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Address: 1707 Eye St. Bakersfield, CA 93301 Member Since: May 14, 2007 Last Signed In: November 19, 2009 Profile Views: 2906 Blog Views: 186741 Bakersfield not so giving, magazine says Secret menus at Bakersfield restaurants Videos galore of local marching bands Shocker: Bakersfield not safe for pedestrians Does Ryan Mathews deserve Heisman consideration? Bakersfield man with colorful record in middle of billion-dollar Chevron dispute Mobile haiku puts Bakersfield in new light Songs do more than namedrop Bakersfield Pedro Martinez taken back to his Bakersfield Dodger days Fresno piles on the hate for Bakersfield 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 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 Submit your local links to bakosphere@bakersfield.com. Bakersfield Observed CompuDave greener bakersfield 
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We're not stalking discotrash by any means, we just like the way she writes. So with that disclaimer in mind, we're linking to another blog post of hers about the treacherous journey most of us have taken from Bakersfield to the central coast. Here's a snippet: On Highway 46 East, it is one lane in either direction for a very very long time. I normally go this way because there aren’t many hills or too many curves. No what you have to watch out for this way are truckers either crowding into the oncoming lane, or people passing and not realizing how close they’re coming to hitting you head on. I’ve had A LOT of close calls out here since I moved, including one night when my ex had to pull my car off into the ditch because a semi truck was passing four other semi trucks in our lane. Awesome. And here's a previous Bakosphere post on discotrash's story about the demise of nightclub, Oz. Bakosphere hasn't posted about the Tilted Kilt in a while, but we couldn't resist sharing these interesting nuggets on the hiring process, courtesy of the Palm Desert Sun's Web site. Palm Desert gets it's own Kilt in March, so the application process is about to begin. Quotes are from new manager, Mike Spencer: First the casting call: “(This weekend) we're going to initiate our ‘casting call' — that is what we call our interview process. Much like Disney, our staff are cast members.” (We imagine Disney are thrilled with the comparison) And then the role-playing: “Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, (people) will be able to drop off applications. They'll meet with the owner. If they're selected for the next phase, they'll come in and get in costume and do some role-playing.” Mike Spencer is a lucky man. A very lucky man. From an elephantparty tweet: At the HIRE Committee strategic planning meeting. Mayor Harvey Hall gave his "I love Bakersfield" speech. He is such a nice man.
Any time a business proposition includes the following phrases, we're all ears, or rather, the ears are all ours: "obscure proposal of mutual interest," "this transaction shall be legally done without hitch," "I vehemently risk my job to send you this email," "kindly reach me back at this juncture." Kindly stop trying to scam us with these poorly written missives! Here's the e-mail (we left out the contact e-mail address, you know, just in case) Kind Proposal Our top 10 blog posts of 2008 list released Tuesday only included staff-written blogs posts. There was a simple reason for that: None of you lot made the top 10 list! Still, this is an equal opportunity blog, so with that in mind here's the top 10 citizen blog posts of 2008 list. 1. Scanner News, posted by vwilroy on Aug. 3. (984) 2. My resume, posted by Cslider on January 11. (914) 3. MIKE TURMAN...WHAT THE HELL?, posted by TJtheDJ on June 19. (893) 4. Daniel "Danny" Espinoza the Killer of [Dorothy Anne Walter] March 5, 2006, posted by Lucio on July 17. (709) 5. Your 15 minutes of notoriety is over., posted by AudreyB on Dec. 13. (694) 6. Shooting on Oswell Between Hillburn and College, posted