Bakersfield life as it should be gets worse - By N.L. Belardes
I heard there was a meeting today... KRAB radio talked about it... so why not pop in and see what all the city slogan talk was about...
I wasn't one of the speakers and there is really no point in indicating who said what, but the dialogue went something like this:
"It's so beautiful."
It is?
"Ooh..."
"Ahhh..."
"We don't need the hole in the sign anymore. I'd like to see a mock-up without the hole in it."
"I thought we weren't going to emphasize the sun."
What, it doesn't get hot in the Central Valley? Heat and sunlight isn't life as it should be? Why not just get an artist to blot out the actual sun?
Or did these city folk forget that anyone with a brain understands photosynthesis, that plants need sun, that to depict progress and civilization and no nature whatsoever, except for man-made, a sun is still a perfectly decent symbol... oh wait, it's a natural symbol, and those are left out.
So the leaf in the new logo represents the progress of agriculture. I'm guessing we can assume such. So maybe there should be two leaves: one dripping with cancerous toxins and bulky like the Incredible Hulk and the other organic and flavorful... just kidding. Or am I?
Forget that the mock-up just fell apart as they were trying to put it on the table. One of the members comically was going to slip yellow tab lined paper into the hole. A cost-effective mock-up for sure.
"It's not the right color. I want to see a new mock-up."
Whatever.
"Let the artist speak."
He wasn't the actual artist.
"The touch of yellow around the sun gives a splash of warm color and contrasts with the cool of the green."
A.S. Ashley sat and laughed.
I mean, it's not an ugly sign. It's a mosaic to cover up the pillbox grey that was covered with paint left over from the U.S.S. something or other.
Yet, the sign is missing something.
Ashley held up the local section, "We have a self-esteem problem..."
And the rest is history...
What, no oil wells? Well, at least there's one thing I
can say about the new sign: there's nothing natural about it.
Comments?
I wasn't one of the speakers and there is really no point in indicating who said what, but the dialogue went something like this:
"It's so beautiful."
It is?
"Ooh..."
"Ahhh..."
"We don't need the hole in the sign anymore. I'd like to see a mock-up without the hole in it."
"I thought we weren't going to emphasize the sun."
What, it doesn't get hot in the Central Valley? Heat and sunlight isn't life as it should be? Why not just get an artist to blot out the actual sun?
Or did these city folk forget that anyone with a brain understands photosynthesis, that plants need sun, that to depict progress and civilization and no nature whatsoever, except for man-made, a sun is still a perfectly decent symbol... oh wait, it's a natural symbol, and those are left out.
So the leaf in the new logo represents the progress of agriculture. I'm guessing we can assume such. So maybe there should be two leaves: one dripping with cancerous toxins and bulky like the Incredible Hulk and the other organic and flavorful... just kidding. Or am I?
Forget that the mock-up just fell apart as they were trying to put it on the table. One of the members comically was going to slip yellow tab lined paper into the hole. A cost-effective mock-up for sure.
"It's not the right color. I want to see a new mock-up."
Whatever.
"Let the artist speak."
He wasn't the actual artist.
"The touch of yellow around the sun gives a splash of warm color and contrasts with the cool of the green."
A.S. Ashley sat and laughed.
I mean, it's not an ugly sign. It's a mosaic to cover up the pillbox grey that was covered with paint left over from the U.S.S. something or other.
Yet, the sign is missing something.
Ashley held up the local section, "We have a self-esteem problem..."
And the rest is history...
What, no oil wells? Well, at least there's one thing I
can say about the new sign: there's nothing natural about it.
Comments?
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Monday, July 17, 2006.
You can leave your response.
Isn't the hole in the sign for the nail that will hold it up?
Yeah... that sign is going to last out in the sun... the colors aren't going to fade at all :/
That sign is fugly! Why are tax dollars going to that? We have a sign (ugly as it may be), it's a sign that says, BAKERSFIELD, do we really need more? I beleive travelers are going to get the point.
The view on the town isn't going to made because of a sign.
~Lively
what a goddamn joke.
I love watching political & business types sit around to try and discuss art and what LOOKS good.
The current sign could never get worse, so it will be interesting to see what eventually comes of all this.
aren't there more pressing issues for them to address. who cares about a damn sign?
that sign is ugly. what a joke. who was the artist? eww... doesn't tell me anything about bakersfield except that it's boring.
just leave the weird squiggle thingy as our sign with no saying on it. it's better than that thing that's supposed to be life as it should be...
With such a dark sky you could almost have "Welcome to my nightmare" as the new tag-line...
The sky depicted in the new mockup is actually a daylight perspective (hence the yellow sun around the hole)...the black backdrop represents smog.
If u dont like it here and its called a "NightMare" Why dont you just move?
-Aaron
I say we utilize 21st century technology with the new sign...Rig one of our famous traffic cameras to the rear of the sign, and place sensors in the 'hole'. Make a game for those passing by the sign to throw beanbags through the hole. If they make it through, the camera snaps a shot of their license plate, and they are mailed a free "Life as it should be" bumper sticker. Now that's a campaign!
