Her backyard a lovely setting for the festivities and food. A fine time was had by all. Be sure to watch in HD.
Summer evening pool parties. That’s Really Redding.
Starry skies over Silverthorn Houseboat
Love this photo by Tommy Higgins as seen on Facebook. Nice work! Silverthorn Resort posted it. Click to slightly enlarge.
The houseboat scene on Lake Shasta is just one of the things that makes our region so special. Warm summer nights on the lake.
Click on the image and Like Silverthorn’s FB page. The lake will drop this year, but it is still a huge body of water. A huge body of fun.
Starry skies on Lake Shasta. It’s Really Redding.
Bandaloop dances on the Sundial
Well actually, suspended from the Sundial Bridge. Here is a brief video taken from my perspective among the large crowd gathered last night to enjoy these amazing performers. Be sure to watch in HD.
On the Summer Solstice in 2014, the flying dance troupe Bandaloop performed in the air to live music from The North State Symphony. They dance suspended from Redding’s famous Sundial Bridge in celebration of its 10th Anniversary. A grand time was had by all the many spectators, ourselves included. Thanks to the McConnell Foundation, Turtle Bay Museum, and the City of Redding.
Erin said, “It looks like something you’d see in the city.”
I say, “It is. The City of Redding.”
Thanks Bandaloop. You’re Really Redding.
Sundial bridge time to be correct today for the 10th time
Re-post from 2009 in view of today’s 10th anniversary celebrations of our famous bridge. Images below from when it was right for the 5th time. This year, the celebration is much bigger.
Yesterday a group of folks gathered at the north end of Redding’s Sundial Bridge to observe the Solstice, and perhaps to verify that their cell phones report the same time as the planet. Noon. Yep.
There was a band, and some booths. At one of the booths you could look at the sun, but there were no sunspots or flares, so it pretty much looked like just a bright disk.
Redding lays claim to the tallest known sundial on the planet at 217 ft. We humans have a history of building large and relatively permanent structures to observe the planetary movements.
Anderson Summer Concert series to host Tempest tonight!
It used to be the Mosquito Serenade, but now it’s called the Summer Serenade. A free concert series held in Anderson’s lovely River Park on Wednesdays. Tonight they are having the celtic rock band Tempest again. I ran this post below back in 2009. It looks like their lineup has changed a bit, but the spirit remains. I am re-posting to get you in the mood for this evening’s show. I loved the way the chain of dancers formed!
At first only the youngest kids are dancing, since they are more in touch with the muse.
But soon, the group of dancers grows larger, as the bigger kids join in.
Like a chain reaction, the group of dancers builds.
This band is hotter than than an Anderson July.
Soon the whole crowd is one single pulsating organism, throbbing to the rhythym.
Yes, you have them in the palm of your hand. Nice work.
What a terrific venue! This free concert series is a longtime Anderson tradition. Thanks to all who contribute and sponsor. And Tempest, well, you blew us away!
Petunias perfect for Redding
These Petunias love Redding weather evidently. All you see here is from only 3 plants!
This blog was mentioned in a recent Marc Beauchamp column in the Record Searchlight writing about drought landscaping. These need water, but really not much under mulch. And they reward you with this riot of color.
A very Palo Cedro party -brief video
Around here, “being PC” doesn’t mean politically correct. It means Palo Cedro style. We were invited to this very PC party last weekend to celebrate a retirement. I captured a few images that offer you some sense of this fine event, and here they are presented as a brief video. It won’t offend anyone around here to accuse them of being very PC. Switch the setting in the lower right corner to 1080p HD for full PC effect.
We’re all very PC here. It’s Really Redding.
On our Sundial Bridge
Guest post by local friend and thoughtful writer, Nadine Bailey. It first appeared in Facebook as something of a reaction to an article about our Sundial Bridge that appeared in the Sacramento Bee. I asked if I could repeat it here, and she kindly agreed:
I came back to Northern California in the middle of the debate over the Sundial Bridge. Working for a conservative state senator I became the minority voice, on our staff and conservatives in general, for the support of the bridge. During construction I would take my lunch and park and watch as the bridge propelled itself across the river. Even then the language my lunch companions told the story of what this might mean for our community, as the diversity of the languages spoken by the visitors each passing week increased.
While most people would like to think of themselves as California Natives, most people who live here are from somewhere else. They came searching for gold, timber, rich farm and grazing land, weather and anything else that felt like a dream that could be realized. They stayed and carved out the communities that exist today and for every success there are the memories of those who fell along the way. We know the famous ones, of Donner and the parties who never made it to the California dream. Most families have tales of their own, a baby that died on the trail, or a husband lost to sickness on the journey west, great uncle killed in a mining accident and loggers who failed to conquer the tall trees.
The Sundial Bridge stands like the dream of all who came to California with the vision to seek a new life; of those who succeeded and those who, even in their failure built the communities that stand today. These communities who send their sons and daughters to war, who raise up men and women to fight the weather and the land to grow our food and forgo the charms and benefits of the urban life to build communities that never give up, even when it seems that the whole world is trying to pound them down. When I see the white spire of the Sundial Bridge rising against the backdrop of the shimmering river and green of the forested mountains, like the bones of oxen left along the trail, I see the strength and determination of the people of the West, who take so little and give back so much. I see the future and the past calling us to new visions and dreams.
New music from Redding artist Craig Padilla
My friend Craig Padilla posted this performance video of his recent composition, Challenger Deep. Please give it a view/listen.
Part of the charm comes from knowing that he created this using a modular synthesizer built by his friend and northwest micro-manufacturer, George Matson. For any synth-geeks out there, you’ll know this is a fairly minimalist hardware synthesizer setup on which to compose, in an era where mega-synths exist in software and apps. For everyone else, please simply enjoy this composing/performance of a lovely work of ambient and evocative northstate style music for what it is, by a widely regarded master of the genre.
Believe it or not, this 2014 music is available on vinyl from the artist.
So, enjoy. It’s Really Redding.
A Million Ways to Die in the West – We take the tour
“Cemeteries are like history books you can read” say Mike Grifantini of the Shasta Historical Society. We attended his walking tour of the Redding Cemetery over the weekend.
The monuments and markers serve as a rich illustration of history. A striking example was the many Reddingites who died from the flu epidemic in 1918. That pandemic must have had a grim impact on our small town. Many lives ended that year. History made real.
It’s a place of austere beauty. A solemn reminder that all our stories come to an end.
The gentleman above lived a good life, it seems. We should all strive for such a legacy.
Meanwhile below, one of the more painful of the million ways to die in the west, a movie currently playing in Redding theaters.
It is perhaps more important to realize there are a million ways to live in the West too. That’s Really Redding.