Bakersfield filmmakers at their most gruesome premiere Skip 2 - By N.L. Belardes

GRAPHIC. Not for kids:

Skip 2 (2007):



Skip 1 (2006):

ABC23 enters the Asylum Haunted House - By N.L. Belardes

The best $5 you can spend in Bakersfield for a Halloween scare.



Click for information and directions.

Dirty Spanglish premieres new song, 'We Are Man' - By N.L. Belardes

Great new anti-racism song from the kids in Dirty Spanglish that premiered at the Dome. Check it:



I also saw Intruder Alert and Aural Attack. Gotta dig the Bakersfield music scene...

The Fresnan talks coffeehouse blues, is it the same in Bakersfield? - By N.L. Belardes

Coffeehouse blues. Every city with locally established coffeehouses gets affected by the Starbucks takeover. The Fresnan even brought it up in a blog topic about a documentary filmmaker's clip on the Starbucks' corporate brainwashing of the American coffeehouse vibe.

There's even this great YouTube video from the documentary segment, "Starbucked":



I wrote in the comments to the Fresnan:

It's the same in Bakersfield, though there is a local drive-thru coffee house chain doing well, and a downtown coffeehouse that has survived the Starbucks takeover.

Local coffee and local coffeehouse atmosphere is better than Starbucks. Starbucks just wants us to think their vibe is what every city should be about...

And since Starbucks coffee is better left dumped as if in Boston Tea Party fashion, I leave you with this blog with the famous Bakersfield Stabucks Starfucked dumping, and this cheesy video taken from the bowels of some Starbucks somewhere:

Dirty Spanglish Oct. 20 at Studio 99 - By N.L. Belardes

I hung out with Lando and Matildakay at the first Bakersfield Condor ice hockey game of the season. Lando plugged his band's gig Saturday night at Studio 99. He's a crazy kid.

Nick 2.0 shows off Momologue - By N.L. Belardes

Momologue is a great blog out of Fresno about parenting, autistic kids and life. I'll be referring to it a lot. Watch me talk about it on Nick 2.0:

Yes, Indiana Jones was in Fresno - By N.L. Belardes

I wrote an article all about Indiana Jones in Fresno that was posted on CNN.com for a little while. Check out, "Indiana Jones Fever Rocks Two Central California Towns."

If you love Indiana Jones the article is a must read...

Liars On The Road: A Carny Story - By N.L. Belardes

The original title for my carny story that appeared on ABC23 was titled "Liars On The Road," but a friend of mine thought that was too harsh, too put-offish.

I think when you read the article, "Carny Road Addict Hides Dark Life"
Avoiding Tough Topics, Carny Discusses Gypsy Life", watch the videos and see the pics, you'll make the judgement for yourself whether you think the carny I interviewed was telling the truth or not.

Even though the carny wouldn't say very much, it's one of my favorite articles I've ever written. It's a dark piece, and if you know what I like to write, it's articles, blogs and books that have a flair for the dark side.

Here's my Nick 2.0 plug for the piece, which some of the video aired during the 6pm broadcast. I'll have to re-look at what anchorwoman Jackie Parks had to say, but she really dug it, which made my whole day.

Excerpt:

Days after the Kern County Fair ended, balloons littered the ground in an area near the carny living quarters. Gone was the carny who may have lied, but who did speak about a hard life on the road. The carny, Sean Riley, had sat nervously on the steps of a trailer, and said, “It’s rough sometimes. It’s rough to live on the road away from home.”

The lot was mostly empty now. No longer crowded with games, rides, trucks, vans and long trailers, there was only the sense that thousands of people had just trod there.



A lone Coke bottle partly covered with dirt near a cigarette butt appeared to have been tossed after the fair ended; likely from the exodus of carnies as they discarded their junk and moved further north in California’s Great Central Valley toward Fresno.

It’s been a few days since the traveling portion of the 48th largest fair in America left Bakersfield, Calif. 400,000 visitors passed through the gates to visit the rodeo, live acts, food booths, and to ride roller coasters, upside-down spinning rides and twirling swings.



While such carnival rides brought color, sound and dazzling neon light to the southern central valley’s grass-covered fields and dirty air, just three days later mostly big rig trucks and the metal bases of a few rides remained. I stood there and thought about Riley in the lot, coaxing people to play games. Again, was he telling me the truth?

A few days ago, trailers resembling large horse trailers sat parked beyond a gate leading to carnival rides and games. Of course there were no horses. Instead the trailers were fitted with rooms as living quarters for carnies traveling the roads from city to town and through rural areas.



(Read the full article)

Nick 2.0 Episode 20:

October in the Railroad Earth

Kerouac fever has been at a heightened pitch this year, which marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the seminal Beat text, On the Road. Love it or hate it, everyone has an opinion. I notice that the true romantics still love Sal Paradise and more practical people can't give him the time of day. As for me, I’m ready to discuss any time, any place—you name it and I’m there. Spontaneous bop prose, word jazz, rhapsodomancy, OTR is like reading neon and I don't care if it now seems quaint to some or out of fashion. Does that matter?

