Las Cruces Style

Bold paths lead to stellar achievements

2012-02-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — They were pioneers in space and we’ve been fortunate to have some of their generation’s most stellar representatives in our territory.
With the January deaths of Lowell Randall and Patricia Tombaugh, Clyde’s wife, I’ve been reminded of unique individuals who took some surprising paths to achieve international prominence in new and incredibly challenging fields.
Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto and went to college … two years later. Lowell Randall became a world-renowned rocket engineer with just his Roswell High School diploma.
What both men had in common was a passionate interest in something — engineering and rocketry for Lowell and astronomy for Clyde — and a determination to learn more. And it was learning for the sheer joy of learning, I’d say, having had the opportunity to interview and get to know Clyde before his death in 1997. Reading about Lowell and taking to his daughter, Martha Randall Brown, of Las Cruces, and his friend and biographer, Joe Gold, convinced me that Lowell, too, had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
They both found ways to persevere and keep their dreams alive, even in the depths of the Great Depression, when college seemed out of the question for Kansas farm boy Clyde and Lowell was delivering newspapers and working at a Roswell furniture store to support his young wife and their first child.
But around 1930, as it turned out, both young men were in the right place at the right time … with the right stuff and the right mentors.
When Dr. Robert Goddard moved his rocket development and testing activities from Massachusetts to Roswell, Lowell was a frequent visitor, repeatedly sharing his aspirations for a rocketry research job. He won Goddard’s attention and respect by creating a prototype of a gyroscope that could sense an aircraft’s speed. Eventually, he built a career that took him to the top of the American space program, leading engineering teams that built intercontinental ballistic missiles and the multi-stage rocket which sent the first American astronauts into space.
Clyde made his own telescopes out of farm equipment and learned to grind his own lenses and mirrors. The drawings he made of his observations so impressed astronomers that he was offered a job at Lowell Observatory, where he made his famous discovery, the result of painstaking observations and comparisons that demonstrated Clyde’s patience and mental acuity. I talked to scientists who told me Clyde accomplished, on his own, in the 1920s and ’30s, feats that would challenge the capability of contemporary computers.
Dwarf planet or not, his Pluto discovery was a very big deal, as was his later career, which included discoveries of numerous star clusters and clusters of galaxies, hundreds of asteroids, two comets, one nova and much more. And he still managed to find time to raise a happy family, delight his friends with crow puns and inspire generations of kids to aim for the stars.
Both space pioneers would urge you to stay in school if you can, but they also established heartening examples of bold alternative paths, if economic woes threaten to postpone or thwart your higher education plans.
Can creative, hardworking kids still find a way to get to the top in tough economic times? I say yes, especially if you invent your own field, are bold and imaginative enough to explore interesting innovations and are willing to be a patient apprentice and hitch your wagon to a nova.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450 or dmoore@lcsun-news.com. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.

The '50s weren't always nifty

2012-01-27T11:09:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Were the ’50s really nifty?
It seems like every generation adopts its own pet retro era. It shows up in enthusiasms for period fashions, food, movies and books.
My parents had romantic notions about flappers and the 1920s.
When we weren’t reveling in our own hippie/flowerchild/psychedelic fun, we Baby Boomers seemed fascinated with strange (to us) stuff from the ’30s and ’40s: Bonnie & Clyde, World War II literature, Polynesian things, shoulder pads and Frank Sinatra (Mia Farrow era).
The last couple of years, the 1950s seem to be enjoying a vigorous reincarnation. A lot of Katy Perry’s looks seem to be wacky takes on ’50s pinup queens, with a few nods to Madonna, who purloined a few ’50s trends herself.
We’ve seen fedoras for a few years now, for both men and women, and worn them with the suave cockiness of Frank Sinatra (in his original wife Nancy and Ava Gardner eras).
“Mad Men,” which purports to be the 1960s, is more like what I remember about the 1950s: guys in gray flannel suits, three martini lunches, chain-smoking, unrepentant sexism, women in gloves and veiled little hats. The illusion that advertising was an art form, a fulfilling and noble creative battlefield and even a great service to mankind.
If you doubt me, kids and scholars, check out Sloan Wilson’s 1956 novel, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” or the 1956 movie of the same name starring Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones.
It wouldn’t be a bad starting place if you’d like to get a clearer look at what was not so nifty about the ’50s. At least, it’ll give you a little more realistic look if your ’50s world view is based on nostalgic homages like “Happy Days” or reruns of period TV series like “Ozzie & Harriet,” “Father Knows Best” and “The Donna Reed Show.”
Our moms really didn’t vacuum in heels, immaculate shirtwaist dresses and pearls. But I do remember my grandmother debating with my mom about whether a lady could go to town — even a quick run to the grocery store — without gloves, and a tailored little dress or skirt and blouse.
And skirts were required for women (no exceptions) at nice restaurants into the ’60s. Pedal pushers (later referred to as capri pants) were the sportswear of choice, and I was convinced that there was no woman on the planet who really looked nice in them, with the possible exception of Audrey Hepburn.
I spent my tot to pre-teen years in the ’50s and I never owned a poodle skirt and can’t recall seeing any of my friends in them. I do remember making a circle skirt, minus the poodle, in elementary school home ec, where our teacher admonished us to refer to our garments of choice not as “tight skirts” but as “straight” skirts.
Even what we now consider the fun stuff was a source of controversy. Marilyn, Elvis, James “Rebel Without a Cause” Dean, the beat poets and rock ‘n’ roll were not popular with parents in middle class, middle American homes.
There were viscious political fights, McCarthyism, the everyday reality of racism and the first glimmers of civil rights and feminist movements, the ever- present shadow of the atom bomb, “keeping up with the Joneses” consumerism gone wild and an explosion of the military-industrial complex so ominous that even President Eisenhower offered cautionary speeches.
When you’re rockin’ out and sipping your root beer float, tip your fedora to the fun, but spare a thought or two to those who bravely fought what was not so nifty about the ’50s.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.

Art is an everyday part of our lives

2012-01-27T11:04:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Every year about this time, I start to think about something Kelley Hestir reminded me of several years ago, when she and Miriam Lozada- Jarvis got together with a small group to create what has now become an annual institution here: For the Love of Arts Month.
Art is a crucial part of all of our lives, whether or not we consider ourselves artists or appreciators of the arts. Kelley once suggested that we spend a day, or even an hour, paying careful attention to our surroundings to appreciate how much art and design are a part of our lives.
I suspect I could fill up this column with the first hour of my day. I wake up to a bedroom filled with art. I’ve been blessed with a tribe of talented friends and relatives who’ve filled my life with art and taught me how to make some of my own (my early morning first view includes a few of my own paintings, photos and soft sculptures, too).
For many of us, the day begins with a ringing alarm clock. Some designers spent some time figuring out its shape and the sound of its ring (or ways for you to customize it yourself). If you get up before the sun, think about the person who designed your lamp, or the curtains or shades or skylights or the architect that came up with the plans for your house or apartment.
A lot of thought and effort and artistry went into the quilts I turn back as get out of bed each morning, but even if you sleep under mass produced linens, an artist’s hand was in the prints and colors of your sheets, blankets and bedspreads.
Art is all over your bathroom, from the sink and its fixtures to the shower curtains, tub and tiles — all were designed by someone. The same goes for your towels and washcloths, your toothbrush and toothpaste and the containers they came in.
If you switch on an iPod, phone, radio, television or computer first thing in the morning to catch up on news or messages, you are enjoying the considerable efforts of a design team that included artists as well as technicians. And whatever first greets you on that device is the work of other designers and artists (maybe even you, if you designed your own screensaver, ringtone, or setting or container for your first-thing-in-the-morning-design of choice).
I usually start out with news on TV or maybe catching up on a favorite program I've recorded. That means theme music, set designs, costumes/wardrobe … whatever I'm watching, chances are it involved musicians, writers, architects and a variety of visual artists.
Head to your kitchen for breakfast. Whether you've festooned your kitchen with paintings and tablecloths and placemats, or chosen a minimalist decor, you're entering a space that's filled with the work of artists and designers. Someone designed your refrigerator, stove, blender, microwave and all your other appliances, your cabinets and counters, your tables and chairs, and very likely, the surface you’re standing on, which could be covered with tiles, rugs, or a wooden floor.
Somebody gave thought to the shape and color of the pan in which your fry your eggs, the bowl for your cereal and fruit, the utensils you use to cook and eat with, the mug for your coffee, the glass for your juice, and the containers they came in.
Your clothes are more obvious, because most of us give some thought to personal tastes when it comes to what we wear. But even if we can't all afford designer originals, our mass-produced choices were probably influenced by top fashion designers.
And moving beyond that chic scarf, that cute dress, hot jacket or killer heels, artists and designers were involved at some stage of the mostly mundane mass-produced clothing, from work boots to undies and socks.
Before I climbed into my trusty car, I noticed how much the headlights resemble those of it’s pricier inspiration (a Jaguar) and the subtle pearlescence of its off-white paint.
Thanks to artists everywhere and we look forward to celebrating your creations all month long.
Today, take a moment to appreciate how much artists and designers contribute to your life, to its ease, comfort, and beauty, each and every day.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.

New Mexico Centennial Adventures

2012-01-11T08:27:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — What will you tell your kids and grandkids about New Mexico’s Centennial celebrations?
I think I’ve already got the gist of it. Our 100-year party is shaping up to be multicultural, enchanting, historic, colorful, spicy, eclectic, a bit eccentric and of course, fully imbued with generous helpings of the prerequisite three W’s: Wild, wonderful and wacky.
In short: an apt reflection of daily life in the Land of Enchantment.
And full of surprises. I wonder if many of us have given a thought to President William Howard Taft since high school American history classes.
But suddenly, Taft, as portrayed by actor Dale Liikala, seemed to be everywhere. Reenacting the New Mexico’s statehood proclamation at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum and lunching with his “new” fellow American citizens. Hobnobbing with locals on Main Street downtown, lecturing at the Branigan, riding in a big 1962 Lincoln Continental as Grand Marshall of the Mesilla Valley New Mexico Centennial Parade …
And speaking of parades: If you had to select just one parade to watch this century, the Mesilla Valley Centennial Parade would be the one to choose.
I was there, and I’m very glad.
Ten years in the planning, a century in the making and with a cast of thousands, it was a thrill-a-minute audience pleaser.
Even normally antsy little dogs and small children sat in thrall as the 100-minute parade (which was closer to two hours, with opening ceremonies and normal parade pauses) sauntered by, full of pride, history, happy kids, good-sport adults in period costumes and lots and lots of noble servicemen and women of all ages.
Decade by decade, we celebrated the last century, Las Cruces-style.
Actually, the parade subjects ventured much further back into the past, from the Paleozoic Trackways, representing those creatures older than dinosaurs who left their marks in the Robledo Mountains here, to homages to the Piro-Manso-Tiwa and Spanish Conquistadors.
It quickly became clear that southern New Mexico is home to a lot of cool old cars and beautiful new children.
Kids sang and shouted “Happy Birthday, New Mexico,” marching behind banners announcing their schools in order of their founding.
Many groups dressed in period costumes or offered placards with historical decades representing the year the organizations first appeared in the city of Las Cruces. Early 20th century bowler hats and elegant suits segued into ’50s poodle skirts and ’60s flower child ensembles.
Individual names registered: Clarence Fielder with an homage to the Phillips Chapel restoration, World’s Largest Enchilada record holder Robert Estrada greeting the crowd, a comment that a parade participant was wearing a Stetson that belonged to the late Sen. Frank Papen.
There were boys and girls in colorful folklorico outfits, sports mascots, astronauts and a least one dancing chile. There were many queens, past and present: from 1949 Las Cruces Centennial Queen Teresa Viramontes-Holguin to reigning Hatch Chile Queen Selinda Alvarez Garay, they were all looking radiant.
There were vehicles from the past, present and (back to the) future.
Curbside, I noticed I coughed a lot less as exhaust systems improved, somewhere around the 1980s.
Kids from Clyde Tombaugh Elementary School chanted, “Pluto IS a planet, we still believe!”
The parade’s boffo 2012 ending could be a column in itself and may be soon: Highlights included the new Centennial High School, WSMR’s 2d Engineer Battalion, Butterfield Park Matachines, a biodiesel-fueled, satellite-guided tractor, and a nod to New Mexico Spaceport Authority and Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline.
All along the crowded parade route, individual and group shouts and applause broke out as people recognized their favorites: students, teachers, songs, soldiers, historical events and periods, vehicles, queens, schools, organizations, police and fire personnel, companies, fiestas…
A man in a bowler hat moved through the crowd, shaking hands.
“It’s a very good day to be a New Mexican,” he said.
We agreed. Especially if you’re lucky enough to live in the Mesilla Valley part of the Land of Enchantment.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

