So I have no idea how often this kind of thing happens with stuff from our paper, but every so often, I'll see something that originated here reprinted elsewhere when I do my customary Google News searches for "Bakersfield."  (I've even seen Bakersfield.com postings of national AP wire stories reposted  on Free Republic.)

But with Tom "The Most Famous Person to Be Arrested for Drugs in the Parking Lot of the Bakersfield Four Points Sheraton" Sizemore back in the news this week, I stumbled across a photo by TBC's own Felix Adamo being used to illustrate a story on People.com not once but twice.  No clue as to whether the photo (via AP) made it into the print mag.  But cool nonetheless.

--Jason Sperber

Gilbert Gia created a webpage where he posted old newspaper citations about Bakersfield history he found by research at the Kern County Library and using history databases.

Headlines for some of these stories include:
The $20,000 Gold Heist
Tarred & Feathered
Whipping Pupils at Kern County Schools
Public Prostitution in Bakersfield
Underground Bakersfield


It is an interesting look back at not only Bakersfield history, but the "Old West" and American society a century ago.

To learn more about Bakersfield history, you can also visit the local history section on NewToBakersfield.com.

--Mary Russo

Northwest Voice, Southwest Voice and Mas, sister publications of bakersfield.com, have been around more than a year, but innovation at each is starting to speed up as they find new ways to reach their audiences.

Both sites are tinkering with a variety of multimedia, including weekly newscasts that get better by the week.

Check out Lauren Helper's "Southwest Newscast," Lisa Wuertz's "Northwest Newscast"  and Olivia Garcia's "More Mas" are fun, and feature some nice production values, considering they're produced with small staffs.

And if you're looking for a neighborhood newscast that's, um, a little more laid-back, check out the lively Liberty High School vidcast on "KLHS." Topics include kids trying to stretch bathroom breaks to skip out on classes. And be sure the check out the "live report" from the "Channel 6 new chopper." Hilarious sound and visual effects, and chase scene.

--Logan Molen

The Sacramento Bee has a piece today on the UC Davis professor who helped put convicted killer Vincent Brothers behind bars by figuring out that some of the bugs on his rental car came from western states.

That helped the prosecution make their case that Brothers drove from Ohio to Bakersfield to kill his wife, three kids and mother in law back in July 2003.

We wrote about this professor's testimony back in April and you can even watch video of the testimony.

Want even more? Blogging czar Jason Sperber pointed out this link to a blog on the bug testimony.

-- Davin McHenry

On NewToBakersfield.com, there is a new map that you all might find interesting, that is if you eat!

Compiled is a map of local grocery stores, coded by type. If you click on the markers, you will get more information. For some stores, it includes hours, images and more. From chain stores to ethnic markets, this map has got it! Check it out!

If you have any comments on local stores or locations you think should be added, please email me at mrusso@bakersfield.com.

--Mary Russo

Local band (and Bakotopia regulars) Soulajar is one of 10 finalists for the Greater Los Angeles division of the 2007 Starbucks SoCal Partner Music Contest. 

The contest website asks, "Does your barista rock?" and asks you to choose one San Diego-area artist and one from the Greater LA area (inlcuding LA, OC, the Inland Empire, and the Central Valley) for a chance to play as an opening act at the House of Blues.  All the bands have at least one member who works at a Southern California Starbucks.  According to the MySpace of one of Soulajar's contest rivals, the top ten finalists were chosen from over 750 entrants (don't know if that's for both regions or just the LA one).

According to the copy that pops up when you click on Soulajar's name, "Starbucks [Marketplace location] partner Brian Boozer plays the important role of drummer in the funk-and-groove rock group Soulajar, from Bakersfield.  Their unique blend of rootsy soul and melodic pop rock has garnered them local following and press recognition in their local paper."

With Starbucks' subsidiary Hear Music becoming a bigger player in the industry (with a handful of stores, a channel on XM, and now a record label), this is an awesome opportunity for the guys from Soulajar.  So go check out the contest, listen to their track, "Sweet Air," and vote -- the website features a countdown that tells you how many days you have left to vote, and the winners will be announced in late July.

