I spoke with Brian "Head" Welch yesterday about his new book, "Save Me From Myself." We talked about spirituality, Bakersfield church leaders, his writing process and more.

His inspiring book recently reached the top 15 of the New York Times Best Seller list.

Here's an excerpt from the interview on ABC23:

Interview:

ABC23: First off, I want to say “Save Me From Myself” is an honest look at the reality facing many people today who are caught in the culture of drugs. Its rawness—though honest and inspiring—is filled with language and graphic drug use. What kind of feedback are you getting?

Welch: I’m getting some pretty good feedback. A lot of broken people are getting inspired by it. I’ve had no negative comments about the rawness and realness of it. It’s I think what people expected, you know. It could actually have been worse. If I wasn’t just trying to be real or tell my story; it could have been one of those tell all books. But I just wanted to tell my story…it’s inspiring people. Listen: Audio 1

ABC23: I have a few questions about the writing process. Now, some people write books, whether fiction or non-fiction chronologically. Did you start at the beginning? Or did you maybe write the second half first, or a bunch of parts simultaneously?

Welch: I think the preface in it I wrote last. But the story I wrote it all how it happened. I went way back and went chapter by chapter.

I just wanted to get the whole story to the people about who I am, where I came from, and I wanted to throw the whole Korn story in there too to about how we all met, because it’s interesting.

I wanted it to be interesting too. I think a lot of people go through what I went through inside and they don’t tell anybody. We have problems when we’re kids, with whatever, with friends, bullies, with life in general what we go through, with drugs, and we don’t talk about a lot of it it. And I wanted to talk about it. Listen: Audio 2

(Read the full interview and hear all 12 audio files)

He'll be at Russo's at the Marketplace on Wednesday...

The Mojave explosion may seem to have happened in the middle of nowhere. But it's not a nowhere event. Its affect on the space race will be felt for some time, even if details are kept in secret by Scaled Composites.

A tragedy? A setback? Both? How many people does the Mojave explosion affect? What about the future of the privatized space race?

I feel really bad for the Russian-born Scaled Composites worker who had been working his dream job.

Click for the interview with Visaliy Gisin who talks about his brother, Eugene, a surviving victim of the explosion.

Nick, ABC 23

I've watched this video a bunch of times. Call it my Harry Potter obsession.

I keep cracking up because Doug DeRoo's impersonation of Harry Potter is just....deranged. How can Christina Loren keep a straight face?

Thoughts?

You can see archived episodes here.

I stood talking to Mike Hart in the newsroom about Bakersfield.com blogs. Just a few feet away, Ralph Bailey of KNZR 1560 was doing his Two-Minute Take on the 6 p.m. ABC 23 segment.

The subject? Title IX.

 

Suddenly Hart scribbled the name “Horace Mitchell” on a sheet of paper and started to hold it up for Bailey. Too late. Ralph Bailey said the name “Homer”.

 

“Put me back on TV!” he said after the segment while we all cracked up in the newsroom.

 

“Put me back on TV!”

 

“Homer to the studio!” Todd Karli joked over the intercom from his anchor desk.

Right away I knew I had to post his latest Two-Minute Take to ABC 23 and YouTube.

 

Bakersfield rocker Brian "Head" Welch has hit one of the most coveted lists in the literary world: the New York Times Best Seller List.

And he broke the top 20.

And his memoir has only been out a week.

That's some really great marketing, popularity, and timing.

I'm anxious to pick up a copy of his book. Yes, that means I'm going to have to put down Harry  Potter. But I can do it... I think.

Seriously, I've been interested in memoirs and novels about drug culture since my days in the CSU Bakersfield history program studying the Beat Generation.

I've read fiction, true-to-life fiction, memoirs, and poetry from all kinds of writers: Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, William Burroughs, Stuart Perkoff, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Jan Kerouac, Alexander Trocchi, Diane DiPrima, Lisa Crystal Carver, N. Frank Daniels, and more... the list is long.

I wonder where Welch's book fits in? An extension of Beat and Punk memoirs and novels? A rock and roll memoir all its own? Where does a nu-metal rocker memoir fit in?

I guess I'll have to read it and let you know.

I wonder what he will have to say about his former bandmates.

He'll be at Russo's August 1: Announcement.

While communities like San Jose worry about clusters of dead birds, or those in Utah worry about clusters of infected mosquitoes, we here in Bakersfield actually have to worry about clusters of already infected people in an eastern area of the city where officials are stumped.

And the infection might spread.

This may be total speculation related to this article yesterday on ABC 23 about the East Bakersfield West Nile Virus Cluster, but I can't help but wonder about factors not even mentioned.

Of course we have to think about so many factors involved in why there is a cluster of West Nile Virus infections in Bakersfield. 22/25 confirmed cases in the entire state, with most located in east Bakersfield (And the first death in the state too).

Other factors? Migratory bird patterns, bird feeding habits, underground water systems that could sometimes get blockages and cause standing water. Sumps, park ponds...Is the city doing its fair job of fending off mosquitos from such stagnant areas that are especially dangerous during dry years?

Notice I said dry years, not after wet years.

Here's a thought:

But what about the slumping housing market? Sometimes disease can affect economy, but can something like a fluctuating real estate market affect disease?

Rent signs are popping up around town all over the place. Just how many abandoned houses are there as a result? And how much standing water beneath infected migratory bird areas, or bird populations like black birds and crows/ravens who live near, or travel around such residential areas with longstanding water--perfect breeding grounds for mosquito vectors who can transmit West Nile from bird host to bird host, and to people...?

Just some speculation. But you have to think about the housing situation here. Buyers are from all over the state. A rented house could have an owner from anywhere...

The cluster map is disturbing, as are the answers from city officials who just say, "I don't know" about the correlation between the disease and drought.

Maybe more people just need to be aware of all the houses in their neighborhoods that can be mosquito breeding grounds. Such homes are festering wounds that populate vectors of death in our midst.

The government didn't even know Aedes Egytpi mosquitos were the cause of the 1793 Philly epidemics of Yellow Fever. But we know today, that the infectious period then wasn't the result of a wet summer but an especially HOT AND DRY one, thus leaving many stagnant water-filled areas.

Go ahead, look it up... hot and dry leaving a swampy mosquito haven near Philadelphia.

Maybe the local city officials here need to look a little deeper into the history of mosquito-borne illnesses in the history of America to better understand the cluster that we now face today in our own city. And maybe they do need to look at our housing economy right now as well.

And people need to be aware of all the abandoned homes in their areas... even the ones that have had "For Rent" signs for some time...

I wonder if I'm stepping into the hornet's nest by starting up an ABC 23 blog over here...

Can't be too bad. I have Jason Sperber to protect me, right?? He's the digital media ninja for Bakersfield.com.

Gulp.

Anyway, I'm adding youtube video of ABC 23's interview with the snake eater...

And thanks to Bakersfield.com for allowing us to use their video!