by woofwoof on October 21. (628) 7. Jack in the Box Fraud!, posted by ScottyJ on December 26. (806) 8. Looking for Sam, posted by ghostriter on November 25. (585) 9. It's a free for all.... public forum.... have your say !!!, posted by gsisola on September 26. (502) 10. October Surprise? (The "Whitey" Video), posted by ChicoEsquela on June 3. (292) As an aside, ghostriter's 2007 blog post about her decision to get a tattoo amassed almost 14,000 views, more than any staff-written post of 2008. That particular blog post, though interesting enough in its own right, may have profited (view-wise) by a photo of Lindsay Lohan's tattoo. When someone does a Google search for Lindsay Lohan tattoo, one of the many sites which pops up in the search is ghostriter's blog post. It's also interesting to note that many of the top 10 blog posts were eliminated because they were posted in 2007 or 2006. Such is the long 'tail' of information posted online that stuff often gets read years and years after it was posted. Quite a few citizen blog posts which made the top 10 have been removed, either by the poster, or because the blogger has been removed from this site, presumably for being naughty in one respect or another. The post showed up on the analytics site we used to compile this list, but we didn't include them on the top 10 list. It's sort of like not being able to profit from that book deal while you're doing time in prison! It used to be you could go to Goodwill and pick up a decent piece of furniture for $20. That's why it was such a shock to see these two items at the downtown Goodwill at Chester and 18th. The prices: $319 and $250. Just noticed this Inside Guide review of Rosemary's, the ice cream place on F street: "I think someone is out to get us with these reviews. We try to provide the best and most comfortable experience we can. Come see for yourself and let us know personally what we can do better, thanks." That entreaty to Bakersfield's ice-cream loving public came (presumably from an employee) after some less-than-impressive reviews. Check out Rosemary's Inside Guide review here. From an andycastro tweet: I'm pretty sure I just saw a guy running across the street in high heels in downtown Bakersfield. In the past two days we've brought you the top 10 local news stories and the top 10 local videos of 2008, but it's the top blog list you've really been clamoring for. So without any further ado, here are the top 10 bakersfield.com blog posts of 2008 (based on page views): 1. BAKOSPHERE In the same vein as yesterday's top 10 local news stories of 2008 list, Bakosphere is proud to present the top 10 bakersfield.com videos of 2008. We'd like to especially thank kung-fu Ken Mettler for providing the only comic relief in an otherwise sad and morbid list. Here it is: 1. Mettler scuffle with protester caught on video Quick quiz: Where in Bakersfield can you get the following dishes for under $11? Roast beef with Dauphinois potatoes Halibut en Papillote Tea-brined chicken breast with risotto After yesterday's post about a review of Dagny's which referred to the esteemed downtown coffee house as "pretentious," we expected a storm of protest from those customers who objected to the wannabe hipster status, said reviewer conferred upon them. But the outrage was almost nonexistent ,which leads us to believe all those laptop-types looking busy inside Dagny's are not devout followers of this blog. Anyway, the comments on the aforementioned blog post did include one from a blogger, erikbako, who wanted to voice a similar complaint about Bagels & Blenderz: Another pretentious liberal hangout I'd add to the list is Bagels and Blenderz. Everytime I go in there I get glared at. The obviously homeless man with the pile of newspapers and a whole lotta nothin' to do really cracks me up giving me the evil eye. The gay 40 y/o "boys" in bright coloured tights, aka bikers in spandex, are worth a good laugh too. Nothing like biking around town in a pink tutu.
