A B.B.Q&A

(A Bake Town Blog Interview)

Back in January, I discovered something in Bakersfield I had never seen before. Bakotopia. Hoping to promote new ‘cool’ Bakersfield sites (and longing for a free T-shirt) I posted a blog about my discovery. Since then Bakotopia has been nothing but encouraging and supportive. I was a little dumbfounded at first, but then I just got excited. After meeting with Dan the Man behind Bakotopia, I decided that adding a ‘Q & A’ (also known as a BBQ&A) feature might be a good idea. And so… after much anticipation - here is my first interview with a newly active member of the Bakersfield scene.

What did think about Bakersfield when you first got here?

Whenever local people ask me this, they never believe my answer. The first time I walked into downtown Bakersfield, it reminded me of downtown Colorado Springs in Colorado. It must have been a clear Winter day or something, but I remember walking down Chester and just barely seeing the mountains off in the distance, and old buildings like the Fox Theatre. I think old western downtowns share a lot in common, so this was my first impression. And no, I'm not making this up :-)

What did you find most surprising about Bakersfield?

I was surprised at how nice, polite and open-minded people were. You can walk down the street and people make eye contact and say hello to you. Contrast this with people in Washington D.C., which until recently I called home, and Orange County where I've done some work, and it's like night and day. I think people in Bakersfield are very real and honest about who they are. After years of living and working around people who are really into power and status and wealth, I like that. It reminds me more of the people I grew up with.

Had you ever heard of Bakersfield before you came here? What had you heard?

I had heard of it, but mostly from a colleague who began working here a few years ago, and believe it or not everything she told me was good and inspiring. If it hadn't been for that, I probably never would have thought of working in Bakersfield. After reading Baketown, I know that people like Johnny Carson used to poke fun at Bakersfield and that must have seemed really lame to the people who live here, but when I didn't live in Bakersfield I never really heard about it. This reminds me of a weird experience recently where I had just flown into Bakersfield and checked into a hotel. I turned on the TV and there was this hilarious (but rather disparaging) episode of the Jamie Kennedy Experiment that seemed to be all about making fun of Bakersfield. Some L.A. lady from the audience was piloting a talk show (which she had learned of 5 minutes before) about people who sleep with their spouse's friends. All of the fake guests were from Bakersfield and had all slept with each other. All I could think of was -- OK, so here are some Hollywood people complaining about the sexual mores of people in a conservative, traditionally agricultural area to the north, when everyone knows Hollywood is pervert central? It was interesting.

I think L.A. people love to hate Bakersfield because it's easier than acknowledging the morally bankrupt, environmental disaster that they call home. And it's funny that the people to the north of Bakersfield complain about the air quality when it's their pollution that you're breathing. Why do people love to hate Bakersfield so much? I don't get it.

What has been the biggest challenge in getting Bakotopia up and running?

Boy, that's a hard one! Honestly, the hardest thing has been to work so hard to get the site up and have to wait for people to find it, but that's not really answering your questions, is it? ;-) I guess the best answer is that it has been hard to find time to do everything that needs to be done! But that's just part and parcel of launching a web site. I have done this many times in the past, and it's a lot of work every time, but eventually things calm down and go into "autopilot" mode. It's also been hard to find time to properly market Bakotopia and get the word out. We have focused so far on grass-roots methods, but we hope to do more visible marketing in the future -- probably after we improve the site a little more.

We have actually been very lucky in that there have not been any big, hairy, insurmountable problems. The whole process of getting Bakotopia out the door -- while laborious and taxing at times -- has been surprisingly easy compared to other projects I have worked on. We built this site with a ragtag team comprised of myself, part of another Mercado Nuevo employee's time, and three contractors who were not even close to full-time. And all of them have been fabulous! Someone once told me that the secret to success in business is choosing the right people, and that cannot have been more true in this case. We have a few Bakotopia heroes who I would like to publicly acknowledge (in alphabetical order):

Christina Blanton, project manager. Christina does all the things that I don't like or am not good at, but fortunately she likes doing those things and is VERY good at them! This includes things like managing a project schedule, mailing T-shirts and stickers out to fans, printing up magnets and flyers, going to Costco to get stuff that we need, and so forth. Christina fell into our lap right when we needed her, which I took as a sign that things were going to go our way. It was like fate or something.

