N.L. reveals secrets in his 2005 Bakersfield year in review - By N.L. Belardes
I had just finished playing a roller hockey game and my team lost. During the game I took a shot on goal that floated right into the goalie’s chest, bounced, then popped toward his glove. He cupped the puck then threw it to the side like it was nothing.
I did the same with my gear. It was time to hang the game up for a while. A few weeks before that I drove across the Mojave Desert, no longer proud that I could make the drive between Bakersfield and Las Vegas in three-and-a-half hours. I used to stop in Barstow a lot and was always reminded of the Jay Farrar song, “Barstow”, where he sings, “By the time we make it to Barstow, we’ll be more than half way to Hell.”
What’s worse, I was headed to Pahrump.
Old glorious Taft and Cal Bear footballer, Don Ackland had just died in a car wreck. I met him online a year before while he consulted for Stephen’s Press in Nevada. We talked football and about a big Bakersfield football culture book, an “All singing, all dancing book,” he called it. He wanted to pull out all the stops and for it to be a testament to the glorious rise and demise of Kern football culture. Why not? He was part of it as a youth in the big Bakersfield High and Taft rivalry. He grew up an adventurous youth, playing football, getting in trouble, and crawling into pipes in the middle of nowhere, seeing rattlesnakes and once getting nose to nose with a bobcat. He was proud of his football days though he never went back to Taft or Bakersfield and had moved into big city life, big city publishing and seemed to only look back when we stumbled into each other and started talking football history.
Just a few months before he died, I met up with him at a bar in Bakersfield where we talked books. I walked in, his glasses were a bit down his nose as he thumbed through some papers. He was having a drink of some kind and had a briefcase open. He looked official. He might have been reviewing a restaurant book he was putting together with some guy from Vegas. Maybe it was a movie script. Who knows?
He’d been meeting the restaurant book guy’s wife somewhere in Vegas to talk books when he left and flipped his car end-over-end in the Pahrump outskirts. He had temporarily moved there to take care of his ailing mother. Here was small town guy turned big city turned small town again; but just a skip away from the mad city of lights, the Las Vegas playgrounds where he could get a fill of big city glamour at a moment’s notice. Old Don, he was partly responsible for all those Time Life “In Search of” mystery books from the 1970s. He’d been dabbling in art history and consulted for publishers ever since. He drove an old white Mercedes. I even took a ride in it. I had no premonitions…
After the funeral in Pahrump I decided to launch nlbelardes.com. Willieboy of Willis Design Studio helped with the original template. I came up with an idea for the layout, and he built the original site because I knew nothing about web design or html.
My plan for the site was simple. I wanted a web hub where people could go to read about a local up-and-coming author. I wanted that author to be sort of mysterious, a bit controversial, part respectable asshole when it came to standing up what he believed in, and to appear in the underground music and art scene where he would write narratives about his local adventures. Those narratives quickly took a review format.
The site got started and soon enough, articles were added. The first being the Filthies and the Dalloways, two bands still together with all the same members after the one year I spent in the music scene. Those bands had been together far longer. Oh yes, that’s a big deal, because in the course of a year I have seen bands who seem to have it all together, fall apart or change members because of a million different reasons: Arrival of Fawn, Swag 667, 40 to 1, Temperd, Sick Trigger (Now Soul Damage), American Standard (lead singer left but is now back with the band), Melodrose, Broken Record Gospel (broke up and now back together), Karmahitlist, Exithead (now Splitminded), Black Jerks, Three Chord Whore (new singer), Liars and Thieves (back together?), RidiKule (New members?), Norfolk (re-formed with 2 new members). I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. You get the point.
I wrote regarding the Filthies:
Fast drums and speedy tempo changes lit by fast-talking punk vocals made for a set of youthful and vibrant music. Last I had been in touch with Bakersfield music I lowered my hearing aid to the slow droning mid-Nineties wail of Eve Wendel and The Strand. Although I’d given all of The Filthies online music a listen to earlier in the day on their kick ass amp-site, I was surprised to hear they sounded as tight as their recordings. Clearly, The Filthies are a ‘no b*******’ experienced band that takes full advantage of the kind of youth-driven music that sweeps punk streets and crosses over into mainstream homes ala Green Day and Blink 182.
I spun some words about the Dalloways too:
Gerhard Enns ability to talk about relationships in a song like he’s talking about your own horrid pitfalls is purely magical. It was however slightly overshadowed last night by the need to provide his audience with their own dark hole to peer through. Many might find the Southern San Joaquin Valley a strange locale to write such dry-wit relationship songs, as well as tribute music to Virginia Woolf; but so what? The Dalloways is Brit pop fascination rich in a band’s love for literature, people close each other and British literary culture. And that’s OK. The Dalloways live show at downtown Bakersfield vintage clothing hole-in-the-wall Gigantic overall was a pleasant tour of melodious guitar layers and jazzy bass lines. At first caught in a slow tempo of music to an overly-subdued crowd, The Dalloways proved they could up the tempo and momentum by catching the edgier side of Brit pop. They drove the audience through what could almost be too rhythmic of musical moments with the texture of two guitars in melodic synch. Each song also moved through jazzy bass turned driving and more than catchy. The bass player also had a presence and musical ability that rivaled Enns’ Costello-like crooning and Enrique Gonzales’ Chicano confidence. Purely a talented group enhanced by solid drums and echoing keyboard textures. Gigantic however is a difficult venue. The lighting is too bright and I wondered if vagabonds would thieve from the clothing racks.
Yeah, I wrote that while thinking about my own brief stint in the music scene that I purposely hinted at in the Filthies piece that no one picked up on. With long hair back in the early and mid-90s I sang in a shitty band called the Strand. OK, the music wasn’t shitty, but the drummer and I were. He was off-time, and I was off key. We sucked as some kind of wacky U2ish Christian-influenced/literary-minded melodic rock band that kind of sounded like The Dalloways meets the Cranberries on Benzhedrine. I even had Matt Munoz over one night playing songs off the Cultivation CD that the Strand’s one hit wonder was on: a way-too-long nana-nana song called, “Atom”. It was nearly 8 minutes long! I think we played three gigs: Cal State pub, the Cellar, and somewhere else, then the band fell apart. So much for my own Brit Poppy lyrics changing the world. But thus marked my love for the music scene and respect for the hard work that bands do.
But let’s get to the year in review. You don’t want to read about my every moment in the scene from yesteryear's long curly hair days. Let me talk about some of the highlights of this past year…
Bands and Press Kits
In January and February 2005 I began to get a feel for the scene. I didn’t get controversial at all. Yet I did develop some fast friendships with Gary Enns of the Dalloways and Kenny Mount of the Filthies. These are two quality people, dependable, hardworking in the scene and in their personal lives. Gary Enns is an English professor with a master’s degree in Creative Writing. His creative ability and strong writing skills enter his music through perfectly worded lyrics and imaginative storytelling. I swore his Ice Capades song was true the the way the song is so magically written:
Winter, Innsbrook, 76, in a skating rink Carlo Fossi liked to call his own... in his Eastern block home in a tiny village... in the middle of the ice capades, you spotted your boy, a jaded Olympian, from a country the war destroyed, tell him just what your after... an old medal around his neck, Innsbrook 76, and saluted a fat crowd, with a big smile a fat crowd would never forget... with a big smile a fat crowd would appreciate, tell him just what you're after. But you knew him then, he was yours, a back street scrounger, Olympic village, lover of women in winter time in a bed the world deplored every night...but there was something in his eyes, and in his sad and cocky voice, it made you want to stay, made you touch his girlish face, and when the ice had all but melted and the world all disappeared there was nothing left to skate on but the dreams he always feared he'd be stuck with in the end...
Gary corrected me otherwise. His world of music in and of itself is a literary masterpiece. Penalty Crusade is one of the best pieces of music ever out of Bakersfield. Fresno folks will argue that Gary is from Fresno, and that’s why his music is so good. Whatever. Tell those Fresnans we're all baking in the same damn valley. No matter what anyone says, Fresno is Bakersfield's twin sister. Depending on your perspective you can decide which one is evil or not. In the meantime, go sit in a lounge, kick back and enjoy the Brit Pop riffs in the Dalloways 80s Revival sounds. That’s what I do. We developed a lasting friendship where we try to strategize to help each other’s artwork grow and flourish. I quickly discovered the Dalloways needed to be a part of the Central Valley scene, just like a lot of Bakersfield bands do…
Kenny Mount is vastly different from Gary Enns. He’s a mortician with his own business and casket store. He drives a Limo part-time and hails from Bakersfield’s early punk days having grown up in the Oleander area, near Bakersfield High School. He was in Brian Jones Was Murdered and he’s one talented punk musician, a real rock star, but on a local scale that is growing by leaps and bounds. We became fast friends because we have a similar crazy sense of humor as fast-paced as The Filthies guitar riffs that Kenny makes up.
I found his song, “Embalm You,” to be a wonderfully energetic piece, capturing the idea of death in a sad yet upbeat way that seems to say we all die and we all do stupid things to speed up that process. His musical perspective from someone who prepares bodies for the grave in a complex embalming process makes him one of the most imaginative and interesting music figures ever out of Bakersfield. Forget Six Feet Under and HBO. Here's a walking punk-mortician legend, yet still young, and I wanted to know his history.