--Jason Sperber
(hat-tip to Paperback Writer)

Location: Arvin, CA

Bay area public radio station KQED's statewide news program, The California Report, which airs locally on KPRX 89.1 at 10 minutes to the hour during Morning Edition, ran a report this morning on Arvin's smog problem:

"Some of the worst smog in the nation can be found in a tiny California city that has no freeways, no heavy industry, and not much traffic. The Kern County city of Arvin is still mostly agricultural, yet it records more ozone violations than any other city in the nation. Today, state regulators will meet to decide on a plan that could delay cleaning up the air in Arvin by more than a decade."

Reporter Sasha Khokha, from the Fresno-based Central Valley bureau, was in Arvin and spoke to several of the folks involved in Arvin's clean air fight who had been featured in two recent TBC articles (here and here).

Stuck in a natural little smog-build-up pocket, Arvin is literally stuck between a rock and a hard place, and it's easy, between all the political wrangling and economic and scientific talk, to forget about the real people whose long-term health are being affected.  Khokha's piece does a good job balancing all these points of view and giving the rest of the state a closer look at (listen to?) a too-easy-to-ignore local problem.

On a side note, though, I thought Khokha's aside that half of the doctors at the local clinic themselves have the same asthma that's endemic among their patients was funny--but only because I personally know that there are only about 4 docs at that clinic.  I guess "half of all" sounds more impressive than "two."

--Jason Sperber

I love reading BakeTown's take on stuff my esteemed colleagues Upstairs in The Newsroom produce.

Last week, a photo-illustrated cover story about rampaging gophers inspired some childhood reminiscences and the blogger to muse, "I can't help but wonder how long Alex [Horvath, TBC photographer] had to hang around the gopher hole to get that picture."

Yesterday, a list of Rodeo Round-Up finalists spurred some thoughts on naming-as-destiny:  "Here are just a few of the names: Marv, Cody, Dallas, Clayton, J.D., Justin, Wes, and Clint. I couldn’t help but wonder, do we predestine our children’s future by what we name them? I mean, we expect to see names like Cody and Dallas in the rodeo finalists. You don’t expect to see Richard William III or a DeShawn."

And today, her response to a cover story on our summer heat was a resounding "Duh!":  "I don't know if you’ve heard the big news or not, but its going to be hot today! The paper has a front page story all about it. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I hardly think saying it is going to be hot in Bakersfield is newsworthy. You’d have to be a total moron not to know it’s hot here. And that’s another thing. Its summer – it’s supposed to be hot for goodness sakes. Didn’t they teach us that in kindergarten?"

When she's not giving her critique of local media, she's surfing hilarous sites like this one.

Keep up the good work, BakeTown!  (And thanks for that link!)

--Jason Sperber

How did I miss this one?  Heh.

Apparently, VH1, in all their wisdom and creativity, is airing "Flavor of Love: Charm School," a (second!) spin-off of their 2 (yes, two) seasons of their "who-wants-to-date-an-aging-self-caricature- of-a-rap-has-been" reality show, "Flavor of Love," bringing back a gaggle of unlucky (or lucky? since they didn't win Flavor Flav?) contestants to learn about life, love connections, and the finer points of cat-fighting under the tutelage of comedienne Mo'nique.

Actually, I'm late to the party, since they're already eight episodes in, and the 13 housemates are now down to four.  And apparently, this past Sunday's episode (episode 8, "Tore Up from the Floor Up"), saw Bakersfield's own Pumkin, a.k.a. Brooke Thompson, Shafter High class of '98, get her drunken butt kicked out of the house for being, as Mo'nique coined, "slutacious" and "the whore of Charm School."

Best known for her subtle exit from "Flavor of Love" season one, when she spit on her rival on camera, Bako's reality-t.v. queen got bounced from her job as a substitute teacher for the Kern High School District after that show's run.

I haven't seen any of this stuff (I swear, I haven't!), but check out this hi-larious VH1 Celebreality blog recap of Pumkin's swansong ep, complete with mp3 links to Mo'nique's choice words for our classiest representative of Kern County womanhood.  And just for kicks, check out her MySpace page, which, despite her VH1 bio's listing that "she's enjoying her celebrity in her hometown of Bakersfield, CA," shows her hometown as "Los Angeles."  Heh.

