The mainstream news is full of images and stories about the Midwest and New England states getting buried in snow the last few days. “Snowpocalypse,” they say. More is on the way, we hear. You folks have our sympathy.
If you are a business owner wondering how you will get anything done when your unfortunate employees are using ice axes to find their cars, and your utility bills cripple your bottom line, please consider Redding. We have a very nice municipal utility, and a new empty business park. Plus we have lots of people looking for work, none of whom will need need to mount an arctic expedition just to get to work on time either. Seriously.
Slam Buckra now a crossover artist.
One of my all time favorite Redding artists passed away recently at age 53. Damn. 53.
Like much of Redding music, Slam was hard to categorize. I won’t try. Jim Dyar does a good job of it at this post over at A News Cafe. Blogger Marc Beauchamp pointed me to Slam’s MySpace page, where you can listen to some recordings, and which will hopefully remain available. I can say the times I met him, he impressed me as a truly genuine character, and that’s a compliment of the highest order. He was a creature of the stage, and could be found playing live all over the Northstate whenever possible, often with his band, the Groove Palookas, laying down some funky beats to rocking audiences. A skilled musician, with his own very original style, in an artform where originality is a most prized attribute. He had a great many enthusiastic followers. RIP doesn’t seem appropriate to this energetic player. I’d prefer to believe he’s just appearing on a stage somewhere else. Given the relatively small local music scene, I’d always hoped to jam with Slam at some point. But it looks like that’ll have to wait until we meet again on the other side of the stage curtain. Our heart goes out to his family, friends, fans, and Groove Palookas everywhere.
Ride the Shasta Daylight – a gorgeous rail trip
Some time back in a more graceful age, you could ride the Shasta Daylight from Redding. Riders watched Mt Shasta go by in daylight hours from a comfortable railcar with an observation dome, and enjoyed meals in the articulated Pullman diner-tavern-lounge car, which offered 3 railcar length unimpeded interior space.
This from Wikipedia:
The Shasta Daylight was a train operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was inaugurated on July 10, 1949 between Oakland Pier in Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon and was SP’s third set of “Daylight” lightweight streamlined trains. The new Shasta Daylight operated on a fast 15 hour 30 minute schedule in either direction for the 713 mile trip through some of the most beautiful and spectacular mountain scenery of any train in North America… The scenic route of the Shasta Daylight passed by its namesake mountain in daylight hours; in fact, the Shasta Daylights ran on the very flanks of Mount Shasta.
There is good short article about this flagship run of the Daylight rail service at the American Rails site:
Starting off in Oakland the train passed through beautiful northern California and then through the Cascades towards its final stop at Portland along the way passing locations like Mount Hood, Odell Lake, Crater Lake, and other spectacular features of the Pacific Northwest. What made the trip even that much more memorable was the extra large windows built into the Pullman-Standard cars for maximum sightseeing and outdoor viewing… The popularity of the Daylight was incredibly high, even through the early 1960s although by the latter half of that decade the SP began greatly reducing services and amenities on the fleet as patronage declined.
Amtrak took over in 1971, and so we at least still have some rail travel from Redding, even if it blows through here in the dead of night. Not quite the same experience. It’s pleasant to imagine the return of the Shasta Daylight, and the tourism it might provide.
Redding has always been a rail town. For the past several decades, we have been a car town too. Of course, things change…

Neighborhood Church of Redding
Here’s a Redding Church with a name as unassuming as the architecture of its building. In addition to their east Redding Church facility on Loma Vista, Neighborhood Church of Redding has an extensive website. You can explore their Mission and precepts at the link. They also have videos of their message. I grabbed this one for the title, “Going to My Happy Place.” Neighborhood Church of Redding looks like a happy place indeed.
Happy: Going to My Happy Place from Neighborhood Church of Redding on Vimeo.

High performance vehicles rely on the best fuel
Facebook is the new AOL
That’s the conclusion of this article about Facebook by John Dvorak, a columnist I often agree with. Coincidentally, local blogger Marc Beauchamp brings up the point about how businesses are using Facebook, perhaps to the detriment of the economy. Perhaps even more ominous, Henry Blodget does a good job of pointing out how the US Treasury is blowing up a Facebook valuation bubble via Goldman Sachs, using your money of course. We all know how government sponsored bubbles end.
I use Facebook, because it’s required in my line of work to be out there interacting with people, and if people are on Facebook, so be it. (Friend me!) It’s work related. But every time I log in, I confess to being baffled by the attraction. And I am very disturbed at how easily ordinary people give out so much personal information to a privately held corporation who has repeatedly shown their intent to profit by it. Of course, now if the planned profit doesn’t appear, a “too big to fail” firm will want a bailout from the government. We let this happen. Again.
Chicks dig Ferraris
Music from Redding’s Planetarium past – Set 2
I posted the first set of music from Craig Padilla‘s mid 90’s live show a few days ago here. I believe we called the shows “Impulse-Live from Space,” but I couldn’t find any of our promotional materials. I did find a photograph I took of Craig in the Schreder Planetarium (using film back then!) with the famous horizontal axis mirror ball in the background. Most mirror balls rotate vertically, but for our planetarium shows, lights swirled on the dome from front to back. Pretty intense, as I recall it, heh. Anyway, here’s the second set. About 47 minutes. Captured like a dusty photograph, a slice of time gone by.
Planetarium2 by SkipMurphy
Impulse, Live from Space by Craig Padilla. Craig on synths and guitar, Dave Barnett (Montuno Salad) on drums and percussion, Al Mires (Music Max) on electric guitar, and Skip Murphy on more synths, lasers and lighting.
Images of snowcapped mountains over pastoral Cottonwood
Saturday was dreary in the valley, but Sunday was aptly named, as the sun exposed the mountains above Cottonwood, gleaming in snowy dress. This is looking northwest, toward Igo.
Cottonwood California is a few miles south of Redding. It’s a loosely defined large region of rural properties along Cottonwood Creek and the Sacramento River. There is a charming old western town near the railroad, and a modern gated community along the river. An altogether lovely place.
Gorgeous video
I know this one is making the rounds, but in case you haven’t seen it. Not ReallyRedding, but Really Nice photographic art. View full screen and full volume. Inspirational work.
The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.