The Renegade Rip Vol. 84 No. 2

The Renegade Rip Bakersfield College

w w w.t h e r i p.com

Vol. 84 ∙ No. 2

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

Greg Chamberlain resigns School president heading back to the classroom

By Zak S. Cowan Editor in Chief In nearly four years, Greg Chamberlain has experienced difficulties and triumphs as president of Bakersfield College, and now, having resigned from his position on Feb. 9, plans on bringing what he has learned into the classroom.

“In my professional career it’s a good time for me to step back and teach before I retire,” Chamberlain said. “Personally it’s a lot healthier for my family and I. “Classroom teaching at the community college [level] is what I do best.”

Chamberlain notes many accomplishments during his tenure, including the implementation of the writing lab and other direct services for students.

He also is hopeful that the change he has brought to BC will help the relationship between administration and students.

“I think I’ve brought about, hopefully,

transparency in the operations of what we do,” he said. “I hope that I increased campuswide participation and understanding of the governance process.”

Chamberlain points to the ability to get through the recent economic downturn with “very limited impact on staff” as another one of his major accomplishments.

Chamberlain openly admits that he is relieved to relinquish his duties as president and is excited to take what he’s learned into the classroom.

“One of the things that I think I’ll take into the classroom is … that students are our students,” he said. “The students that walk through the door are the students we need to serve.

“It has truly helped me to see that there are so many amazing people at this institution.

They work hard for our students.”

Chamberlain said that he will “absolutely” be at BC for the foreseeable future, saying, Please see CHAMBERLAIN, Page 5

Resignation hits colleagues by surprise

By Patricia Rocha Copy Editor

megan luecke / The Rip

Greg Chamberlain speaks on Jan. 28 at Bakersfield College’s annual Sterling Silver Dinner.

Bakersfield College president Greg Chamberlain surprised many with his recent announcement to resign as president after June 30 to return to his teaching career.

His colleagues Nan GomezHeitzeberg, the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Academic Senate President Cornelio Rodriguez described their overall reaction to the announcement.

“I was very surprised. There was no indication, no indicators that that might be even happening,” said Rodriguez.

Gomez-Heitzeberg believed he did a good job in his role as president because he was an analytical and genuine person who focused

on students to shape his decisions at BC. “I had mixed emotions. My first response was remembering how innovative and effective he was as a faculty member,” said Gomez-Heitzeberg. “Second was a personal response, which was disappointment because from a personal perspective, he’s the kind of person you want to work for and work with.”

Rodriguez said aside from being surprised, he was saddened to lose a president that had built a strong relationship of trust with his administration through his integrity and mutual respect.

“Those things mean a lot to a lot people, but they really mean a lot to me,” he said.

Though they’re surprised he’s Please see REACTIONS, Page 5

A tale of two seasons

Gregory d. cook / The Rip

The Renegades bench watches as the final moments of Bakersfield College’s Feb. 8 game against L.A. Valley tick off the clock in the Gil Bishop Sports Center. The Renegades lost in overtime 67-65.

BROKEN SPIRITS | Close losses after promising start doom season for men’s team.

FLYING HIGH | Women’s team just a win away from entering the postseason.

By Esteban Ramirez Sports Editor

By Esteban Ramirez Sports Editor

Bakersfield College men’s basketball season started with a promising start, but throughout the year they suffered some tough losses.

This year’s team had some good perimeter players and good interior players, but right before their opening game they lost freshman center Taevanwe Morrison.

“The season has been a disappointment, since we had some high hopes,” said BC coach Rich Hughes. “It started with the season ending injury of 6’8 Taevanwe Morrison the week before season started, and got worse from there,” he said.

“I don’t really know why the season turned out how it did, but I will say that the four areas that hurt us the most were defensive lapses, rebounding, turnovers and shot selection.

Please see MEN’S, Page 10

The season for the Bakersfield College women’s basketball team was filled with a promising start and an exciting run for the Western State Conference title.

The women’s team currently has a 15-12 record and 7-3 in conference play. They also have gone undefeated at home in the regular season for the first time ever. Their play at home and throughout the year is what has them on the verge of a conference title.

“I’m happy that we’re first in the conference, but I’m a lot happier that the team is playing hard and everybody’s all in toward that goal,” said BC coach Paula Dahl.

The team has gone through some tough situations, like losing both forward Madison Tarver and forward Gabi Morales. Despite all the barriers, they still have found a way to keep winning consistently.

Please see LADY ’GADES , Page 10

Inside

Page 6: ‘Star Wars’ reaches the third dimension with style.

Page 5

Bakersfield College guard Jausecca Cockeral attempts a basket as Citrus College guard Amaris Taghdis attempts to block on Feb. 11 in the BC gym.

BC demographics change

By Keith Kaczmarek Reporter

Two arrests in connection with on-campus car theft

martin chang / The Rip

Page 11

The Painton family bonds on the baseball diamond.

Bakersfield College’s demographic has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years.

According to data available on BC’s website, the most dramatic change has been the growth of students identifying themselves as Hispanic/Latino and the decrease of the proportion of students identifying themselves as White.

“We are an old school, but our ethnicity falls into our service area,” said Amber Chiang, director of marketing and public relations for BC. “Our enrollment reflects the community. We are doing what we are supposed to do, serve the community.”

In 2002, Hispanic/Latino students were

only 36.4 percent of the student population, but in 2012 this group has grown to 56 percent. White students fell from 45.1 percent to 28 percent. This 2012 data roughly matches Bakersfield’s 2012 demographic statistics on the city’s website.

Chiang credits various changes in the student body to the changing economy of California, and how a tough economy sends people back to BC. “When you are talking about 10 years ago, there was a different job market. You could get a job paying $20-30 an hour right out of high school. Why would you go to school when you could do that?” said Chiang.

Please see DEMOS, Page 5

Source: BC website

Features

Page 2

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

Blues musician shares his passion of music

By Breanna Fields Reporter

“We gave away everything we had except our guitars, clothes and an amp,” said Ray, “We Having experienced all of the bought a van with 100 bucks and highs and lows of rock ’n’ roll, hit the road.”

The cross-country venture beLanny Ray, a blues musician and guitar instructor at Front Porch gan in San Diego and consisted Music, has embarked on a num- of dozens of pick-up gigs in each ber adventures over the years state along the way.

“We’d just pick a bar, go in playing and touring with legendary artists like Chuck Berry, John and say, ‘Hey, we’re working our way to New York. Can we Mayall and George Thorogood.

Born in Dallas, TX, Ray play for a hat?’ Sometimes we’d picked up the guitar at the age of leave with 500 bucks; sometimes 12, and by 13 he had organized we’d leave with five bucks and a his first group with his brother hamburger,” Ray said. Ray was who later became the drummer impressed by the hospitality that many people showed along the for the band Slaughter.

He grew up traveling on the way by offering them food and a road with both of his parents. place to stay.

By the His father time they was a comegot to dian named Rhode IsRandy Cosland, they ta and his were out of mother, Betmoney, gas ty Blue, was and food. a rhythm and Despite this blues singer. setback, They both they headed performed to the Rhode –Lanny Ray, on the wellIsland Blues k n o w n Musician Festival American with high TV variety program, “The Ed Sullivan hopes of catching a glimpse of Show,” and had a movie based on legendary blues player Muddy Waters. their life called, “For the Boys.”

They quickly realized that His mother brought the news one day that they would be mov- they would not be able to get in ing to California for his father’s the venue, but fate would have its way at that moment when Ray career.

“That was when I got the blues and his friend were recognized permanently,” Ray said with a by a man from playing a previous gig. laugh.

“The guy said, ‘Go to RutArriving in California meant the start of a new band, which land, VA and ask for Henry at the ultimately led him to some of his Back Home Café,” said Ray. They made their way to Verfirst gigs in clubs and bars.

Ray also had the opportunity mont and found that they were to play guitar for American blues able to book a gig and began musician Big Joe Turner who playing immediately.

“We were just two road-worn wrote the song, “Shake, Rattle and Roll” which was covered and guys,” he said.

Impressed with what he heard, popularized by Elvis Presley.

By his mid-20s Ray sold his an employee at the café called belongings and headed to the the owner and held the phone up east coast with a friend after to them while they were playbeing invited by Pat Carlin, the ing.

“He comes over and says, older brother of famed comedian George Carlin, whom he had ‘You guys can have anything you want, but no steak and no lobknown for many years.

“We gave away everything we had except our guitars, clothes and an amp. We bought a van with 100 bucks and hit the road.”

ster.’ So we play another song, he’s on the phone again and after the second song is over he said, ‘If you want steak and lobster, that’s fine too!’”

After refueling at the cafe, they started playing there on a regular basis, which led to a number of other bookings around town.

“It was like this scene. Everybody knew each other. People were sharing guitar strings… whatever you needed,” Ray said.

At that point they, began booking gigs all over the East Coast, although they were primarily based in Vermont.

After their first experience with the chilly winter weather, they decided to pack up and head back to the West Coast and go to Seattle, WA, for more gigs.

Only three days after arriving in Seattle in the early 1980s, Ray was headed to Alberta, Canada where he was paid $300 a week to perform.

By the 1990s he made his way to Bakersfield and started playing regularly at a club called Suds that was at one point located on the Wallstreet Alley across the street from Guthrey’s Alley Cat. “It was a full-on, even better than L.A., legitimate blues club,” said Ray. One night when they faced technical difficulties, drummer and owner of Front Porch Music Artie Niesen stepped in and lent them a PA system.

A friendship resulted and they began playing and gigging together in Ray’s current band, The Reels.

In addition to playing festivals and other paid gigs (most recently the Padre Hotel), Ray works as a guitar instructor at Front Porch Music and is currently working on a solo album.

The Reels have released two full-length albums titled “The Reels” and “Bare-Bone” which both infuse a heavy dose of blues music and rock ‘n’ roll.

The Reel’s music is featured regularly on SiriusXM Radio channel 74 and can also be found online with additional information about the band at www. thereels-newblues.com.

Megan Luecke / The Rip

Lanny Ray stands outside of The Nile on Feb. 11 next door to Front Porch Music.

GSA seeks gender-neutral facilities on BC campus

By Breanna Fields Reporter

teela walker / The Rip

Alexis Blanton, head of the GSA Transgender Rights Committee, looks up at the women’s restroom the SE building.

The Gay Straight Association at Bakersfield College is currently working toward making changes on campus that will reflect their morality of equality through gender-neutral facilities as well as other adjustments for transgender students.

Transgender is a term used to describe someone who, for example, may be female but later discover that label does not particularly suit who they are.

That person may be more comfortable taking on the role as a male. This can also refer to a male transitioning into a female role.

There have been a number of ideas proposed by the GSA that follow gender-neutral standards for facilities, documents and language.

Alexis Blanton, vice president of the GSA, recently spoke to the Student Government Association about the growing issues that face transgender students on campus.

“We’re just trying to get these issues solved and let people know,” said Blanton.

Gender-neutral restrooms are a primary focus of the GSA, and Blanton

hopes that these changes will be made preferred on university documents, as to allow transgender students to have a well as have the opportunity to change comfortable experience on campus. gender on those documents if they are “I feel that even if there is only one transitioning. student, it matters,” said Blanton, who Blanton also feels that it is important insists on taking steps toward trans- to educate both students and faculty gender equality regardless of the pop- members on transgender needs so that ulation size. they are better prepared to understand Blanton hopes to eliminate seg- or handle a situation that may arise. regated restThis could rooms, or at be as simple the least install as refraining new genderfrom making neutral facilithe assumption ties that would that a person is be available to male or female –Alexis Blanton, all students on in a phone conGSA vice president campus. versation or on There are a documents that number of other transgender-friendly include gender-related information. methods that the GSA recommend “I feel that the transgender issue is faculty and students practice on a reg- an upcoming thing,” said Blanton, reular basis. ferring to the current level of awareFor transgender students, it can be ness in our community. uncomfortable to approach instructors The GSA hosts club meetings evregarding their situation and names on ery Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the library the classroom roster. commons room L149.

The GSA would like the BC campus There is an additional meeting for to participate in a non-discrimination transgender equality in the cafeteria policy that includes “gender-identity every Tuesday at 1 p.m. or expression.”

More information on GSA can be In this case, that would mean al- found online at bcgaystraightassocialowing students to have the name they tion.weebly.com.

“I feel that even if there is only one student, it matters.”

Theater production inspires women of all races

By Ruben Perez Reporter In honor of Black History Month the Bakersfield Community Theatre presented the Tony Award winning play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange.

“For Colored Girls” was written in 1975 and was first performed in Berkeley, California.

It deals with controversial issues affecting women such as drug usage, abortion and HIV. Seven women from different backgrounds perform a series of poems that describe issues that can affect any woman.

The play is an inspirational message to women to find the courage within themselves to rise up during hard times.

Tyler Perry made the play into a film in 2010. While the film was good, the play is quite different. The film suggests that the problems only affect a small group of women at an apartment

building.

The play spreads the women throughout the country and gives the audience a sense that these issues affect more women than we think. Also, the play includes poems and stories that were not included in the film.

The producer Tomeka Powell said that they chose to do this

play as a way to celebrate Black History Month and because of this play’s message.

