The Renegade Rip Vol. 82 No. 6

The Renegade Ripwww.therip.comVol. 82 ∙ No. 6 Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Bakersfield College

By Brian N. WillhiteReporter

On April 17, volunteers from Bakersfield gath-ered together in an effort to clean up the city in the annual event known as the Great American Clean-up, which took place at Yokuts Park.

In conjunction with the GAC this year, the event also featured the Greater Bakersfield Green Expo, which showcased local businesses that focus on eco-conscious alternatives for daily living.

Bob Lerude, vice chairman for Keep Bakersfield Beautiful, the organization that coordinated the GAC, discussed the event and what the volunteers involved did to clean up Bakersfield.

“Today, we’ve got 140 ‘hot spots’ throughout the Bakersfield Metro area where we have people planting trees, putting in flowers, erasing graffiti, picking up trash and doing all types of that kind of work.

“We’re expecting 7,000 people, or about that number, to work on these hot spots, and around ten o’clock, they all come back here to get a free lunch. Then we’re going to have a little awards ceremony where we’re going to recognize sponsors and we’re going to give out volunteer of the year awards and that type of thing,” said Lerude.

Lerude also said that GET buses would be as-sisting with transportation to Yokuts Park for large groups volunteering with the cleanup around

town.KBB is part of a national organization known

as Keep America Beautiful, which has affiliates in cities across the country that gather annually in their hometowns to host their own “clean-up” type events.

According to Lerude, Bakersfield has had more volunteers than any other city for the last three of four years with the exception of last year; that title went to the city of Philadelphia with over 12,000 volunteers.

Lerude and Bakersfield City Mayor Harvey Hall, who is the head coordinator for the event, hope to regain that honor this year.

The Green Expo this year had 51 vendors and 50

student exhibits that focused on recycling and eco-friendly concepts. The exhibits consisted of entries from 14 different high schools in Bakersfield, ac-cording to Ray Scott, chairman for the Greater Ba-kersfield Green Expo and head coordinator for the event.

Scott spoke about the objectives of the vendors involved.

“They’re displaying the ‘green’ parts of life, like things that you can be doing at your home or office to help with renewable energy and recycling, things of that nature,” he said.

One of the vendors in the expo, Jennifer Jordan, co-owner of Bakersfield’s Greenshops, discussed

By Anthony B. EllrodtCopy editor

Bakersfield College may be los-

ing a geology professor in June, but at the Board of Trustees meet-ing held at the BC Levan Center for the Humanities on April 8, students stood at the podium to speak on be-half of Natalie Bursztyn.

Bursztyn was seen crying during the meeting because of the support of her students, and the sentiment they were showing the board with their comments.

Miranda Slaydon, geology major at BC, conveyed her feelings re-garding Bursztyn’s situation direct-ly to the Kern Community College District’s board members during the public comment session of the meeting.

“Professor Bursztyn has a reputa-tion for being an unforgettable ge-ology professor,” she said. “Is this the example that KCCD is setting? Is this the lesson they wish us to learn? I think not.”

Bursztyn is not a citizen of the United States, but of Canada, and she has been teaching at BC for the last five years under an employer-sponsored work visa and does have tenure. The cost of her work visa is $2000 annually and, according to Bursztyn’s comments to the board, her situation isn’t a new issue.

“This has happened in the past, where the board has been close to being late in paying my work visa fee,” she said. “It’s only $2000.”

According to Jack Hernandez, director of the new Levan Center, BC will lose one of the best profes-

sors BC has ever had if the fee is not paid, which would force Bursz-tyn to return home.

“She is a fantastic professor, and it will be a huge blow to the col-lege to lose such a talent,” he said. “I hope a resolution can be found that will enable her to remain on campus and continue doing what she loves.”

Rick Brantley, mathematics pro-fessor and van driver for Bursztyn’s field trips, said during the meeting, “It’s only $2000, pay the damn money.”

Several interruptions were made during the public comment session, including one from Board Chancel-lor Sandra Serrano.

“I am not aware of what this par-ticular issue is,” said Serrano. How-ever, general counsel Frank Ronich

spoke about the matter being a per-sonnel issue.

“We’ve already received legal correspondence about this issue,” he said. “This is a personnel matter and I strongly recommend that the board make no comment or have no reaction to this issue at all, and that it be referred directly to legal counsel.”

In an email received from Bursz-tyn on April 13, she indicated that negotiations are underway with the district.

“KCCD called my lawyer on Monday [April 12],” she said. “Lines of communication have fi-nally opened.”

According to Bursztyn on April 19, no headway has been made yet.

“Since this morning, I haven’t heard anything more.”

By Mateo M. MeleroReporter

In front of the Liberty Bell on the cor-ner of Truxtun and Chester avenues at 4:30 p.m. on April 15, members of the Taxed Enough Already Party gathered to express and discuss their concerns for the current political state of the country.

Protesters gathered in front of the stage, listening to speakers Damon Dunn, Jaz McKay, Inga Barks, John Mackey, Andy Vidak, John Lake and Bill Maze criticize the current Congress and administration on political affairs. The crowd cheered to points expressed by the speakers and sang patriotic songs.

Both supporters and criticizers of the Tea Party openly expressed their opinions amid the gathering.

“I am a Tea Party participant because both the Democratic and Republican par-ties are not serving the constituents well. The waste, the fraud, the deals are cost-ing our country’s freedoms way too much money,” said Lisa Anderson, who stood on the corner of the two intersecting avenues, holding her sign for passing traffic to see.

“It is also time to clean up the Congress [and] the Senate. Some of them have been

in there for 30, 40, 50 years and we are dealing with the same issues we were deal-ing with 30, 40, 50 years ago. It’s always health care, education, school, the econo-my; [it’s] the same problems going on.”

“I’m worried our youth will not have the same opportunities that my parents had and that I’ve had. We are heavily over-taxed,” said Anderson. “The Tea party is grassroots, and it’s motivated in moving people to act, but it isn’t designed neces-sarily to take a party role. That is not really the intent of the people.”

“Obama was change, but the change that he brought was not what I believe the peo-ple who voted for him expected, and he did not really lie about what he was going to do. He wasn’t completely clear, but I think people heard what they wanted to hear, and he definitely appealed to people who were in entitlement programs and want to stay in entitlement programs.”

People in favor of the current presiden-tial administration were also in attendance. Standing amongst the crowd, they spoke their viewpoint of the event.

“[Obama] represents a system of policies we desperately needed after the mis-man-agement of the Bush Administration,” said

BC professor spars with board

Tea Party protest brings cheers, jeers

Citizens gather for Great American Cleanup and Bakersfield Green Expo

GREGORY D. COOK / THE RIP

BC professor Reggie Williams hugs fellow professor Natalie Bursztyn on April 8.

DAVID KARNOWSKI / THE RIP

Protesters and participants of the Tea Party Tax Day Protest cheer speaker Jaz McKay, 1560 KNZR radio talk show host, during the rally held at the Liberty Bell on Truxtun Avenue on April 15.


Dangling tea bags hang from the hat of a rally participant during the Tax Day protest held at the Liberty Bell on Truxtun Avenue on April 15.

Please see CLEANUP, Page 5

Please see TEA PARTY, Page 5

FeaturesWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Students have a choice of canned vegetables, fruits, soup, pasta, rice, and cereal. In addition, other items will be provided as they become available such as: macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, canned tuna, pre-packaged meals, and hygiene products. Food offerings depend on budget restrictions and availability of products.

In 2009, with massive budget cuts to California Community College special-needs programs, the Student Government Association at Bakersfield College saw a growing need among students on campus. To quote a student, “If you’re worried about what you’re gonna eat for dinner, then you can’t think about the math test you’re gonna take the next day.” SGA determined that a food bank was needed to serve the needs of the students. Over the winter break, SGA organized The Renegade Pantry. The Pantry’s main goal is to help maintain the health and welfare of Bakersfield College students through organized college and community sponsorships and donations of nonperishable food items.

The following dates are for pick-up only: April 22, May 6 & 27, June 10 & 24. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

SGA summer hours are subject to change and will be posted on the Bakersfield College SGA Facebook page and SGA website by May 14, 2010. Please feel free to contact The Renegade Pantry Director for more information on how you can contribute to The Renegade Pantry’s mission.

You can connect with the Renegade Pantry on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/BakersfieldCollege or in the SGA office, located in Campus Center 4.

Business Partnerships: Organizations that can provide regular needed donations can help improve our services to the students a great deal. We will accept non-perishable food items, personal care items, along with monetary donations. The Renegade Pantry is a Non Profit Organization. All monetary donations are tax-deductible. Checks should be made payable to the Renegade Pantry and mailed or dropped off at: “The Renegade Pantry” c/o Student Activities Office, 1801 Panorama Drive, Bakersfield CA 93305. Individuals can donate using the above described procedures.

Students are asked to come to the Student Activities Office (Campus Center 4) with their Bakersfield College IDs to sign up for services. At that time students will choose from a list of available goods and be given a designated pick-up date.

Any currently registered student in need of food. No student will be turned away.

Students in need must come to the Student Government Office, located in Campus Center 4, to sign up prior to any of the distribution dates. This will ensure that the student receives the appropriate amount of self-selected food. Family size will be taken into consideration

What is provided?

About the Pantry 2010 Distribution Dates

What is the procedure for connecting with the Renegade Pantry?

What you can do to help...

How does it work?

Who is eligible?What is the procedure for getting the food?

The Renegade Pantry is committed to serving the student body by providing food for students in need.

MissionEliminating Hunger One Student at a Time. Food donations can be made at Campus Center 4.

Vision

Student Government Association Presents...

By Kelly ArdisEditor in chief

Local wine aficionados raised their glasses to a good cause at Bakersfield College’s third an-nual Red & White Wine & Food Festival on April 16. The pro-ceeds of the event, which took place in the grassy area north of Memorial Stadium, went to the BC Foundation and to the BC culinary arts program. Wine was provided by 68 wineries and the food was catered by BC culinary students.

The BC Foundation put on the event, and donor relations for the foundation, Hannah Egland, ex-plained how long they had been planning the festival.

“Mike [Stepanovich, direc-tor of the BC Foundation] starts planning at the beginning of the year, when he calls all the win-eries,” said Egland. “As a hobby, Mike is a wine expert, he writes a wine column for Bakersfield Magazine, he judges wine con-tests, and he has a personal con-nection with the wineries. He uses those connections to contact them about three months before the event.”

In its three years, the wine fes-tival has already acquired some regular vintner vendors. Carol Hinkle of Rio Seco Vineyard and Winery in Paso Robles, said her winery has been coming to the festival since it started.

“We consider it a privilege when Mike calls and invites us. It’s a wonderful community, this is one of our favorite events,” said Hinkle. “Everyone is appre-ciative, it’s a wonderful cause, and the culinary students do a wonderful job. Bakersfield is our backyard, so it’s nice to be able to make a connection here.”

Rio Seco is a family business, according to Hinkle, with “mom, dad and kids working the ranch.” She said it is important for peo-ple to come to events like the wine festival not only to support local students, but also to learn about the tastes and intricacies

of wine.“This event gives people a

chance to talk to winemakers. You could try just the cabernets and taste 68 wines,” Hinkle said. “Wine is so complementary to food; if you think of dinner and a Diet Pepsi or dinner and wine, wine is the perfect accompani-ment to food.”

In addition to California wines, guests were able to try interna-tional wines courtesy of two local wine bars, Valentien Restaurant and Wine Bar and Imbibe Wine and Spirits Merchant.

According to Egland, this was a first for the wine festival. Rich-ard Gilpin, a self-proclaimed “wine nerd” from Imbibe, ex-plained why they brought in-ternational wines, including a German Riesling and Australian Shiraz.

“We knew there would be a lot of California wines here, so we brought some wine from around the world, from Italy, Argentina,

Spain, Germany, to give people something different,” said Gilpin. “These wines are really planned for food, for the table, whereas in California, wines are more of a cocktail. We want people to try wines they wouldn’t get to oth-erwise.”

Many attendees of the wine festival were fans of the interna-tional wines. Stephanie Ott, 29, and Whitney White, 23, both said they loved the German Riesling. White described it as “sweet, but refreshing.” Ott and White at-tended the festival with White’s grandmother Barbara Monan and Marie McNamee. Ott said she has wine preferences, but “after the first glass, I’ll drink anything.”

“We’re not real picky,” added Monan. “It’s pretty bad when a grandmother drags her grand-daughter to a wine-tasting. But it’s a very nice party, it always is.”

Carl Guilford, 54, said he’s

been a wine fan since he was in college and has enjoyed trying new wine ever since.

“I grew up in Florida, where they have no concept of wine. I started drinking cheap wine in college in Georgia, and I thought that was wine,” he said. “Then I went to Germany as an ex-change student and tried some great wines. I brought that back to the U.S. I moved to California and went to wine country, and I fell in love. It’s been a long love story.”

