Friday, March 29, 2019

This is How You Kill a Profession

Say it, brother!
Our contemporary religion of innovation has as one of its tenets the following belief: Rather than defeat your competition, make your competitors irrelevant. This is exactly what we see in higher education. College faculty were not defeated after great struggle, after a battle with a winner and a loser. College has simply been redefined, over and over, in ways that make faculty irrelevant. College teaching, as a profession, is being eliminated one small, undetected, definitional drop at a time.

The Uses of Virtual Reality

In general, music plays and the dancer dances, but with virtual reality, it's now possible to do the opposite:
Dispersion is a virtual undulatory apparition which weaves within a dream space, visualizing the momentum of sound emitted from its perceptual geometry. Its illusory effects are subtly perceived though disorienting zones of it’s sonic architecture through Non-physical Feature Feedback Synthesis for computer and microphone, haptics, and an augmented virtual environment, while it orients and excites itself as the viewer moves and speaks with it. These artifacts script a choreography and perceived movement within the structure as well as a bodily felt rhythm, the way that vibratory spaces can exert a physical response to perceived acceleration. Using the ontological relationship between mathematical, musical and virtual harmonies we look at how bottom-up multi-sensory processing changes the possibility and experience of how we explore sonic landscapes.



"El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie"

This post regards the "Breaking Bad" movie known as "El Camino" ("Greenbrier" in development stages).

(Last updated January 28, 2024)

The Blog Sidebar contains links to Filming Location posts.  These include:
  • Eight "Breaking Bad" filming location posts;
  • Four additional posts regarding "Breaking Bad" related subjects;
  • Eight "Better Call Saul" filming location posts;
  • Two additional posts regarding "Better Call Saul" related subjects;
  • One additional post regarding Surrealist artistic influences in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul";
  • One post regarding "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie";
  • Three links to OldeSaultie's Google maps of "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" filming location sites. These are the best filming location maps on the Web! The KML files available at these addresses are particularly useful for importing locations into GPS-equipped devices.

Let me know if you have any problems or questions (E-Mail address: valdezmarc56@gmail.com).

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Coming September 2022 - "A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Including 'Better Call Saul' - Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character" (Sixth Edition)

Coming September 2022 - ‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations” (Second Edition)

“‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols,” aims to understand some of the symbolism embedded in the backgrounds of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” in order to decode messages and stories Vince Gilligan and crew have hidden there.

Like many cities in America’s Great Plains and Mountain West, Albuquerque obtained much of its architecture directly from Chicago via the AT&SF railroad and Route 66. In “Breaking Bad,” Albuquerque is used as a kind of stunt double for the City of Chicago. 
A series of tables are used to isolate how certain architectural features are used: Gentle Arches, Tin Ceilings, Five-Pointed Stars, Octagons, etc. In particular, daylighting innovations that were pioneered or promoted in Chicago are examined: Glass Block Windows, Luxfer Prismatic Tile Windows, and Plate Glass Windows.

Certain symbols advance the plot: foreshadowing symbols like Pueblo Deco Arches, or danger symbols like bell shapes and stagger symbols. Other features, like Glass Block Windows or Parallel Beams in the Ceiling, tell stories about the legacies and corruptions of modernity, particularly those deriving from Chicago’s “Century of Progress” (1833-1932). 

Stories told by the architecture, sets, and props of “Breaking Bad” include: The Legacy of El Chapo, Tributes to Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” The Badger Comes To Entrap, The Five Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, The Legacy of London's Crystal Palace, and a homage to Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner.” The way that the Native-American past is used is considered as well. 

In addition, a number of scenes are modeled after Early Surrealist artworks. The traces of various authors and artists can be tracked in both shows, including: Comte de Lautréamont, Giorgio De Chirico, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte, Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Paul Klee, and particularly, Salvador Dalí.
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To avoid unnecessary friction, I have redacted the addresses of all single-family homes in these books. (These addresses are still available in these blog posts, however.)

The pictures in the print edition are black-and-white, in order to keep costs down. Pictures in the Kindle edition are in color.

Still Available!