New beginnings in 2012

2012-01-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Hello, 2012.
I’ve read the book. (Or, at least, one of the most famous of the books devoted to themes of this year, Daniel Pinchbeck’s bestseller spiritual quest book, “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl,” which was loaned to me shortly after its publication in 2006 by Las Cruces philosopher Corie Lane.)
I’ve seen the movie — the dumb 2009 disaster flick starring John Cusack. It’s been a while, and all I can remember is that John issued a warning that was ignored, but he was rewarded by impossibly surviving all kinds of natural disasters with his kids in tow … a marathon of family fun featuring the greatest hits of our solar system. (Solar storms! Floods! Volcanoes! Earthquakes! Crumbling/exploding/burning Los Angeles!)
When I finally got around to touring Spaceport America in 2011, I tried to recall if John and his kids finally escaped to outer space, but I think the giant vehicles (secretly built by the 1 percent to keep the 99 percent out of any long-term survival deals) turned out to be arks.
I’ve seen several TV documentaries on various and sundry 2012 prognostications.
Maybe, I’ve even been singing the song since 1967. I’ve talked to astrologers who opine that this period merely signifies the end of the age of Pisces. Good news for me: At long last it might finally be the dawning of my age: I’m Aquarius.
And now that I’ve confessed to warbling “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” for more than four decades (and I’ve seen the original cast perform it in “Hair” and watched The Fifth Dimension sing their hit live in concert ... twice), I’ve officially dated myself.
So I might as well confess that I’ve long been familiar with most of the theories, history and prognostications and prognosticators Pincebeck wrote about in what seems like a rather belated quest to kids of the spiritual, mystical and sometimes downright spacey ’60s.
I’ve been hearing about those Mayan prophecies since my teen years. I spent almost two decades in Oregon, followed by two years in Santa Fe. (Parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern New Mexico have retained the largest, most persistent patches of the dedicated hippie culture, long after most of the rest of us cut our hair, institutionalized recycling and other green policies and procedures, and took to wearing dye-tie only as an occasional, retro-ironic or wearable art fashion statement.)
I met, worked with, investigated and wrote about many of the sages, and, as it turned out, not-so-sage souls, that Pincebeck discovered in the new millennium.
As a reporter and city editor in Portland, Ore., I covered and later wrote a book and documentary about the most accurate prophetic person I’ve encountered, Tenny Hale, whose hit predictions included the Watergate scandal, by name, before the break-ins, the exact day of the Three-Mile Island accident, and thousands of other very specific forecasts, documented and verified over decades, with a nearly perfect accuracy rate. And even a few predictions Hale counted as “misses” have been revealed as “hits,” after her death in 1981.
Her track record remains the best I’ve seen, and she didn’t predict that the world would end in 2012. So it’s not something I’m planning on. But I have been keeping tabs on warnings she gave for this era: major earth and climate changes, nuclear accidents, crumbling infrastructure, dam breaks, floods, resulting pollution and weakened immune systems that would leave us more vulnerable to fierce epidemics and viral diseases that could dramatically decimate the population.
There’s lots more on the downside, but not a final ending, and an upside the includes the possibility for brilliant new beginnings, spiritual and intellectual awakenings and a global renaissance that would inspire us to get technology right, this time around, and maybe even muster a divine global evolutionary leap that would have us finally recognize that we’re all in this together, that sharing, helping, healing, cleaning, nurturing and working to understand one another will make life better, richer — and more fun, even — for us all.
There will be some rough patches, but it’s a future we can choose, work toward and enjoy right now. Many of us already live this way and will continue in 2012. The signs are here. It’s an exciting and promising time to be alive. Happy New Year.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

A passing of the guard

2011-12-29T10:26:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — The trend started from the first month of 2011 and continued to the end of the year. There was a sense of a passing of the guard in our cultural community, with losses of leaders in history, music, literature and the visual arts.
First to leave us, on Jan. 2, was Donna R. Eichstaedt, 72. The historian and educator was a leader of the Mesilla Valley Historical Society. She taught at Illinois State University and Lincoln College in Normal, where she served as the dean before moving to Las Cruces in 1992. Here, she taught history at UTEP and Doña Ana Community College.
She inspired Las Crucens neighbors Chuck Miles and Felix Pfaeffle to collaborate on “Once Enemies, Now Friends” after they met here and discovered they had been within shooting distance of one another on opposite sides of German front lines in 1944. She wrote about a legendary New Mexican hotel in her book, “Silver City’s Bear Mountain Lodge: The Untold Story.”
Versatile Donna was also an avid flamenco dancer and supporter of the NMSU dance program.
Two beloved Las Cruces-based poets, Beatlick Joe Speer and Wayne Crawford, both diagnosed with pancreatic cancer within a few months of one another, shared their final journeys with poetic blog entries in 2011.
With his longtime companion Pamela Hirst, Las Cruces-based poet Speer, 62, who died Jan. 25, traveled throughout the U.S., publishing “Beatlick News,” a print and online poetry journal. The final copies of his “Kameleon” magazines, published early in the ’70s and ’80s, will become part of the complete and permanent Beatlick Joe Speer library and archive at NMSU, curated by Laurence Creider. In his last weeks, he supervised the compilation of his writings, “Backpack Trekker: A 60s Flashback,” now available on Amazon.com.
“I’m not upset,” Speer told me a week before his death. “It’s not really for me to decide when I come and go. Those decisions are made by some other forces and it’s out of my control. You never know how long you have, how many miles you’re going to log on this road trip. When you’re ripe, they pluck you.”
Wayne Crawford, who died March 12 at age 64, was a creative force in the local poetry scene, after he “retired” to Las Cruces in 2000, following a life-long career as an educator. He developed open mics and the online journal “Lunarosity,” gathered and distributed lists of literary events, created the concept of an annual Las Cruces Poetry Day and hosted readings and co-edited “Sin Fronteras.” With his partner, award-winning musician and composer Randy Granger, he established an informal artists’ salon and nurtured a poetry community that welcomed NMSU students and poetry lovers of all ages. He worked with local organizations — from Branigan Library and the executive board of Doña Ana Arts Council to For the Love of Arts Month coordinators — to share his love of poetry with others.
Las Cruces Community Theatre’s guiding light Art Haggerton, who died Oct. 3 at age 65, produced, directed and performed in scores of theatrical productions and taught for four decades, ending his career at White Sands Middle School.
“Art was a wonderful mentor, director and friend and I was always in awe of his talents and enthusiasm for the theater. Art could do it all: sing, dance, act, direct, choreograph, construct sets, build props — and he did it all with an effortless grace and style. Art will be missed dearly, but will be remembered for years to come for the great works of entertainment that he gifted to all of us over the past 45 years," said Janet Mazdra, who worked in several productions with him.
It was a very good day, if you had the chance to visit her sunny Las Cruces studio and share the vivid paintings and enthusiasm of Susan Connelly, who died Nov. 2 at age 74. She was a well-known designer and boutique owner in Santa Fe where her shop, The Sign of the Pampered Maiden, sold the City Different’s first mini dresses. In 1992, she moved here and was finally able to devote time to her first love: making art. She had shows in several leading regional galleries and her paintings are in private and corporate collections in the United States, Mexico and Europe.
“I paint because, for the life of me, I really cannot think of anything I would rather do,” she said.
A Southwest cultural icon and the father of personal and regional musical families, Oscar Butler, died Nov. 27 at age 94. The music maestro arrived in Las Cruces in 1953, joined string quartets and created a chorale ensemble and was a central figure in the development of what is now New Mexico’s largest symphony orchestra, the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra at NMSU. He was cellist in the orchestra and also founded the New Horizons Symphony, which gave amateur musicians of all ages a chance to learn music and perform. Butler was still conducting and encouraging budding and professional musicians in his ninth and final decade.
Anyone who spent any time at the city’s museums would know the face of H. Edward Hunsburger, who died Nov. 28 at age 64. He was a familiar fixture on the Downtown Mall, helping out at the Branigan Cultural Center, Las Cruces Museum of Art and the Railroad Museum.
The native New Yorker, novelist and world traveler had a rich, productive life in the arts himself before moving here in 2002. He attended art school in Florida, was a researcher at Esquire Magazine, and served on the board of Mystery Writers of America. He wrote several books, including a book in the Nick Carter series, “Crossfire,” and “Death Signs,” and short fiction published in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
Though very different, all these artists had something in common: talents that they shared generously with others and an unselfish desire to help inspire and nurture other artists. We’ll miss them, but they left something wonderful behind as they worked to create the unique sense of camaraderie and cooperation that distinguishes the Las Cruces arts community today.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Treasuring Christmas in the Valley

2011-12-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Whatever the rest of the year has been like, there’s something about Christmas in the Mesilla Valley that will always rejuvenate your spirit.
After two decades of New Mexico holidays, I’ve never been disappointed. Each year, there is always a special moment — sometimes a lot of special moments — worthy of the lifetime memory box.
This year, the big one has been a visit from my son Ryan, who finished up a job in California early and was able to make it here for our first extended holiday together in many years. Celebrating Christmas early or late is something we had to get used to during his showbiz years, first touring with his band and in recent years producing and managing a crew to put up spectacular holiday light shows in the Pacific Northwest.
Even the challenging moments are memorable. I got cold, wet and windblown during Winterfest 2011, which I was tempted to dub “la noche de several thousand soggy brown paper bags,” but I was amazed how many luminarias our dauntless volunteers managed to light and maintain in spite of it all.
I also enjoyed talking with some of those who’ve nurtured one of my favorite traditions: Christmas Eve on the Mesilla Plaza. Lalo Natividad talked about what it’s like this time of year to have a name that means “nativity” in Spanish.
Instead of the traditional holiday greeting, “Feliz Navidad,” friends sometimes wish him “Feliz Natividad,” he said, which he interprets as, “Happy me!”
Phone calls, cards, emails and letters recall heartwarming New Mexico holidays with people I’m missing this Christmas.
Grandson Alex the Great is in Idaho this year, but I have lots of fond recollections of holidays here with him, from his footed-pajama toddler years to preteen marathon present-unwrapping romps with his cousins.
I remember magical Mesilla Plaza celebrations with Cecilia Lewis and her husband, Alexis Bespaloff, in Alexis’ last years. One year, they both showed up wearing burgundy scarves I’d knitted for them and Cecilia had arranged to set up headquarters at a cozy table at the Double Eagle. We had dinner and went in and out to enjoy the plaza carolers and photograph the lights.
I’ve shared English crackers (filled with toys and silly paper hats) and flaming plum puddings with my British friends here, and sweet tamales and red chile mashed potatoes and green chile turkey enchiladas with inventive native New Mexican amigos.
I love checking out uniquely Southwestern ornaments and Christmas trees at shops, restaurants, hotel lobbies, art galleries, museums, markets and bazaars.
Christmas just doesn’t seem like Christmas to me without two crucial stops.
First is a visit to Tortugas Pueblo during Our Lady of Guadalupe Festival. The pilgrimage is a not-to-be-missed experience, I’ve found, and I have vivid, fond memories of their warm welcome to a newcomer my first year here. I’m always there to photograph days of dancing on Dec. 12 and Jan. 1, and this year loved seeing generations of the Fierro family working together to prepare the albondigas feast for the community.
The second “must” is a visit to Mesilla to see new decorations and old favorites, and it’s great having visitors to give me an excuse for return trips.
This year, I added some Josefina’s Gate portraits to the family Christmas album, and found my son shared my appreciation of some unique personal Mesilla favorites: the Nativity scene overlooking the image of our famed desperado at the Billy the Kid Gift Shop and the piranha swimming in his tank, surrounded by Borderland fiesta Christmas decor at La Posta.
There’s a lot to see and do and remember for many busy weeks, right up to Christmas Eve markets, caroling, plaza luminarias and midnight services at area churches.
Christmas itself is private family time for most Las Crucens, a wonderful day to close our ristra-decked doors, gather before our piñon-scented fires and enjoy a special celebration with those closest to us, and maybe some newcomer friends.
May your day be rich with love and memories of holidays past and present. Merry Christmas.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450.