Guilford said his favorite wine at the festival was the Silver Oak cabernet.

“I like a hearty red wine,” Guil-ford said. “It was very smooth, velvety and had a strong earthy flavor without being dirty.”

Guilford was not the only one claiming a Silver Oak wine as his favorite.

Several attendees told Scott Thompson of Silver Oak Cellars, which has wineries in both Napa

Valley and Alexander Valley, that their wine was the best.

“It’s very humbling to hear that. Silver Oak is very well known in the community, and it’s been the number one cabernet in the U.S. for 20 years,” said Thompson. “It’s a very well known wine and people love it. The cool thing is

everyone has a Silver Oak story, because everyone’s been drink-ing it for so long.”

Nicole Almengor, 23, enjoyed her time at the Red & White Wine & Food Festival.

“It was nice. I would come back,” she said. “It was worth the money.”


Imbibe co-owner Tamera Dobbs pours wine for Kathleen Sullivan and Maryann Lingnau on April 16.

BC Foundation hosts Red & White festival


Bakersfield College’s third annual Red & White Wine & Food Festival is held in the huddle outside of BC’s Memorial Stadium on April 16.

By Anthony B. EllrodtCopy editor

More than 300 people at-

tended the eighth annual Ryan Sheets South Valley Arm Wres-tling tournament held at the Nor-ris Veterans Center on April 10 in Bakersfield.

Several national and world-class arm wrestlers competed in the tournament including 26-time world champion Allen Fisher and national title-holder Brandon Dye.

The invitational averages about $10,000 which is then donated to high school full-body wres-tling teams across Bakersfield in memory of Sheets. Sheets suffered a neck injury during a wrestling match and later died from the injury that was wors-ened by a car accident.

Rick Stoltz, Bakersfield resi-dent and arm wrestling enthu-siast, was happy that the money goes to local high schools.

“This is awesome. I’ve been here before, but I never knew the money was donated to local high schools,” he said. “I’m definitely going to be supporting this tour-nament from now on.”

Georgia Yale, Sacramento res-ident, attended the tournament to support friends who were com-peting.

“It’s so much fun, and the fact that the money goes to local high schools makes it even better,” she said. “I spend as much money as I can simply because I know it goes to a good cause.”

During the tournament half-time break, New England Pa-triots guard Stephen Neal, who wrestled for Cal State Bakersfield and didn’t play football, took the microphone and spoke on behalf of the CSUB sports cuts.

“We’re planning several events to try and save the sports pro-grams at CSUB,” he said. “We’re

going to win this fight and all we need is your help. Anything you can do will be greatly appreci-ated.”

After Neal finished signing au-tographs and taking pictures with fans, he conveyed how much was still needed to save the CSUB sports programs.

“$1.4 million is needed to fund men’s and women’s golf, women’s tennis and wrestling all for two years,” he said. “We have until May 21 to raise the money, and we’ve raised about $300,000 so far.”

When the tournament re-sumed, several people were eliminated that were expected to win. Dye, who’s 23 and has been trying to defeat Fisher since the age of 18, finally succeeded dur-ing the qualifying matches.

“I drove 12 hours from Port-land to be here, and it felt really good to finally beat Fisher,” he said. “I’ve been trying to beat him for five years, and he gave me kudos, said I felt really strong.”

Dye is currently serving in the U.S. Air Force and is stationed at Kingsley Air Force Base in Port-land.

The final match of the tourna-ment came down to Dye and Jer-ry Cadorette, who is also known as “The Beast.”

Cadorette competed in the su-per heavyweight division, and although he ended up with the overall win, it wasn’t an easy victory.

Blake Thompson, Bakersfield resident, commented on the final match with a slow exhale.

“I thought for sure Jerry was going to just flip and end it, I mean he’s huge,” he said. “But I have a new respect for Brandon, he fought him, didn’t give up.”

Those interested in more infor-mation regarding the tournament can visit www.calarmwrestling.org and for those interested in learning more about donating to the CSUB sports programs, you can click the How Can I Help link located at www.savebakers-fieldwrestling.com.

By Katie AveryOpinions editor

An estimated 2,000 to 2,500 people, and over 80 aircraft, gathered at Shafter Airport on April 17 for the Minter Field Fly-in, an annual event featuring flying machines of all kinds.

According to the Minter Field Air Museum website, the 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. fly-in consisted of a showcase of aircraft from all over California, a pancake breakfast, plane rides, various vendors and a Missing Man formation fly by.

Rides were available for pur-chase in BT-13 training planes, a WWII Stearman bi-plane, and an antique 1929 bi-plane, the oldest air craft visiting the fly-in. Proceeds from these rides and the event went to support the nonprofit museum to help fund various projects they are work-ing on.

Retired Major General Jim Whitehead, Chairman of The MFAM, said this year’s fly-in is different from the air shows of the past. “[For an air show,] we have to close the field and the FAA [Federal Aviation Admin-istration] gives us the airspace to fly in. It’s controlled; no one can enter unless they are permit-ted to come in from a tower. It is a very formal show where there is a schedule of events.” For the fly-in he said, “the airspace is open, anybody can fly in when they want and anybody can take off when they want.”

Dave and Joanne Taylor, fans of the Minter Field air shows have been coming for many years. “I like the vintage air-planes from the ‘40s and ‘50s,” Dave said. They also mentioned that they will most likely be back next year to support the air show and Minter Field.

According to Whitehead, they were unable to do the full air show this year because it was not cost effective in this economy.

In using the more loosely based fly-in format, they were able to charge less for the event. “Peo-ple can come to this show with their family and pay less than the movies,” he said. “The way the economy is today, I think we appeal to the public, give them a great day of entertainment at a good price.”

The MFAM began these air shows in 1990 to celebrate the history of Minter Field and avia-tion in Kern County, said White-head. The field was built in 1941 to train pilots for WWII and, dur-ing that time, the field graduated over 11,000 pilots. “We have a special history … [we] need to be proud of this place for its contributions to WWII and after WWII,” he said. “I’m proud the museum exists as it does today and what it does and contributes to the community.”

“I’m extremely fortunate to be a part of this,” said Steve Manning, member of the MFAM. When talking about the history of Minter field and its role through-out the last century, he said, “As aviation history goes, we’re right on the front page.”

At noon, the 805th Navion Squadron, led by David Swett, 48, flew around the area in the Missing Man formation in memory of Bakersfield aviator Al Goss who died recently in a plane accident. According to Swett, the Navion Squadron was asked to lead the formation last minute because the pilots who flew T-6 planes, the same plane that Goss himself flew, did not show up to the event.

Swett mentioned that the Miss-ing Man formation was a “tra-dition that was born out of the days when there weren’t radios.” Pilots would fly in formation to signal to those on the ground who survived the mission. “They would know how many people didn’t make it back from the holes in the formation,” he said.

There are many challenges, ac-cording to Swett, when perform-ing the Missing Man formation at an open fly-in like this. “You have to be very precise with your flying and you have to trust the people you’re with absolutely. It’s just really challenging to do well,” he said.

Kurt Young, the pilot who per-formed the role of the Missing Man in the formation, said it was a great honor because “you are representing someone who didn’t come back from a mission.”

Pilot Ron Martin, 61, brought his ’47 Stinson Voyager to the show from his hangar that he keeps locally in Minter Field. He has been flying since he was 17 and said he has always been inter-ested in airplanes. “We couldn’t afford a real airplane so we built models,” he said. The best part about flying according to Martin was “you see things you don’t get to see from the ground. You get up and it’s a whole different perspective.”

In addition to his hangar in Shafter, Martin said he has a hangar in Tehachapi where he keeps gliders and sail planes. He said he likes coming to the Mint-er Field air shows and fly-ins be-cause it is like the kickoff for all the air shows in the season.

“It’s a slice of Americana,” said pilot Jolie Lucas, 48, about the fly-in. “This is a wonder-ful air show. It allows people to come and get close to airplanes.” Lucas and her husband flew their Mooney Airplanes from their home in Santa Maria with eight other Mooney brand owners on behalf of the Mooney Ambassa-dors group.

“I grew up flying with my fa-ther; he was a trainer in WWII. We grew up having an airplane and so he instilled the love of aviation,” she said. When asked how it feels to fly she said, “It’s a thrill you can’t duplicate.” She purchased her plane, Maggie, for

about $40,000. “So for the price of a SUV you could be flying,” she said.

“I love the old nostalgic mu-sic,” said attendee Crystal Mc-Cloud. McCloud and her family arrived around noon and sat in portable chairs by the runway to watch the planes going by. They said they liked that they were honoring Al Goss, and they re-membered that they saw him at the last air show.

McCloud also said she likes to see the old biplanes because they’re so slow, and it’s hard to see how they are still able to get off the ground. Her husband, Ken McCloud said, “They keep Minter Field’s history alive here. It’s a gorgeous day.”

In addition to pilots and peo-ple, there were about 20 vendor booths set up selling everything from snacks to sunscreen to cars. Among the vendors, there was a family of aviation enthusiasts who were selling books they have collected throughout the years regarding war, aviation and history. According to Dorothy McAllister, 72, who was running the booth, “it’s history that you really don’t get now.” She began collecting books with her son while he was in the marines. A few years ago she began attend-ing air shows to sell the various books they have collected. When asked why she preferred war re-

lated books she said, “I like to get books that have this type of history.”

“It was a good turnout,” said Minter Field public relations di-rector Dean Craun. He said they got over 80 planes to come in and estimated about 2,000 people. “We’re really happy with how it turned out.”

The Minter Field Air Museum, also open to the public during the event, holds varying artifacts from WWI through Vietnam. Most artifacts are donated from local families and war veterans. Also, records of trainees, in-

structors and staff are kept in the computer files, and handmade models of airplanes are displayed throughout the museum.

The MFAF is open to the pub-lic on Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or by appoint-ment.

For more information about the museum, go to minterfield-airmuseum.com. “The history is here, without a museum such as this many of the youth today, and adults, would never know the history of Minter Field, of Kern County, so that’s why we’re here,” Whitehead said.

FeaturesWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Denise M. GonzalezReporter

Stumbling upon a vintage treasure trove with reasonable prices is an anomaly in downtown Ba-kersfield thrift and antique stores. During these economic times, however, Bakersfield residents have the opportunity to shop in their town’s local second-hand shops for necessities.

One of the oldest antique stores in town re-opened their old-fashioned style diner in the Five and Dime Antique Mall in the old Woolworth building downtown located at 1400 19th St.

Jeremy Trammell is now the person in charge of the ‘50s style diner.

“I have six years in the restaurant business here in Bakersfield and in Los Angeles,” said Tram-mell. “We opened our diner just two weeks ago and are expecting a great turnout.”

After years of bad ownership with previous diner managing, Trammell and brother Joseph Trammell are taking the time and thought to make this diner a great place for all to enjoy.

Woolworth’s Diner includes an old-fashioned ‘50s theme with the styles of cuisine to follow. The menu includes burgers, a mix of cold and hot sandwiches, numerous flavors of floats and their famous soda fountain.

“At this point, the antique store attracts itself and that is how our diner gets the attention,” said Trammell. “I plan to attract the downtown busi-ness employees since we are a lunch cafe. I also plan to spread the word out to the community by promotional coupons, fliers and announcing the new ownership.”

The first Woolworth store was built in 1879 in Wilmington, Delaware. It was not until 1935 when 23 more stores were built throughout the United States. Throughout a long period of time, most of the Woolworth buildings have been utilized and transformed into new businesses, including the California Fashion Mall in Birmingham, Ala., a House of Blues in Cleveland, the Oxnard Experi-Mental Café. Some are used for condos, furniture and hardware store and some have stayed as re-worked original Woolworth buildings.

The Bakersfield Woolworth was built in 1939 and opened its doors on December 1994, owned by S.W. Woolworth. This building houses the Five and Dime Antique Mall that includes four

floors of thrift and antiques items and their fa-mous old-fashioned styled diner. The building is now owned by Mark and Linda Sheffield.

Evelyn Merriman is the current manager with a background in retail.

“We have 55,000 square feet of floor space,” said Merriman. “The way the antique mall works is by renting spaces out to individuals who are interested to sell their antiques. We currently have 115 venders and they rent the floor space by the square foot.”

Venders then choose and pay for their space to showcase and sell their own personal thrift and antiques or bought items from estate sells. The venders mark their items to their preferred pric-ing.

“I think the secondary market, antique shops, is the answer for customers who want to buy qual-ity things at reduced prices,” said Merriman. “The quality of vintage furniture of years ago is better than it is now, I believe.”

The current owners, Mark and Linda Sheffield, plan to keep the Woolworth building open and keep its tradition of selling second-hand items to individuals.

Claire Hale is an employee at Woolworth and a BC student.

“I absolutely love working at Woolworth,” said Hale. “I enjoy meeting the customers that go in be-cause they teach me so much about antique items they are looking for. I strongly encourage young college students to go in and shop at second-hand shops for vintage clothing and furniture.”

