Local artists believe Bakersfield 'Life as it should be' slogan needs cleaning up - By N.L. Belardes
When I arrived across the street from Bakersfield Superior Court at 5pm, the downtown area was bustling with traffic and only a few pedestrians. The big downtown bell tower square itself was empty.
All quiet on the Western front
Empty that is until a lone cowboy was spotted with signs, toting a dusty vacuum cleaner, and making his way up Truxton Avenue. He was about to clean up the town.
Sure, a TV news vehicle had parked. It had been a lonely tumbleweed afternoon even with the lone cowboy hitching to the bell tower structure and laying out his signs like coyote skins from a morning of hunting good doggish slogans.
Can you hear the theme song from the good, bad and the ugly?
“Bakersfield: Life as it should be,” was to be mocked.
Waitin' for the round-up to begin...
The doggish slogans...
No posse required.
The cowboy in question was none other than the local self-proclaimed Art Czar, A.S. Ashley, son of an alleged Mafioso in Pasadena, and Bakersfield citizen for 15 years. Ashley grew up in Pasadena where he took to art and started drawing at age seven. “I would go to the library and get stacks and stacks of books on Renaissance artists and would draw like a fiend. I sold pencil portraits when I was ten.”
A.S. Ashley, A.K.A, The Art Czar
Know by local artists as the Art Czar, he was dubbed that title at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts in 1978. “I organized rallies and art performances and helped changed the bylaws regarding the festival,” he said as he whipped around a mop like sheep, directing it to the local gum-stained courthouse walkway as if to eat the grass of unrighteousness. Was that too wordy? So sorry...
A.S. interviewed by chingpea of Noveltown's Zowietown (ZOW-Wee-town)
Locally, Ashley starting helping Julia Heatherwick curate shows at the Empty Space Theatre. He took that over, helping curate the gallery and has taken a liking to helping some of the younger art wranglers in Bakersfield. A few of them even showed up to protest.
Most hid like typical townsfolk who scatter at High Noon. You know the type. There’s a shooting going down at the local corral and they say they’re on the side of the righteous, but won’t pick up arms…
It’s times like those the real heroes cast shadows. The rest roll into ditches like tumbleweed. Makes you wonder whether such normally loud behind the scenes barkers are actually afraid of standing in the media crossfire. Were local artists afraid they were going to get exposed for... liking art?
Maybe that’s just crazy talk from me.
A protestor from the East Side...
Eventually a few more protestors arrived. There was the school girl cowgirl, and the sexy “spray on the chemicals but quickly wipe them off with a kiss” girl, and several East Side Bakersfield folks who just plain felt that voices in East Bakersfield are typically stereotyped, shunned as lawless by the big Bakersfield lawmakers of what they indicated as: a wealthier media-controlling West Side.
My personal favorite cowgirl of the day
Not sure I agreed with such statements, but what the heck, this was a tongue-and-cheek protest, right?
Well sort of.
There is a rampant gang problem in Bakersfield that is corralled rather than stopped. OK, not life as it should be.
There are toxic wastes from factories and pesticides dumped on farmland that causes cancer clusters, wipes out bird habitats, and helped spawn a new era in organic farming. Those toxins, including oil company waste, gets into ground water and, along with wastewater, are often allowed into city canals.
That's not life as I want it to be.
Stay out stay alive from the local canals? Because of the dangers of drowning, or because of the dangers of the toxic waters themselves flowing through your city that might make your kids glow in the dark?
Don’t believe me?
Look at what was going on with the Beardsley Canal, and that water was used for irrigation and filtrated to what, drinking water? Oildale Energy? Ouch. How many toxins in the local water are swept under the local bureaucratic piles of paperwork as big business money changes hands with city leaders?
No, not life as it should be at all.
Information is easy to find in online documents. With creative searching you can find such in a few moments time.
Big business eradicates the small business of the local folks trying to make a living. Think citizens don’t get mad, or that big business doesn’t also hurt your environment? Read this tract from 2004. That’s right, don’t think local citizens haven’t fought back. There’s more. Read what folks are being taught about Wal-Marts in areas like Bakersfield.
I had a nice conversation with local Californian staff writer, Steven Mayer. I knew he thought I was part of the event. He took some quotes. But then I told him, “I’m just here to cover to event.”
He knew I was part of the local art community and knew me by first name.
I’d never met him before.
Steven Mayer does some multi-media...
The media sizing up the protest.
You see, artists are paid attention to by the media. As a community, they’re not always communicated with, but folks like Steven Mayer know the art community exists and that certain folks like myself speak out for art (read Mayer’s article, “Artists Decry ‘Life as it should be’ slogan”)
But I don’t want to be pegged as just an artist when I’m out covering a house fire. And Mayer pointed out kindly, “You’re so many things, including a journalist.”
Gathering quotes and ideas for a light-hearted yet serious story
Art meets journalism in a co-habitable atmosphere...