Cherish moments of joy in tough times

2011-12-15T13:46:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — I'm ready for a new year and more than eager to be done with this one.
Our 2011 woes started with the January Sun-News fire that kicked us out of a building where some of us had spent almost two decades. We moved, first to the Ramada Palms ballroom and then to interim digs at 715 E. Idaho Ave.
Usually January is my least favorite month, but February was brutal. The February freeze killed many of our favorite agaves, trees and bushes.
But the vegetative devastation turned out to be a mere harbinger of the human tragedy in my circle of loved ones this year.
A dear friend lost her only grandchild, a sweet and inquisitive lad just leaving his teens. I'll always remember the time we spent on the patio of his grandmother's Mesilla adobe, when he was about 10, experimenting with my new underwater camera. He decided our best bet was to drop things in a rain barrel and try our luck. He came up with an imaginative variety of stuff to chuck in the water, while we took turns photographing splashes and submerged action shots of rocks and chile peppers and other motley subjects. His grandmother cheerfully applauded while we made a watery mess of the patio and one another.
He was a bright soul, and I wish we could have seen the man he would have become.
It was the first personal agony of 2011, but not the last.
My nephew made it back from Afghanistan, but his wife lost the child they were eagerly awaiting, just before his bittersweet return.
In the space of a few months, Grandson Alex lost three of his Idaho classmates to suicide, and then came the news of an unimaginable disaster. Two teenage amigos from his San Diego days, so close that they had continued to visit regularly after Alex moved to the Pacific Northwest, were found dead in their California home, shot by their father, who then committed suicide.
The boys were very smart, funny, creative, popular teens. Their dad was the neighborhood parent everyone reportedly felt safe leaving their kids with, a man with degrees in law and psychology.
Alex and I have talked a lot, but how can you explain to a 15-year-old what cannot be explained? I've been proud and touched to see what his generation can do with social media sites, with original music and creative explorations of the mysteries of life and death.
There have been too many untimely deaths this year, a lot of transitions, a lot of frustrations with Congress and the economy, a sense that we have taken wrong paths, that it is time — past time — for serious evaluations of what we hold dear, for new approaches and concepts and directions.
There are been stumbles — globally and personally. I took a header onto a concrete patio while photographing a festival (celebrating, ironically, beautiful and soothing lavender) and spent months regaining mobility I’d taken for granted.
I have a time-tested philosophical credo for situations of loss: For everything we willingly give up, we get something better. We can always replace things or adjust to their loss. We’re on track to finish 2012 with a brand new Sun-News building, for instance. My knee seems mostly functional again and the physical bruises have long since faded.
But my credo does not cover all situations, like the untimely and violent loss of people we love. I think of my Mesilla amiga, the parents, the grandparents, the friends and loved ones of those bright boys … and I know that though time can ease the shock and pain, there are bruises of the soul, wounds too deep to forget on this plane of existence.
The holidays can be particularly tough for those who have experienced great losses and tragedies.
We hug each other. We check in and we carry on. My big sis Sally says she thinks one of the good things about getting older is that eventually we won't mind dying because we have so many questions for God.
I have a lot of questions about 2011, and I'm eager to move on to a new year in hopes that it will bring wisdom, faith, healing and creative ways to reach out to one another, to love and comfort those who mourn.
For all of us, I pray this holiday season for a time of peace, comfort … and remembrance that the joy of love, once found and experienced, can never really die.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

A vote for Team Christmas

2011-12-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — It has been said that the world is divided into two kinds of people.
One wag opined: “Yeah, the kinds who try to divide the world into two kinds of people and the kinds who know better.”
Normally, I’d agree, but the lines of demarcation seem to be very sharply drawn when it comes to the holidays.
There is Team Grinch-Scrooge.
And then there’s Team FTC (Full-Tilt Christmas).
That’s my team. I love this time of year. That this love has lasted through a long lifetime, I believe, can only be attributed to an appreciation of the real meaning of Christmas.
It’s a story of hope and promise, of faith and love and spiritual triumph.
Still, those of us who go to the original text know that the original Christmas story is not a tale of easy times. Jesus was born in an occupied land with corrupt rulers. Generations of the devout had prayed for a savior with a faith so fierce that speculation about fulfillment of their prayers struck fear in the heart of a mighty empire that dominated much of the world. King Herod ordered the brutal slaying of a generation of helpless babies and toddlers on what today we would term an unverified, speculative rumor.
Conditions were so oppressive that Mary and Joseph were denied the rudimentary comforts of a birth in their own home. Even very pregnant women were not exempt from bureaucratic regulations that forced a hard journey to Bethlehem, where, as we all know now, the child embraced as the savior of billions, was, at least temporarily, homeless, left to be born in what amounts to a hay-filled shed, among farm animals.
Those are parts of the story that are not emphasized much these days, but I always remember those aspects when I think about the homeless, the depressed, the needy and the oppressed.
And I wonder about the true inspiration for our generosity during this season. Was all this gift-giving really inspired by the presents of three enlightened Wise Men?
Or could some group consciousness be pondering a contemporary savior, a Second Coming? Could this era’s Savior be homeless, in a brutal oppressive land, a child who is just a heartbeat — a gunshot, a landmine step, a pogrom, an ethnic cleansing, a preventable disease — away from reaching toddlerhood?
Maybe the dark sides of the original story are manifested in the things I don’t like about this season: the Black Friday/Cyber Monday obsessive acquisitiveness, the arrogance and greed, the pressure to complete a zillion little meaningless tasks, the Yule-zillas who care more about status and lavish impressions than true substance.
But I love the lights and the camaraderie, the songs and the sharing, the efforts to bring beauty to a barren winter landscape, the creative ways we can devise to show how much we love and care about one another.
I think we veterans on Team FTC always find ways to dial back the darkness and focus on what really matters.
Christmas is a story of miracles and soul survival, of new beginnings, of promises that we know, from the rest of the story, can be spectacularly fulfilled.
One divine spark, prayed forth, carefully protected and lovingly nurtured, can change lives — can change the world.
It’s the season of prayers and miracles. A season that eventually transformed even Scrooge and the Grinch.
And whatever team you’re on, it’s never too late to ponder that story of miraculous new beginnings. Whoever you are, wherever you live, the life you change could be your own this year.
Have a merry, milago Christmas.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Rich traditions are affordable by all

2011-12-05T07:11:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Ah, it’s that wonderful time of year when I finally regain my hall closets and guest bed surfaces and time to appreciate the joys of the holidays in New Mexico.
By the time Thanksgiving comes around, if not shortly before, I’ve wrapped all my presents and packed boxes to ship off to loved ones on both coasts and what my soulmate calls the “belly button” regions of the United States.
Unless I’m hosting a party or expecting out-of-town guests, my halls are minimally decked and I’m dreaming of a no-clutter, Zen Christmas.
In fact, this was the year I shipped off to the Pacific Northwest most of the Halloween and Christmas decorations I’d collected with son Ryan and grandson Alexander the Great, my erstwhile partners in artistic holiday crimes — or at least imaginative seasonal shenanigans.
It’s time for them to establish their own traditions with Peanuts character band members and exotic Southwestern chile ornaments.
My “little” grandson is 15, a head taller than I am, and, I hope, thoroughly infused with loving, sometimes thoroughly silly and touching holiday memories.
This Christmas, I’ll be remembering those times, from his homemade toddler cinnamon ornaments to his Christmas pageants at Hillrise Elementary and the impromptu two-guy guitar concert of holiday-inspired original compositions produced with his dad.
Here — in New Mexico in general and the Mesilla Valley in particular — you don’t really need a personal display of ornaments, lavish parties or an opulent show of gifts to enjoy a very happy holiday season that’s rich in meaning and traditions and affordable by all.
What imaginative soul first used paper bags, sand and candle stubs to create a magical winter wonderland? That great idea now lights our city streets and plazas, for festivals like Winterfest and Mesilla’s legendary Christmas Eve celebration.
The world has taken notice. I once helped the San Antonio branch of the Weston family set up an impressive spring luminaria display on a Caribbean beach at Frenchman’s Cove in Jamaica.
Now, online sources offer multicolored and patterned LED-lit luminarias. I’m trying to remember the first time I saw a string of electric luminarias: plastic brown bags packed with small white light bulbs. I think it was on a store in Santa Fe, where many still take great umbrage of you don’t call them “farolitos.”
Luminarias, they insist, refer to the small bonfires lit along paths and roadways for Las Posadas, the traditional annual reenactments of the first Christmas, when Mary and Joseph sought refuge at inns in Bethlehem for the birth of the Christ child.
“Farolitos,” City Different residents will admonish you, was the name given to smaller lanterns carried by children and others reenacting La Posada (literally “house hunting”), a tradition dating to morality plays of the middle ages.
Many Las Crucens can tell you stories of their childhood La Posada adventures, ambling and caroling through neighborhoods on chilly nights.
It’s a tradition that has been revived in recent years at area churches and with a Downtown Mall procession, complete with a cooperative burro borrowed from the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum.
It’s one of many traditions that warm our hearts and hearths this time of year.
New red chile ristras symbolizing spicy hospitality in our kitchens and on our front doors. Fresh batches of biscochitos and sweet and savory tamales. The quiotes (walking sticks) and the candles of those expressing their faith at area services and pilgrimages up Tortugas Mountain.
The most vivid memories are made of the simplest things. No matter where you are in your holiday schedule, remind loved ones — and yourself — to take time to smell the piñon fires, see the lights, and experience the message of love that inspires this blessed season.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Superweekend & other holiday fun

2011-11-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Christmas comes earlier every year. In southern New Mexico, it also gets more action-packed. This Friday, we move into full-tilt holiday fiesta season with Superweekend activities that include Winterfest Downtown and the popular shop-til-you-drop, three-day La Casa Bazaar at the Las Cruces Convention Center.
But that’s just the beginning. There are many more events on the horizon this weekend.
• If you’re in the mood for a little road trip and want alternatives to the big Las Cruces bashes on Friday, White Sands National Monument Open House features live music, luminarias around the historic adobe visitor center, and interpretive programs from 5 to 8 p.m. It’s free. Info: (575) 575-679-2599 ext. 236. ww.nps.gov/whsa/
• The annual Hillsboro Christmas celebration, Christmas in the Foothills, runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the picturesque nearby mountain village, with handmade gifts, homemade pastries, live music, Lawrence Tedrow’s Clydesdale horses and the popular $49.99 Art Show and Sale.
• Catch the comedy “Nuncrackers,” by Dan Goggin and directed by Dale Pawley, Friday through Dec. 18 at Las Cruces Community Theatre, 313 N. Downtown Mall. Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets, at $5 to $10: (575) 523-1200. http://lcctnm.org
• The Black Box Theatre, 430 N. Downtown Mall, offers “Private Fears in Public Places,” by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Ceil Herman from Friday through Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays. For tickets, at $7 to $10: (575) 523-1223. www.no-strings.org
• The Border Artists and the Unsettled Gallery, 905 N. Mesquite St., celebrate the holiday season with a special art event, “The Border Artists & Friends Go Ornamental,” with a gala opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday Dec. 2, and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.
• Laughing at the Sun Two Arts & Crafts Christmas Bazaar runs from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at Mikey’s Place, 3100 Harrelson in Mesilla Park. A Friday fashion show will feature clothing by Georjeanna Feltha. Kids and pets can pose with Santa Claus from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday and check out fine arts and crafts by local artists. Info: (575) 640-3869 www.mikeysplacenm.com.
Pace yourself and mark your calendars. There are school and church pageants on the horizon and there’s still time to help out as a volunteer or maybe even a participant.
• Los Pastores Del Valle de Mesilla, a traditional Christmas pageant presented by generations of family members in Mesilla, marks its 50th anniversary this year with a performance at 7 p.m. Dec. 17 at San Albino Basilica on the Mesilla Plaza. If your family is part of the tradition, or you’d like to start a tradition of your own, show up for rehearsals at 3:30 p.m. this Sunday and Dec. 4 and 11 at San Albino Basilica. Actors, singers and musicians of all ages are welcome. For information, call Joe Provencio at (575) 523-6174.
The weekend of Dec. 9 through 11 is almost as action-packed as superweekend. On Dec. 9, celebrate Mesilla Christmas Tree Lighting and shopping late. On Dec. 10, it’s time for the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park third anniversary celebration from 3 to 7 p.m. with luminarias at 4:30 p.m., plus Fort Selden’s Luminaria Tour and the annual Luminaria Beachwalk & Floating Parade of Lights Elephant Butte, also the scene of an arts and crafts sale.
First Baptist Church, 106 E. Miranda St. presents its Living Christmas Tree Concert with performances Dec. 10 through 13. Info: (575) 524-3691.
Because much of it falls on a weekend, larger crowds than usual are expected for the annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta at Tortugas Dec. 10 to 12. The Tortugas Mountain pilgrimage will be on Dec. 11, with dancing and feasting on Dec. 12, all centered at Tortugas Pueblo.
The Piro-Manso-Tiwa Tribe will have dancing and feast days Dec. 10 and 12 this year at St. Genevieve’s Catholic Church.
And later in December, the Las Cruces Chamber Ballet’s presentation of “Nutcracker,” at 7 p.m. Dec. 15 to 17 and 2 p.m. Dec. 18 at NMSU’s Atkinson Hall.
Hanukkah begins at sundown Dec. 20. Kwanzaa is Dec. 26.
Many will plan to join for caroling and luminarias Christmas Eve on the Mesilla Plaza.
There will be other luminaria displays in the territory, several concerts, art sales, and lots more. To stay clued in, keep checking Friday and Sunday Sun-Life sections, see Pulse in every Thursday’s Sun-News, or visit online at www.lcsun-news and click on Entertainment, Pulse and Things To Do.
Happy holidays.

