Impossible Christmas Dreams

By S. Derrickson Moore
I noticed while scanning Facebook postings this week that my niece, Brandy, wants a hovercraft for Christmas.
Her mom, my sister Sally, gave Brandy a copy of the Hammacher-Schlemmer holiday catalog, and I have to admit the catalog description’s pretty alluring: “This is the hovercraft that glides over land and water, yet also soars in the air up to 70 mph with the aid of integrated wings.”
It can be yours for a mere $190,000. That might sound like a lot, but then this is not just ANY hovercraft. This one has “a 130-hp twin-cylinder, liquid-cooled gasoline engine, turbocharged and fuel-injected, that drives its 60-inch wood/carbon composite thrust propeller while a 1,100-rpm 34-inch lift fan inflates its durable vinyl-coated nylon skirt for hovering above the ground. Operating in fresh- or saltwater and up to 30 percent inclines over sand, mud, grass, swamp, desert, ice and snow, its wings and horizontal elevator enable pilots to simply hop over water- or land-based obstacles up to 20 feet high.”
Hmm. I think I’ll hold out for a solar-powered version.
It’s not the only unique and excessive holiday giving opportunity that crossed my desk this morning.
Have a film buff on your list? How about the infamous horse head from “The Godfather” or the wheels from the iconic flying bicycle in “E.T.?” Full disclosure: the auction house wants you to “please note that the actual scene in the film used a real horse’s head,” but that this is the official, genuine “rehearsal prop that Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) uses to force studio head Jack Woltz (John Marley) to put his friend, singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) in his next major movie.” So, you can be assured that it’s probably been ogled, or even touched, by some pretty famous dudes.
The bike wheels are the real deal from “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” according to the Premier Props media release. It’s described as “miniature bike wheels, from the most iconic image in sci-fi history, the flying of the boys on their BMX Dirt Bikes across the moon over the forest at the end of the film.”
How much? Who knows? But you still have time to place your bid at the Premiere Props Hollywood Auction Extravaganza XII Nov. 23 and 24 in California. There will be more than 1,000 movie props and costumes on the block, from such movies as “Transformers,” “Citizen Kane,” “Fantasia,” “Planet of the Apes” and “Star Wars.”
For the downlow and bidding procedures, contact premiereprops.com or call 888-761-PROP.
Let’s head back to the upscale impossible dreams from the original and still over-the-top champion fantasy gift purveyors, Neiman Marcus.
For the got-rocks Bickersons who have everything, how about the His & Hers Ultimate Outdoor Entertainment System?
“You click a button and your television emerges from its discreet, underground cache, telescoping upward and unfolding to reveal its mega 201″ C SEED screen. The accompanying speakers ... use the most advanced marine-grade components specifically developed for super yachts,” according to the 2013 Neiman Marcus catalog.
You’ll also get a satellite and DVD management system, lots of state-of-the-art, high-tech goodies, a built-in movie package featuring up to 300 movies and concerts and two Apple mini iPad remotes. All yours for just $1,500,000.
On a budget? How about their Bespoke Global Falconry Companion adventure. It’s your chance “to take part in an ancient sport once reserved for nobles of Medieval Europe, the Middle East, and the Mongolian Empire.” There are lots of unbelievable details, but let’s bottom-line it: It’s $150,000 and includes a 20-karat gold-plated perch and other opulent accessories for the bird.
Maybe you’ve had a good year and want more than the flights of fantasy. You’d like something solid for everyday use. How about the Neiman Marcus 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, one of just 10 such vehicles on the planet? You can enjoy “its elegant profile and confident, sexy stance” in your own driveway for only $344,500.
That hovercraft is beginning to look like a bargain stocking stuffer. Let’s get one for everyone on our list. We can economize by watching our old TV, indoors, for another year.
S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at  dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @DerricksonMoore on Twitter or Tout, or call 575-541-5450.

Are we ourown multimedia conglomerates?

 By  S. Derrickson Moore

LAS CRUCES >> We all know the line: a wry remark that ended up being the mantra for a couple of generations.

“In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes,” Andy Warhol opined in the late 1960s.

The quote has become a cliché, but I think even the Pop Art prophet would be astounded at what has happened over the decades, as self-obsessed Baby Boomers, members of the Me Generation and Millennials have marinated their creative impulses in the fecund stew of social media and ever more ubiquitous technology.