Why were other artists afraid to show?
I may do a little muckraking now and then, so Mayer might see me as sort of yellow after this piece. In the end, I appreciate being recognized. And artists like Ashley do too. He knows a lot of artists missed out on a fun chance to be heard.
Not quite the streets of Baghdad, but still a worthy beat.
Although the protest was meant to be eye-catching and wacky, Ashley said about the city slogan and the people who create such, “There are aspects about our community that we are worried about. We’re not idiots. A Pollyanna view of our town is insulting. We know we have a large dropout rate, rampant inflation, crime, and so forth. Who are these people talking to? If they’re selling me a used car I’m going to be pissed.”
A new Bakersfield slogan? Bakersfield isn't a town that's like collected debris at the end of a gutter. But it's no land of rose petals either. Maybe a slogan should just be a little more self-serving to the great and diverse individuals who make this community liveable. Bakersfield: A place to be yourself.
You can see mocking art in relation to this article this weekend at the Empty Space Art Gallery:
All quiet on the Western front
Empty that is until a lone cowboy was spotted with signs, toting a dusty vacuum cleaner, and making his way up Truxton Avenue. He was about to clean up the town.
Sure, a TV news vehicle had parked. It had been a lonely tumbleweed afternoon even with the lone cowboy hitching to the bell tower structure and laying out his signs like coyote skins from a morning of hunting good doggish slogans.
Can you hear the theme song from the good, bad and the ugly?
“Bakersfield: Life as it should be,” was to be mocked.
Waitin' for the round-up to begin...
The doggish slogans...
No posse required.
The cowboy in question was none other than the local self-proclaimed Art Czar, A.S. Ashley, son of an alleged Mafioso in Pasadena, and Bakersfield citizen for 15 years. Ashley grew up in Pasadena where he took to art and started drawing at age seven. “I would go to the library and get stacks and stacks of books on Renaissance artists and would draw like a fiend. I sold pencil portraits when I was ten.”
A.S. Ashley, A.K.A, The Art Czar
Know by local artists as the Art Czar, he was dubbed that title at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts in 1978. “I organized rallies and art performances and helped changed the bylaws regarding the festival,” he said as he whipped around a mop like sheep, directing it to the local gum-stained courthouse walkway as if to eat the grass of unrighteousness. Was that too wordy? So sorry...
A.S. interviewed by chingpea of Noveltown's Zowietown (ZOW-Wee-town)
Locally, Ashley starting helping Julia Heatherwick curate shows at the Empty Space Theatre. He took that over, helping curate the gallery and has taken a liking to helping some of the younger art wranglers in Bakersfield. A few of them even showed up to protest.
Most hid like typical townsfolk who scatter at High Noon. You know the type. There’s a shooting going down at the local corral and they say they’re on the side of the righteous, but won’t pick up arms…
It’s times like those the real heroes cast shadows. The rest roll into ditches like tumbleweed. Makes you wonder whether such normally loud behind the scenes barkers are actually afraid of standing in the media crossfire. Were local artists afraid they were going to get exposed for... liking art?
Maybe that’s just crazy talk from me.
A protestor from the East Side...
Eventually a few more protestors arrived. There was the school girl cowgirl, and the sexy “spray on the chemicals but quickly wipe them off with a kiss” girl, and several East Side Bakersfield folks who just plain felt that voices in East Bakersfield are typically stereotyped, shunned as lawless by the big Bakersfield lawmakers of what they indicated as: a wealthier media-controlling West Side.
My personal favorite cowgirl of the day
Not sure I agreed with such statements, but what the heck, this was a tongue-and-cheek protest, right?
Well sort of.
There is a rampant gang problem in Bakersfield that is corralled rather than stopped. OK, not life as it should be.
There are toxic wastes from factories and pesticides dumped on farmland that causes cancer clusters, wipes out bird habitats, and helped spawn a new era in organic farming. Those toxins, including oil company waste, gets into ground water and, along with wastewater, are often allowed into city canals.
That's not life as I want it to be.
Stay out stay alive from the local canals? Because of the dangers of drowning, or because of the dangers of the toxic waters themselves flowing through your city that might make your kids glow in the dark?
Don’t believe me?
Look at what was going on with the Beardsley Canal, and that water was used for irrigation and filtrated to what, drinking water? Oildale Energy? Ouch. How many toxins in the local water are swept under the local bureaucratic piles of paperwork as big business money changes hands with city leaders?
No, not life as it should be at all.
Information is easy to find in online documents. With creative searching you can find such in a few moments time.
Big business eradicates the small business of the local folks trying to make a living. Think citizens don’t get mad, or that big business doesn’t also hurt your environment? Read this tract from 2004. That’s right, don’t think local citizens haven’t fought back. There’s more. Read what folks are being taught about Wal-Marts in areas like Bakersfield.
