Monday, January 29, 2018

Danger Lurks!

Somewhere, no doubt. But the Border Patrol guy said he hadn't seen any drug runners for decades. And, he added, the illegals don't wanna be seen so they keep to themselves; at least on the low road along the border of Mexico.

There was more traffic than I expected, but the weather was perfect. At about the 40-mile-point, SW of Sierra Vista, you get to decide whether to go north to Patagonia or continue west to Nogales.


Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Mongol Rally 2018

http://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-rally/


A few days ago an email appeared...


On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 5:55 PM, Joseph Ambrosich wrote:
Hi,
My girlfriend and I have recently decided to do the Mongol rally. If you are unfamiliar it is a car rally from Prague to Mongolia. It must be completed in a car with less than 1000cc. For Americans this means the geo metro is a prime choice. I saw that you lived in yours and the rally is self supported. Any tips or setup advice to sleep in the car would be awesome. 

-Joe


I replied and today, Tuesday, January 23, Joe sent the URL for their website.

https://www.thetouringtest.com/




Link to "The Team," Joe and Emily





Good Luck!!!





VIDEOS




2014 Team Rust & Dust






FROM THE MONGOL RALLY WEBSITE...

Warning

You may have guessed, but these are genuinely dangerous things to do.
The website is written in a light-hearted fashion but you cannot overestimate the risks involved in taking part in these adventures.
Your chances of being seriously injured or dying as a result of taking part are high. Individuals who have taken part in the past have been permanently disfigured, seriously disabled or lost their life.
These are not holidays. These are adventures and so by their very nature extremely risky.
You really are putting both your health and life at risk.
That's the whole point.





Monday, January 22, 2018

Homeland Security

In Socorro, buying beer, the cashier asked to see some identification. Even after my hairy eyeball she, with the sweetness only a woman can conjure, informed my driver's license'ld expire in three days.

Thinking to avoid the long drive back, I took a number in Truth or Consequences. There, perhaps a projection, perhaps not, I worked to detect a hint of solace nestled in her comment: "We're Homeland Security Compliant." "Congratulations!" I rejoined. She followed it with a Teutonic-inflected, "Und your dokumentayshun ist INadeqvit!"




UPDATE 1/23/18 5:46 pm

I returned to ABQ, files, adequate documentation, and took a number at the nearest Albuquerque Motor Vehicle Division facility. 

The "helpful lady" circulating through the crowd said it was all about quelling terrorism. And her son is a Green Beret and he knows ALL about terrorists!!

Eventually, as with constipation, it came out in the end.

Friday, January 19, 2018

Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein the Vegan




It's a milestone I'm not overly pleased with...the acquisition of a smartphone. 
During a tutorial, I learned my mentor is a fan of Von Frankenstein.







By way of counterpoint, here's Clare Chase





Tuesday, January 16, 2018

The Squidges Get Married

In our minds we've been married 26 years. But Social Security sez yuh gotten been LEGALLY bound 9 months to inherit your spouse's allotment. Mine's five times more than hers so it only made sense.

When I phoned from somewhar in Arizony tuh see if she'd do it, she flat-out declined. I had to argue my case. Eventually, she saw the rationale and tonight, Dan & Dave, our neighbors, came over to officiate and witness. Dave, on my right, is an ordained Catholic priest and Dan, in red sweater, his husband of 25 years, came as a witness. Margie, a friend of ours, agreed to be the other witness.

Michelle painted the tie in 1997 for a Valentine show at the gallery.




As part of the rite, we each had a doughnut. 





Saturday, January 13, 2018

ABQ Comic Con


A decade ago the meeting rooms were filled with graphic novelists, many of which were self-published. There was a feeling of iconoclastic literary enthusiasm. Now, the halls are full with merchandise aimed at the latest incarnation of The Society for Creative Anacronism (SCA), a mix of comic-book super heroes and science fiction characters. The women are lovely in their short skirts and translucent tights, while the men look ridiculous in their greatcoats. The two below were among the upper tier of elegance -- all the more evidenced in their gracious willingness to be photographed.






Through tomorrow evening, Sunday, January 14.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Rubber Tramp Rendevous (RTR) 2018

Introverts of the World Unite

or

Cats of the World Form a Union

"It sounds awful but it works."  at 12:46 in video.



January 11 - 21, 2018  (link to blog)

Some great workshops and some great people.


Thursday, January 11, 2018

Anality in the Bathroom

TODAAAAAAYYY....the guy came to assess the bathroom floor. They'd laid the tile several months ago and cracks had appeared inbetween. No one was sure why. After some chin-scratching, it was decided it'd be best to redo it.

While he was recovering from manually removing the tiles and  mastic, I invited him to look at some of Michelle's prints.


Ms. Cook was so A-R about her work she would sometimes do over a hundred prints to get 25 or thirty into an edition. Each color was laid down with its own stencil in a separate pass. Most artists' limit their serigraphs to ten or twelve colors. Andy Warhol typically used six to eight. Michelle commonly used over 40.







One of the standards of serigraphy is "No white from the underlying paper can show between colors." Each color has to lie right NEXT to the other. If they overlap, the colors get "muddy;" if there's a gap, it's not quality work.


For many years her work was held up to other students in the University of New Mexico Print-making Department as an example of what's possible.

The floor came out perfectly.





For the moment, she's satisfied.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Angela Meade at St Francis Auditorium

And we're going. Sunday, January 14, 4:00 pm


Angela Meade—“the most talked about soprano of her generation” (Opera News)—has been making waves in the opera world since her professional debut at the Met just under a decade ago. With a voice of “exceptional dynamic control” (The New Yorker) and “raw vocal intensity” (New York Times), Meade has won over 50 vocal competitions, graced the cover of Opera News, and been invited again and again to sing for the most distinguished opera houses in the world—most recently returning to the Met to star in a production of Bellini’s Norma, to much acclaim. 

