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Alice and Kev are homeless

I stumbled upon this unique narrative, and want to share. This blog follows the lives of a homeless young girl Alice, and her father Kev. They are Sims.

Alice and Kev

For those unfamiliar, Sims 3 is a complex and very popular computer simulation game that allows players to build communities of simulated people living simulated lives. Although the initial setup and play is controlled by the gamer, the characters have a degree of autonomy, and something akin to free will. In this narrative Alice and Kev are a homeless father and daughter, and the blog follows their daily lives.

Reading draws you into their world. Without giving it away, the unexpected humanity is revealed within the irrationality of it all. Like any fiction, something about our human condition becomes poignant, even though none of what you read really happened. Thought provoking and fresh. Well worth your time.

Not Really Redding, to be sure. Sim Redding, absolutely.

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Cleveland and Kimberly get married -a Redding Wedding

Happily, I was invited to this wedding by Erin’s friend Kimberly, of Kimberly Nicole Boutique. You may recognize the couple. She and Cleveland are also on the cover of the new June issue of Enjoy Magazine. It was one of the most gorgeous wedding ceremonies I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. Kimberly was wearing a stunning Winnie Couture dress. Click here to learn more about winnie couture, if you wanna know why I was so in awe of the dress. The ceremony and reception was held in the Atrium at the south end of the Promenade, behind Leatherby’s. It’s an unexpectedly nice place for a wedding. I shot some video and some stills, and combined the two to the live music from the wedding. The first half is Cleveland’s wedding song, and the second half is Kim’s dad and uncles, the Woods Brothers, singing classic a capella. It’s a real treat, and a rare slice of Redding.

Cleveland and Kimberly Get Married from Skip Murphy on Vimeo.

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Redding's Tour de 'Shrooms

Yesterday’s video reminded me that I did a sort of naturescape video/photo tour of Redding last February, and then never posted it. Take a look.

Fairy Rings in our fair city from Skip Murphy on Vimeo.

During a break in our Winter weather, I went to a bluff overlooking the Sacramento River to shoot some panoramas of my town, Redding California, poised beneath newly snow dusted mountains. While shooting, I noticed the really interesting activity that was taking place at my feet. Fairy Rings of mushrooms were scattered about around the Valley Oaks on the bluff. Evidently this is a good year for fungus of all sorts. Back in the studio, I tried to create music ‘scenery’ that reflected the photographic images, and the spirit they evoke. My first attempt at using Vimeo, which is a quite nice service. As an early experiment, I think it turned out interesting. But that’s just me. It is Really Redding.

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Our Asphalt Cowboy Pancake Breakfast music video

As promised, we took a few more shots of the 2010 Asphalt Cowboys pancake breakfast at Roaring Gulch in Redding.

The music we used is something of a funny story. I am very sensitive about using another artist’s music on a video without permission, since I’ve had that happen to my music. YouTube has a library of songs in different styles that the artist has given permission to use in advance. That option was broken when I was downloading this video, so I couldn’t pull up a Country & Western type tune, but the  “I’m Feeling Lucky” button functioned. It pulled up this song, and after getting over the style, and watching it a couple times, it seemed to fit the images appropriately. See what you think.

For more images of this great weekend, Paul Heath, a Redding photographer we admire very much, did the definitive Redding Rodeo Week slide show here at A News Cafe. Nice work, as usual. Paul makes a brief appearance in our video trying to get a shot of the photogenic Chita Johnson of KRCR.

Thanks to Redding and the Asphalt Cowboys for a very cool tradition. It’s Really Redding.

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Pancakes!

Loved this shot of Chita and Erin at the Asphalt Cowboys Pancake Breakfast from a few minutes ago. They hope for 11,000 breakfasts served this year. Wow.
PancakesErinChita
Took a bunch of shots, more to follow, no doubt. It’s Really Redding.

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What if Deepwater/BP had blownout in Shasta County?

The recent Deepwater Horizon/BP oil blowout is big. How big? Here’s a map of the spill, only spread over Shasta County.
Oil if it was in Shasta County
Paul Rademacher is using GoogleEarth to give us all a better understanding of the size and scope of the problem. Although the news is using phrases like “the size of Delaware,” it can be hard to visualize. The link lets you place the oil over any geography on earth. You need to install the Google Earth plugin if you don’t have it already. It seems to be a harmless plugin.

The oil is not harmless.

Early on, some doomer bloggers were predicting this would be something we’d never seen before. That it would be unstoppable, and carried in the gulf stream, it would eventually destroy the entire ocean ecosystem of the planet. Maybe. Can you say it won’t? So far they have been unable to stop it, or even slow it down. And if you have been following the news daily, they seem to be downplaying it every day, until the news get worse. At first it was just a fire, then it sunk. Then just a few thousand gallons leaking, now millions. Then, they were going to put a cap on it, but it failed. A mile beneath the sea, and 30,000 feet below that, the oil has other ideas. It’s like a bad science fiction movie, only real.

Anyway check the link. We are an oil based civilization, and the fragile sea pays the price.