No, no, no...you're looking at it wrong. As we can see, the black represents our lovely pollution. They totally got the only "high rise buildings" we have, and that fields, the only acre that hasn't been sold for new development.
This sign sucks :(
there's good coffee, music, art, and literature on top of the nightmare... so I stay...
Besides, it's better to stay and fight... (A.S. just said that to me over the phone).
Even NightMares are part of life's necessities, Aaron. I believe n.l. is mererly recognizing this realty. Rather than avoid such obviousness, and escape to a new abode, why not work to improve this nightmare? As n.l. stated, the creativity here is rampant, and slowly but surely it'll have to infiltrate the city planning.
The more I think about it the more I believe that the chamber of commerce or whoever thought up the slogan was probably just trying to say "Bakersfield = good" in a pretty way and for some reason they thought that life as it should be is nice or creative. The fact that it pisses all of us off could be nothing more than semantics. Or do they really believe that life here is "as it should be"? Either way, they should think up another cliche, meaningless slogan that means "Bakersfield Are Good" and get on with it. I worry that they think we are just a bunch of people who need something to bitch about to get attention for our blogs. Well. Yes, that is true, but I am really personally irritated by this as well and I really do think it is asinine and sincerely object to my tax dollars being spent on this s h i you know what.
By the way, the Aaron who posted earlier is not me. Just so know one thinks it is. I know better than to correct NL on his spelling...haha! I've read his book and know he's ridiculously talented at using grammar and big words.
aaron,
"...why don't you just move?..."
isn't it better for people to face nightmares to conquer the bad and make things better? are you the type to just walk away? maybe that's why you say that.
a lot of people share the same nightmarish thoughts of this area, but choose to stay and fight for whatever reason... income, family, etc... why not have the attitude of a survivor/fighter instead of the chickens**** personality of just telling people to move?
dude, majority of us think the signs and saying are ugly and not very creative. chill out... it's all opinion.
peace,
chingpea
WHAT? We have a self-esteem problem?
How could that be?
Can't you see the Emperor's new clothes?
Is the Golden Calf not worthy of worshiping?
Is the spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down?
I'm almost sure I got a two-Fister-mister-blister reach-around!
:D
Everybody needs to check the media outlets(you read about it here on PAPERBACK WRITER first!) for snippets of what went on today.
Details will soon be forthcoming from yours truly!
like i said earlier i don't see the smog anywhere. they shoud just have a bag of dust nailed up to a board... and say welcome to Bakersfield.
I didn't read it as if the other Aaron was correcting n.l. on his spelling. As for the semantics, check up a bit on the origin of this story. An out of state group who works with big wigs like Cocacola were payed millions by our tax dollars to come review our town and think of a slogan without the general input by any tax paying city residents. It's more than just semantics. Not only is there something oddly wrong about an out of town organization having to come up with a slogan, but the lack of local input doesn't help either.
Attention for the blogs? Bullshit. No one better think that. We've already proven that we're REAL citizens with REAL issues, and that we support the cultural arts of Bakersfield and the Central Valley.
We have a voice!
Life as it should be is just plain wrong and misleading in an idyllic manner.
Suggestions:
"All-American City"
"A place to be yourself"
"Art Czarville" (kiddin')
"Gateway to the Central Valley"
"Ag Oil Stay Play"
Get the point? Be more generic, be a little more REAL. Be playful even. Tout ag and oil and industry...
But 'life as it should be'? Why have a Vision 2020 group making this shit up when they're all about making Bakersfield life as it should be by 2020? Well let me tell you: it ain't 2020 yet, folks! So if they're making up the damn slogan it should read: "It ain't life as it should be yet." Their logic contradicts itself in their own slogan and Vision 2020 name and agenda!
On a semi-related tangent from n.l.'s last list of suggestions...is anyone else entirely sick of all the NorthWest development using the "All American City" approach? Liberty...Freedom...Ronald Reagan...etc etc
All the campaign billboards are bluecollar looking families w/ their matching red white and blue outfits, dog, grey-haired hard working dad, and American flag waving.
Seems like Oildale started making some money, and now their agenda comes to the forefront of city advertisment and planning
The sign as a whole doesn't curl my hair one way or the other...
My only suggestion would be to pencil in a swim at your own risk sign right next to the artist's rendering of what I believe to be the KILLER KERN.
One of my problems with this sign, and I understand there's a lot of ass-kissing going on: make the ag people happy, make the urban developers happy, make the water works happy, and make the citizens happy with a little arc of yellow like a big Buck Owens yellow-brick-road rainbow... it looks too much like a seal.
Is this the new great seal of Bakersfield? Where buildings look like they came from 1980s video games? I don't recognize these majestic video game towers... If our city wants a cool mosaic, why not look at the Merced Cultural Arts Center... (scroll down until you see it. It's beautiful! Why is it our neighbors to the north are more artistic than a much larger city like Bakersfield. Oh wait, where is our multi-cultural arts center?)
At least the California seal has a bear and the gaze of Minerva, a wise goddess that our own city seal sign lacks...