What did I find out? I discovered through Kenny Mount how many bands operate, and how through his own past of drumming in junior high and high school and in dealing with lost love later on, how so many complex influences really helped frame the music he performs today.
In February I found myself not just wanting to write about the scene, but in coming up with ways I could help the scene. Not to make it grow, but in helping to shape it, give it a voice, and I wanted to see if I could help get bands some attention from Hollywood and labels.
I’m not sure if I’ve done that yet. But I haven’t given up.
Bands who have a marketing edge are bands who have the potential to get signed. I took that perspective and talked to some people about how I could help bands market themselves. A friend of mine who is dear friends with a talent scout consulted us on how the music industry prefers to see press kits.
I took that knowledge and tried to approach a few bands.
Although I was able to have a few sit down meetings with bands I quickly discovered that most bands just don’t understand the marketing edge they need to garner attention. Sure, the Filthies are a great band, but they, like a lot of bands rely on the flakiness of myspace.com and the potential of success by trying to create opportunities to be seen. They think that being seen by someone who works for a label is their best chance.
What does that mean? That means the Filthies don’t have a quality press kit, don’t maintain their site, and don’t nurture those contacts. Why? Is Kenny a bad guy, or dumb, or doesn’t he care? No, that’s not it at all.
Maybe sometimes folks are in the music scene for so long they don’t want to take the extra steps necessary to try to gain the marketing edge over other bands doing something similar, making similar music, but who sometimes aren’t as good, except on paper. I believe labels do look at the paper trail. Why should a band from LA who doesn’t perform very well have an edge over The Filthies?
Marketing know-how.
It’s happens where you work everyday. Some kid fresh out of college slaps together a great resume but is dumb as a box of rocks with no street smarts or experience. You’re twice the worker than the kid is, but your resume is shit and you don’t interview well. Who is the boss going to hire?
I gave up on the press kit idea. Bands just wouldn’t listen.
If bands did their research on how to put together a press kit (resume) and in how to properly market their music, they would have a better shot at stardom, hands down.
I have a contact in the industry, but I just think bands want to forge ahead their own way, through their own contacts, through their own press kit methodology, and so forth. Heck, some bands are just plain not interested in getting signed. That’s OK too. I once talked to Preston Nash about a label for Rocky Nash. I think he laughed me into the ground.
The Filthies are just one example. Now I’m working with Gus (Filthies guitar player) on a press kit for the band according to music industry standards. The kit looks professional. It can’t hurt the band to put their best foot forward. Having a great kit will make them more dynamic and oriented towards being a signed band. Now they’re working on a new website and finishing up a CD. Smart move. That’s called positioning themselves. Every band needs to do it. There is competition outside of Bakersfield, both hidden and unhidden, who would leave you out to dry to reach their own idea of stardom. Talk to Monty Byrom. That idea is often skewed and fruitless. Talk to Marky Chavez. That idea is attainable through determination and smart business acumen, but with disappointments along the way.
The Rock and Roll Farm
When I decided to get controversial, I did so in a way that was very strange to say the least. I had been unhappy with how Jerry’s Pizza had changed, had grown dark and dirty. It had become a glorified punk haven, albeit, a dismal underground cavern and rock and roll farm. I started hearing about an intimidating promoter who was like a bad sheriff in a black cowboy hat running folks out of town. In this case it was Nate Berg, the alleged ‘baseball bat of poor consciousness’ strategizing in the music scene to win bodies to attend shows, to shut down other venues, who madly taped lightposts with flyers, and allegedly intimidated businesses with a baseball bat into moving away from downtown.
I wrote a series of articles that all started with the Rock and Roll Farm. The story was ongoing and through a series of blogs I even descended into the cavern; I discussed the ensuing band boycott of Jerry’s Pizza, a strange night of punks mocking Nate Berg with a series of “Hail Bergs!” and many entries surrounding the very strange and dark Jerry’s Pizza and their promoter as he tried to intimidate me through the Web. That story is still ongoing as the promoter was eventually fired by Jerry’s Pizza after being arrested. It was the very same promoter who ended up writing a dark series about his ensuing travels, and it was also the very same promoter who informed me that my own brother possibly wanted to sue me over one of my negative Jerry’s Pizza blogs… All in all, the Rock and Roll Farm was one of the biggest set of articles for nlbelardes.com during 2005, and are the stories with the biggest impact in the local music scene. People still wonder if I helped run Nate Berg out of town. I don't think so.
Related articles:
the informant
The nate berg story
More letters and threats
Blackboard letter to nlbelardes.com on Nate Berg
Promoter in jail confirmed
The drinking venues
What will happen next to pizza-a-go-go shows?
Letter from the pizza-a-go-go
End of boycott as Gigantic Vintage shakes hands with Jerry
N.L. in the blackboard regarding Jerry's
Bakersfield novelist descends into the cavern of rock and roll
Vesper sides with Nate Berg
The New Media in 2005: Beating the Newspaper at their own game
Sure bloggers are a new form of media. They’re daring, they’re fast on the move, they’re citizen journalists, grassroots writers with a mission; they’re inaccurate at times and right on the money at other moments. Sure, folks say newspapers are dying, but they also say Bakersfield has one of the last privately owned papers in the country. So what? I don’t care. The fact of the matter is the local paper doesn’t know what to do with me other than ignore me as best they can. Look at their blog rolls. A lot of those links are folks I either inspired, got to start blogs and endlessly encouraged, or are links I consulted them about, or are ideas likely taken as off-shoots from my own. But what inspired all of this media/blog sensation locally? I blogged about the Wing Wah’s fire and a downtown murder before the local paper and about local music in a way they had never before seen in a narrative style filled with pictures and anecdotes. They saw me not giving up my free endeavor, and they witnessed my determination and follow through and love for the scene. They read about country music, and wrote articles of their own after I raised the question and coined Bakersfield as the Old Nashville West and LA as the New Nashville West; they read about news; they read about all kinds of music, and about theatre, art, literature, and more. Then they asked me to join forces. I joined their club for a while. Folks soon read about Star Wars from a blogger’s point of view which Bakersfield.com posted on their own homepage, I believe, to test traffic. They read about the Lords of Bakersfield on their homepage too, and then when the dust settled and I had originally said, “You won’t like my criticism,” the Californian was proved wrong and I was proved right: they didn’t like my criticism of their entertainment reporter lying to me after I refused an interview with Danielle Belton. That brought out other issues. I was tired of hearing about bands getting snubbed by the reporter, except for her friends in mad social experiments written in big spreads in the newspaper: hipsters in yuppie bars. As a result of my actions I was called an uncivil bully by a newspaper who dwarfs my own living room blogging with their mega-staff. Me, a bully? The truth: I am one blogger sometimes writing opinion pieces that can't be edited down and are easily found on the Internet. And let's not forget I wrote a book, inspired by the Californian who wrote conspiratorial articles on the Lords of Bakersfield that could not be edited down by their staff for parts they don't like. How could the Californian like me when they were caught in a major plagiarism scandal of their own in 2005? They were busy saving face from outside criticism and quickly deleted a blog comment of mine on related articles when I pointed out that I caught their staff member Jennifer Self plagiarizing from government documents in the Bakersfield College Renegade Rip in the 1980s.
And ever since our big split up? No credit to me as a driving force in helping drive the new local media. I know I helped speed up the growth of local Niche markets, a focus on the music scene, and more.
But will the Californian admit I was a driving force?
Give them 20 years. They might.
Their entertainment reporter who has since disappeared (she was kicked from my blog community after I was kicked from theirs) and I learned that the local newspaper, the very newspaper who helped spawn Lords, Lords conspiracies, and who blacklisted and possibly killed the children of their own employees (Bette Blair) also may have some similar policy against me, at least in snubbing N.L. Belardes. Conspiracy thinking on my part? I’m guilty. My words can’t be proven, but because there is no credit where credit is due, and since I called for their reporter to be fired, I simply cannot believe I am wrong until proven wrong. 2006 marks a new year for nlbelardes.com to not only be a part of the new media, but to continue to help grow it in new ways...
Related articles:
Californian gets hip to local blogger news stories
On the Star Wars beat
Wing Wahs and Gigantic disappear
Punk kid attacked and reported on nlbelardes.com
Californian gets even
The unappreciated war for online traffic
Drama in the blog scene
Letter from Matildakay.com
Where's Bakersfield Bob?
Condor's gift to local blogger: N.L.'s afternoon with the Stanley Cup!
Enrique exposed!
