A blog about Kern County, News, and Technology.
Address: 1707 Eye St. Bakersfield, CA 93301 Member Since: May 14, 2007 Last Signed In: September 05, 2008 Profile Views: 1556 Blog Views: 66513 Bakersfield: Not the world's greatest joke Only 171 days left! Jumping death sad for all Chris McCandless lives! Comics poll is deadly serious Killing bears with kindness Lock up your restaurants: The Angelenos are coming Amtrak customers 'interesting' 10,000 songs in a row Freedom Fries live on in Bako! May 07 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 Submit your local links to bakosphere@bakersfield.com. 
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We love the Kern County Fair as much as the next gap-toothed goofball hopped up on speed and fried twinkies, but we certainly don't go there for the musical acts. So thank goodness for our northern neighbors Fresno who have at least tied us (and maybe won — Bret Michaels and Great White for crying out loud) in terms of lame fair linueps. You be the judge FRESNO LINEUP (More info) KERN COUNTY LINEUP (More info)
If you're a keen follower of our daily poll on bakersfield.com you may have noticed we've got more responses lately than would a fictional breaking news story involving Chad Vegas, a hairy runaway bear and a gleaming white spaceship piloted by Carl Cole. We're almost at 2,000 responses to today's poll about John McCain's expensive shoes, while yesterday's question about atheists and public office elicited a monumental 4,063 responses. The day before that a paltry 184 of you weighed in on the disappearing Piute bear. OK, so the answers provided were a little silly (of course the bear isn't shacking up with a lovelorn Moe the chimp), but still, 184? Pathetic! So why so many responses to the last two polls? For that we can thank the bloggers over at Pharyngula, who decided to boost our poll. Now as fun as that sounds, we feel a little violated! Geelizzie is not impressed with Bakersfield drivers. Read her blog post here. We're not allowed to wear shorts to work here, but judging from this New York Times style piece, that may not be a bad thing. Think New York Times is rubbish? You'll like this blog post (language warning). Thanks to the Bakersfield Republican Assembly for discovering why your PG&E bill is so high. And while we're on the bender agenda, here's gawker.com on Anderson Cooper.
Each week our visual team leaders choose their favorite local photos of the week and explain their picks. Which one is your favorite? Latest on the chosen one: School board savior decides to run for re-election, wants police dogs in schools. Trustee of truth tells Inga Barks he doesn't want nonbelievers in public office. In his own words: The vessel of veracity on what his oath really means and the "tyranny of liberal secularism" And finally, the preacher's proclamation to The Californian about his Inga Barks statement.
If this demonstration doesn't persuade McCain to abandon his campaign, we're not sure what will.
Check out this Washington Post story on the California oil rush which began along the Kern River bank in 1899. This is the headline of the story: Calif. Field Goes from Rush To Reflection of Global Limits There's also a great slideshow showing historical photos of the area.
Kern County Fair makes list of reasons to visit the U.S. No joke. "famous places are waiting for you"
Blogger volunteers at McCain's Bako fundraiser Monday. McCain shakes blogger's hand. Blogger impressed. You have $1,000 burning a hole in your pocket. Do you: A) Head over to Seven Oaks to rub shoulders with presidential hopeful John McCain? B) Put a .5 percent down payment on a space trip aboard WhiteKnightTwo? C) Take a day off work, rent an ATV and go hunting for the Piute bear? D) Buy a cowboy hat from Big Al? E) Watch "The Dark Knight" 100 times. F) Treat yourself to lunch at a struggling local restaurant every day for the next 100 days. G) Buy 5,000 hot dogs, cook them and sell them outside the Crisp and Cole hearings downtown for $2 each, thus making a profit to the tune of $9,000. A national survey shows gas prices have dropped a fraction below the $4-dollar mark.
Prices are at their lowest level since May 16 and are an average of 11.7 cents less per gallon than two weeks ago. Read the story here. Find Bakersfied's cheapest gas here.
Californian photographer Casey Christie took this picture last week at a ranch off South Union Avenue. Here's Bakosphere's caption: "Moo's your daddy?" At least that's one blogger's take. "This town should be booming right now, new houses, new cars all that comes with wealth in an oil boom town." Check out his the post here. The report gets off to a shaky when FOX's newscaster says the attack took place in a "remote part of Bakersfield." Anyway, here's the report. FOX talks to Kern County Fire Captain Curt Merrell and late in the interview asks him if the woman's dogs saved her life: Merrell replied: "I would say so yes. Absolutely."
