Met this pug at a listing appointment yesterday. Sweetest pug you’ll ever meet. She’s Really Redding.

Such beautiful skies yesterday. I found myself just looking up. Looking up you notice birds. Along about 5 pm, groups of birds flying in from the east gathered into a swirling circle. A tornado of birds. Round and round they flew, making a cloud of their own, somewhere over the North Market Street Bridge. And then indi

Craig Padilla and his music was featured recently at the Sonic Immersion webzine from the Netherlands authored by our friend Bert Strolenberg. Whenever I read interviews with musicians, I am reminded of the old saying “talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” For musicians, music is the form of

One viral video leads to another, apparently. In case you haven’t seen it. I’m old enough to remember cartoons by Rube Goldberg. He drew illustrations of kinetic stuff like this, except you the reader had to use your imagination as to how it would all actually play out. This commercial video makes no reference

Last weekend was 1/2 price entry for Redding residents. I took a few shots of the Arboretum. There were a lot of folks out enjoying the sunny day. Still early Spring, so not much in bloom there. Coming soon though, so don’t miss it. It’s Really Redding.

In case you haven’t see this viral video. It made my morning. Not ReallyRedding, although it would be fun.

Watched New Englanders digging out of record snow again on TV. Since much of national news is East Coast based, it seems to be big news everywhere you look. And in fact it looks rough out there. Are you growing tired of dirty snow? Consider Redding. It’s raining today, but that’s just lovely. Fills up [...]

You can listen to ambient and space music free at the Earth Mantra website. Here’s a link to the latest collaborative release of a few friends of ours, and longtime fellow travellers, Jim Combs, Jez Creek, and Kevin Haller. It’s interesting and evocative music. Good for late evening reading and such, where the m

Actually 7 new windows, courtesy of STS-130, the 130th Shuttle mission ending (hopefully) today. If you’ve been keeping track over the last 13 days, you know our brave astronauts have finished installing an observation module on the International Space Station with 7 new windows, called the Cuppola. The view should be

Erin worked hard on getting out the February issue of The Voter, the newsletter of the League of Women Voters. Events around Women’s History Month are coming up so there is lots associated with that celebration. Be sure and join their LWV group on Facebook, and help us grow the number of local people who [...]

The Shasta Society of Brewers had a social gathering to hoist a few pints at the Ale House in Redding last night. Despite the photo, the place was pretty packed. So was Bleachers next door, and Bert and Ernie’s, down a half block. The parking lots were full. Redding has developed quite a bar scene [...]

Why do they taunt me?

I was heartbroken when my flash unit failed a few weeks ago. Especially because the repair center wanted nearly as much money to fix it as it originally cost. Repair or replace? It’s a tough call. I spent 10 years or so of my career as an electronics tech, so I decided to try to fix [...]

Our CD Beyond the Portal was nominated for Best Ambient Album of 2009 by ZoneMusicReporter.com, a music industry website. It would be nice to win, but it’s very gratifying just to be nominated. And I’m a big fan of Deborah Martin and Erik Wollo’s wonderful work, Between Worlds, as profiled at this blog e

I’ve been helping the local Society of Brewers set up their website. It’s up and running, so set your bookmarks and RSS feeds. No doubt it will gaining momentum quickly. Click on the image to go there, or type http://www.ShastaSOB.org

Bumpersticker on a Toyota, as seen in Redding. Not sure what the original message was here. But even if the original message has faded, it’s still compelling. I believe thinking is indeed patriotic. Thanks for the reminder.

It’s a sad thing to note that we need to have a Women’s Refuge in Shasta County. But it’s good to know that since we do need it, our community supports it wholeheartedly. One of their big fundraisers is their Annual Crabfeed, held at the Anderson Fairgrounds. It’s run by volunteers, and among them is

Hey, it’s Superbowl Sunday. Not much home selling biz going on. So I went to finally see Avatar 3D with my movie-going companion of 34 years, the lovely Karry. Wow. It was all that and more. Don’t miss it. Via iPhone.

Posting about sculptor Man of Steel in Shingletown the other day reminded me that David Allred has a showing currently at the The Old City Hall Art gallery. Dave’s work is really lovely. This is a small sample of what you can find there. On top of that, Dave’s a neighbor of mine. He lives around the [...]

There’s a new BBQ joint in town, Brick’s Barbecue and Smokehouse, on Placer just east of Court Street. Longtime Redding folks will recall this as the old Between the Bun restaurant. You’ll be enchanted by the smell before anything else. They cook with fragrant smoke. Looks like a family affair. HereR

Shingletown is blessed to be the home of the Man of Steel, sculptor Doug Stewart. Doug Stewart’s artistic and fanciful life-sized metal renderings of animals dot the landscape. They share space with larger-than-life busy insects made durable in steel and stone. You can learn more about Shingletown’s Man of St

The 38th Annual Redding Soroptimist Mardi Gras took place last Saturday night. It was a blast! Who is that masked woman? Funds received from this fun event are used to provide scholarships to deserving young women as well as to fund other service projects of the club. Here is Erin Murphy with Dylan Darling from the Record

Sunday, I ran several photos I took of last Saturday’s benefit fashion show titled “The Collage.” I got some OK shots. But ultimately the most beautiful photo I saw was this, captured by my evening companion, the lovely Karry, using a Nikon S570. This is Kim, of Kimberly Nicole Boutique. The full size shot

We real estate agents are independent contractors. That means we often work many hours for free, hoping to meet somebody buying or selling a house. This very rainy weekend I held a house open both days on Foothill Blvd, and it was looong time between few lookers. I believe this was also the weekend for [...]