Minter Field Fly-in showcases aircraft


Pilot Mark Klein of Monterey taxis his restored BT-13 at the 2010 Minter Field Fly-In on April 17. The aircraft was assigned to flight training operations at Minter Field in 1945.


Four North American Aviation “Navion” aircraft of the 805th Navion Squadron perform a show pass over the 2010 Minter Field Fly-In on April 17. The group later performed a Missing Man in honor of the late Al Goss.


Head referee Alvin Sheets (center) starts a bout between Matt Gonzales (left) and Jesse Mize at the Ryan Sheets Memorial South Valley Arm Wrestling Championships held at the Norris Road Veteran’s Center on April 10.

MATEO M. MELERO / THE RIP

Gail Russell looks at some of the antique figurines offered for sale at Woolworth located on 19th Street on April 15.

Woolworth offers food and antiques

South Valley residents wrestle for Bakersfield high schools

CampusWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Brian N. WillhiteReporter

On April 12, the Bakersfield Col-lege campus was visited by traveling Hare Krishna devotees looking to spread their message to anyone in-terested.

“We’re here at Bakersfield College meeting the students and professors, sharing the spirituality of India, like a mission I guess you would call it,” said Zeke Berger, who prefers to go by his spiritual name, Gauranga Das, given to him by his guru.

Das and his three other compan-ions have been traveling to differ-ent schools in their RV in an effort to share their message with those looking for an alternative point of view. They were previously visiting Fresno City College before coming to BC.

According to Das, most students that they have spoken with have been willing to listen to what they have to say.

“We’re happy to meet the students and generally people are open to the ideas,” said Das.

“We meet a few people, maybe one out of every 10 or 15, that say they’re Christians and don’t want to explore other spiritualities, which is OK. We’re kind of trying to show the universal spiritual application of these teachings but if certain people have certain faiths, we’re not trying to convert people. Mainly we’re try-ing to inspire people to look deeper into what life’s about and be more introspective.”

Das and his companions were handing out literature that detailed their religious beliefs to anyone who wanted to learn more. They also asked for a donation in any amount from students, too. Das said that the donations help cover the printing and travel costs, but if a student is not able to donate, it’s OK.

“The main books we pass are titled ‘The Journey of Self Discovery’ and ‘The Science of Self-Realization,’“ said Das.

They are also passing out a book titled “The Bhagavad Gita.”

“‘The Bhagavad Gita’ is Sanskrit literature,” said Das, who added,

“Bhagavad means ‘God’ or the possessor of all opulence and Gita means ‘song.’ So the book’s called, ‘The Song of God.’ This is a book that’s kind of like the Bible of In-dia.”

Das briefly outlined the Hare Krishna teachings and the meaning of Krishna.

“The basic principle is that the original teachings of India share that real life means that we’re not the changing body, but the soul. That the body may be changing from child-hood to adult to old age, but who we are as a person, essentially the con-sciousness, carries on after death. And according to our consciousness and activities, at the exact moment of death will determine our next life, like reincarnation, and karma is part of reincarnation. Karma means, ba-sically, what we do has a reaction.

“We have a relationship with the supreme conscious person in San-skrit, the name for God is Krishna. Krishna means all attractive,” said Das.

Followers of the Hare Krishna movement are well known for their public displays and musical perfor-mances. Das explained the meaning behind those presentations and what they do.

“Usually, we do public demon-strations with musical instruments and singing ‘Hare Krishna’ and glo-rifying His Holy names and danc-ing,” he said.

“The self-discovery is to realize that our true spiritual nature, our personality, our eternal form and realize our loving relationship with the supreme personality of God — of Krishna,” said Das who began to chant a sample of what they sing.

“The main way we do that is chant-ing: Hare Krishna/ Hare Krishna/ Krishna Krishna/ Hare Hare… those are names of God, and according to most traditions and the teachings of India, God’s name is non-different from His personality, so all the pow-ers of God are there when you say God’s Holy name. So the main way that we connect with God in these times is to glorify Him by singing His Holy name.”

Das and the others did not perform

on campus, though. Their intentions were only to introduce themselves to students and discuss their philoso-phies.

“We’re just meeting with the peo-ple one-on-one, we were unprepared with our instruments and every-thing,” Das said.

Das further explained that their travels are as much about their own spiritual experiences as it is about spreading their message to others.

“Whether we think we’re already religious or think we’re philosophi-cal or spiritual, we can all usually in-crease our spiritual experience,” Das said. “We’re also doing it for our own spiritual experience. We’re out here meeting people. We have to talk about ideas and it makes us get con-templative about our own existence and try to be instrumental ultimately in God’s hands to help ourselves and help others achieve the goal of life, which is to revive our original, dormant relationship with God, or Krishna.”

According to Patti Rapp, an ad-ministrative assistant in the student activities office, campus visitors must check in and have any literature approved before it can be presented to the student body. The process is not meant to censor but make the school aware of what is on campus.

Das did not get permission from BC before meeting with the students on campus.

By Jofel TolosaPhotographer

After displaying an array of artistic expressions for the year 2010, the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery presented the Bakersfield College Art Student Exhibit. The exhibit is a celebration of work by BC students, and the exhibit opened with a reception for the artists April 8.

Artwork ranges from sculpture, photography, painting and drawing. The gallery is located in the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library.

David Koeth, the chair of the art department, said, “The exhibit has been a long tradition, we’ve done it for a long time.”

Both faculty and students pulled together to put up the exhibit. The students did their part by mak-ing the art, while the teachers set up the schedules and the posters advertising the event. Along with their other duties, the faculty had to find some-body to judge the artwork.

Ramone Munos, professor of art at the Art Cen-ter College of Design in Pasadena, was chosen to judge this year’s exhibition. Out of the 200 pieces entered in the competition, the judge selected 70.

Jannet Perez, a sophomore at BC, had two of her pieces selected. It took her roughly three hours to finish her sketches.

“I would say this semester I started to take art seriously,” she said. “I like photography, I also like taking pictures.”

Many students agreed that they love the art pro-gram. Classrooms aren’t filled like other classes. They felt like they had a lot of time to talk with the teacher, instead of competing for attention like in a general education class.

Debbie Nava-Konhonen, an art major with a focus on painting, said, “I really love the art pro-gram here at BC. There are a lot of great instruc-tors and a lot of nice students.” She indicated that her paintings were inspired by Paul Cezanne. He was a painter who did many still-life pieces of things such as fruit and skulls.

Steven Garret, also an art major, had two of his acrylic pieces chosen. His work that was selected is called, “Albert, and The Demise of an Educa-tional System.”

“I’ve taken most of my classes with Laura Borneman. She really taught me a lot and just let me go crazy,” Garrett said.

Oni Aboyte is a sophomore that had three piec-es of her artwork chosen in the exhibit. She is an art major and her specialty is photography. The inspirations for her pieces are called “Home-less,” “Out The Back Door” and “Out of Business.”

“I pretty much like the old and run down look,” she said. She hopes to transfer to Brooke’s Insti-tute after finishing up a few more classes at BC.

Greg Chamberlain, president of BC, showed support by attending as well.

“I really make an effort to get to whatever BC event I can, such as plays and concerts,” he said.

Chamberlain noted that there’s a lot of variety of art displayed, which also proves the diversity and scope of the art department. “I came to the show last year, and I really love the students’ art.”

The Bakersfield College Art Student Exhibit will continue to display students’ art until May 5. The gallery will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

By Vincent PerezNews editor

At the Gil Bishop Sports Center

on April 15, both of the Bakers-field College men’s and women’s basketball teams participated in a fundraiser competition called 166 Miles that involved basket-ball teams from Cerro Coso and Porterville College. The event raised $415 for the Boys & Girls Club in Bakersfield, according to Mary Jane Johnson, schedul-ing technician for the Office of Academic Affairs.

The event was the result of a project by one of the group’s from the Kern Community Col-lege leadership academy. John-son was part of the group.

Porterville won the event, while BC’s teams came in sec-ond. Johnson explained what the most important factors were.

“The money is not that impor-tant – it’s about getting the kids together, so that they have a good time and giving them some sense of helping a community. That’s what I hope is generated from it.”

However, she added, “It gives the Boys & Girls Club, who suf-fered a 60 percent drop in their funds, some extra money to work with.”

Brian Tully, a systems analyst and programmer of the KCCD and part of the leadership group,

explained where the idea for the event came from.

“This idea came about as part of a program of the leadership of the KCCD. The idea was to come up with something that would expand over all three campuses.”

Tully talked about his expecta-tions from the event.

“I hope the Boys & Girls Club get a chunk of cash that they didn’t have to do anything for. I’m hoping that the players get to feel that they have done some-thing for their community.”

Tully added about how the event would impact the BC cam-pus. “The campus gets the noto-riety of being able to support the Boys & Girls Club just by hav-ing their basketball players prac-tice one afternoon.”

BC men’s basketball coach Rich Hughes said that he had six returning players participate: Cooper Dameron, John Baird, Daniel Womack, Stevie Howard, Bart Dandridge and Eric Oros.

“This is more helping out the community,” Hughes said. “They approached right when the bas-ketball season was about over. Both Paula [Dahl, BC women’s basketball coach] and I were ex-cited to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club.”

Hughes added that the BC players would “just shoot and have some fun – no pressure.”

Porterville’s men’s and wom-

en’s participated, along with Cerro Coso’s women’s basket-ball team. According to Tully, the men’s basketball team at Cer-ro Coso is no longer functioning due to the budget cuts and to help the short-handed women’s basketball team and the Cerro Coso baseball team helped the women’s team.

Howard, a BC freshman guard, talked about how he enjoyed the fundraising event.

“It was fun. Anything for the kids.”

By Michael WaffordReporter

On April 28, students will have an opportunity to meet and greet employers at the Bakersfield Col-lege Career Day. Career Day will be held in the campus center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

According to Antonio Alfaro of Job Placement, there will be around 50 employers present. The em-ployers will be from various fields including indus-trial technology, nursing, and corrections.

Employers in attendance are down from the 100 to 150 employers present during previous years. Alfaro said this is a result of the current economic climate.

Employers will include Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, Frito-Lay, Account Control Technology, the California Department of Water Resources and Kern County Probation, among others.

Denise Crawford of Job Placement said, “Stu-dents should come prepared for career day and treat it like the opportunity it is.”

Crawford said bringing resumes, dressing ap-propriately, introducing yourself to employers, and calling an employer a few days after meeting them will help students stand out from the crowd.

Alfaro said students can prepare for career day by coming to Job Placement where they can assist students with resumes, help them research jobs, and go through mock interviews.

Krishna followers at BC

BC artists showcase work

JOFEL TOLOSA / THE RIP

Students gather at the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery in the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library to view art created by Bakersfield College art students April 8.Basketball teams shoot for charity

RyAN GEORGE / THE RIP

Bakersfield College’s Kaileigh Christensan attempts a layup before the 166 Miles fundraiser in BC’s gym April 15.

Employers to attend BC Career Day


James Whitten (left) and Anandagopal Das discuss religious philosophies outside the Bakersfield College library April 13.

Above: High school debate students from around California wait for their next debate round to begin in a hallway of the Science and Engineering building at Bakersfield College on April 16. The BC communication department hosted the California High School Speech Association’s annual state tournament in an effort to raise awareness about the speech and debate community.

Below: Students play a game of Hackey Sack between debate rounds April 16.

PHOTOS By DAVID KARNOWSKI

Debaters argue and play

NewsWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

News Briefs

Comedians Cheech and Chong in Bakersfield

Bakersfield College Garden Fest

Relay for Life fundraiser at Rollerama West

Cinco de Mayo at Fishlips

Team Sturgeon will be skating to ‘70s disco music for the Relay for Life fundraiser at Rollerama West on April 25 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be raffles, skate contests and a ‘70s costume con-test. Everyone is welcome, adults and children. Cost is $10 per per-son. For more information or to buy tickets call Shawna Beaver at 331-9630.

Comedians Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong are coming to the Bakersfield Fox Theater on April 23 at 8 p.m. Chong and Marin define their era as “hilariously irreverent, sa-tirical, counter-culture, no-holds-barred comedy routines.” Tickets are $45 and $55 at the box office and online. For more informa-tion contact call 324-1369.

Bakotopia and Fishlips pres-ents Mento Buru, Velorio, Ke-lulu and DJ Mikey for the Cinco de Mayo “Pachanga 2010” on Wednesday May 5 at 6 p.m. En-trance fee is $10 and the event is for those 21 and over.

Join in the fun and raise funds for the BC Child Development Center Program at the Garden Fest, April 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is an open house featur-ing the Environmental Arbore-tum for a day of gardening, pet care, cooking, outdoor leisure, and arts and crafts booth. Fami-lies and staff will sell tickets for $1 from now until the drawing is held at the Garden Fest on Satur-day, April 24 at 3 p.m.