To say we have created a monster would be a gross understatement. In fact, the monsters are not legions of people happy with their 15 minutes of fame. What we have are millions of individual multi-media conglomerates, many of whom seem determined to share their lives 24-7.

But what happens if we have a billion performers and no audience? Will we end up leading parallel, insular lives? Is U.S. Congressional deadlock an ominous harbinger of our logical societal end: multimedia sound and fury, signifying nothing and, in fact, preventing any significant communication and action?

I think about this. A lot. I’ve spent a lifetime helping people tell their stories and sharing some of my own via newspapers, magazines, books (fiction and non-fiction), TV shows, phone calls, conference calls, speeches, documentaries, plays, letters, brochures, public service announcements, movies, videos, songs, e-mails, photographs, paintings, sculptures, multimedia works, poems, libraries and cooperative networking, print and broadcast ads, multi-media blitzes, advertising and public relations campaigns.

I’ve done it all. Time constraints and deadlines are more involved in some of these forms of communication than others, but everything on that list has some things in common: thought, planning and preparation are required.

And now, social media has been added to the mandatory repertoire: Facebook, YouTube, blogs, (personal and professional, if anyone really knows the difference anymore), Skype, Twitter, Tout, Instagram and half a dozen other networks, apps and more. If the medium was once the message, immediacy seems to be the message, the raison d’etre, of contemporary social media.

I’m amazed that some social media addicts have time to live any sort of life between obsessive-compulsive updates on daily minutia and relaying cyber flotsam.

Can sharing chain mail or an image of a cute puppy compare with sharing a picnic in the park with your significant other, a ball game with your child, a walk with your actual puppy? Especially if screen time prevents you from any real face time and human interactions?

Can an online Poke, a Like or a Share ever have the same meaning as a heart-to-heart talk, a hug, a kiss? Can a text or a tweet ever replace the ability to have a real conversation?

In an era of what seems to be increasingly limited time and resources, and ever expanding technological options, is cyber outreach better than nothing?

Maybe. There are times when a quick Facebook check, a tweet or a Tout produce uplifting moments of connection with a long-lost friend. But mostly, it makes me wistful for time for a more satisfying connection: a visit, a long phone or Skype conversation.

I still cling to what might be a retro notion, that pondering, planning, research, creativity, editing and otherwise putting in some careful thought can make just about any form of communication more effective.

And I sense change in the wind. With a billion people starring in their own reality shows, if we want to have any real-time social interactions, we’ll have to become not just our own superstars, but also our own supereditors. We’ll have to decide how much time we want to spend expanding our own multimedia conglomerates, and how much time we want to devote to living and sharing — really living, really sharing — actual lives with others.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore @lcsun-news.com,at DerricksonMoore on Twitter, or call 575-541-5450.

BRAIN FREEZE WITHOUT ICE CREAM BENEFITS

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at 575-541-5450

I’ve been wondering if there’s an age, or some other irrevocable, measurable point, when we run out of easy access to gray matter storage capabilities in what my M.D. soulmate calls “the old squash.”

If so, I may have officially hit the squash wall recently when I returned from vacation and tried to cope with more than 2,000 emails and our recently installed, challenging news processing system on my new newsroom PC, the same day I was presented with my brand new iPhone and attempted to simultaneously Tout and Tweet. And blog and update Facebook and assorted other social media.

I’ve experienced some significant brain freeze moments that had nothing to do with ice cream.

There are times when I could get overwhelmed just contemplating the number of passwords I need to access the basic resources and technology that have somehow become necessary to conduct my daily life on this planet.

These days, it seems you hardly have time to crack open a manual or access a tutorial or webinar, or retrieve your messages before the device or software has been replaced by a newer version.

I’m still debating whether it’s me or my cyberuniverse, but sometime recently, the trend seems to have gone from ever-more user-friendly to passive-aggressive-frustrating or even downright HAL-hostile. (For you whippersnappers, HAL was the name of the homicidal computer in Arthur C. Clarke’s classic tale and movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”)

When I look back, it may be that 2013 will go down in my personal history as the year I faced the fact that my photographic memory has finally run out of film ... and that even that analogy is antiquated.

Aging and its impact on eidetic memory (commonly called “photographic memory”) is something I somehow never considered. My mentor on that front was my dad. He memorized the contents of an entire encyclopedia set one summer in his boyhood when he was bedridden with a bad case of poison ivy. He frequently regaled us with esoteric and sometimes seriously outdated facts. He also seemed to be able to retain epic poems and ballads after one hearing.

