Life and all in Redding California
Not Really Redding, but I just had to share in case you haven’t seen this.
Craig Padilla put up a video we made while recording some music in the studio a while back, and it’s been viewed 11,800 times since he put it up. That’s kind of fun to think about.
But there’s an oddity about the viewership. Craig divided the whole video piece into 4 parts. The first segment has garnered over 11,000 views, but the second part drops to 7,159 views. Okay, it’s not your thing, so about 4600 people chose not to watch the second segment, which had only 7159 views. But then about 3400 people skip over the the 3rd segment for total views of 10,615. Huh? Then it drops down to 8283 for the 4th and final segment. Just odd. So maybe 7,159 people watched all 4 segments? Who knows. Anyway interesting to think about our many viewers. Although not exactly viral, we had no idea it would reach so many. What would life be like without YouTube? Thanks to all viewers!
One of the big bonuses to being on the artist run label Spotted Peccary (aside from the occasional royalty check Yay!) is getting new discs in the mail from a fellow label artist. Yesterday I received a copy of Deborah Martin’s “Between Worlds” collaboration with Erik Wollo, and it’s really beautiful. When Deborah passed through Redding a few months ago, she stopped by and played me some preliminary tracks, and I was really impressed. What was really fascinating about the project was that she was given permission and access to use extremely rare recordings of Native American songs recorded in 1894 on metal cylinders! She and Erik used songs from those ancient recordings along with their modern instrumentation to make a really unique hybrid of music that spans more than a century. You can link to her project HERE, or listen to a sample of the title track, which is my favorite track, “Between Worlds” HERE. The ancient recordings of voices and melody lend a ghostly quality to some more modern and very spiritual music. Both from a technical and emotional standpoint, I found the music very moving. Highly recommended!
This year Redding’s airshow features the Navy Blue Angels. They always put on a spectacular show. Today they were practicing, and even though I live many miles away from the airport, I took a couple shots from out back.
The show runs Saturday and Sunday. I understand the Saturday show is sold out. Pretty cool stuff, and a big community fund-raiser.
Tower Mart v2 opened in the Buckeye part of Redding yesterday. It’s a nice upgrade to the area.
Gas prices look attractive. And it has an automated Car Wash.
I know they are concerned about the competition over at nearby locally owned Variety City, so be sure to patronize them as well if you go out to see the new store. Variety City has a lot to offer too. We wish great success to both businesses.
I wonder if the time hasn’t come to consider something a bit more radical for nascent Stillwater than just waiting around to see who might show up. Redding is in need of turning a retail economic base into a manufacturing base. We don’t need shopping malls, we need factories. Is there a natural resource here that we can leverage into a finished good? That was key to our past success in mining and lumber. What can we do now? Is it possible to turn our industrial park into something that produces value now and in the future? How about a center for renewable energy products? Maybe software, or games production? These things have great value, and basis elsewhere. But what if we put our minds and hearts into becoming the new nexus for these high value products? What can we offer if we WILL it to be?
I just don’t see why we have to wait for ‘something” to come along. We can make it happen. Just us. Local people working together. I believe that.
