What's being created in your Bakersfield neighborhood? - By N.L. Belardes
I was walking to work a few days ago and decided to walk down a back alley that parallels H Street. I was wondering what the neighborhood had created. Would I find manicured back fences intricately woven with rose bushes and vines like tapestries?
Would I find trash cans spilling over with the debris of our community lives?
I found two photos of interest in the many photos I took.
1: The Created Abandoned House
This abandoned house has an aire of poor man's neighborhood artistry about it. In a past blog I showed how a big gang-tagged rock and shopping carts litter the front yard. If melting, would surely look like a Dali painting of the HOOD. But with broken windows, I think this house truly has that abandoned look and feel. It could sure make top billing on a "Pimp Out My Neighborhood Crack House" TV show...
It's been created.
2: Alley Trash: Getting to know your Creator
This piece of Christian marketing literature 'being' trash says a lot about how this little newsprint magazine found its way into an alley. Sure, maybe it was so I could ponder my own spirituality and oneness with the universe, my oneness with even the randomness of alley trash. But what about the person who tossed the trash into the alley? Why did they do it? What value do they have in the question of whether they were created along with the rest of humanity and nature like a tuna fish can in a factory?
And why would Christian marketing literature ask a question it already knows the answer to?
Why would I need to be reminded of a basic question I should have known the answer too long before the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes came about?
I ponder such philosophic mumbo jumbo of detritis in an alley...
So I ask, what's being created in your Bakersfield neighborhood? (You can answer this question if outside of Bakersfield)
Would I find trash cans spilling over with the debris of our community lives?
I found two photos of interest in the many photos I took.
1: The Created Abandoned House
This abandoned house has an aire of poor man's neighborhood artistry about it. In a past blog I showed how a big gang-tagged rock and shopping carts litter the front yard. If melting, would surely look like a Dali painting of the HOOD. But with broken windows, I think this house truly has that abandoned look and feel. It could sure make top billing on a "Pimp Out My Neighborhood Crack House" TV show...
It's been created.
2: Alley Trash: Getting to know your Creator
This piece of Christian marketing literature 'being' trash says a lot about how this little newsprint magazine found its way into an alley. Sure, maybe it was so I could ponder my own spirituality and oneness with the universe, my oneness with even the randomness of alley trash. But what about the person who tossed the trash into the alley? Why did they do it? What value do they have in the question of whether they were created along with the rest of humanity and nature like a tuna fish can in a factory?
And why would Christian marketing literature ask a question it already knows the answer to?
Why would I need to be reminded of a basic question I should have known the answer too long before the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes came about?
I ponder such philosophic mumbo jumbo of detritis in an alley...
So I ask, what's being created in your Bakersfield neighborhood? (You can answer this question if outside of Bakersfield)
Labels: abandoned house, Bakersfield, blog, central valley, community, media, neighborhood
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Sunday, February 25, 2007.
You can leave your response.
If you didn't want it, chances are you'll find it out here on Kern Canyon Road.
A discarded baby stroller. A discarded barbecue on the other side. A half-eaten diaper (stray dogs are the suspects for that one) on a lawn a block down from my house. Huge uprooted tree trunks inexplicably wrapped in white plastic, on the edge of a construction site. A car bumper behind the mini-mart. Rocks For Sale at the mini-storage. Christmas trees. Sofas. Tires. Lots of tires.
"And why would Christian marketing literature ask a question it already knows the answer to?"
It's posed as an eye catcher type of a question for folks that may not know about or believe such things... I'm sure you already knew that, but just to broach the subject and take it a little deeper.
We have to realize that "Awake" is a little info-zine, or recruiting leaflet if you will, created by the Jehova Witness in hopes of adding more hopeless souls to their little occults' cause.
I know, I just had quite the conversation with a pair of J.W.s about ten minutes prior to this posting.
I was invited to a 1:00 bible worship. Question is, should I go?
If I do, I will not be allowed to associate with any of you anymore... Tough decision.
There's this receptionist I know who is a Jehovah's Witness and during Christmas her area was decorated with a big fat Xmas tree, her desk with all the company Xmas cards, and goobey gobs of garland.
She was a POW.
It was funny...
Heath, you should join them. Why not? Looks like the big debunk DOCUMENTARY is on the way... if you believe Cameron...
Why not join them?
You think the Libs hate me... Stand by my friend.
The 11th hour has struck.
What I do when I see abandoned grocery carts around my neighborhood -- there are a lot of them on Fourth Street, near teh Albertson's on Brundage lane, I do my civic pride thing and just WHEEL THEM BACK TO THE STORE! A lot of people where I live are really poor, and don't have cars, and wheeling back shopping carts is low on their things to do -- so I break down and help some strangers in need.
I let the shopping carts collect for a while by my back fence. Then I go out about 3:00AM on a weekend night, and lay them out, upside down in the middle of the street. Spread 'em out in an obstacle course for late night drunks driving home. Put a wife-beater shirt on, a greasy Nascar cap, some holey underwear, grab a six pack of Bud-light out of the fridge, and hop up on the roof for some good old fashioned B-Town fun! Yeehaw!!!
A possible reason the Awake magazine was found in the trash is because of the source of the literature. According to mainstream everyday christians the Jehovahs Witness are a cult that have re-written the bible to suit their purposes. They have changed the wording in many passages of the bible so those passages can be interpreted as something else which forces the folks who work for that church to work even harder so they can go to heaven. According to the JW's only 144,000 people will actually make it into heaven, weird stuff, and trying to nail them down on just exactly what they believe in an actual debate is like pulling teeth.
Unfortunately you can find plenty of trashed up hoods all over the place people just dont take enough pride in their community any more. Certain parts of the southwest have fallen apart, you can get shanked or beat up for merely walking down the wrong street at the wrong time.
Nick, have you seen the picketers/protesters in front of St. Francis (both the church and the school). Huge banners that read, "Shame on St. Francis Church. Labor Dispute". They've been out there for a couple of weeks, though I'm not sure if they were there today. Nothing about it in the Californian.
I think it has something to do with either the contractors who helped rebuild part of the church, or with a dispute with someone related to buildings they now own adjacent to the church.
Those big banners pop up everywhere. Recently they were by a hair salon. Shame on those hairdressers!
Yeah I heard those guys/gals get $8 an hour to hold up them signs. That true? May need a side job soon...
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