"A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character"


The Fifth Edition (Publication date November 3, 2018; 375 pages) of the book, updated through Season 4 of "Better Call Saul" can be ordered at these links:

Print, Kindle.


--------------------------
“‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations”

The First Edition (Publication date November 3, 2018; 290 pages) of this book can be ordered at these links:

Print, Kindle

---------------------------------



"El Camino" Filming Locations

Link to OldeSaultie's map for El Camino.

Northeast Heights (E. of Wyoming, W. of Juan Tabo, S. of Osuna)


Skinny Pete's house - 1140 Westerfeld Dr. NE, Albuquerque, NM, USA.


A brief cameo appearance of Saul's Office as it appears today. The Dirty Bourbon and Duke City Sports Bar, February 2018.


The Owl Cafe, 800 Eubank Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87123. Green screens were mounted across each window, however, to show scenes out the window quite different than those you can actually see from the Owl Cafe. I'd like to know where those scenes were filmed.













Upper Northeast Heights (E. of Juan Tabo, S. of Osuna)

(no new locations offered with this update)


Northeast Heights (N. Of Osuna)

(no new locations offered with this update)


Lower Northeast Heights (W. of Wyoming), & Lomas Blvd. Corridor

Holly & Arroz - symmetry is important here, as are mid-century modern touches like furniture, pastel colors, windows above, skylights, and glass block windows (GBWs). Architectural note: "A dingbat apartment building in the Fair West neighborhood. Dingbat is the design name given to apartment buildings that overhang sheltered street-facing parking. These apartments advertised as Mardi Villa date to 1976." Now known as Fair West Apartments, 317 Palomas Drive NE.

 








Downtown

(35.086891, -106.646703) Convention Center Parking - Marquette Avenue time lapse, looking east.


Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse, 333 Lomas Blvd. NW.








1904 5th St. NW.















Downtown West and Old Town

Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman's house, Corner of 11th and Roma Ave. NW (501 11th St. NW). This house is known as the Kate Nichols Chaves House, 11th St. and Roma Ave. NW.

("Breaking Bad, "Season 1, episode 4, 'Cancer Man'; Season 2, episode 2, 'Grilled'; Season 2, episode 4, 'Down')






Huning Castle & ABQ Country Club

(no new locations offered with this update)


Barelas

Where Combo and friends once met years ago in the bicycle montage ("Breaking Bad," Season 2, episode x, 'Mandala').





3rd St. & Santa Fe Ave. SW - motorcade. (Looks like a Zia symbol in the movie when seen from above.)



Huning Highlands/ Martineztown Locations


Jesse in his parent's home - tin ceiling visible as he retrieves two pistols. The exterior scenes were filmed at the Kate Nichols Chaves house, at 11th St. and Roma Ave. NW (Downtown West neighborhood), where "Breaking Bad" Pinkman family scenes were filmed. Interior scenes were filmed, however, at the house at 123 Walter St. SE, previously-used by two other films, "Beerfest" (Gam Gam's House), and "Coyote Waits."

This screengrab is from "Coyote Waits."


Here is a screengrab is from "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie." Note that the two images are quite similar.


Pinkman House (for interior uses only), 123 Walter St. SE.


Pinkman House (for interior uses only), 123 Walter St. SE.



University Area & Near Presbyterian Hospital

(no new locations offered with this update)


Nob Hill

(no new locations offered with this update)


South Valley (West of River), Southwest Albuquerque and Pajarito Mesa


A brief cameo appearance of Los Pollos Hermanos as it appears now: Twisters (picture taken Feb. 17, 2017).




San Jose Neighborhood and South Valley (East of River)

Caesar Chavez Overpass over Commercial St. SE, east side, facing south - tiny clerestory

Junkyard - thinking (34.998165°, -106.662187°)


Southeast Heights

(no new locations offered with this update)


Near "Q" Studios


Jane & Jesse reunited - Same location on Bobby Foster Rd. SE where Kim had her car accident in "Better Call Saul," but looking east instead of west. (34.989141°, -106.645636°)




"Q" Studios

(no new locations offered with this update)


I-25 Corridor, North


Jesse and Walt walk to lunch after a night in a hotel - The Querque Hotel, formerly the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Albuquerque, University Area, 1760 Menaul Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87102






North Valley

Gate - Very impressive rendition of the now-vanished old sawmill compound.

