An interview, a reporter, a reporter-blogger, a walk around the block and Azuls - By N.L. Belardes
I was downtown last night first bumping elbows with Jimmy Holliday beneath the big Padre shadow. “We practice in a loft inside the Padre,” he said later in the evening. So, anti-folk hero Jimmy Holliday tears it up with the ghosts of the old Hollywood hangout? There, stars once lurked in the big Tinseltown backyard to creep their decrepit glamorous longings for the strange Bakersfield streets, and high society of the grand lone giant hotel of 1930s yesteryear…
In the Wall Street alley the doors to Azul were closed. I had gone back home to write a quick blog and poem but eventually headed back downtown only to find Francis Mayer from the local underground newspaper, The Blackboard as he met Danielle Belton, entertainment writer and blogger for the Bakersfield Californian. What a strange meeting of media: novelist/blogger meets underground reporter meets Entertainment creative writer/reporter…
“What kind of writing do you do?” I heard one of them say as I approached. I had gone downtown to see Jimmy Holliday and to also be interviewed by Francis Mayer who was researching for an upcoming write-up that either he or some other contributing writer was going to pen.
“I like the new template,” Belton complimented about the Blackboard's latest look. “One of the jokes that used to go around the Californian was that folks over at the Blackboard were afraid of the return key… There were just big blocks of text.” Oh come on Danielle. Don't tell me the Californian pokes fun. I don't believe it. But then, Danielle is funny. She has a drippingly sarcastic sense of humor that many people don't get. And she's one of the most self-abusive writers I have ever known. She's like Dobby from Harry Potter who is always smacking himself in the head for just talking to the Wizard boy wonder.
Francis pointed out the Blackboard being a one-man show by an untrained reporter who has a strong love for putting out an underground paper. Although I don’t know much about the history of the Blackboard paper, you have to give them credit for putting out some good alternative reading from big brother Californian who has monopolized the local newspaper biz for years. I personally like the progressive share-the-traffic attitude the Californian has taken in recent months. It’s self-serving on both sides as nlbelardes.com gets traffic as does the Californian, and I don’t get my content managed. Everyone wins.
I think that conversation moved on just after Danielle completely tore apart baseball, especially the St. Louis Cardinals who recently graced her top 20 'you suck' list...
The Blackboard meets The Californian "Let's have tea and crumpets!"
We went inside for a brief bit. Danielle showed off a pen-and-ink drawing after talking to Francis, Alex and AJ. I schmoozed with Jimmy Holliday a bit… and heard that Belton refers to Alex and Aj of Gigantic as Hall and Oates… read this great write-up she did on The boys from Gigantic, Azuls, Dante Esperanza, Nunez, and more...
Francis and I took a long walk around several city blocks, eventually stopping on the steps of the downtown post office to have a talk about some of the goings-on in the music scene…
In the end we headed back to Azul’s where we stood outside and some kids thought they had to show IDs before they entered. Francis patiently took the time to put on his best I'm-a-bouncer-but-not-really-pose before looking at about four IDs, nodding approval to each while I stymied a laugh. He kept a good poker face through it all. Afterwards, I went and listened to Jimmy Holliday for a while. After his performance we talked about a hockey song called ‘Lil Bitty Johnny the Slasher’ while we could hear some guy name Nunez play a guitar on the patio…
In ending I should add I had a great conversation with Joseph and Jenny from Calico Sunset... another hidden Bakersfield wonder... I still feel bad I missed them the night before. We talked about their tour, their music, history and novels...
In the Wall Street alley the doors to Azul were closed. I had gone back home to write a quick blog and poem but eventually headed back downtown only to find Francis Mayer from the local underground newspaper, The Blackboard as he met Danielle Belton, entertainment writer and blogger for the Bakersfield Californian. What a strange meeting of media: novelist/blogger meets underground reporter meets Entertainment creative writer/reporter…
“What kind of writing do you do?” I heard one of them say as I approached. I had gone downtown to see Jimmy Holliday and to also be interviewed by Francis Mayer who was researching for an upcoming write-up that either he or some other contributing writer was going to pen.
“I like the new template,” Belton complimented about the Blackboard's latest look. “One of the jokes that used to go around the Californian was that folks over at the Blackboard were afraid of the return key… There were just big blocks of text.” Oh come on Danielle. Don't tell me the Californian pokes fun. I don't believe it. But then, Danielle is funny. She has a drippingly sarcastic sense of humor that many people don't get. And she's one of the most self-abusive writers I have ever known. She's like Dobby from Harry Potter who is always smacking himself in the head for just talking to the Wizard boy wonder.
Francis pointed out the Blackboard being a one-man show by an untrained reporter who has a strong love for putting out an underground paper. Although I don’t know much about the history of the Blackboard paper, you have to give them credit for putting out some good alternative reading from big brother Californian who has monopolized the local newspaper biz for years. I personally like the progressive share-the-traffic attitude the Californian has taken in recent months. It’s self-serving on both sides as nlbelardes.com gets traffic as does the Californian, and I don’t get my content managed. Everyone wins.
I think that conversation moved on just after Danielle completely tore apart baseball, especially the St. Louis Cardinals who recently graced her top 20 'you suck' list...
The Blackboard meets The Californian "Let's have tea and crumpets!"
We went inside for a brief bit. Danielle showed off a pen-and-ink drawing after talking to Francis, Alex and AJ. I schmoozed with Jimmy Holliday a bit… and heard that Belton refers to Alex and Aj of Gigantic as Hall and Oates… read this great write-up she did on The boys from Gigantic, Azuls, Dante Esperanza, Nunez, and more...
Francis and I took a long walk around several city blocks, eventually stopping on the steps of the downtown post office to have a talk about some of the goings-on in the music scene…
In the end we headed back to Azul’s where we stood outside and some kids thought they had to show IDs before they entered. Francis patiently took the time to put on his best I'm-a-bouncer-but-not-really-pose before looking at about four IDs, nodding approval to each while I stymied a laugh. He kept a good poker face through it all. Afterwards, I went and listened to Jimmy Holliday for a while. After his performance we talked about a hockey song called ‘Lil Bitty Johnny the Slasher’ while we could hear some guy name Nunez play a guitar on the patio…
In ending I should add I had a great conversation with Joseph and Jenny from Calico Sunset... another hidden Bakersfield wonder... I still feel bad I missed them the night before. We talked about their tour, their music, history and novels...
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Wednesday, June 29, 2005.
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