Inspiring dreams for a new generation..or..Does this tour van have flight capability?

2011-11-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES— I was okay — and still righteously blasé — until we got out on the Spaceport America runway.
I looked out at the portentous gray strip stretching enticingly in front of us, and up at the wild blue yonder my aircraft engineer, U.S. Army Air Corps pilot daddy used to sing about.
“Does this vehicle have flight capability?” I hopefully asked our leader, Mark Bleth, as he piloted our Follow the Sun Tours van down the evocative, sparkling-new 10,000-foot Spaceport runway.
He laughed and assumed full-tilt launch position and for a magical moment, I thought I’d convinced him to give it a go.
Unfortunately, a pair of buzz-kill Spaceport security guys intervened to tell us tour busses are no longer allowed on the runway, so that’s not a transcendent experience you’ll be able to share if you take the Spaceport tour.
But there’s still a lot to make it worthwhile for you, your kids and grandkids. And I was a hard sell, mind you. About a decade ago, when I got vaguely seasick and claustrophobic just watching an IMAX simulated spaceflight at Tombaugh Planetarium, I realized I’m not particularly eager to head for space myself. I’ll wait for my next lifetime, thanks anyway, when they’ve gotten the bugs out, the price down and some creature comforts built into our space cruises.
Frankly, I can’t think of any conditions in which I could not find better use for $200,000 than a two-hour space jaunt. And though in the end I caved and voted for it, I had serious reservations about allocating county tax dollars to Spaceport in a time of so many earthly needs.
And yet ...
I had a moment of temptation when Bleth talked about the development of sister spaceports in places like Dubai and Switzerland, and the possibility that we might soon make an up-and-down flight that would take us from Spaceport America to, say, Spaceport New Zealand, in two hours, about the time of a round-trip from Las Cruces to the El Paso Airport.
And there on that now-forbidden runway, surrounded by Jetson-ish architecture, I flash-backed to childhood memories.
Sputnik. Telstar (the hit instrumental song inspired by satellite sounds). Worrying with my childhood buddies about the monkeys and dogs drafted for first astronaut duties. Wehner von Braun guest starring on the Mickey Mouse Club, prompting neighborhood kids to try their own rocket launches.
Space race. The phrase inspired the Greatest Generation to build big schools and labs and beef up science programs for us Baby Boomers.
There was all the hype about the space program-related technological discoveries that would enhance our daily lives. Standouts included a pen that would write at any angle, if I remember right, and the iconic Tang, that too-sweet orange juice substitute with an icky, chalky texture and a vile aftertaste. But we all clamored for it, because it was what the astronauts drank in space.
It was all pretty darn exciting, even for those of us who knew early on that our futures were linked to the liberal arts rather than the rapidly evolving sciences.
Space fired our imaginations. We made paper cartons into space capsules and rockets and explored the universe in our own backyards. We flocked to sci-fi movies. Some of us wrote our own sci-fi stories and poems and music and even went on to create works like “ET,” “Close Encounters,” “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.”
And some of us, including the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, were inspired to commit to science and technology in a big way, ushering in the computer age and innovations in everything from communications and transportation to medicine.
We dreamed of things that never were, and they came to be. And yes, our daily lives were transformed.
We have many problems, and they’re pressing.
And Spaceport won’t solve them. But maybe it will inspire some visionary souls to dream of new frontiers, new solutions, and a better life shared on our little blue planet.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Spaceport America needs great art

2011-11-15T15:31:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Space culture could be a great deal for us all.
My autumn vacation included admiring the NASA art exhibit at the Las Cruces Museum of Art and a visit to Spaceport America.
I’ll be writing about my adventures soon and will tell you how you can book a behind-the-scenes tour yourself. (If you just can’t wait, contact Follow the Sun Tours at (866) 428-4786 or www.ftstours.com.)
But in the meantime, I’d like to alert area artists — and the Spaceport America powers-that-be — to some major potential art ops.
Richard Branson already inaugurated his exciting new terminal with some performance art of his own (including rappelling down the Jetson-ish building himself).
But there’s a wealth of opportunity in the blank canvas that is Spaceport America, which seemed to me to be calling — nay, screaming — for some artistic expression. And we have the perfect, internationally-renowned artists nearby.
There’s a water tank just waiting for maestro Tony Pennock’s special touch.
Stephen Hansen’s sculptures are in the Smithsonian and embassies, airports, museums and galleries around the world. He’s a spaceport natural.
Ever since I was in charge of art programs for Florida’s then-brand-new Palm Beach International Airport, I’ve been yearning to festoon a runway with poetry and profound quotes. I couldn’t talk the stuffy Palm Beach folks into that, but with all the famed poets, playwrights and authors in our area and what I’d think would be less demanding regulations for sporadic space flights, couldn’t we send our civilian astronauts off with some uplifting bons mots? And maybe some runway masterpieces by artist Bob Diven, whose repertory includes award-winning chalk masterpieces, if you insist on something less permanent.
How about a concert series? We had Harvard glee clubs, Yale Whiffenpoofs, Eastman School of Music chamber music ensembles and renowned jazz bands and gospel choirs flying in for the day to entertain passengers in Florida.
With Branson’s Virgin Music connections, I’ll bet we could lure some top names in for Spaceport music fests, with or without launches on the agenda.
I’m usually a proponent of public art competitions that are open to all, but in this case, I’d like to see our tax investment (New Mexico’s in general, and Sierra County’s and Doña Ana County’s in particular) acknowledged with a permanent and rotating art collection featuring regional artists in Spaceport America buildings and grounds.
With $90 million in reservations already booked for the first civilian flights, it’s clear that we will be attracting folks with lots of disposable income. If they can afford $200,000 for a quick space jaunt, surely they would could be in the market for some fine art souvenirs. And it wouldn’t be nice to have some of our top artists represented in a Spaceport gallery that might entice visitors to visit galleries in nearby Las Cruces, Mesilla, Truth or Consequences and Silver City?
I’d love to see a committee formed to explore the cultural possibilities of Spaceport. Between launches, it could be a very inspiring site for everything from music festivals to art exhibitions and maybe even an innovative play or two.
In the meantime, if you want examples of great ways space and art can partner up, see how world-renowned artists explore the final frontier in “NASA Art: 50 Years of Exploration,” running through Jan. 21 at the Las Cruces Museum of Art on the Downtown Mall. The Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit features works from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and National Air and Space Museum archives, including some scenes inspired by space exploration scenarios in our part of the world.
We’ve already hosted some intriguing scientific and educational symposiums in conjunction with the development of Spaceport America. I’d love to see New Mexico’s extraordinary cultural and arts organizations find expressive ways to fire imaginations and express our creative talents.
I still remember, as a small child, watching the first space launches and hearing my artist mom and poetic, aircraft engineer dad muse that it would be nice if we could send artistic astronauts into space to share their insights with us all.
This time, with the civilian wave, I think we should find ways for artistic souls to get in on the ground floor of the Spaceport to help inspire us all to keep looking up.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

More Secrets of the Universe

2011-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Last week, in Secrets of the Universe No. 1, I shared some of the perils and aggravations that come with parenthood and aging.
This week, let’s focus on the perks.
Some people think that life stories get less interesting and plot possibilities decrease as you get older. Those people are wrong.
Some of the most entertaining children of a lifetime may come into an enlightened woman’s world after her childbearing years have passed, along with passionate love, amazing adventures, unexpected, even startling successes, and maybe even some extraordinary and revolutionary creative concepts.
As we get older and — especially — wiser (alas, the two traits don’t always go together), the more likely we are to see potentials, make connections and skillfully navigate the critical passageways of life.
As the mantle of age descends upon your shoulders, so, too, if you’ve lived boldly and with integrity, do some secrets of the universe.
Here are a few I’ve collected.
The price of awareness is awareness.
The more some people feel out of control, the more they try to control others. Do your best to stay out of the knee-jerk controller category. It’s always best to get your own house in order before you attempt to order someone else’s chaos.
Learning and teaching are perpetually rewarding. Do your best to keep up with the latest technologies. Get your kids and grandkids to teach you. In return, teach them that sometimes the greatest luxury in the 21st century is being out of touch. Now and then, turn off the computers and smart phones and maintain voice and text silence, even if it’s just for the space of a half-hour, single-tasking nature walk.
There is a delicate balance between striking when the iron is hot, and waiting for the right ship to come in. (If you have a few miles on your sports car and notches on your belt, you aren’t so likely to fear the wrath of the mixed metaphor police.)
Communication sometimes trumps style, and getting the point across is more important than “proper” forms.
On the other hand, you may be willing to fight for proper form every now and again. Especially when the form is related to some really important concept like courtesy and respect.
But I always try to keep R.W. Emerson’s wise maxim in mind: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”
Anger is something else you don’t fear as much as you grow older. You learn when to turn the other cheek, but you also learn when it doesn’t serve anyone to let a bully have his or her way. Bullying harms everyone, including, long-term, the bully.
There is also a great power in righteous indignation. Unlike the anger fueled by emotions like hate and prejudice, which ultimately destroy, anger on behalf of a good cause can be energizing, cleansing and even healthy. Since human beings are good at fooling themselves, however, it’s safest to be sure your anger is righteous, always easier when you are fighting for someone else, for a cause from which you do not benefit directly and intimately.
Service is untimately more rewarding than selfishness.
Free-ranging, fearless friendship can be another dividend that comes with maturity.
With age you learn that the risks most worth taking are not physical or financial, but emotional, spiritual and intellectual. Never be afraid to reach out to new people, new cultures and new ideas.
“There is much coldness among men because we do not dare to be as cordial as we truly are,” Albert Schweitzer said.
Declare yourself. Speak out. Love and courage expand your world, hate and cowardice contract it.
At every stage of life, there can be moments of pure joy. Learn to recognize, appreciate and savor them.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Protesting arrogance and greed brings hope

2011-10-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

LAS CRUCES — Tenny Hale said the spiritual diseases of our era are arrogance and greed.
The major maladies of her Great Depression-World War II era, Hale said, were innocence and ignorance. And many of what Tom Brokaw would later term “the greatest generation” helped us find the “cures:” experience and education.
It’s not over yet, but I think I can already confirm that 2011 has been one of the toughest years many of us have ever seen.
But this fall, things are looking up. Whatever else happens, it’s somehow uplifting to see crowds flocking to the streets in cities all over the county to protest arrogance and greed.
It’s a breath of fresh air. Especially after the endless, selfish ME generation reign of self-absorbed terror. After surviving the materialistic 1980s and ‘90s. After the “official” rulings that “corporations are people.” (If so, what can we do to encourage them to be wise, compassionate and caring “people”?)
Are cures on the horizon for the diseases of arrogance and greed?
The diagnosis always has to come first. And that seems to be what a lot of people are concerned about these days, in social network-inspired protests and gatherings all over the world.
I followed our local protests at NMSU with interest and conferred with a good friend, former Las Crucen Cecilia Lewis, about what’s happening near her current home in New York City.
We had some philosophical discussions about what comes next, after the Arab Spring and the Tea Party and the current new round of protests.
The words of ancient sages came to mind: “Work on what has been spoiled” and “After enlightenment comes the laundry.”
“Maybe it’s time to stop, take some time and get together and decide what we want next for the world,” Cecilia said.
One of the few things that is clear in this murky era is that a lot of what we’ve been doing isn’t working, or needs repair and a fresh approach.
Major changes are happening in virtually every area of our lives, from the way we do our jobs and make our living to the ways we enjoy and purchase (or steal, alas, for the tech-savvy unscrupulous) music, films and books.
And those of us who have been alive long enough to see monumental change and keep our wits about us, realize that the capacity to transform our world is also increasing by leaps and bounds.
Change being life’s only constant, there is no choice about whether we’ll make changes, but we still have something to say about what, where, how and when.
Wouldn’t it be wise to have more local, national and international conversations about the future of everything from education to economic systems?
We might start with some paradigms that focus on better rather than bigger, on smart repair, regrowth and remodeling strategies, on creative conservation instead of wasteful, destructive, endless expansion.
We all seem to agree that in mature human beings, unbridled growth for the sake of growth is definitely not a good thing (consider cancer and morbid obesity, for instance). Might we not follow the same principle in mature human economies and societies?
Protest is great, and it’s the crucial diagnostic phase of what ails us. While we’re protesting, I hope we’ll devote some sit-in time to thoughtful pondering of where we’ve come from, where we are and where we’re headed.
We could even come up with some remedies for arrogance and greed and the messes they’ve gotten us into. With some steady doses of thoughtful humility, generosity and compassion and as much cooperative collective wisdom as we can muster, we just might be able to come up with cures that will leave upcoming generations with a better world.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Dead Day 101

