This Friday and Saturday, you can watch Kool April cars do much more than slowly drive around in circles in town. Instead witness them blowing the doors off one another at the Redding Dragstrip. Did you know that Redding has the longest continuously operating NHRA dragstrip in the world? Redding has a long history as a car town. More info at: www.ReddingDragstrip.net This year, the drags are presented in 3D at no extra cost, and with no need for any special glasses. Surround sound too. Just $15 gets you in for this amazing spectacle of Americana. Kids 6-12 are just 5 bucks, while 5 and under are FREE with entry. Just remember to bring those kids some hearing protection, ok? It’s, uh, LOUD.
CalPERS headquarters makes a big impression
Readers at Bruce Ross’ blog recently caught wind of the looming financial crisis facing California Pension funds. Last week in Sacramento, we walked by the CalPERS building and it made quite an impression.
It’s a lovely building. Still, the central glass tower seems to serve no function other than providing full time glass cleaning jobs. As art, it’s beautiful. As a symbol, it doesn’t speak of thrift, or frugality, or savings, or any of those qualities one might associate with a retirement program. Such architectural hubris is not at all uncommon among big banks and securities firms, but this glass palace seems over-the-top for offices of state bureaucrats. But then, obviously they don’t see themselves as such, do they? The building speaks much louder than words.
This disconnect probably wouldn’t have caught my attention, were it not for the frustration of knowing we are unable to even do as much as house our police department in an abandoned shampoo factory in Redding. Or, that our city council appears to have been bullied into not buying a decent new office building across from city hall for 1/4 of what it cost to build it. In my opinion, this is such as missed opportunity. All it would take would be a few pieces of office furniture such as cubicles and the office space would be able to be used as a fully functioning headquarters.
I really do think things need to change in this regard. There are no doubts about it, office space is vital, even if all you do is fit out a head office. But a small, poor office is not going to help your business, so it’s important to improve upon this, and ensure that you can do better. However, it seems that private investors knew better than to pass that one up. Too bad CalPERS couldn’t have invested in either building. It would appear they have some money to throw around. I guess it’s who you know that counts.
Flight Day 7 on the Shuttle mission STS131 -put to music
Over at SOMA-FM, they are doing live online Space Music to the live audio feed from Redding’s (okay, the entire U.S’s) Shuttle mission currently spinning overhead. Thought provoking music.
It’s a very unique idea. Maybe not something you’d listen to every day, but very nice on this rainy day, for sure. And think of it. There’s a group of intrepid humans whizzing silently through space, and creative space music playing humans in San Francisco putting it all to music. Art.
There are only a few of our Shuttle missions left to go before they end forever. Ponder that idea while you listen to the music.
Safe journey, astronauts. We are thinking of you today, and we are twice as inspired.
Watch NASA TV Here. Images courtesy of NASA and SomaFM
Watch the growth of WalMart
This one is making the rounds, but in case you haven’t yet seen it. It is interesting and thought provoking. Watch the explosive growth of WalMart over the years since inception. I can’t embed the video here, but you can witness the spectacle at the link below. Well worth viewing:
http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/
What does it remind you of?
Sacramento enjoys the government stimulus
We spent a few days in Sacramento. Not by choice, but on matters pertaining to real estate training. The visit to the city was enlightening. The same traffic, the same lack of parking, the hustle. Although housing was a large part of Sacramento industry, the downturn hasn’t impacted them as much as it has our town, with many looking to realty agencies similar to carlile realty & lending to help with their housing issue. Obviously, a larger part of their economy is based on government spending. And spending is up. A lot. Just few hours south, Sacramento has a much different feel than Redding.
Coming from Redding, another thing noticable is how many languages are spoken there. At a shopping mall, I heard Russian, Chinese, and Spanish, often combined with English. A language mashup. Emblematic of the Sacramento culture, this mall cart sells language training by Rosetta Stone. Not a business model that might ‘translate’ to Redding, or so I think. I set up the shot while the cart vendor looked the other way, but he got that creepy “somebody is looking at me” feeling, and turned his head to look as I hit the shutter.
As though to drive the point home, a woman approached me in the mall and asked if was looking for work. I was bit taken aback. “No?” she went on, “Well do you know anyone who is?” Well yeah. I do. About a quarter of Redding, by my estimation.
I'm no photgrapher
I’m a guy with a camera. I take some lucky shots once in a while. I’ve improved my craft. But I’m no photographer. Sometimes, I check out sites like olgatopchii.com and various other photographer’s pages, just to get some inspiration. When I see what other people can produce, it does motivate me to take more photos and do better.
Nina Berman is a photographer. I was introduced to her work at this Huff Post article called Marine Wedding brings the war home.
Nina Berman’s website has her gallery mentioned in the article. Marine Wedding.
Sometimes on a Redding springtime Easter weekend, it’s easy to forget we are a nation at war. We folks here in Redding. Us. And sometimes a single photograph sums up a generation at war. This may be ours. Time will tell. An image that evokes our human condition. That’s what it means to be a photographer.
Shop local. The job you save may be your own.
My parents tell me the newly expanded China Mart in Redding on Dana Drive dwarfs their huge Anderson store. I haven’t been in it. But I was looking for a new camera recently. I shopped online, did my research and found one I liked. I wandered into Costco and saw a big stack of the exact model camera I had researched online. It was priced very attractively. I was tempted. But I didn’t buy it. I called Frank at Crown Camera and told him about the deal I’d seen at Costco.
“I hate to do this to you Frank, but money’s tight. Can you match the Costco deal?”
“Yeah we can do that,” said Frank, “plus, we’ll do it better. We’ll throw in a free camera class, and a year of free prints.”
Now that’s a real bargain! Not only is it a great deal for me, but the money I spent stays in my town. If I hadn’t checked, I might have missed it. The camera is awesome. Thanks Frank!
Fellow Chamber of Commerce member Crown Camera is just one store of many I would dearly miss if they were gone. Their business is continually pressured from the big chain stores, and squeezed by economy strangling online sales, but they survive. They do so by giving stellar service. You can’t find that at the alternatives. But it’s important to remember those local merchants who struggle to win your shopping dollars. There is a movement you may have heard about called the 3/50 Project. They say it better than I can. Check it out by clicking on the image below.