--Jason Sperber

Yes, Starbucks is taking over. Now even in Bakersfield. I stumbled across a site  where some bored fool photographed all of them in the Central Valley and posted them online.

In further poking around the site, I learned that the site, Starbucks everywhere, is hosted by this guy named Winter that is trying to visit all of the Starbucks in the world. He even has a DVD called Starbucking documenting his journey.

Maybe he should have done a take off on the movie "Supersize Me" since Starbuck's drinks are pretty caloric. What would it be called? Grande Me?

He's either really bored with way too much money, addicted to caffeine, uber-capitalistic and/or all of the above. Anyway you shape it, he must have some interesting stories to tell and some pretty bad coffee breath.

--Mary Russo

Just got one of Bakersfield.com's handy-dandy email news alerts, with a headline so awesome you just have to click it (even though you pretty much know all you need to know just from the headline):

Deputy testifies that elderly Bakersfield pig farmer beat him with paint roller

--Jason Sperber

The Bako-centric blogosphere extends way beyond just what's to be found in Bakersfield.com's People community, or even on our sister sites like Bakotopia.  That's why this blog was started, after all, to talk about and pass on all the cool stuff happening at the intersection of Bakersfield and the web.

So, one big project of this blog has been to rebuild the Bakosphere Blogroll.  Look over to the left here, and you'll see a list of blogs--all either written by Bakersfieldians or about Bakersfield.  Check out what's there and see what's going on.  And if you read or write a blog that's either about Bakersfield or is written here, and you don't see it on the list, let us know!

Happy surfing!

--Jason Sperber

Bakersfield.com has finally become "wicked cool," "sick," "phat" or whatever else you want to call it with our own MySpace page. Will it be a hip & happening spot for Bakersfield? We'll see.

Be sure to check it out for yourself and become our friend. Or let us know how we can "pimp" it out!


--Mary Russo

So the third and latest issue of our sister site Bakotopia's print magazine came out late last week, and apparently, it's caused quite a stir in some quarters of our dear burg.  I'll let you take a gander at the cover (photo to the left) to take a wild guess why.  Heh.

Bakotopia Magazine is a pretty good on-paper representation of the online community thriving over there - it's definitely a different animal, with different community rules and expectations, than what we've got going at Bakersfield.com.  And that's all good.  Different (and independent) products for different (though sometimes overlapping) audiences, serving a variety of purposes and filling unique niches.  As for the "controversy" - well, they did stamp "NC-17" on the cover.

But anyway, Inga Barks had head-Bakotopian-in-charge Matt Munoz on KERN this morning to get on his case about the magazine's "suggestive" photography and frank language about sex [I gather that the magazine's coverage of local arts, music, theater, culture and politics got short shrift].  [Didn't get to hear it - anybody got an mp3?]  Here's one Bakotopian's take on the controversy, and Matt's ever-sunny response.

On a side note, a quick bit of googling revealed that Inga Barks has a MySpace page and blog!  Who knew?

--Jason Sperber

Here's the best response I've seen to last week's attack on the Bakersfield Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream plant by an employee brandishing a samurai sword:

Why does LA Noir blogger Stephen Blackmoore think the guy did it?  Because of the insidious influence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, of course.  Oh, and because he's crazy.  (Well, you'll have to click through to see Blackmoore's exact phrasing.  Heh.)

--Jason Sperber

Kern County 5th District Supervisor Michael Rubio has apparently jumped into cyberspace with a new quarterly podcast.  [See TBC's story here.]

The quarterly podcast is hosted on his page on the county website [look in the middle of the right-hand column - hopefully, as the archive grows, they'll set up a separate archive page that'll be linked to from the "podcasts" header] and is designed to be another way for Rubio to communicate with his constituents.

It'll be interesting to see how it catches on, who uses it, what kind of feedback he gets, and if that feedback will be reflected in future podcasts.  [No word on if you can subscribe to the Supervisor on iTunes yet.]

Listen to Supervisor Rubio's first podcast here.