I just don't see tourists giddy about stopping off and taking a pic by the big Bakersfield sign that looks like a boring city seal with rows of lettuce, video game towers, and with the only natural aspect being big brown mountains that look strangly devoid of hilly golden grasslands.
"But mama, I can't see no mountains."
"Shut up and hold still. We're in Bakersfield."
Now theres a helluva slogan.
BAKERSFIELD STAY AND FIGHT!!!
And that is why Howard Owens and I love Black Dog (The only thing Owens and I agree on).
Just like with street names... this city is so unoriginal. The new sign reminds me of the 'Welcome to Tulare' sign. And where is the oil well? Bakersfield is all about oil and agriculture, but oil isn't even represented in the new sign?
We should all live on Sleepy Hollow Lane... now that would be Life as it should be!
BAKERSFIELD...
"ponds for every child
many lawsuits filed
drive with cellphones dialed
climate's rarely mild
grafitti and gangs gone wild
Oildale wave Seig Heil'd
L.A. crap is piled
Myspace bloggers' riled"
...sung with a good punk beat!
I just don't understand why Bakersfield doesn't support it's own. How nice would it be able to claim the sign was made by a local artist? I know a few good Bakersfield artists that would have made a better sign. Even a few Bakersfield kindergardners AND it would have been a sign that actually represented the real Bakersfield. AND would have probably charged less. I can picture it now. A nice big dinner in honor of the "unveiling of the sign". $25.00 a plate, all monies going to some local charity. They really missed the mark here.
Ya I didn't mean to sound like a dick head. i just didnt read it right. Yes the Sign is very ugly i say toss it and make a new one. :)
-Aaron
The funny part about all of this: we can all whine about the sign. But the people running the city won't listen.
That may be so, that the city won't listen to the whines of the citizens (watch any local meeting on public tv and see how far a farmer's cry will take the planning committee away from the dollar signs of a new highway...not very). Who affects the city reps most? Local business people. While government reps are SUPPOSED to be the people's representative, they are merely a voice for those who invest in the city. It's always been that way. Continue to voice your opinions to your local area reps, but sit down for lunch w/ your local business people who actually have a say. Particularly a business person who's on one of these planning committee's and attends the meetings regularly.
How about,
"Bakersfield...so many assholes here, even our sign has one too"!
"running" the city,.......or just decorating?
Mike C. for congress!
...1:00am, as the unmarked, Orange County sludge-truck screamed down the North side Interstate, hot wind barking off the big rigs tires, a lone kit fox was sniffing the remains of a distant cousin amidst the rubble of the emergency lane. The driver was just settling in to his second am-pm hot dog, the relish oozing out and on to his "Jack Daniels 33rd Anniversary Harley Davidson,Rock and Ride" t-shirt, and the hostage radio angrily bellowed a rerunned Hanity show,with screaming liberal plots and take overs.
As the big rig approached, one can only imagine such thoughts racing through the brain of a Kit Fox during an emergency lane carcass ceremony. All we know is it was a sudden jump to the left,not right, to the sleeping Almond Orchard, but eyes glaring...frozen...wonderment...the 26 year driving veteran big rig relish dropper did what any 26 year driving veteran big rig relish dropper would do..."AHHHHHHH", he screamed, and pulled the steering wheel like a preschool kid on an arcade game. The wheels of the trailer up on one side, the sparking rims bouncing over the fox's cousin and sealing the remains in the hot moistened asphalt! "BASH"! it was over,all but the dust clouds were now dancing in the moonlight. There were two objects the rig could have chosen to rest on, an old chainlinked fence bordering the Almond trees or, yes, it was...the grey stone of a new Bakersfield sign. Like some holy relic or remain of Stonehenge, this powerful rock had indeed become the vessel of a new beginning. The wreck was cleaned, the jumping Kitfox had already forgotten, but the sign remained on it's side, old dirt,glass, rubber,metal and a few foil wrappers embraced it...when a slight rain broke... The sign had a beautifully scored hole which had been designed by city fathers(and mothers). Maybe they knew someday "life" would be bred in it. Who knows. But droplets of water filled the hole, and somehow awakened a tumbleweed seed long forgotten. That exhuberant weed-seed, with the testosterone of a Friday night high school football team, and with lightning force, sprouted, grew and by 2 months had reached its four foot circular capacity. All that was needed now was a good wind to break it free, and complete it's circle of life. It came. It broke, and a quarter million seeds were delicately placed on the dry bed of a town we know as "Bakersfield". And life was again as it should be...for the ol' tumbleweed that is!
The Crotch of California
Okay I still think quarter scale Bakersfield arch signs would be better, and we already have the design.
One word: Stonehenge.
I wonder what the Lords of Bakersfield would say about this whole conspiracy?
Hello fellow Bakersfield residents. If you haven't heard the song yet, here it is:
Bakersfield: (This Ain't) Life As it Should Be)
words and music by Bruce L. Thiessen, aka Dr. BLT (c)2006
http://www.drblt.net/music/ThisAintLife.mp3
Bruce
aka Dr. BLT
The World's First Blog n Roll Artist
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