Bakersfield

Where To Drink Picon Punch With the Basques in Bakersfield

Ask for a Picon Punch in Bakersfield and the locals will know you are an out-of-towner. Here in Bako, it's just a Picon, thank you very much. Outside of the Basque country and Central California's Bakersfield, which has the largest Basque population in the States, most of the general populace have ... More >>

Los Angeles Has America's Most Polluted Air?

L.A is the capital of many things. Few of them are good things. At least not lately, it seems. A day after it was announced that Los Angeles is America's traffic-congestion Mecca once again (breaking news, that), we bring you the American Lung Association's annual "Most Polluted Cities" list:

Taft School Shooting NOT In L.A.'s San Fernando Valley

Following another school shooting, this one at Taft High School near Bakersfield, the LAPD has had to clarify that this DIDN'T happen at the Taft campus in the San Fernando Valley. Really. The media is so East Coast-biased (it's not like more than 15 million people live in the area from Bakersfiel ... More >>

Honky-tonk painting

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Ceiling Fan Sculptures

This week, a painter takes on the weirdness of Bakersfield, an artist sends pictures made to last billions of years into orbit and an artist's biographer talks about why her subject is still being censored two decades after his death. 5. Whited-out activism The prints from Juan Capistran's new sho ... More >>

VIDEO: Bear Cub Tasered for Crashing Middle-School Graduation in Bakersfield

What did we tell you? It's the Rise of the Planet of the Black Bears! Here in L.A. County, they've begun staking out our sidewalk trees and taking Memorial Day dips in our infinity-edge swimming pools. (No joke.) And now, out in Bakersfield, they're apparently shooting for their GEDs: Rural TV new ... More >>

Mono/Poly Disses Obama, Praises Ron Paul

It was the '90s in Bakersfield, and West Coast gangster rap gripped much of the town. But Charles Dickerson felt bored. So he ignored what was popular, sticking with his beloved electronic music. He now performs under the name Mono/Poly, and released an EP under Brainfeeder last year. The 25-year-o ... More >>

Roller Derby for Guys? Check Out the Drive-By City Rollers

He got into it because of his girlfriend: "I saw the movie, then a few months later I was introduced to her and roller derby at the same time. She invited me to come along to watch her, and I was immediately enthralled -- girls hitting each other."Another guy came over from England last year and sig ... More >>

L.A. Weekly Theater Awards 2012: The Winners

​​L.A. Weekly 's 33rd annual theater awards took place tonight at the Avalon in Hollywood, honoring the best work on our small stages from 2011, as judged by our theater critics. Small Engine Repair presented by Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater won production of the year, while Re-Animator The ... More >>

Roderick Wright, Inglewood Senator Accused of Sexual Harassment, Pays Woman $120K in State Money to Shut Up: Report

Bakersfield NowOK, ew.​The most infuriating part about the California State Senate's reported $120,000 payout on behalf of Senator Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) last year -- just now revealed by the Los Angeles Times -- is that officials are treating it like nothing out of the ordinary. Wrigh ... More >>

L.A.'s Sewage Crap Export Flap

Each week, enough black sludge to fill Staples Center arrives in Kern County

Nature Mart in Los Feliz to Close

Guzzle & NoshAssorted vegetables.​After 38 years in business, popular Los Feliz health food store Nature Mart will close on November 1st, reports Echo Park Patch. Founded by Matt Huupponen in 1973, the store known for its array of bulk food items, fresh fruit and vegetables and freshly pressed ... More >>

VIDEO: Canyon Fire Lights Up Wind Farm Over Tehachapi Pass

YouTubeEarth, wind & wildfire​The massive fire ignited by a double-fatality plane crash in Blackburn Canyon, Tehachapi, on Sunday has since raged through nearly 15,000 acres of Kern County. A dozen homes have been destroyed, and 650 more are under evacuation orders. Bakersfield Now has some in ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Markets: Kyoho and Red Flame Grapes A Request For Bronx

Felicia FriesemaKyoho grapes are now available at Ha's Apple Farm.​ Cherries are to the start of summer as grapes are to the end of it. Yes, we're still in July, but this is when we start to see the seasonal harvests switch gears into later-bearing crops. This past week we noted -- in part b ... More >>

What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: First Cherries of the Season

Amy ScattergoodEarly cherries from Murray Family Farms​ The earliest hint that the seasons are starting to switch from spring to summer is the baskets, bowls, and piles of early sweet and sour cherries on local market tables. We started watching the calendar when the artichokes showed up. On ... More >>

Basque in Bakersfield

Communal dining at the Noriega Hotel

I-5 Freeway At L.A. Grapevine Still Closed After Night From Wintery Hell

Bakersfield NowNot a good start for weather in 2011​What a depressing way to start a brand-new year of the infamous Los Angeles commute. All those holiday stragglers who waited until Sunday night to drive home -- hoping to avoid the mass SoCal exodus/influx, not realizing it was really this z ... More >>

California's $43 Billion Bullet Train Will Go To ... Bakersfield?

