By Eduardo
Most people don’t realize this, but there’s a huge amount of really cool music out there known as production library stuff. In much the same way that companies and designers use stock photography, there are entire libraries of commercial music libraries out there that directors and producers have used for movies, film, TV commercials, and so on. There are even labels like KPM, De Wolfe, Chappell, and others that were created specifically for this type of music.
Stock photography is usually really, really bad. Stock music on the other hand, particularly funk-jazz-oriented stuff from the 60′s and 70′s, is not.
Jean Claud Pierric was one of the hippest cats around during those days, and put together a ton of funky “stock jazz” and other music for use in television commercials and the like. He’s still around today, and active amongst the reasonably large group of fans he has online. He even shares his old records as MP3′s via his blog, which is in French.
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Listen to JC Pierric – Athena
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I’ve posted the album this song is from here, and recommend checking it out. It’s a good example of the quality of stuff he put out back then – and while definitely quirky and cheesy in parts, you may find it cool.
Check it out and post your comments here.
By Eduardo
View Larger Map
Yep, it’s the Brady home as it looks today on Google Street View.
More info here, here, and here.
By Paco
If you happen to be cruising around Redding with a bag of Hersey’s Kisses, PLEASE beware of this gold Ford minivan.
By Miguelito
(Note: Like so many of my homework assignments, I’m not fully following the directions on this.)
Hell is for Heroes Title
How many of you guys have heard of a little film called Hell is for Heroes?
You should check it out. Why? Well, it’s a good little WWII movie set on the Siegfried Line in France. It was directed by Don Siegel, who directed the 1950s classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers as well as two episodes of The Twilight Zone. Siegel would go on to direct Dirty Harry, The Shootist, and Escape from Alcatraz.
You might have heard of the cast, too:
Steve McQueen
Bobby Darin
Fess Parker
James Coburn
and, last-but-not-least:
Bob Newhart
Yep, button-down Bob himself. In case you were wondering, he plays a nebbish Army clerk who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s even a sequence where he gets to do his famous telephone schtick. Speaking of Bobs, Bobby Darin does a bang-up job as wise-crackin’ scrounger from the Big City and more than holds his own, even against Steve McQueen
So, great director, great cast. What does this have to do with the assignment? Well, as you may have already guessed from the title of this post, it was filmed in Cottonwood, California.
Steve McQueen wonders why he took this role.
Apparently, France is a land of red dirt, scrub oaks, and manzanita. Who knew?
The film itself is pretty taut little film and it still very watchable today, once you get past the fact that these famous actors are playing soldier not far from where we did a quarter-century ago.
The famed red clay dirt of France
Some interesting tidbits: Much of the film takes place at night, because daytime temperatures were regularly hitting 110+. Obviously, they were filming during the summer. During the filming, Bobby Darin and the other stars were seen around Redding. They frequented the Squire Room and the Casablanca Lounge and stayed at apartments on Trinity Street which are still standing. Unfortunately, I don’t know which ones.
A look at the valley where most of the film is set.
The best I can determine from watching the movie is that it was filmed west of I-5, possibly near the truck scales. The U.S. soldiers are on a ridge top, facing west. (There’s a scene where you can see the hills north of Redding on their right.)
The final push on the German pillbox.
The producers took advantage of Shasta County’s long history of environmental ambivelance and really blew the place to hell. Trees were exploding everywhere, and there were tons of squibs and larger explosions. It looked damn good, even thrown against modern WWII flicks like Saving Private Ryan. The scenes of the larger guns firing (anything larger than a mortar) were stock footage, but that’s to be expected.
Tank traps or new art installation?
Anyway, I apologize for not having modern pics of the area, but if I can ever nail down its location, I promise I will make the trek to the wilds of Cottonwood and shoot it. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye open for the Wehrmacht.
By Eduardo
I need the Amigos to help me out with a few things I’ve been trying to figure out for a while:
- Why are there so many bead stores out there?
- How does a bead store stay in business if they’re selling… just… beads? It seems that this would be nearly impossible. Is something else going on at these places?
- WHO BUYS BEADS?!?
Seriously, I’m wondering if I’m missing something here. Are bead stores where people go to secretly buy drugs or something? I’m starting to get the feeling that this is the case, and that I’m just naive for not already knowing that. It could be that my first question above only applies to the area where I currently live, which makes me even more convinced that bead stores are somehow drug-related. I remember there being many stories about The Beadman in Redding, where local high school kids went to buy illicit substances and drug paraphernalia in their “back room” – so this theory doesn’t seem all that far-fetched. I know there are obviously people that make jewelry, and they need to buy beads occasionally. I just don’t see that tiny fraction of the population keeping all these bead stores afloat financially, all by themselves.
This evening as Mrs. Eduardo and I were out on Highway 116, we saw a bunch of roadside signs advertising BEADS!!! at some place up ahead. I’ve noticed that there is often a sense of urgency in bead advertising. There are almost always exclamation points in anything advertising beads, so this is also somewhat interesting. Maybe bead merchants are totally legit, and just really desperate… Even the Beadman’s gotta eat.
Come on, Amigos – help me out here. let me know what you think.
By admin
And now, a special public service announcement from Mis Amigos Locos:
Please note that some content on this site is now considered ‘private’… That is, certain posts are only visible to the official Amigos (when logged in). As we start getting more traffic on the site, it’s become obvious that certain posts and categories need to be censored from public viewing. If you have any questions on this, just ask Eduardo or Jaime. If you are a contributor to this site, make sure you log in before doing anything here – even reading old posts – because certain things won’t even show up if you don’t. A lot of older entries will be invisible if you aren’t logged in.
To the rest of you, this is why it may occasionally appear that certain posts are missing here. We’ve got them in the system, it’s just that they’re not 100% suitable for public consumption for various reasons. We hope you understand. Pretty much all content from here on out will be public, so this mainly applies to older posts.
Thanks!
