Author: Skip@RR

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Liu Xiaobo and his prize

I don’t think of ReallyRedding as a political blog. But in fact, every act of written expression is a political act in this world. The recent award of the Nobel Prize to Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo makes this painfully clear.

“The internet is God’s present to China
by Liu Xiaobo
Today there are more than 100 million internet users in China. The Chinese Government is ambivalent towards it. On the one hand, the internet is a tool to make money. On the other, the Communist dictatorship is afraid of freedom of expression.
The internet has brought about the awakening of ideas among the Chinese. This worries the Government, which has placed great importance on blocking the internet to exert ideological control.
In October 1999 I finished three years of jail and returned home. There was a computer there and it seemed that every visiting friend was telling me to use it. I tried a few times but felt that I could not write anything while facing a machine and insisted on writing with a fountain pen. Slowly, under the patient persuasion and guidance of my friends, I got familiar with it and cannot leave it now. As someone who writes for a living, and as someone who participated in the 1989 democracy movement, my gratitude towards the internet cannot be easily expressed.

I really enjoyed the exquisite weather this lovely Fall Redding weekend. I enjoyed the natural beauty, the freedom to travel freely about the Northstate.
Redding area highway and Lassen Peak
I am enjoying the freedom now to write about this controversial subject. Liu Xiaobo is in jail for for 11 years for the crime of trying to enjoy the same basic freedoms we dare not take for granted. His wife is now under house arrest because of his new international recognition. Here are the words of the man who nominated him:

“The courageous men and women who are challenging tyranny in these countries are looking to the governments and leading non-governmental institutions in free countries for assurances that their fate, and the fate of their countries, depends on something more than the bottom line. To fail to challenge the Chinese government on Liu Xiaobo’s imprisonment is to concede this argument internationally, at enormous peril to peaceful advocates of progress and change not just in China but all around the world. “

You can sign a petition demand to free Liu Xiaobo at this link.

Or not.

Either way, you will be making a political statement.

Freedom of expression, the real prize. It’s ReallyRedding.

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Saint Michael’s Catholic Church in Shasta Lake City

Saint Michaels Catholic Church in Shasta Lake City CA
Here are a few images I took of Saint Michaels Catholic Church in Shasta Lake City yesterday. I found some information about this church at this website. Apparently it’s just over 50 years old, built when this area was called Central Valley.
Saint Michaels Catholic Church in Shasta Lake City CA
It’s an appropriate looking architectural structure among the Digger Pines and Manzanita. Aspirational, yet humble. Saint Michael is a complex religious figure in Catholicism, and is shared with several other faiths. He is most often depicted in art with sword, returning to defeat the powers of darkness. Here is a Catholic prayer to Saint Michael:

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen

Amen indeed.

St Mike stands ready to help slay demons, both personal and otherworldly. It’s Really Redding.

Saint Michaels Catholic Church in Shasta Lake City CA

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Eye of the Storm

Here’s a recording from 15 years ago. Craig Padilla was asked to make a soundtrack for a video to be aired on Redding’s cable access channel. Local video artist Namaste had edited video footage he had taken of stormclouds moving into the valleys and mountains of southeastern Oregon and the Mt Shasta area into a longform video for his abstract series titled Meditate On This. In the studio, Craig came up with a few sequence structures on his ESQ-1, and then we riffed on a few musical ideas together about how it should go. Then we just turned on the (analog) tape recorder. It was played live, one-pass. No edits.