One of the most hilarious moments of the year in regards to testing just how powerful blogs could be was my Enrique Fuentes experiment. I had a plan to infiltrate the media through blogs. Why not? I figured the local big bad print media would never pay attention to me because I wrote a book about them being bad guys. Sure they let me into their blog community. But that could only be short-lived. Since the entertainment reporter was a rather flamboyant piece of hipster drama herself, a down-on-her-luck screenwriter (Oh yes, go read her constant talk of rejection, or just type in Danielle Belton screenplay reject into Google) why not create a fictitious character that she and local readers could enjoy? Thus, Enrique Fuentes, Queen of the Downtown Fur was created, a strange flamboyant gay character from Delano who was in love with Paulo and Rico, Hollywood fashion, hoochies everywhere, Peter Brady Gospel and Captain Kenny Filthy Pants, AKA Kenny Mount of the Filthies, and a defender of Nicky Belardes. What a riot when the local entertainment reporter bought the entire masquerade hook, line and sinker and actually printed fictitious character, Enrique Fuentes, Queen of the Downtown Fur in the local paper in April! Oh the hilarity! I am as straight as straight can be, but I know the art of fiction and pretty much duped everyone when I wrote such zany fashion fun and had an actor show up as Enrique Fuentes when Norfolk played with the Dalloways and Johnny Come Lately. Wow! When Enrique grabbed Gary Enns’ crotch at Narducci’s I was in stitches. A classic moment of 2005. Enrique Fuentes wrote great dysfunctional theatre reviews, music reviews, and got some folks rather ruffled with her top ten fashion list… but in the end, Enrique is just the feminine funny side of me poking fun at everyone in a hoochie sort of way.
Why expose Enrique? I have so much writing I do, I just couldn't keep it up. Although I might still finish Enrique's book. It is fun to write. God I hate to admit that crap. Will I keep up the blog? Don't count on it, though it is fun to poke at people in Enrique's humorous way. As for appearances around town: it's hard to find actors to play characters around Bakersfield and I am not about to do it!
Related stories:
Dysfunctional theatre review of Robin Hood
N.L. Belardes review of Robin Hood
enrique’s big night
an interview with Enrique
Dysfunctional theatre review of Rocky Horror
N.L. Belardes review of Rocky Horror
Enrique to write tell-all book
Top ten best and worst dressed in Bakersfield
Queen of the Downtown Fur Book Part One
Queen of the Downtown Fur Book Part Two
The Lords of Bakersfield
The Lords of Bakersfield. Some might argue the dark urban stories of Lords is the biggest topic on nlbelardes.com. As a blackened part of Bakersfield pop culture, the Lords of Bakersfield have been part of local urban talk for years. Perpetuated by the Bakersfield Californian’s conspiracy stories by Robert Price, the vile acts of Bakersfield's murderous lawmen, politicians and media folk have created a sensation and spawned a novel and related articles by me because I was simply taken aback by such dastardly tales as "the stuff of movies..."
It's tough to remember that nothing regarding such stories have ever been proven. Ask Robert Price. Evidence always disappears into thin air. Yet at the same time, the stories exist in the consciousness of the people; the local paper force fed the populace such stories in 2003, more than ten years after a book by Bette Blair exposed much of their murderous tales on a small scale in a self-published book titled Valley Fire. The release of Lords: Part One this year rekindled a lot of such talk among bloggers, city folk, radio folk, the local underground newspaper, but not in the Bakersfield Californian, except when the Rolling Stone published an article about Ed Jagels. I believe the Californian wants to retain control of when and where they talk about such a subject. Sure, there are ongoing battles and politics between the Bakersfield Californian and their hot-on-the-Jagels-trail columnist, Robert Price. I commented on some of that in my story, “Lords of Bakersfield found at 7-11” an article against Kimberly Sevcik’s crappy piece of jingo journalism on J. Edgar Jagels and Kern Justice. I went further on the Price-Jagels battle in my piece, “Pop culture, the Devil,and the Lords of Bakersfield war of words” where I go into detail about the Californian’s vilifying of Jagels as a dark ogre from Mordor…
My other major piece on the topic other than my social commentary fiction novel that you can order here, is titled, “A literary perspective on the Lords of Bakersfield,” and discusses that in no way is the topic of Lords a historically finished debate simply because the Californian wrote about the topic. I wrote that piece in particular to argue against anyone believing my novel is merely a redundant tale per Robert Price’s words. History needs true analysis from historians, not from the newspapers and blogs and novels on sensational stories. The future histories of Lords will be the most telling. I use Price's timeline, that’s it. My story, in essence is vastly different from Robert Price’s brief newspaper version.
An excerpt from my article reads:
What I provide is a literary perspective of the Lords of Bakersfield that deepens an urban myth. Myth? Because there is no evidence. Although rich in historical detail, my work takes a unique path that the Californian could never write in a million years. Their tales of murder and treachery are journalist entries that suggest a possible legend. Through the newspaper each reader must make the connection and decides for themselves if the stories are true or not; that is, whether there may or may not be Lords of Bakersfield lurking about in the present and past.
My novel does not allow the reader to make the connection whether true or not. I write the Lords of Bakersfield stories as if they ARE true—at least for the sake of the novel. That’s what you have to do in a story: you must make characters believable. My job as a novelist is to make you believe at least while you are reading (whether fictitious or otherwise). If you’re sitting watching Star Wars and the entire time you’re thinking “This isn’t real.” Then you haven’t bought into the story at all. You don’t like the characters, you don’t like the storyline, and you’re bored. You might as well pop the DVD out and watch the news: if that’s all you believe.
Let me just clarify something else here: when I tell people that Robert Price’s 2003 conspiracy theory articles were inspiration for my novel, that’s the truth. His articles include an introduction by Mike Jenner that reads,
Why we wrote these articles: A conspiracy theory born in the late 1970s and early '80s had become a long-forgotten legend until last September, when the slaying of Assistant District Attorney Stephen M. Tauzer gave new life to speculation about "The Lords of Bakersfield."
The articles linked old newspaper stories, and being a Bakersfield Californian look at conspiracy, the articles were just that: articles. The information was sparse and disjointed and not rich enough for a novel. That’s why I did more research. By themselves, the Bakersfield Californian articles on the Lords of Bakersfield, though inspiring, are not enough for any of us.
But if all your faith in history is not in the scholars who analyze history through historical works, and yes, that can include literature, and instead, your view of history is through the media, then you’re really missing out and you are under-educating yourself to the high school reading level of any local newspaper.
As a historian once told me, “History is a sea of books. Learn to swim.”
Strangeness surrounding Lords of Bakersfield capped out the year with an alleged book burning of Lords: Part One. Ensuing arguments developed on my website about the books handed out as a giveaway at a local church LAN party. Without coming out and saying my thoughts directly, I raised the ideas of just where Christian fundamentalists who might read my novel might draw the line between issues of ultra-violence and sex as topics for high school age students. Of course I felt there was a rather large dose of hypocrisy involved when a local church would allow one form of rated ‘R’ graphic media, but not another. As a graphic story against media and law corruption, my consciousness-raising novel appears to some as less graphic than leading video games where players can act out fantasies of Nazi soldiers blasting allied troops in cyber World War Two settings. In a strange coincidence, I sat next to the alleged book burners at a local Bakersfield Condors hockey game. A dialogue on family values and parental rights ensued where both parties agreed on the notion that parents need to be aware of where their children might be disappearing to when not at home. Of course, those are trust issues and it is a parental right whether kids should or shouldn’t read such graphic novels or play such video games. The books, however, not burned, were presented to me at the hockey game. I refused. “Give them away or throw them in the trash. They’re your books,” I said. In the end, who knows what will happen to those copies of Lords: Part One and if such social issues will have an impact on the very teens who spread the book burning rumors.
Will the Lords stories carry on through 2006? I'm sure they will. I don't see them being buried under a rock anytime soon. I believe the Bakersfield Californian, who says they don't review books, and myself will throw some interesting related stories into the popular consciousness to digest before the year is out.
Related stories:
N.L. meets journalist Robert Price
Author gets message from Rolling Stone
Chapter One Excerpt
Chapter Two Excerpt
Amazon.com reviews
N.L. on Talk radio talking Lords of Bakersfield
Stubble the Lords Hunter takes jab at N.L. in good hockey fashion
Memorable shows, Buck City, and the hockey CD
To truly discuss all the memorable shows of 2005 would take pages and pages and I have already sweat over my year in review. And to think, the shows I went to and had in the N.L. Belardes studio were all of the shows in Bakersfield, and by Bakersfield bands; no way. I went to maybe 20% of all shows for the year. I missed many many bands at Jerry’s Pizza because of my refusal to descend in to the caverns of rock and roll. I missed many shows at the Gate, Vinny’s, the Boiler Room, the MWP and more. Yet, in the course of it all I found bands that I enjoyed seeing over and over, and tried to mix that up with bands in a wide range of genres and venues.
Here’s just a few of my most memorable shows in 2005 in no particular order:
Karmahitlist at the Reggae-less Reggae Fest: The theme was a joke, but the performances by Myndsick, Mento Buru, Tiger Army and RidiKule had my attention. Most memorable was Sean Starkey on stage in black angel wings. There was a kid smashing a guitar, drumsticks flying, a rock star climbing onto a Budweiser trailer, and great music. This performance by a now defunct band was certainly one of the biggest rock moments of the year! Makes you wonder where all the gimmicks have gone.
Black Jerks at the Haberfelde: In this classic 10-minute set I saw wild punkers smashing each other and a strange mock Nazi tribute to the Jerry’s Pizza promoter who intimidated many in the downtown music scene.
Karmahitlist and Mento Buru at Fishlips: Sean Starkey and Karmahitlist unplugged. It was their best side. The ladies I was with drooled for days. Mento Buru, ska-kings of the Latin underworld were amazingly on fire like some mad resurrected Bakersfield Bosstones. What a great night at the fish fry!