Ouch! jajshack has review Dagny's on 20th and Eye and there's some interesting observations on the clientele! Here's a sample from our Inside Guide section. Here's all you need to know about Dagny's in one word: pretentious. It's supposed to be the locally-owned, down-home alternative to the big, evil corporate giant Starbucks; a place with a comfortable vibe without all the pompousness. Instead, it has become exactly what it wasn't supposed to be - rude service, wannabe hipster and artsy clientele, and overpriced mediocre coffee. Read the whole review here. The following list is based on online page views (the drag racing death story had more than 20,000 views): 1. Drag racer dies at March Meet 2. Car dealer regrets ads urging non-Christians to 'sit down and shut up' 3. City lawyer arrested for allegedly stealing Sausage McMuffins 4. Missing 9-year-old found dead, appears accidental 5. Prominent doctor, six others arrested after long drug investigation 6. Teacher caught in meth plot 7. Man crushed by 5,000 pound pole at high school 8. Stabbing closes out lowrider event 9. Two die, one a correctional officer, after truck falls onto Highway 58 10.Californian exclusive: Mother remembers son who was killed in sump accident Check Bakosphere soon for a list of the most-read blog posts and the most-watched videos of 2008. Bakosphere would like to nominate blogger, SITBACKANDLISTEN, for tonight's creative writing class at Barnes & Noble. Here's SITBACK's comment (in reference to a police news release on date-rape drugs): This really is interesting. I say this because I go out to different bars. You DO NOT need to slip someone a mickey. These [edit.] do it on their own. WHat happened to the good old fashion days when people were respectful to each other. Now the lousy tramp cannot wait until they can hop on the "White Horse"! Gives that song a new meaning huh! These women do not respect themselves. I don't blame the guys for taking advantage of the situation at hand. It's the sorry son of a [edit.] that has no game that has to slip a mickey to some [edit.].
There was a Bakersfield nightclub in the mid-90s called Oz. It was back behind the Mervyn's shopping center on Easton. At some point it hosted the under-21 set, ran on for a while and then burned out (apparently) on too much testosterone and not enough tolerance. Or so the story goes. The wonderfully well-written, funny, sad, story is here. Here's an excerpt: We had a feeling the party was over when more and more of the cowboys and rednecks (yes, trust me there is a difference between the two) started showing up and demanding to hear more Country music. This of course would piss off the kids who came to dance to rap/dance music and would just sort of make me shake my head. If I had wanted to hear about all the Friends in Low Places people had, I could’ve gone to my cousin’s house and listened for free and gotten a Budwieser out of it. Whenever the line dance brigade would get their way, it was time for a smoke break.
There was a woman at a flooring shop on Brundage who gave me directions to a larger store because she thought I could get a better deal on new carpet. And then there was the pool guy who taught me how to clean my pool so I wouldn't have to pay him for full service every month. And who could forget the Jack in the Box employee who made the best ever taco and couldn't understand why I called back later to offer my gratitude? These three individuals were not among the 73 people (or organizations) nominated as one of Kern County's Real Heroes. Among the nominees were 9-year-old pit bull wrangler Drew Heredia and wounded law enforcement personnel Dennis Eddy and Thomas Moore. Those not on the list included kung-fu Ken Mettler, sign-stealing talk show host Scott Cox and Konan the wayward police dog. You can get the whole list here. The real Real Heroes will be announced March 27. — Andrew Mockett Don't want to boast or anything, but Bakosphere answered every question correctly. Had we done this well in school, things could have turned out so much differently! The defecating crow problem has reached such epic proportions in Delano that residents are altering their shopping habits, according to a KERO 23 news story. Californian columnist Herb Benham writes about a similar topic in today's column. What with the inauguration and everything, we thought this would be a good choice for our flickr photo of the day. Looks like Westchester-area, but can't say for certain. More about the photographer here. Tweets from people passing through Bakersfield, having to spend a night in Bakersfield, on a work assignment in Bakersfield, or visiting family or friends in