Not at all.

Is Milton outré? Is Homer over?

I don't think so.

I love that Kerouac and company picked up the notion of Beat from Herbert Huncke, a Times Square hustler and writer who had picked up the phrase from carnies, small-time crooks, and jazz musicians in Chicago and who used the word to describe the “beaten” condition of worn-out travelers for whom home was the road. Huncke used it to explain his “exalted exhaustion” of a life lived beyond the edge. Kerouac took it one step further, saying, “I guess you could say we're a Beat Generation,” when talking to John Clellon Holmes, who used the quote in the New York Times Magazine. Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg further refined the concept as “beatific,” and containing a spiritual aspect, involving Catholicism, William Blake, and Buddhism, respectively. Toward the end of his life, Kerouac explained that he was really a just a Catholic mystic all along.

So, I ask you, who are we now? What generation of writers is this? Why has no significant movement happened since the explosion of the Beats?

This summer, I spent some time at the cabin in Big Sur where Jack went to reignite his muse, shake off the haze of alcohol, and escape the cartoon character he had become as “King of the Beats.” I could still feel him there, a mix of ecstatic fervor and DT sweats. As I walked the dirt road to Ferlinghetti's wooden shack, Cadillac SUVs blew past me, leaving clouds of dust in their wake. I wondered if they had any idea that there was a holy place, a literary shrine nearby. I fervently hoped they did NOT know, as they would surely want to renovate it.

Whenever Kerouac wanted to renew himself, he turned to nature. The Big Sur cabin made the perfect hermit hut for this mystic. Big Sur has a quality of light and sun like nowhere else in the world; it is the perfect place to call upon your muse, and Jack Kerouac had returned to this place he so loved, "off the road," in order to regain his SELF. Ironically, at this time in his life, he was experiencing his most intense "exalted exhaustion." So he was, at once, his most Beat, and was escaping that very thing.

Go here for pictures of Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsburg at Kerouac's grave.

Bakersfield In God We Trust issue continues in blogs - By N.L. Belardes

After Jackie Parks wrote her post, "Whose God Do We Trust" in response to the Chad Vegas Trustee Proposal of putting "In God We Trust" signs in classrooms, I figured it was time to sound off.

Here's my comment:

While toiling through grad school I remember reading a few fascinating works about the Constitutional Convention in the late 1700s. The religious leaders represented Christian diversity. Episcopalian/Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Quaker, Dutch Reformed/German, Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, Huguenot, Unitarian, Methodist, and Calvinist.

They opened each session in prayer. They sought unity through the creation of a living, breathing document we call the Constitution. There was an air of tolerance for at least each other. They new the historical importance of their work.

I don’t think America has transformed into a completely ungodly, intolerant country (not that you said such). It has just plain transformed. And while the Framers of the Constitution sought unity while creating the document, it is the document itself which is the cement that unifies America.

Other countries have been religious Christian havens. There's nothing unique about America there. But it’s democracy, freedom; the pursuit of life, property, happiness and equality that has molded America, that makes it uniquely its own.

The people who think America was built solely upon religious freedom are flat wrong (I keep hearing such on the radio talk shows). Even some of the earliest people in Jamestown weren’t in America for religious freedom—rather, opportunity. There have been religious communities and religious peoples immigrating, but that wasn’t the backbone, and America’s founders knew that building America wasn’t to be upon a foundation on church doctrine. How could the multiple faiths gathered have even agreed? Impossible. The state of religion in America at the time was in constant flux.

The puritans themselves as a small group went through what was called declension. They deteriorated, faded, and while their moral sphere lived on, it is often within a framework of democracy that includes diplomatic ethics today.

I don’t have a problem with ‘In God We Trust’ being in schools.

There are just bigger issues for a trustee to fret over. It’s like the argument of English being the official language. It already exists in America; so let’s not waste time, let’s move on as a community, and allow people, business and culture to thrive in its multi-faceted forms.

Within the sphere of public education, let’s not lose focus. Signage about trusting higher power isn’t going to educate kids. Educators, parents and kids with work ethics are what matters… Let’s focus on curriculum, paying for tools, building libraries, buying books, computerization, sticking to state and valley standards, and increase the welfare of educators themselves through good benefits and livable pay that bridges the gaps between they and administrators.

Nick 2.0 tries to ruin lunches after filming maggoty candy - By N.L. Belardes

*MORE UPDATES: The maggot story is off the hook, made CNN broadcast last night and CNN homepage...

Earlier today I tried to ruin a few lunches after posting a film I shot of maggot-filled candy clusters that a man brought in to the ABC23 studios. I went onto ABC23 news in my 11am Nick 2.0 news segment.