“It’s not just for one group because these problems can happen if you’re black or white,” said Powell. The play serves as an inspiration for women of all backgrounds.

It tells women to never accept

the disrespect of a man and they can triumph over any obstacles set in their path.

In the end of the play, the women find gods within themselves and learn to love themselves for who they are.

The play will be run at the Bakersfield Community Theatre until Feb. 25.

Features

Page 3

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

Single father not the stereotypical deadbeat dad

By Metiqua Eng Reporter When most people think about a single parent, they think of a mother who struggles to work hard, support and provide for her child. But in today’s society, the roles of parenthood are not only limited to being a mother.

For 27-year-old Brock Downing, being a full-time college student and worker never takes precedence over fatherhood even in the midst of a busy schedule.

From schoolwork and finals to potty training 3-year-old son

Aydin, being a good father is top priority in the hectic lifestyle that parenthood entails.

Downing was the product of a single-parent home in which his mother was the primary caretaker.

“Not having a father my entire life, and still to this day not knowing who my father was, I just would never allow or let myself bear the thought of my son not knowing or having his father there,” he said.

“I think it made my parenting ten times better, but it gets hard at times because I never had that

father figure to teach and train me in anything. But I look at it like, ‘OK, if I did have one, this is how I would want my father to teach me and raise me.’”

Downing cherishes being a dad and refers to the day his son was born saying, “I was overwhelmed in my heart. He takes after me in every way known to man from his personality, his looks, his attitude, and his whole persona.”

But whilst Downing feels parenting is gratifying, he also feels it’s difficult.

“At first I was scared because

I didn’t want one, and I didn’t plan on it,” he said. “I was still nowhere in my life at the time, and it really screwed me up emotionally, but at the same time it changed my life, turned everything around, and made it better.”

For this hardworking father, getting an education and pursuing a good career is the best way to set up a successful life for his son.

“I just go to school and finish my degree so I can make life better for me and him,” he said.

“The only thing that’s really im-

portant to me is that he has a roof over his head and that he wakes up laughing and smiling every day.”

Even under the pressure to be a dependable father and trying to succeed in getting a college degree, Downing admits that there are aspects of being a parent that he does fear.

“The scariest part of parenting is losing him,” he said. “Not like he’s kidnapped, but just losing him as in ‘screw you dad’ or messing up to where he hates you. Or the other parent comes and tries to take him away and

they’ve never been there. That was the hardest and scariest moment when he was almost taken away from me.”

The responsibility and love for being a father has led Downing to fight for his son. He currently has custody and is striving to give Aydin the best.

“Even though it’s hard at times just make sure that your child is always there and taken care of and happy,” he said. “Even the times he’s not happy, just make him happy. Do anything you possibly can to make him enjoy and live life.”

Globetrotter chases dream

By Martin Chang Opinions Editor

Jackie Gibson / The Rip

“Skylanders: Sypro’s Adventure” toys and game are fun for kids of all ages.

Skylanders game fun for kids and adults

By Jackie Gibson Reporter Last year on Oct. 16, 2011, “Skylanders: Spyros Adventure” was released here in the United States by Activision.

In this game, the player gets to be a Portal Master that can control up to 37 different characters. The player is promised a journey where he or she can explore different lands and battle creatures of those lands, all while collecting gold and randomized treasures.

As the player goes around doing all these things, they are also on a journey to save their home world from a malevolent Portal Master by the name of Kaos.

Although this game has an ESRB rating of E10+, it’s not just children getting into Skylanders. Adults alike have been sucked in by this game’s charming fun.

Chance Goble, an art major at Bakersfield College, recently acquired Skylanders from his grandmother this last holiday season. He said he enjoyed playing the game.

“I like the game,” said Goble.

“It’s awesome. The variety of characters you can use and the paths you can put the characters on, even though it’s a kid’s game there is a lot of fun stuff.

It reminds me of old school …’Magic: The Gathering’ or something. It’s just fun. Each character you can build up, and even though it’s cartoony and everything, you have so many characters you can choose from and always switch them out.”

Goble added, “You can go and play the same level again with each new character to

build that character up so there are a million possibilities. The game is never ending.”

Goble was asked whether or not he would actually recommend this game to children.

“I recommend it for anybody,” he commented. “My Favorite character has got to be Trigger Happy.

“He’s a guy that shoots these two guns, he also goes around throwing giant popsicles at people.

“It’s cool too because you can change their hats and/or armor so that each hat does something special for them.

The hats can give like five plus magic or health. They are pretty goofy hats too. They are kind of funny looking.”

These Characters can also transfer to other game consoles.

“I can have a certain hat on a character that I played on my Xbox and my nephew can take that character and play it on his Wii at my grandmother’s house and it will still have that ability-boosting hat on,” Goble explained.

These 37 characters that accompany the game cannot be borrowed but you can re-register them to your console and change ownership.

Gobles himself has 13 of these 37 characters, including one expansion pack.

“There is a lot of characters,” Goble stated. “It can get expensive though. You have the choice to buy all of them so it can get pricey. As long as you have one character of every element you shouldn’t have to buy all of them. If you are missing an element, well then you’re stuck and can’t unlock it.”

When Blenda Rodriguez was cut from his high school basketball team, he didn’t let that kill his dream. After taking few years as a break, he said to himself, “I have a love of basketball. I’m just going to keep working hard.”

He started out playing college and NBA halftime shows. Then he was featured on DVDs. According to Rodriguez, He was “reinventing himself.” One day the Harlem Globetrotters called for an audition, and in 2007 he became one of five people that year to become a Harlem Globetrotter.

The Globetrotters will be performing in Bakersfield at 7 p.m.

Feb. 16 at Rabobank Arena.

Now, as a five-year Harlem Globetrotter, he tells kids across the country about how their dreams can come true.

On Feb. 10, he visited both Valley Oaks Charter School and Bakersfield Memorial Hospital to spread his positive message of dreams coming true to the children of Bakersfield.

Rodriguez describes such events as “90 percent of what we put our hearts into. The rest is what you see on the court.”

He describes the overall goal of these events as “to make people happy.

“To show them that I did not become a Harlem Globetrotter overnight, and it took a lot of hard work.

“To show that if you make sacrifices, that you’re going to become great people and have a great future.”

Rodriguez believes that he teaches children how to “believe in their dreams.” He said, “they learn how to cooperate. They learn to have effort, enthusiasm and responsibility.”

At Valley Oaks, Rodriguez would pick volunteer children in the audience to show them how to perform the trademark Harlem Globetrotter tricks and play basketball games with them.

He said of interacting with the children one on one, “It feels great to interact with the kids because I remember that when I was a little kid in school. They would bring musicians and magicians, and we would be so amazed and thrilled and happy and excited. So just to bring a professional basketball player to their school, it definitely touches their hearts. They feel happy. They see the tricks and are amazed, something they’ve

martin chang / The Rip

Five-year Harlem Globetrotter Blenda Rodriguez shows off his tricks on Feb. 10 at the Valley Oaks Charter School. never seen before. It’s something that they will probably never forget and last them a lifetime.”

Jennifer Massie, a parent who brought her three kids to the Valley Oaks event, said of the event,

“I think it can be really encouraging for the kids and help with their character building, and maybe help them get a interest in basketball. I found it very interesting and fun, [I heard] kids

laughing.”

Her child, Joseph Massie, was one of the children picked to be taught tricks.

He said he had fun and liked learning tricks.

Open mic seeks to revitalize mall Nate Perez Reporter Outside of the movie theater, the East Hills Mall isn’t exactly known as an entertainment spot.

It doesn’t have many popular corporate stores, nor does it have heavy foot traffic. It almost seems isolated at times.

Rene Garcia, owner of the Canna Café, is trying to change that. Every Wednesday night, there is an open mic night located at the food court from 6–10 p.m., free of charge.

Garcia said, “Open mic has been going on since October when the coffee shop opened.”

He continued, “when we first started the open mic, we started it in conjunction with the Ba-

kersfield College improv group right before they went on break, and we’ve just been running with it ever since.”

Garcia wants to make it known that open mic is strictly for local talent, regardless if you’re a poet, actor, singer, DJ, or a comedian.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Garcia.

He has encountered a few difficulties with different management companies that have owned the mall.

Garcia explained, “we had a pretty good following going, but around late December, when the mall first switched hands, the interim management company that took over, they forbade us from doing any open mic until the mall switched hands again.

He continues, “[That] screwed us up and we lost momentum.

We lost a lot of the customers and fans and the artists that were coming here.

“We lost them in that meantime, and then the mall switched hands two more times and this third owner, which is Save Mart Supermarkets, gave me the okay and said start doing it again, so I’ve been running with it ever since.”

On this particular night, there was one band, a few acoustic sets and a comedian. The only thing missing was an audience.

Garcia tries to do as much free advertising as he can whether it’s online or handing out flyers because the East Hills mall isn’t exactly a popular place.

Now that Save Mart Supermarkets manages the mall, Garcia is optimistic about his café and open mic nights.

He explains, “now that I have Save Mart in here, I feel a lot more confident, because for a moment there, I thought I was going to have to close down and either move to a new location or just call it a day.”

On March 30, a comedy show titled “Latinos versus Nerds” will be hosted at the Canna Café.

Prizes, contests, and a raffle will be held, as well as a few other festivities.

Garcia said, “If you want experience, come on down. We have the stage. We have the equipment. Come down here. Show us what you have.”

Nate Perez / The Rip

Just Vinny performs at open mic night on Feb. 8 at the East Hills Mall. The event was hosted by the Canna Cafe.

Features

Page 4

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

Strong ready to grow his knowledge Forget Column

By Zak S. Cowan Editor in chief

Most people in Bakersfield know Vernon Strong III as a hero. He’s the safety from Bakersfield High School, destined to advance to the next level, only to have those dreams shattered and knocked into a 43-day coma by a career-ending car accident.

But he’s more than that, and now Strong is focused on something more than his athletic aspirations.

“Sports are behind me,” he said. “I want to get in touch with my mind.”

Strong is 37 units into his AA,

nearly seven years after the evening that ended his football career. “[The hardest thing] was just getting the mindset back that I could actually [succeed],” he said. “The doctors said that I was going to be [paralyzed] the rest of my life. Doctors were saying I was going to be worthless the rest of my life.”

Ten words into a conversation, though, it’s evident that Strong is bright and that he’s already proven those doctors wrong.

Eventually he gets out what he wants to say, which is usually deep and meaningful, but every phrase and sentence is a

New social networking website is a smash hit

struggle.

Strong’s phone is full of countless to-dos, a sign of his struggle with remembering the littlest things.

“I have to write everything down.”

To Strong, his life is divided into two separate periods: before and after the accident.

The charming kid that could make you laugh on a dime is still there, but Strong admits that he needs a lot more help nowadays, and he is getting that help at Bakersfield College.

“I was sharp, but I didn’t have any knowledge behind it,” Strong said of himself before the acci-

dent. “Now, I’ve got knowledge to back it up.”

Strong has ambitions far beyond the gridiron. He plans on being a civil engineer when it’s all said and done.

“I still want to make an impact,” he says.

“My goal is to come out [of BC] with a 3.5 GPA. I’ve been smart in the past. I’ve done great things in the past, but I just want to do my best and see what I can do.”

Strong comes from a family of athletes. At times, knowing that he likely wouldn’t be able to follow that tradition was too much.

“Sometimes I would sit at

home and just cry because I knew it was going to be that much harder,” Strong said. “There were times when I felt alone … I just felt like there was no one in the world that could help me.”

Despite not ending up where he thought he would seven years ago, Strong is certain that he is where he was meant to be all along.

“Things may be going great, but God wants you in a different direction,” he said. “I played sports, I was good at sports, but now I have a chance to do something bigger.

“Now I am focused on growing my mind.”

Sing your candid heart out

By Angie DelGado Reporter

Many students around campus have not heard of the new phenomenon in social networking media known as Pinterest, but the ones that have swear that it is the new best thing.

Lauren Del Rio, 20, described it to her friends while grabbing a paper and pinning it on the wall, “Pin Interest, you pin your interests.”

It’s a virtual pinboard where you grab something you like, such as an image, a recipe or a comic, and you pin it. As the user, you can decide what topic to post your interests under. Some popular topics are wedding ideas, birthday parties and craft ideas. Some even have bucket lists.

“It’s like Tumblr, but Pinterest,” said Del Rio. Many students who have not used Pinterest know at least one person who uses it.

Matt Thayer, 25, said, “I don’t use it, but I’ve seen girls use it, and some of my friends who are elementary school teachers use it for craft ideas.”

Glenda Ventura, 19, browses Pinterest for ideas and plans for events in her future.

“I use it to plan my future wedding and for crafts, like making a dress out of a man’s buttoned down shirt,” Ventura said.

Ventura claims that she has different folders for different topics.

“I have topics for my future wedding, birthday parties and crafts.”

Pinterest is open for viewing to the public,.

However, in order to be able to pin and create folders, you need to request an invitation by Pinterest, or if you have a friend that has an account, they can invite you.

“It’s kind of exclusive,” said Ventura. “Some people may wait up to a year for an invite.”

Angie DelGado / The Rip

William Morehead, 26, sings “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day on Feb. 9 at the Padre Hotel.

