This video showed up in my e-mail the other day. I don’t know if it’s authorized, but it’s nice. It says the music was recorded Freitag (German for Friday) Nov 14. Solar Fields is a European music artist with whom I have a slender connection. Craig Padilla and I were invited to appear on a compilation CD from 2002 called the Fahrenheit Project on the French label Ultimae. Craig and I submitted a track from Beyond Beta, and Solar Fields contributed a track called Outlined surfaces. Since then I have followed the music vicariously, and find that we are very much in the same vibe. I see that the Fahrenheit Project #1 is now out of print, and that’s a shame. It was a very tasty compilation. The Ultimae label is run by Vince and Sunshine from Lyons, France, self described “panoramic people” in their newsletters. I hope we meet someday. Terrific people, great music, all across the sea. It’s always surprising to me that we seem to have a fan base in Europe.
I see their website has a review among several of the Fahrenheit compilation, in which our ambient beatless track is described as “not dreadful.” Ouch! Hee hee. I guess it could be worse.
Welcome to deflation
The other day I wrote about gasoline prices falling twice in one day. It’s fallen again. Before you rejoice too much about the sudden cheap gas, you may want to consider it as a leading indicator of a deflationary economy. They didn’t just find more gas on Gas Point Road or anything. There was no increase in supply. Prices are falling with demand. What’s that mean for us? Well I don’t exactly know, but you might want to read what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said about this possibility 6 years ago today. Take a few minutes and read through his thoughts about the subject HERE. Definitely worth your time. Somewhat frightening, actually. (I got a couple of offline comments about my post scaring people. that wasn’t the intent. If you read the Bernanke piece, it looks like his main weapon of choice to fight deflation will be a printing press, to print a bunch of money to spread around “willy nilly” ((his words)) That’s a prospect you may want to plan for.)
Greeters
We’ve been members of the Redding Chamber of Commerce since 2005. I never thought of myself as a “chamber” type person, but it’s actually a pretty good thing, and I’ve learned a lot. Once a week, many members meet for what’s called Greeters. It’s always on Thursday mornings at 8:00 am, and always at a different local business. This week it was at Need2Speed.
At Greeters we showcase the host business for a few minutes, and then pass the microphone around and greet one another. Just say who you are and a few words and pass the mic. Sounds goofier than it really is. Although it is certainly goofy too… Continue reading “Greeters”
Buy American?
I love the colors of the Fall. This Liquidamber seems to be growing out of the top of my car here. I took this a few days ago. I was thinking about my Cadillac today after watching GM CEO Rick Wagoner… Continue reading “Buy American?”
A good explanation of what happened
As in, what happened with all the bad mortgages, and how that affected the financial markets. The drawings are crude, shall we say, and so is the language, but it makes the point. Not suitable for work, maybe, and don’t look at it if you are easily offended. I saw this a while back but thought it worth posting in case you didn’t see it. I think it pretty much sums it up.
You’ll need to view this in full screen mode to read it, which is the little icon that looks like a projection screen at the bottom of the slide viewer. The show has no audio, so you might want to put some music on first by clicking on the Ovi player. This piece, Infinity’s Edge is from the live planetarium recordings featuring Craig Padilla I have been running the past few days, and is about 10 minutes long.
Cheap gas, film at 11
I ran across this intrepid reporter getting video of the cheap $2.12 gas at Arco yesterday. Never thought I’d see that again. Later I went by there after he’d gone, and they had dropped it again to $1.99. That news video didn’t last long! Send out the reporter again.
This tune titled Indian Spirits is another piece from our live series at the Schreder Planetarium, as promised yesterday. It features Craig singing. Here’s the lyric sheet: “Ahhhhhh.” Hee. Well maybe it’s Uhhh, not exactly sure about that, it’s been a long time. Anyway I enjoyed hearing it again today, and I hope you like it too.
More planetarium music
The music from the other day that was recorded at our Planetarium started me looking through the archives for others we recorded in the darkness of the Schreder. This one caught my ear. Give it a listen and if you want to read more…. Continue reading “More planetarium music”
What might Hilltop look like without palm trees?
There was a lot of controversy when date palms were planted on Hilltop Drive for beautification. Personally I don’t have a problem with palms. I think they look fine, and Redding has a long history of palm trees. Maybe they are taken care of by tree service near me, they look very well kept so possibly. That’s readily evident when you look through old photos. But if there was a second choice, these trees on Shasta View near Lema Ranch surely would make a fine alternative. They are simply stunning.
Lovely vistas greet the eye at every turn in the Fall
Fall comes to town
Right after Veterans Day in Redding we can expect a frost. Not yet, so far, but soon.
The musical excerpt Lithium is from Craig and my CD Planetary Elements Vol 2, released on the Space for Music label. It was recorded live at the Schreder Planetarium on Magnolia Street in Redding around 2004. Here’s the story of the music. We played as a duo under the dome, while Brian Grigsby ran the planetarium visuals. It seats 64 people. We’d played there before but this time we decided to play improvisationally. We planned to play floaty synthesizer textures and ambient soundscapes. We deliberately didn’t play much beforehand, except to setup, so we wouldn’t know what each other was going to play. Here’s the kicker: playing in the planetarium is done in total darkness. We even had to cover the the LED displays on the synthesizers so their dim light wouldn’t bleed onto the dome. So here we were as usual, playing improvised music in total darkness.
About 10 minutes in, I started up a sequence texture that had a mildly rhythmic bass drum in 4/4 time. I figured Craig wasn’t going to like it much actually, so I thought I’d fade it up and then back down. To my surprise, Craig launches into a full-on lead synth line over the texture. Now, it’s going somewhere. At some point based on Craig’s stellar lead, I transpose the sequence, and follow along.
I guess the piece stands on it’s own, and would be otherwise unremarkable beyond that, except to us. Both of us were thinking, where the hell did that come from? It sounds planned. It wasn’t.
One of those weird moments you get after playing music with somebody of like mind for a decade or so. In the dark. It still weirds me out to hear it. Where does music come from?
Photos by Skip on Northpoint in Redding, Fall 2008
My Great Great Grandfather, Civil War Vet
This is John Rodney in his later years, wearing the Union uniform he wore fighting for Vermont in the Civil War. We’re told he never really recovered from the war, in terms of his health, but we see him here looking proud, about 120 years ago. Happy Veterans Day John. We salute you. John Rodney was the great grandfather to my favorite veteran, my dad.
My dad George, received 3 Bronze Stars in Korea. He was in the Army then, and he noticed the Navy guys seemed to have a better gig, so he joined the Navy reserves after getting out of the Army. I don’t know many who served in two branches of the military. My dad is a pretty special guy.
Last week I took him to have cataract surgery here in Redding at Shasta Eye on Butte Street (thanks!), and he is really grateful about being able to see so well now. Except when he looked in a mirror. Who is that old guy? I know the feeling! Probably John Rodney felt the same about his photograph.