BC theater department presenting new play

The Bakersfield Museum of Art will be holding its third an-nual Winescapes event with an evening of wine tasting, gourmet food and an auction of 40 artis-tically transformed wine bottles on April 21. It will start at 6 p.m. Presale tickets are $40 per per-son or $75 per couple, and $50 per person at the door. Call 661-323-7219 for tickets.

Winescapes at Bakersfield Museum of Art

Bakersfield College’s stu-dent newspaper staff again collected general excellence awards and several individual awards at the Journalism As-sociation of Community Col-leges state conference April 8-10 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los An-geles.

The student newspaper, The Renegade Rip, was one of 13 community college newspa-pers in the state to achieve the general excellence standards determined by professional journalists who handle the judging. There are more than 60 community college news-papers in California.

The staff’s Dissenter maga-zine, which debuted in the fall of 2009, also won general excellence against extremely tough competition. The staff also published the Dissenter for this semester, and it is cur-rently being distributed to the campus community.

In individual competition, last semester’s magazine edi-tor, Johnie Burch IV, won first place in the state for mail-in column writing. Burch also gained an honorable mention for magazine feature story (non-profile). Also in the mail-ins, David Karnowski placed second for magazine cover and earned a meritori-ous award for one of the top 10 online photo essays.

In mail-in critical review, Andrew J. Ansolabehere placed second and Kelly Ar-dis, the Rip’s current editor in chief, was third in the state. Leia Minch, last semester’s editor in chief, placed third in editorial writing. Ardis and Minch also received an honorable mention for front-page layout, and Minch and artist Minami M. Perales won an honorable mention for in-side page layout. Perales also won honorable mentions for magazine illustration and in-formational graphic.

Gregory D. Cook, this se-mester’s multimedia editor, won a meritorious award for online photo essay and an honorable mention for sports feature photo. Cook also was one of eight students statewide to be selected for a JACC scholarship, earning $100 from the organization.

The mail-in contest entries are comprised of work done in the 2009 calendar year. Typically, each category will have close to 100 entries statewide, and judges pick first through fourth and up to six honorable mentions. In on-the-spot contests, which take place at the conference, Karnowski and Brian Will-hite combined to earn an hon-orable mention in the Team Feature 2.0 category, which consists of finding a story in an area of Los Angeles and putting together a multimedia show complete with photos, voice overs and text in less than 24 hours.

The Rip’s Samantha Gar-rett earned an honorable men-tion in the on-the-spot cartoon contest.

The on-the-spot contests involve covering events as they happen and completing stories, photographs, cartoons and page designs shortly after the event. Nearly 700 com-munity college journalism students attended the event, which involved workshops, contests and other media-re-lated activities.

By Martin ChangReporter

Jill Board will become the president of Cerro Coso Community College on July 1.

“I will ensure that Cerro Coso continues to offer courses representative of our core mission, driven by input from each of the communities we serve,” Board said. “I plan to lead an increased focus on enrollment management strategies that will enhance student success.”

The BC theater department presents “The House of Blue Leaves,” a wacky, dark comedy about a struggling lounge singer in Queens, NY in 1965. Directed by Jennifer Sampson, the play starts at 8 p.m. on April 29 and 30, and May 1, 6, 7 and 8 in the indoor theater. Tickets are $8.50 for general admission and $5.50 for students and seniors.

Student newspaper triumphs

Board assumes presidency

Jill Board

Aaron Laycook, a law student, when asked about Barack Obama.

“I think he’s dedicated to civil rights and the acknowledgement that we can be secure and ensure the protection of liber-ty is something that we desperately need and that providing health care to people is something we should all strive to do.

“I thought [George W. Bush] made deci-sions that I wouldn’t have made if I was in his position. I think he took risk with American liberty, [with] military adven-turism and I think that he sacrificed civil liberties in the pursuit of security, which as Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Those that are willing to sacrifice liberty for security de-serve neither’ and I think he damaged our standing abroad in a time when we needed allies,” said Laycook.

Oxc Lebrion, a native of El Salvador, and a criticizer of the Tea party, said, “The reason I am here today is because I knew that these people were going to come here.

These people are not good people, because these people are the same people that give problems to all other people. They are ex-tremist, they are the right extremists and these people are united together with the Republican Party, the same people that used to oppose the freedom of the slaves.

“I’m opposed to these people because they always are against something that is about progress,” said Lebrion.

Bill Potter, 72, a licensed land surveyor and a Tea Party conservative, said, “I read an article in the Bakersfield Californian in the editorial section by a guy who writes for the Miami Herald, and I just lost it. He was talking about how we’re all racist and the fact that we didn’t vote for Obama makes us racist and the fact that I would have voted for a black conservative didn’t have anything to do with it. I told him he was the racist among other things.

“I don’t care if [presidential candidates] are purple,” said Potter. “Now I think Bush screwed up by not taking Condoleezza Rice

as vice president for his second term. Then she should have run against Obama and I would have voted against her in a heart-beat. Five years ago, I would have voted for Colin Powell but he just ‘liberaled’ out on everything.

“There was a black gal that stopped me and said that we haven’t given Obama a chance. He’s had a year and he didn’t work on anything but the health care plan that nobody wants. If he wanted to work on something then he could have worked on jobs.”

Patrick Young, of Tehachapi, expressed his concerns for the current state of the country. “You’ve got to get to the founda-tion that built this country that is our U.S. Constitution. Every word of it, it is actual, you’ve got to go back to it.”

“If we don’t go back to the Constitution we are history,” said Young, “The United States is the last country that is left and we are going away fast. We are the last free country on this planet.”

her thoughts on the GAC and why her company is part of it.

“It’s the awareness of the green move-ment, and really, the educational component that really needs to get out to Bakersfield,” she said, and added, “It’s really important to create this awareness to clean up the de-bris because it has to go somewhere and it usually ends up in our oceans.”

Jordan also commended Bakersfield cit-izens for taking an eco-friendly attitude in their efforts to clean up Bakersfield.

“It basically speaks volumes that we have so many people that want to engage in [volunteer work] in Bakersfield.”

Volunteers from the event came from large organizations like Albertsons and Co-ca-Cola, who donated food and beverages to the event, and smaller organizations like church groups and school clubs.

Jeff Holland, 16, a high school junior from Golden Valley High School, had been cleaning up garbage around Yokuts Park most of the morning and was “surprised at the amount of garbage in the park.”

“I always thought this was a clean park,” he said and added, “It feels kind of cool to clean up all the trash out here.”

Stephanie Catuiza, 16, a sophomore at Ridgeview High School, was also helping to clean up the garbage around the park.

“I had a really good time today cleaning up. We saw some really weird things and we found a whole bunch of wire casing and we had to work to together to put it on the side of the road so the garbage people can get it,” said Catuiza who also brought along her 8-year-old brother, Ryan, to help.

Holland and Catuiza are both part of a student organization called People to People. The club, which will be going on

a European trip this summer, does volun-teer work in the community as part of their club’s requirements.

Another volunteer Kim Snider, who was volunteering with the Coca-Cola group, commented on her experiences with the other volunteers and what she feels this event does for the city.

“I think it’s great for the community and to see everyone come together and help out. It builds morale and shows that Bakersfield really cares about its city,” said Snider.

Bakersfield College student and city employee Susan Hernandez was also vol-unteering in the events information booth. She had been a volunteer before and was hopeful for the events cause to reach the people of Bakersfield.

“I think it’s an outstanding opportunity for people to be educated and to participate in the community,” said Hernandez.

CLEANUP: Bakersfield community unites in cleaning the city

TEA PARTY: Americans concerned with Obama’s decisions

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

Ensemble jazzes up BC indoor theater

Bakersfield College music major Jordan Herbst plays from his music book during a performance by the BC jazz ensemble April 10 in the Edward Simonson Performing Arts Center at BC.

PHOTO BY JOSEPH COTA / THE RIP

Sandra Serrano, chancellor of Kern Community College District, said, “Jill stood out among the candidates. She spoke with passion and knowledge about Cerro Coso’s strengths and future. She has built strong relationships on campus. Jill has always been one to embrace a project or challenge and get it done. She will make an excellent president.”

Board had previously served as vice president of student services at Cerro Coso. As vice president, she created several stu-

dent programs.She has served in many more areas at

Cerro Coso, including dean of student ser-vices and coordinator of special services. Previously she had taught in Ridgecrest. Board has a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in counseling and music education respectively.

Stuart Witt, board of trustees president for KCCD, said, “We welcome Board, and expect her to energetically take on the many challenges facing the Cerro Coso area.”

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.

Editorial Board Staff

Write The RipLetters 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.

How to reach us-Address: Bakersfield College,

1801 Panorama Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93305-Phone: (661) 395-4324-Web site: www.therip.com

Adviser ......................................................Danny Edwards

Editor in Chief...................................Kelly Ardis

News Editor....................................Vincent Perez

Sports Editor.................................Michael Morrow

Copy Editor ..............................Anthony B. Ellrodt

Multimedia Editor......................Gregory D. Cook

Opinions Editor....................................Katie Avery

Magazine Editor.........................David Karnowski

Reporters: Martin Chang, Samantha Garrett, Denise Gonzalez, Laura Liera, Alma N. Martinez, Mateo M. Melero, Julian Moore, Natalie Rodriguez, Lauren Strong, Michael Wafford, Brian Willhite

Photographers: Joseph Cota, Ryan George, Annie Stockman, Jofel Tolosa

The Renegade Rip

OpiniOns Wednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Bryan Wilkerson,animal science:“‘People Are Crazy,’ by Billy Currinton.”

’Gade Feedback What is your favorite song?

Compiled by:Gregory D. Cook and David Karnowski / The Rip

Editor’s note: ’Gade Feedback is a feature that asks students their opinion on various topics.

Andy Lopez,physical education: “‘Leave Me Alone,’by Tech N9NE.”

Jaylyn Arnold, biology: “‘Kryptonite,’ by 3 Doors Down.”

Eric Wright,undeclared: “‘Hammerhead,’ by Offspring.”

Yuby Leal,liberal studies:“Cielito Lindo,’ by Pedro Infante.”

Staff Editorial

Tea party activists tax patience

By Gregory D. CookMultimedia editor

Violence is human nature. Biblical accounts suggest that by

the second generation of man’s ten-ure on planet Earth, he had already figured out, without the need of an instruction manual, how to use a rock to bash in the head of his brother as an effective, albeit primitive, form of stress relief. As history tells its con-tinuing tale of violence into the pres-ent, it seems the only time we “turn

the other cheek” these days is to put it on the other side of the

rifle stock.We have refined the science of violence

to a near-perfect art form over the years, and have created a culture of bru-tality in which we even turn to violence for recreation, bombarding o u r s e l v e s with violent movies, tele-vision pro-grams and video games.

In video games espe-cially, the vi-olence takes on an even more omi-

nous pal-lor. The i n t e r -a c t ive nature

of video g a m e s

gives their players a degree

of control over the simulated situation.

Violence in video games is in no way a new concept. The very first video game, the Cathode Ray Amuse-ment Device, patented way back in

1948, was, of all things, a missile simulator. Players steered their mis-siles across a screen, trying to de-stroy targets. While this technology was light-years more advanced than a rock to the head, it was just a pale f o r e s h a d -owing of the realism presented by today’s modern video platforms.

Today, the violence depicted in video games, such as the Grand Theft Auto series, rivals the special effects found in many movies. Players hap-pily shoot, stab, burn, bludgeon and run over their simulated victims, who react in a realistic manner, oftentimes screaming and begging for their lives –all in the name of recreation.

Why, when we need do little more than look out of our front windows to find real violence, do we feel the need to simulate it for fun? Is our civiliza-tion heading toward a more peaceful existence, or will we fail to overcome our base instincts and violent nature?

Video games have typically been the province of the young and im-pressionable. The violence depicted in games with game play that closely mirrors the real world cannot help but desensitize the players to some extent. It is not fair to say that little Timmy will grow up to be a “yay” dealer, roaming the streets with an assault rifle, carjacking people at will because he played a few hours of San Andreas. But it also cannot be de-nied that the violence in such games can erode our sensitivities a little bit each generation until what was once unheard-of, becomes accepted.

An argument has suggested that violent video games can serve as an outlet for aggression with simulated violence actually lessoning a per-son’s desire to be violent in the real world.

Of this line of thought, I would ask one question: When you see a picture of a plate of delicious food in an ad-vertisement, does it make you more or less hungry for the real thing?

By Samantha GarrettReporter

Maybe the people who made those first tentative steps toward electronic games

didn’t realize that it would be what it is today—that it might become not only one of the

most successful industries, but one of the most violent ones as well. That is, however, exactly what it has become.

With all that violence and gore, it’s no sur-prise that it would piss off mothers collec-tively and in general. What parents in their right mind would want their children exposed to something so prolifically violent, gory, disturbing, and traumatizing?