Local radio station nominated yet again

By Crystal Sánchez Reporter KUZZ-FM 107.9 morning show co-hosts Steve Gradowitz and Geoff Emery talk about the history of KUZZ, an award nomination, the work that goes into creating the show, and what their listeners mean to them.

The two have been nominated for on-air personality of the year in medium market by the Academy of Country Music.

Buck Owens purchased KUZZ in 1966. In its 40-year history, KUZZ has been honored with numerous industry awards: Gavin Station of the Year, Billboard Station of the Year, Academy of Country Music Station of the Year and much more.

An Academy of Country Music Award can best be described according to Emery as, “country music’s equivalent to a Grammy.

The Academy of Country Music promotes country music, country artists and the media.” This year the Academy of Country Music Awards is planned for April 1 in Las Vegas.

To be nominated, the station had to submit a 10-minute video clip of its best show for the entire year. Then a judging panel se-

lected the finalists for each category. KUZZ is nominated in the medium market category.

KUZZ’s morning show cohosts are both very excited about the nomination.

“I really wasn’t expecting it.

I have been doing this for 27 years, and I am not a trained disk jockey, which is why being nominated for an award is a great honor. I am so happy our audience loves us for who we are,” Gradowitz said.

“Being nominated really validates the effort we go through every year to put on a good show and also the concern we have for our listeners,” Emery said.

If the duo wins on April 1, they said they would not have a speech planned.

“I honestly don’t even think we’ll get any camera time. They do have a presentation ceremony where you get your picture taken though,” said Emery. “I don’t expect to win, but if we do I will be extremely happy and humbled,” said Gradowitz Early in the morning when most people are still asleep, Gradowitz and Emery are busy creating their morning show.

When asked what it takes to create a radio show, Gradowitz

Nate Perez / The Rip

KUZZ displays their 2009 Radio Station of the year award. KUZZ is nominated for onair personality of the year in medium market by the Academy of Country Music. said, “we just listen to peoples’ calls and see what they want to talk about. Every once in a while, Steve and I will try and come up with a topic, but usually it doesn’t stick.”

The fans themselves play a big role in the show’s success. Gradowitz wanted the fans to know that, “they just got nominated.”

He also went on to say that the fans are the funniest and the

greatest joy of his life.

Meanwhile, Emery said, “ we feel a lot of pride in being nominated, and we really appreciate our listeners because this is their award too.”

the lame trends WORTHWHILE STYLE | The Rip’s copy editor and resident shoe addict discusses the lost art of dressing for your own style.

Style. You either have it or you don’t. What most people don’t realize is that actually having a style is a lot easier than all the fashion magazines might suggest.

The main problem people have with fashion is that w h a t ’ s “trendy” or “in” is constantly changing.

Fads come and go, seasons dictate what colors Patricia Rocha we should be wearing, and it’s all basically up to celebrities and the editors of Vogue to decide what’s next.

When Kim Kardashian is sporting a white, drop-crotch jumpsuit and Sarah Jessica Parker has hoof-inspired heels, one can only assume the fashion world has gone off the deep end.

However, the best way to avoid all the craziness is to develop your own style by what you decide looks nice on you. It sounds obvious, but all you have to do is wear what you love, and anything you don’t, avoid like the Jersey Shore cast does sunblock and classiness.

The first step to finding your own style is to find inspiration. Go through magazines and look past the neon furs, nine-inch heels and angrymodel poses. Instead, look for details you think are interesting, like certain patterns and color combinations.

The next step is to get rid of anything you have that doesn’t fit into the style you want for yourself. If you can go through your closet and find something you don’t like, doesn’t fit right, or doesn’t flatter you, get rid of it.

If it doesn’t make you feel like a million bucks when you’re wearing it, it isn’t worth keeping around.

After a while you should be able to pick out anything in your closet and just wear it proudly, leaving you no more “but I have nothing to wear” moments.

Especially when shopping, don’t let yourself settle. Stop buying something just because it’s only kind of cute, or it’s what you think you should be wearing, but you only sort-of like it. Use your new inspiration to figure out what you really do like.

What you don’t want to do is pigeonhole yourself into one cliché style, however.

You want the things you wear to be versatile, but still cover all of your interests.

If you like girly, poofy skirts and pink flats, but still love rocking your AC/DC tshirt, go with it. Throw that hipster grandma sweater over your pencil skirt and pumps.

Wear your casual jeans and converse with an awesome blazer and statement necklace. Everyone has multiple sides to their personality, and it’s a lot of fun representing all those sides with fashion.

Getting dressed shouldn’t be frustrating; it should be a positive way for you to express yourself nonverbally.

The last and most important aspect is to own your newfound style. If what you love isn’t exactly what everyone else loves, or isn’t exactly “in,” it doesn’t matter. In a few months what is “in” will be replaced with something else anyway. Don’t worry about what other people think and carry it with confidence because that’s what fashion and true style is all about.

News

Page 5

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Freedom rides through town

By Ruben Perez Reporter As a part of Harlem and Beyond’s events to celebrate Black History Month, Janie McKinney and Claude Liggins, two people involved with the 1960s Freedom Rides, were at the Beale Memorial Library to share their stories of the historical event.

Protesting the intolerance to newly enacted integration laws in the ‘60s, college students of all races decided to test the laws by taking buses from the nation’s capitol to the Deep South.

The journey was uneventful until they reached the South, where Ku Klux Klan members attacked the group when the bus stopped at a small store.

The daughter of the storeowners, Janie McKinney, was there and offered help to the Freedom Riders.

As McKinney recalls, a man had broken the back window to the bus and then threw in some sort of incendiary device. The explosion on the bus forced all of the passengers, both regular passengers and protesters, off the bus and into the angry mob.

“I heard someone ask for water and thought, well I can do

CHAMBERLAIN: Saying goodbye Continued from Page 1 “BC red is in my blood. I love it here.”

Chamberlain said that he will stay on as president for now, but that an interim president will be chosen shortly while a search for a permanent option is conducted. The search is expected to be finished by June 30, 2012.

“We held off the announcement, but we didn’t want to hold off long because we wanted there to be enough time to conduct a good search and develop a good transition,” he said.

The process plan of replacing Chamberlain is still being laid out between Chamberlain and Kern Community College District chancellor Sandra Serrano, and the final details are not set in stone.

As the first step of the process, an announcement of the opening will be sent out nationally, and then the “narrowing-down process” will commence, according to Chamberlain.

“That will follow the same process we have for all of our presidential searches,” Chamberlain said. “It will involve students, staff, faculty and administrators.”

As of now, no candidates are being considered.

that,” she recalled. She filled up a large bucket with water and took it through the crowd to the group.

One man after was struck in the head with a wooden object and as he turned around McKinney recalled telling the man, “It’s just water, drink it,” as she offered him help. A caravan later arrived to pick up the Freedom Riders and took them to Birmingham.

It was this act of kindness and bravery that ended up making her an outcast in her community.

She said the Klan did not go after her because she was a child that didn’t know what she was doing.

McKinney said she didn’t understand why colored people were only to be in the same place as white people if they were cleaning or working.

Unfortunately for the Freedom Riders this would be the last act of kindness they received before Birmingham, Alabama. In Birmingham they were beaten to the point where they had to stop the freedom ride.

A second wave of Freedom Riders, led by Diane Nash, was leaving from Nashville, Tennessee to Birmingham, Alabama to

DEMOs: Student body shifting

omar oseguera / The Rip

Freedom Riders Claude Liggins and Honorary Freedom Rider Mrs. Janie McKinney visit The Beale Library to speak on their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. finish in New Orleans.

Knowing what they would face, the second wave of freedom riders dropped out of college and had already made their last wills.

When the group made it to Birmingham, Alabama they were arrested at the bus station.

The Freedom Rides went from May to September of that year, with new waves of integrated students challenging the racial inequality of the South, all of which were arrested and put in jail.

Liggins at the time was a student at Los Angeles Community College. Liggins said “When I heard about the Freedom Rides I thought I should be on that bus, and when I heard the bus was bombed I thought I really should have been on that bus.”

Liggins was determined to join the Freedom Riders and went on

a trip from Washington to Alabama where he was arrested.

Liggins said that when they were arrested the judge took ten minutes to put them in jail for six months for disrupting the peace.

In jail Liggins was imprisoned with other important members of the civil rights movement such as Stokely Carmichael and Diane Nash.

Liggins said that racial inequality is still an important issue today with regards to illegal immigration and separating families to send the parents back into their home country.

“I can’t imagine going to work one day and end up being kicked out of the country,” said Liggins.

Even though it took a few years for the South to integrate, the Freedom Riders showed that people can make a big change with the use of nonviolent protest.

The biggest losers on campus Right: Jerry Hayes shows off his former pant size before he became a contestant on The Biggest Loser’s seventh season during a presentation put on by Bakersfield College’s Be Fit program on Feb. 8 inside the Forum West building.

Nathan wilson / The Rip

The Bakersfield Tea Party had a meeting Jan. 26 to go over their new agenda with a top priority being the prevention of the highspeed rail.

The Tea Party movement got its notoriety with protests in Washington D.C., but now it has become a nationwide movement with an agenda.

The Tea Party has members that are generally conservative or libertarians that are brought together by the movement’s core values, which are: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets.

Most of the meeting was spent viewing a lecture given by Michael Shaw of freedomadvocates. org called “The Ultimate War Globalism vs. America” about the United Nation’s Agenda 21.

Agenda 21 is a plan by the United Nations for worldwide sustainable development in the

manner of which humans affect the environment. It was signed by 178 nations and has been supported by every American President since George Herbert Walker Bush.

The plan is laid out in such a way that affects federal, state and local governments. Each county actually has its own Local Agenda 21.

The agenda says that the environment is the most important thing that gives governments the authority to take property away from landowners and turn it into a natural wildlife preserve. It does not matter if the land had been passed down for generations or is currently being used for personal gain, the government would be able to take it away from you.

Shaw explains how one of the key points of the agenda is abolition of private property. Eventually we would all be moved to “smart growth areas,” be governed by one world power, and

Continued from Page 1 “That was the reality then.

People need Bakersfield College now to retrain,” she said.

“When California recovers, we’ll be back down to thirteen thousand students and we’ll need to actively recruit. It’s cyclical.”

Students on campus seemed to agree.

“I wanted to better my future,” said Tuesday Smith, 19, a student. “I’m coming for nursing. It’s a really good feeling because I didn’t know what to do, and now I do.”

“My parents highly recommended I come to college,” said Josh Cruz, 21. “I want to move up to something and going to BC is a big difference.”

Cruz also noted that his mother was going back to school to get a degree in Child Development and stay competitive in the job market.

“You can’t get a job now,” said Tawntannisha Thompson, Student Government Association president, as she spoke about the need for degrees to get better jobs. “I had a job where I was teaching people my job, but because they had a degree, they were making more money than me.”

As a mother of children currently attending BC, she also

all resources would be evenly distributed throughout the governed region by the United Nations.

Shaw even said how shockingly Orwellian this concept is.

Shaw expressed how important it is to learn your local Agenda 21 so that you can stop it locally before it reaches the national level and gets out of hand.

After the film, the group went over the current agenda topics, the first being the high-speed rail. Originally, it would be an electric train system that would cost about $33 million to build, but now, it’s a diesel train and would cost about three times that amount to build.

Also, the group is in opposition of bill SB810. This bill, which the group called, “California’s Obama Care,” already failed once 19-15 and is being brought up again. The bill only needs 21 votes to pass.

They want these struck down because they feel it is too much government taking away the land

and choices of the citizens they should be representing.

As they see it, they have lost two battles already, the passing of the dream act and teaching contributions to history by homosexuals in schools.

In addition to all of the things on their agenda, they also have The Bakersfield Tea Party Book Club. They meet Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. at Coco’s on Rosedale Highway.

The group recently read the books “How Do You Kill 11 Million People” by Andy Andrews, “The Law” by Frederic Bastiat, and “Ameritopia” by Mark Levin.

Overall, the group wants people to be aware of what’s happening in our government and how to bring the power back to the people.

If you would like more information on The Bakersfield Tea Party, they have a Facebook page and the website bakersfieldteaparty.com.

sees a difference in students today. “They want more out of life, and they know they can’t get it from working at McDonald’s. Working at McDonald’s is not going to cut it.”

Other ethnic groups remained relatively constant or changed little. Students identifying themselves as African Americans hovered around 7 percent, Asian/Filipino students dropped from 5.7 percent to 5 percent, Pacific-Islanders hovered from 0.2 percent to almost 0 percent, and American Indians fluctuated from 1.9 percent to 1 percent.

A new category that was not in the 2002 data was students identifying themselves as “Two or More Races,” and this group consisted of 3 percent of the student population (also matching Bakersfield demographics).

The ratio of male to female students changed little. In 2002, the male/female ratio was 57.6 percent male to 42.4 percent female. In 2012, it is 59 percent male to 41 percent female.

Age has also moved slightly younger, with students aged 2024 growing by about 4 percent of total population and students 40-49 and 50-plus dropping by about a third or fourth each, but all other age groups remaining relatively constant.

