hogwash… Maybe Nate Berg really is someone who sits around and actually frets about the direction of kids these days… I doubt it.
Perhaps there are other reasons altogether as to why this supposed Mr. Berg would suddenly attempt to intimidate me, a novelist who simply blogs about the word on the street. Perhaps he thinks there is backlash from my articles and so Mr. Berg feels it necessary to intimidate or ‘get back at’ me. And why? For expressing my opinion of the news on the street? That’s hilarious. Does he think I have power over the people, when I don’t? I don’t tell people what to do. I didn’t organize a boycott. The bands did. I don’t even know if it has had any effect. Is there even truly a boycott? And how many bands are involved? I don’t know. I reported about the boycott. But I haven’t substantiated it by interviewing Jerry’s Pizza.
People don’t make up their minds whether to boycott or not simply because I wrote an article. Don’t build me up, Mr. Berg. I don’t have that kind of influence. I report. And you want to end my reporting? Ending my reporting and my freedom to express my opinion doesn’t end the word on the street! Simple as that. Maybe some kind of nilly-willy secret Lords of Bakersfield style machinations of the Rock and Roll Farm are going on that I’m not aware of as the alleged Nazi-like controllers of downtown music scene seek to take away my freedom of speech… I’m sure there are such secret meetings. “Und vey shall put an end to free musick und art speech!” they might say in their secret Eagle’s Nest of the music scene meetings. But who cares if there are such meetings? This is a free country and they have the right to conduct whatever meetings they want. I don’t spend my time wondering much about Jerry’s Pizza and how they conduct business. OK, I admit that’s about .0001% of my time… Let them conduct business how they want. If bands don’t want to change business acumen, well I certainly can’t and won’t try. It’s not my place. I just report what I have heard, and that includes on both sides... Has Jerry’s lost business? Is that what this is about? Once again… I’m just a reporter. Tell the accusing bands not to use the word ‘Nazi’. It was the Black Jerks who I witnessed in their leading punk youth to mock the alleged intimidator with “Hail Nate Berg! Hail Nate Berg!” I was just the novelist in the crowd.
But my readers want to know what’s going on, what happened that I am writing like I’m another of the alleged victims of the supposed baseball bat of poor consciousness…
Let’s start here, back in April, when this supposed Mr. Berg sent a letter claiming that he would no longer write on Jerry’s Pizza topic to me. I didn’t post it because I was yawning as I read it. I have novels to write. I’m too busy to always be worrying about Jerry’s Pizza ripping off bands and making them pay to play, or canceling shows, or not paying folks… even the gossip gets worn out.
The letter from April 23:
this will serve as the last letter I will officially write to you people at the present time, PLEASE READ THE LETTERS CLEARLY AND CAREFULLY SO THERE IS NO MISUNDERSTANDING. this is my final word on the issue, i am very busy guy and there are a lot of people counting on me in the music industry all over Bakersfield, Fresno and the world to have my A-game, that i cannot jump everytime a Chantal, or Dennis, or Alex Rodriguez is feeling a little left out..
JERRY BOOKS ALL AGES SHOWS FOR PEOPLE OF ALL TYPES, SEXES, RELIGION, HAIRCOLORS, ETHNICICITYS,....etc. We run thing by the books, with legal permits required for such an operation. If you have any hurt feelings please come by the club, i will personally purchase a slice of pizza and beverage for you and try to requit your personal grievance with quiet graceful conversation
Nathan Berg
Well there, now the supposed last letter to N.L. from Nathan Berg has been posted, a letter that marks the end of all discussion on the Rock and Roll Farm, right? My getting bored with the topic just wasn’t good enough… You know, I hate to get all Harry Potter on this matter, but this guy sounds like Severus Snape babbling at the Harry Potters of the world for being Harry Potters no less… never got Severus anywhere either, other than his blood boiling because someone out there spent a few seconds pointing out what very well just may be the truth… that Snape simply lives to intimidate Potter.