The War Days at the Spotlight Theatre and the Bakersfield Independent Film Festival: Movies, movies, movies! yes, that was my kid directing a movie filled with local songs by Bakersfield bands. Kenny Mount's cameo was a surprise hit. The death scene and flashback were amazing teary moments for a 14-year-old's vision of war and severed freindships. BIFF is a must see in 2006!
Delux and LIKHYD2 at Chenchos: Delux from Tijuana, Mexico proved to me that the Filthies have Latino counterparts, while LIKHYD2 proved that Spanish rock in Bakersfield is a thriving underground scene…
Merle Haggard at the Crystal Palace parking lot: Statues were unveiled, legends were in the house and I soaked it all in… memorable is the word. Bakersfield Sound is the ringing in my ears.
Bo Diddley with Mento Buru: Mento was amazing as usual. Matt gave me a nod during his performance that made me feel like a rock and roll star myself. Bo Diddley was an incredible sight and I got a pair of drumsticks from Cesareo Garasa for my collection of local music memorabilia.
Riley’s Second Anniversary Show: Jessie Deluxe and the Rolling Blackouts, two LA bands who are must-sees. I fell in love with Jessie Deluxe and her quiet off-the-stage demeanor and loud gritty tunes; she and the Rolling Blackouts, former LA Weekly band of the year proved to me that LA rock is what it’s cracked up to be.
Buck City Podcast Episode 14 (download takes several minutes): The Buck City Podcast is the first podcast out of Bakersfield, California. It quickly got the attention of bakersfield.com who soonafter launched their own and even got a write-up in the local college newspaper. I got my taste of private rock shows on the Buck City Podcast with Dante Esperanza, Calico Sunset, Nunez, and Jenny Angel, but most memorable for me in 2005 was Norfolk’s performance that included several solo performances by Norfolk’s James Ratliff, an up-and-coming alt country rock star. I Loved when James had to do 300 retakes of one of his songs. OK, I am exaggerating. It was great fun and I learned about he and his wife’s perfect love for each other in the wonderful song, Northern… This is the guy to watch out for in 2006 as an explosive presence in the Bakersfield music scene. The Oildale Reverend is hilarious in this classic episode.
The coronation of Mark Chavez: I had heard of Adema, but until the Midnight Panic family show, I had never even heard the music of Marky Chavez. It was a historic night of good music and a lot of folks from the scene where I have yet to post a podcast of audio collected from that night. It is always good to see an artist determined to succeed and to transform from a chrysalis into something new... watch out for an explosive re-emergence into the global music scene. Might as well lump their CD release backyard boogie party here that packed the house at Montgomery World Plaza... it was a historic night of mobile podcasts and music...
Dim reunion with Mento Buru: This resurrected band night and ensuing strange evening of literary characters sparked a lot of hate mail. It was a memorable night with music from yesteryear with even more memorable comments that ignored a dead baby lady, but brought brought to light that musicians are in the limelight when they perform whether it's today, yesterday, or yesteryear. I think I remember Mento singing…
The Hobbit: Kid actors, Bilbo Baggins, an unseen dragon and a tantalizing look into the world of Tolkien. I thoroughly enjoyed the energy that evening more than any other theatre I saw during the year. It may not have been the best play, but The Hobbit directed by Kevin Lively at the BCT had the best energy. I would have to say Robin Hood at the Spotlight was right up there too…
Stereotactic CD release party: I never go to Jerry’s Pizza. Strangley on a rare night that I went I had to leave early because of violence after a downtown football game. I never got to see Stereotactic that night…
Hurricane Relief Show at the Dome: I never did all my write-ups on the million bands who played. I apologize to all who played. I still covet my secret great Rocky Nash photos from that night that I have yet to share with the band. Let me say it was a great day, tiring, but for a great cause… the music was splendid!
Buck City Podcast Episode 11/Peter Will Tribute(download takes a few minutes): A local music legend lost his will to live. The following tribute was a collection of performances and a podcast that I hope adequately thanks Peter Will for being a part of the Bakersfield music scene. Thanks to Mr. Trevino for his kind words regarding the podcast that he understood, while some folks in the scene just plain didn't get.
Rocky Nash and Karmahithist at the MWP: Billed as the big comeback show for Karmacrunchlist after Sean Starkey broke his leg skateboarding, it was just that, as Sean went mad onstage. He was however outdone by Preston Nash of Rocky Nash who coordinated a percussion intro that later rocked the Rabobank. One great part of that night was Sean telling people to steal my book if they had to, which or course was topped by Preston getting pissed and smashing his amp with his bass and an incredible percussion intro by Rocky, Preston and Cesareo. Now that’s rock and roll!
Book Release Party at Lengthwise: Unfortunately I never did a write-up on this huge event. It was a night of greatness in music that will be hard-pressed to ever be matched: Nunez, Norfolk, Fatt Katt and the Vonzippers, the Dalloways, the Filthies, and Mento Buru; all great bands in a night that had me shaking maracas with ska-king Matt Munoz and company from Mento Buru onstage. A night going down as a classic in N.L. Belardes infamy.
Hockey Songs at the Rabobank, especially the Filthies: I had a dream. The dream was to expose bands to more people than ever before. The dream also was a hockey CD that just about got me laughed out of town. The Filthies proved everyone wrong on the Bakersfield Condor’s opening night where they played “Condorstown” to 8,200 fans, starting a trend of undefeated band nights that still stands through the end of 2005. 6-0 as of Fatt Katt's performance on December 31st, 2005. Other 2005 performances in front of thousands included: Rocky Nash, My Dysfunctional Me, and Myndsick.
Jimmy Holliday shocks at the art show: He actually didn’t perform. I have seen him perform many times and love his music with Sioux City Sarsaparilla. However, my favorite Jimmy Holliday moment was the day he shocked a little old lady at an art show with a stick of gum for talking smack about me. Thanks Jimmy. And thanks to the Empty Space for having me in their Day of the Dead Show, Exquisite Corpse Show, and Scrooged show.
Enlightenment of karmahitlist: This wasn't a show but an interesting meeting with Cesareo Garasa and my first meeting with Rocky and Preston Nash. It was memorable, enlightening, and instant friendships developed.
Punk at the Fist Fight Shack: A historic tiny boxing rink, an old ex-boxer and trainer, and punk music. The band performed from inside the rink in one of the strangest and coolest shows I have ever seen.
In the Media and Thanks:
A big thanks to local and non-local bands, friends, theatres, bloggers and the local media who weren't afraid about writing and talking about nlbelardes.com, Paperback Writer blogs, Lords: Part One, and Growing Up Fighting: Bakersfield Hockey Vol. 1...
Thanks again to...
My kids
my sister
Friends in Fiji
Robert Price
KGEO 1230 The Puck Show
KRAB 106.1 Meathead and Desi with Rocky Nash, Danny Spanks Show
KERN 1410 AM
Bakersfield College Newspaper
Cerro Coso Community College
Bakersfield Condors
KGEO AM 1230 The Coaches Show and Condors Game Show
The Blackboard Free Press
Kerngamers.com
Bakotopia
Mas Magazine
Dorktown.net
fresnofamous.com
TV 17
TV 23
Bakersfield High School
Matildakay.com
Dobbler's Drunk Corner
Flower in the Dale
Ruined by Books
New Leaves in March
Artspeak
BakoTech
Condorstown blog
Rob Shock
Mike Russo
Borders
Gigantic Vintage
Julie Unplugged
TheatreAddict
Kevin Lively
Steve-O (The Informant)
Roger Mathey, the Green Lantern and the Spotlight
Empty Space Theatre
A.S. Ashley
Cesareo's Waste of Space
Jesse Rivera of illpressed (thanks for the Christmas call)
Bands of Bakersfield
James Ratliff
Kenny Mount
KooKoonauts dad
Patchboy
The Stanley Cup
Because I don't say thank you enough - thanks to chingpea and all Bakersfield bands, especially those who have so quickly become family, some of whom all put up with me behind the scenes: James and Marissa Ratliff, Les Paw, Fatt Katt, Kenny and Melissa and their cool kids, Gus, Gary and Courtnie Enns, fellow bookworm Marky Chavez, Wayne and Jean-a Beana, Shantell, Darcie, Heather, Brent and Lori at Bite Me Cookies, Preston and Rocky, Jarad (Meathead) and Matt Munoz the Ska King of California.
If I forgot to thank you then I apologize ahead of time (I know I am absent-minded. Just ask the War Days Director. Oops, did I thank him??)
I did the same with my gear. It was time to hang the game up for a while. A few weeks before that I drove across the Mojave Desert, no longer proud that I could make the drive between Bakersfield and Las Vegas in three-and-a-half hours. I used to stop in Barstow a lot and was always reminded of the Jay Farrar song, “Barstow”, where he sings, “By the time we make it to Barstow, we’ll be more than half way to Hell.”
What’s worse, I was headed to Pahrump.
Old glorious Taft and Cal Bear footballer, Don Ackland had just died in a car wreck. I met him online a year before while he consulted for Stephen’s Press in Nevada. We talked football and about a big Bakersfield football culture book, an “All singing, all dancing book,” he called it. He wanted to pull out all the stops and for it to be a testament to the glorious rise and demise of Kern football culture. Why not? He was part of it as a youth in the big Bakersfield High and Taft rivalry. He grew up an adventurous youth, playing football, getting in trouble, and crawling into pipes in the middle of nowhere, seeing rattlesnakes and once getting nose to nose with a bobcat. He was proud of his football days though he never went back to Taft or Bakersfield and had moved into big city life, big city publishing and seemed to only look back when we stumbled into each other and started talking football history.