Episode 17:



Now watch the gruesome maggot-infested candy video:



Now read the full article, "Man Says Candy Clusters Had Maggots." I submitted it to CNN, but there's no guarantee they're into posting maggoty articles...

*UPDATE: Just got word this story will hit about 100 sites nationally... no word from CNN yet...

Get Lit! (with Jane Smiley, Lemony Snicket, etc) - By Brenda Knight

Hey, everybody, when you are not attending Nick 2.0's Flash Fiction course, you simply must come to San Francisco to LitQuake, a veritable literary orgy! Below is the info about the event I am curating and below that is the staggering list of writerly riches. Next year, we'll have us a Noveltown Panel featuring some Bakersfield Beatniks, punk poets, and Three Chord Whore Fans.

At the Litquake Lit Crawl, we're looking forward to an exciting event. This is the fourth year of the crawl and we will be featuring over 200 authors reading in 35 different venues. For the full schedule, see the Litquake website here: http://www.litquake.org/the-festival/lit-crawl/ from 6-6:45:Forest Books, 3080 16th Street Doorways of Perception: Authors Writing About Spirituality and Religion Zsuzsanna Budapest, Charles Halpern, Brenda Knight, Maria Nemeth, Brad Olsen, M.J. Ryan

Mere days remain before the opening of Litquake, San Francisco’s Literary Festival, As always, we aim to please a wide variety of the populace—not an easy feat in San Francisco. This year's festival is exceptionally rich, starting with a stellar opening night that boasts a lineup of actors, the literati, and musicians honoring Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin. And, as always, the week will conclude when the masses take to Valencia Street for the Lit Crawl.Below are a few of the many and varied highlights. Listen to the literate Jane Smiley converse with the bifurcated Daniel Handler; toast a young generation of poets and spoken-word artists with Youth Speaks; and marvel at the convolutions (verbal and tattooed) when the San Francisco Chronicle's Mark Morford talks dharma with Tattooed Buddha Noah Levine.We can't wait to see you there!Wednesday, October 10, 7 pm Jane Smiley in Conversation with Daniel HandlerDelancey Street Foundation, 600 Embarcadero. $15Doors open at 6:30 pm, event begins at 7 pm.Tickets on sale through City Box Office

We can’t promise he’ll wear a fez or play the accordion, as he’s been known to do at his public appearances, but Daniel Handler (best known as the lyrically strange Lemony Snicket) will do his best to spice up the author Q&A format as he interviews Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley (Ten Days in the Hills), no slouch in the wit department herself.

Tuesday, October 11, 6:30 pmYouth Speaks All StarsTheater Building, School of the Arts, 555 Portola Drive at O’Shaughnessy.

FREE

Litquake is honored to partner with Youth Speaks to present an entire new generation of poets and spoken-word artists as part of this year’s festival. Featuring an all-star cast of young poets, and a few special guests, the lineup includes poets seen on HBO’s Def Poetry, National Poetry Slam Champions, newly published authors, and the current Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Champions.Thursday, October 11, 7:30 pm Tattooed Buddha:An Evening with Dharma Punk Noah LevineRoxie Theater. 3117 16th Street. FREE

Punk rocker turned Buddhist teacher/bestselling author Noah Levine talks dharma with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford. Audience Q&A follows. In addition, selected clips will be screened from Meditate and Destroy, a new documentary about Noah’s life and work. Book sales and author signing after the event. Presented in conjunction with HarperOne, publisher of Levine’s books Dharma Punx and Against the Stream.

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A funky message from Beatniks and Bob Dylan - By N.L. Belardes

Nick 2.0 Episode 16 talks Parks blog and sick kids - By N.L. Belardes

I know, I haven't been posting episodes of Nick 2.0 on the Web.

Episode 16:

The tragedy of media - By N.L. Belardes

Local tragedy makes CNN.com

I'm bothered about the cool part of my job.

One of the coolest parts of my job is helping to get stories on CNN. September was a good month as far as getting CNN to link directly to ABC23 news articles.
I was especially pleased when my Captain America article was picked up and placed in the homepage in the entertainment section. It was our second biggest local story for the month. I came into the office on a weekend to prep a story for CNN when a tragic airplane crash occurred at the Kern Valley airport. CNN added that story to the top stories on their homepage.

When four men stormed Golden West Casino, two of them with assault rifles, the story made CNN as did the death sentence handed down to Vincent Brothers. I was especially pleased when Jackie Parks told me I’d done some good online coverage of the sentencing.

What really bothers me is this new start to October. News has a heavy tragic side that is tough to bear at times. A girl tragically killed because she slept too close to a television that fell on her is one of the latest tragedies we've reported. I added a lot of an interview online and was in tears when I listened to the deceased girl’s sister talk about how she would never be able to take her sister to the store, and how her sister used to always come in her room and sleep with her. She said they had a special bond.

(Read the full article)