Took a few quick photos at the Fashion Show held yesterday at the Old City Hall to benefit the Shasta County Arts Council, and support our local clothing and jewelery designers. It was a terrific show and a lot of fun. We have some really talented local people. Here’s some quick photos: Erin with Kimberly, of [

You can see 38 local models show off work from 11 regional designers, a team of stylists, and 70 pieces of wearable art. The event at the Old City Hall Gallery begins at 8:30, but the doors open at 6:15, and there is an after party until 11 pm. More about this fun event at [...]

We attended the League of Women Voters Soup Supper at Lema Ranch. I sat for soup with Redding Mayor, Patrick Jones. He’s a very dedicated public servant, and I came away impressed. Above, LWV member Erin Murphy and Redding Mayor Patrick Jones. Along with great homeade food in a matchless setting, we listened to a pre

Ran across this bit of poignant humanity on Craigslist. Would you be willing to sell Rick his guitar back? Sometimes a guitar is just a guitar…

The Pilgrim Congregational Church in Redding is a unique and significant building. It was designed in 1958 by world famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. ” If it is true that architecture reflects the people that produce it, their life, faith, hopes and fears, the following comments will be helpful for the architect&#

This view greeted drivers on north Lake Blvd today. I’m guessing what must have happened was that the tongue came off the ball. Then the rig flipped, but was held on the tow vehicle by the safety chain, and drug to the side. I’m sure that was an “Oh sh**!” moment. It’s Really Redding.

Fatboy’s Rotisserie in Redding is on Twin View Blvd. They have a great selection of barbeque and more, and 12 beers on tap. The food is tasty and served in very generous portions. The pulled pork is my favorite. You can add all kinds of condiments to suit your taste. They have a meeting room area too, [...]

A News Cafe ran the 3rd and final installment of my Homebrew series of articles. In case you missed it over there, you can link to it at the image below. And no, it has not been tested yet. We have a few more weeks in bottle before sampling. Darn it.

We’re having a cold day here in Redding too. The high is only supposed to get to be around 58f. Brr. That seems about average here in January. Of course, 58f might seem absolutely tropical if you live elsewhere. In my prior life as a corporate manager at Bell & Howell, and then Kodak, I had employees [...]

We love the odd ones here. This Santa is on Oasis Road. It’s Really Redding.

Last year was, uh, interesting. Time for a new one. Today we wish you a Happy New Year. Today we are re-launching our main real estate website, RedHotHomes.com It was sort-of cutting edge back in the day (like last year), but was starting to look a bit stale. Some of it needs more work, but what [...]

We did.

“So why did you put that old car and barn in your blog header? It doesn’t look Really Redding,” asks Karry. Not Really Redding, but I did spot this car sitting in a field adjacent to a home I was showing in Cottonwood. It brought back a gush of memory. I bought an Alfa Romeo like [...]

A familiar looking woman and a couple of kids from her school were seen ringing the bell for the Salvation Army this weekend in front of Raleys Supermarket. It was mighty cold outside, and we need to give a shout-out to the manager of Lake Blvd Raleys for sending out some hot chocolate without even [...]

The line for H1N1 inoculations stretched from Penneys to the center court yesterday. The line seemed long, but moved quickly. The Shasta County Health staff was friendly and efficient. If you missed this event, you can get yours on the 29th in Shasta Lake City. The media blew up the story of H1N1. I blogged about my [...]

Seth Godin publishes an always interesting blog. He’s just published a book of thoughts about What Matters Now. Each page is about 200 words consisting of a contribution by many other interesting authors. It’s available here. Just click on the image. Read a few, and it leads to a few more. It seems the format i

Erin and I worked on this month’s publication of the The Voter, which is the online newsletter for the Redding League of Women Voters. Stop by and take a look HERE. Also, Erin invites you to join their group over at Facebook HERE. Be an informed voter, participate in the process.

Here’s a few photos I took of my friends and family at the company Christmas party in Redding. It seems like we don’t get too many opportunities to dress up in Redding, so this is always fun. It was like Prom night for some folks. I enjoyed hearing singer Summer Schappell’s take on a few Christmas [...]

People were lined up this morning to get into Big!Lots in Redding on Saturday, a day after Black Friday sales. Anybody know why? I’m trying to guess, but coming up blank on that idea.

Took some night shots of the palm trees on Hilltop with their new lights: I was partly inspired to try this by the beautiful night photos of Las Vegas seen HERE.

I went to Redding new Brewstore across the street from the library, and bought supplies to make an India Pale Ale. The good folks at A News Cafe have agreed to run my beermaking story on their lovely website HERE. You can follow along in weekly posts as I attempt to make Igo Pale Ale. Making your [...]

It’s been a mild Fall, and sometimes the best colors seem to come from a rapid cold snap. Still, these Redding Fall colors look just fine.

I have said here before that my hometown newspaper is both beloved and infuriating. Lately, the discussion about public figures declining to speak to the paper has focused a ’searchlight’ on the infuriating issue of disparaging anonymous online comments actively encouraged at Redding.com. The online version of o

Seen above is my dad on October 18 1950 with the motor pool of his company, the 14th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squad. They are in Japan prior to deploying to Korea for bomb disposal duty as part of the US Army support for the Marines. My dad is fourth from the left in the top [...]

Erin and I worked on the November issue of The Voter last night. We added an innovation to the online article about the State Senate 4th District candidates. We included the Podcasts of the 2 Republican candidate talks recorded at the Shasta Association of REALTORS. So you can see them and listen to them too. [...]

These 12 intrepid entrepreneurs want you to consider shopping their local establishments. Click on the image below for more. Shop all 12 to enter their drawing for a Grand Prize. These local shops are your friends and neighbors. They are not the faceless executives at the big box stores that so often characterize our town.