Just a few months before he died, I met up with him at a bar in Bakersfield where we talked books. I walked in, his glasses were a bit down his nose as he thumbed through some papers. He was having a drink of some kind and had a briefcase open. He looked official. He might have been reviewing a restaurant book he was putting together with some guy from Vegas. Maybe it was a movie script. Who knows?
He’d been meeting the restaurant book guy’s wife somewhere in Vegas to talk books when he left and flipped his car end-over-end in the Pahrump outskirts. He had temporarily moved there to take care of his ailing mother. Here was small town guy turned big city turned small town again; but just a skip away from the mad city of lights, the Las Vegas playgrounds where he could get a fill of big city glamour at a moment’s notice. Old Don, he was partly responsible for all those Time Life “In Search of” mystery books from the 1970s. He’d been dabbling in art history and consulted for publishers ever since. He drove an old white Mercedes. I even took a ride in it. I had no premonitions…
After the funeral in Pahrump I decided to launch nlbelardes.com. Willieboy of Willis Design Studio helped with the original template. I came up with an idea for the layout, and he built the original site because I knew nothing about web design or html.
My plan for the site was simple. I wanted a web hub where people could go to read about a local up-and-coming author. I wanted that author to be sort of mysterious, a bit controversial, part respectable asshole when it came to standing up what he believed in, and to appear in the underground music and art scene where he would write narratives about his local adventures. Those narratives quickly took a review format.
The site got started and soon enough, articles were added. The first being the Filthies and the Dalloways, two bands still together with all the same members after the one year I spent in the music scene. Those bands had been together far longer. Oh yes, that’s a big deal, because in the course of a year I have seen bands who seem to have it all together, fall apart or change members because of a million different reasons: Arrival of Fawn, Swag 667, 40 to 1, Temperd, Sick Trigger (Now Soul Damage), American Standard (lead singer left but is now back with the band), Melodrose, Broken Record Gospel (broke up and now back together), Karmahitlist, Exithead (now Splitminded), Black Jerks, Three Chord Whore (new singer), Liars and Thieves (back together?), RidiKule (New members?), Norfolk (re-formed with 2 new members). I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. You get the point.
I wrote regarding the Filthies:
Fast drums and speedy tempo changes lit by fast-talking punk vocals made for a set of youthful and vibrant music. Last I had been in touch with Bakersfield music I lowered my hearing aid to the slow droning mid-Nineties wail of Eve Wendel and The Strand. Although I’d given all of The Filthies online music a listen to earlier in the day on their kick ass amp-site, I was surprised to hear they sounded as tight as their recordings. Clearly, The Filthies are a ‘no b*******’ experienced band that takes full advantage of the kind of youth-driven music that sweeps punk streets and crosses over into mainstream homes ala Green Day and Blink 182.
I spun some words about the Dalloways too:
Gerhard Enns ability to talk about relationships in a song like he’s talking about your own horrid pitfalls is purely magical. It was however slightly overshadowed last night by the need to provide his audience with their own dark hole to peer through. Many might find the Southern San Joaquin Valley a strange locale to write such dry-wit relationship songs, as well as tribute music to Virginia Woolf; but so what? The Dalloways is Brit pop fascination rich in a band’s love for literature, people close each other and British literary culture. And that’s OK. The Dalloways live show at downtown Bakersfield vintage clothing hole-in-the-wall Gigantic overall was a pleasant tour of melodious guitar layers and jazzy bass lines. At first caught in a slow tempo of music to an overly-subdued crowd, The Dalloways proved they could up the tempo and momentum by catching the edgier side of Brit pop. They drove the audience through what could almost be too rhythmic of musical moments with the texture of two guitars in melodic synch. Each song also moved through jazzy bass turned driving and more than catchy. The bass player also had a presence and musical ability that rivaled Enns’ Costello-like crooning and Enrique Gonzales’ Chicano confidence. Purely a talented group enhanced by solid drums and echoing keyboard textures. Gigantic however is a difficult venue. The lighting is too bright and I wondered if vagabonds would thieve from the clothing racks.
Yeah, I wrote that while thinking about my own brief stint in the music scene that I purposely hinted at in the Filthies piece that no one picked up on. With long hair back in the early and mid-90s I sang in a shitty band called the Strand. OK, the music wasn’t shitty, but the drummer and I were. He was off-time, and I was off key. We sucked as some kind of wacky U2ish Christian-influenced/literary-minded melodic rock band that kind of sounded like The Dalloways meets the Cranberries on Benzhedrine. I even had Matt Munoz over one night playing songs off the Cultivation CD that the Strand’s one hit wonder was on: a way-too-long nana-nana song called, “Atom”. It was nearly 8 minutes long! I think we played three gigs: Cal State pub, the Cellar, and somewhere else, then the band fell apart. So much for my own Brit Poppy lyrics changing the world. But thus marked my love for the music scene and respect for the hard work that bands do.
But let’s get to the year in review. You don’t want to read about my every moment in the scene from yesteryear's long curly hair days. Let me talk about some of the highlights of this past year…
Bands and Press Kits
In January and February 2005 I began to get a feel for the scene. I didn’t get controversial at all. Yet I did develop some fast friendships with Gary Enns of the Dalloways and Kenny Mount of the Filthies. These are two quality people, dependable, hardworking in the scene and in their personal lives. Gary Enns is an English professor with a master’s degree in Creative Writing. His creative ability and strong writing skills enter his music through perfectly worded lyrics and imaginative storytelling. I swore his Ice Capades song was true the the way the song is so magically written:
Winter, Innsbrook, 76, in a skating rink Carlo Fossi liked to call his own... in his Eastern block home in a tiny village... in the middle of the ice capades, you spotted your boy, a jaded Olympian, from a country the war destroyed, tell him just what your after... an old medal around his neck, Innsbrook 76, and saluted a fat crowd, with a big smile a fat crowd would never forget... with a big smile a fat crowd would appreciate, tell him just what you're after. But you knew him then, he was yours, a back street scrounger, Olympic village, lover of women in winter time in a bed the world deplored every night...but there was something in his eyes, and in his sad and cocky voice, it made you want to stay, made you touch his girlish face, and when the ice had all but melted and the world all disappeared there was nothing left to skate on but the dreams he always feared he'd be stuck with in the end...
Gary corrected me otherwise. His world of music in and of itself is a literary masterpiece. Penalty Crusade is one of the best pieces of music ever out of Bakersfield. Fresno folks will argue that Gary is from Fresno, and that’s why his music is so good. Whatever. Tell those Fresnans we're all baking in the same damn valley. No matter what anyone says, Fresno is Bakersfield's twin sister. Depending on your perspective you can decide which one is evil or not. In the meantime, go sit in a lounge, kick back and enjoy the Brit Pop riffs in the Dalloways 80s Revival sounds. That’s what I do. We developed a lasting friendship where we try to strategize to help each other’s artwork grow and flourish. I quickly discovered the Dalloways needed to be a part of the Central Valley scene, just like a lot of Bakersfield bands do…
Kenny Mount is vastly different from Gary Enns. He’s a mortician with his own business and casket store. He drives a Limo part-time and hails from Bakersfield’s early punk days having grown up in the Oleander area, near Bakersfield High School. He was in Brian Jones Was Murdered and he’s one talented punk musician, a real rock star, but on a local scale that is growing by leaps and bounds. We became fast friends because we have a similar crazy sense of humor as fast-paced as The Filthies guitar riffs that Kenny makes up.
I found his song, “Embalm You,” to be a wonderfully energetic piece, capturing the idea of death in a sad yet upbeat way that seems to say we all die and we all do stupid things to speed up that process. His musical perspective from someone who prepares bodies for the grave in a complex embalming process makes him one of the most imaginative and interesting music figures ever out of Bakersfield. Forget Six Feet Under and HBO. Here's a walking punk-mortician legend, yet still young, and I wanted to know his history.
What did I find out? I discovered through Kenny Mount how many bands operate, and how through his own past of drumming in junior high and high school and in dealing with lost love later on, how so many complex influences really helped frame the music he performs today.
In February I found myself not just wanting to write about the scene, but in coming up with ways I could help the scene. Not to make it grow, but in helping to shape it, give it a voice, and I wanted to see if I could help get bands some attention from Hollywood and labels.
I’m not sure if I’ve done that yet. But I haven’t given up.
Bands who have a marketing edge are bands who have the potential to get signed. I took that perspective and talked to some people about how I could help bands market themselves. A friend of mine who is dear friends with a talent scout consulted us on how the music industry prefers to see press kits.
I took that knowledge and tried to approach a few bands.
Although I was able to have a few sit down meetings with bands I quickly discovered that most bands just don’t understand the marketing edge they need to garner attention. Sure, the Filthies are a great band, but they, like a lot of bands rely on the flakiness of myspace.com and the potential of success by trying to create opportunities to be seen. They think that being seen by someone who works for a label is their best chance.