Bakersfield, usually make for a pretty depressing read. Luckily Twitter limits users to 140 characters. You'd be amazed at how often Bakersfield is insulted, via Twitter, in 140 characters or less. So often, that those of us who follow these things are pretty impervious to the whole thing. Though this tweet had us scratching our heads. "Bakersfield is kind of like prison without meals or speed dating." This blogger was searching for an area of Bakersfield to settle down in for a few decades when he did a wikipedia search on east Bakersfield and fell in love. Ah, east Bakersfield! Land of rolling hills, statuesque fir trees, sleepy BC, and temperatures which are at least half a degree cooler than downtown in the summer. "My classes were populated with gang members and students wearing state-mandated ankle bracelets; with high school girls walking the streets at night; with white supremacist children wearing swastikas to class; with kids still stuck in the system but allowed out of "juvie" for my class and maybe one other." So goes the blog post of a former teacher at West High, all brought about by a viewing of "Singles"! A recent interview with former Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch discusses his new source of energy, his daughter's new puppy, and why he didn't go back to the studio to get his guitars following his split from Korn. Our flickr photo of the day is a fixer-upper somewhere in Bakersfield, complete with the requisite tumbleweeds, graffiti and boarded-up windows. It reminds us of a home for sale we saw in a real estate brochure this weekend for $22,000. "Bring your tool belt," it said. For the house in this photo, it would be a case of "Bring the cast of Extreme Makeover." For more info on the photo, go here. No one hates Bakersfield more than Men's Health magazine; we're consistently at the bottom of their lists. So it should come as no surprise that we've made another thrilling Men's Health list, this time for the amount of sleep we get here in Bako. On the list of 101 cities, we rank 97th for the average amount of sleep. Apparently the more sleep you get the better, so Honolulu, one must assume, is a nice place to be. Bottom of the list: Fresno. In our humble opinion, Men's Health magazine should get out of the list business and stick to what they know best. Perfect abs, and cooking a romantic meal for your girlfriend. You can get the whole list here. Today's flickr pic of the day comes from Glennville. When you're driving on 99 just north of town and you see the massive dairies with thousands of cows squashed together, it make those 'happy cows' commercials seem kind of silly. But these Glennville cows, well that's a different matter entirely. Find out more about the photo here. Imagine you're sitting in Johnny Rockets in the Marketplace, enjoying a burger and fries, when suddenly a brightly-dressed stranger has paid for your meal. The Bakersfield Do-Gooders are exactly that. They wander around doing good deeds, whether it's delivering supplies to the rescue mission, buying pizza for an unsuspecting family, paying for people's movie tickets or picking up the tab for an entire restaurant. Read about their latest exploits here, or follow along on their Twitter page here. Blogger, witbee, is hardly impressed, but perhaps he's just upset no one has paid for his meal? Our furry friends have certainly been in the local news lately, whether it's a distracted police dog with a penchant for little black strays, or a cuddly, little pit bull who suffered the indignation of losing a street brawl with a 9-year-old. But there have been others. Who could forget Clyde, the chihuahua mix who was a goner until his owner resuscitated him with some good, old-fashioned CPR? Or what about Tiger, the fastest chihuahua in America? And then there's all those drug-sniffing dogs who'll be patrolling our high schools to make sure students are stopping to read all those "In God We Trust" posters as they go in and out of the classroom. It's a Bakersfield institution. What more can be said? There's even a black and white dog that pops in from time to time. More photos from this blogger here.
Celebrity sightings in Bakersfield are rare, unless you include Roy Ashburn at Dagny's or the bearded lady in our lobby downstairs. So when celebritybabies.com reported that Brooke Mueller Sheen, the pregnant wife of "Two and a Half Men" star, Charlie Sheen, was seen eating at Bakersfield's Café Med, we took note. Unfortunately, the Internet proved an unreliable source, and it was actually Hollywood's Café Med. But it still begs the question: Who's the biggest celebrity you've seen going about their business in Bakersfield?