I never attained his skill level, but I found I could conjure passages from large quantities of textbooks by visualizing their position on a page, a trick that came in handy during exam weeks in college, when my eidetic skills seemed to peak. Why doesn’t it work with computer screens?

But performance was always erratic in my case. I’ve never been good with names, but I still have an almost uncanny ability to remember birthdays or conversations with people I met just once, decades ago. Great quotes can stay with me for a lifetime, a good thing since I sometimes have trouble deciphering my own handwriting.

Will technology enhance and preserve our mental facilities or hasten their disintegration?

I think about that a lot as I continue my quest to convert on the fly ... a nice phrase I learned years ago, when I was helping a group of previously mild-mannered librarians develop the first automated system of its kind to link corporate, public and academic libraries, while maintaining full library services and opening new branches. There was stress. There was confusion.

Occasionally, I still amuse my whippersnapper colleagues with references to Twitting and Tooting instead of Tweeting and Touting.

Some days, everything is peachy. I have come to think of Tweeting as a kind of poetry. And I’m downright excited by the creative potentials of telling a little audio-visual Tout story in 45 seconds. On a recent Saturday, I conjured up a lovely vision of jazz, blue skies, curly fries and colorful arts and crafts as I circled a fiesta with a director’s eye and a poetic spirit. I was ready to whip out my iPhone and Tout my heart out.

I searched my purse, car and camera bag. The good news is that I’ve conscientiously established my new daily charging habit (my old phone could go weeks on a single charge). The bad news was that my fully charged phone was still plugged in back at the office, 35 miles away.

Communicating has always been natural and easy for me. And fun. Will technology ultimately continue to facilitate or terminally complicate my lifelong mission?

Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted. If I can figure out this dang app ...

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @DerricksonMoore on Twitter or Tout, or call 575-541-5450.

What's you favorite fiesta?

Your Favorite Fiesta

By S. Derrickson Moore

What’s your favorite fiesta?

There’s a lot of competition and it’s a hard call.

Over a long and festive lifetime, I’ve enjoyed St. Lawrence Seaway festivals in Michigan and Rose Festivals in Portland, Ore., along with decades of salutes to assorted produce, princesses, queens and even fish, from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest.

I’ve hoisted steins and danced polkas at Oktoberfests (the real thing, in Germany, and imitations throughout the world).

I’ve been front and center (and sometimes even on the planning committee) for sophisticated soirees in Palm Beach and South Florida and attended polished urban celebrations in New York. I was even in residence nearby when the iconic original Woodstock changed the world, or at least the way we think of rock festivals. I had a newborn baby at the time, and after seeing the movies of infants in the mud, I’m still not sorry we skipped it. But to this day, my son still expresses regrets that we missed a chance to be part of rock history. Even if he wouldn’t have remembered it, he figures it would have looked good on album covers.

That’s the thing about fiestas. They can be very personal, and the best fiesta is in the eye of the beholder. Your favorites can depend on where you are, who you’re with and what’s important in your life, long term or at the moment.

I can still be surprised at your motivations and fiesta animals, even after decades of asking people what brought them to celebrations of various cultures, and cultural groups and causes, art, beer, wine, saints, religious holidays, jazz, drama, classical music, rock, pop, enchiladas, fast ducks and hot chiles.

Pilgrimages make sense for deeply spiritual occasions and reasons, like the annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Festival trek up Tortugas Mountain, for instance.

But I admit I’ve been amazed at the number of people who seem to communicate an almost religious fervor about finally making it to events like the Hatch Chile Festival. Red and green pilgrims have told me they’ve planned honeymoons and bucket list vacations around the annual pepper fiesta.

There are people who would genuinely rather be there for the running of the ducks in Deming, than, say, more famous events like the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

I know multi-generational families that plan their reunions around the Las Cruces International Mariachi Festival, the Whole Enchilada Festival or other favorite events.

In my Santa Fe days, I talked to collectors who had waited a lifetime to attend Indian Market, though those of us who lived there thought it was a madhouse to be avoided at all costs. We found it much more meaningful to visit Pueblos and studios and smaller events where we had a better chance to get to know artists and the art and culture that inspired them.

Whatever your preferences, it’s great to be in what might very well be the festival capital of the world during FTFS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Season).

It’s hard to imagine a bad fiesta in a place where the mood is mellow, fiesta prices are usually pretty reasonable and the weather is almost always good to great.

But if I had to name my favorite fiesta weekend (here, or anywhere else I can think of), it would probably be the first weekend in November. Most years, including this one, it’s the time for both the Doña Ana Arts Council Renaissance ArtsFaire in Young Park, and Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mesilla. Both festivals beautifully showcase the friendly blend of cultures and remarkable artistic talents of our citizens.

In prime time fiesta mode, we can transcend the barriers of time and space and realms of the dead and the living. And we can munch on sugar skulls and dragon toes while we celebrate lives well-lived and days very worth living and celebrating, here in the fiesta capital of the world.

¡Viva FTFS!

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @DerricksonMoore on Twitter or call 575-541-5450.

Humunga enchilada's back, dragon will return in 2014

By S. Derrickson Moore

Magellan the dragon and the World’s Largest Enchilada are back!

Nope, it’s not the plot of the latest sci-fi flick (though you could do worse; aspiring filmmakers, take note). It’s evidence, at a time we really need it, that community spirit will get you through times of limited money better than money could get you through times of no fiesta spirit.

Just a year ago, it seemed that Las Cruces’ crumbling fiesta infrastructure would mean a sad “adios” to some of our most beloved festival institutions.

Robert Estrada’s humongous concoction, which once won the Guinness Book of Records title of World’s Largest Enchilada, was absent from the 2012 Whole Enchilada Festival. But community leaders rallied, purchased some new equipment, and the legendary founder of Roberto’s Restaurant — and the Whole Enchilada Festival, itself, newcomers should know — was back leading the TWEF parade and on site with his crew the next morning, cooking up the giant treat once again.

We’d hardly wiped the spicy red chile enchilada sauce off our chins when the good news came this week that Magellan the dragon will be back, too, and stationed in the pond at Young Park during the Doña Ana Arts Council’s Renaissance ArtsFaire Nov. 2 and 3.

Last year, it seemed the brave creature had sacrificed himself in a last blaze of glory during the New Mexico Centennial Parade, where the dragon literally fell apart valiantly promenading down Las Cruces streets.

Only the dragon’s head put in an appearance at last year’s RenFaire. Not in the lake, but convalescing in a “hospital tent,” where kids and faire-goers were asked to contribute to his repair and recovery.

ObamaCare doesn’t cover dragons, but collaborative community spirit does.

“We raised about $1,000 at the faire. And then Pat Hynes stepped in and got the New Mexico State University engineering department’s Capstone program involved,” said Kathleen Albers, DAAC’s executive director.

They worked with artist Bob Diven, New Mexico Renaissance man and designer of the beloved beast.

“The dragon shed his skin,” Albers reports, and thanks to the collaboration, has been renewed, reborn — reincarnated, even. A phoenix has risen from the ruins in the kind of artistic milagro that could only happen in Las Cruces.

“The Renaissance meets the Space Age!” Albers said.

The new incarnation will be a lean, mean, smoke-breathing, head-turning, solar-powered dragon machine, with photovoltaic scales. “Magellan will be a little bit shorter and lighter, so he’ll fit inside his storage shed. And he’ll be back in the lake and he’ll be able to turn his head when canoes come by or something catches his attention. And he’ll be able to breathe smoke,” Albers said.

That will be a first.

“He never did breathe fire. Some people said he did, but that was just a rumor,” she said. There are also murmurs about a sex-change operation. Diven has said he always thought of his creation as a “she,” through the public seems to regard the beast as boyish. But what’s important is that Magellan is back, like the big enchilada, as a result of dauntless fiesta spirit.

In 2013, our querencia is, like our peppers, on a hot streak — spicy, working together, healing, filled with Full-Tilt Fiesta Season spirit and, well, smokin’. That’s pretty nice, and refreshing, in a month that started with a governmental shutdown, a national manifestation of can’t-do deadlock, just the opposite of our local down-home cooperative spirit.

Maybe it’s time we take Robert and the dragon on tour with a first stop at the U.S. House of Representatives, to demonstrate how we can transform hot air into sublimely roasted chile enchilada components.

I can’t wait for the movie version. We could call it “Mr. Estrada and Magellan Go To Washington.”

DEAD DAY CELEBRATES LIVES WELL LIVED

DEAD Day 101  By S. Derrickson Moore

dmoore@lcsun-news.com
@DerricksonMoore on Twitter

LAS CRUCES >> Día de los Muertos has been called “a day when heaven and earth meet” and “a celebration of lives well-lived.” In Las Cruces, it has become a beloved tradition, a time when Borderland cultures blend, showcasing and sometimes creatively combining Spanish, Mexican, American Indian and Anglo customs and beliefs.

Día De Los Muertos “is not a morbid holiday but a festive remembrance of Los Angelitos (children) and all souls (Los Difuntos),” according to a statement from the Calavera Coalition of Mesilla. “This celebration originated with the indigenous people of the American continent, the Aztec, Mayan, Toltec and the Inca. Now, many of the festivities have been transformed from their original pre-Hispanic origins. It is still celebrated throughout North America among Native American tribes. The Spanish arrived and they altered the celebration to coincide with the Catholic celebrations of All Saints Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2).”

Continuing an annual Las Cruces Style tradition, here is a guide to some important terms and concepts relating to Day of the Dead celebrations, collected during 20 years of commemorations here.

 +alfeñique: Molded sugar figures used in altars for the dead.

+ancianos: Grandparents or elderly friends or relatives who have died; ancestors honored during the first (north) part of processions for Day of the Dead.

+angelitos: Literally “little angels,” refers to departed children and babies, traditionally honored during the first day of celebrations, Nov. 1, and the third (south) part of processions honoring the dead.

+anima sola: A lonely soul or spirit who died far from home or who is without amigos or relatives to take responsibility for its care.

+calascas: Handmade skeleton figurines which display an active and joyful afterlife, such as musicians or skeleton brides and grooms in wedding finery.

+calaveras: Skeletons, used in many ways for celebrations: bread and candies in the shape of skeletons are traditional, along with everything from small and large figures and decorations, skeleton head rattles, candles, masks, jewelry and T-shirts. It’s also the term for skull masks, often painted with bright colors and flowers and used in displays and worn in Day of the Dead processions.

+literary calaveras: Poetic tributes written for departed loved ones or things mourned and/or as mock epitaphs.

+Catrin and Catrina: Formally dressed couple, or bride and groom skeletons, popularized by renowned Mexican graphic artist and political cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913). In modern celebrations, Catrina is particularly popular and appears in many stylish outfits.

+copal: A fragrant resin from a Mexican tree used as incense, burned alone or mixed with sage in processions in honor of the dead.+•Días de los Muertos: Days of the Dead, usually celebrated Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 (the official date for Day of the Dead) in conjunction with All Souls Days or Todos Santos, the Catholic Feast of All Saints. Various Borderland communities, including Las Cruces, have their own celebration schedules in October and November. Look for altars and art exhibits around the Mesilla Valley, and our largest area celebration Nov. 1, 2 and 3 a on the Mesilla Plaza, also the site of a procession beginning at dusk Nov. 2.

+Difunto: Deceased soul, corpse, cadaver.

+La Flaca: Nickname for the female death figure, also known as La Muerte.

+Frida Kahlo: Mexican artist who collected objects related to the Day of the Dead. Her photo often appears in Día de los Muertos shrines or retablos.

+Los Guerreros: Literally, “the warriors,” are dead fathers, husbands, brothers and sons honored in the final (east) stop in Día De Los Muertos processions.

+marigolds: In Mexico, marigolds or “cempasuchil” are officially known as the “flower of the dead.” The flowers are added to processional wreaths at each stop, with one blossom representing each departed soul being honored. Sometimes, marigold pedals are strewn from the cemetery to a house. Their pungent fragrance is said to help the spirits find their way back home. Mums and paper flowers are also used.

+ mariposas: Butterflies, and sometimes hummingbirds, appear with skeletons to symbolize the flight of the soul from the body to heaven.

+ masks: Carried or worn during processions and other activities, masks can range from white face paint to simple molded plaster or papier-maché creations or elaborate painted or carved versions that become family heirlooms.

+ Las Mujeres: The women who have died are honored during the second (west) stop of Day of the Dead processions. After names of dead mothers, daughters, sisters and friends are called and honored, it is traditional for the crowd to sing a song for the Virgin of Guadalupe.

+ Náhuatl poetry: Traditional odes dedicated to the subject of death, dating back to the pre-Columbian era.

+ ofrenda: Traditional altar where offerings such as flowers, clothing, food, photographs and objects loved by the departed are placed. The ofrenda may be constructed in the home – usually in the dining room – at a cemetery, or may be carried in a procession. The ofrenda base is often an arch made of bent reeds. It is ornamented with special decorations, sometimes with heirlooms collected by families, much like Christmas ornaments. Decorations may include skeleton figures, toys and musical instruments in addition to offerings for a specific loved one.