What does that mean? That means the Filthies don’t have a quality press kit, don’t maintain their site, and don’t nurture those contacts. Why? Is Kenny a bad guy, or dumb, or doesn’t he care? No, that’s not it at all.
Maybe sometimes folks are in the music scene for so long they don’t want to take the extra steps necessary to try to gain the marketing edge over other bands doing something similar, making similar music, but who sometimes aren’t as good, except on paper. I believe labels do look at the paper trail. Why should a band from LA who doesn’t perform very well have an edge over The Filthies?
Marketing know-how.
It’s happens where you work everyday. Some kid fresh out of college slaps together a great resume but is dumb as a box of rocks with no street smarts or experience. You’re twice the worker than the kid is, but your resume is shit and you don’t interview well. Who is the boss going to hire?
I gave up on the press kit idea. Bands just wouldn’t listen.
If bands did their research on how to put together a press kit (resume) and in how to properly market their music, they would have a better shot at stardom, hands down.
I have a contact in the industry, but I just think bands want to forge ahead their own way, through their own contacts, through their own press kit methodology, and so forth. Heck, some bands are just plain not interested in getting signed. That’s OK too. I once talked to Preston Nash about a label for Rocky Nash. I think he laughed me into the ground.
The Filthies are just one example. Now I’m working with Gus (Filthies guitar player) on a press kit for the band according to music industry standards. The kit looks professional. It can’t hurt the band to put their best foot forward. Having a great kit will make them more dynamic and oriented towards being a signed band. Now they’re working on a new website and finishing up a CD. Smart move. That’s called positioning themselves. Every band needs to do it. There is competition outside of Bakersfield, both hidden and unhidden, who would leave you out to dry to reach their own idea of stardom. Talk to Monty Byrom. That idea is often skewed and fruitless. Talk to Marky Chavez. That idea is attainable through determination and smart business acumen, but with disappointments along the way.
The Rock and Roll Farm
When I decided to get controversial, I did so in a way that was very strange to say the least. I had been unhappy with how Jerry’s Pizza had changed, had grown dark and dirty. It had become a glorified punk haven, albeit, a dismal underground cavern and rock and roll farm. I started hearing about an intimidating promoter who was like a bad sheriff in a black cowboy hat running folks out of town. In this case it was Nate Berg, the alleged ‘baseball bat of poor consciousness’ strategizing in the music scene to win bodies to attend shows, to shut down other venues, who madly taped lightposts with flyers, and allegedly intimidated businesses with a baseball bat into moving away from downtown.
I wrote a series of articles that all started with the Rock and Roll Farm. The story was ongoing and through a series of blogs I even descended into the cavern; I discussed the ensuing band boycott of Jerry’s Pizza, a strange night of punks mocking Nate Berg with a series of “Hail Bergs!” and many entries surrounding the very strange and dark Jerry’s Pizza and their promoter as he tried to intimidate me through the Web. That story is still ongoing as the promoter was eventually fired by Jerry’s Pizza after being arrested. It was the very same promoter who ended up writing a dark series about his ensuing travels, and it was also the very same promoter who informed me that my own brother possibly wanted to sue me over one of my negative Jerry’s Pizza blogs… All in all, the Rock and Roll Farm was one of the biggest set of articles for nlbelardes.com during 2005, and are the stories with the biggest impact in the local music scene. People still wonder if I helped run Nate Berg out of town. I don't think so.
Related articles:
the informant
The nate berg story
More letters and threats
Blackboard letter to nlbelardes.com on Nate Berg
Promoter in jail confirmed
The drinking venues
What will happen next to pizza-a-go-go shows?
Letter from the pizza-a-go-go
End of boycott as Gigantic Vintage shakes hands with Jerry
N.L. in the blackboard regarding Jerry's
Bakersfield novelist descends into the cavern of rock and roll
Vesper sides with Nate Berg
The New Media in 2005: Beating the Newspaper at their own game
Sure bloggers are a new form of media. They’re daring, they’re fast on the move, they’re citizen journalists, grassroots writers with a mission; they’re inaccurate at times and right on the money at other moments. Sure, folks say newspapers are dying, but they also say Bakersfield has one of the last privately owned papers in the country. So what? I don’t care. The fact of the matter is the local paper doesn’t know what to do with me other than ignore me as best they can. Look at their blog rolls. A lot of those links are folks I either inspired, got to start blogs and endlessly encouraged, or are links I consulted them about, or are ideas likely taken as off-shoots from my own. But what inspired all of this media/blog sensation locally? I blogged about the Wing Wah’s fire and a downtown murder before the local paper and about local music in a way they had never before seen in a narrative style filled with pictures and anecdotes. They saw me not giving up my free endeavor, and they witnessed my determination and follow through and love for the scene. They read about country music, and wrote articles of their own after I raised the question and coined Bakersfield as the Old Nashville West and LA as the New Nashville West; they read about news; they read about all kinds of music, and about theatre, art, literature, and more. Then they asked me to join forces. I joined their club for a while. Folks soon read about Star Wars from a blogger’s point of view which Bakersfield.com posted on their own homepage, I believe, to test traffic. They read about the Lords of Bakersfield on their homepage too, and then when the dust settled and I had originally said, “You won’t like my criticism,” the Californian was proved wrong and I was proved right: they didn’t like my criticism of their entertainment reporter lying to me after I refused an interview with Danielle Belton. That brought out other issues. I was tired of hearing about bands getting snubbed by the reporter, except for her friends in mad social experiments written in big spreads in the newspaper: hipsters in yuppie bars. As a result of my actions I was called an uncivil bully by a newspaper who dwarfs my own living room blogging with their mega-staff. Me, a bully? The truth: I am one blogger sometimes writing opinion pieces that can't be edited down and are easily found on the Internet. And let's not forget I wrote a book, inspired by the Californian who wrote conspiratorial articles on the Lords of Bakersfield that could not be edited down by their staff for parts they don't like. How could the Californian like me when they were caught in a major plagiarism scandal of their own in 2005? They were busy saving face from outside criticism and quickly deleted a blog comment of mine on related articles when I pointed out that I caught their staff member Jennifer Self plagiarizing from government documents in the Bakersfield College Renegade Rip in the 1980s.
And ever since our big split up? No credit to me as a driving force in helping drive the new local media. I know I helped speed up the growth of local Niche markets, a focus on the music scene, and more.
But will the Californian admit I was a driving force?
Give them 20 years. They might.
Their entertainment reporter who has since disappeared (she was kicked from my blog community after I was kicked from theirs) and I learned that the local newspaper, the very newspaper who helped spawn Lords, Lords conspiracies, and who blacklisted and possibly killed the children of their own employees (Bette Blair) also may have some similar policy against me, at least in snubbing N.L. Belardes. Conspiracy thinking on my part? I’m guilty. My words can’t be proven, but because there is no credit where credit is due, and since I called for their reporter to be fired, I simply cannot believe I am wrong until proven wrong. 2006 marks a new year for nlbelardes.com to not only be a part of the new media, but to continue to help grow it in new ways...
Related articles:
Californian gets hip to local blogger news stories
On the Star Wars beat
Wing Wahs and Gigantic disappear
Punk kid attacked and reported on nlbelardes.com
Californian gets even
The unappreciated war for online traffic
Drama in the blog scene
Letter from Matildakay.com
Where's Bakersfield Bob?
Condor's gift to local blogger: N.L.'s afternoon with the Stanley Cup!
Enrique exposed!
One of the most hilarious moments of the year in regards to testing just how powerful blogs could be was my Enrique Fuentes experiment. I had a plan to infiltrate the media through blogs. Why not? I figured the local big bad print media would never pay attention to me because I wrote a book about them being bad guys. Sure they let me into their blog community. But that could only be short-lived. Since the entertainment reporter was a rather flamboyant piece of hipster drama herself, a down-on-her-luck screenwriter (Oh yes, go read her constant talk of rejection, or just type in Danielle Belton screenplay reject into Google) why not create a fictitious character that she and local readers could enjoy? Thus, Enrique Fuentes, Queen of the Downtown Fur was created, a strange flamboyant gay character from Delano who was in love with Paulo and Rico, Hollywood fashion, hoochies everywhere, Peter Brady Gospel and Captain Kenny Filthy Pants, AKA Kenny Mount of the Filthies, and a defender of Nicky Belardes. What a riot when the local entertainment reporter bought the entire masquerade hook, line and sinker and actually printed fictitious character, Enrique Fuentes, Queen of the Downtown Fur in the local paper in April! Oh the hilarity! I am as straight as straight can be, but I know the art of fiction and pretty much duped everyone when I wrote such zany fashion fun and had an actor show up as Enrique Fuentes when Norfolk played with the Dalloways and Johnny Come Lately. Wow! When Enrique grabbed Gary Enns’ crotch at Narducci’s I was in stitches. A classic moment of 2005. Enrique Fuentes wrote great dysfunctional theatre reviews, music reviews, and got some folks rather ruffled with her top ten fashion list… but in the end, Enrique is just the feminine funny side of me poking fun at everyone in a hoochie sort of way.