REACTIONS: Staff on campus react with change coming at the top Continued from Page 1 leaving the position, they both said Chamberlain will no doubt continue to do great things for BC students as he returns to teaching.

“Who wouldn’t want to have Greg Chamberlain as their instructor in a classroom?” said Gomez-Heitzeberg.

“I think one thing I do remember when he was in the classroom was that I always, always, always heard nothing but positive things from students about him as a teacher,” Rodriguez said. “Students that have taken his class, the faculty that had maybe taken one of his workshops on computers, [they’re] always nothing but positive.”

Gomez-Heitzeberg said she feels Chamberlain’s career is now coming full circle.

“One of my first experiences of seeing Greg in a leadership role was at a presentation for people across the district on the innovative use of technology in the classroom, “ she said.

“There’s a certain symmetry to this isn’t there? Now he’s going

Tea Party meets locally

By Ruben Perez Reporter

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

back to the classroom, I’m sure he’ll be doing the same thing.

“I think his curiosity about what’s new out there will be demonstrated in finding different ways to present materials and use technology.”

She said that she hopes the new leader will recognize that BC has many strengths but needs to change based on the environment for the students while Rodriguez said he hopes the role will be filled by someone who can have what he and Chamberlain call “couragous conversations.”

“We can talk about the issues without taking it personally, that’s important,” he said.

“He and I have had several courageous conversations, and at the same time we can walk out and say ‘let’s go get a cup of coffee.’”

Rodriguez said he couldn’t think of someone specifically to replace Chamberlain, but hopes that he or she shares Chamberlain’s passion for the role as an effective president for the success of all of BC’s student population.

Commentar y

Page 6

Wednesday, Febuar y 15, 2011

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Column

Right wing full of hate AS MY BRAIN EXPLODES | Martin Chang’s take on people and culture.

When did the Republican Party become the party of hate? Because that is what it has become.

At one time they stood for low taxes, small government, and representing morals in an increasingly hedonistic culture.

But now it’s a party whose top priority is to spew a completely unreaMartin Chang sonable amount of hate toward our president for no other reason than the color of his skin.

Now, many people reading this are thinking, “The race card, how pedestrian,” but it has been the words of the conservatives that has led me to this conclusion, not some paranoid conspiracy theory. In fact, at first, I thought it was simply disagreement over policy.

Yet, every screeching Tea Party protester, every angry-filled Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity monologue, every strange nonsensical quote I read from Newt Gingrich makes it clear that the attacks on our president are not based on ideological disagreements, but based on hatred of the man.

This is because the conservatives in this country are not expressing ideas of any kind, no solutions, and no alternatives to the policies that are supposedly going to destroy America.

I listen again and again, trying to understand why so many in this country believe with such emotional vigor that Barack Obama is harming America, and instead of the ideas and solutions of conservatism, I hear people sneer “socialistic” with a startling hatred.

I hear angry protesters protesting nothing and spewing sentences with no meaning, other than the hate in their voice.

It is clear that whatever is behind this emotion is not based on politics. It couldn’t be, because politics are not being discussed.

It is the type of unreasonable anger that could only come from prejudice.

The false rumors and accusations that Obama was born outside of our country, the strange labels, like the Gingrich-coined “food stamp president.” can only be one thing – racism.

So I’m calling out the conservatives in this country. If your platform is more than racist hate, then prove it. Give solutions.

Tell me, and others that believe what I do, what you believe.

Actually say something beyond these thinly-veiled attacks on Obama’s race. Be a party that stands for more than hatred and anger, because as it stands now, I’m ashamed of America.

I’m ashamed of the people spreading this hate, and I’m ashamed that we have let an entire group attack a man not based on his ideas, but the color of his skin.

Let’s make America something I can be proud of again. Let’s get back to ideas. Let’s make these hate mongers change their tune.

Let’s make the discussion rise above this startling low.

New silent film brings back the best from the old

By Crystal Sánchez Reporter “The Artist” is an eye opening movie with great characters, costumes, music and messages.

The movie had an all-star cast that included Bérénice Bejo; Uggie, a dog; and ovie Jean Dujardin, who eview recently won a SAG Award for Best Actor in a motion picture, and played George Valentin. George is a famous 1920s silent film actor who had to come to terms with the changing of silent films to talking ones.

Bejo played Dujardin’s love interest named Peppy Miller.

Bejo’s character played an important role in the transformation of talking movies.

Both Dujardin and Bejo did an exceptional job at conveying the message of the movie through non-verbal communication.

Facial expression and body language played a huge role in

M R

this movie. And even Uggie, a Jack Russell terrier, got a leading role as Dujardin’s sidekick.

Uggie impressed the moviegoers with a variety of tricks and supplied many laughs throughout the film. Dujardin, Bejo and Uggie all played very charming and likeable characters whom you could not help but love.

The costumes for the film were impeccably designed for the time period of the 1920s and 1930s. From top hats to cloche hats, every costume looked cohesive and made the movie better. Dujardin’s character exuded luxury whenever he was wearing three-piece suits, silk robes,or a top hat.

The character definitely reminded me of Rhett Butler because of the way he carried himself and dressed. Meanwhile Bejo’s character first appeared plainly dressed but then as the story progressed she started wearing sequin dresses and fur coats.

I especially loved the color contrast of the costumes because even though the film was

CourtesY of The Weinstein Company

shot in black and white, you still noticed the difference in color.

Seeing the fashion that was present during the 1920s and 30s in the film really made me feel as if I went back in time.

Mark Bridges, costume designer for the film, really captured the theme of the movie and made it much more appealing.

My favorite thing about the movie was the music.

Ludovic Bource was the film’s music composer and he did a phenomenal job. In the opening scene, the music is very upbeat with its brass, string,

woodwind and percussion sections to set the scene of a packed house movie theater. The lighter and funnier moments were accented with staccato-like wind and string section.

Action scenes were also brought to life with loud brass and percussion sections. The constant presence of music throughout the film greatly helped move the story line along.

I found that the music helped me better understand what was happening in the film. I knew when to laugh and when to stay

silent. The music definitely made the movie one of a kind.

“The Artist” showcased the theme of change and the effects it could have on people.

Valentin, a once highly publicized silent film actor, began to experience the backlash of talking films.

He then adamantly refused to conform to the new style of film, he said in the film “if that’s the future, you can have it. I’m an artist, not a puppet.”

As talking films started becoming more popular, Valentin was left without a job and he had to sell all of his possessions.

Then, after experiencing a series of tragedies, Valentin is helped

by Miller in order to get back into acting.

Both Valentin and Miller emerged as a dancing duo performing in films, but never speaking. Valentin found the balance between staying the same and conforming to popularity.

The message resonated true with me about how it is important to adapt, but not to give up everything that makes you special.

3D adds little to ‘Menace,’ but you won’t mind

By Zak S. Cowan Editor in Chief “The Empire Strikes Back” is my favorite movie of all time, and after watching “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” in 3D, I’m more excited than ever to watch it on the big screen.

From the moment the words “Star Wars” pops ovie onto the screen, fading ever-so slightly into eview space, the blood was pumping, I can assure you. But after that, the audience was forced to sit through the worst 30 minutes in the greatest saga of all time: the opening to “The Phantom Menace.”

This gave me the chance to really take in the 3D technology.

I was very underwhelmed, and it looks like every other movie that has been converted into 3D. You see, there are two types of 3D movies: the ones that are filmed in 3D, such as “Avatar” and “Up,” and the ones that are converted, like the new “Alice in Wonderland” and the last “Harry Potter.”

The new “Star Wars” movies are obviously the latter, which really limits the technology in bringing what “Avatar” did back in 2010.

There is still the inward stage that the characters rest upon, but there is something missing. It’s when there are more than just one layer, more than just the actors and the background behind them, that it really looses that realism.

With the original trilogy waiting for its remake for a while, there is a chance that the technology could get way better, and that the 3D on “Return of the Jedi” could be the best of the six. Here’s hoping.

Besides that, I really enjoyed watching a movie I’ve seen 20 times again, this time with an added touch.

The pod race in the middle of the movie

M R

Courtesy of Lucas Films

looked awesome. The fast-paced action worked perfect with the 3D, with Anakin bobbing through the desert landscape of Tatooine.

Growing up in the ’90s, I never got a chance to watch my favorite movie, “The Empire Strikes Back,” on the big screen, having only gotten the chance to see the three prequels, and now I’m going to get that chance.

It does suck that I’m going to have to

wait that long, and that there is even a chance that Lucas Films goes belly up before they even get close to rendering the Original Trilogy in 3D, but just knowing that I may get that chance, it’s well worth the wait.

Sure, there are theaters that show nothing but “Star Wars,” but that just isn’t the same as seeing it in a packed theater with hundreds of oh-so-awesome nerds cheering when the scrolling text hits the

stars of the universe.

That’s the sort of joy that I encountered when I saw “The Phantom Menace” for the umpteenth time, the sort of joy that those same nerds, dressed from head-to-toe in Jedi garb, cheered when the worst movie of the saga started playing. Yeah, that’s love.

I just can’t freakin’ wait to see Princess Leia’s sexy buns in glorious 3D action.

An Old West show for the cool young audience

By Ruben Perez Reporter What does The Gaslight Melodrama’s newest play “Showdown in Shafter” have in common with a great lay plate of nachos? They eview are both cheesy as hell. That is not meant as an insult, because “Showdown in Shafter” is seven

P R

flavors of fun.

If you have never been to The Gaslight Melodrama, they are definitely worth a visit. They are only one of four Melodrama theaters in California, and the only rules are that you cheer the hero and boo the villain.

This may sound a bit corny, but once it starts you can’t help but join in. The audience participation isn’t mandatory, but you end up having more fun if you participate. You can also shout out “you suck” at the vil-

lain, and he’ll make a joke on the spot.

The play is a western set in Shafter during the prohibition era with Luke Lavender, the villain, illegally selling alcohol in his cellar. As a get-rich-quick scheme, Lavender decides to get a mail-order bride, kill her and collect the life insurance.

Just because the concept came out of an episode of Dateline shouldn’t discourage you.

They’ve got plenty of good jokes about Kim Kardashian,

The Renegade Rip Editorial Board Winner of the 2003 and 2008 JACC Pacesetter Award The Renegade Rip is produced by Bakersfield College journalism classes, printed by Bakersfield Envelope & Printing Co. Inc., and circulated on Wednesdays during the fall and spring semesters.

The newspaper is published under the auspices of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees, but sole responsibility for its content rests with student editors.

The Rip is a member of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges and the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

Staff

how Shafter sucks, and even poke a quick funny at Bakersfield to keep things funny.

Fortunately for the damsel in distress, the hero, Sam Steadfast, is able to save her from dying in terribly cliché western murder attempts like being trampled by a cattle stampede and tied to the railroad tracks.

Not only were they able to pull off the most over-used plot about a western ever, it was so much fun the whole theater was laughing.

Also during the intermission, the actors will stay in character and take your food orders.

Little things like this are what make this theater different.

After the play, they did a Broadway Revue about people snowed in at an airport terminal.

Again, they were able to take a lame concept and make it entertaining with a great song and dance.

“Showdown in Shafter” will be running until March 10, so don’t miss it.

Write The Rip

Letters should not exceed 300 words, must be accompanied by a signature and the letter writer’s identity must be verified.

The Rip reserves the right to edit letters, however, writers will be given the opportunity to revise lengthy or unacceptable submissions.

If an organization submits a letter as a group, it must be signed by only one person, either the leader of the organization or the letter writer. Pen names are not allowed and anonymous letters will not be published.

Editor in Chief........................Zak S. Cowan Reporters/Photographers: Hannah Breeland, Gregory D. Cook, Angie Photo Editor...........................Megan Luecke DelGado, Metiqua Eng, Nestor Features Editor...............................Jon Nelson Fernandez, Breanna Fields, Jackie Gibson, Opinions Editor........................Martin Chang Keith Kaczmarek, Meisha McMurray, Sports Editor........................Esteban Ramirez Omar Oseguera, Nate Perez, Ruben Perez, Copy Editor...............................Patricia Rocha Crystal Sanchez, Nicholas Sparling, Jerold How to reach us -Address: Bakersfield College, Tanner, Teela Walker, Nathan Wilson 1801 Panorama Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93305 Adviser.......................................................Danny Edwards

-Phone: (661) 395-4324 -Web site: www.therip.com -Email: ripmail@bakersfieldcollege.edu

Commentar y

Page 7

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Staff Editorial

Let’s be realistic, two years isn’t enough for most BC students Grow and go.

It’s a phrase that is being used by many faculty members and administrators at Bakersfield College.

They want us students, as they should, to do our two years here and move on, which, in a perfect world, would be the case for everyone. There is one problem with this: it’s not a perfect world, and our school is not an excep-

tion. Classes are being cut across the board, tuition is being raised (call it fees if you want, the students think of it as tuition) and we’re all going to school in beatup buildings that are waiting for repairs, yet we are being told that we should all finish in two years.

Paying more for less.

That’s what we are being asked to do as students at BC, to achieve more with less, and now

we’re being told that we need to hurry things up and that we’re not working hard enough.

Sounds like a bit of a mixed message.

We understand that these projects take a while to push through, especially when it’s funded with money from the state. There are a lot of students that don’t have the help of their parents either, including students that work

full-time jobs and support themselves.