The following general observation came from blogger, learnem, and was posted on The Grade blog: "you don't write what the majority of the population here in Bakersfield wants to read about." Unfortunately, learnem didn't go on to say what the majority does want to read about. Perhaps other bloggers can be of assistance. Our Outdoors columnist, Steve Merlo, gets almost as excited about gun control legislation as he does a dove in the sights of his shotgun or a trout wriggling on the end of his fishing pole. In Friday's column, the ever-energetic Merlo takes up arms against "Ammunition Accountability," a group who's working to get a law passed which would mark every bullet, round or cartridge made in the U.S. The idea behind the proposed legislation is that all ammunition could conceivably be traced back to the person who bought it. After compiling a list of 12 reasons the proposed law would never work, Merlo concludes with this salvo: "Now, if you feel that we can all live with this law, go ahead and champion it, but if you feel the same way I do, hurry up and notify your state legislators about the stupid, inane, restrictive and rights-stealing proposal now before them. Do it now, before this thing starts to freight-train with the idiots already in charge of making our lives 'safer'. Remember, it's not just about our guns, it's about our rights — the few they have left us." This is a press release from CALM: CALM’s Mule deer fawns have new names By the time the new "Star Trek" movie comes out, we'll have seen so many trailers (authorized or not), we won't have to actually watch the movie. Here's another, probably unauthorized, video from the Bakersfield location. Who knew the CHP were such big Trekkies? We've all been secretly hoping for that massive earthquake which would wipe Taft and everything west off the map, thus giving Bakersfield the beach front location it so richly deserves. But the imminent extinction of hundreds of thousands of people is now not necessary, for it has been discovered by a blogger that Bakersfield does indeed have a beach. Note to kids: Use the Internet for your homework only as a last resort.
Some call it art, while other call it a crime. A 2-year-old I know calls it "drawings." Whatever you call it, it's bakosphere's flickr pic of the day, and if that doesn't add legitimacy to the movement, then nothing will. The 9-year-old Bakersfield boy who put a marauding pitbull in a 20-minute choke hold when it attacked his friend has been getting a lot of attention recently. Our story was linked to by popular odd-news gathering site reddit.com, and some of their reader's comments were mildly amusing. Here's a selection (The headline was 9 year-old boy :1, Pitbull: 0): • Actually, if you tally up all such events, I'd guess it's more like 9 year-old boy: 1, Pitbulls: several hundred. • A tip: don't google image search "rear naked choke hold." At least, not at work. • It would so suck to have your mom quoted in the local paper saying that you are the nine year old who "gets beat up all the time". • From the pictures, it looks like jiujitsu involves a lot of hugging. It's adorable. • As a practitioner myself I can say it certainly challenges your intimate zone, but when people start choking you and bending your joints it's not that cozy anymore. • Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle: 1, Pitbull: 0 • PETA will be all over this case in a matter of hours. • I wonder if Dana White has called that kid up yet and made a contract offer.... • Man, this kid makes me proud. Reminds me of when I was a kid. That bear never knew what hit him. • bakersfield? ew.
Let's just assume for a minute you're strolling down Chester Avenue trying not to look at the shop-window mannequins in thongs when you catch a beautiful woman's eye (a real woman, not a mannequin), smile shyly, notice a shy smile in return and carry on walking, all the while berating yourself for not having the gonads to say something. That's where the Web site, kizmeet, comes in. You post your encounter. The object of your curiosity can't get you off her mind so she checks kizmeet on the off-chance you posted the brief encounter. You connect. Soon, you're back at the thong store (which hasn't actually opened yet) to make a special purchase. Unfortunately, kizmeet hasn't come to Bakersfield yet, but that doesn't mean chance encounters haven't occured. Were you in Trader Joe's Friday, wearing a green shirt and a pendant? Drive around in a nice, white truck looking for chimneys with smoke coming out of them. There's job security too; it's not like our bad air is going anywhere. Might get a bit boring in the summer though. Pay seems decent too. Get the details here. Unfortunately, you won't get to ride around in a helicopter. More jobs here. Most unhealthy for women. Most illiterate. Poorest air quality. Best Prop 8 street corner scuffle. Oh yes, we've made some lists in our time. And now there's another: Forbes Magazine has named its 10 most boring cities in the U.S., and surprise, surprise, we're on the list. But we're not No. 1, so there Chula Vista. Bako strolls in, quite bored or at least apathetic, at number 7. However, the magazine's search criteria basically looked at cities which didn't make the news in 2008. So perhaps that's not such a bad thing. It sounds a bit suspect anyway because Bakersfield was mentioned in almost every news article we read on the sucky housing market.