Well, probably none, which is why they have that whole game rating service, which will let a parent know that a game is rated anywhere from EC for Early Childhood to AO for Adults Only, which could mean con-tent anywhere from picking out which block isn’t yellow to—well, you can probably fig-ure out the other one.

However, most games fall into the range of relatively mild to quite violent, which would be games meant for teens or mature audienc-es. Those games contain the whole shoot-everyone-in-sight aspect with the occasional hooker-killing flair. Weird and sometimes disturbing, they’re otherwise unsurprising. After all, if teenage boys can’t get that kind of violence in video games, they’ll find it somewhere else. Before shooting simula-tions there were BB guns. Point is, we really should accept these games; they’re never go-ing to go away.

If they aren’t for you, don’t play them—that simple.

For those who don’t want to expose their children to those kinds of games—well, it’s just that easy. They can’t even buy them un-less they meet the age requirement, so, un-less the parent is going out and buying those games for their children in the first place, the kids have no real access to them. It doesn’t matter how appalling something is—if the kid isn’t seeing or experiencing it, it probably doesn’t matter.

In any case, we all understand that children should never be exposed to anything violent, offensive, confusing, politically incorrect, or

fun. So, naturally, they shouldn’t be exposed to video games that are intended for audienc-es older than elementary school students.

That’s where it gets funny, though. Every once in a while something will show up on the evening news.

The connection is always vague—perhaps some kid somewhere got into a fight with a classmate and was suspended, and then the parents of that child decided that the reason why—because they would never raise their child to be violent—was because of some video game they bought him. Not only that, but they weren’t even going to buy the kid the game, but he kept bugging them to get it—and he never shuts up unless he’s sitting in front of the hyp-notizing glow of the television—so they had to, really, if they want-

ed to have a so-cial life again.

The prob-lem really isn’t video games and violence, be-cause before vio-lent video games there were vio-lent television shows, and be-fore that vio-lent movies, and before that just plain violence.

The problem is with the parents, because it’s their responsibility to check the things they give their children and to instill in them proper values so that, even if the kids do get the enriching opportunity to play Grand Theft Auto, they will at least understand that they can’t go out and steal a police officer’s car.

Video game violence: fun or foul?

CONPROA new face for the age-old tradition of opposing govern-ment taxation has formed in a group calling themselves the Tea Party. Taxed Enough Already has been active for a few years now, and while participation at protests on the local level seem to be dwin-dling, the topic of anti-tax politics is heavily discussed in the national and local media.

The protest of taxation is nothing new. The movement of people that snub noses at the government’s efforts to regulate and collect the na-tional income has been around since man began to civilize. These feelings of repulsion toward taxes run deep in our American culture, as it was one of the core elements to the founding of our republic.

But the reality is that this tax-free utopia simply cannot exist.

The roads we drive on, the schools our children attend and the military that protects us are all funded by the col-lection of our taxes.

Despite this basic truth that a government requires taxes to operate, the Tea Party claims that unjust taxation and increases are destroying our nation, and some mem-bers are even calling for the impeachment of the president. Unfortunately, these false-hoods simply do not present the truth about our current tax policy.

Jointly filed married cou-ples face almost no difference in the 2010 income tax rates as compared to 2009.

In fact, ceilings for the tax brackets have risen in every category for jointly filed mar-ried couples ranging from $50 to $750 of more income allowed before breaching the next bracket. What this translates into is a very small difference from the 2009 tax rates to the 2010 rates.

If anything, some families will actually move down a category and be taxed less. Most people will not see much if any difference in their returns.

The claims of many attend-ing protests staged around the country are often not even tax related but rather attacks on the Obama administration and his “regime.” Perpetu-ated by self-proclaimed right-wing radio talk show hosts, the amount of misinformation spread among the public is overwhelming.

While our founding fathers had grievances with England taxing the populace of the colonies without representa-tion, we do not find ourselves in that position today.

Free and open elections re-sult in politicians of our own choosing entering office.

The simple fact is, if you don’t like the taxes you pay, voting someone else into power is the quickest and most civil way of changing policy.

By Mateo M. MeleroReporter

Through big black sunglasses and chain-smoking camel filters, I stare at les petites filles who strut around the Bakers-field College Campus Center, reviewing my master plan before the pounce and desperately hoping this hunt blooms fruits for my labor. It’s been three months since I have had a woman, and I am starting to get the shakes.

My whole routine is in shambles due to failed attempts at courtships of hot tail. I have grown impatient, resulting in too many failures in a short amount of time, causing a break in confidence and severe frustration. I desperately pray for a miracle to heal my wounds, but in painful review I realize that my foundering is not due to my technique, but to the disregard of the modus operandi I have strived so long to perfect.

Initially, when I pick my target I start with basic observation. When you gaze upon le femme, do it as if it is an act of lovemaking. As she chats, let your eyes become a slave to her body. Glide them gently along every curve and allow your-self to be caught, do not shy away from the odyssey that is her body.

Processing every detail of le beaute is of the utmost importance; the color of her hair, the fitting of her clothes, the amount

of accessories she is adorning, the pace in which the time stopper walks—all these elements provide information on where to inquire, where to flatter and when not to talk about yourself.

The prime element of the courtship must always be her.

When the conversation comes to names, make sure you recount hers with an air of pleasure. Let it dance along the length of your palate, say it as if it is a song. When your touch embraces hers, let it linger, slide the hand along the length of hers, grinning as if it’s an ecstasy all in its own.

Most importantly, you must always ra-diate confidence and patience.

The way in which I approach a poten-tial love interest is all very hard-learned information to me. I had no guru to edu-cate me in the discipline of love hunting. The long list of failed attempts collected in my youth serves as a textbook to my perverted desires, and I now stand in des-perate review of my code.

It was a recent encounter with one lovely lady that precipitated my personal review. Long legged, slender framed, love radiat-ing, time stopping, psychedelic wave rid-ing, neon love child—the Cosmo-Mama strolled past me one evening on campus.

Wielding a Nikon Camera in calf long leather boots, she stopped along the way to frame up a piece of modern architec-

ture. She stood silhouetted along the ho-rizon, stuck in that infamous pose that emphasizes the fun parts of a woman, tak-ing long slow drags of menthol cigarettes. It was only natural to my senses that I stop and introduce myself.

I asked about her camera, being that I am a bit of a photographer myself. I then went on to blabber about knowledge of the device. I now know that this was an error, but at the time it was a necessary improvement enacted by the excitement of new game on campus.

Though, as sloppy as this greeting was, it did not hinder my future run-ins with mademoiselle Cosmo-Mama. As time passed, our rendezvous became more exciting as we began to warm up to each other. I desperately craved the Cosmo-Mama, wanting to gawk boldly at her as she chatted about her everyday doings.

One day we both skipped class and went on a psychedelic rocket-ride around Panorama Drive. We listened to ‘60s Surf Rock as we cruised in a BMW along the drive, chatting casually, relaxed in the mo-ment. I cracked jokes, and relied on hum-ble charm as I tried to erase the idea of strangers from our mind. Parting with her was difficult, but the world rarely stops and when it starts again you will find yourself lusting for a lucid reminiscence of the moment.

As far as phone calls go, I do not fol-

low any specific syntax for the first con-tact. I called her the coming Friday, but it was not returned. I texted her on a Mon-day and it was not returned. The absence in communication did not bother me but what did, is that I find myself craving des-perately for contact.

Eventually she called and I called back and an intriguing game of phone tag en-sued. Dates and times would be set up and I would be hopeful, smiling even as the plans fell through. Phone texted pic-tures became a viewing pasttime to me, not quite understanding the game being played, but desperately wanting to play it.

It occurred to me on a Sunday that I was not the predator in this hunt—I was the prey. Delicate and deadly like a Venus flytrap, I became intoxicated with phero-mones of this Cosmo-Mama; dancing my best as a jester, obedient like a monkey with a cigar.

As men, we can invent elaborate meth-ods for attracting and courting a female, but in reality they always hold the upper hand. You can spill eloquent words that would impress even the likes of Pablo Neruda, and you can flirt with other wom-en in front of your target to prove your level of desirability, but in the end, as a man, you are still the puppet. They are the queens of this world and we are merely the amusement, and that’s what makes the game worth playing.

Campus Center love: From predator to prey

Reviews Wednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Michael Creel,computer science: “A feline?”

BC Brains

Correct answer: One of the oldest varieties of grapes grown for making wine.

What is a Muscat?

Editor’s note: BC Brains is a feature that asks students a question to test their knowledge of all things trivial.

Sean Brown,biology:“A small rodent.”

Kristin Kinzel,nursing:“A type of gun.”

Uri Tuazon, animal science:“A fruit, like a grape.”

Brent Charles, radiology:“Isn’t that a mammal?”

Compiled by: Gregory D. Cook andDavid Karnowski / The Rip

By Katie AveryOpinions editor

Take 10 glee-club boys, blend

in a beat, add a twist of harmony, and serve up new a cappella al-bum “With A Twist,” released by Indiana group Straight No Chas-er April 13.

SNC hit off this album by com-bining Jason Mraz’s hit “I’m Yours” with “Some-where Over the Rainbow”

making for a great medley of music. It flowed easily between both pieces as if they were writ-ten for each other.

Track seven was another great blend of two songs that ordinar-ily wouldn’t go together. They used “You and Me and The Bot-tle Makes Three,” by swing stars Big Bad Voodoo Daddies, and “Single Ladies” by Beyonce.

These two sounded surprising-ly awesome together, but “Single Ladies” could have gotten a lit-tle more play. Even so, the way these songs were presented was

unexpected and it will make you want to get up and dance.

The album showcased their various talents. They had certain songs that astounded with their use of vocal beats and others that focused on their harmony.

Their finale piece was a re-make of “One Voice” and fea-tured Barry Manilow as a guest performer. The way they layered their voices in this song gave the effect of a whole choir singing different parts at once. It was slow and slightly melancholy, which counteracted the more up-

beat dance songs.“Can’t Take My Eyes Off of

You,” was done better even than the original by Frankie Valli. Soloist Jerome Collins rocket-launched into the chorus, mak-ing this version the one people will want to sing at the top of their lungs when they think no-body is listening.

It’s hard to believe that SNC did not use any instruments in some of their songs. In track four, titled “Fix You,” the beat consist-ed of various stomps and vocals, but studio effects such as echoes

were placed on them which made them seem like a real drum kit was used. It was incredible how certain sounds, especially in the background, sounded exactly like instruments.

In their remake of “You’re My Best Friend,” by Queen, each of the 10 members had a solo dur-ing a different part of the song, showing off the talent of all the members as well as showing some variation from the one or two lead vocalists. They also were able to re-create the classic rock feel of the music without

guitars or drums.Their remake of “Joy To The

World,” originally by Three Dog Night, was one of the very few disappointing songs in the album. Though it was a twist on the old song, it didn’t have nearly the fun or pizazz the other has. Still, 10 out of twelve is pretty good for an a cappella cover group.

“With A Twist” is a great way to experience fantastic songs in a new way while enjoying some incredible vocal talent. This is an album you’ll want to take straight, with no chaser.

alBum review

By Martin ChangReporter

Square Enix has accomplished something significant with Final Fan-tasy XIII. They have made a game that is fun and accessible in a way that is unique to role-playing video games. They have also created a story

of a quality that I have not seen in video games.

I have found the combat in many role-playing games

to be slow, uninteresting and confus-ing. Final Fantasy XIII has solved this problem in ingenious ways. In this game, the combat feels very natural. In battle, you have one playable char-acter and two to three non-playable characters.

Your goal is to create the biggest attack combina-tion with your party. You assign different roles to your characters that affect the types of attacks they do. You di-rectly control the attacks of your playable character, while your non-playable charac-ters attack automatically according to their roles.

In other games, such battle systems are either overwhelming or feel like you aren’t controlling the action. Fi-nal Fantasy XIII uses the Paradigm System to solve this. This system al-lows you to switch the roles quickly and rack up your combinations in a way that feels very satisfying. I feel

that it strikes the perfect balance be-tween simplicity and variety of ac-tion.

For the first time in a role-playing game, I did not get frustrated when I got to an enemy that I could not beat. I had fun figuring out the proper roles and combinations I needed to do. A big reason for this is when you fail a battle, it lets you attempt the battle again. Another thing that helps is the many tutorials that teach you the bat-tle system. These tutorials prevent the game from feeling overwhelming.

The storytelling is very effective in Final Fantasy XIII.

The first thing you’ll notice play-ing the game is the beautiful visuals. Square Enix took the care and atten-tion to make the graphics really pop

and shine. These fantastic graphics are served by clever uses of camera work.

They used all the tricks that give cinema its visual impact. The pans and wide shots that you are used to seeing in film are used here, and it makes a real difference. The story is greatly helped by this quality visual presentation.