A bullet train, German-style.​The Weekly's Jill Stewart noted this week that California's planned high-speed rail line's "route to nowhere" now has a route to ... somewhere -- but not here, or San Francisco, or San Diego, or pretty much anywhere a vast majority of California's population resid ... More >>

California Bullet Train To Los Angeles Via Bakersfield: Real Or A $43 Billion Mirage?

Money is so tight, the new leg doesn't actually go into Bakersfield as pictured.​The California High-Speed Rail Authority, ridiculed for its secrecy, mismanagement, conflicts of interest and crazy overspending -- and for choosing as the California bullet train's first leg a "route to nowhere" ... More >>

In Search Of: Chad Brown on Rare Country From Prison, Johnny Paycheck and the Phillipines

courtesy chad brown​ Chad Brown is an L.A.-based DJ and the singer/guitarist in CB Brand, and he may well know more about country music than anyone you're likely to encounter in this city. He is a true historian who recalls the backstories of each record in immense detail--from how he found i ... More >>

SoCal's 'Geezer Bandit' Struck A Bank In Bakersfield, FBI Says

10 NewsThe notorious Geezer Bandit.​The so-called "Geezer Bandit" has been on a record bank-heist spree across Southern California. He's been so prolific that we really have to wonder if he's a true senior citizen. After all, earlier this month a young Asian man flew from Hong Kong to Canada w ... More >>

Buck McKeon Wins* California Congressional District 25 In Election 2010, Obliterating Opponent Jackie Conaway In Gladiator-Style Death Match

​We're calling it: Buck McKeon (R) of Bakersfield is your next representative for California Congressional District 22. He beat opponent Jackie Conaway (D) by a landslide. *OK, so we fibbed in the headline. The final results aren't in and the polls haven't closed. But thanks to sleazy incumb ... More >>

Officials To Consider Four High Speed Rail Stations In The Valley

​According to the Burbank Leader, officials are set to meet next week to hear reports on possible high-speed rail locations in the San Fernando Valley. California's planned 800-mile high-speed rail system will include one station in the Valley. Representatives of the California High-Speed R ... More >>

Fringe on the Top

L.A.'s first noncurated arts festival is a triumph

South Central Farmers: New Life with a Ceremony, a Festival Water

Brooke BurtonTribal Elders and South Central Farmers at Buttonwillow Farm's Blessing​ The sun rose over Buttonwillow Farm in Bakersfield early last Saturday morning, as Native American elders and members of the South Central Farmers collective gathered to bless the land for future harvest. In ... More >>

Web Surfing: A Roundup of Posts from L.A. Food Blogs and Newsletters

-- Pat Saperstein checks out the new Tip Top (banh mi! gelato!) location in Rosemead. [Eating L.A.] -- Laurent Torondel leaves his own empire. [Daily Dish] -- Expats from Chile gather at Rincon Chileno in the wake of the recent devastating Chilean earthquake. [Grub Street] -- Andrew Knowlton disc ... More >>

Interview: Seminal Deathrock Band Burning Image Hits LA for Halloween

​ Back in the early '80s, when deathrock was taking over California, a group of young guys from Bakersfield formed Burning Image. They released a 7" single and played with bands like Specimen, Dead Kennedys and Butthole Surfers. Years after their demise, Jello Biafra re-released Burning Image ... More >>

GRAFFITI CAN BE A REWARDING CAREER!

Love's Old Sweet Song

Amazing Los Angeles City Council Salaries: $171,648 plus goodies

LAFF 2008: Centered and Finished

Even though HELLBOY II was called the “closing night” gala, with a huge after party to match, one more day remained of LAFF. But it didn’t seem like it would have much to offer me: family festivities provided pony rides for the kids, while the sparse remaining screenings were mostly things I h ... More >>

Film Reviews: Lucky You, Waitress, Rock the Bells

The 20 Best L.A. Italian Restaurants

Winter Restaurants 2007 – The Italian moment and four classic delis

Onward, American Soldier

Private First Class Mendoza goes to war

Buck Owens, 1929-2006

Ask Mr. Gold

Hollywood Country

Don�t look for the soul of country music in glitzy Nashville � or even Bakersfield. It�s right here on the grand ole streets of L.A.

No Escape for an O.G.

Kershaun �Li�l Monster� Scott thought South-Central was tough. Then he moved to Kern County

Two Guys Walk Into a Bar . . .

What To Eat Now: The Year's Best Dishes

Around the World in 80 Miles

Think globally, travel locally

Planet Bakersfield

So far from heaven, so close to L.A.

Operation Miscue

How legal problems, cultural shifts and internal turmoil muffled America�s radical anti-abortion movement, and why the battle isn�t over

Roll Truck Roll

Red Simpson, The Bard of Bakersfield

Roy Nichols, 1932�2001

Butch Blanket Bingo

Let�s Get Lost

Heartaches by the Numbers

Love and Hell

Merle Haggard's Twin Oracles