And now some officials are blaming certain budget issues on the fact that more students are using the Board of Governor’s Waiver, but the fee for one unit has gone up $20 in two years.

Raise the prices, take away aid, and then urge us to hurry up and get the hell out?

Some of us are here for more

than just to transfer. A lot of students have gotten their certificate, or even their Associate’s in something, yet they still have so much to learn out of classes.

A journalism student will learn the brunt of his knowledge on this newspaper at BC, and some need more than the required two semesters to polish their skills before being ready to take on a four-year university’s version.

We understand you want us to get our degree done and move on. We all want to achieve that.

We don’t need some administrator reminding us.

The school’s administration should be focused on giving the students the best environment to succeed, and telling us to just hurry up and get out when classes are diminishing and waitlists are filled isn’t helping.

The music we love in our lives

These three albums changed the lives of these three staff members and helped them through good and not-so-good times

Kansas Leftoverture

By Gregory D. Cook Photographer The album, and in particular the song “The Wall,” helped get me through one of the lowest parts of my life.

Admittedly, 1990 was a tough year for me. I had been in the U.S. Army since 1985, serving as a combat engineer, stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Our unit was rarely ever actually in Hawaii, deployed over 200 days a year to various locales around the Pacific Rim, mostly for cross-training with our allies, but occasionally in response to some threat, or just to remind the rest of the world that America had an army and knew how to use it.

As exciting as traveling to places like the Philippines and Thailand was, after the better part of three years of watching me leave for places unknown, sometimes with just a phone call’s notice in the middle of the night, my wife had had enough. She packed up our 2-year-old son and headed

home to her family.

It’s not something I’m proud to admit, but I went right off the deep end. I stopped caring about everything. I stopped eating, and if I could have, I would have stopped breathing. I got bad enough that I wound up in the mental ward of a military hospital for a couple of days. During my weekend stay, a buddy brought me my Walkman, and one cassette, Kansas’ “Leftoverture.” I had listened to that tape hundreds of times, but suddenly the song “The Wall” took on a personal meaning for me.

I would listen to it at night, just before I fell asleep.

The lyrics uncannily fit my situation, and its powerful message about the inner struggle to overcome, gave me the inspiration to get back on my feet and soldier on. I made that song my personal anthem, and I have carried it with me, still listening to it whenever I find a “dark and silent barrier between, all I am, and all that I would ever want to be.”

Pat Benatar Best Shots

By Jackie Gibson Reporter Pat Benatar’s album “Best Shots” came out on CD in 1989. That year, my parents bought their first CD player. At first listen, I was overwhelmed with her vocal range. She was hitting every note.

Whether it was high or low, she owned it.

Her rock songs, such as “Hit me with Your Best Shot” and “All Fired Up” got me dancing with my friends after school everyday.

Benatar’s uplifting, rebellious spirit came off in her lyrics. Her soft and tender ballads soothed me to sleep at night and the memories of good old days gone by flood back to me when I hear them today.

During my teenage years her music soothed my heart after those bad breakups. I definitely played out “Love

is a Battlefield” in my teens, along with “Fire and Ice.” Looking back now, I also recall performing to Benatar’s hit “Heartbreaker” in Mr. Orr’s Drama class at North High School.

Pat Benatar’s music has been in my life like a soundtrack for as long as I can remember.

During my early 20s, which I like to refer to as my “dark period,” Pat’s songs, “Invincible” and “Fire and Ice” carried me into my now, much calmer, early 30s.

Her music still makes me want to get up and dance when she is played on the air. Her vitality and love for life comes across in many of her songs.

Just listening to her crank it out on those vocals makes my day better. No matter what mood I am in, her music can always change it. That is why “Best Shots” is my favorite.

Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destruction

By Breanna Fields Reporter The allure of the music industry has always conjured up images of fame, fortune and touring the world. It has attracted many youth who wish to rid themselves of the responsibility and monotony of daily life.

Guns N’ Roses album “Appetite for Destruction” created an image of reckless abandon that I could relate to on so many levels.

It was a sound that resonated so deeply within myself that I was inspired to pick up the guitar.

Hearing the album for the first time was an exhilarating experience. I stopped in my tracks upon first hearing the classic “Welcome to the Jungle” intro.

It had a catchy and creative lick, unlike anything I had ever heard up to that point.

At first, I felt overwhelmed trying to learn an instrument with the hope of achieving the same level of success that measured up to Slash’s (the lead guitar-

ist) skill and Izzy Stradlin’s (the rhythm guitarist) heavy rhythms.

Spending countless hours playing through rock records I’ve heard hundreds of bands yet my faith in that this is still one of the greatest rock records still stands strong.

When I put “Appetite for Destruction” onto my record player, (Yes, I’m old school. Still rockin’ the vinyl!) the anger and aggression I felt when I was young was transposed into roaring guitar riffs on tracks like “Nightrain” and “My Michelle.”

Slash’s solo in “November Rain” was a particularly emotional piece of music that I would play over and over in an effort to capture that sound.

I’ve read all of their tales of rock ‘n’ roll decadence and debauchery. I had the opportunity to see Slash play live a year ago at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. When he broke out into “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” the crowd went crazy, just as they did with the original line-up.

Color Tattoo eye shadow has long lasting coverage

By Patricia Rocha Copy Editor When makeup commercials interrupt my favorite shows, a heavy sigh and an eye roll usually follow. Mascara that gives you five times the lashes? Sure. roduct Foundation that gives me eview the skin of a 5 - y e a r- o l d that’s never seen the sun? Yeah right. Tattoo eye shadow that lasts 24 hours?

Whatever.

But after hearing a lot of hype from Maybelline New York’s Color Tattoo 24 hour eye shadow by EyeStudio, my curiosity was piqued and I decided to try it out.

I apparently wasn’t the only one because I had to go to two different stores to finally find one that hadn’t completely sold

P R

out yet. I chose to try out Bad to the Bronze, a shimmery taupe shade, and Pomegranate Punk, a deep, shimmery rose shade.

I decided to really test the product’s 24-hour claim I’d wear it on its own without the help of any primer.

I patted Bad to the Bronze onto my eyelid with a synthetic eye shadow brush and blended it out into my brow bone. With the tip of the same brush, I blended Pomegranate Punk into my creases for definition.

Just the application process left me impressed. The shadow was smooth without being greasy. It blended easily and the pigments weren’t harsh, which tends to be a real problem with most cream shadows.

Being the skeptic that I am, however, I knew the real test would be in its long-wear claim, so I started the clock at noon.

Hour after hour passed and

the makeup still hadn’t creased or smudged and I was pleasantly surprised with the way it was holding up, especially for a drugstore brand.

It was around the six-hour mark I accidentally rubbed my eyes. I looked down at my fingers and saw some shimmer, but upon closer inspection in a mirror, the makeup on my eyes really hadn’t gone anywhere.

But the claim wasn’t for six hours, it was 24, so I stuck it out for the long haul. That’s right, I slept in this stuff.

When I woke up at 6 a.m. the next morning I was a little shocked to see myself with the makeup still there, a little less vibrant than on first application, but there.

Because it still had six hours to go, I made sure to leave the makeup intact while I washed my face and got on with my day.

I was impressed with its stay-

Megan Luecke / The Rip

Color Tattoo eye shadow, by EyeStudio, did not pass the 24 hour test, but did impress with its staying power and even coverage that lasted longer than expected. ing power and was hopeful that it would make the 24-hour mark, but at around hour 20 I started to notice it fading fast.

The product that was changing my mind about makeup claims was starting to flounder, and by hour 24 it was just a shimmery reminder of what used to be.

Despite the fact that it didn’t make it all the way to 24 hours, I’m still extremely impressed with the shadow. On its own, without primer or makeup setting spray, it stayed for 20 hours with discreet fading and absolutely no creasing, which is basically unheard of with most

cream shadows, department or drugstore brand.

I really don’t see a need to wear the same makeup for 24 hours straight, but if you want a long-wearing, beautifully pigmented shadow that doesn’t crease for about $7, I’d definitely recommend trying this out.

Campus

Page 8

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

VP of student services has high hopes for progress

By Breanna Fields Reporter Bakersfield College welcomes the return of William Cordero as the temporary vice president of student services for the remainder of this semester.

Cordero is well-versed on handling matters involving academic affairs and student services, having spent the majority of his career at Santa Barbara City College as director, dean and associate vice president as well as vice chancellor of student services in the chancellor’s office in Sacramento.

He has held a number of positions throughout the years in the student services department and financial aid at SBCC and Allan Hancock College.

Cordero is returning as the vice president of student ser-

vices, having held the position at BC in 2004-05.

Cordero had initially retired from his career in student services to manage a real estate company. Not long after he had begun applying his skills in that field, the company was sold.

During that time he traveled, belonged to a country club, played golf and sailed.

“It was nice being retired, but you don’t get the feeling that you’re contributing,” said Cordero. “Very few people can say that every day they were paid to go to work and to help other people improve their life.”

Upon this realization, he submitted his name to a group that takes retirees and offers their services to colleges when they have a vacancy.

Cordero has held the philosophy for many years that with

every job he takes on, he must leave it having made an improvement and impacted the lives of students. This is the kind of work ethic that he intends to apply during his time at BC. In an effort to keep student services moving forward, Cordero explained that there are a number of things that must be done.

“We need to help students get more counseling appointments so they can stay on target.”

He would like students to be aware of BC’s early-alert system in an order to decrease the number of students who are on probation. He commented that students should also be aware of the changing financial aid regulations that will have an impact on the amount of Pell Grant eligibility one can receive over the course of their life.

“The challenge during this

time is that we have declining resources and student need is actually increasing,” Cordero said.

He explained that the other issues we face are that there are fewer classes available, and they are much more difficult to get into.

Cordero assured students that he will work to see that all of the things he has the capacity to correct are corrected.

“I believe in what we’re doing.

I believe in the community college mission,” said Cordero. “I want BC to be better because of my presence. That is the goal.”

Cordero will be leaving BC on June 30 and explained that although the new vice president has not been chosen at this time, the college will go through the normal hiring process and should have someone to fill the position

by July 1, 2012.

Angie Delgado / The Rip

Bill Cordero takes a seat in his office on Feb. 7 in the Student Services building. Cordero claims that he loves his job as well as doing the best he can to help students.

Gallery displays talent

By Jon Nelson Features Editor

omar oseguera / The Rip

Local high school juniors and seniors have their art displayed on Feb. 13 inside The Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery in the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library.

The Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery is hosting an exhibit of artwork by local junior and senior high school students.

The show, called “The Panorama Invitational,” features works of art from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Traditional painting, drawing and photography, as well as metal-working and sculpture, are all represented.

“The individual teachers are allowed to submit up to five works of art. The teachers decide what work gets into the exhibit,” said Margaret Nowling, curator of the Jones Gallery, regarding the criteria for being in the show.

One notable piece is “Untitled”

by Mosiah Rasmussen. Rasmus-

sen used graphite and color pencils to create life-like portraits on planks of ordinary wood.

Another outstanding work is a “The Mayan Calendar” by Alejandro Marquez, which is a Mayan calendar created entirely out of copper panels.

At the entrance to the exhibit is a piece by Aaron Ughoc called “Esqueleto.” The student used wire to create a small sculpture of a man playing the guitar.

“They have a lot of talent,” said Bakersfield College student Magali Vidal about the exhibit.

“Every year the exhibit seems of a higher caliber than the last,” said Nowling. “I enjoy seeing what the high school students are up to and what projects the high school art teachers assign their students.”

Nowling explained that the goal of the annual event is to give exposure to artists that might not otherwise be highlighted.

“The Panorama Invitational is an opportunity to showcase the work of area high school artists. This exhibit is the first time many of them see their work in a professional setting. Since their work is being shown with their peers’ they see the importance of doing a good job. Also, it is an opportunity for the students and their teachers to see what type of art work is being done at other schools.”

The Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery is located just inside the entrance to the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library.

The Panorama Invitational runs Feb. 1-22.

Car thefts Skater’s death inspires short film prevalent in BC lots

By Megan Luecke Photographer

By Jon Nelson Features Editor The Bakersfield Police Department arrested three suspects Feb. 8 in connection with the wave of Honda thefts on the Bakersfield College main campus.

The first arrest happened after a Public Safety officer spotted a suspect looking under the hood of a tan Honda in the BC parking lot.

The man attempted to escape, but the officer was able to detain him until police arrived and arrested him on multiple felonies, including being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and possessing stolen property.

The second round of arrests came after a student called 911 to report two suspicious people roaming the parking lot looking at Hondas. The second and third suspects were also arrested on multiple felonies after running from police in a stolen Honda Accord and running up onto a nearby lawn.

The arrests were possible because of cooperation between BC Public Safety and the Bakersfield Police Department.

“BC Public Safety officers and BC leadership are committed to keeping our campus safe and will continue to do so with the full cooperation of the Bakersfield Police Department,” said a recent e-mail sent out by the Kern Community College District.

The wave of car thefts started last spring with three cars being stolen in one day.

This prompted administration to send out a warning e-mail last April to keep students informed on the thefts.