And if my articles on the Rock and Roll farm aren’t the truth? Well I never said it was, either… Maybe there was never intimidation. Maybe it isn’t even a baseball bat that folks saw in their faces at all; maybe this Nate Berg character is more like a Tinkerbell flittering about the downtown music scene with a wand of glittery goodness saying in her high-pitched nasally voice what Rodney King has said all along… Maybe he’s just mad because he’s not on Enrique’s list of best or worst dressed! Well I didn’t make it either! (And then someone like Danielle Belton does; it’s so unfair).
Which brings me to a problem with the Rock and Roll Farm I have that I would never have had with a… Gigantic… where the more literary-minded hipsters hung out… where the crowd wasn’t always as dark as the basement walls. But then, they're gone...
Of course, I haven’t mentioned before that I had seen firsthand what happens when a family starts hanging out at Jerry’s as my once sweet niece fell victim to the aura of the Rock and Roll Farm. Once a straight ‘A’ student’s grades start slipping, well, who do you blame? Parents, peers, environment? Oh, many, some, or all… and oh she dressed the part, and, why for goodness sake did her parents not trust her down there alone? They partied right alongside her. Because they didn’t trust her, or… just who or what did they not trust? And to what bitter end? Fueling the Rock and Roll Farm nonetheless. And skewing a young kid’s mind as to what is cool. Such a poor innocent girl, duped into thinking that Jerry’s Pizza was… dare I say it again? Cool? What did this Rock and Roll Farm do to this once sweet girl who ended up with a sassy and rebellious attitude, and a goth look to match? She has a right to dress and act how she likes. I like the goth look on some people. But then my point isn’t the look, my point is: doesn’t the baseball bat of poor consciousness care what affect Jerry’s Pizza has on kids? Or does he not care what kids do… it’s just about the money. Well that’s fine. But don’t I always say on here that kids are our future? Ask yourself, what does the word on the street say about Jerry’s kids? I won’t even repeat it here, although I will point out that there were two murders that one fateful night… one at the hands of… And keep in mind, I have said nothing of allegations I have heard about drugs, serious threats to kill people, or, and most dastardly of all… of the horrid meatball sandwich I had that wasn’t a meatball sandwich at all. Drowned in red sauce, it was three meatballs, bread, and a sea of sauce. I couldn’t even pick it up! I started to eat it with a fork… I wanted to take it to Kenny Mount for a proper embalming. I had never planned on stooping to the point where I had to remember that wilted sandwich, or talk about the horrors of seeing my niece transform because Jerry’s Pizza was her holy hang out for her eternal lost goth youth… ugghh… doing my best at a Jim Carey gag… one more time…
But let’s get back to the intimidation that took place today via email today. First off, it was uncalled for. Here is this supposed Nate Berg claiming that I wronged his grandfather because I used the word, ‘Nazi’. Now if that isn’t preposterous. For one, you can’t compare apples to oranges. If his grandfather were to write to me, I would surely say, “Sir, this issue has nothing to do with Nazi atrocities more than 60 years ago in death camps. Sorry you took offense. Nazis did a lot more than just kill innocents in death camps. They were a complex political organization of which the death camps played but one aspect. I do not dishonor survivors of such atrocities. I speak out against oppression.” But then I would add, “Sir, it has come to my attention in the news that there is deep debate in Israel these days about what could be construed of as similar oppression as that under the Nazis with how Israel oppresses Christian, Jew, and Muslim Palestinians… what do you think about that sir? Is it OK to oppress? Your great grandson’s website claims racial and ethnic equality in an American pizza parlor…” And then we would go off on a completely different tangent because that discussion has more meaning than wasting time talking about a Rock and Roll Farm and their alleged Nazi-like activities of intimidation and coercion in Bakersfield, California.
Let’s take a look at the letter I received today under the threatening subject heading, “Belardes… Tsk Tsk” and then I will provide further analysis.