I had a nice conversation with local Californian staff writer, Steven Mayer. I knew he thought I was part of the event. He took some quotes. But then I told him, “I’m just here to cover to event.”
He knew I was part of the local art community and knew me by first name.
I’d never met him before.
Steven Mayer does some multi-media...
The media sizing up the protest.
You see, artists are paid attention to by the media. As a community, they’re not always communicated with, but folks like Steven Mayer know the art community exists and that certain folks like myself speak out for art (read Mayer’s article, “Artists Decry ‘Life as it should be’ slogan”)
But I don’t want to be pegged as just an artist when I’m out covering a house fire. And Mayer pointed out kindly, “You’re so many things, including a journalist.”
Gathering quotes and ideas for a light-hearted yet serious story
Art meets journalism in a co-habitable atmosphere...
Why were other artists afraid to show?
I may do a little muckraking now and then, so Mayer might see me as sort of yellow after this piece. In the end, I appreciate being recognized. And artists like Ashley do too. He knows a lot of artists missed out on a fun chance to be heard.
Not quite the streets of Baghdad, but still a worthy beat.
Although the protest was meant to be eye-catching and wacky, Ashley said about the city slogan and the people who create such, “There are aspects about our community that we are worried about. We’re not idiots. A Pollyanna view of our town is insulting. We know we have a large dropout rate, rampant inflation, crime, and so forth. Who are these people talking to? If they’re selling me a used car I’m going to be pissed.”
A new Bakersfield slogan? Bakersfield isn't a town that's like collected debris at the end of a gutter. But it's no land of rose petals either. Maybe a slogan should just be a little more self-serving to the great and diverse individuals who make this community liveable. Bakersfield: A place to be yourself.
You can see mocking art in relation to this article this weekend at the Empty Space Art Gallery:
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Friday, June 16, 2006.
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"Bakersfield: A Place to Be Yourself"... that's way better than "...Life As It Should Be"
hmmm...
Excellent article! I love the coverage, commentary, and pictures.
.....I said one BOY-HOWDY!!!, and two EEEEEEEEEEE-HAWS!!!!!!!
Great work nick,....as for the others,
....all in good time. :D
as
Well done.
I think we should just take the easy route here, and rename our town.
Puckeysfield...
We could just pile up a stack of horseshit, cowshit, or even L.A. 's shit on either side of the freeway and that could be our sign.
Imagine the amount of tax dollars we could save.
Here is the new motto...
Fun, Sun, Stay, Play, and eat shit.
great coverage, nic! thanks so much for helping us to get the word out. "Bakersfield: We Can Make It Better!"
Bakersfield No Vacancy.
ps,..........I love it when art imitates art!
I know you are a fan of the conspiracy theories, but before you panic about all these "toxins" in Beardsley Canal, you might want to do some research on the water that is produced from the Kern River Field. It is unique for an oil field in that it is of very high quality. Beyond that, it is run through many a filtering process as well as several monitoring points before it enters any canal system.
MMm... perfect on my salad
Actually you're mistaken. Mel. I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories. Most of them are boring and unsubstantiated. The book I wrote is just literary fiction. There is no conspiracy fiction category. My idols are legitimate historians not in the psycho-historical category of far-fetched history(For freaky psyscho-history read Napoleons Glands--head to read it in grad school).
I'm a big fan of literary works and writers, not romance or fantasy or sci-fi, or self-help... Lords is just an interesting story that I thought would make for good literary reading.
Maybe you never saw pics of oil wells gushing and laying waste to the countryside? Or maybe you never worked for factories like I have in Bakersfield. I have seen what gets dumped into the local sewers. Anyways, I doubt if canal water is drinkable or good for your complexion.
Okay, so I take back calling you a fan of conspiracy theories (I really didn't know, but thought it was good lead-in). You are right that I have no clue what all goes into the canals from different sources and have not worked in any factories. I was just trying to clarify that to the best of my knowledge the produced water from the Kern River field is of a high quality, monitored, and also goes through a filtration system before it is discharged into any canal systems.
hahahahahahahahaha! these guys are great. :) steven mayer is the best, too. the whole city's not hogwash, i guess. when we all worked for buck owens, this one character used to say the city motto should be this: "bakersfield - a great place to die."
oops - should i be laughing? our local problems are serious, yes. i didn't mean to trivialize them. better to laugh, though, than fall into despair. i think the despairing are rendered useless by their hopelessness, whereas the laughing can still throw a monkey wrench here and there, & have a good time flashing pressed hams & middle fingers. this behavior eventually calms down & is funneled into useful socially responsible acts. or jail. or both! for more information, read the catholic worker. and mad magazine.
Your photos are slanting to the East.
it's for the mysticism...
Bakersfield... where you can get your Starbucks or crack on every corner.
I KNEW THAT NEW BAKERSFIELD SIGN LOOKED FAMILIAR. GO TO LENDINGTREE.COM. GEEZE TALK ABOUT COPYWRITE INFRINGMENT.
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