BC students are advised to keep valuables out of sight in their cars, and call 395-4554 or 911 to report unusual activity.

Bakersfield College, in celebration of Black History Month, has planned activities for students on the campus each week featuring different events. As part of the events, the filmmakers of “On the Grind” were on campus to share their movie with the students.

The film is about the skating scene in Long Beach and how it was affected after a well-known skater was killed in a gang shooting. More of a documentary, the film follows the lives of different skateboarders and shows what skating means to them.

James Cheeks III, director and producer, grew up in Memphis, Tenn. and Tulsa, Okla. He decided that he wanted to move to California to pursue his dream of working in the movies. Cheeks has his undergraduate degree in communications, his minor in film and media studies and his master’s in film and television production from the University of Southern California.

Kevin Campbell, photographer, studied at William Rainey Harper Community College and then transferred to Messiah

College where he studied English and pre-law. He was studying in the Master of Professional Writing program at USC when everything started.

Cheeks and Campbell were introduced by a mutual acquaintance at a party in the Hollywood Hills, on July 4, 2005. From there, things continued for the two men.

Campbell had no intentions of becoming involved in film at that point, but that slowly changed when he started holding light meters and boom poles in Cheeks’ student film projects. He later went on to become more involved in the project, leaving behind the light meters and boom poles and picking up a camera. His dedication changed from an extra hand to photographer.

The idea for the project came about after the death of a local skateboarder, Michael K. Green, who was killed on April 9, 2005. Cheeks had taken a special interest in the killing and the skateboarding scene. Cheeks eventually swore Campbell to secrecy in 2006 after he pitched the idea for his movie to his thesis class at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Cheeks showed Campbell exactly what had happened and where the inspiration came from through news clippings and

Poll decides fate of BC tobacco policy

By Zak S. Cowan Editor in Chief The poll to decide the fate of Bakersfield College’s policy toward on-campus tobacco use will be on the ballot when students vote for their new Student Government Association officers for the 2012-13 school year.

According to SGA general counsel Derrick Kenner, who has been the driving force on the issue, the decision to put the poll on the ballot, instead of conducting both separately, was made because it will “get the bulk of students” to participate.

The elections will be con-

ducted online for the secondconsecutive year on March 20-21, except this time, SGA will have voting booths set up in the campus center.

The voting booths will be streamlined to the voting site, and students will be notified of the smoking poll as they arrive.

The poll will consist of three policies, which are 100-percent smoke-free campus, designated-smoking areas, and keeping with the state law. The state law prohibits tobacco use within 20 feet of a public building’s entrance.

Look for more on the SGA elections in the Rip as they draw closer.

Myspace. It started to really take shape in 2006 when they were able to meet the family of Green.

Campbell and Cheeks attended a memorial for Green in October 2006. There, they filmed and photographed their surroundings. They were later invited to share their work with Green’s mother who was unable to make it to the memorial. She loved their work and gave them her blessing to tell her son’s story. From there, the project started to really take shape.

The filming of the project started in 2006 and continued until 2012. The 30-minute piece that was shown to BC students was filmed from 2006 to 2009 in Long Beach. The feature length film will feature footage shot throughout the six years. They put themselves into the lives of these skaters and turned it into a work of art.

“The closely knit Long Beach skate community propelled us and gives us the heart to go on and keep going,” said Campbell. “It’s been an interesting journey filled with sacrifice and prayer.”

The short film has gone on to win several awards such as the Roxbury International Film Festival of 2011 best short

Planned events for Black History Month:

February 16 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.- Men Ain’t Boys facilitated by Ishmael Kimbrough in FA 30.

February 24 at 6 p.m. BC’s Got Talent, Talent show in FA 30. - Must sign up by February 22 in student activities Feb. 28 from 11 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.- Lunch and book discussion on Don’t Call me a Racist facilitated by Jennifer Jett and Ishmael Kimbrough in the Fireside Room.

documentary. Not only is it an awardwinning piece, but a truly educational piece as well.

Sports

Page 9

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

BC track and field competes in second all-comers meet

By Nestor Fernandez Reporter After competing in the Antelope Valley College All-Comers meet on Feb. 4 at AVC Bakersfield College, coach David Frickel talked about the team, their improvements over the previous week at the same venue and where the team was at going forward to its next scheduled competition.

“We’re going to train real hard this week because we don’t have a meet next week, and train real hard through the week and taper off next week to get ready for the meet on the 17th,” said Frickel.

“It’s going to be eight way, we’re having four schools from So Cal, and probably four out of the north. We’ll get a chance to see some schools that we normally don’t get to go against, we don’t get to see Nor. Cal. schools until the state meet.”

The meet on Feb. 17 is to take place at BC, and the following week will provide the Renegades their first chance to compete in the conference at Citrus College on Feb. 24.

“The conference relays at Citrus College, that’s the first introduction to competition within the conference,” he said. And he spoke about some of the top

schools.

“Glendale’s always tough, Moorpark usually has a pretty good program,” Frickel said about some of the top schools in the conference. “Each year it changes a little bit in reference to who has what, so I don’t know, we’ll get out on the 24th when we get together as a conference.

We’ll kind of see where people have their strengths and weaknesses within the conference.”

Frickel also talked about some of the progression that was made over the previous meet back at AVC on Feb. 4.

“Sarena [Underwood] had a nice drop in the 100 meters,

Chris Schwartz had a nice double on the 1500 and 3000, Keenan [Colditz] had a nice double on the 1500 and 3000 for the men.

Those are probably the highlights of the day as far as what we had going,” he said.

Frickel said the turnout of competition was more complete than the week before.

“It was a little different with people there, a few more bodies there this week, so it was probably a little bit better with the number of people that showed up at the meet.” Also mentioning the weather as a continuing factor, he added, “A little bit better than the week before, but still we

had at different points a pretty good gust of wind that day, so that’s a tough venue when you go there, it blows, it usually has some wind. So yeah, it affects the times, the kids, when they come down the home stretch and they’re getting hammered in the face with the wind, so you can’t really ask for too much.”

The improvement in performances acknowledged by coach Frickel at the AVC event was reflected in the following results: For the BC women, Underwood placed fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.75. Elizabeth Sanchez took first place in the 800 meter run with a time

Knockin’ it out of the park

of 2:29.73. Amanda Smith won the shot put with a distance of 8.59m, and also won the discus throw with 26.73m, and Breann Goodmon finished first in the hammer throw with a 37.71m mark.

On the BC men side, Oe’Sha Schoclet finished second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.81, and Dashawn Meadows took first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.06. Schwartz won the 1500 meter run in 4:09.64, and also won the 3000 in 9:05.92. Colditz finished second in the 1500 with a time of 4:15.08, and third in the 3000 with a time of 9:29.15.

Renegades softball wins 3 of last 4 games

By Meisha McMurray Reporter

By Nestor Fernandez Reporter For the Bakersfield College softball team, no athlete has made more of an impact in her team’s early-season success than sophomore catcher Kara Frankhouser.

Through the first seven games, Frankhouser has compiled the following stats, batting average .500, runs scored 10, hits 11, doubles 4, home runs 5, runs batted in 19, base on balls 6. Also of note, in 22 at bats, she has not struck out.

BC coach Sandi Taylor reminds Frankhouser that streaks come and go, but consistency and work ethic go a long way in determining overall success as an individual, and also as a team. “Our streaks are only as good as how long they last, and so that’s really behind us,” Taylor said.

“We close the door and move on to what our streak is tomorrow, so staying humble and continuing to work and get better, but besides getting better, going further and farther.”

In reference to what Frankhouser has accomplished at the plate, the coach mentions the tried and true one pitch at a time theory. “If you’re hitting like Kara, it’s got to be one pitch at a time for sure.”

When asked on what type of hitter she considered herself to be, Frankhouser had this to offer, “I consider myself a contact hitter with power. I have confidence in myself, and I would hope the coaches have the confidence in me that you could put me in a situation and expect me to put the ball somewhere.”

“So I do consider myself more of a contact hitter, I can put the ball where I want it or where we need it, and I think that is my raw strength. I think the home runs kind of come along with that. I want to be known more as a player that gets on base.”

The game of softball is a game of fractions in

Gregory D. Cook / The Rip

Renegades sophomore catcher Kara Frankhouser has five home runs in just seven games for the Bakersfield College softball team.

“Softball is more than just who you’re playing for and your competition, I think it’s more just how much fun you’re having.”

–Kara Frankhouser, catcher

Frankhouser’s mind.

“The game really is also a game of inches, I mean an inch tells you if you’re safe or out, an inch tells you if it’s a home run or if it’s in the ball field.”

“So I think keeping that in mind too, keeps that excitement in the game,” said Frankhouse. “If I miss the pitch by an inch, I can ground out to the pitcher. If I hit it an inch more, I can hit it over the fence. I think that kind of excitement keeps it from being expected.”

Coming out of North High School in Bakersfield,

Frankhouser had many choices on where to continue her education, and she made BC her choice by following advice given to her by her parents.

“BC was more of a heart thing, I have parents that kind of always raised me to follow my heart, to not just make a choice because I think it’s what’s right.

They’ve always just told me to listen to what my hearts telling me.”

While discussing the many choices she was presented with, she added, “I had opportunities out of BC, but I came here not on a whim, but more just on a ‘I’m going to try it and see how I do.’ And I fell in love with it.

“I love that human aspect, and the athletic aspect. I tell people all the time that BC was the best choice I ever made.”

She went on to mention that a lot of her friends from high school ended up going to very desirable schools and programs all around the country, but for her “Softball is more than just who you’re playing for and your competition, I think it’s more just how much fun you’re having.

I think my experience here is way more advanced than I ever would have had somewhere else.

“Personally, I clicked, I clicked with the coaches, I clicked with the program,” she said.

Bakersfield College softball hosted a doubleheader against Fresno College and Antelope Valley on Feb. 4 winning 8-5 and 8-0.

On Feb. 9, they had another doubleheader against Sierra College and College of Sequoias, losing 5-2 and winning 14-6. All four of those teams beat BC a year ago.

Julie Estep pitched a complete game against Fresno City College.

“The game we played against Fresno was very solid,” said BC softball Coach Sandi Taylor.

Kaila Williams pitched a complete game win against Antelope Valley. According to Taylor, Williams did a great job pitching.

“In the Antelope Valley game we almost had a perfect outing. They couldn’t get anything going,” said Taylor.

Estep pitched a complete game in a loss against Sierra College.

“Sierra College is one of the top two or three teams in the north so they’re very talented.

During that game we couldn’t seem to get any momentum going. We didn’t play poorly we just didn’t get to execute as crisply as we needed to,” said Taylor.

“In the game against COS, I was real proud of the girls. We were up 7-0, they came and fought back making it 7-6.

And then we exploded for seven more runs offensively and beat them 14-6 in five innings.

I was proud of their tenacity in this game,” she said.

“So I feel like were starting to get in a little bit of a groove.

It would help if we could just relax a little on defensive, just play, not be so robotic, and get into the rhythm of the game,” she said.

With the help of six returning sophomores, they know the game and how to play it.

“The best thing about the returning sophomores is that they haven’t missed a beat and picked up where we left off at. Been on top of their game,” said Taylor.

BC tennis gets shutout to kick off the long season Swimming team takes second in WSC relays

By Nestor Fernandez Reporter

The Bakersfield College men’s tennis team was beaten 5-4 in matches against Sierra College on Feb. 5 at BC. On Feb. 2 in Fresno, the men’s team was shutout 9-0 in matches versus Fresno City College. In six singles matches, the BC men were able to win a combined total of only 17 games (72-17), and in the doubles, the men won only three games in three matches (243). The FCC squad was led by top-seeded Andre Almeida (from Brazil), as he defeated Adrian Magallanes of BC by a 6-0, 6-0 blanking.

The top-seeded duo of Almeida and Christian Fisher defeated Adrian Magallanes and Aaron Hernandez from BC by an 8-1 score in the men’s doubles.

On the women’s side, the Renegades fared a little better, winning two matches and losing seven.

After the matches against Fresno, BC Tennis coach Teri Lynott discussed the state of both the men and women squads.

Speaking in reference to the FCC men’s team, Lynott said, “Their number one player that played us yesterday, he’s number one in northern California.”

While also mentioning that FCC has six men ranked in the top 10 in pre-season rankings for players in Northern California, she also discussed how strong their team is.

“They have a lot of foreign players on their team, we showed a lot of heart out there, but they were definitely the better team yesterday, a lot of talent, and probably played a lot more tennis than we have in our lifetime, that’s for sure.”

Lynott went on to mention that all of the

By Nestor G. Fernandez Reporter

Gregory D. Cook / The Rip

Renegade Joshua Thomas returns a volley during a doubles match against Sierra College on Feb. 5 at Bakersfield College. matches played so far are merely tune-ups for the real season, the conference season.

“All of these matches are pre-season matches, we don’t start our conference till the 23rd of February,” she said.

Lynott also talked about how her team puts forth a lot of effort and works extra hard to improve their games.

They have three-hour practices throughout the week, and many of them spend extra time on their own, before and after practices, while also playing and practicing on weekends as well.

The team plays its next match on Feb. 1718 in the Modesto Invitational at Modesto College.