Why expose Enrique? I have so much writing I do, I just couldn't keep it up. Although I might still finish Enrique's book. It is fun to write. God I hate to admit that crap. Will I keep up the blog? Don't count on it, though it is fun to poke at people in Enrique's humorous way. As for appearances around town: it's hard to find actors to play characters around Bakersfield and I am not about to do it!
Related stories:
Dysfunctional theatre review of Robin Hood
N.L. Belardes review of Robin Hood
enrique’s big night
an interview with Enrique
Dysfunctional theatre review of Rocky Horror
N.L. Belardes review of Rocky Horror
Enrique to write tell-all book
Top ten best and worst dressed in Bakersfield
Queen of the Downtown Fur Book Part One
Queen of the Downtown Fur Book Part Two
The Lords of Bakersfield
The Lords of Bakersfield. Some might argue the dark urban stories of Lords is the biggest topic on nlbelardes.com. As a blackened part of Bakersfield pop culture, the Lords of Bakersfield have been part of local urban talk for years. Perpetuated by the Bakersfield Californian’s conspiracy stories by Robert Price, the vile acts of Bakersfield's murderous lawmen, politicians and media folk have created a sensation and spawned a novel and related articles by me because I was simply taken aback by such dastardly tales as "the stuff of movies..."
It's tough to remember that nothing regarding such stories have ever been proven. Ask Robert Price. Evidence always disappears into thin air. Yet at the same time, the stories exist in the consciousness of the people; the local paper force fed the populace such stories in 2003, more than ten years after a book by Bette Blair exposed much of their murderous tales on a small scale in a self-published book titled Valley Fire. The release of Lords: Part One this year rekindled a lot of such talk among bloggers, city folk, radio folk, the local underground newspaper, but not in the Bakersfield Californian, except when the Rolling Stone published an article about Ed Jagels. I believe the Californian wants to retain control of when and where they talk about such a subject. Sure, there are ongoing battles and politics between the Bakersfield Californian and their hot-on-the-Jagels-trail columnist, Robert Price. I commented on some of that in my story, “Lords of Bakersfield found at 7-11” an article against Kimberly Sevcik’s crappy piece of jingo journalism on J. Edgar Jagels and Kern Justice. I went further on the Price-Jagels battle in my piece, “Pop culture, the Devil,and the Lords of Bakersfield war of words” where I go into detail about the Californian’s vilifying of Jagels as a dark ogre from Mordor…
My other major piece on the topic other than my social commentary fiction novel that you can order here, is titled, “A literary perspective on the Lords of Bakersfield,” and discusses that in no way is the topic of Lords a historically finished debate simply because the Californian wrote about the topic. I wrote that piece in particular to argue against anyone believing my novel is merely a redundant tale per Robert Price’s words. History needs true analysis from historians, not from the newspapers and blogs and novels on sensational stories. The future histories of Lords will be the most telling. I use Price's timeline, that’s it. My story, in essence is vastly different from Robert Price’s brief newspaper version.
An excerpt from my article reads:
What I provide is a literary perspective of the Lords of Bakersfield that deepens an urban myth. Myth? Because there is no evidence. Although rich in historical detail, my work takes a unique path that the Californian could never write in a million years. Their tales of murder and treachery are journalist entries that suggest a possible legend. Through the newspaper each reader must make the connection and decides for themselves if the stories are true or not; that is, whether there may or may not be Lords of Bakersfield lurking about in the present and past.
My novel does not allow the reader to make the connection whether true or not. I write the Lords of Bakersfield stories as if they ARE true—at least for the sake of the novel. That’s what you have to do in a story: you must make characters believable. My job as a novelist is to make you believe at least while you are reading (whether fictitious or otherwise). If you’re sitting watching Star Wars and the entire time you’re thinking “This isn’t real.” Then you haven’t bought into the story at all. You don’t like the characters, you don’t like the storyline, and you’re bored. You might as well pop the DVD out and watch the news: if that’s all you believe.
Let me just clarify something else here: when I tell people that Robert Price’s 2003 conspiracy theory articles were inspiration for my novel, that’s the truth. His articles include an introduction by Mike Jenner that reads,
Why we wrote these articles: A conspiracy theory born in the late 1970s and early '80s had become a long-forgotten legend until last September, when the slaying of Assistant District Attorney Stephen M. Tauzer gave new life to speculation about "The Lords of Bakersfield."
The articles linked old newspaper stories, and being a Bakersfield Californian look at conspiracy, the articles were just that: articles. The information was sparse and disjointed and not rich enough for a novel. That’s why I did more research. By themselves, the Bakersfield Californian articles on the Lords of Bakersfield, though inspiring, are not enough for any of us.
But if all your faith in history is not in the scholars who analyze history through historical works, and yes, that can include literature, and instead, your view of history is through the media, then you’re really missing out and you are under-educating yourself to the high school reading level of any local newspaper.
As a historian once told me, “History is a sea of books. Learn to swim.”
Strangeness surrounding Lords of Bakersfield capped out the year with an alleged book burning of Lords: Part One. Ensuing arguments developed on my website about the books handed out as a giveaway at a local church LAN party. Without coming out and saying my thoughts directly, I raised the ideas of just where Christian fundamentalists who might read my novel might draw the line between issues of ultra-violence and sex as topics for high school age students. Of course I felt there was a rather large dose of hypocrisy involved when a local church would allow one form of rated ‘R’ graphic media, but not another. As a graphic story against media and law corruption, my consciousness-raising novel appears to some as less graphic than leading video games where players can act out fantasies of Nazi soldiers blasting allied troops in cyber World War Two settings. In a strange coincidence, I sat next to the alleged book burners at a local Bakersfield Condors hockey game. A dialogue on family values and parental rights ensued where both parties agreed on the notion that parents need to be aware of where their children might be disappearing to when not at home. Of course, those are trust issues and it is a parental right whether kids should or shouldn’t read such graphic novels or play such video games. The books, however, not burned, were presented to me at the hockey game. I refused. “Give them away or throw them in the trash. They’re your books,” I said. In the end, who knows what will happen to those copies of Lords: Part One and if such social issues will have an impact on the very teens who spread the book burning rumors.
Will the Lords stories carry on through 2006? I'm sure they will. I don't see them being buried under a rock anytime soon. I believe the Bakersfield Californian, who says they don't review books, and myself will throw some interesting related stories into the popular consciousness to digest before the year is out.
Related stories:
N.L. meets journalist Robert Price
Author gets message from Rolling Stone
Chapter One Excerpt
Chapter Two Excerpt
Amazon.com reviews
N.L. on Talk radio talking Lords of Bakersfield
Stubble the Lords Hunter takes jab at N.L. in good hockey fashion
Memorable shows, Buck City, and the hockey CD
To truly discuss all the memorable shows of 2005 would take pages and pages and I have already sweat over my year in review. And to think, the shows I went to and had in the N.L. Belardes studio were all of the shows in Bakersfield, and by Bakersfield bands; no way. I went to maybe 20% of all shows for the year. I missed many many bands at Jerry’s Pizza because of my refusal to descend in to the caverns of rock and roll. I missed many shows at the Gate, Vinny’s, the Boiler Room, the MWP and more. Yet, in the course of it all I found bands that I enjoyed seeing over and over, and tried to mix that up with bands in a wide range of genres and venues.
Here’s just a few of my most memorable shows in 2005 in no particular order:
Karmahitlist at the Reggae-less Reggae Fest: The theme was a joke, but the performances by Myndsick, Mento Buru, Tiger Army and RidiKule had my attention. Most memorable was Sean Starkey on stage in black angel wings. There was a kid smashing a guitar, drumsticks flying, a rock star climbing onto a Budweiser trailer, and great music. This performance by a now defunct band was certainly one of the biggest rock moments of the year! Makes you wonder where all the gimmicks have gone.
Black Jerks at the Haberfelde: In this classic 10-minute set I saw wild punkers smashing each other and a strange mock Nazi tribute to the Jerry’s Pizza promoter who intimidated many in the downtown music scene.
Karmahitlist and Mento Buru at Fishlips: Sean Starkey and Karmahitlist unplugged. It was their best side. The ladies I was with drooled for days. Mento Buru, ska-kings of the Latin underworld were amazingly on fire like some mad resurrected Bakersfield Bosstones. What a great night at the fish fry!
The War Days at the Spotlight Theatre and the Bakersfield Independent Film Festival: Movies, movies, movies! yes, that was my kid directing a movie filled with local songs by Bakersfield bands. Kenny Mount's cameo was a surprise hit. The death scene and flashback were amazing teary moments for a 14-year-old's vision of war and severed freindships. BIFF is a must see in 2006!
Delux and LIKHYD2 at Chenchos: Delux from Tijuana, Mexico proved to me that the Filthies have Latino counterparts, while LIKHYD2 proved that Spanish rock in Bakersfield is a thriving underground scene…
Merle Haggard at the Crystal Palace parking lot: Statues were unveiled, legends were in the house and I soaked it all in… memorable is the word. Bakersfield Sound is the ringing in my ears.
Bo Diddley with Mento Buru: Mento was amazing as usual. Matt gave me a nod during his performance that made me feel like a rock and roll star myself. Bo Diddley was an incredible sight and I got a pair of drumsticks from Cesareo Garasa for my collection of local music memorabilia.