I regarded the piece as a “throwaway” sort of one-off. In fact, I didn’t even listen to it after we recorded it. Later, after a few auditions, the music just seemed to grow on me. It’s spare and stark, like the video imagery, but it was a surprisingly appropriate evocation of the high desert and sky. I don’t have the video, and I think I only saw it once, but the music remains. An artistic and beautiful reminder of an era and an artistic endeavor. Craig ultimately thought highly enough of the music to make it the centerpiece of his first professionally produced CD on the See Peace label in 1996, where it became the title track. BTW. Of the two of us, Craig is far and away the one most responsible for this music. I played some parts, and it definitely wouldn’t be the same without my contributions, but this is truly Craig’s talent and inspiration in full glory. This CD is still in print. The photo is one I took in Lassen Park last year.
Boulder in Lassen Park by Skip Murphy
Eye of the Storm by SkipMurphy
A time capsule of indigenous music from 20th century Northern California. It’s ReallyRedding.

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Redding immortalized on GoogleMap streetview

I was searching Google for Vintner’s Cellar phone number when I saw something unusual on the screen. My car.
Redding Ca steeetview
Apparently I was parked across the street on Placer when the Google Street View camera vehicle came by. If you search 1510 Placer Street and zoom in to street view, you’ll see it too. It’s a fluke to have been there, and even more of a fluke to have noticed it online. I’m trying to remember why or when I was parked there on a cloudy day, but coming up blank.
Redding Ca steeetview
Interesting to consider the great human slice of life captured by Google with what must be the enormous streetview file of photos. Scrolling around our town in streetview is interesting for a while, but at least in Redding, I can wander around all I want offline. But for you out-of-towners interested in our fair city, come on in to Google’s Redding and scroll around a bit in zip code 96001. You may like what you see.
Redding Ca steeetview
Redding Ca steeetview

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Cheap thrills at the Redding Dragstrip tonight

Perhaps better described as inexpensive thrills, tonight the Redding Dragstrip features Clash of the Imports and Musclecar Mania. Just $5 to get in, and $10 to race your street legal ride. The thrills start at 6 pm, so come on down! Where it’s safe and legal to speed…
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$100 for the fastest run of a Musclecar, and $100 for fastest Import run. Should be a lovely Fall evening at the longest continuously operating dragstrip in the known universe.
Where else can you get so much entertainment with so little cash? It’s ReallyRedding.

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A Redding squirrel prepares for Winter

We humans have to learn to save for a rainy day. Meanwhile, local critters just know what to do. This guy (or gal?) was hard at work yesterday, gathering acorns.
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Oak acorns have supported life here since prehistory. So good you can smell them.
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No rest in this green world.
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Preparation. It’s ReallyRedding.

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Beer and Wine Festival images from Saturday

Threatening skies overhead were only bluffing at Redding’s 14th annual Beer and Wine Festival held at the Market Street Promenade. Good thing the clouds were in actually, as the temperature was actually just right for the people and food. Here’s a few shots
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The lovely Karry receives a pour of Indian Peak Cab from Z at the Uncorked booth. In the dark blue shirt beyond is Kirk Taylor from GM Specialties on Hartnell. Kirk is a terrific Cadillac mechanic, in case you need one. Always fun to see our local friends and neighbors.
BeerandWine2
A Market Street Chef seasons a steak. It’s too much to write about all the great food, but some standouts for me were the samples at this booth from Market Street Steak House, the little clams from the Woodside Grill at Gaia, the Garlic Cilantro Quinoa from Grilla Bites, and the scrumptious Lentil Salad from Trader Joe’s. I asked if you could buy that salad at TJ’s and was told “you have to make it.” Sounds like a plan.
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Along with all the lovely wine, there was something like 27 different breweries represented. Again, some pours that stood out for me was Hop Stoopid from Lagunitas, Mirror Pond from Deschutes, Drifter Pale Ale, and Tumbler from Sierra Nevada. Nice to have all the variations. It occurs to me that some restaurants ought to offer flights of beer, like they do with wine, so you can sample lots of different brews instead of single big pints. Not that big pints are bad…
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A good crowd kept circulating. A DJ kept things hopping.
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Here are some familiar Reddingites. I love the background, too.
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Here are Amber and Tracy, a couple of colleagues of mine. A good time was had by all. Our thanks go to Viva Downtown and all the vendors. I can’t believe we only do this once a year!