Friday, May 31, 2019

Presenting My Atlas of Albuquerque Filming Locations



Many movies have been based in the City of Albuquerque, particularly in the past quarter century. Each film team has had a different vision of the Duke City: a hotbed of romance, a comedic home, a land of forgetfulness and regret, a drugged-out metropolis caught in cross-border realpolitik, a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Yet, it’s hard to recall all these visions while driving around the city.

Today, I unveil my latest project - an illustrated, online Atlas of Albuquerque Filming Locations, specifically for movies of an hour’s length, or more. I count about 385 such movies filmed in or around Albuquerque, through 2018.

Stage 1 of this project has been to tackle the easiest-to-identify filming locations gathered from DVDs of those movies that I was able to find at my local Sacramento Dimple Records store. I watched 89 such movies, exhausted the local supply, and gathered a total of 547 filming locations.

It’s interesting to observe where film crews have concentrated their efforts – Central Avenue is a big favorite – as well as those places filmmakers tend to avoid.

Stage 1 just scratches the surface of the cinematic richness out there. Stage 2 will consist of ordering more films to view, as well as digging deeper into the films that I already have.

The Atlas Introductory Page is here. Take a look. I hope this resource will prove helpful to fans of Albuquerque-based movies.

Saweetie x London On Da Track - Up Now (Feat G-Eazy and Rich The Kid)

We dance to this song quite a bit in Pepper's Fierce Funk class, but because it mentions Sacramento near the start, at first I wondered whether it had been commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce, or something.

I don't think it was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

I Love The Facebook Group "Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Signage"

The Sixties Live On

Stuff lasts forever:
Curtis recently undertook the project of restoring a vintage Buchla Model 100 modular synthesizer. According to San Francisco KPIX 5, the instrument had been sitting in a cold, dark room at Cal State University East Bay since the 1960s, so he lugged it home and began repairing it.

After opening a red-paneled module on the synth, he noticed there was “a crust or a crystalline residue on it.” Naturally, he did what any person tasked with fixing up an old instrument would do: spray some cleaner on it, pick at the residue with his finger, and try to dislodge it by scratching it off. But 45 minutes later, he started to feel some tingling. It was the start of a nine-hour acid trip.

...What was LSD doing on the instrument in the first place? Nobody knows, but there’s plenty of theories. Look no further than Don Buchla, the instrument’s inventor. Not only was Buchla part of the ’60s counterculture at large, but his synths ended up on an old school bus purchased by LSD advocate Ken Kesey and his followers in 1966. During Kesey’s acid tests at Winterland on Halloween, electronic sounds interrupted an interview with Kesey. Additionally, Buchla was a friend of Owsley Stanley, the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer and an infamous manufacturer of an extremely pure strain of LSD.

Always Seeking Wisdom

Flaming Chariot

On Saturday, I turned on the air conditioner in my pickup truck, and ended up with a fire in the ventilation ducts. Last November, I turned on the heater and also ended up with a fire. Not all is well in those ventilation ducts. Hence, I nickname my pickup truck the “Flaming Chariot.”

Monday, May 27, 2019

Roseville Jazzfest Jam Session

Animals Await Their Moment, In a Yard Next to the Freeway in Williams, CA

DMTC YPT "The Little Mermaid" - May 24, 2019

Day Trip To Clear Lake

I've been living in Sacramento for 29 years, yet have never been to Clear Lake. Time to change that situation:

From Wikipedia:
Clear Lake is much older and is possibly the oldest securely dated lake in North America. Core samples taken by U.S. Geological Survey geologists in 1973 and 1980 have been dated to 480,000 years.

Mount Konocti.

Samples From Chloe Grace Moretz Movies

As part of my New Mexico film project, I watched "The Eye," a 2008 movie filmed primarily in Isleta, New Mexico, and "Not Forgotten," a 2009 movie filmed primarily in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and was surprised to learn Chloe Grace Moretz was doing her creepy best in both movies. I learned that she was apparently the go-to juvenile Scream Queen of the Aughts, similar to how Linda Blair and Sissy Spacek were the go-to juvenile Scream Queens of the Seventies. Chloe Grace Moretz certainly creeps me out in this video, in the scene from "Not Forgotten," where she has the cross painted on her face.

Of course, I really loved Chloe Grace Moretz in the 2014 film, "Clouds of Sils Maria"!

Sacramento Beats May Rainfall Records!

The rains on Sunday were just enough to push the entire Sacramento area over May rainfall records.

Downtown Sacramento already has broken record rainfall numbers in May, with more than 3.42 inches of rain this month, according to National Weather Service forecaster Karl Swanberg. The previous record of 3.25 inches was set in 1889.

And for Sacramento Executive Airport, the current 3.17 inches of rain barely beats the 1948 record of 3.13 inches of rain.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

Resembles "Atomic Blonde," but written for stupid people.

What a fucking waste of time.

The Former Sierra Research

Spent twenty-two years in that building at 18th and J!

Geese And Goslings

BAM! Buy A Mattress!

Coffee Truck

Jasper Turns Away From A Visitor In The Neighborhood