2011-10-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

Dead Day 101
By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
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 18 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 graphic artist and political cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada.
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 on 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 Oct. 29 and 30 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 Dia 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. Sometimes 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 usually 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 can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Here's to First Amendment Rights

2011-10-06T07:28:00.001-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — I’ll start by explaining that I’m not a pagan myself, but I am an American and a fan of the U.S. Constitution, so I’ll defend to the end your right to be a pagan, along with all other First Amendment freedoms.
In these contentious (and these days, seemingly endless) election season sieges, I always welcome the opportunity to refresh us all on the basis of one of my fave amendments.
The mnemonic devise that helps me remember the basic concepts is “GRASP” your First Amendment freedoms.” (Capitalization of the five key freedoms is mine): “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of Religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of Speech, or of the Press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of Grievances.”
A full disclosure note, in the spirit of freedom of speech, press and religion: I’m a Christian myself.
But when I looked up some of the definitions of “pagan,” I found a lot that I, and I suspect many of us, whatever our current professed religions, could sympathize with in our spiritual journeys through life.
“A person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions,” is a definition I can identify with, as a Christian who works hard to adhere to the original Biblical teachings of Christ, which are often distressingly distant from the behaviors and practices of many professed practitioners of Christianity.
Paganism in its early history has always seemed more innocent than demonic to me. There is a sensuality and admiration for nature and all of creation that can — and usually has, in the evolution of most of our religions today —veered into hedonism.
And yes, there are historical incidents of bloodlust, human sacrifice and other manifestations of violence in many of the “pagan” cultures from which most of us trace our roots today, from Mayan and Aztec and numerous tribes in the Americas to the ancient beliefs of indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Australian, the Middle East, Polynesia, and my own mostly European heritage of Norsemen and Celts.
I wish I could say that we’ve outgrown all that in the “enlightened” world of our major world religions today, but, alas, no way.
And religious misunderstandings and closed-mindedness persist, though most Las Crucens seem more inclined toward gentle discussions than do the entrenched souls in other places I’ve lived.
Still, I’ve heard diatribes against out-of-the-ordinary spiritual beliefs, even those of fictional characters like Harry Potter (almost always from those who have never read the books and experienced their epic tales of courage in monumental good vs. evil conflicts).
I’ve overheard impassioned debates about the dangers of Halloween, the “heathen” practices of Dia de los Muertos and even charges that any interest in saints amounts to pagan polytheism. Some sourpusses are even irked by the Tooth Fairy.
American Indians dedicated to preservation of their traditions and conservation of their lands for future generations and environmentalists fighting the pollution of land, air and water have been condemned as “wanton pagans” and “godless tree-huggers.” (All too often, in my experience, by those seeking to exploit the very resources that conscientious souls are working to protect.)
I’m not sure what their official religious affiliations are, but I feel blessed to have so many people in my life who have strengthened my own faith and fortified my hopes by sharing the wisdom of their lives and cultures.
I’ll always appreciate Hector Telles, a poet with Apache heritage who shared the ecological, Golden rule philosophy that “We all live downstream.”
Dia de los Muertos celebrations have helped many of us come to terms with untimely and agonizing deaths, and to find a measure of peace with the “celebration of lives well-lived” and a gentle, sometimes humorous and matter-of-fact faith in the afterlife that is the cornerstone of most major religions.
As a God-fearing tree-hugger myself, and a big fan of Dia de los Muertos and the Pueblo Indian traditions I’ve been privileged to share, I am grateful to live in New Mexico, where a spirit of open-mindedess, tolerance and a genuine enthusiasm and appreciation for diversity and new experience results in a rich multicultural environment that makes life more creative, interesting and fulfilling for us all.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Halloween is getting old ...and those who love it are getting older

2011-09-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — It could be the early deadline pressures, or maybe it’s just that real life has gotten so scary.
Somehow, I had trouble getting in the mood for Halloween this year. As I made the early rounds in September to research stories, I found I wasn’t alone.
In some quarters, the moods I encountered were akin to Christmas levels of angst and depression.
Or maybe it’s a generational thing.
I love Christmas, and motherhood and grandmotherhood have only enhanced my passion for my favorite holiday, much, I suspect, to the displeasure of my Grinchy friends and relatives.
But I must admit, I haven’t ever felt quite the same way about Halloween. And my interest dropped further when I, like most Baby Boomers and earlier generations, put away what were then considered childish things, like Halloween, around age 11 or 12.
But in recent years, the ages limits have lapsed. Halloween enthusiasms seem to peak in young adulthood and threaten to flourish well into middle age and beyond. In many surveys, adults list Halloween as their favorite holiday, surpassing all other celebrations by healthy margins — even Christmas, gasp!
In fact, most of the local costume emporiums seem to be frequented by a lot more adults and teens these days. If you encounter a family shopping with young children, chances are they’re looking for costumes for everybody: mom, dad, the kids and maybe a pet or two.
Some of the displays are decidedly adult, too, featuring oo-la-la sexy ensembles, scatological and verging-on-blue outfits and props and gore so extreme that many items could induce all-ages nightmares. It might be worth a preliminary scouting trip before you take the little kids on costume expeditions.
And adults are really into decorating, too. People start planning their gore décor months in advance and Halloween displays and specialty stores now typically offer their scary wares by early August or late July.
We may soon find ourselves planning for Halloween in the spring, if it follows the jump-the-gun pattern of year-end holidays … or perpetual presidential and congressional campaigns, speaking of scary concepts.
Backing up the polls revealing massive voter discontent, there is also Halloween-related evidence that the public has soured on politicians.
Masks of political leaders, usually early best-sellers, are gathering dust this year. Obama isn’t moving, and neither are masks of Bush or Clinton. Even Abraham Lincoln and George Washington masks are being ignored in favor of various superheroes, zombies and Angry Birds.
Maybe this is the year we should all go minimalist and punch a couple of holes in an old sheet and be ghosts. Or send a message by donning deathly green hands or feet and adding masks of our least-favorite political figures to become zombie politicians.
Personally, I’m working on minimizing stress and maximizing limited, recessionary budgets with some year-round seasonal decorating strategies.
We all know those people who wait several months to take their Christmas lights down. Why not invest in programmable LED lights that will work for every holiday?
We could flash red and green for Christmas, segue into just red for Valentine’s day, green for St. Patrick’s Day, purple and pastels for Easter, red, white and blue for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, orange and black for Halloween, blue and white for Hanukkah … you get the idea.
Let me know if you have some great ideas for simplifying holiday excess. And have a happy, basic Halloween.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Las Cruces is a cultural mecca

2011-09-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Did Las Cruces become the cultural capital of New Mexico when no one was looking?
A case could be made.
The Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra is the largest symphony orchestra in the state, with the demise of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in April.
The Las Cruces Chamber Ballet is the oldest continuously operating ballet company in the state.
We have more theater companies than Santa Fe and, depending on who’s doing the counting, may be neck and neck with Albuquerque, or even up by a troupe or two. And neither the Duke City nor the City Different can compete with us in the “Broadway of the Southwest” department. New Mexico State University has Hershel Zohn Theatre, Creative Media Institute’s little gem of a theater, the Atkinson Music Center Recital Hall, and the upcoming yet-to-be-christened Performing Arts Center. Nearby, University Avenue’s new Las Cruces Convention Center is increasingly used as an arts and performance venue, and just down Espina Street is Boba Cabaret, hosting revues and comedy performances.
Our revitalized downtown now has three major performing arts venues: the restored Rio Grande Theatre, Las Cruces Community Theatre and the Black Box.
And we have the talent to fill these venues with skilled performers and original productions by a glittering and growing roster of playwrights, from Tony Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated Mark Medoff to gifted playwrights like Bob Diven, Irene Oliver-Lewis and a new group of young talents emerging from workshops and mentoring relationships here.
And speaking of writers, I’m not even going to attempt a list or I’ll run out of space. Suffice it to say that Denise Chávez, herself a multi-award-winning author, could schedule year-round Border Book Festival events without venturing outside city borders.
CMI, great locations, local trained film crews and other resources continue to attract big budget film productions and sustain and nurture a healthy and burgeoning indy film community.
Our literary, music and dance communities are outstanding. We have world-renowned poets and dancers who excel in everything from flamenco and folklorica to innovative and award-winning modern and aerial routines. Our governor (Las Cruces’ own Susana Martinez) won a ballroom dance competition.
Our neighbors to the north, to give them their due, produce a quartet of world-renowned festivals (Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta, Santa Fe’s Indian Market, Spanish Market and Folk Art Market).
But we have dozens of festivals and cultural celebrations that have defined and redefined the way New Mexicans think about our diverse culture and ourselves, from the recently honored Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference and February for the Love of Art Month to Doña Ana Arts Council’s Renaissance ArtsFaire, their new Color Las Cruces Plein Arts Festival and Mesilla’s Dia de Los Muertos, Diez y Seis, Border Book, Cinco de Mayo and Jazz Happening, along with spiritually uplifting, artistic and traditional gatherings from Tortugas to Doña Ana.
Mesilla and, increasingly, the downtown cultural corridor, are vibrant, thriving cultural centers in themselves. Original arts abound in galleries and outdoor markets. Arts and crafts are a big part of the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market, just named No. 1 in the nation for big markets.
I can’t think of a city in the state, despite tough competition from big money enterprises up north, that can match us for diversity of museum offerings, with NMSU boasting Williams and Kent halls and the Zuhl Collection and several exhibit areas on campus.
Four expanding city museums are devoted to history, art, railroads and natural history. Three museums within an easy drive celebrate space exploration and the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum pays tributes to centuries of our unique cultural roots.
And what other city our size can claim two recent bequests of extraordinary homes to become major museums? J. Paul Taylor and his late wife Mary have promised us their unique Mesilla Plaza adobe home and spectacular arts and crafts collection.
Kent and Sallie Ritter Jacobs will leave us a modern architectural masterpiece with some intriguing collections. Dr. Jacobs, an author himself, by the way, was just named to the Museums of New Mexico Board of Regents, further extending our influence. He’s served with MNM for 12 years, five as board president and was a guiding force in creating the New Mexico History Museum.
Our colony of cutting edge artists is steadily growing and we have half a dozen thriving art tours to prove it, from the monthly Ramble and Camino del Arte to a variety of annual artists’ studio tours, citywide and in emerging area arts districts.
We have alma y corazon and a city of sweet, passionate and creative people who connect to their muses with a backdrop of the Organs, one of the planet’s most intriguing and inspiring mountain ranges.
There’s more, but I think that’s enough to call it. Las Cruces is evolving into the cultural capital of New Mexico — and one of the best places in the world to live while you’re being creative.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Home, sweet cubicle home

2011-09-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Ah, home, sweet vine-covered cubicle.
I’ve worked in plush Palm Beach offices that had more square footage than some of my apartments, with swans and indoor lagoons and hanging gardens. I’ve worked by actual lagoons, on a primitive laptop on an oceanfront beach in Jamaica.
I’ve worked in home offices in expanded closets and basements and bedroom nooks.
I’ve worked in trains, boats and private planes, in classrooms, auditoriums, convention centers and hotel office complexes all over the world.
And I’ve worked in many newsrooms and communication centers in Germany, Michigan, New York, Portland, Oregon, Florida and New Mexico. (They were all remarkably similar: vast open expanses of keyboards, chatter, ringing phones, conference tables and camaraderie.) And those of us who’ve had our own offices from time to time, always felt part of the newsroom flocks, because the offices of even the surliest, most reclusive editors always had large windows, (overlooking the rest of the newsroom) and open doors.
I’ve managed to live a rich, full lifetime, spanning many decades, states, countries and vocations, without ever working in a cubicle.
Until now. While we wait for our shiny new Sun-News building, we’ve settled into our interim headquarters on 715 E. Idaho Ave., with a shipment of high-end cubicles (mine has three windows) that will go with us to our new digs.
It’s early days yet, but I can already see a new cubicle culture developing.
We are learning new ways, as we wend our way through the newsroom cubical maze. Editor Jim Lawitz noted that he feels like he’s addressing a prairie dog colony, as he summoned us for a company meeting and curious heads popped up behind gray walls.
I feel more in tune with cetacean analogies. I remember, in my Florida days, learning about “spy-hopping,” the wassup? strategy of whales and porpoises, a behavior that consists of rising vertically out of the water, head first, and rotating to scan the entire surrounding area.
When it comes to cubicles, I’m caught in Robert Front’s “Mending Wall” paradox: “Good fences make good neighbors” wars with “Something there is that doesn’t love a fence.”
Maybe we’re suffering a bit of post-Diaspora stress syndrome, as we’ve moved, after the fire, to various refugee settlements in hotel ballrooms and new configurations in interim offices.
In our new world of cubicles, we wander more, seeking our long-lost amigos. And we probably phone and text and e-mail more than we shout these days, which always seems silly to me, when we’re still just a few feet away from one another.
Frances Silva and I have shared a sightline for 15 years. Now a gray cubicle wall divides us, and I miss her.
Cubicle communication strategies remind me of old Walton episodes: disembodied voices poignantly calling over gray walls: “Goodnight, Frances. Goodnight, Walt. Goodnight John-Boy.”
Being newsguys, we aren’t in regimented lines. I’m not sure how the cubical configurations were determined, but we are already establishing our little fiefdoms.
Jason Gibbs, Lucas Peerman and Christine Rogel have named their cubicle trio the Mod Pod.
“You should really move here. It could be an all-blonde Mod Pod,” Lucas told me.
But I’m happily ensconced in the Aquarian Enclave, where everyone was born on Feb. 7 (Norm Dettlaff and me) or gave birth on that day (Robin Zielinski, our kingdom’s Queen Mom, I figure).
It’s only been a few weeks, but I’ve already added the aforementioned vines, two pepper plants … and I finally figured out how to hang art on fabric walls (sticky Velcro dots).
Now, I’m thinking about flags and banners, light shows and other signaling devises.
Creative, well-rounded souls in square abodes will find ways to make this cubicle wilderness a home.

+++++Any tips for making cubicle life more comfortable, efficient, artistic or fun? Let me know.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

9/11 in the newsroom

2011-09-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — It was one of those dates you never forget, like the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor for my parents’ generation and the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy for Baby Boomers.
As usual, I was the first one in the newsroom, very early the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the calls began. At first, the wire, radio and TV reports suggested a freak accident, but when the second plane hit the Twin Towers, we knew something big was up. Within a couple of hours, the Pentagon was hit and the fourth hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania.
Within minutes of the first attack, I was on the phone to then-editor Harold Cousland and our publisher, Michael Bush, who told me to call every staff member I could reach and get them into the newsroom.
“If they have to, tell them can bring their kids and we’ll have someone here to take care of them,” Michael said.
Within an hour, most of us were gathered and we’d awoken the photographers and pressmen. The editors started planning a special edition and reporters were sent out to get stories that ranged from security measures at regional military bases to comments from the public.
I headed out to the New Mexico State University campus and Walmart, where many heard the news for the first time from me.
Gathering comments for that special edition, written and on the streets in just a few hours, and for other stories in the next 12 hours, I was impressed with the cosmopolitan response I found here in Las Cruces.
I met students from other countries who had been through terrorist attacks.
Elaine Szalay referred me to some knowledgeable retired and active military personnel, one of whom told me he thought Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks, information that scooped the major news networks.
Other memories tend to blend together in a haze, but it was the deeply personal things that come to mind a decade later.
There were serious and sometimes frightening conversations with little kids, including grandson Alex the Great, then 5 years old, who looked up in the sky and wondered if airplanes would crash into their houses or apartment buildings.
I remember a poignant comment from my nephew, Adam, who was born on Sept. 11 and wondered if his birthday would forever be associated with a national disaster. As fate would have it, his life would be affected in other profound ways by that day. As an M.D. and U.S. Air Force officer, he would go on to serve in Afghanistan.
I also remember, in the crush of those first days, the interview that impelled me to retreat to my car for tissues.
Frank Parrish was the first person from Las Cruces I’d met who had lost a relative in the Twin Towers: a young mother just returned to work, who was still nursing her baby.
There were more tears, shed by many in the audience at an NMSU Choral Department concert, when conductor Jerry Ann Alt interrupted the program to ask us to join in singing anthems from each branch of the U.S. military, and invited any veterans in the audience to stand as we sang “their” songs. World War II Army and Navy veterans, young Marines and visiting Air Force pilots all stood proudly. There weren’t many dry eyes in the house after that medley.
It was a sad, surreal time. Commercial and private airplanes were grounded. Survivors were sought. Terrorist suspects and plots were investigated. Attempts were made to make sense out of the senseless. Artist Kelley Hestir, at a time when revenge slogans filled the air, created a peaceful image she called “Earth Angel”: a portrait of our planet under a hovering halo. Flags were waved.
Benefits for survivors were planned, and so were two wars — the nation’s longest — that continue to impact our lives every day, in many ways.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, or get on the Las Cruces Style e-mail list, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

The old hometown has changed

2011-09-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Sometimes you don’t realize how much the old querencia has changed until you try to describe some of your favorite places and events to friends, like some good amigos who had moved from Mesilla about a decade ago.
I was planning their visit over this Labor Day weekend when I realized a lot of things I wanted to share with them didn’t exist a few years — or even a few months — ago.
There are lots of new people, places and things to catch up on, I told them, but realized they’d be most surprised by the Downtown Mall.
Or that’s what most of us are still calling it, which is why that’s how we refer to it most of the time in the Las Cruces Sun-News, though we are regularly admonished by various factions who’d like us all to refer to our new and improved corazon as Historic Las Cruces MainStreet Downtown. Or just Main Street.
“Eventually, I guess we’ll want to call it the Main Street Downtown Arts & Cultural District,” suggests Ceci Vasconcellos, director of the Doña Ana Arts Council.
Kind of a mouthful, but a Downtown Mall by any other name is still looking very good these days.
I suggested that my amigos come visit on one of our art tour weekends. How about making a day of it at Camino del Arte, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the second Saturday of each month? It’s a great way to spend a fall day, after a visit to our expanded, award-winning (tops in state and nationwide contests) Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market. The market is spectacular in its newest incarnation, with hundreds of vendors and no ugly metal awnings to obscure the view. And you’ll be surprised to see how Mesquite is evolving into our own little version of Santa Fe’s famed Canyon Road, with growing numbers of unique artists studios and galleries.
Or come during the Ramble from 5 to 7 p.m. the first Friday of each month. Stroll, listen to music in galleries or on the street, bust a dance move, and stay for open mics and the Coyote Coffee House and maybe catch a play or special event at the Black Box, the Las Cruces Community Theatre or the Rio Grande.
Visit some impressive galleries and exhibits at the Las Cruces Art Museum and the Branigan Cultural Center. Before long, the Las Cruces Natural History Museum will join the quartet of city museums (don’t forget the Las Cruces Railroad Museum) located downtown.
Take a walk on the newly renovated north Main Street block and visit attractions both old (Coas Bookstore, one of the biggest and best new & used bookstores in the U.S.) and new, including the Las Cruces City Hall, some new galleries and the expanded Branigan Memorial Library.
My erstwhile Las Cruces buddies were amazed when I rattled off downtown dining choices that range from Hawaiian to Mexican, Southwestern-Continental and lots more. Think we still roll up our sidewalks at 6 p.m.? Let’s share a treat at S.B.'s Late-night Lunch Box.
Or let’s people-watch and — at last — dine al fresco. Remember where the Popular used to be? Let’s try pizza at Zeffiro’s/Popular Artisan Bakery, or a gourmet salad at La Iguana in the other half of what used to be our fave department store.
If it’s market day (Wednesday or Saturday), we can grab a green chile burrito, a fresh grilled green chile Swiss cheesburger, a delicate veggie spring roll, or our choice of several other treats, and have an impromptu picnic on a park bench or enjoy the last shady days of the big, beautiful Chinese Pistache tree on the soon-to-be renovated south end of the Downtown Mall.
Maybe we’ll mosey over to La Placita next to La Iguana and check out the progress of the grape arbor and the epic mosaic mural being constructed by Glenn Schweiger and his students and volunteers. Or see how the Las Cruces Downtown Partnership is coming along with a project to paint Downtown Mall buildings with a palette of warm, sophisticated Southwestern colors.
There are many delights in the heart of our city these days, and more are in the works.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Fiesta fun takes lots of work

2011-08-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Porta-potties. Wind-resistant trash receptacles. Crowd shelters and evacuation routes in the event of thunderstorms, high winds, extreme heat and fire. Security measures. Traffic flow and control. Renaissance costumes you can wear — and work in — at high noon without getting heatstroke.
When you think “fiesta,” those probably aren’t the things that come to mind first, if at all.
Festival organizers often manage to make the best good times seem effortless, but the truth is, they’re not. It takes a village — or at least a good part of the population of smaller towns and villages — to field a great fiesta, and their efforts deserve praise and appreciation.
I know. I’ve looked at fiestas from all sides now. I’ve written newspaper and magazine features about some of our nation’s most impressive festivals throughout the United States, in Europe and the Caribbean.
Fiesta genes run in the family. I’ve planned and promoted festivals myself from Portland, Ore., to South Florida. My son has starred in gatherings with his rock bands that drew tens of thousands in large venues. And he’s gone on to handle organization, tech services, talent booking and stage management for venues that ranged from a jazz fest in Mesilla to holiday light shows and concert series in the Pacific Northwest.
Maybe that’s why our personal family gatherings tend to be on the small side, scheduled during off-season in uncrowded areas. We love fiestas, but we gave our all at the office and have the fiesta battle stories to prove it. Remember the belly dancer who lost her 8-foot python at the airport grand opening? The fiestas we had to reschedule because of hurricanes, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions? Aughhh.
That said, I still love fiestas and I’m delighted to live in a place that produces some of the best festivals I’ve had the pleasure of attending.
It’s even more impressive when you consider that we don’t have the big budgets many considerably less entertaining cities enjoy.
In fact, volunteers have been the driving and inspirational forces behind our most spectacular fiesta success stories.
In recent years, professional events organizers and coordinators have emerged, like the crack staff at Helping Hands, along with some savvy and sophisticated nonprofit organization administrators and planners, professional caterers and experienced entertainment bookers.
Resources like the Doña Ana Arts Council, the Las Cruces Convention and Visitors Bureau and city special events coordinators in Las Cruces and Mesilla have offered advice and assistance to many fledgling events about what can be a perplexing number of issues to be considered, from venue choices to timing.
Even old fiesta hands sometimes forget to check to make sure they aren’t booking their event at the same time as several other soirees likely to draw on the same audience. Go to the LCCVB website at www.lascrucescvb.org and check out annual and monthly events calendars before you set the date and print the posters — and remember to get your info to them (and as many calendars as possible, including ours) as soon as you commit to your fiesta timetable.
The pros help a lot, but volunteers are still the backbone of our favorite fiestas. They keep coming up with new ideas, energy and enthusiasm and the make-or-break help that can transform an event.
It’s a great deal for volunteers, too. Choose an event that interests you and you could enjoy perks that range from a free T-shirt and enchilada to a balloon ride or new friendships with kindred souls.
Festivals are a source of fun, culture and community, and also raise money for a variety of worthy causes and offer economic benefits for individual artists, vendors and our tourism industry.
We hope you have a carefree, safe, fun time at the big fiestas starting this month. Lend a hand, if you can, and take a moment to think about and thank all the volunteers and dedicated pros that make our festivals possible.
!Mil gracias y mucho gusto!