The dog likes Bakersfield. The owner? Not so sure. Check it out here. Bakersfield.com blogger meandpete has posted a very personal story about her 14-year-old daughter who is due to give birth in October. Read how she's coping and comments from fellow bloggers. Perhaps she can find solace in Mas magazine's latest cover story, about a local woman who got pregnant at 14. Now, at age 23, she is not only a mother but also a successful student at CSUB and recently had the starring role in the school's production of the musical "Evita." In both stories, the girls' mothers play an important role in their support and say that kicking out their daughters was the last thing they would have done. Age 14 may be young to become a mother, but these families show that with love and support, it can be done. July is the dog days of summer — life seems to be crawling by right now. News is slow. Co-workers and fellow bloggers are gone on vacation. The county supervisors seem to be the only ones with purpose, hammering out a new budget over three days. Meanwhile, a Tuscon blogger deems Bakersfield for the dogs — lazy dogs, like her shih tzu who enjoyed the air conditioning and IHOP leftovers during a stop-over in our town. That's about all they found to do, apparently. This is the time of year when things are put off 'til tomorrow and our pulses slow to survival mode. Then again, it was this time of year in 2003 when a school vice principal named Vincent Brothers killed five of his family members and our town turned to a frenzy. So let's all knock on some wood, and maybe then put our feet up and knock back an iced tea or margarita. Raisingbakersfield.com is a new site which lets local parents find family events, meet up, buy and sell stuff, and more. Check out this post, where a father asks for advice for an upcoming trip to Disneyland. Check out Raising Bakersfield here. Each week our visual team leaders choose their favorite local photos of the week and explain their picks in an audio slideshow. Which one is your favorite? Check out our photography page for more great shot and shows. Sage may be the only RFB fan out there, but can anyone really argue with almost 60 minutes of twang, crunch and oomph? Listen to this week's show here. Bakersfield Life magazine has compiled a bracket of the 64 best things about Bakersfield and it needs your help whittling the number down to 1! Check out the bracket here. And here's a reader blog on the topic. Los Angeles looks down on Bakersfield, Bakersfield looks down on Shafter, Shafter looks down on Wasco. Wasco: Find your Buttonwillow! Who knew? Read more here. An 'incident' goes down in Bakersfield and the assassin works on his new novel Welcome to the adventure fiction of BernardL. Read the latest chapter here. From a post on the center-right politics blog, Red County, introducing its new Central Valley section: "We are excited to represent California's great Central Valley on the Red County site! It is appropriate that this very "red" part of the state be given a voice and we hope to keep you all in-the-know during this important election cycle." Who'll be blogging? " ... our inaugural Central Valley blog team will include Dr. Adrian Moore, a vice president with Reason Foundation; Marylee Shrider, a terrific conservative newspaper columnist; Inga Barks, the talk radio host covering more of the valley than any other through KMJ Fresno and KERN Bakersfield and Ken Mettler, Kern High School District Trustee and vice president of the CA Republican Assembly." So far, the blog has linked to a few political-type stories from The Californian and Fresno Bee. There's one comment posted as of 8 this morning. It's from our own James Geluso (city government reporter) correcting one of the blog headlines! Check out the blog here. I think they're being sarcastic, but you never can tell: "As the debut for our new column, In The Lineup / Washed Up, we traveled to Bakersfield, CA, the epicenter of fashion and fabulousness ... " Check out what to wear (and what not to wear) for the upcoming high school year.
Got eight and a half minutes to spare? Here's Taft's Billy Nelson qualifying for the Beijing Olympics in the steeplechase. A local musician featured in Eye Street's "My Favorite Day" feature has more to say on Bakersfield, being recognized by the po po, and how she used the article to get some business for her buddy! Here's a sample: 1. being in bakersfield is kind of like being in a bad relationship: it'll often let you down, but you stay w/it because it's cheap, familiar, & at times surprises you by being a real good time. Read jenny's blablablog here.
Bakersfield gets some love (sort of) in the new Terminator movie. Would love to know exactly where these shots were taken. Check them out here. More interested in "The Dark Knight"? Go here. Was having a conversation at lunch with a coworker about the video on Around the Web where the woman got hit by lightning as she was filming a thunder storm while holding onto a metal railing. The conversation then moved on to that epic physics class contraption, the Van de Graaff generator, and the fun physics teachers seemed to have while sending a mild electric shock through the class member. I thought to myself, YouTube. My particular physics teacher would make us stand on metal stools and wet our fingers. His name was Mr Sewell and he once said he's rather get boiled than steamed because it would hurt less. He was as mad as the bicycle he rode to school on. — Andrew Mockett Californian staffer takes 3-year-old to kid-friendly concert by Barenaked Ladies. Barenaked Ladies singer arrested on drug charges. Purple dinosaur chuckes to himself. These amazing photos of canyons on Mars taken from U.S. and European spacecraft support growing evidence that Mars was once a water-rich planet — capable of supporting life. Speaking of "Life on Mars," it's a brilliant TV show on BBC that's being made into an American version. Before you groan, "The Office" didn't turn out too bad. We call this photo, "Life in Taft."
"Don't drop that baby!" The crew of Kern County Fire Department Helicopter 408 hover over a home where a family of three await rescue near Lake Isabella. The crew successfully rescues a baby before returning for the mother and father. Watch the fascinating video here.
See the top Californian photos of the week and listen in as our Visuals Team co-leader explains the choices. Watch the slideshow here. Visit our photography page here. Former Taft High runner Billy Nelson made the Olympic team in the steeplechase recently. There's a movement afoot to raise funds to send his family to Beijing (in under a month) to cheer him on. Want to help? Go here. |
