A blog about Business & Finance, Kern County, and Neighborhoods.
Real Name: Chris Craddock Address: 3400 Calloway Dr #800 Bakersfield, CA 93312 Cell: (661)900-2222 Gender: male Member Since: June 30, 2007 Last Signed In: November 06, 2009 Profile Views: 745 Blog Views: 9387 THE FEDERAL HOMEBUYERS TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN EXTENDED AND EXPANDED Have a Safe and Happy Halloween! Caravan in Northwest Bakersfield Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Vol. I Was the Kern County Fair the Best in the West? Blogging about blogging The Southwest Stats Black Friday and Cyber Monday Que Pasa, Bakersfield? Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 
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Location:
5303 Olive Dr,
Bakersfield, CA 93308
Que Pasa Bakersfield? Come down to Que Pasa at 5303 Olive Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93308, this Sunday at 4:30 PM, November 23rd, 2008. Our Real Estate Office is having a wrap party for our Open House Extravaganza. We are doing 9 open houses this Sunday, and afterwards we are all going to meet up at Que Pasa!!!!!
Adios, amigos and amigas! The Key to Bakersfield Real Estate (661) 900-2222
On September 5th, 1929, my father was born. On Oct. 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed. America's economy collapsed, pulling many international markets down with it. It was the beginning of the Great Depression: an era of long bread lines, bankruptcies and hungry Dust Bowl sharecroppers that would last through most of the 1930s. In 1932, a young New York City lyricist named E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, together with composer Jay Gorney, wrote what is considered the anthem of the Great Depression, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" National Public Radio did an excellent piece on the song. Read all about it at the links below. You can also hear several versions of the song, by Tom Waits, Abby Lincoln with Stan Getz, Bing Crosby, Rudy Valee, and even an a capella version by political commentator Daniel Schoor.
Composer Jay Gorney based the plaintive minor melody on a Polish lullaby from his grandmother. Lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg is perhaps best known for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that he wrote with composer Harold Arlen. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" would seem to be quite a topical tune as relevant as ever, were it not for inflation and the fact that a dime wouldn't get very far in today's economy. Anne Hathaway is the new "It" girl!
" 'IT' is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With 'IT' you win all men if you are a woman -- all women if you are a man. 'IT' can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction." That's how Elinor Glyn defined the term "it-girl," a term that entered the lexicon with the 1927 film "It," based on one of the English Romance Novelist's books starring Clara Bow, original 'It' girl extraordinaire. Hathaway can do comedy, as evidenced by her turn as Agent 99 in the "Get Smart" remake, as well as drama, as evidenced by her role as an addict on furlough to see her sister's wedding in "Rachel Getting Married." By the way, Debra Winger, a former 'It' Girl herself, also does a bang up job in "Rachel Getting Married." It is her best role since she donned her Wonder Girl costume for that prank on Letterman. Rachel Abramowitz makes the case for Hathaway's 'It'ness, and you can read all about it down here: http://www.latimes.com/ente... If you are looking for something to do tonight, why not go to the Fox Theater on H St and see the Austrian film, "The Counterfeiters." It is the winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and tells the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, a counterfeiter captured by the Nazis, who is forced to counterfeit money to help finance the war effort. The show, part of the Flics series of film screenings, starts tonight, Friday, November 14th, at 7:30 PM. For more information about this or other films, check this link down here. The Key to Bakersfield Real Estate The recent election got me thinking about the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!" This catchy ditty was also one of the first campaign songs. As you may know, Tippecanoe was the nickname of our 9th President, William Henry Harrison, who served only 32 days as he caught pneumonia after giving his inaugeration speech in the rain. He was succeeded by his Vice President, John Tyler, our 10th President.
As Governor of the Indiana territories, William Henry Harrison led the charge against the Indian tribes who were resisting Western expansion. The tribes were led by Tecumseh, whose name meant "Panther in the Sky." Now the story gets weird. Tecumseh or his brother Tenskwatawa (also known as "the Prophet") laid a curse on Harrison (or so the legend goes), who died in office, and every twenty years thereafter the President who was elected in that year died in office; and the curse held up to Ronald Reagan, who was elected in 1980, but didn't die in office--though he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. The jinx was broken, and George W. Bush, selected in 2000, did not die in office, either. One President, Zachary Taylor, also died in office, but he was not elected in one of the 20 year cycles that fit the pattern. The 'curse' was first mentioned in a 1931 Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and then again in a similar weird cartoon feature called Strange As It Seems published just before the election in 1940. The Presidents in the line of Tecumseh's Curse 1840: William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia on 1841-04-04 Though this pattern held up for 120 years, both Reagan and George W. Bush have escaped it, and President Elect Obama was not elected on a 20 year cycle, and wouldn't be a part of the curse in any event. If you are interested in the history of Presidents past, the Whitehouse has some information at their website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/h... For some other thought provoking information about what more recent Presidents accomplished during their first 100 days in office, check out this chart from Good Magazine: Good Magazine can be found at this URL: Chris Craddock, Realtor
Location:
9801 Hageman Rd,
Bakersfield, CA 93312
