"Oildale the movie will premier at The Fox Theater on March 30, a horrific motorcycle accident on Union Avenue leaves a rider dead and the Bakersfield Open tennis tournament heads into its final weekend

Friday, March 15, 2019

 Welcome to Bakersfield Observed. Our mission is to celebrate life in Kern County by focusing on newsmakers and events and the local characters who make this such a special to live. Send your tips to rsbeene@yahoo.com.


 * ... UNION AVENUE DEATH: There was an absolutely horrific motorcycle accident on Union

Avenue at 17th Street this week which led to the death of the cyclist. Video footage of the accident, which was horrible to watch, was posted on the KGET website showing a car making a U-turn on Union and the motorcycle crashing into the back of the car, sending the man flying through the air and landing hard on his back yards down the road. Authorities said the motorcyclist died Friday. He has not been identified.

 * ... TENNIS TOURNAMENT: Make sure you head over to the Bakersfield Racquet Club this weekend to soak in some sun and some of the best tennis you will catch anywhere. The Bakersfield Open is now it the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles as we head into its final weekend. There is no cost to attend.

 * ... SPOTTED ON TWITTER: "Everyone tells teenagers that they don’t know what love is. But everyone wants to feel like a teenager when they fall in love."

 * ... MORE TWITTER: "I’m sure he’s great but Beto O’Rourke always makes me think of like some guy you dated in college who said 'I can’t say I love you because I just don’t know what it means,' and then made you listen to a Toad The Wet Sprocket album and look at his pictures from Joshua Tree."

 * ... MOVING UP: Jason Kotowski, longtime court reporter for The Bakersfield Californian, is moving on to KGET TV as a web content producer. Kotowski is the latest Californian reporter to leave the paper, which abandoned its downtown offices and moved its reporters and sale representatives to the printing facility on Pegasus Drive.

 * ... OILDALE THE MOVIE: "Oildale" the movie, a bittersweet look at the life of some local veterans set in the backdrop of Kern County, will have its world premier at the downtown Fox Theater on March 30. The movie, written and produced by two movie veterans from Los Angeles, was shot almost entirely in Kern County. After opening at the Fox, the movie will go on a "Heartland Tour" throughout the country.

 * ... EVA SCHLOSS: Hats off to Rabbi Samuel Schlanger and the Chabad of Bakersfield for putting on an evening with Eva Schloss at the Fox Theater. Schloss, the step sister of Anne Frank who is about to turn 90 years old, told her personal story of surviving the Holocaust, Auschwitz and even a terrifying meeting with the Nazi "death doctor" Josef Mengele to a packed audience of 1,400 people on Tuesday night. Said one attendee: "You could have heard a pin drop people were so mesmerized with her story."

 * .... MEMORIES: Check out this postcard of the old Padre Hotel circa 1940.