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Lords, Part One
In the Hollywood movie storms of 1977 where films like Star Wars and Close Encounters spawned a maelstrom of epic adventure and wonder for kids everywhere, such streets also spawned another breed of child. Bitter, alienated, and lost in the punk-influenced beginnings of a feel-good era of disco-inflamed junkies, Joey Minstrel wandered Hollywood'’s backyard--Bakersfield, California--where the Lords of Bakersfield prey on youth. The story is based on an urban legend of the late 1970s and early 1980s where law officials and the media killed for lust of the most corrupt kind.
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First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 10, 2012
My Own Private Bakersfield
Bakersfield and Hollywood. A Tale of Two Cities; however, while it could certainly be called the worst of times, it would be a stretch to say it was the best of times. Then again, maybe that is the wrong Dickens to make comparisons with, for perhaps there is more of an Oliver twist to the plot, with Karvac the Fagin, or better yet, the Artful Dodger, to Joe Minstrel's Oliver Twist--or better still, Oliver Twisted?
Joe Minstrel is a problematic protagonist in that he is kind of unsympathetic (understatement of the century), though not without a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain charisma. Still, he is an anti-hero. A Talented Mr. Ripley, if you will--at least as far as being a degenerate reprobate, with no moral compass whatsoever goes. I can see him being played by River Phoenix, or a young Leonardo DiCaprio, taking all of River's parts after River had cashed his final paycheck in the gutter behind the Viper Room. The Leonardo who portrayed the poets Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Carroll in Total Eclipse and The Basketball Diaries, respectively. Of course, like Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, and My Own Private Idaho, it would be directed by Gus Van Sant! As you no doubt recall, My Own Private Idaho took as its ostensible plot Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2, and Henry V, but set in a modern milieu of rent boys and hustlers. The plot of lords part one could hardly be called Shakespearian, but it does depict a similar milieu, albeit set in Hollywood and Bakersfield. My Own Private Bakersfield? I am surprised that no one said Falstaff's line: "We have heard the chimes at midnight," and then in the next scene is seen chugging a Falstaff beer, ala Keanu Reeves.
lords part one has no time for Shakespeare, at least as far as plot goes (though some of the drama queen characters are fond of continually quoting the bard). Rather, it is more like those police procedural TV shows screaming their stories are RIPPED FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES! Or they would have been the headlines if the person responsible for the transgressions hadn't been the publisher of the town's newspaper. lords part one is ripped from the headlines that should have been, if there had been any journalistic integrity in a town bought off and controlled by The Lords of the Southern Valley, as they call themselves in this book, though I think that Lords of Bakersfield has a better ring to it. It is ripped from between the lines of the headlines, to someone able to read the subtext, to translate headlines that are meant to distract, to obfuscate, and to conceal the actual news. Weapons of Mass Distraction? It is ripped from the headlines of a story that finally did come out many years after the fact; once the publisher in question had met his not timely enough demise.
Google "Lords of Bakersfield," and there you should find the website of a certain Robert G. Mistriel, whose name not only sounds like mistrial, bitterly ironic to him no doubt as he sits out a life sentence in Mule Creek State Prison, but is also suspiciously close to the last name of the protagonist/antagonist anti-hero of lords part one, Joey Minstrel. To me it had always seemed like the name was an odd choice conjuring up Zip Coons hamboning in black face, but once you see the similarity, then you have the key to unlock this roman à clef. Google "Lords of Bakersfield" or "Robert G. Mistriel." There you will find his own story in a letter seeking the court's indulgence, a link to the Lords of Bakersfield articles, and also another illuminating piece of doggerel Mistriel claims to have found on the internet, author unknown, called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
Full Disclosure: I am acquainted with the author of lords part one and in fact had been given a copy and had it autographed at Fishlips long ago but hadn't gotten around to reading it until a few days ago. Coincidentally, on the day I finally started reading it I ran into the author downtown where he was selling used books to support the Random Writers Workshop. I gave it only 4 out of 5 stars in an effort to appear impartial--to not be seen as a shill planted in the audience to plug his book. I do have some qualms about his grammar--his subject-verb agreement is a little iffy, especially in the surrealistic passages where things like The Great Dust Storm of 1977 are depicted as some kind of giant personified from the spirits of entities that died to produce the fossil fuels, namely oil, and the Yokut Indians, and that last part kind of reminded me of the way Oliver Stone tried to inject a similar mythology of an Indian shaman into his movie about Jim Morrison called The Doors. Speaking of Oliver Stone, this book is a lot like the paranoid conspiracy theories of his film JFK. And yet, no matter how far fetched they both seem, they may both very well be true. But I digress.
Getting back to the book, lords part one, The Bottom Line is that this is a roman à clef novel where the names were changed to protect the guilty, and to protect the author from libel suits, but also because though based on actual events it is still a work of fiction. The author may have meticulously researched the subject but there is no way to know what happened in most of these scenes so it is of necessity mere speculation. Some of the names of places like for instance the Padre Hotel have not been changed, but the Hacienda Coffee Shop and Motel is actually the Rancho. I kept waiting for a scene to take place at Zingo's. You can figure out the who's who and what's what easily enough with a little bit of archeological digging on Ye Olde Internette. The book tells a fascinating story about the underground history of Bakersfield--and not just the tunnels supposedly dug underneath its streets by Chinese Labor Gangs--and as I keep telling n. l. belardes every time I see him, I can't wait to read lords part two, three, and four.
