TheatreAddict.com - Bakersfield Drama Blog

When I heard about this new alternative newspaper I was excited. I figured it would basically be the Blackboard with some new blood, ideas, and energy. Great. We need that. But I haven't even seen an issue yet and things are already seeming pretty f****d up. "They" (the apparant leadership of the paper supposedly run by committee) mixed it up with NL Beldardes, and it isn't good. Read about it for yourself so you'll know what I'm talking about.

The battle that started it all...

Follow-up follies...

Howard Owens talks about the foray...

Bakotopia.com and N.L. refuse to take down photos...

Also, James Mongold weighed in on his MySpace blog (like I'm doing now).

Well, I'm pissed. Nick Belardes is my brother. And not the brother who always gets in fights for stupid reasons and you have to bail him out of jail...the brother who you admire because he is ballsy and noble and intelligent, and a great guy.

REGARDLESS of the circumstances or specifics of the conflict, the idea that some Elitist Press people think NL is a blowhard only concerned with promoting himself and his book turns my stomach. BECAUSE, if that is what they see, it tells me that they don't GET Bakersfield culture and they have no idea what the current state of local music, art, and literature is. Not to mention that they're going to drive away a large part of their potential audience before they even publish.

People like me.

Arrogant? Profiteer? You must be retarded. NL is a struggling artist who works a dayjob and blogs his ass off at night about arts, music, and literature. Anyone ever read NL's blog and close the page because you just get so sick of him trying to sell you a book? No, me neither. I bought his book because it's about Bakersfield and very interesting.

To think that NL is only concerned with promoting himself and his book is ridiculous. There are 100 stories about bands, art shows, theatre productions, and other Bakersfield gossip that has nothing to do him or his own work for every article that even mentions his book(s).

NL pitched a story idea to the Elitist Press about doing an interview with the incarcirated man who inspired the main story of his book. Rober Mistriel (I think). They shot it down.

Are you f***ing serious? I'm drooling. That would be more interesting than anything I have ever read in or about Bakersfield. I've been on Mistriel's website. This is some captivating shit. Rolling Stone did an article about the "Lords" a year ago, but there was nothing in it nearly as juicy as an exclusive interview.

Good enough for Rolling Stone, but not the Elitist Press.

NL should do that article for the same reason he wrote the book. God damn, it's fascinating. People will want to read it. Morons.

Bottom line, Elitist Press...this is a problem. NL is the best of the best when it comes to alternative journalism in this town. He is a genius, a great writer, and a hell of a nice guy.

If you don't want him, you don't want James Mongold, you don't want me...

You don't want captivating stories from writers with original voices.

What you don't see in this online crazyness, is that NL is not a bully with a handful of blogger friends. He is a soft spoken, RESPECTED artist with an army of friends and comrades who will back him through anything, because he backs us. You make an enemy out of him, you make an enemy out of all of us. And you'll be surprised how many there are.

Get it through your skull, Elitist Press, or just go away.

And by the way. The Elitist Press isn't funny when you act like this.

How about "Obtuse Pricks"? Maybe that was already taken?

posted by TheatreAddict.com  # 11:47 AM