This is a test, this is only a test

"Pasatiempo" is one of the overabundance of local arts publications that we sometimes find overwhelming. 

This issue includes articles on Ol'Max Evans, a local character (oh, is he a writer, too?) we've come to know at least to a modest degree, whose company we enjoy, and whose writing we've long admired. The article features Ol' Max's story called "One Eyed Sky" -- which to my way of looking at it is as perfect a long-short story as anyone has ever written. Ol' Max probably agrees, though he would say it's only the most perfect he's ever written. All right.

Then featured on the cover and included in an article inside is the work of Harry Fonseca, an artist from California who we knew and who was one of the inspirations of our eventual move to New Mexico -- though not to Santa Fe. Oh please.

We love going to Santa Fe and attending whatever or doing whatever we need to do there, but to live there? No. It's a pleasant enough place as long as you don't have to get too far into its subcultures and the various competing interests shall we say. I think our first introduction to Santa Fe was among those interests and we thought then, as we think now, it is best for them to go their own way.

I've embedded this issue of "Pasatiempo" from last August as a test to see whether it will work or not and to have easy access to it later. If a reader enjoys it, too, great!

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Note: Forgot to mention Nagel Jackson, who is mentioned in an article regarding the resurrection of "Shakespeare Santa Fe." We worked with Nagel on a number of plays including Shakespeare productions back in the day, 40-some-odd years ago now. So. Things keep circling around, don't they?

Santa Fe Diversion; Then Anti-Obama Fever Rises

Photo of a "typical Santa Fe sunset" (yeah, sure) taken in August, 2006. In fact, this sort of sunset view is far more common in New Mexico than you might think. It's not every day, but it is fairly frequent. Some folks go out on the hillsides to watch, and they applaud the show. The only other place I encountered that phenomenon was in Florida.


Went up to Santa Fe yesterday, up to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Museum Hill. It was only the second time I'd been to this museum, and it was as captivating as before. The only problem with the museums in Santa Fe, or in New Mexico in general (in my experience) is their overabundance of material to display. As it was, I was hours in the museum yesterday, going through some of the same exhibits I'd seen before, and I could have spent hours more. On that note, I've been to the New Mexico History Museum over behind the Palace of the Governors one time, spent hours there, only got through Sala Uno, the first of a plethora of "rooms" of New Mexican history. And I didn't complete all the exhibits in that one "room." Frustrating. Even spending the whole day wouldn't be enough time to see, let alone appreciate it all.

The core exhibit at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is called "Here, Now & Always" and it deals with the continuity of Native American presence, culture, and arts in the Southwest and its transformations over time. Sounds dry as dust and boring, but it's not. Every other exhibit in the museum complements this core, and the visitor comes away almost overwhelmed with the living story of the Indian Peoples of the Southwest whether they thought they knew it already or not.

If they're like me, they'll go back for more.

The Harry Fonseca exhibit is poignant for me. I knew Harry in California, and it was his decision to move to New Mexico that helped me to seriously consider doing so myself. The works on exhibit are actually few, but they are extraordinarily moving to me for what they represent of Harry's extensive output (what a thing to call an artist's body of work!) and for the deeper meaning he was constantly aiming for -- and which he felt he often missed. The people who selected these works for exhibition chose what would best summarize Harry's artistic sense and sensibility, who he was as a human being, and how he approached his muse and his struggle. He was a remarkable man with an often hilarious vision and a brilliant talent. He is missed.


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Meanwhile, anti-Obama fever is rising.

More drama.