Best Quality Vacuum, formerly On The Spot Vacuum Sales and Service, 2714 Fourth St. NW (Season 5b, episode 15, 'Granite State'). New identities and temporary refuge for Walt and Saul.

Staggered wall at vacuum store site. Interesting vertical Glass Block Windows are present on the southern wall of the store I don't recall from my visit there. The set crew must have brought them in!


On The Spot Vacuum Sales and Service, 2714 Fourth St. NW (picture taken Feb. 18, 2017).


On The Spot Vacuum Sales and Service, 2714 Fourth St. NW (picture taken Feb. 18, 2017).


The owner of the shop stated the Vacuum Cleaner's Basement location was set up in the garage here.





Glass Block Windows at the Vacuum Cleaner's store.

The "Breaking Bad" crew staged a very elaborate tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's film "North by Northwest" in the basement location here (see "Streamline Moderne and Jimmy McGill").


(Picture taken February 2019.)


(Picture taken February 2020.)





Uncle Jack's Compound. Near Second St. and Los Ranchos Rd. More precisely, off Daniel Rd. NW, just west of the railroad tracks. (Season 5b; episode 13, 'To'hajiilee', episode 14, 'Ozymandias', episode 15, 'Granite State', and episode 16, 'Felina').

Todd, his Uncle Jack, and the rest of the colorful, White-Supremacist, Nazi, biker-type crowd make their home here. Todd tortures and enslaves Jesse.


Uncle Jack's Compound (Season 5b; episode 13, 'To'hajiilee', episode 14, 'Ozymandias', episode 15, 'Granite State', and episode 16, 'Felina').



Northwest Albuquerque

(no new locations offered with this update)


Rio Rancho


Jesse hides from the cops in a driveway. 5th Ave. NE near 1st St. NE. (35.265433,-106.7352288)



Corrales

(no new locations offered with this update)


West Mesa (except Pajarito Mesa)

Time lapse - Central Avenue on 9 Mile Hill - (35.065624°, -106.773793°)


Sandia And Manzano Mountains

U.S. - Canadian Border - Via the grapevine I understand that this location is (35.181814, -106.377197). I’ve had doubts – the elevation just seems too low to me - but maybe they used artificial snow?

Alaska Parking Lot where The Disappearer gives Jesse his final briefing (35.209621°, -106.435584°)


To'hajiilee

(no new locations offered in this update)


Zia Pueblo, San Ysidro, and Cabezon

(no new locations offered in this update)


Santa Ana Pueblo & Algodones


Mike's riverside stop, On San Felipe Pueblo land, approximate location (Season 5, episode 7, 'Say My Name'). Mike crosses the River Styx (35.380657ø, -106.505815ø).

In El Camino, they are slightly farther downstream: (35.380418°, -106.509616°)


















Bernalillo and Placitas

Kandy Welding can be found at Amfab Steel, 101-A Calle Industrial, Bernalillo, NM.

My cousins live just a quarter-mile away. They must be so proud!







Photo by James Gelet



Santo Domingo, Cochiti, and La Bajada Hill

(no new locations offered with this update)


Santa Fe & Lamy

(no new locations offered with this update)


Near Los Lunas and Belen

(no new locations offered with this update)


More Distant Locations

View of Distant Alaskan Mountains - According to "OldeSaultie", credits refer to the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.

'Sharing the Night Together' - Highway 77, north of Holbrook, AZ, near the Navajo White Cone Chapter, Indian Wells, AZ 86031.

(35.370617°, -110.062224°) - driving south

(35.394191°, -110.064761°) - turnoff, driving north


According to James Gelet, Todd’s Housekeeper’s Burial Site is in northern Arizona at (35.187203°, -110.174447°).