The Bakersfield College swim team started their season on Friday, Feb. 10 in the WSC John Joseph Relays at L.A. Valley College. The meet featured teams within their conference, and going into it, coach Charlie Pike considered this meet to be a low-key type of event, and a chance to see how his team is developing.

The coach discussed the results of their first competition.

“It was a mixed medley relay, one of our better relays.

That’s when you combine both four boys and four girls,” said Pike.

The pairings for BC combined Jordyn Hammett/Mattew Prasser (Breast Stroke), Brandelyn Storms/Joshua Delarosa (Back Stroke), Catherine Lugo/ Ryan Farrer (Butterfly), and Franchesca Wyatt/Jake Reed (Freestyle).

The coach stated that the meet featured men and women pairings in each stroke and that they took second place overall for the relays, “It was one of our stronger relays. Our men’s medley relays was also second, and so it was a pretty solid per-

formance.” The men’s second place team consisted of Mattew Prasser (Breast Stroke), Joshua Delarosa (Back Stroke), Ryan Farrer (Butterfly) and Jake Reed (Freestyle).

“Our girls 800 free relays, which each girl swims a 200 free, was another strong performance, they were second in that one, second to Ventura.”

The girls squad was made up of Jordyn Hammett, Daniela Miramontes, Brandelyn Storms and Franchesca Wyatt.

The strength of the Ventura team was well recognized by coach Pike.

“Ventura won most of the relays, they’re pretty stacked again this year.

They’re contending for a state title every year usually.

Our girls beat them last year in the state meet, this year I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull that off. I think they’ll probably beat us at depth in conference, but we have a good shot at state, see how we finish up.”

The BC meet against College of Sequioas on Feb. 17 was canceled due to transportation issues.

In its place, the Renegades will feature an intra-squad meet at BC.

Sports

Page 10

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

Basketball team is honored with banner

By Esteban Ramirez Sports Editor Bakersfield College honored the 1977-78 state championship men’s basketball team by unveiling the banner that they will be hanging in the Gil Bishop Sports Center.

The banner unveiling was during halftime of the men’s basketball game against L.A. Valley on Feb. 8. The banner was given to the team to keep and they will hang another banner in the gym to honor the team.

Former BC coach Ralph

Krafve, who was the head coach of the team, commented on the team being honored.

“It feels good that the team is being remembered and I enjoy seeing all the old guys. It’s fun to come back for something this nice and to see all the guys and that they’ve all done well. That’s good to see because they’re all good guys.

“There are too many memories, but I remember playing only six guys and during the season we had a four-game stretch, so that was incredible,” he said.

Krafve took over as head coach

of BC in 1973, after coaching for 13 years at East Bakersfield High School.

During the 1977-78 season, the Renegades won the conference championship and the state championship with a record of 33-2.

That’s still the best all-time record in BC. “The honor is nice, but seeing all the players is what is really nice,” said assistant coach Mark Hutson.

“This brings back memories of the team and what they did on the court. Although I was only

an assistant coach here, when I coached at [Bakersfield High School] we played games here, so I have a lot of fond memories,” he said.

Hutson was a player and an assistant coach at BC, and he holds the record for most wins in the Central Section in high school basketball with 500.

Dean Jones, who was the starting point guard of the team and ended up being the state junior college player of the year, commented on the team being honored.

“It’s a great feeling. We’ve had

reunions before, but it’s special to be honored here in this gym.

I remember a lot of tough sweaty days here, Coach really pushed us really hard here. Coach really instilled some lifelong lessons in me and we’ve become really close friends.

“It’s also good to see all the guys,” he said.

“We see each other once in a while, but it’s good to be back here and joke around about who turned the ball over in the state championship game,” he said.

“I had a lot of fond memories here, but if I had to pick one that

I remember the most is when we won the state championship game at Long Beach. I remember a lot of people from BC making the trip over there and it was just a great feeling playing in front of them.”

Along with winning the junior college player of the year he also won all-metro first team honors.

He averaged 15.7 points per game and nine assists per game during the season.

He’s still holds the record for assists in a season (316) and holds the record for all-time assists at BC with 515 assists.

BC Renegade returns home

By Esteban Ramirez Sports Editor

For some people, basketball is just a sport or a way to have fun with some friends, but for Bakersfield College men’s basketball player Conroy Lester, it’s a way to remember his brother and express himself.

“It means a lot to me because I’ve been playing it my whole life and it’s the way I express myself,” said Lester. “My brother was the one who got me into basketball.

“He influenced me and he always motivated me to push hard.

He helped me to prepare for any situation on the court and off of the court.

“When he passed away it affected me a lot because I know he would want me to work harder at everything I do and that gave me that motivation to do that. Every time I go out on the court I try to thank him for everything by trying my hardest.”

Lester is originally from Bakersfield and graduated from Foothill High.

After graduating from Foothill he went to Santa Rosa Junior College for a year and was redshirted.

Things didn’t work out like he thought they would at Santa Rosa after being redshirted.

“When I got redshirted I didn’t

even want to go to class or anything,” he said. “I wasn’t focused on school and basketball. I wasn’t ready for the college life, and I was still used to my high school habits, so I went back home because I realized that it wasn’t going to work out there.

My parents helped me to get motivated by telling me to just keep trying my hardest.”

Lester is now a freshman forward for the BC team, but his transition from not playing organized basketball to playing on the BC team wasn’t that smooth.

“I wasn’t in basketball condition to start the season, but as the year progressed I got in shape, my role changed and coach started to want me to be more aggressive offensively,” he said.

In January Lester was named BC’s male athlete of the month by averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds per game.

“It was a lot of hard work and it paid off for me, and it was because of the support my family and friends gave me.”

Now Lester is currently the starting forward for the Renegades and leads all BC players in scoring with 15 points and eight rebounds per game against Western State Conference opponents.

“Coming back home was what I needed, and it’s an honor for me to play at BC in front of my friends and family,” he said.

Gregory D. Cook / The Rip

Renegades freshman forward Conroy Lester attempts to push through three Cougar defenders on his way to the hoop during Bakersfield College’s Feb. 4 game against College of the Canyons in Valencia, Calif.

MEN’S: Season started off promising

LADY ‘GADES: Women still going strong

Continued from Page 1 Despite the key injury to Morrison, BC got to a quick start going 2-1 in a tournament at Cuesta and finished second place at the Thanksgiving Renegades Classic.

They entered Western State Conference play with a 6-8 record, but from then on things just started to get a lot worse.

The four areas just became more blatant in conference play because the games were a lot closer. They also had some close games when they just weren’t able to make clutch free throws.

“We need to be more physical on defense because I think defense and rebounding has been our Achilles heel,” said Hughes.

“We also need to start to make our free throws.”

Their inconsistency on the defensive end really hurt them this year and it held them from putting together more than a twogame winning-streak.

“This season has been very up-and-down, and we just can’t seem to put consistent victories back-to-back.”

They’ve had some bad losses, but they’ve lost some close games that could’ve gone either way.

Six of their 16 losses they’ve lost by five points or less, including both games against the number two team in the state, Citrus.

“We’ve had some tough losses. A few plays here and there and the games might have been different entirely,” he said.

Probably a moment that signified their season was when they lost to L.A. Valley 67-65 in overtime on Feb. 8.

BC had a three point lead with

Continued from Page 1 “I thought everyone has done great this year because we’ve had many troubles and tribulations, but we never quit,” she said.

BC started the season with 4-1 record, but they hit a speed bump during the winter break. During the break they were only able to post a 6-6 record and a 10-7 overall record. Then they started their conference schedule and got back to their winning ways.

“I’m just impressed by my kids. This year is so exciting because it’s coming down to the last game of the season,” said Dahl. “Even when we’ve had injuries our bench has come in and stepped up. There’s no let down when the subs come in, and that’s why we’re the epitome of team basketball.

A moment that signifies the camaraderie is during the game against L.A. Valley when BC let the Cougars get back in the game, and Dahl called a timeout.

“I challenged them to pick it up, and I said ‘There’s no tomorrow, there is only today’ and they took care of it,” she said.

“I’m happy the way they have been working hard and the fact that we’re in first makes it even better. We play as a team, we give it our all and no matter what we never give up. This season has been phenomenal and we’re an exciting team to watch. As long as we just continue to play hard and take every game at a time we will be fine.”

If BC wins their final game at West L.A. on Feb. 18, then they will win the conference title even if Canyons wins.

Gregory D. Cook / The Rip

Renegade guard Jon Baird moves the ball during the game against the College of the Canyons Cougars on Feb. 4.

22 seconds left and L.A. Valley had to foul, but the Renegades turned the ball over which led to the Monarchs making a threepointer to send the game into overtime. In overtime the Monarchs took a commanding sixpoint lead with 45 seconds left.

BC got within two, but couldn’t make a last second shot.

Hughes added that the bright spot is they lost a lot of close games with a freshmen dominated team.

“We should have everyone back barring injury or grades.

I think our freshmen improved greatly during the year, and should give them confidence going into sophomore year.

The team has struggled to get consistent wins, but they’ve had some big games through the season from players like freshman forward Conroy Lester, who’s leads the team in scoring with 12 points and five rebounds per game, but his numbers are higher in conference play with 15 points and eight rebounds per game.

Their final game of the year will be at West L.A. on Feb. 18.

Photos by martin chang / The Rip

Above: Citrus guard Sarah Rebibo defends Bakersfield forward Gabi Morales during the game on Feb. 11.

Below: Bakersfield guard Haley Huntington attempts to keep the ball from Citrus guard Kenya Thomas.

Sports

Page 11

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

Family roots invade BC baseball

By Zak S. Cowan Editor in Chief At the end of this season, starting pitcher Tyler Painton will have options, to say the least. He will have his Associate’s degree and one more year of eligibility if he decides to continue playing at Bakersfield College.

For most, the decision to move on might be instantaneous, but for Tyler, he has a unique situation in that he is at the top of the pitching rotation for his father’s team.

BC coach Tim Painton, glowingly proud of his son’s accomplishments both on and off the baseball diamond, is also in a unique position.

Tim, coming from a pitching background, has had a chance to pass on his knowledge of the game to his son more so than ever before.

“It’s been a very positive thing, and hopefully it continues along those lines and he continues to grow as a player,” Tim said of his son.

“I think there has been a player-coach relationship that we’ve never had in the past, and I think that’s been beneficial.”

Tyler has been on a tear in his first season with the Renegades.

He has struck out 11 batters and has an ERA of 0.75 through his first two starts.

He has also been BC’s designated hitter when not on the

Bakersfield College’s baseball team has gotten off to a great start to the season, winning their first four games before falling to Golden West College 3-2 on Feb. 11. At the time of printing for this publication, the Renegades were 4-1 with a Feb. 14 matchup scheduled against Allan Hancock. Check therip.com for updated results and extended coverage of the team.

Feb. 3 BC: 2 Golden West: 0 MVP: BC’s SP Tyler Painton (2-0) with six innings played, three hits and zero earned runs.

mound, batting .364 with three RBIs and a home run.

Tyler played at the University of San Diego last year on a fullride scholarship but got injured in the middle of the season and decided to come back to BC where, he says, it is a better environment.

“I decided to come back here and get my feet back on the ground,” Tyler said.

Tyler’s relationship with his father on the field is completely different than that off the field.

“We keep it pretty separate,” Tyler said.

“Baseball is here and … family and everything else is at home. It’s like two different worlds really.”

The fact that Tyler acknowledges this divide isn’t a coincidence, as his father has managed this intentionally.

“I’ve really tried to separate baseball from family,” Tim said.

“You really have to do that. We try and leave baseball at the field and not discuss it at home and try and be a family.”

But just because the two worlds are separate, doesn’t mean that they don’t directly influence the other.

Tyler said that being around his father so much more has had a positive impact on their relationship.

“We probably weren’t as close as before,” Tyler said. “Part of the reason before was he was

Key moment: After first baseman Blayne Ontiveros hit an RBI single in the first inning, freshman Jordan Turner hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the Renegades up 2-0.

Feb. 4 BC: 13 Irvine Valley: 2 MVP: BC’s SP Brad Lindsley (1-1) with six innings played, six hits and zero earned runs.

Key moment: BC’s offense ignited early, scoring four runs in the second inning and six in the third. The deficit was too much to overcome for Irvine Valley, and the Ren-

Megan Luecke / The Rip

Tyler Painton and coach Tim Painton take a moment after the game against Golden West to have a father-son moment on Feb. 11. always here doing his stuff, and now I’m here, too, and we’re together.”

The extended interaction between the two has also allowed Tim to get to know his son even more than an average father would.

“I think more so than anything else … I’ve got to see work ethic that I was hoping he would have,” Tim said of his son, adding that he has also witnessed his son’s tremendous love for the game of baseball.

Despite the added dimension

Baseball roundup

egades would add three more runs before the Lasers would get on the board.

Feb. 8 BC: 15 Hancock: 14 MVP: BC’s second baseman Mike Spingola with 6 RBIs, batting 5-6 from the plate.

Key moment: Down 12-4 in the top of the fifth inning, the Renegades came storming back, scoring three runs in the fifth, two in the sixth, two in the seventh, and four in the eighth, to slimly earn the victory.

of their relationship, Tim and Tyler both deny that, when in the clubhouse, there is any special treatment.