After a brilliant recital during Performance Santa Fe’s 2016-17 Festival of Song (where Opera Today stated that “with Meade we begin to know the sound of golden age singing”), the “gleaming soprano” (Washington Post) returns to Santa Fe this January to sing works by Meyerbeer, Bellini, Rossini, Beethoven, and Mahler




As a part of Performance Santa Fe’s education program offerings this season, Ms. Meade will teach a master class for voice majors from the University of New Mexico on Friday, January 12 at the St. Francis Auditorium.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Presents Wrappin' Music - Solstice 2017

Gettin' thoz presents wrapped. Better eventually than never, I alus say.

Some tunes tuh wrap by...                                                 (I'll make a playlist in the near future)
(scroll over title or artist for link to tune)


I'm a King Bee - Pink Floyd

Cyndi Lauper, True Colors

Patti Smith - Gloria (Germany)

David Bowie - Heroes  ("....been watchin' too much TV.")

Lauper - Time After Time

Rascals - Good Lovin

Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin'

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun  (watch for the Matisse at 3:13)

Prince - Purple Rain

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares to U

Deep Purple - Smoke On the Water
  Double El hums this whenever I'm cooking. When she sings the lyrics are: Hiiiiiiiiigh burner cooooookkking....a fyyre in the kiiitchen.

Peter, Paul & Mary - The First Time (Ever I saw Your Face)

Hesitation Blues - Hot Tuna

Ry Cooder - Maria Elena

Mississippi John Hurt - You Are My Sunshine

Mississippi John Hurt - Coffee Blues

Taj Mahal - Cakewalk into Town

Taj - Fishing Blues - 1993


Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo' - Divin' Duck Blues

Keb' Mo' & James Taylor - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Keb' Mo' & Buddy Guy - Born To Play the Guitar

Joan Baez - Bachianas Brasileiras No 5

Victora de Los Angeles - Bachianas Brasileiras No 5

Kaori Fujii and Eric Cecil - Bachianas Brasileiras No 5 (flute & guitar)

Renee Fleming - Casta Diva (In the Palaces of the Czars in St. Petersburg)

Rachel Gilmore - Met Debut (December 23, 2009) - Les oiseaux dans la charmille" from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann 


Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Prelude to Act I; Sir Georg Solti conducting the Vienna Philharomonic Orchestra


Lou Reed - Sweet Jane (Directed & set design by Julian Schnabel)


Dirty Blvd - Lu Reed & David Bowie




Dirty Blvd
Pedro lives out of the Wilshire Hotel
he looks out a window without glass
The walls are made of cardboard, newspapers on his feet
his father beats him 'cause he's too tired to beg
He's got 9 brothers and sisters
they're brought up on their knees
it's hard to run when a coat hanger beats you on the thighs
Pedro dreams of being older and killing the old man
but that's a slim chance he's going to the boulevard
He's going to end up, on the dirty boulevard
he's going out, to the dirty boulevard
He's going down, to the dirty boulevard
This room cost 2, 000 dollars a month
you can believe it man it's true
somewhere a landlord's laughing till he wets his pants
No one here dreams of being a doctor or a lawyer or anything
they dream of dealing on the dirty boulevard
Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I'll piss on 'em
that's what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death
and get it over with and just dump 'em on the boulevard
Get to end up, on the dirty boulevard
going out, to the dirty boulevard
He's going down, on the dirty boulevard
going out
Outside it's a bright night
there's an opera at Lincoln Center
movie stars arrive by limousine
The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of Manhattan
but the lights are out on the Mean Streets
A small kid stands by the Lincoln Tunnel
he's selling plastic roses for a buck
The traffic's backed up to 39th street
the TV whores are calling the cops out for a suck
And back at the Wilshire, Pedro sits there dreaming
he's found a book on magic in a garbage can
He looks at the pictures and stares at the cracked ceiling
"At the count of 3" he says, "I hope I can disappear"
And fly fly away, from this dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly-fly-fly-fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly away
I want to fly
Fly, fly away
I want to fly
Fly-fly away (Fly a-)
fly-fly-fly (-way, ooohhh...)
Fly-fly away (I want to fly-fly away)
fly away (I want to fly, wow-woh, no, fly away)
Songwriters: Lewis Allen Reed / Lou Reed











Saturday, January 6, 2018

That Trump!

On October 23, 2014, I remarked how a neighbor's disparaging remarks about President Obama, gleaned from dock-workers and Tv, were prefaced with, "That Obama!"

Not wanting to endure the conversation, I didn't ask how he felt about the price of gas having come down from near $4.00 a gallon to $2.65. The President was then in his 2nd term.

A mere year into President Trump's admin and look!

THAT TRUMP!




What Regional Haze?

The sign at Grand Canyon (outside the museum) pins the blame
[for the fact you can't see across] on, among other things, Chinese smog.
There's no mention of the Four-corners power plants;
irrigation and
the greenhouse effect.
(The term "Greenhouse Effect" was first used 
by Nils Gustaf Ekholm in 1901. Wikipedia)

In Phoenix the fog is so thick in the mornings
you could mistake it
for London.


And the skiiiiiesss are
now cloudy
all daaaaaaaaay.



Thursday, January 4, 2018

Javelinas



The soap had disappeared. The remains of its plastic tub lies inverted and broken. The sponge goes quietly.