Prickly City, a syndicated comic strip that runs in the LA Times (but not the Bakersfield Californian) has started a new story arc where Winslow, a coyote, is going back to his career in Real Estate now that the election is over. You see, Winslow and Carmen, a young conservative girl, were running for President and Vice President. But that well of humor has apparantly run dry for Scott Stantis, the author of Prickly City, because for now and the foreseeable future he will be skewering Real Estate. The Real Estate angle began on November 10th, 2008, and you can see the comic strip and follow it here: http://www.gocomics.com/pri... The Bakersfield Californian should consider running this strip, because it would be perfect for Bakersfield as it follows the Conservative Political Talking Points. Now that the Bakersfield Californians are charging 75 cents at the news stand, they should be able to afford it. Indeed, I tried to pick up the LA Times the other day at my usual location--The 7-11 at Calloway Drive and Hageman Road. Sure, they charge 54 cents, the 4 cents are sales tax, which you don't have to pay if you buy it from a news rack, but it is conveniently located near the new Starbucks at Calloway and Hageman, at 9801 Hageman Rd. But they were sold out of the LA Times at the Seven Eleven, I am thinking because a lot of Bakersfield Californian readers decided they didn't want to pay the extra quarter and switched. Anyway, if you want to follow the whacky antics of a right wing coyote named Winslow in Real Estate, you can either follow it online or switch to the LA Times. Or ask the Californian to run Prickly City, and have it home delivered at a substantial savings compared to the newsrack cost. As Eagles would say, "Well, I'm standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and it's such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my lord, in a flat bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me..." Take it Easy. The Key to Bakersfield Real Estate is Today I went to an Economic Forecast regarding the housing market in Bakersfield and Kern County. It was given by Leslie Appleton-Young who is the resident economist for the California Association of Realtors. I will go into the forecast latter, when I receive the PowerPoint from her presentation, but for now, I would like to show you some charts I made for Bakersfield zip codes 93312 and 93307. These two zip codes are the two zip codes that have the most activity right now. 93307 because it is also the zip code with the most foreclosures, which is where a lot of the action is coming from. What these 4 charts show is the Supply versus the Demand and the Months Supply of Inventory, AKA the Absorbtion Rate. What that means is, how long, at the present rate of sales, would it take to burn through the glut of inventory? You take the number of sales and divide it into the number of houses on the market. As Jethro Clampett would say, 'the goes into's". 93312 is doing pretty well, in fact, it is getting to be balanced, leaning a little bit to "Seller's Market." In September of 2007 we had 14.8 months of houses in 93312, but now in October of 2008 we are down to 2.8 months, the lowest it has been in the past 2 years. 132 "units" sold, with 530 "units" still on the market. 93307 is down to a 4 "Months Supply of Inventory" or MSI. A little higher than 93312's MSI of 2.8, but still a lot lower than the peak of 34.3 months supply in December of 2007. In October there were 530 "units" and 132 "units" were sold in October of 2008. Anyway, things are improving in the Bakersfield housing sector, and that is good news what with all the other economic uncertainty on the horizon. Back in December of 2008 with 480 houses for sale in 93307 and only 14 sold, it looked like it would take 3 years to burn through them. Now, less than a year later, we are down to 4 months.
Location:
3000 Gibson St,
Bakersfield, CA 93308
My friend Viki teaches at South High, and students are always bringing her stray dogs that wander onto campus. We are both at capacity, and can't take any more strays in, but we have kept some temporarily until we could find new homes for them, or return them to the rightful owners. The latest dog was quite a handful--we called him Barkley, for obvious reasons. It wasn't his fault, but all of our other dogs hazed him, and ganged up on him, not to mention the cats. He was really a sweet guy but he had no choice but to stick up for himself. I took him to the SPCA but they were full. Luckily, they said they could scan him for a microchip, and we hit the jack pot. The SPCA called the owners, who lived in Delano, and had been searching for Mojo. So, that was his name: Mojo. I am going to miss Mojo, but Dusty, Delilah, Miles, Lester, William J. Shakespeare, Francis, Tyger, Felix, Raskind, and Samantha are relieved. It was getting a little crowded. I wonder how he traveled all the way from Delano to South High in Bakersfield, but thanks to some amazing grace and a little microchip, he once was lost, but now is found. It is a good idea to get your pets microchipped. I have had several close calls with Delilah, who seems to think it is all some kind of game, and goes for a frolic whenever she slips out of her collar or slips out the gate. She does a little dance, and thinks it is the funniest thing to have me chase her all over town. I think the SPCA only charges $15 for a microchip. Their address is: 3000 Gibson Street (661) 323-8353
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For my money, the best version is by Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck. Desmond played alto sax with a tone that was akin to a dry martini. His best known tune is "Take Five," written in an odd 5/4 time signature. He attended San Francisco State, my alma matter. He played a Selmer 'Super Balanced Action' saxophone - serial number 43xxx manufactured in 1950. His saxophone was fitted with either a Gregory Hollywood Model A, 4A18M or Claude Lakey 5*3[1] mouthpiece fitted with Rico 3.5 hardness reeds. My dad played the piano, and later when he retired, the soprano saxophone. I remember the album, Brubeck Time, that features "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and associate it with my father.
I was reading an article about how Anne Hathaway is the new 'It' girl, and I'm inclined to agree: 
Though you might guess that he got the nickname "Tippecanoe" from a canoe that was prone to capsize, it was actually the name of the place where an historic battle was fought in Indiana in 1811. The name is an anglicization of "Kethtippecanoogi", a Miami term meaning "place of the succor fish people." 