~ Christopher Robert Craddock
Bakersfield and Hollywood. A Tale of Two Cities; however, while it could certainly be called the worst of times, it would be a stretch to say it was the best of times. Then again, maybe that is the wrong Dickens to make comparisons with, for perhaps there is more of an Oliver twist to the plot, with Karvac the Fagin, or better yet, the Artful Dodger, to Joe Minstrel's Oliver Twist--or better still, Oliver Twisted?
Joe Minstrel is a problematic protagonist in that he is kind of unsympathetic (understatement of the century), though not without a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain charisma. Still, he is an anti-hero. A Talented Mr. Ripley, if you will--at least as far as being a degenerate reprobate, with no moral compass whatsoever goes. I can see him being played by River Phoenix, or a young Leonardo DiCaprio, taking all of River's parts after River had cashed his final paycheck in the gutter behind the Viper Room. The Leonardo who portrayed the poets Arthur Rimbaud and Jim Carroll in Total Eclipse and The Basketball Diaries, respectively. Of course, like Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, and My Own Private Idaho, it would be directed by Gus Van Sant! As you no doubt recall, My Own Private Idaho took as its ostensible plot Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2, and Henry V, but set in a modern milieu of rent boys and hustlers. The plot of lords part one could hardly be called Shakespearian, but it does depict a similar milieu, albeit set in Hollywood and Bakersfield. My Own Private Bakersfield? I am surprised that no one said Falstaff's line: "We have heard the chimes at midnight," and then in the next scene is seen chugging a Falstaff beer, ala Keanu Reeves.
lords part one has no time for Shakespeare, at least as far as plot goes (though some of the drama queen characters are fond of continually quoting the bard). Rather, it is more like those police procedural TV shows screaming their stories are RIPPED FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES! Or they would have been the headlines if the person responsible for the transgressions hadn't been the publisher of the town's newspaper. lords part one is ripped from the headlines that should have been, if there had been any journalistic integrity in a town bought off and controlled by The Lords of the Southern Valley, as they call themselves in this book, though I think that Lords of Bakersfield has a better ring to it. It is ripped from between the lines of the headlines, to someone able to read the subtext, to translate headlines that are meant to distract, to obfuscate, and to conceal the actual news. Weapons of Mass Distraction? It is ripped from the headlines of a story that finally did come out many years after the fact; once the publisher in question had met his not timely enough demise.
Google "Lords of Bakersfield," and there you should find the website of a certain Robert G. Mistriel, whose name not only sounds like mistrial, bitterly ironic to him no doubt as he sits out a life sentence in Mule Creek State Prison, but is also suspiciously close to the last name of the protagonist/antagonist anti-hero of lords part one, Joey Minstrel. To me it had always seemed like the name was an odd choice conjuring up Zip Coons hamboning in black face, but once you see the similarity, then you have the key to unlock this roman à clef. Google "Lords of Bakersfield" or "Robert G. Mistriel." There you will find his own story in a letter seeking the court's indulgence, a link to the Lords of Bakersfield articles, and also another illuminating piece of doggerel Mistriel claims to have found on the internet, author unknown, called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
Full Disclosure: I am acquainted with the author of lords part one and in fact had been given a copy and had it autographed at Fishlips long ago but hadn't gotten around to reading it until a few days ago. Coincidentally, on the day I finally started reading it I ran into the author downtown where he was selling used books to support the Random Writers Workshop. I gave it only 4 out of 5 stars in an effort to appear impartial--to not be seen as a shill planted in the audience to plug his book. I do have some qualms about his grammar--his subject-verb agreement is a little iffy, especially in the surrealistic passages where things like The Great Dust Storm of 1977 are depicted as some kind of giant personified from the spirits of entities that died to produce the fossil fuels, namely oil, and the Yokut Indians, and that last part kind of reminded me of the way Oliver Stone tried to inject a similar mythology of an Indian shaman into his movie about Jim Morrison called The Doors. Speaking of Oliver Stone, this book is a lot like the paranoid conspiracy theories of his film JFK. And yet, no matter how far fetched they both seem, they may both very well be true. But I digress.
Getting back to the book, lords part one, The Bottom Line is that this is a roman à clef novel where the names were changed to protect the guilty, and to protect the author from libel suits, but also because though based on actual events it is still a work of fiction. The author may have meticulously researched the subject but there is no way to know what happened in most of these scenes so it is of necessity mere speculation. Some of the names of places like for instance the Padre Hotel have not been changed, but the Hacienda Coffee Shop and Motel is actually the Rancho. I kept waiting for a scene to take place at Zingo's. You can figure out the who's who and what's what easily enough with a little bit of archeological digging on Ye Olde Internette. The book tells a fascinating story about the underground history of Bakersfield--and not just the tunnels supposedly dug underneath its streets by Chinese Labor Gangs--and as I keep telling n. l. belardes every time I see him, I can't wait to read lords part two, three, and four.
~ Christopher Robert Craddock
July 11, 2009
Oh, man... This is a trip!
Sex magic. Evil sex-magic. Evil sex-magic and small-town politics and power. All that plus violence, death, and mind-manipulation. In 1970s Southern California, no less! Read my blog post on it.
Sex magic. Evil sex-magic. Evil sex-magic and small-town politics and power. All that plus violence, death, and mind-manipulation. In 1970s Southern California, no less! Read my blog post on it.
March 13, 2011
A chilling, haunting take on one of Bakersfield's famous ghost stories, The Lords of Bakersfield.
Murder, deceit, corruption, power, pedophiles, small town secrets are all in this noir-style tale.
Murder, deceit, corruption, power, pedophiles, small town secrets are all in this noir-style tale.
September 28, 2012
Disturbing. Dark. Sadistic. Evil. The world is a scary place when some people are beyond the realm of getting caught.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews