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Falling

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Autumn arrived in northern New Mexico at the weekend. We were heading up the road to Taos – the smaller and more hippy-influenced version of Santa Fe (Albuquerquans make fun of us for being too out there; we make fun of the Taosenos).

Taking the High Road up towards Chimayo we passed a lone pilgrim, walking on an empty but beautiful stretch of road carrying a bottle of water with an Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back of his jacket .

chimayo.jpg

Pilgrims from all over New Mexico walk to the church at Chimayo (especially at Easter time), and arriving at the small chapel, there were crosses made of twigs woven into the chain-link fence by the arriving walkers.

The shaded chapel is small and very peaceful, with a little stream running past in front. Maybe we’ll do the pilgrim’s walk one year – at least from Espanola (only a dozen or so miles down the road).

crosses

Continuing on through handsome high country – complete with real grass (great for an expat Englishman to see), we eventually meandered our way into Taos and stayed at the Taos Inn – centre of literary and musical life in the town for around a century. Even D H Lawrence used to hang out there while he was living up the road being grumpy.

On Saturday evening it started to rain hard, and everyone started smiling – now the monsoons have passed, any rain is welcome round here. And it stayed rainy and overcast until Monday afternoon.

Then the sun reappeared, but there’s been a snap to the temperatures, and we’ve closed the windows at night for the first time since we’ve been back.

Stepping out the door this morning – a customarily bright and sunny one – I neary gasped as the cold hit me. Apparently this is how autumn is the whole time – like those classic Dublin days where the sky is blue and clear, but the cold makes you wrap up warm. Lovely.

(During our Taos visit we went up to Taos Pueblo – the 1000-year old town that’s still lived in by the descendants of the original Indian builders – more on that later.)

Posted by David in • Life

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Articles Santa Fe Reporter Television USA

Fall TV preview – ‘Attack of the Clones’

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

This season, cloning comes to television. The networks’ nerve has failed and instead of blazing new trails they give us copies of existing programs that weren’t great in the first place, or try two versions of the same suspect reality TV idea.

Several of the retreads build on the success of the tightly plotted but heartless ‘CSI’ franchise. CBS launches a new spin-off, ‘CSI New York’ (Wednesdays), with Gary Sinise lending some gravitas to the show. Proving that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, NBC also tries to cash in on our ghoulish tendencies with ‘Medical Investigation’ (Fridays).

These shows are competent but leave little room for character development, nuance or quirkiness, which is why they’re so easy to clone (the ‘Law and Order’ family follow a similar approach). The characters and settings are completely interchangeable: you just need one slightly aloof leader with a black sense of humour, one loyal female lieutenant, a couple of younger earnest helpers, two unrelated investigations each episode, one poorly-lit laboratory (where the requisite ‘science bit’ happens) and you’re done – in New York, Vegas or Miami. (article continues)

(first published in the Santa Fe Reporter, Sept 15th, 2004 – for the full text of the article, please contact me)

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Burn him, Burn him!

Friday, September 10, 2004

Zozobra.jpgSanta Fe is entering the time of the fiestas – the tourists have all but left, the monsoons are over, and it’s getting a little more chilly overnight, but still lovely and warm during the day.

The fiestas celebrate the 1692 recapturing of Santa Fe from the indians (local native Americans describe themselves as indians, so I’m going with that), who had driven the Spaniards out of the town 12 years before.

Before the battle, the leader of the Spanish, Don Diego de Vargas (full title: Don Diego de Vargas Zapata y Lujan Ponce de Leon y Contreras), prayed to an effigy of the Virgin Mary (’La Conquistadora’) that had been rescued from the burning church when the indians took the town.

He vowed that if there was a bloodless battle (well, bloodless on the Spanish side, anyway), there would always be a celebration to remember the event. And since 1712 there always has been.

A lot of the partying is in true Spanish style – Catholic relics are paraded through the streets, there’s a children and pets parade too (which is too cute to describe). But 80 years ago an artist named Will Shuster added a twist to his own celebration, creating a tall white figure with big ears and bowtie, and setting fire to him.

This was the start of Zozobra – the burning of old man gloom, and this year’s version took place last night. More than 30,0000 people head into town to see bands playing as a prelude to the incendiary finale. As it gets dark, the 50’ tall effigy (stuffed with glooms written on bits of paper that people have submitted) starts to move and grown.

A weirdly pagan ritual ensues, involving fire dancers, little kids dressed as ghostly glooms and other weird stuff. Meanwhile the crowd on the field, and on the surrounding hills (as we were) start bellowing: ‘Burn him, burn him!’, ‘It doesn’t matter what he says, he’s going to burn!’. This from pensioners, little kids, and groups of architects, real esate agents, soil testing engineers and ex-pat writers.

Eventually with fireworks and much fanfare, Old Man Gloom goes up in flames to great delight. Just an average thursday night in the city of the holy faith.

Posted by David in • Life

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iPod with a mind of its own?

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

I finally got my iPod fixed, and since we’re waiting for the shipment from Ireland to arrive (could be tomorrow), it’s been my main source of music (I’d fortunately backed up quite a few albums on my machine and Buendia’s).

We had friends visiting over the weekend, so during dinner and barbecues, I’d set it up to play randomly and output through the stereo. Sounds like a nice idea, but all too often the mood was destroyed by the appearance of a Nik Kershaw song (or other 80s classic) I’d archived on the iPod when I got rid of the tapes.

It seems I’m not alone in thinking that the iPod’s shuffle command is actually less than random.