Jonah Gallon, promotion designer. Jonah creates all of our flyers, newspaper ads, stickers and a lot more. As a former band member and band "flyer guy," he's also our link with the local band community. When I first met Jonah, I thought of that scene in Almost Famous where the old rock writer tells the young kid that "You want to be around these people because they're cool, and you and me, we're just not cool!" Jonah simply secretes coolness, and you can see it in his work (www.bakotopia.com/flyers). Jonah's Web site is www.lucidchild.com.

Mark Jackson, programmer. I have known Mark since I was a kid, and he and my brother used to do nerdy things like hack into high school computer systems and create their own graphics rendering engines. One day I ran into him again, so I invited him to my daughter's 2-year-old birthday party. Somewhere between "Happy Birthday" and opening presents, we got to talking and I learned that he had exactly the skills that I needed for Bakotopia. Plus, he was available! I took this as a sign and we hired him to build Bakotopia. He has since exceeded all expectations, and we're now working with him to create "Phase 2" of Bakotopia, which will be a lot cooler in so many ways that I unfortunately can't tell you! Mark is an absolute software genius, which you can tell from the posts about his experience on his blog here: http://www.educomgov.org/marks2cents/

Rachael Miller, designer for Crooked Tail Productions (www.crookedtail.com) who we contracted to do the site's visual design. Rachael worked with us tirelessly and provided so many logos and design concepts that I quickly lost count. Surprisingly, she still talks to us after that experience. She's a real trooper, and I look forward to working with Crooked Tail in the future.

Do you think Bakersfield is ready to support two online bulletin board thingies?

What do you mean "two?" At my last count, there were at least 5, and that's only the ones I know about. What everyone needs to understand is that people all over the world -- and yes, that includes Bakersfield -- have been using the Internet more and more over the last 10 years. The single greatest thing about the Internet in my opinion is that it helps people connect with each other in ways they could not as easily before, and people in Bakersfield have been finding ways to do that even though you don't hear about it on the street.

Everyone likes to focus on whatever is talked about in "The Media," but I see a lot of online community interactions taking place among Bakersfield residents that are totally under the radar. One day more of them will get enough critical mass to be visible to the Powers that Be.

However, there's a saying that "Once Time Magazine says something is cool, it's already passee." I think that applies to what people in the local media have to say about online community, too. To be honest, I think most of these people don't have a clue of what's going on in these communities and they only write about what their friends at other media organizations in other towns write about. It's follow-the-leader journalism, which is kinda lazy if you ask me (and this is coming from a former journalist). I totally expect some of the smaller, more organic Bakersfield online communities to "grow up" in the next few years. And yes, I think there is room for all of them because they each have their own unique demographics and following. Don't forget that Bakersfield is growing like gangbusters, too, and the people who move here will bring with them the online experiences that they're comfortable with.

Where would you like to see Bakotopia five years from now?

I recall being asked something similar at several job interviews, and my answer was always, "how can I possibly predict what I'll be doing in five years??" But here's a stab for Bakotopia.

In five years, I hope that Bakotopia will be known as THE place for young people in Bakersfield to find others of like minds, interests and goals and share information of any type -- whether that be to buy or sell something, meet the lead singer of a local band and listen to his or her MP3s, or find a good Italian restaurant that other people also like. I want Bakotopia to be all about local connections. And I want it to have a reputation of being free, open and safe. If you look at history, very few societies have achieved all three of those things, but I believe that the online world offers tools that make such a Utopian world more realistic and attainable. And if we can't have Utopia, maybe we can at least have Bakotopia! Sorry, had to get that in there ...

What is your favorite place to eat and what do you like to order?

My current favorite is Miyoshi Japanese Restaurant in the Trader Joe's shopping center at Stockdale and Coffee. The guys who make the sushi and waitresses are really nice, and their Unagi and avocado roll rules! Second to this, I'd have to say Fishlips fish tacos. Third, I like the BLT at Renee's even though I should stop eating it. I'm a slave to bacon! Fourth, I like this garlicky pasta salad at Renee's, which is even worse because it makes my co-workers gag.


A big thanks to Dan for taking the time to be interviewed. You rock! B.T.