+ pan de muertos: Literally, “bread of the dead.” It is traditionally baked in the shape of a skull, or calavera, and dusted with pink sugar. Here, local bakeries sometimes include red and green chile decorations.

+ papel picado: Decorations made of colored paper cut in intricate patterns.

+ Posada: José Guadalupe Posada, (1852-1913), the self-taught “printmaker to the people” and caricaturist was known for his whimsical calaveras, or skeletons, depicted wearing dapper clothes, playing instruments and otherwise nonchalantly conducting their everyday activities, sometimes riding on horse skeletons.

+ veladores: Professional mourners who help in the grief process in several ways, including candlelight vigils, prayers and with dramatic weeping and wailing.

+ Xolotlitzcuintle: Monster dog, sometimes depicted as a canine skeleton, sometimes as a Mexican hairless breed. Since pre-Columbian times, this Día de los Muertos doggy has, according to legend, been the departed’s friend, helping with the tests of the perilous crossing of the River Chiconauapan to Mictlan, the land of the dead.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @derricksonmoore on Twitter or call 575-541-5450.

 101

Your Favorite Fiesta

By S. Derrickson Moore

What’s your favorite fiesta?

There’s a lot of competition and it’s a hard call.

Over a long and festive lifetime, I’ve enjoyed St. Lawrence Seaway festivals in Michigan and Rose Festivals in Portland, Ore., along with decades of salutes to assorted produce, princesses, queens and even fish, from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest.

I’ve hoisted steins and danced polkas at Oktoberfests (the real thing, in Germany, and imitations throughout the world).

I’ve been front and center (and sometimes even on the planning committee) for sophisticated soirees in Palm Beach and South Florida and attended polished urban celebrations in New York. I was even in residence nearby when the iconic original Woodstock changed the world, or at least the way we think of rock festivals. I had a newborn baby at the time, and after seeing the movies of infants in the mud, I’m still not sorry we skipped it. But to this day, my son still expresses regrets that we missed a chance to be part of rock history. Even if he wouldn’t have remembered it, he figures it would have looked good on album covers.

That’s the thing about fiestas. They can be very personal, and the best fiesta is in the eye of the beholder. Your favorites can depend on where you are, who you’re with and what’s important in your life, long term or at the moment.

I can still be surprised at your motivations and fiesta animals, even after decades of asking people what brought them to celebrations of various cultures, and cultural groups and causes, art, beer, wine, saints, religious holidays, jazz, drama, classical music, rock, pop, enchiladas, fast ducks and hot chiles.

Pilgrimages make sense for deeply spiritual occasions and reasons, like the annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Festival trek up Tortugas Mountain, for instance.

But I admit I’ve been amazed at the number of people who seem to communicate an almost religious fervor about finally making it to events like the Hatch Chile Festival. Red and green pilgrims have told me they’ve planned honeymoons and bucket list vacations around the annual pepper fiesta.

There are people who would genuinely rather be there for the running of the ducks in Deming, than, say, more famous events like the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

I know multi-generational families that plan their reunions around the Las Cruces International Mariachi Festival, the Whole Enchilada Festival or other favorite events.

In my Santa Fe days, I talked to collectors who had waited a lifetime to attend Indian Market, though those of us who lived there thought it was a madhouse to be avoided at all costs. We found it much more meaningful to visit Pueblos and studios and smaller events where we had a better chance to get to know artists and the art and culture that inspired them.

Whatever your preferences, it’s great to be in what might very well be the festival capital of the world during FTFS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Season).

It’s hard to imagine a bad fiesta in a place where the mood is mellow, fiesta prices are usually pretty reasonable and the weather is almost always good to great.

But if I had to name my favorite fiesta weekend (here, or anywhere else I can think of), it would probably be the first weekend in November. Most years, including this one, it’s the time for both the Doña Ana Arts Council Renaissance ArtsFaire in Young Park, and Día de los Muertos celebrations in Mesilla. Both festivals beautifully showcase the friendly blend of cultures and remarkable artistic talents of our citizens.

In prime time fiesta mode, we can transcend the barriers of time and space and realms of the dead and the living. And we can munch on sugar skulls and dragon toes while we celebrate lives well-lived and days very worth living and celebrating, here in the fiesta capital of the world.

¡Viva FTFS!

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @DerricksonMoore on Twitter or call 575-541-5450.