The story is one Final Fantasy fans

are very familiar with. It’s a story set in the future with mythical powers. There are the spunky women and brooding men, and then there is a big government figure that you must take down. Yet this well-worn story is told in a way that gives it an emotional im-pact that is innovative for the medium of video games. All of the dialogue is voiced very well. It makes the story more enthralling to hear the story as opposed to just reading the text.

I found the interaction of the char-acters to be very interesting. You fol-low certain characters at different times. The way the character’s emo-tions play off each other was great. I also liked how the story shows the same event from different points of view. I found the relationships be-

tween characters to be dramatically effective, something rare for a video game. This is possible because the story is focused on the characters and is fairly straightforward.

The game uses flashbacks and time jumbling well. It gives the story interest by re-vealing different parts of the story. That also helps to give the story its emotional impact.

The storytelling was not perfect. The story was often confusing, as they revealed cer-tain elements of the

story without explanation. I felt they were going for a feeling of mystery, but it didn’t work for me. Some of the writing is pretty cheesy, but quality vocal acting makes it not so bad.

Aside from a few story problems, I found Final Fantasy XIII to be a high quality, innovated experience. I especially enjoyed the battle system. I could not recommend the game more.

video Game review


Macaroni and cheese can be a staple in any student’s diet. Usu-ally, there’s not much to it; mac + cheese = cheap and yummy

goodness. But what if there was something more to this magi-cal equa-tion?

Enter Mac & Cheeza, a place that promises both “eats and sweets.” With only two loca-tions, one locally at 1818 L St. and another in Los Angeles, Mac & Cheeza is putting a new spin on an old favorite. Offering regu-lar or rice noodles, three-cheese topping or soy cheese topping, and plenty of add-ons, this place is all about options.

Baby Mac, Momma Mac, Dad-dy Mac and Mac Daddy are the sizes to choose from, then guests pick their choice of noodles and topping. Picking the additions is where Mac & Cheeza gets fun;

collard greens, peas, tomatoes, jalapenos, ground beef, bacon, chicken and tuna are just some of the choices.

With more options than this vegetarian is used to, finding a place to start was hard. Eventu-ally, I decided on the Baby Mac with soy cheese and rice noo-dles, and added mushrooms and black olives. The melted cheese that topped the macaroni was similar to that of a pizza: chewy, stringy and just the right amount of greasy.

Although it was topped with the three-cheese topping, the mac inside was mixed with soy cheese. While the soy cheese offered a different flavor from the three-cheese on the top, it wasn’t a funky different. Still, the soy was not as good as I had hoped, so next time I’ll stick with macaroni’s longtime BFF, real cheese. The macaroni was somewhat bland, but the add-ons made up for it. The mushrooms and olives meshed well, and the addition of the two different fla-vors to the much-loved mac and cheese made it more exciting,

and, oddly, almost more sophis-ticated, like mac and cheese for grown-ups.

My friends enjoyed their dish-es as well. One commented that his mushroom and hotlinks with real cheese topping was tasty, and that the hotlinks were “robust in flavor while not overpowering their spice.”

The other said her pepperoni pizza mac, the special of the day, had a good flavor. The pepperoni and cheese went together well, unsurprisingly, but it was a pret-ty simple dish. If someone wants pizza, they should just get pizza and it’ll taste better than trying to pair it with mac and cheese, she advised.

At first, the Baby Mac looked like it might leave me hungry, but it filled me up with just a little room for a shared dessert.

Mac & Cheeza offers red vel-vet cake and banana pudding, but we went for the peach cobbler. It was sweet, but not too sweet and was a great way to end the meal.

Prices at Mac & Cheeza are pretty reasonable. A Baby Mac is enough food for one person

and costs about $5. The alterna-tive options, like soy cheese and rice noodles, did not cost extra like they might elsewhere. Our

cobbler was $6, which isn’t bad for a dessert that satisfied three people.

Mac & Cheeza is a kid’s

dreamland. Mixing and match-ing all kinds of toppings with the already beloved favorite lets each visit be different than the last.

restaurant review

JOFEL TOLOSA / ThE RIP

Mac & Cheeza offers every broke college kid’s dream: mac and cheese any way you want.

Mac & Cheeza impresses with new variety

Square Enix wins with FF13

Indiana vocal group puts a new spin on old favorites in ‘With A Twist’

COURTESY OF SQUARE ENIX

Lightning (left), and her friend Snow, fight together in FF13

Lions Gate comedy kicks assBy Michael Wafford

Reporter

“Kick-Ass” doesn’t really do anything new, but it does what it does extremely well: creating a well-paced, humorous and intense movie.

The film opens with Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) narrating the story. he’s a fairly average teenager who enjoys com-ic books, has a crush on a girl who doesn’t notice him and isn’t particularly good at anything.

he eventually questions why no one has tried to be a super hero in the real world and changes that on his own by purchas-ing a wet suit on the

Internet and becoming the masked crime fighter Kick-Ass.

While playing superhero, Lizewski eventually encounters the somewhat goofy Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the hyper violent father/daughter vigilante duo of hit-Girl (Chloe Mortez) and Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), who all provide their own spin on the idea of super heroics in the real world.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake,” “Star Dust”) the core story of “Kick-Ass,” super heroes in real life, has been explored before in films such as “Watchmen,” but the subject is tackled differently in this film with more focus on humor.

Everyone involved in the film seems to know how ridiculous the idea of dressing up in a bad costume and fighting crime is, and they all have fun with it. Cage delivers his lines with the staccato patter of Adam West’s Batman while delivering fierce vigilante justice.

Mortez, as hit-Girl, spouts expletive-filled jokes while chopping up rooms filled with goons while looking like a kid play-ing dress up. She steals every scene she’s in. Johnson, as the lead, has no problem delivering self-depreciating jokes while in the midst of a conflict, but he often feels less noticeable than his co-stars.

Mintz-Plasse’s Red Mist will remind

viewers of “Superbad,” which isn’t a bad thing. Along with humor, “Kick-Ass” also manages to pack in a good amount of ten-sion.

The feel of the acting is matched by the pacing and camera work. The film opens with a dark joke about a mental patient that draws inspiration from the classic Super-man films and, after that point, the jokes rarely stop.

Everyone, from the stars to supporting actors, has a great sense of comedic tim-ing, and Vaughn doesn’t waste it and keeps the film from slowing down.

The scenes are all well shot and often integrate things like cell phone video foot-age or streaming Internet videos into scene transactions, which help make “Kick-Ass” seem grounded in reality.

The action scenes are fantastic. From the uncoordinated but passionate fighting style of Kick-Ass to the brutal and deadly actions of Big Daddy, every fight in this movie is fun to watch and shows some-thing about the personalities of the charac-ters involved and always have a feeling of danger to them.

While most of the movie is great, there are some problems with the lack of empha-sis on the talented supporting cast and some rushed plot elements. These problems, however, are overcome by the strengths of “Kick-Ass” mentioned above.

Based on a comic book written by Mark Millar, the movie makes some changes to the source material and they all work out.

The characters become more likable, the order of some events are changed and the violence is turned down just enough to make “Kick-Ass” seem more whimsical and less focused on shock-value.

Although “Kick-Ass” is a good movie, some people may have problems with the amount of profanity and violence in the movie, especially with lots of it delivered by a pre-pubescent girl. “Kick-Ass” is not a children’s or family movie by any means and is more akin to “Kill Bill” than “Spi-der-Man.”

Overall, “Kick-Ass” is an action-filled black comedy about super heroes. There’s nothing more to it and there really doesn’t need to be.

Film review

CampusWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Alma N. MartinezReporter

For 38 years of his life, mu-sic professor Karl Haas, 63, has been teaching guitar classes at both Bakersfield College and at Front Porch Music.

At BC, there are three guitar classes taught by Haas, including two beginning classes, one inter-mediate class and one advanced class. Since 1990, he has been teaching private guitar lessons at Front Porch Music.

Haas has worked in a guitar factory and said that it’s one of the reasons why he likes big classes. “After getting 200 gui-tarists ready in a short period of time, teaching a class of 130 peo-ple how to play guitar is easy,” he added with a laugh.

Haas was born in Long Beach but moved to Bakersfield at the age of seven. It wasn’t until the age of 13, however, that he be-came intrigued by the guitar and

decided to pursue it. “I started off with a Mickey Mouse plas-tic guitar until I wore it out and eventually got a real one,” he said.

He credits his inspiration to the fact that during the year 1960, guitar became a big thing. “The Ventures song ‘Walk, Don’t Run’ and Dwayne Eddy’s song ‘Rebel Rouser’ really inspired me,” Haas said.

“When I started I wanted to become a recording artist, as many people do, but when I got offered the job to teach, I needed a job and they needed a teacher,” added Haas.

“I like teaching almost more than playing because I like to hear the students play,” Haas said.

When signing up for a class, one always wants to know what to expect from that certain class. Regarding that, Haas said, “I want people to expect to learn how to read music because

reading the music is the biggest part.”

“The biggest thing that stands out in my mind is that students don’t know what they want and they expect teachers to tell them what they want,” said Haas, speaking on how he feels stu-dents react to his classes. “Some students want to learn how to play heavy metal or rock and roll but soon find that they enjoy the songs we play in class more.”

When describing how he con-siders his class different from others he shared a story about one of his students.

“Guitar class is ... well, I’ll tell you that there was a guy who once got a speeding ticket on his way to school and I asked why. He said that he didn’t want to be late and I said he could’ve been a few minutes late. He responded and said ‘but this is my favorite class,” said Haas with a smile on his face as he reminisced on this incident. “True story,” he added.

By Katherine J. WhiteContributing Reporter

She went to a country where the restaurants used menus made from banana peels.

Isabel Stierle, Bakersfield College biology professor, was the first speaker in the newly built Norman Levan Center for the Humanities, and her April 9 lecture concerned her trip to the many-dimensional Africa during her recent sabbatical.

This lecture marked the 10th Norman Levan faculty collo-quium.

Stierle, B.A., B.S. and M.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an animal conserva-tion enthusiast, also mentioned during the course of her lecture that many Africans refer to Af-rica’s oil resource as the “devil’s excrement,” because it does not benefit Africans.

Oil only benefits outside coun-tries such as China who are inter-ested in petroleum.

Wearing a royal blue dress spotted with African headdress-es, Stierle stood in front of fabric panels of elephants, zebras and gazelles as well as a table cov-ered with sunset-colored bowls depicting women churning and books she bought in Yaounde City, the capital of Cameroon.

Stierle, who took two semesters of French at BC in preparation for her trip to French-speaking Africa, spoke of the highs and lows of visiting what she saw as a richly diverse and somewhat

troubled continent. Stierle said that one of the reasons why she wanted to go to Africa was to study either the Bonobo chimps or elephant migration in East Cameroon.

Stierle also mentioned dur-ing her lecture that leaded gas is widely used in Africa resulting in poor air quality, and children there are exposed to lead.

This exposure to lead has caused significant neurological problems for African children. Malaria, Stierle noted, is endem-ic to 106 African countries, in-cluding Zambia and the Congo.

Melitus diabetes continues to be a problem in African coun-tries, she said.

Literacy among some of the major peoples including the Bamileke people is not complete and rests at about 64 percent.

According to Stierle, in Africa, between Muslims and non-Mus-lims, there is usually no dissen-sion.

However, at some point during her trip, Stierle found out that some Fulani Africans in Nigeria murdered a number of Chris-tians.

Cameroon, according to Stier-le, is a “melting pot,” and people of various religious affiliations and ethnicities live in peace.

According to Stierle, there is a drive throughout Africa to ac-quire one all-encompassing na-tional identity and to integrate all African nations.

On a lighter note, Stierle said that she saw blue- and yellow-

faced Cercopithecine monkeys at an African park for endangered species and a jingoistic gorilla who demonstrated his domi-nance by pounding his chest and emitting a scream that echoed throughout the park.

While in Limbe, a coastal city founded by a Baptist pastor, Sti-erle said that she was told by a local cab driver that the best part of a fish to eat is the head.

Limbe, where Stierle and the members of her touring group ate a lunch, is one area where many languages are spoken includ-ing Pidgin English and French. Limbe’s beaches, according to Stierle, look dark because of vol-canic activity.

Stierle mentioned that among Fulani African families, the more bowls one owns, the greater one’s status is within the family.

Traffic in many African cities, said Stierle, is frenzied and cha-otic.

However, unlike many cities in many countries, fender benders in African cities are completely disregarded.

After ending the lecture with a Fulani “Useko,” which means “Thank you,” many lecture at-tendees expressed an interest in Africa.

Attendees also wanted to learn more about Africa including Su-san Pinza, BC academic devel-opment professor and BC math professor Janet Tarjan.

“I love to hear about different cultures and peoples,” said Tar-jan.

By Laura LieraReporter

The Bakersfield College Veterans Club is on its way to officially becoming a club on campus.

The objective of the BC Vet-erans Club is to serve as a sup-port system for BC Veterans and families.