Not even a piece of rebar through a worker's head could halt the progress of downtown's Mill Creek project. The canal-creek will be the centerpiece of Bakersfield's downtown revitalization project, stretching from Golden State Avenue through Central Park, but with progress comes a price, as facebakersfield's Nick Belardes points out. "... will the cats, ducks and homeless get a monument in the park for their sacrifice?"
Jose Jesus Peyan Leal just so he can argue that no, they were right. Here's a portion of his latest rant: What part of "Get out of the car" and "Show me your hands" don't you understand. Family members told a reporter that he didn't speak English. Hmmm, every part perhaps?
Bako haters are sometimes the slyest little creatures. They conceal their distaste of our fair city in the long (and often quite boring) paragraphs of their blog posts. They start talking about dogs and big beds and offer fascinating descriptions of dogs sleeping on big beds. And then all of sudden, what they really wanted to say all along gets forced to the surface in a moment of bubbling rage. Such was the sad case of the Koji's Kitchen blog, coming to you from the pristine, golden shores of Long Beach. Here's the offending paragraph: Taking the cue from my friend George, have given up alcohol for January. The bad news: It's only the 6th and the will is weakening. The good news: The first day in February just happens to be Super Bowl Sunday. Anyone want to guess where this photo is from?
Location:
olive and jewetta,
bakersfield,
Was very excited to try the new fresh & easy on Saturday. Walked through the doors in the drizzling rain dreaming of England and ready for some Branston Pickle, a bottle of brown sauce, and perhaps some salad cream if the mood struck. If I'm not mistaken there was much hullabaloo about f&e's opening, partly because it's owned by UK retailer Tesco, a staple on most high streets in England, and partly because the stores are smaller, cozier and thus friendlier. They're so small in fact they don't even use capital letters on fresh or easy. The store on Jewetta and Olive was a bit of a downer. No English foods of note, though Weetabix cereal was there to fly the flag. You can get it at Trader Joe's too and it's slightly cheaper there. What did put Trader Joe's to shame though was the sampler bar. Trader Joe's always has great stuff to nibble on, but at f&e I gorged on a turkey sandwich, some little cups of Wotsit-type cheesy puffs which were a big hit with the nipper, some fresh melon, a cookie and some juice. If I worked a little closer I'd be there every lunchtime availing myself of their generosity. And the checkouts? Dreamland. No pimply teenager stacking your bag of flour on your lettuce and no disapproving middle-aged female checker tut-tutting at your haul of alcohol. An employee was kind enough to give us a coupon for $5 off. It was an up and down experience. I think my expectations were too high. It was nice, clean, compact and friendly, but there wasn't even any malt vinegar for pete's sake. Was Jules Winnfield in town recently? All will be explained if you click on this link. If bad language offends you, don't click on aforementioned link.
Got this e-mail yesterday morning from the Wasco Animal Shelter. Really made my day. Then I looked at Brio's profile on our You Report section and thought, well that's why he "spends his time quietly watching the workers with curiosity". Poor little fellow had no idea what was going on. The Californian , and you , have done it again! In the last two weekends we have adopted out a record breaking total of 26 dogs and cats out of our PetSmart location... Lets hope the New Year brings the same results! Thank you so much! Zane, BooBoo and Toby are all in new homes... I also have an update on *Brio*. * Brio* has been returned home to his owners ( totally thanks to the Californian). When Brios photo ran in the paper as * pet of the week* he had been out at the shelter for over a week. His owners had been out of town and had someone watching *Brio* for them, and they lost him, and didn't look for him, or tell his owners that he was missing. The owners came back to town, opened up the paper, and imagine their surprise when they see Their dog as our Featured pet! They were immediately on the phone to the shelter, and showed up soon after to reclaim him.... What a wonderful ending! Take care and Happy New Year..... Fantastic news. — Andrew Mockett |
