Nick Belardes's Blog
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May.10.2013
There’s a celebration of memoirists happening on Saturday, May 11 at noon in Bakersfield, California, and event-goers can get a free margarita.
“Memoirs & Margaritas: Readings From Invisible Memoirs” is a literary fiesta featuring, yes, not only free drinks for the first thirty or so guests,...
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Apr.20.2012
Random Writers Workshop in Bakersfield, Ca., is looking for funding to help in its latest marketing and scholarships for attendees, as well as to continue to bring guest writers into the southern San Joaquin Valley. You can donate to help an area with one of the lowest literacy rates in the U.S. We...
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May.13.2011
Here's a 13-minute video for your Friday the 13th enjoyment. This is me performing chapter one from my novel Anhinga as spoken word while accompanied by my son Landen.
There's also an interview with host Matt Munoz. The event was at Bakotopia Unplugged held at Fishlips, located in Bakersfield...
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Oct.20.2010
If you were a child of the 1970s like I was, you can't forget what your mom and dad tried to be: Iconic TV parents.
Memories first came rushing back when Barbara Billingsley, AKA June Cleaver of Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963) died on Oct. 16. And then on Oct. 19, Tom Bosley, AKA Mr. C from Happy...
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Oct.20.2010
Ah, the OC. I left it.
That's Orange County to you non-Californians. I was there for work and didn't really know anyone the brief time I was there. I met indy filmmaker Lev Anderson, who worked on a Fishbone documentary titled Everyday Sunshine. And since I'm a part of indy film lovers community...
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Oct.08.2010
It's called "Literary Kern: Celebrating The Art Of Writing" and takes place just 110 miles north of Hollywood in the Central Valley city of Bakersfield. And, I will be revealing what's in the box!
WHAT'S IN THE BOX??
I'm also stoked for other reasons. Why?
I've been helping brainstorm...
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Oct.07.2010
The first time I saw Malcolm’s beard he was sitting on one of those city-funded stone benches at Washington Park--the kind with the big county seals engraved on it. He looked like he just woke up. And his beard was a mess. It was as if the tide had just rolled in and his face was a net capturing...
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Aug.07.2009
This has really been affecting me lately: my obsession with the bizarre. I wake up, roll out of bed. I grab a history book, or find my laptop and click straight to a science magazine website as if the Holy Grail of the absurd is going to suddenly spring to life like an oddly glowing chalice.
It’s...
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Aug.03.2009
Weekend news ruled my life, and not just Saturday and Sunday. Monday came along and I found myself still reeling over having posted two hard-hitting news items on disease in Kern County. Two humans with West Nile virus and nearly 60 cases of pandemic swine flu in one month. That's enough to get...
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Jul.28.2009
Who doesn't want to be in a zombie movie?
The first time around, Hectic Films had no investor and used local actors (I got an axe through my head as a zombie creature). George the Giant who was in "Big Fish" was there. He's scary. He was the most credible of the gang. Now Hectic Films is...
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Jul.27.2009
Family finds skull in sandy canyon. Check. Man crushed by pipes. Check. Phone call to detective about flamboyant real estate broker's death. check check.
Oh wait, you probably want to hear a little about that. Let me sum up my conversation with a very polite detective. After I asked details about...
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Jul.26.2009
I'm waiting for the police to call me back.
As a journalist it's not always easy to get through to the authorities when you have a pressing question about a death for a news article. In this case, the death of a prominent real estate broker in Bakersfield who was found dead in the Kern River by a...
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About Nick
NICK BELARDES is the illustrator of NYT Best Selling Novel West of Here (2011), author of Random Obsessions (2009), Lords and the first literary Twitter novel, Small Places (2008). A writer, poet and author, Belardes turned TV/online journalist overnight...
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Nick’s Favorite Books
V.S. Naipaul - The Writer and the World: Essays, The Enigma of Arrival; Bernard DeVoto - Across the Wide Missouri, The Course for Empire; Jack Kerouac - On the...
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