It will be an organization that will inform students on any questions they may have when applying to BC after returning from military life. “The BC Veterans club will be an impar-tial club, having no political or religious affiliation.

An additional goal of this club will also be to take respon-sibility for the cleaning and ap-pearance of the Veterans Plaza on the BC campus, said Robert J. Shoaf, president of the Veter-ans Club.

Shoaf, a business administra-tion major, is a former Marine who served 12 years of active service and did three tours in Iraq that totaled 30 months.

On April 9, he was elected to serve as the interim president for the BC Veterans club. An-other election will be held prior to the Fall 2010 semester to es-tablish the executive officers for

the 2010-2011 school year.Aldric Horton, 24, psychol-

ogy major and Veterans Club representative, was in the Army for five years. “I joined the club because I felt it was something long overdue at BC and thought it presented a good opportunity to network with other veterans,” said Horton.

Currently the club meets on Fridays at 9 a.m. in front of the library.

Although there weren’t a lot of people at the last meeting, Shoaf hopes to get the word out and have more members in the club. “I want to promote, recruit and give facial recognition to BC Veterans,” said Shoaf.

“Membership in the Veterans Club will be open to all students with a valid Gades card, regis-tered at BC, in good standing with the Admissions and Re-cords office and fulfilling the membership requirements of the organization,” said Shoaf.

Some specific roles that the Veterans Club will include: informing veterans and their families on the most up-to-date legislation that will affect them, provide campus counseling by contacting local mental health, social, or education counselors and have them come to BC,

and educate veterans, families, supporters, and educators on the problems many veterans face during the transition from service member to student, es-pecially on the affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), according to Shoaf.

Accomplishing goals with the help of others is a key union the club wants to share with its members.

“Each student at BC has a goal they want to accomplish, and some people find it easier to accomplish their goals when they are surrounded by other people with a similar back-ground. Veterans are unique in that they have experiences that are uncommon to most of their student peers,” said Shoaf.

“By coming together, veter-ans are able to give insight or provide mentorship to others. In the end, the gap between veter-ans and non-veterans will begin to be bridged as we all learn from each other and find ways to apply our experiences to best fit our lives and the lives around us,” said Shoaf.

For more information on the BC Veterans Club, contact [email protected].

Guitar instructor inspires students at BC

Veterans form club oncampus to inform young

JOSEPH COTA / THE RIP

Bakersfield College guitar instructor Karl Haas teaches his class at Bakersfield College on April 15. Haas teaches three different guitar classes at Bakersfield College, and also teaches private lessons at Front Porch Music and has been since 1990.

Professor talks about Africa

ANTIGONE | Levan Center hostsreading of Sophocles’ tragedy

Samantha GarrettReporter

The Bakersfield College the-ater department faculty per-formed a dramatic reading of Greek tragedian Sophocles’ “Antigone” for a small audience collected in the Levan Center on April 13 at 7 p.m.

The center’s director, Jack Hernandez, organized the event after the very same man whose donations are responsible for the recent renovations of the build-ing, Dr. Norman Levan, suggest-ed it to him.

The reading, according to Her-nandez, is the first of what will hopefully be at least a yearly tra-dition at the Levan Center.

The play was chosen for its moral and political importance today, dealing with issues such as martial law, religious doctrine over state law and gender roles.

Before the reading began, Hernandez asked the audience to pay special attention to the phil-osophical feelings of the main characters, Antigone and Cre-on, which each would express “through their humanity.”

Hernandez asked Randy Mes-sick, Kimberly Chin, Jennifer Sampson, and Bob Kempf, all theater faculty, to perform the reading.

BC theater department staff reads Greek tragedy


Kim Chin, Jennifer Sampson, Randy Messick and Bob Kempf dramatize “Antigone” to the audience at the Bakersfield College Levan Center on April 13.

Each read from his or her own copy of the play.

After the reading, which took about one hour, Hernandez spoke about the implications of the play in today’s world.

“Antigone” is a Greek tragedy; these plays meet the requirement of having a male character meet a tragic end due to his own short-

comings. In this play, the man at fault is

Creon, whose own pride caused him to betray the gods and meet a tragic end.

“The Greeks felt that people needed to know their place,” Hernandez said.

Creon did not know his and was therefore a victim of his own

devices.At the same time, it is also a

story of a young woman stand-ing up to the conventions of society — ancient Thebes, like Greece as a whole, was a highly male dominated society — and rejecting the superiority of state law over her own morality.

“He’s driven by pride,” said

Hernandez, “and she’s driven by rashness.”

Thus was the thrust of the discussion following the play. Some members of the audience discussed their sympathies for either Creon or Antigone.

Others compared the play to current issues.

One man in the audience sug-

gested that they record their next reading and give it to schools in the area to use in the classroom, which the group agreed to.

One woman noted that, despite being thousands of years old, the play was still relevant to society.

She added that she felt that “Antigone” has a lesson that stu-dents should learn.

By Denise M. GonzalezReporter

A Bakersfield College mathematics professor passes her teachings in the classroom along to a yoga studio.

Kathleen Rush is a certified Iyengar yoga in-structor and a mathematics professor. She began her studies in yoga in 1994 while living in Nepal and traveled to Pune, India in 2002 to study yoga with the Iyengars. She regularly travels to study at the Iyengar Institute in Los Angeles, where she completed a three-year teacher-training program in 2004.

Rush holds a degree in mathematics and ad-vanced degrees in psychology and physics. Her endearment of yoga is based on it balancing the physical, mental and emotional bodies.

Rush instructs yoga classes at Yoga Space locat-ed at 1201 24th St.

“I started my yoga studies in the Iyengar yoga system while living in Nepal,” said Rush. “I also studied Ashtanga yoga. I was intrigued and trav-eled to Mysore, India and later to France to study more of the Ashtanga.”

After studying both yoga techniques, Rush de-cided to keep her profession in Iyengar because, over time, it provided her with the path she needed of opening her body and mind in a very progres-sive, intelligent and positive way.

“Iyengar yoga had a way of focusing my mind inward that left me feeling calm and centered,” said Rush.

Rush is also enamored with the teaching of mathematics.

“I loved to plow through seemingly impossible problems only to find the ease of them after work-ing for long hours,” said Rush. “It was very sooth-ing to preoccupy myself with mathematics. Later, I became awestruck at the sheer power of mathemat-ics to convey in a language of what physicists and most scientists need, and rely upon, to understand the world around them, both external and inter-nal.”

Rush plans to continue teaching both yoga and mathematics in the coming years. She believes it is a never-ending process on which she grows and learns.

Kelly Mee, a BC student, is in the teacher-train-ing program at Yoga Space and attends workshops

led by Rush. “I have taken workshops led by Kathleen and

found them very informative,” said Mee. “Kathleen teaches very different from what I am used to, and I found her classes are focused deeper to the body. I highly recommend.”

Rush strongly advocates that other individuals try the practice of yoga.

“My suggestion to prospective yoga students is to try yoga for six months and see what happens. Yoga does purify the mind and the body, so one should expect some possible negative qualities like soreness in the body and negative judgments in the mind as part of the process,” said Rush. “It is best to allow them to arise and drift away. With regular practice, and over time, these will fade and you will reap the fruits of the practice. It will deepen you and connect you with your own true nature and at the same time respect your fundamental beliefs, in-cluding any religious or non-religious beliefs that you may hold.”

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

BC professor extends teaching beyond math to the yoga mat

GReGoRY D. CooK / THe RIP

Bakersfield College mathematics professor Kathleen Rush teaches yoga at Yoga Space on 24th Street on April 13.


Don’t ask local band Automatic Redial to describe their sound. Progressive, ex-perimental, hardcore, metalcore … their list went on and on. Finally, singer Gary Taylor summed it up.

“Just rock, hard rock,” he said.over the five years of their existence,

the band has undergone numerous lineup changes, but currently they consist of Taylor, guitarist Matt Bledsoe, guitarist David Bled-soe, guitarist Marc Munoz, drummer Sean Weimer and bassist Andrew Bledsoe. of the six, Matt and Weimer are the only original members.

“We started in January of 2005; there were five members then,” said Matt. “We’ve gone through three bass players. In 2007, we re-placed the guitarist with David. In 2008, we lost our singer, and Gary replaced him. Marc started in February of this year.”

Two of the additions to the band were Matt’s own brothers. David has been play-ing guitar for several years, but Andrew only took up the bass two years ago because he was “forced into the band” when their other bassists needed to be replaced.

“I think it’s cool because, besides the Jo-

nas Brothers, there aren’t many other bands who have three family members, especially all brothers,” said Andrew.

With the evolving lineup came an evolv-ing sound. everyone contributes to the music writing and, although Taylor has been the primary lyricist, the band is trying to col-laborate more.

“The stuff we had before, we scratched,” said Matt. “With the current lineup, we’ve started writing new stuff, and I think the songs have just gotten better.”

What hasn’t changed for the band is their name. Matt explained the history behind the name, which the band came up with while trying to think of a cool name.

“We couldn’t ever decide on something, and somebody was going through their phone and said Automatic Redial and thought it was funny. Somebody mentioned naming our band that,” said Matt. “We ended up keeping it because we didn’t want to be like everyone else who has ‘dying’ and ‘yesterday’ in their names.”

Automatic Redial won a Battle of the Bands contest in 2007 and used the $5,000 prize money to record their first full-length CD, which was the third recording in the band’s history. Currently, the band is work-ing on a new eP which is due out June 4, the

same day as their next big gig: the Rockin’ Roots Festival. It will be a different scene from the one the band is used to; Taylor said the band has played “almost every bar” and other Bakersfield venues, like Jerry’s Pizza and the Dome. The band said the experience is different depending on where they play.

“At a bar, people go there to drink, and sometimes they don’t even go there to listen to music,” said Munoz. “At a venue, they go there to listen to music and watch a show.”

The band expressed gratitude for the fans coming to their shows.

“Fans are the foundation. Without them, there wouldn’t be anything,” said Andrew. “You can have a huge label, a big manager, but without anybody to listen to it, it’s use-less. If you don’t have fans, you can’t do shit.”

In addition to the Rockin’ Roots Festival and their upcoming eP, the band is prepar-ing for a tour of California this summer and a Myspace revamp with pictures from a new photo shoot. With so many steps in the pur-suit of their dream, their family and friends’ support is key for Automatic Redial.

“We have a one of a kind support system,” said Matt. “A lot of bands don’t have the op-portunity of funds and chances to do what we have done.”

PHoToS BY GReGoRY D. CooK / THe RIP

Above: Automatic Redial guitarist David Bledsoe plays a solo for the crowd on the bar of Rockstarz Party Bar during a show April 17.

Left: Automatic Redial singer Gary Taylor (left), guitarists Marc Munoz (center) and Matt Bledsoe (right) perform for a crowd during a show at Rockstarz Party Bar on April 17.

Bakersfield band dials in ‘hard rock’ sound

SportSWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

RIP NatIoN Do you have any superstitions? If so, what are they?

Editor’s note: Rip Nation is a feature that highlights the opinions of Bakersfield College’s athletes and coaches.

Greg Osteen, baseball: “I always try and eat the same snacks before a game. Usually the same kind of granola bars and stuff.”

Emily Carnal, women’s tennis: “I have to hop on one foot, pat my head and rub my stomach before every point.”

Sandi Taylor, softball head coach: “In years past, when we would get on a win streak, I would have to write the lineup with the same pen.”

Nick Jacobs, men’s tennis: “Not really, just like flipping my racket is about the only superstition.”

David Pennington, baseball: “Not really superstitions, but I listen to worship music and read the Bible.”

Compiled by: Rip Staff

ScorecardBaseball

April 15 BC 7, Glendale 6April 17 BC 8, LA Pierce 7April 20 West LA 6 p.m.April 22 at Canyons 2:30 p.m.April 24 LA Valley 1 p.m.

Softball April 10 Cuesta 15, BC 3 Mt. SAC 14, BC 6April 13 BC 8, LA Valley 6 LA Valley 9, BC 5April 15 BC 8, LA Mission 6April 20 Canyons (DH) 2:30/4:30 p.m.

Men’s golf

April 26 WSC #9, #10, WSC Championships

Men and women’s track and field

April 24 WSC Prelims at Ventura 9 a.m. April 30 WSC Finals at Moorpark noon

Men’s tennis April 22-25 Ojai Invitational Tournament

Women’s tennis

April 22-25 Ojai Invitational Tournament

Men and women’s swimming April 22-24 Western State Conference Championship

In the April 7 issue of The Renegade Rip, the name Dylan Nasiatka was mis-spelled and his season stats were also in-correct. The error was made in Athletes of the Issue on page 11. On the season Nasi-atka has a .425 average, with 32 runs, 48 hits, 9 bases on balls, 8 steals and 1 home run.