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

It’s Full-Tilt Fiesta Season!

2011-08-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES— This year, we really need FTFS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Season).
Maybe it was the weird global weather and disasters (including unprecedented calamities like Japan’s tsunami-nuclear plant double whammy) that struck before spring even had a chance to get started. Nature’s handiwork was further aggravated by a summer of manmade (or more accurately, politician-made and triggered) political and economic shenanigans, plus riots and global governmental overthrow attempts and continuing conflicts that had most of us on edge for much of the summer.
By the time we got around to contemplating vacation and a silly summery pursuit or two, our absurdly early school year had begun … and after this summer, we wonder if we should spend the money, anyway, with worldwide famines and needy friends and relatives out of work or marginally employed.
Whatever the origins of our summer of discontent, stress and misery, it’s clear that we have been deprived of our traditional silly season this year.
We may have to abandon all hopes of escapist pursuits for Summer 2011, and move on.
Luckily, the good news is that we live in southern New Mexico, Full-tilt Fiesta Season and chile capital of the world … maybe the universe.
And the even better news is that FTFS is bigger from the get-go in 2011. It starts this week, and there will be more chile-enhanced activities than ever before to help rev up our endorphin systems, cheer us up and strengthen our will to live, dance and party hearty. We can nurture our inner fiesta animals knowing that the festivities are a boon to our economy, our relationships, and a variety of regional causes and community organizations.
Appropriately, our official 2012 New Mexico statehood centennial celebrations kick off, not in the ancient City Different (Santa Fe) nor the Duke City (Albuquerque) but where a major 100-year state fiesta should rightfully begin, at FTFS ground zero, the city of festive moods and fiesta attitudes: Las Cruces! And in our neighboring communities, too.
You’ll have to do some careful party planning to get everything in, with the Centennial’s kickoff, the Main Street Centennial SalsaFest, the White Sands International Film Festival and Deming Duck races all starting with events this next week and running through Aug. 28.
And there will be no let-up, with more big bashes over the three-day Labor Day weekend, featuring must-go fiesta choices that include the 40th Hatch Chile Festival, New Mexico Wine Harvest Wine Festival, Franciscan Festival of Fine Arts and a super-festive Downtown Ramble.
Even the always-festive Las Cruces Convention Center seems to have been jolted into a new level of FTFS hyperbolic overdrive, billing our next big fiesta periods as “Superweekend” and “Super Labor Day Weekend.”
Get in training this weekend. Stock up on therapeutic doses of chile, practice your salsa moves, and get in touch with your amigos near and far to plan some rendezvous. Prepare to celebrate surviving a tough summer with your best FTFS ever!

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

(breakout on jump)
Full-Tilt Fiesta Season Highlights
For more events information, visit www.lascrucescvb.org.
Aug. 25-28: White Sands Film Fest
Aug. 25-28: Great American Duck Race
Aug. 28: Centennial ¡SalsaFest!
Sept. 3 & 4: 40th Hatch Chile Festival
Sept. 3 to 5: New Mexico Wine Harvest Wine Festival
Sept. 3 & 4: Franciscan Festival of Fine Arts
Sept. 5: Labor Day Wine Fest, Franciscan Fest
Sept. 9 to 11: Color Las Cruces: Plein Air Art Competition & Community Arts Fest Sept. 9 to 11
Sept. 10 & 11: Fort Selden Frontier Days
Sept. 11: 5,000 Flowers and other commemorations
Sept. 16 to 18: White Sands Hot Air Balloon Invitational
Sept. 17 & 18: Mesilla’s Diez y Seis de Septiembre
Sept. 23 to 25: The Whole Enchilada Fiesta
Sept. 27 to Oct. 2: SNM State Fair
Oct. 1 & 2: Mesilla Jazz Happening
Oct. 8: New Mexico Pumpkin Fest, Mesilla Valley Maze
Oct. 8 & 9: La Viña Harvest Fest
Oct. 27-29 NMSU Homecomng
Oct. 28 to 31, Nov. 2: Dia de Los Muertos in Mesilla, plus parade float, processions, art shows September through November.
Oct. 31: Halloween
Nov. 5 & 6: Renaissance ArtsFaire
Nov. 11: Mesilla Veteran’s Day Ceremony
Nov. 12: City of Las Cruces Veterans Day Parade
Nov. 11 to 13: Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference, workshops, Student Showcase Spectacular Concert, Mariachi Mass
Nov. 12: El Tratado de La Mesilla Reenactment of 1854 of Gadsden Purchase ratification
Nov. 20: Toys for Kids Motorcycle Parade
Nov. 26 & 27: St. Genevieve Holiday Antique & Craft Show
Dec. 2 to 4: La Casa Holiday Bazaar
Dec. 2 to 18: LCCB Nutcracker
Dec: 2: 8th Annual Trail of Lights Fiesta, City Xmas Tree Lighting
Dec. 9: Mesilla Xmas Tree Lighting
Dec. 10: Fort Selden Luminaria Tour
Dec. 10 to 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta at Tortugas & St. Gen, Tortugas “A” Mountain Pilgrimage
Dec. 24: Mesilla Plaza Christmas Eve, Luminarias

Harold’s spirit lives and grows

2011-08-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Maybe it was writing about the Great American Duck Races that reminded me to bring Harold back to the newsroom last week.
“Harold” is what I christened a long-lived green amigo named in honor of Harold Cousland, our beloved editor-in-chief who departed for that great newsroom in the sky in 2001. He left shortly after rallying us to produce an “extra” edition, just hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, the only such special print edition I’ve seen in my many decades in the news biz — and almost certainly the last, in this era of instant online updates, tweets, texts and social media postings.
He went too soon, at 58, but very likely the way he would have wanted to go, with his boots on, so to speak, watching the news.
Harold, for those of you not lucky enough to get to know him, was a nationally-respected journalist with a steel-trap mind, a penchant for puns, and a dedication to journalism and freedom of the press that made his commitment to the news biz seem more like a vocation than a mere job.
It took at least three memorial services, here and in his native Deming, to make his colleagues feel like he’d had something like a proper send-off. The truth is, we didn’t want to let him go.
With the permission of his next of kin, I kept a small plant that was part of a floral tribute sent to a newsroom in mourning. As I put it in its own little pot of soil, I remembered hearing that a soul needed someplace to perch: a bush, a tree or a rock, as it prepared to depart from its Earth home to the next plain. I think it was a legend from my days in Santa Fe, where Harold and I both had worked with the Santa Fe New Mexican, though at different times.
We first met years later, on the phone in 1994, when I was in Jupiter (Fla., not the planet) and missing New Mexico, and he had become editor of the Sun-News. I’d sent a résumé and a few clips and told him I’d realized I belonged in the land of green chile and racing ducks.
He’d offered me a job before I realized that Harold himself had hatched the Great American Duck Race concept, with a group of fun-loving friends, back in 1980, reportedly over a few beers in a bar in Deming.
Harold’s fiesta has grown into an internationally-renowned institution in the past three decades.
Harold the plant flourished in our window-less, stuffy old newsroom, eventually filling a windowbox container and several annex pots as I pruned and subdivided over the years. Several overflow pots of Harold plant puppies went home with friends and colleagues as the staff expanded and space contracted.
When the presses left the building, the Harold parent plant waned a bit, actually seeming to miss the grungy mist of ubiquitous printers’ ink that lingered in the air for so many years. The plant seemed to perk up as political candidates streamed through for editorial conferences, and during various paint jobs, new carpets and attempted renovations of the old building. I was contemplating yet another root division and soliciting adoptions to good homes just before the January fire.
As we moved to interim digs, “Harold” got lost in the shuffle. A few weeks later, I finally found the sole survivor of what was once a flourishing green family. There were a few pathetic brown-tipped grayish leaves. I took the remains home, repotted with fresh soil and propped the stems up with some of my grandson’s old wooden darts.
And last week I brought a bright green, three-foot-high, happy Harold to our interim newsroom on Idaho Ave.
Practical souls would say it’s the windows. Cynics might cite the hot air and copious CO2 emitted by loquacious journalists. I’ll spare you my own theories and sentiments about the spirit of journalism and undying quests for truth, justice and the American Way … the way it ought to be.
But I’d swear “Harold” has grown half a foot and sprouted new leaves in a couple of days.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Your chance to be in a movie...

2011-08-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

Want to be in the movies? If you’re available, get ready for your potential closeup. Award-winning movie producer, director and screenwriter Rod McCall is looking for men and women to appear in a trailer for his new feature-length comedy “Traveling Salesman.”
Try to look Midwestern. “It’s heavily Anglo, because the story is set in Iowa,” said McCall, who also teaches at NMSU’s Creative Media Institute, which is co-producing the project.
Men only are asked to show up at New Mexico State University’s Activity Center next to the natatorium at Stewart Street and Breland Drive between 7 and 11 p.m. Sunday Aug. 7.
“We’re looking for guys 18 to 60. Wear whatever you wear to work. It’s a town meeting scene,” McCall said.
Women only are asked to report for a shoot from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday Aug. 8 at the Bosque Bridge, also known as the Mesilla Bridge. Take Calle De Norte 1.7 miles west of Avenida de Mesilla to the bridge on the Rio Grande.
“We’re looking for women 18 to 55. They can wear dresses, or blouses with skirts, jeans or shorts. They will be chasing an ice cream truck across the bridge,” McCall said.
But don’t count on ice cream, or any other pay. Your only reward will be the glory.
“We’re looking for as many people as possible. If you show up, about a half hour before the shoot times, if possible, you’ll be in the trailer,” which will be posted online in about six weeks, McCall said.
Shooting for the actual film is expected to be completed in 2012.
“Becoming Eduardo,” McCall’s recent film shot in Southern New Mexico, has won 11 top awards at film festivals throughout the world.

Our nation needs art therapy

2011-08-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

LAS CRUCES — It’s a summer to take comfort where you can find it.
“When it all gets to be too much, I just look around my little living room and think, right now, at this moment, things are looking good,” said my daughter-in-law, Shannon, an artistic soul with an knack for beautifying her surroundings on a budget.
I thought about that centering attitude of gratitude and the healing power of artistic expression, as I tried to make sense of summer 2011, which has been filled with angst, sudden change, unrest and horrors, nationally, globally and personally.
For some reason, I keep thinking of 1967, famously known as the Summer of Love to nostalgic ’60s fans. But I also remember, as a journalism major at Michigan State, visiting Detroit and thinking that the city was about to explode. Detroit riots followed soon thereafter; then came a year of national tragedies, assassinations, protests and heartbreaks.
The mood seems similar this agonizing summer, I mused on a recent mid-week drive. Then I made an early morning trip to photograph a unique artistic tribute in progress. Alma d’arte students are deconstructing a dumpster painted by the late Alex Medina and turning it into a bench and memorial that will be part of an inspiring campus project.
“Students, faculty and volunteers are working on an art piece that makes a trash-the-violence statement and we’re thinking about creating a peace garden,” Alma founder Irene Oliver-Lewis said.
There’s something about an artistic, if wistful, homage to peace that can soothe the soul.
Many of our loved ones near and far are struggling with health insurance issues and cutbacks in hours and benefits, and those at or near retirement age are stressed out, too, by the economic uncertainties of this peripatetic summer.
The forces of arrogance and greed, partisan politics and governmental gridlock all seem locked, loaded and committed to summer high noon standoffs in Washington D.C., putting us all through more anxiety.
I was walking through the Downtown Mall grumbling to myself when I spotted Chelsea Melton’s custom license plate: “Stop repeat offenders: Do not re-elect them.” (Read about three generations of creative Melton family members in this week’s Artists of the Week feature on page 4E.)
A laugh at the one-glance solution cheered me up considerably more than wading through all the lengthy treatises I’m getting at home and the office, which include sensible suggestions that we return to our founding philosophy of government by citizen legislators rather than career politicians. Ideas include limiting congressman, senators and even presidents to one term, restricting all legislators to the same Social Security and health plans the rest of us have to cope with (elimination their self-customized platinum versions), strictly prohibiting campaign contributions from exceeding $10 for individuals AND for corporations, and abolishing the U.S. Electoral College in favor of one person, one vote.
Maybe if we could condense such concepts to a few license plates or bumper stickers, we could make progress in this era of information overload.
What I’d really like to do is make survival on minimum wage for six months a requirement for anyone running for office.
But I’d settle for some mandatory activities to channel all that raw energy into creative, rather than destructive, pursuits.
Maybe we should withhold THEIR paychecks until our lawmakers agree to sing “Kumbaya,” (in four-part, or at least two-part harmony). And maybe we should require them to regularly sit down together to make artistic macaroni bracelets, paint cooperative murals or create and fire pottery together without breaking anything or wasting all their art supplies.
Or, better yet, we should demand that they stage an annual bipartisan show to benefit (rather than demoralize) the American public.
In the stressed-out summer of 2011, we all could use an artistic break.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

In the beginning, there was the word: "Hey!"

