Bill Cosby appeared at the Cascade for 2 shows last night. Both sold out, from the looks of things.
Bill’s humor fit the mostly over 50 crowd like a well worn shoe. Sometimes I could hear the punchline from the audience before the performer.
The Cascade seems to be booking some higher end shows lately. For example, Bonnie Raitt plays there next week, no less. Bookings can be a gamble in a town with no excess of discretionary income. But the Cascade is truly a magical venue.
He’s a class act, of course.
So what is it about those Reddingites who wish to become part of the show themselves? I suppose if you paid $75 for a ticket, you might feel justified. You aren’t.
At one point Bill himself became annoyed by an audience member up front, continually scrunching a water bottle. IMHO, Cosby has always been a bit of a preachy guy (ahem, says the editor, watch out for hurling stones from your glass house), so the interruption gave him reason to go off with a brief, good-natured rant. He got back on track, and finished. Gave a wave, and walked off stage. A good time was had by all. Shows at the Cascade, it’s Really Redding.
Put your kid in this crab
We like the amusing Craigslist ads, here at RR. You just can’t make these up. This from Barter yesterday:
“Asken $65” seems like it ought to be a word, somehow. We all know what he meant. Still, even us locals might be wondering what kind of aluminum boat you might get for the equivalent value of a $65 crab, or crib. And was it necessary to admit that his son has been “out of it for along time now?” Lets face facts here. We’ve all been out of it, at one time or another.
Amusing Craigslist ads. It’s Really Red Bluff.
Shasta Women’s Refuge Crab Feed 2011
We have a place for women and their children to come, when threats and violence overtake their lives. It’s a shame that such a place need exist, but we live in a world where you can be glad that refuge is granted for those in need of it. One of the big fundraisers for this worthy cause is their annual Crab Feed, held at the Anderson Fairgrounds. We went to represent the Shasta Association of Realtors, and I took some photos.
Thanks to all the volunteers and donors! Volunteerism, it’s ReallyRedding.
A picture of a train in Redding
January “Sunpocalypse” in Redding
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.
While shooting these images, it looks like construction is underway for a new building at their site, to the northeast. I’m looking forward to seeing what emerges there. If I have this right, Neighborhood Church is a member of an evangelical Protestant denomination of Christianity. From all appearances, one of the larger congregations in Redding
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.