Correction

Athletes of the Issue

Andrew Letourneau

Baseball Outfielder On the season:

Average .392 Hits 40RBI 12, GW RBI 2Runs 24Stolen Bases 11

Jessica Newton-Smith

Softball OutfielderOn the season:

Average .408Hits 26RBI 9Runs 18Stolen bases 1Bases on balls 5

By Michael MorrowSports editor

The Bakersfield College men and women’s tennis teams entered into the Western State Conference tournament with a chance to ad-vance to the Southern California Regionals tournament with a win in the quarterfinals round.

For the men, BC had two play-ers in singles, and three teams

By Julian MooreReporter

The press boxes at the newly reno-vated Dean and Adah Gay Complex have been closed since early April.

Both press boxes at the baseball and softball fields have been wrapped in plastic to prevent them from being en-tered.

According to Jan Stuebbe, Bakers-field College’s athletic director who has been out on medical leave, “I haven’t talked to anyone officially, but the welds have to be inspected. Or they were inspected, but they weren’t a certified inspector for California, but

we’re working on getting it passed so we can get it open,” he said.

When contacted by e-mail, acting athletic director and softball coach Sandi Taylor would only say, “It is my understanding that there were some items that need to be addressed so it could be signed over to the college.

“We were allowed to use them at the beginning of the season under tempo-rary occupancy until the work could be completed,” she continued.

When asked how Shirley Tavorn, a volunteer score keeper for the baseball team, felt about not being able to use the press box she said, “Oh, it’s totally bad because it’s dirty [down by the

field]. I’m in the sun, and I can’t see the whole field.”

When asked if BC had told her what, if anything, would be done to help her, Tavorn only said no.

She went on to say, “I’ve asked to have a tarp, they told me no. Then it was ‘Can I have a table up next to the press box?’ Again, no.

“They said just sit wherever you want.

“Well, thank you for my volunteer time.”

On the plans BC has to reopen the press boxes, Taylor said they will be ready for the softball state champion-ships in the middle of May.

By Julian MooreReporter

With four games to go before the playoffs, the Bakersfield College baseball team is 10-6 in Western State Conference play and 21-10 overall. BC is one game behind L.A. Valley for first, and in a tie with Canyons for sec-ond place. BC will be looking to win the conference title and se-cure a playoff berth.

BC coach Tim Painton said of the position the Renegades have put themselves.

“Well, we’ve made the big push. We’ve put ourselves in contention at this time of year with two weeks left that’s all you can hope for.

“That’s all we want to do is maintain where we’re at and keep doing the things were do-ing, because right now we’re playing the best baseball we’ve played all year,” he said.

And BC showed this to be true after Andrew Letourneau’s game winning RBI that gave the Ren-egades the 8-7 extra inning win on April 17.

BC started off fast, grabbing the lead with a four-run first in-ning. The Renegades first eight hitters found themselves in the batter’s box and got four runs off five hits.

In the third, outfielder Le-tourneau reached on an error to

start the inning by the third base-man. Then he stole a base and advanced on a wild pitch.

Dylan Nasiatka singled to bring Letourneau in and put the Renegades up 5-0 by the end of three.

Bryan Maxwell, who started on the mound for BC, found himself in a tough spot in the top of the fifth inning.

The Brahmas third baseman Justin Fredlander was hit by a pitch to start what came to be a productive inning for Pierce.

The next batter, Zack Gilula hit a 2-1 pitch from Maxwell to deep right field for an RBI triple.

Pierce went on to add four more runs in the inning to tie the score at five.

BC took the lead back in the seventh, when Nick Fox picked up his third RBI with a single that brought in Letourneau.

Sam Westendorf scored Nasi-atka with an RBI groundout to second.

Reliever Xavier Tavorn was brought in with one out in the sixth and went on to pitch the seventh and eighth innings.

The Brahmas tied the score at seven in the seventh and eighth innings before Anthony Ramirez was brought in the ninth.

But at the end of nine, both teams would be tied at seven and the game would go into extra in-nings.

GReGORy D. COOk / THe RIP

The press box above Gerry Collis Field is temporarily out of use due to welds that didn’t pass inspection. The press box above the softball field is also out of service. The press boxes were closed April 3.

Baseball looks to close the gap in conference play

Safety issue closes press boxes

GReGORy D. COOk/ THe RIP

Renegades catcher Dylan Nasiatka singles off of a Citrus College pitch at Bakersfield College on April 6.

Tennis regular seasons comes to a close, looking to Ojai

Pierce threatened early in the 10th, when its third baseman sin-gled, and advanced to third after a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.

But the runner never came into score as Ramirez worked out of the inning with a strike out and

ground ball out.The Renegades’ 1-2-3 hitters

were retired in order in the home half of the inning.

LA Pierce stranded two run-ners in the 11th and another in the 12th but failed to score.

Third baseman Greg Osteen led off the 12th with a walk and was sacrificed over to second by Nuriddin. Joe Ramirez singled to move Osteen over to third with one out.

After working to a 2-2 count, Letourneau took an inside fast-ball up the middle that hit off the bag at second that bounced up giving Osteen enough time to score the winning run from sec-ond.

“It was a great college baseball game is what it was,” said BC coach Tim Painton.

“you had two teams fighting for their lives, because we’re down to five six games in con-ference and both of us are in con-tention.”

He continued by saying, “That was their Tuesday starter, that’s how big this game was.

“He comes in and throws three plus innings in relief and he’s a kid with an exceptional arm. But he had become a one-pitch guy because he wasn’t able to locate his breaking ball and didn’t have a good feel changeup and that’s all we told them.

Letourneau has hit two game-winning RBI’s in the last six games.

“It feels better than the first time, I’m lost for words,” he said.

“He got me out the first time and I knew he wasn’t going to

get me out the second time. We were getting tired out there and we just have to finish it.”

Letourneau finished by say-ing.

“I had one game winner in high school, and this one’s going at the top of my list.”

Nasiatka, who was 3-for-4 with an RBI, spoke of the trouble in the fifth.

“We got a little comfortable when we were up 5-0, we can’t shut down the hitting and we gave them a chance to get back in the game.

“Those guys [in the bullpen] just shut it down and the end re-sult was they gave us a chance to win,” he said.

Anthony Ramirez knew what was on the line in the game and how important the win would be.

“Basically I was coming in thinking I had to keep the score where it was and I just knew I had to do my job that night,” he said.

First baseman Fox, who was playing in this sixth game back from injury, went 3-for-5 with three RBI in the game.

After the game he said, “It feels really good. I’ve been working hard, just waiting for that chance to get back into the lineup.”

BC will play at Canyons on April 22 and host LA Valley at home on April 25.

competing in doubles. In sin-gles, Nick Jacobs and James Griffin advanced to the qualify-ing round but were defeated by players from Ventura.

As for the doubles teams, Griffin competed with team-mate Matt Booth to advance to the qualifying round.

The duo faced off against Royce Pasiliao and Patrick Massey from L.A. Pierce and

advanced to Regionals with the scores of 7-5, 6-4.

The teams of Ryan Grisso and Robby Jennings, and Ja-cobs and Chris Sides didn’t qualify for Regionals, losing in the qualifying round.

The women also had mixed results. katja Thacker, Stevi Lincoln and Jaylin Chan com-peted in singles matches, with two of the three advancing to

the qualifying round. Lincoln beat Alex Tzvetnaova of Glen-dale, Thacker beat Brianna Hayes of Glendale, and Chan defeated Mayra Alvarez, also of Glendale. But in the next round, Thacker and Lincoln advanced with wins, while Chan was de-feated by Hallie Sellers of Ven-tura 7-5, 6-0. In the qualifier, both Thacker and Lincoln were eliminated.

In doubles, Thacker and emi-ly Carnal advanced to Regionals by defeating Caroline Hofsten and Iris Berger of Santa Monica College, 6-2, 6-3.

Up next for the Renegades is the Ojai Invitational Tourna-ment.

The players for both the men’s and women’s teams have been excited all season in an-ticipation of Ojai.

SportSWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

By Vincent PerezNews editor

The Bakersfield Col-

lege swim teams have been swimming tired at their lat-est events, according to head coach Charlie Pike. Yet, Pike has a plan for the swimmers.

“I’ve been putting them in different off events. Try to mix it up because sometimes if you swim the same events over and over and over again, you’re going to get burned out on it.”

Pike added, “It’s good to step back and leave main events for a while. It makes them hungrier to come back and do it when they do it at conference.”

Pike reflected on the cur-rent swim season and the ta-pering off of the swimmers’ times.

“We train so hard during the year that the whole idea of the taper is to let your muscles recover and get some rest. We’re doing main-tenance so that they don’t build any muscle – just stay where they’re at without get-ting too tired.”

Pike said about the taper-ing, “It’s going well; we started our tapering out be-cause [Western State] confer-ence [championships] is next Thursday (April 22) in Santa Clarita.”

Pike added that no college knows who qualifies for state until the Sunday night after conference, because they take the top 16 swimmers in the state. The swimmers with the best times overall in the season are selected. Pike said that he is hopeful that he will have a women’s relay team at conference qualify for state.

Pike added that he doubts that he will have a men’s re-lay team qualify for state.

Pike is sure that Katie Lopes and Bridget Alexan-der are “close to state meet. I’m eighty percent sure that they’re going to qualify indi-vidually,” he said.

Pike also gave praise to Sara Brady, Katherine James and Karina Nafarrate who are all relay swimmers, along with Lopes and Alexander.

“You put all those girls together on relays and they really crank it up,” Pike said proudly.

Pike talked about the downfall of the men’s team this season.

“I got a lot of freshmen guys this year. I only had two returning swimmers so that made it tough on us.”

Pike said about the con-troversial suits that were ruled out this season, “They banned those tech suits. Last year, they had full body suits – those are out now.”

Pike explained, “The girls’ suits can’t go past the knee or shoulder. The guys’ suits can’t go above the navel and has to be above the knee so they can still wear a jammer but they can’t wear the full pant suit.”

Pike said there was a dif-ference in times last year due to the suits at the state cham-pionships but not by much.

“I think the times at state last year were a little bit fast-er than normal.”

“Not a whole lot, but enough to open the door for kids that wouldn’t have been able to do it last year.”’

The WSC swimming championships are at College of the Canyons April 22-24.

Swim team getting ready for conference

By Natalie RodriguezReporter

L.A. Mission College traveled to Bakersfield College on April 15 to play the Bakersfield Col-lege softball team.

BC won 8-6 on a walk off two-run home run hit by sophomore Courtney Hockett.

Samantha Durazo from L.A. Mission College homered to center in the first inning to score the first run of the game.

In the bottom of the first in-ning, BC’s Jessica Newton-Smith, a sophomore, singled to center field, then Newton-Smith stole second base. Sophomore Jamie Dumatrait then hit a home run to left field to score two runs for BC.

PHoToS BY GreGorY D. CooK / THe rIP

Above: Renegades outfielder Courtney Hockett heads for home to the celebrations of her teammates after hitting a game-winning, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning against Los Angeles Mission College on April 15. Top Right: Outfielder Brittany Hunt makes a diving attempt to bring in a fly ball against Los Angeles Mission College on April 15. Hunt was unable to keep control of the ball.

Bakersfield College softball looks to end season on a favorable note

Dumatrait talked about her home run after the game.

“It was awesome. I’m so pumped. Before the game we al-ways pray, and Amy did an extra long one today and, right before I got up, she told me ‘that was for you so now hit a home run,’so it just really got me pumped,” said Dumatrait.

Coach Sandi Taylor also commented on Dumatrait’s and Hockett’s home runs during Thursday’s game. “It was really exciting for those two sopho-mores to finish up their career here with two-run home runs to win the game,” said Taylor.

Hockett commented on her game-winning home run after the game.

“It’s a team effort and every-

one played very well and that was just the icing on the cake, to win it. It feels awesome to pull it out for my team,” said Hockett.

The softball team played its last regular season game on April 20 at BC against College of the Canyons.

Before the game, which was played to late to include in this issue, Taylor’s spoke about her hopes for her team and the last game of the season.“As their last regular season game as a ren-egade I would hope they would go out there and have fun. We have nothing to lose; Canyons has everything to lose.”

The Bakersfield College soft-ball team is 16-21 overall and 10-6 in Western State Confer-ence.

EyEs of thE RipWednesday, April 21, 2010 The Renegade Rip www.therip.com

Scottish gathering at fairgrounds entertains

Above left: George “the Giant” McArthur spews fire at the Kern County Scottish Gathering and Games held at the Kern County Fairgrounds on April 10.

Above right: One of the flags representing the many Scottish clans attending the gathering flies in the breeze at the Scottish Gathering and Games.

Right: George “The Giant” McArthur has a volunteer stand on his head while lying in broken glass.

Left: Piper Richard Harrison plays at the Scottish Gathering and Games on April 10.

Annie StockmAn / the Rip

JoSeph cotA / the Rip



The Renegade Rip Vol. 82 No. 6

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