An article in yesterday’s New York Times (free reg. required) talks to folks with all sort of theories about the cunning selection process the ‘pod goes through when choosing the next track.

From a cyclist who reckons his machine ‘knows somehow when I am reaching the end of my reserves, when my motivation is flagging,’ and drops in a killer tune, to the woman who reckons ‘her device had a penchant for picking songs containing four minutes of dead air followed by a bonus track’ just to annoy her.

Mad altogether, but I guess you’re bound to start anthropomorphising the little gadgets you spend your time with.

Posted by David in • Life

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Erin packet soup

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

So there will always be foodstuffs the expat misses from home, but then again, there’ll be some he doesn’t miss.

We’ve tracked down Kerrygold butter, Jacobs Cream Crackers, Wensleydale cheese, brought our Barry’s tea with us, and also secured supplies of Marmite, liqourice allsorts and other goodies.

Today in Cost Plus World Market, we came upon the motherlode: HP sauce, Heinz Baked Beans (no they’re not the same here), Cadbury’s and Nestle chocolate and McVities biscuits.

This was all great to see – they even had lifeboat tea – but imagine my surprise when down at the bottom of one of the shelves I saw three or four rows of Erin packet soup. Americans think all Irish people eat is porridge (though they call it oatmeal) and bacon and cabbage. And now they all think we eat Erin packet soup.

Nonetheless, it’s good to know there’s a place in town where I can get Dairy Milk chocolate, Hob-Nobs and cream crackers. I’m still looking for the panini from Bar Italia, though.

Posted by David in • Life

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Blog Mississippi book

500 words before breakfast

Thursday, August 26, 2004

So you might be wondering what I’m doing, when I’m not riding bikes or camping or such like.

Two things mainly: writing the new book, and working/trying to get paid work.

On the book writing front, I’m part of the way through the first draft of the Mississippi book, tentatively titled ‘Only Bike’. I try to write 1000 words a day. Sometimes that takes 90 minutes, sometimes it takes 4 or 5 hours, and sometimes it doesn’t happen at all.

I’m not much of a believer in waiting for inspiration to strike. As the old saying goes, inspiration seems to find me more easily when I’m sitting at my desk in front of my computer. I’m aware that some days it will be a struggle, and other times a joy, but I prefer to keep plugging away.

This morning, for example I tried to surprise myself by not letting myself go for breakfast until I’d written 500 words. I couldn’t do that every day, but it worked on this occasion.

On the work front, I’ve been sending out CVs and job applications (without much joy), and pitching for freelance work (a bit more progress but nothing I want to share yet).

Fortunately, I’m also doing some work for some old happy clients – the web consultancy in Dublin I’ve done lots of work for, and my sister, whose site I built a few years ago, and who’s now looking for a revamp.

Throw in some research for the Mississippi book and the usual errands (and Olympic coverage), that’s pretty much me.

Posted by David in • Mississippi book

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After an absence

Friday, August 20, 2004

Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. Here’s a breakdown of what’s been occurring:

Camping: last weekend a bunch of us went up to the nearby campgrounds in the hills and ate until we couldn’t eat any more. Car camping has its advantages – including the ridiculous amount of good food you can bring with you – and we sat around the fire, told ghost stories, cooked, then cooked some more and went to sleep under the stars. Very good.

Olympics watching: my once-every-four-year foray into unlikely sports. Watching Paul Hamm and Svetlana Khorkina in the gymnastics was like meeting old friends again. And there’s always time for a bit of archery or kayaking. And the track and field stuff hasn’t even started yet. US coverage is a bit patchy – tons of softball, but no field hockey and precious little cycling – but I’m doing OK with it.

Weather update – the monsoon storms are getting more sporadic now (although we had a good dump last night), and there’s more of a nip in the air. Soon we’ll be heading into autumn.

Green fingers – there’s been a new addition to our family: a russian sage plant (called Nikolai), who’s taken up residence outside Marci’s study.

Book news – the smaller paperback edition of The Accidental Pilgrim should be out soon in Ireland and online, which is good because there are no more trade paperback sized copies to be had. That’s right, they ran out, which means a little under 3000 copies sold. Yay!

Posted by David in • Life

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New Mexico fact for the week

Monday, August 09, 2004

On Friday it was pointed out to me that New Mexico licence plates not only have the state written on them, they also have “USA” beside it (there’s also space at the top for the county name, and the motto at the bottom: ‘Land of Enchantment’).

Exhibit A:

NM Plate

Licence plates from other states don’t include the country description.

Exhibit B:

MS Plate

The reason for this (and I’m not making this up) is that many of our fellow Americans outside the Southwest don’t know that New Mexico actually is a state in the union, and tend to lump us in with the real Mexicans over the border.

So, just to clarify, the New Mexico licence plate has USA on it so that other Americans don’t think we’re from another country.

Posted by David in • Life

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Saturday’s rainbow

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Monday, August 09, 2004

The view from the house on Saturday evening, with storms and a rainbow over the city.

santa fe rainbow

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Return of the Finn Brothers

Monday, August 09, 2004

From the earliest days of Crowded House (and then some archaeology to unearth the Split Enz stuff I was too young to have listened to at the time), I’ve been impressed and moved by Neil Finn’s music.

He’s just about to release a new album with his brother Tim (no mean musician and songwriter himself), and you can listen to the new single here.

It’s tender and uplifting, and getting news of it in my mailbox has made Monday morning a lot better than it might have been.

Posted by David in • Life

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