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lordgalvar wrote:Yup, and I remember them getting bought by the discovery channel. I don't know if we got one of the half-assed ones like Bakersfield always did with retail (which was cool as a kid getting to grow up in local business land...but Bakersfield is different now).

My dad and I always used to go in there to flip over all the rain sticks at once and laugh at those gel filled plastic bags that pop out of your hand with sea-themed-sequins inside*. But The Nature Company also provided a lot of America with didgeridoos....so that is a plus. I seem to remember that after discovery bought it, it slowly turned into a playskool brookstone.

* You know, if you put them on eBay for $20 more listed as something else, it is called adult business. Back then, I was innocent of all that and my dad was too. They just always had those and it seemed so freaking pointless to us haha.

We need other people's stories.!


Edit: typos

Oh yeah, I remember that now. They just seemed to disappear.

I actually worked at one as seasonal help after college. The only things I really remember was hiding the corner near the gems during the christmas rush, trying to avoid the customers, and sweating under the hot display lights. Oh, and the assistant manager claimed that he used to date Stevie Nicks. He said he had pictures, but strangely nobody ever saw them.

D.o.S. wrote:which is worse: a quiet band that plays too loudly or a loud band that plays too quietly?

I get enough of this lesser of two evils shit in the political thread.

Bump for stories about napalm. Or lizards. Or Crass.

Do they owe us a living?

[youtube][/youtube]

Tell us about the time you learned all the secrets...

(just saw the Stevie Nicks thing when I linked the thread).

Similarly, my friend supposedly dated Meatloaf's daughter. Never mentioned which one (could have been either...he's kinda in between the ages). Odd enough to seem plausible. Same guy used to be constantly hit on in college (before he dropped out) by Mariqueen Maandig. That one is verified. Haha, he was like, "she used to force to go to parties".

Another guy I knew supposedly went to prom with Samuel L. Jackson's daughter. Why she took a dude from Bakersfield, I couldn't say. Several people told me (including him) that Samuel L. Jackson pulled him to the side before and said something like, "You wrong her in any way and you're dead." Haha.

Both seem within the realm of possibility but lean toward telephone game mythology.

Another dude in that I kicked it with (but he went to a different high school) used to mix gasoline and styrofoam in his back yard and make napalm-like jelly. He would just light it and watch it burn. One time he passed out from the fumes and that was the end of experiments.

He kicked it with this other dude and both were constantly drawing. Both went to RISD...I think napalm guy is still a professor or occasional lecturer there and the other dude is essentially retired after being a very in-demand illustrator-animator after winning for something at Cannes.

I mixed chlorine and muriatic acid once. My mom shocked the pool and forgot to tell me and I previously checked it for pH. Added a gallon of muriatic acid and made white smoke. I didn't feel so good after that.

I became a plumber.

Knew another guy in junior high that would put the innards of piccolo Pete's in co2 cartridges and knew how to time fuses. He'd light them off after the bus dropped us off. Scary stuff (we'd find shrapnel the next day...big chunks). His bud was the younger brother of a Sureño. They scared the hell out of us skateboarders. It was the first time I ever remember being threatened by some one for not giving the proper respect or something. We all paid the same HOA for the pool...thought the parking lot was kinda community property.

But most of the people claiming Norteño or Sureño we're bullshitting come to find out later. Groups of high school kids always made dumb claims to give them street cred. Found that out when a judge's son, later in junior high, claimed to have trained with crips at break dancing camp.

Not the most interesting stuff.

Got more on crass and lizards later. Gotta go do stuff.

Edit: typos

Should add:

Watching someone "pop and lock" a 20 minute mile in PE isn't as fun as it sounds.

[youtube][/youtube]


11:47 in that video has an appearance of one of the alligator lizards that live on the same property. There are a ton. Drive my dogs nuts.

I see them fight a lot too. They bite each other's heads and roll around. Every time I mention the lizards fighting, it sounds like a euphemism.

The fish before that are from Catalina. They are garibaldi seen from a glass hull.


http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/city ... rd-people/

Haven't met those people though. But LA does have a weird set of tunnels. Abandoned subways and stuff.

[youtube][/youtube]


Huell is the best by the way.

Also, there is a tunnel under the old USC hospital and those weird ones after the bridge to nowhere.

Bakersfield had secret tunnels downtown too.

Weird secrets about Bakersfield.
There was a weird sex ring in Bakersfield in the 1980s....I didn't experience it, but someone wrote a (semi fictional) book about it: http://www.nicholasbelardes.com/lords-of-bakersfield/
And websites like this: http://www.rgmistriel.com

That Nick dude also mentioned my band or something once too. He was always around.

Anyway, met some people that had iffy dealings walking around downtown in the 1980s...said it was scary.

Ed Jagels is evil by the way (he sent his wife to jail haha....he's a whole story alone). Kevin McCarthy was groomed by these weirdos and Bill Thomas. Can't stand that side of my hometown.

Anyway, my mom had investigated some cases when she worked at CPS and I knew people that worked for certain employers got free passes from the cops.

One of the people that my mom investigated owned a part of a tunnel and that was were a lot of our punk gigs were...great place for shows. I never actually saw the owner there. He let it all be run by this Canadian illegal immigrant.

Don't know what made me think of that...I guess the mention of secrets. That whole thing bothered me...I don't know why it was a secret for so long. Or why a fictional novel is the most well known account.

Secrets ain't that secret if you're lookin'. I guess just growing up bored made me look into stuff?

aedes wrote:Do they owe us a living?

Love Crass, but pronouns, man...

Saw the burnt remains of Crass in 2014. After about 45 min of free sax and spoken word read off a sheet over a (admittedly kinda neat) art film, it was good closure.

They peaked 30 years earlier.

Got other Crass stories...but I think they border more on opinion.

I saw Crass locally in (probably) 1982, sorry to say I didn't stay to the end

Bakersfield Sex Ring is my new band name. Also, how many anarcho-punks does it take to change a light bulb?













Trick question, punk can't change anything

Why are you not on one of the ILFcasts?!

Paul_C wrote:I saw Crass locally in (probably) 1982, sorry to say I didn't stay to the end

Ha!

Crass is my favorite band...my friend took a whole bunch of pictures from around that time at crass gigs. I don't remember where they were though. Close as I'll ever get though.

gnomethrone wrote: Trick question, punk can't change anything

I agree for the most part (have you seen the nostalgia scene these days...geez, it's kinda weird and costume-y).

Though, it did change fashion...


And anarchos made it so I didn't have to make an ass outta myself dancing. I could just stand there in all black and think about issues.

I'd say they made some stuff fun and found some new ways to get publicly intoxicated. Lightbulbs though...eh. *

Eivind August wrote:Why are you not on one of the ILFcasts?!

Don't know why gnomethrone hasn't yet.... Got any stories of socal?


*I love punk... think it did some great things and changed some stuff for the better haha.

lordgalvar, what is the best fortune you ever got in a fortune cookie?

I don't eat Chinese food, but my parents did like crazy. I used to eat the cookies though. If I remember correctly, it had a picture of a happy Buddha and the text was "A man behind you will change your perception*" (the wording is off, but it was to the same effect and equally, if not more, creepy). I used to have it in my wallet...might still be in a file somewhere.

I got one once that just said "42".

I tried vegan chow mein (too lazy to check spelling) once. Drano, an old friend, and I went out and she said she'd punch me in the face if I didn't. So I did. Six foot tall pregnant women can be fierce.

I gagged through a few bites.

* Might have been "life" instead of perception. Might have also had "strange" in there too.