(Photo by James Gelet)


----------------------------------

Guessestimates and Wish List



Notes on Symbols and Architecture

At River: Kind of a Celtic Cross on back of Jesse's jacket

212 Address in Rio Rancho

Skinny P's house - Princess Jeanne neighborhood - Facade half-brick

Scallopps on trim - don't extend to back yard

Pringles can on table; fan on wall; diamonds on wall, wolf hanging

Front door - Alpine Swiss chalet look - upside-down check. Front door grid

Circle of trampoline

Wall hanging - crosses with tails

Horizontal bars on window covering and Venetian blinds; grid-like pillow coverings

Also, flashback cage

Bed headboard - wheel shaped, 14 sided

Diamond wallpaper

Skinny Pete's cap eagle emblem

Shower tile - 4 sided symmetry, orange and contrasting blue

Skull tattoo on back

Old-style TV in SP's house, below big screen TV

Vertical pole with lamps coming off sides

Regular end table lamp

Diagonal stripes on end of couch; bean bag chair

Vertical hanging beads and drapes

Bricks in back yard



---------------

Junkyard - Sure looks like CGI to me. Thermos and small rotary fan. Fly swatter

___________

SP's yard - circle of hose

Portable Basketball hoop

Portable swimming pool

Slightly staggered wall

-----------------------
Intersection of 3rd & Santa Fe - Tire marks and intersection shape make it look like a Zia symbol when seen from above.

---------------
Cage - horizontal bars

Binder clip on cigarette

Ladder


---------------

Todd's place - "Dingbat" apartment building style

Grids - Apts. in 4 x 4 units

Overhang
Bilateral symmetry
Empty pool
Mattress springs
Electric meter grid
Bricks offset
Canopy over door
------------

Overpass - Building w. little clerestory and eaves
Angled concrete retaining wall
Rails at diagonal angle
---------

Todd's place - Front door grid

Spray bottle

Skylights in apartments

"Easter egg palette" - Yellow, blue, and reddish pastels

Mid-century modern styling

Bowl of lemons

Grid carpet in living room

Picnic table seats in kitchen

Big screen TV, w. speakers

Diamond carpet in bedroom

Chrome finish on fridge

Campbell's soup - bean and bacon

grid placemats - pastel blue

World Book Encyclopedias hollowed out

Terrarium with spider

Scorpion tail chair

Snow globes

Hand grenade salt & pepper shakers

Block altar-like - staggered shape - not offset bricks; like pilaster and lintel

Teddy-bear honey container

Jesse's parents on TV

Yellow cab - gas tanker

Marquette time lapse

Gris - pegboard in cabinets

Vamonos Pest shirt and silhouette cutout

Bell-shaped heat lamp for terrarium

Horizontal orientation of windows near ceiling

Plate glass windows

Stairway railings with vertical bars

Grid of money bales in refrigerator door

Sculpture of woman

Shantzer's Brita & Big Fork & Spoon

Spherical outdoor lamps

Louis Shantzer - Unit 11

Casey's Bell-shaped flashlight lamp

Ring-shaped drafting table lamp

octagonal stop sign outside

-----------
Bright-yellow truck cab

------------

Staggered wall near vacuum shop

Vertical bars of fence

Gentle arch of door canopies

Vertical glass block windows

Rotating ceiling fan

"96% sure"

Genesis car sales sign

Horizontal siding - stripes on wall

(Not having enough money)

------------

Pinkman home - Soapy water - callback to Season 4

hemispherical desk lamp

lawn furniture

bricks in back yard

View of tin ceiling as Jesse secures guns and as he turns off water

Front door grid

Regular desk lamp; hanging ceiling lamp

Wooden square on floor

Hemispherical desk lamp

---------------------

Turn left on Lomas

Kandy Welding- 1959 Odelia Rd. NE

Grids on windows and door & elsewhere

Triangular rack for steel beams

I-beam pillars

Blue ribbon beer

-------------------
Quonset Hut

Grid of barrels

Inside grid of Quonset hut's ceiling

-------------------


Bath

Room 244 - Walter White

----------------------------

Owl Cafe - roads beyond

View of bins in restaurant behind shelf

BrBa tile

-------------------

Aerial winding road

U.S. - Canada border (Alaska)

40 miles to Haines

6/10/84

------------------

Road w. Jane

---------------

Alaska Road