Remembering George Lynch

The Bakersfield Californian was one of the leaders in embracing so-called "citizen journalism," in which everyday people are given space in our pages and websites.

The concept was a recognition that our readers often know more than we do, particularly when it comes to niche topics. As paid professionals, journalists certainly bring expertise to the equation, but we can't be experts at everything.

Inviting readers to the table makes so much sense. But the newspaper business can be an insular world, and early on in the experiment, fellow journalists would ask me at conferences in the U.S. and Europe, "Aren't you worried about bad writing or mistakes? Who's checking this stuff to make sure it's good? Do you really believe anyone reads this stuff?"

Valid questions, but you could ask the same of paid journalists, some of whom were churning out boring, thinly sourced stories written for narrow audiences, and refusing to come out from behind their lecturns and mingle with the masses.

George LynchSo, when asked questions like, "Is there really any citizen journalism that's good?" I often referred to stories submitted by local amateur historian George Lynch.

Click to read more ...

New section dedicated to history of Hanford race track

Mario Andretti driving a Ford at the USAC Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway in 1967.Today I launched a new section that's dedicated to Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway.

As I noted in a previous blog post and a story tracing the history of the track, Marchbanks remains a mystery to many race fans and Central Californians despite being one of the first big oval tracks on the West Coast and host to some of the greatest names and cars in the history of racing.

This is an unfinished history, and I welcome ideas, feedback, critiques, etc., in updating and expanding the story. I'm particularly interested in filling some of the gaps in the mid-to-late 1950s and any ownership change(s) in the early 1960s. I'll also be adding more to the topic as time permits, either through more research or interviews with the people who worked, crewed and raced there.

(In the future, you can find the section in the pulldown menu under the "Research/Books" link at the top of any page).

Flowers in the dustbin

I never much liked Malcolm McLaren but I appreciated what he did in bringing The Sex Pistols to the global stage.

Malcolm McLaren, standing between the bobby and Sid Vicious, was always about the dramaMcLaren died Thursday from cancer. McLaren was best known as the manager of the Pistols, a cartoonish cast of characters he tossed together and molded into a pop culture tour de force.

While stunned by McLaren's death, I guess I shouldn't be surprised these days as more and more major influences on my musical life die off. Alex Chilton, Doug Fieger, Willie Mitchell and Jay Reatard all worked their way into heavy rotation on my playlists, and their recent deaths leave rich legacies.

So it goes with McLaren, a king of promotion who knew nothing but "over the top."

I was a teenager was late 1977 when I first heard of The Sex Pistols, through news stories and magazine articles decrying the downfall of youth. Much of that disturbance was directly tied to McLaren selling the band as bad seeds and worse. More poetically, they were "flowers in the dustbin," to quote from Pistol's anthem "God Save the Queen:"

We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in the human machine
We're the future
Your future

The Pistols promotional poster that has inspired me over the yearsThose were lyrics featured on a bright and edgy poster EMI used to promote
"Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" in American record stores. I was able to snag a copy of the poster (the Wherehouse Records in Fresno was NOT going to hang such crap on its walls), and after deciphering what "dustbin" meant, proudly hung it on various walls for the next 15 years or so.

Click to read more ...