“From a baseball standpoint I treat all of our players exactly the same,” Tim said. “[Tyler] gets treated just as any other player would. I think with most of our players, because of the amount of time we spend together – and it’s basically a year-round program – I think I develop really good relationships with all of our players.”

Feb. 10 BC: 7 Hartnell: 1 MVP: BC’s Painton (2-0) with six innings played, four hits and six strikeouts.

Key moment: After six innings of a close game, BC’s offense sealed the victory when shortstop Brent Peterson hit an RBI triple and Spingola singled to right field to put the Renegades up 4-1, sealing the victory.

Feb. 11 Golden West: 3 BC: 2 MVP: Golden West’s first baseman William Shaw who batted 2-3 with two RBIs.

Tyler concurs that no special treatment exists.

“A line hasn’t been crossed yet, and hopefully it doesn’t,” Tyler said.

This isn’t the first time a BC coach has coached his son.

One of the more recent cases took place when football coach Jeff Chudy coached his son, Bryce, back in 2007.

That year Chudy was named Coach of the Year and led the Renegades to a 12-1 record, winning the Western State Conference.

Tim holds a strong belief that a father should allow his son to make certain life choices on his own, with the game of baseball being no different.

“At a young age, you don’t know if baseball’s going to become a passion for them,” Tim said.

“And I never wanted to direct him in a direction of having to play baseball.”

But Tyler did indeed decide to make baseball a major part of his life, and he doesn’t plan on that changing any time soon.

“I want to continue playing baseball, or at least being involved with baseball as long as I can,” Tyler said of his aspirations after BC. “So whether it’s playing at the next level in college, playing professionally, or even coaching at some point, I just want to stay involved.”

Key moment: After a fourth-inning rally by the Renegades to go up 2-1, Golden West came back with an offensive surge of their own, scoring one run in the sixth and seventh innings each, to knock down BC to a 4-1 record.

Feb. 14 *Allan Hancock at Bakersfield College *At the time this publication was printed, this game had yet to be played. Check therip.com for up-to-date coverage.

Men’s golf takes its lumps in first conference tournament

By Esteban Ramirez Sports Editor Bakersfield College men’s golf team had a tough start in the Western State Conference minitournament and ended up in seventh place out of seven teams.

The WSC mini-tournament was on Feb. 6. Canyons took first place with a score of 399 and BC had 414.

Although BC fell to seventh

place, only 14 strokes separated them from first place, and only five strokes separated the first place team from the fifth place team.

“Our conference is really competitive, and maybe if we made some shots here and there we would’ve placed higher,” said BC coach Bill Kalivas.

Kalivas commented on the team’s performance.

“We have an all-freshmen

team, so it’s going to take some time,” he said. “We had a good strategy, things just didn’t go our way. I like how there is good competition between our players and everyone competing with each other is going to help us to get better as a team. I would like to see us improve on shot making and that will help us out a lot.”

Kalivas also commented what the difference is between this

year’s all-freshmen team to last year’s team.

“Well, I think this year collectively as a whole they’re working hard as a team and making sure they talk about the team strategy,” he said. “Last year we had more individual talents, but it made it harder to come up with a team strategy.”

He added that he’s been really been impressed with Jack Henneberry and Neil Bautista,

who both are from Centennial High School. Matt Deford, Travis Millwee, Brandon Pinuelas, Max Schmidt, Carlos Fernandez and Kevin Antongiovanni are some of the other golfers he’s been impressed with.

“I think over the last couple weeks they’ve progressed well,” he said.

BC’s next golf match will be the WSC meet at Rio Bravo Country Club on Feb. 27.

Column

Super Lintendo: all hype or real deal?

RIPPING SPORTS | Taking on every sports issue. No one’s safe.

It’s not insanity, it’s Linsanity. Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks has taken over the sports world.

He has scored 20 points or more for five games straight, and before that he scored a total of 76 points for Esteban Ramirez his career. At first I wasn’t sure about him because the first three games weren’t against the best competition, but after seeing him go shot for shot with Kobe Bryant, I started to believe the hype.

It’s incredible that he was an undrafted point guard. When he went to the basketball powerhouse Harvard University, so you know he’s smart, but he’s also got athleticism and skill to go along with that. The best thing about him, though, is he’s humble and it’s all about the team, and with all these egotistic players that act like divas, that’s good to see. Although he’s a Knick, he’s someone everyone should pay attention to. That means you too, Kobe.

Historic Milestones There were two basketball players that reached new scoring milestones this past week. Those players were Bryant and Boston Celtics’ Paul Pierce.

Bryant surpassed his formerLakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal to be the fifth all-time scorer in league history. Bryant has been known as this era’s closest thing to Michael Jordan, and he’s already known as one of the greatest ever, not only in Lakers history, but in the league’s history.

You have no idea how much it hurt me to say that as a Celtic fan, so it was much better to see my favorite player, Paul Pierce, surpass Larry Bird for second place in all-time Celtics scoring leaders. Getting his only championship ring against the Los Angeles Lakers cemented his legacy as a Celtic and outplaying this era’s greatest player in Bryant is a bonus. Pierce is definitely a hall of famer, and is in the pantheon of great players that the Celtics have had right behind Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Larry Bird.

Who owns L.A.?

With the Lakers having an average season to say the least, and the Clippers being relevant for the first time in about 30 years, are the Lakers now the “other” L.A. team?

Sorry Clippers, as long as Bryant is in a Lakers uniform it won’t happen. Even then, it will take 15 championships before L.A. becomes Clippertown.

Behind Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, it looks like they have the foundation for a dynasty in the making, but I doubt that L.A. will ever be Clipper town.

The team can always move to a different city. Seattle is a great sports town; San Diego is a great location or how about Bakersfield? Bakersfield Clippers has a nice ring to it.

Mid-Season MVP Just two years ago the talk was that Kevin Durant would be the NBA’s next superstar, and leading the Thunder to the league’s best record, it’s a no-brainer that he’s the MVP so far to this point.

Sure, you will have names like Chris Paul, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant thrown out there, but Durant has been more important to his team than James or Paul, and the Thunder have a much better record than the Lakers. There’s no player more deserving of the MVP award than the “Durantula” Kevin Durant.

Spotlight

Page 12

Wednesday, Februar y 15, 2012

The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Cal State Bakersfield hosts comic opera

By Martin Chang Opinions Editor

Omar Oseguera / The Rip

The Orchestra awaits Ronald Kean’s arrival for their Feb. 4 performance of “Albert Herring” at Cal State Bakersfield.

brain. We were exhausted at the end of every rehearsal.”

For Robert Hamilton, a CSUB stuWhen the various musical talents dent who played the brash said, he came together to perform the comedy found the challenge “exciting.” He opera “Albert Herring” at Cal State Ba- said, “I get to become somebody new. kersfield for students and faculty alike, I take it on full force.” it was one of the most challenging and Hamilton particularly enjoys the prorewarding musical undertakings for all cess of becoming and playing a charinvolved. acter. He said, “I love when I first get Ronald Kean, the choir director at my role, and then I read my description Bakersfield College, of who my character is, conducted the music and I have to figure out “So it was a wonderful with his wife Peggy a way of becoming this Sears, who was the di- marriage of conductor and character. My characrector and producer of orchestra and with the sing- ter was kind of macho, the performance. a ladies man. That was ers the same way.”

Kean said, “Between out of character for me.

–Ronald Kean, the middle of December I’m not usually like that BC choir director ‘til the performance, I in regular life, so that studied [the score] six to was really fun.” eight hours a day. The players told me Ortiz agrees. He said, “The acting it was the hardest thing they’ve ever [is the most fun]. Once we get the done.” character down, just becoming the David Ortiz, a recent CSUB gradu- character itself, the blocking, the walkate and player of the lead role, said, “It ing onstage, it just becomes you, and was difficult. I’ve never had an experi- you have become the character for it ence like this. It was so difficult having to work.” an accompaniment that doesn’t help Both Hamilton and Ortiz said that you out with the melody. After every the thing that made this music stand single rehearsal, it beats you up. If you out was the composer Benjamin Britdon’t go home crying sometimes [you ten. Ortiz said he is “out there” both in haven’t put the work in.]” terms of style and challenge.

Sears said that preparing for the perSears said on the subject of Britten, formance was “delightful and tortuous. “It’s a very funny show. It’s very uniIt was a ton of work, and a lot of detail, versal. Britten is very dramatic. People and it used every part of everybody’s laugh at just when the harp and flute

plays at the beginning of an aria. Because just the orchestration was cute, you knew what was coming. It’s like movie music.”

The challenge of the performance brought the musicians together. Hamilton said, “the most fun for me was getting together with all my new cast members, and working out this challenging opera together, and then coming together with the final product and perform it for the audience.”

Kean also felt this feeling of camaraderie while he conducted and trained the musicians.

Kean said, “The wonderful thing about it is, it was so difficult that every single player was pulling for everybody else. You could just feel it. We had such camaraderie with each other and with me to them because I understood how difficult it was.

“Every now and then you would hear ‘oh I’m sorry I missed that’ and I would say ‘don’t apologize, we’ll fix it next time around,’ because I know how difficult it was and everyone tried their best.”

At the end of the final chord of the last night, I tapped my hands to applaud and they did the same back to me.

“So it was a wonderful marriage of conductor and orchestra and with the singers the same way. We all felt wonderful towards each other. It was a big team effort.”

Omar Oseguera / The Rip

From left, Robert Hamilton, Jessica Trevino, and David Ortiz run through a scene in the Cal State Bakersfield’s “Albert Herring.”

Omar Oseguera / The Rip

The main cast of “Albert Herring” sings through one of their scenes in the Cal State Bakersfield’s “Albert Herring.”

Life adventures told through poetry

By Gregory D. Cook Reporter Stepping into Henry Morales’ East Bakersfield home is somewhat like walking into a museum.

The photos of him in the military in the 1960s, on the Bakersfield College track club in the 1970s, and carrying the Olympic torch in 1996, along with an AA degree from Bakersfield College, numerous thank you letters and accolades from various government agencies, including at least five U.S. presidents, all serve to impart the message of how a life can be turned around for the better.

And it’s a message that Morales, a 69-year-old self-proclaimed “King of Poetry,” is nowhere near done passing on.

Morales started writing poetry in 1976.

“Before that I was an alcoholic,” he said. “I used to get thrown in jail for disturbing the peace, got thrown out of bars, and I almost got divorced. I had a bad life.”

Morales described that life, quoting from his first poem. “‘I used to pop the can open and drink it down. Two hours later I was painting the town. I’d hop from bar to bar, searching for a reality that wasn’t too far.’”

The breaking point came one night when he almost died from an overdose of alcohol.

“They had to take me away in an ambulance,” he remembered.

“I had a bad experience.”

Morales and his wife looked to the church for help.

“She was going to church before me and started praying for

Gregory D. Cook / The Rip

Momentos from Henry Morales’ experiences in the Army, his time at Bakersfield College and carrying the Olympic torch are displayed on the counter of his Bakersfield home. me,” he said. “I didn’t know prayer worked, but I guess it did.

“I gave my heart to the Lord, and in 1976, I got a brand new mind,” he said. “Everything became new. I could think better and that’s when the talent started coming out.”

His first poems were taken directly from the experiences of his life.

“I’ve got one called ‘Don’t Drop Out,’” Morales said. “‘I had to go pick cotton, grapes and peas,’” he quoted. “‘It got so hot. All I wanted was a breeze.’ That one is for high schoolers, but it’s really about me.”

Morales dropped out of East Bakersfield High School during 11th grade and went to work in the fields, as he explains in the poem.

“I dropped out in my junior year, I didn’t listen to anyone, just drinking my beer.”

A driving force behind Morales’ poetry is the message.

“There’s a message in there, a message to the world; a challenge,” he said.

“I write about sports, school and education and against drugs.

I want people to have better lives.”

One group of people that are close to Morales’ heart are the men and women who have served

and are still serving in America’s armed services, and he writes and sends poems to veterans associations and troops.

“I’m a veteran, and I’m able to see the way they do,” he said.

“It’s about encouraging them and showing them someone cares, and hopefully they can see themselves in my poems.”

Four of Morales’ poems are on display in the Bakersfield College Veteran’s Resource Center.

But Morales doesn’t just send his poems out to veterans. He also sends them to schools, city and state officials, inmates of correctional facilities, and anyone else he thinks might benefit from a poem, including the oc-

Gregory D. Cook / The Rip

Henry Morales shows off book of his first poems. casional U.S. president, many of which have written him letters in return.

In 1996, Morales was nominated for his community service to carry the Olympic torch on a leg of its journey to the summer games in Atlanta.

“Oh, that was my day!” remembered Morales. “It was my glory day. Everybody wanted my autograph.”

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce sponsored Morales’ trip to San Luis Obispo for his

part of the relay.

“They have a spotter running behind you if your arm gets tired with the torch,” he said. “But I practiced for weeks running around Pioneer Park with a fivepound weight. It was great.”

In 2002, Morales retired after working over 30 years with the U.S Postal Service, and now spends his time making appearances as a motivational speaker, and writing more poems and songs, which he hopes to one day have published as a book.