Hello, this is off the record, friend. Did you ever wonder why The Blackboard ceased running stuff about Jerry's Pizza & Nate Berg in particular? They ran an racially insensitive piece referring to him as ticket Nazi. Just like you did. Your piece has been forwarded to the proper people and we are monitoring this situation carefully. I suggest a full apology, blog is fine, then leave him alone. He is of Russian Jewish descent, and only one of his Great Grandparents survived at Dachau.
Thanking You in masantoou
Nate Berg
Off the record? What? In a previous email it was indicated that nothing from this Berg fellow was ‘off the record’… He can’t turn ‘on’ the ‘off the record’ when he already wrote to me there would never be an ‘off the record’. And besides. I’m not a journalist. I’m a blogger and a novelist...yeah, I write a lot of fiction and truths and opinions…I never went to journalist school, so maybe I don’t even know what ‘off the record’ means…
To think that freedom of speech can be quelled with a threatening letter. Preposterous! To think that a history professor like myself, who has taken students to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and has spoken out about tolerance and racism and has lectured to no end on such subjects; that a professor such as myself who gets kids to have Descartian beliefs and to question all around them; that I have been told by students of a background very different from myself, “Mr. B., that was one of the coolest movies I ever saw. I would never have seen it, let alone understand this stuff about neurasthenic women in literature in a musical like Chicago if it weren’t for you! I didn’t know women were so oppressed! Thank you!” I have never been accused of being a racist until now… My great grandparents survived a Mexican Revolution. And my great grandmother took a bullet for it, but I’m not crying about it or threatening anyone. Here’s my response to the nastiness of Nate Berg with a heading of “Tsk Tsk Back… and shame on you”:
Dear Mr. Berg,
You can't intimidate me. You are assuming that I am
disgracing victims of the Holocaust. You are as wrong
as can be. I am not. I never once made such a
statement. I have a strong opinion of Jerry's Pizza
and supposed intimidators and I can use whatever
adjectives I like to describe such... although
intimidation of the alleged sort certainly could be
construed as Nazi-like to control people/businesses in
such ways... that is if such intimidation really
happens... On your own site you refer to yourself as a
regime... which backs up my use of such adjectives.
Using your own argument I could say then that that it
is about the same as you running a piece calling a
Chicano like me a fruit picker, which you did... which
I am not crying about, but which if the time comes can
be used right back at you... and no, this is not ‘off
the record’ since in the past you have given me full
permission to publish anything you write to me that
you send... I have it in your words. And no, I am not
your friend since you are threatening me.
Unbelievable that alleged greedy promoters like
yourself could stoop to such levels of harassment to
suggest that good folks like myself could not feel
remorse for the millions victimized by the Nazi
regime.
Shame on you.
Nick Belardes
And because I was angry for being threatened, I followed that up with…
By the way, just in case your feelings are that
sensitive, then a big fat "sorry" and a sloppy kiss,
hug and pat on the back, because your grandparent
would indeed be a hero for surviving the horrors of
death camps... I am also sorry that you are unable to
separate past from present, and adjectives from a
reality that others lived, not you...
Nick Belardes
Such Lords of Bakersfield style of intimidation. Such nonsense. Backtracking on his own words… and attempting to Shanghai and railroad me… To think that the Blackboard was forced to stop publishing articles on Nate Berg because they used the word, ‘Nazi’? This isn’t Germany where such talk, or adjective usage is taboo. And I’m not even sure if it is taboo there anymore. This is America, where my relatives fought and died to help save the world from fascism, and that included saving Holocaust victims from death camps. To drag a heroic grandfather into a debate over a pizza parlor turned Rock and Roll Farm is just shameful. To think I would talk about my own relatives in such a way; and if I did would demean them and their unique historical and culturally-defining experience... Historian David Hackett Fischer wrote a book on historical fallacies; it discusses how writers make jumps in logic as they attempt to frame questions about pursuing historical truths. I’m thinking about sending Nate Berg a copy…
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Tuesday, May 10, 2005.
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