Riley’s Second Anniversary Show: Jessie Deluxe and the Rolling Blackouts, two LA bands who are must-sees. I fell in love with Jessie Deluxe and her quiet off-the-stage demeanor and loud gritty tunes; she and the Rolling Blackouts, former LA Weekly band of the year proved to me that LA rock is what it’s cracked up to be.
Buck City Podcast Episode 14 (download takes several minutes): The Buck City Podcast is the first podcast out of Bakersfield, California. It quickly got the attention of bakersfield.com who soonafter launched their own and even got a write-up in the local college newspaper. I got my taste of private rock shows on the Buck City Podcast with Dante Esperanza, Calico Sunset, Nunez, and Jenny Angel, but most memorable for me in 2005 was Norfolk’s performance that included several solo performances by Norfolk’s James Ratliff, an up-and-coming alt country rock star. I Loved when James had to do 300 retakes of one of his songs. OK, I am exaggerating. It was great fun and I learned about he and his wife’s perfect love for each other in the wonderful song, Northern… This is the guy to watch out for in 2006 as an explosive presence in the Bakersfield music scene. The Oildale Reverend is hilarious in this classic episode.
The coronation of Mark Chavez: I had heard of Adema, but until the Midnight Panic family show, I had never even heard the music of Marky Chavez. It was a historic night of good music and a lot of folks from the scene where I have yet to post a podcast of audio collected from that night. It is always good to see an artist determined to succeed and to transform from a chrysalis into something new... watch out for an explosive re-emergence into the global music scene. Might as well lump their CD release backyard boogie party here that packed the house at Montgomery World Plaza... it was a historic night of mobile podcasts and music...
Dim reunion with Mento Buru: This resurrected band night and ensuing strange evening of literary characters sparked a lot of hate mail. It was a memorable night with music from yesteryear with even more memorable comments that ignored a dead baby lady, but brought brought to light that musicians are in the limelight when they perform whether it's today, yesterday, or yesteryear. I think I remember Mento singing…
The Hobbit: Kid actors, Bilbo Baggins, an unseen dragon and a tantalizing look into the world of Tolkien. I thoroughly enjoyed the energy that evening more than any other theatre I saw during the year. It may not have been the best play, but The Hobbit directed by Kevin Lively at the BCT had the best energy. I would have to say Robin Hood at the Spotlight was right up there too…
Stereotactic CD release party: I never go to Jerry’s Pizza. Strangley on a rare night that I went I had to leave early because of violence after a downtown football game. I never got to see Stereotactic that night…
Hurricane Relief Show at the Dome: I never did all my write-ups on the million bands who played. I apologize to all who played. I still covet my secret great Rocky Nash photos from that night that I have yet to share with the band. Let me say it was a great day, tiring, but for a great cause… the music was splendid!
Buck City Podcast Episode 11/Peter Will Tribute(download takes a few minutes): A local music legend lost his will to live. The following tribute was a collection of performances and a podcast that I hope adequately thanks Peter Will for being a part of the Bakersfield music scene. Thanks to Mr. Trevino for his kind words regarding the podcast that he understood, while some folks in the scene just plain didn't get.
Rocky Nash and Karmahithist at the MWP: Billed as the big comeback show for Karmacrunchlist after Sean Starkey broke his leg skateboarding, it was just that, as Sean went mad onstage. He was however outdone by Preston Nash of Rocky Nash who coordinated a percussion intro that later rocked the Rabobank. One great part of that night was Sean telling people to steal my book if they had to, which or course was topped by Preston getting pissed and smashing his amp with his bass and an incredible percussion intro by Rocky, Preston and Cesareo. Now that’s rock and roll!
Book Release Party at Lengthwise: Unfortunately I never did a write-up on this huge event. It was a night of greatness in music that will be hard-pressed to ever be matched: Nunez, Norfolk, Fatt Katt and the Vonzippers, the Dalloways, the Filthies, and Mento Buru; all great bands in a night that had me shaking maracas with ska-king Matt Munoz and company from Mento Buru onstage. A night going down as a classic in N.L. Belardes infamy.
Hockey Songs at the Rabobank, especially the Filthies: I had a dream. The dream was to expose bands to more people than ever before. The dream also was a hockey CD that just about got me laughed out of town. The Filthies proved everyone wrong on the Bakersfield Condor’s opening night where they played “Condorstown” to 8,200 fans, starting a trend of undefeated band nights that still stands through the end of 2005. 6-0 as of Fatt Katt's performance on December 31st, 2005. Other 2005 performances in front of thousands included: Rocky Nash, My Dysfunctional Me, and Myndsick.
Jimmy Holliday shocks at the art show: He actually didn’t perform. I have seen him perform many times and love his music with Sioux City Sarsaparilla. However, my favorite Jimmy Holliday moment was the day he shocked a little old lady at an art show with a stick of gum for talking smack about me. Thanks Jimmy. And thanks to the Empty Space for having me in their Day of the Dead Show, Exquisite Corpse Show, and Scrooged show.
Enlightenment of karmahitlist: This wasn't a show but an interesting meeting with Cesareo Garasa and my first meeting with Rocky and Preston Nash. It was memorable, enlightening, and instant friendships developed.
Punk at the Fist Fight Shack: A historic tiny boxing rink, an old ex-boxer and trainer, and punk music. The band performed from inside the rink in one of the strangest and coolest shows I have ever seen.
In the Media and Thanks:
A big thanks to local and non-local bands, friends, theatres, bloggers and the local media who weren't afraid about writing and talking about nlbelardes.com, Paperback Writer blogs, Lords: Part One, and Growing Up Fighting: Bakersfield Hockey Vol. 1...
Thanks again to...
My kids
my sister
Friends in Fiji
Robert Price
KGEO 1230 The Puck Show
KRAB 106.1 Meathead and Desi with Rocky Nash, Danny Spanks Show
KERN 1410 AM
Bakersfield College Newspaper
Cerro Coso Community College
Bakersfield Condors
KGEO AM 1230 The Coaches Show and Condors Game Show
The Blackboard Free Press
Kerngamers.com
Bakotopia
Mas Magazine
Dorktown.net
fresnofamous.com
TV 17
TV 23
Bakersfield High School
Matildakay.com
Dobbler's Drunk Corner
Flower in the Dale
Ruined by Books
New Leaves in March
Artspeak
BakoTech
Condorstown blog
Rob Shock
Mike Russo
Borders
Gigantic Vintage
Julie Unplugged
TheatreAddict
Kevin Lively
Steve-O (The Informant)
Roger Mathey, the Green Lantern and the Spotlight
Empty Space Theatre
A.S. Ashley
Cesareo's Waste of Space
Jesse Rivera of illpressed (thanks for the Christmas call)
Bands of Bakersfield
James Ratliff
Kenny Mount
KooKoonauts dad
Patchboy
The Stanley Cup
Because I don't say thank you enough - thanks to chingpea and all Bakersfield bands, especially those who have so quickly become family, some of whom all put up with me behind the scenes: James and Marissa Ratliff, Les Paw, Fatt Katt, Kenny and Melissa and their cool kids, Gus, Gary and Courtnie Enns, fellow bookworm Marky Chavez, Wayne and Jean-a Beana, Shantell, Darcie, Heather, Brent and Lori at Bite Me Cookies, Preston and Rocky, Jarad (Meathead) and Matt Munoz the Ska King of California.
If I forgot to thank you then I apologize ahead of time (I know I am absent-minded. Just ask the War Days Director. Oops, did I thank him??)
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Sunday, January 01, 2006.
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it has been really terrific getting to know you in 05' nick. i had a lot of fun doing the book promotion show, and pod casting with you. i will always be a faithful reader of your blogs and take certain pride calling you my friend. thank you for all that you have done for my band and others. you are the bakersfield arts, nick.
Thanks for being you Nick. Thanks for always encouraging me, for teaching me about writing, for pushing me to write, for being a mentor. Thanks for standing up for what's right and for what you believe in. Thanks for not being afraid to be controversial. Thanks for introducing me to the music and art scene in Bakersfield and allowing me to meet some great people. Thanks Nick for giving the community a voice. Thanks for all the great stories you've written in 2005. Look forward to more and more and more... Thanks for giving us nlbelardes.com, Lords: Part One, and all of your novels soon to be released. Thanks for your great photos. Thanks for introducing Bakersfield to podcasts, bringing us great music and hilarious commentary. Thanks for sharing your talents with us. Thanks for giving to the Bakersfield music and art scene instead of sitting on your couch doing nothing. Thanks for all the great hockey, laughter, and silliness. But mostly, thanks for treating me like family, and for being my best friend. You're the best!
You say so much in your year in review and yet so much is unsaid, because no one is saying that without you, your voice, your community spirit, none of it would have been as good or nearly the same.
Well done my friend.
wow! i knew you were always busy, but $#*^! that's an awesome year in review. i look forward to seeing the rest of the awards as you post.
i'm so proud of you and all that you've accomplished this year with your blog, your book, the hockey cd, etc... you're an inspiration to many people. keep up the great work and know that you'll always have my support!
much mahalos!
Congrats on a great year! Achieve more this year.
Luv,
Flower
AAaaaaaaah! ..........just the beginning!
I was at thirteen of those shows, and I played nine of them (a lot of them with two bands on the same night- does that count for twice?). Glad you enjoyed yourself.
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