2011-07-21T14:36:00.001-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — When did “hey” become the casual greeting of choice? Gradually, it’s been replacing “hello,” “good morning,” “bye” and even “hi.”
When you’ve already greeted someone for the day at the office, for instance, it doesn’t seem appropriate to say “Hi” when you see him or her a few minutes later in the break room, at the water cooler, or strolling off to another meeting. But “hey” always seems okay.
It’s casual, friendly in a noncommittal mode ... a neutral way of acknowledging the presence of another creature in your environment.
It can be the equivalent of a poke on Facebook, when you don’t have the time, energy or inclination for any kind of real communication.
Maybe we need an online “hey” option: something between “poke” and “like,” for people who aren’t willing or ready to commit to liking but feel a little too strongly to leave it at a poke.
Of course, “hey” can offer a lot of room for emotional expansion and self-expression, and it’s all right there in the official Merriam-Webster/Dictionary.com definition for hey: “Used to attract attention, to express surprise, interest, or annoyance, or to elicit agreement.”
Depending on your inflection, “hey” could be a protest, an expression of approval, excitement, even coy seduction.
Of course, without the real-time, face-time, or even the voice inflections or facial expressions in a Skype or phone call, you’ll need some help to get your real message across via e-mail, text or tweet.
If you aren’t into emoticons, you can experiment with punctuation.
Try the alarmed or enthusiastic “Hey!”
Take it to the next level with “Hey!!” Or get extreme with “HEY!!!!!!”
Retreat to shy befuzzlement with “Hey?” Or the even more timid “hey....?”
Go old school with a retro variation on the Fonz’s cool, self-confident, or even flirtatious, “Heeeyyyyy!”
Say “hey” with music: “Hey, Jude,” “Hey, hey, hey” advice to “Mrs. Robinson,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “Hey, Soul Sister” or “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”
Of course, some prefer the safety of taking refuge in the neutral DMZ of hey.
But others of us will always be seekers, working to discover where hey came from, probing why hey is here and wondering if it can boldly go where no hey has gone before.
C’mon. Let’s go on a “hey” ride.
Explore international variations. When in Canada, substitute “Eh?”
Legendary Sioux warrior Crazy Horse famously issued the war cry, “Hoka Hey,” which is variously translated by urbandictionary.com as “clear the path,” or “to live life in such as way that one has done all that one should upon one’s last day, so it is indeed a good day to die.”
Do some online research at cool sites like www.ancient-hebrew.org, where you’ll discover hey is the word for a Hebrew letter meaning “behold, look, breath and sigh.” The site even has some graphics (much cooler than emoticons, by the way) showing the evolution of the symbol for the letter hey, which started, in ancient times, with a little stick figure guy with both arms raised. Some mystic traditions have it that “Hey” represents the divine breath, revelation, ancient humanity’s greeting for God, or the word for the God principal itself. Or, given the divine breath concept, maybe it was God’s word in the beginning: a divine greeting and acknowledgment to creation itself.
Maybe it all started with a “hey,” not a big bang.
Hey, it’s something to think about, eh?

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Plaza spirit nurtures friendships

2011-07-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

LAS CRUCES and MESILLA — Maybe it comes with finally finding your querencia, that wonderful word that represents, to me, more than just a special place: it’s a kind of soulmate relationship between a person and the spot that feels like home.
After visiting and living in a lot of places around the planet, I’ve realized that there are cities, towns and villages that can become good friends, and I feel lucky to have found two amigos of a lifetime right here in querencia territory.
Two of my best buds are Las Cruces and Mesilla. Like all BFFs, they have hearts of gold — in this case, Mesilla Plaza and the Downtown Mall.
And like other loved ones, I miss them if we don’t keep in touch, I realized one recent Wednesday when I drove over to the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market. The corazon of LC and I used to get together pretty much every week when it was a block’s walk from the Sun-News building. Our post-fire interim headquarters at 715 E. Idaho Ave. isn’t really that far away, but there’s still that little heartache of separation you feel when you, or a loved one, moves out of the 'hood.
Meandering through Mesilla last Friday, it struck me again that weekends and market days are particularly good times to have heart-to-hearts with my amigos.
And here the heart analogy stretches, because the hearts of my best city friends are densely populated with the human friends I always seem to encounter there. Old friends. New friends. Friends-in-development. Friends I’d like to know better. Even, rewarding experience has taught me, as-yet-unmet potential friends.
There’s something about New Mexico plazas that makes them unlike any other place on Earth, not even the European plazas that inspired them.
There is a mixture of native Pueblo style and profoundly bonded community, a touch of Wild West adventure, high-desert hospitality and a spirit of All-American melting pot democratic camaraderie.
I noticed it decades ago on my first visit to New Mexico, when I first discovered the plazas of old town Albuquerque and downtown Carlsbad.
The same spirit pervades the corazons of tiny Tularosa, artistic Taos and even otherwise-sometimes-snooty Santa Fe.
Locals — and quickly-acclimated tourists and visitors — make eye contact, smile and greet strangers. Maybe we paid our dues with those legendary high noon shoot-outs long ago. Now, casual acquaintances and even those in awkward or hostile relationships tend to greet one another as friends, at least for the space of an encounter in a plaza DMZ.
That spirit holds whether you’re dancing through a full-tilt fiesta or enjoying a solitary solo amble through an almost-deserted plaza at dawn or dusk.
Plaza spirit makes us sensitive; even psychic. We’ll generally acknowledge one another with a cordial nod or wave, and maybe stop you for a friendly chat, if the mood is right. But we’ll also sense it if you’re savoring alone time, and let you walk on, undisturbed.
For most of us, (those of us who don’t have to plant, clean, decorate and renovate them — and mil gracias, you all, for tending our corazons) plazas are low maintenance, loyal and rewarding. And so, it seems to me, are the friendships we form and nurture there.
It's easy, on a Farmers Market Saturday morning or a Mesilla Plaza Sunday afternoon, to meet, greet and catch up with dozens of friends, share a bit of news, a sympathetic hug, a congratulatory pat on the back, a beso, a handshake … and then stroll on, all in the space of a few moments. Or discover a long-lost amigo and join forces for an impromptu drink or meal that turns into a reunion that lasts for hours.
You can continue an ongoing conversation, mend a misunderstanding, share a dance, make a plan, start a life-changing collaboration or —¿quien sabe? — maybe even fall in love.
Miracles big and small … anything and everything seems possible in the milagro spirit of a New Mexico plaza, which waxes strong from sultry summers to frosty piñon-scented winters, especially in my querencia favorites: Mesilla and Las Cruces.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Waiting to sing in the rain...

2011-07-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — I’ve been looking into fun things to do in the summertime for all ages and I’ve been wondering if good times are really all that different for different generations in different climates.
From my earliest Michigan toddler memories to a high school summer in Europe as an exchange student near the north Atlantic coast, it seems that most of my most vivid summer memories involve bodies of water.
First steps into Lake Michigan. Building sandcastles with my mom and dad. Camping on rivers and lakes.
There were canoe trips with my maternal grandfather on the AuSable River, and never-quite-long-enough summer weeks spent with my cousins at my grandparents’ cabin, at the heart of what was once their resort on Lake Margrethe in Michigan.
But there was no way we were roughing it. Grandma served us gourmet goodies with her china, silver and good crystal at hand. It was a log cabin, but a log cabin with a living room big enough for mom’s baby grand piano, which we happily noodled around when we weren’t sailing, swimming, canoeing, waterskiing, fishing and hiking.
And sunbathing. There was lots of that in the days before mandatory SPF basting. Summer wasn’t really summer until you’d gotten your first sunburn, soothed with a menthol haze of Noxema from grandma’s elegant dressing table.
At home or on vacation, when you grow up in Michigan, it all happens around the water. First kisses at lakeside dances. Flirting with cute guys at high noon, and, if things worked out, long walks on moonlit shores, cuddling on blankets and beach towels with our amigos by driftwood bonfires, or sneaking off for a little more privacy in dunes nearly as bright as White Sands’ crystalline hills.
Parents seemed as drawn to the water as the kids. Before we acquired our own riverside land, my folks would gather all three kids and set up camp on the shores of Lake Michigan for a few weeks each summer. We pitched a tent and slept in sleeping bags on bales of hay.
Our parents made occasional runs to our house for clothes and groceries. Dad commuted to work during the week. Each evening he came “home,” pitched his suitcoat over a tent post, changed into his bathing trunks and joined us for a dip in Lake Michigan before he and mom threw dinner on the grill.
Judging from the crowds at the Rio Grande River races, at Elephant Butte and local swimming pools, I’m guessing that kids everywhere have the same return-to-the-water summertime instincts, even in high desert country — and especially in hot, fiery drought years like this.
It’s not surprising that “Singin’ in the Rain,” one of the world’s greatest love songs to water, was composed by a guy from our territory, Nacio Herb Brown, who was born in Deming.
The long-awaited monsoons are our summer fun water source — and lifeline.
We’ve spent a lot of months praying for rain and at last we’re getting a few drizzles. When the big rains finally come, I’ll be out there singing, and dancing, too.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450.

A July lull in FTFS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Season)

2011-06-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — It used to be that this weekend marked a kind of last hurrah for fiesta animals, as we danced into our annual Fourth of July fiesta feeding frenzy and went out with a bang, followed by a long, hot jornada del muerto … a deadly dull mid-summer’s journey, or a welcome fiesta furlough, depending on your attitude.
Some look forward to a little breather — a long, languid spell until the official start of FTFS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Season) traditionally waddles in with the Great American Duck Races and then gains speed and goes full throttle, maybe with a little January breather, until the following Fourth of July.
And many of us are ready for a rest, after a weekend that celebrates everything from alleged 1947 UFO landings in Roswell to ancient Apache traditions and ceremonies in Mescalero, as well as our nation’s Independence Day. There is a Smokey Bear Stampede and Rodeo in Capitan. There are powwows and patriotic concerts, picnics, festivals at cities and small towns, concerts, fun runs and arts and crafts fairs. And fireworks … launched from venues that range from a space museum to theme parks and Rattlesnake Island in the middle of Elephant Butte Lake.
And where else in the world can you celebrate all that is wonderful about America with a spicy, creamy bowl of home-grown green chile ice cream, made in a churn powered by an antique John Deere “Hit ‘n Miss” engine? (That’s a tradition at the annual Silver City Museum Ice Cream Social from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, if you’re in the mood for a little road trip.)
After all that, we should be ready for our annual mid-summer extended siesta.
It’s too hot to get excited about much of anything. Even laying around on the patio or having an outdoor picnic doesn’t seem like such a good idea this year. The freeze and drought of 2011 has made it next to impossible to create and maintain anything that could pass for a lush desert oasis.
Better to head inside and crank up the air or the swamp cooler and relax with a cool movie, a good book or an entertaining video game.
But kids on summer vacation get bored, and nature abhors a vacuum, so our usual midsummer fiesta hiatus is not as long as it used to be.
There have been a few new events cropping up in fill the void in recent years. New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum lures lovers of fiestas and frozen treats to its Ice Cream Sunday, this year on July 17.
By then, we’re desperate enough for fiesta fun and cool sensations that many overheated desperadoes are willing (or maybe even eager) to risk brain freeze and enter ice cream eating competitions.
There are other ways to gather with others and have a little laid-back summer fun: Monthly Downtown Rambles on first Friday evenings, and Camino del Arte Mesquite Street strolls on second Saturdays, to visit galleries and shops and meet friends.
You can pick up some fresh produce and other gifts and treats at outdoor markets Wednesdays and Saturdays on the Downtown Mall and Fridays and Sundays on the Mesilla Plaza.
There are summer camps and crafts classes, outdoor concerts, dances and clubs, a few plays and performances. Go to a baseball game. Or make your own fun. Enjoy your unscheduled time. Imagine a duck in a superhero costume.
“Super Heroes,” by the way, is the theme for the 2011 Great American Duck Race festivities Aug. 25 through 28 in Deming.
But the races, and the onset of 2011-12 FTFS, are many weeks away. Until then, plan on some power lounging and stay cool.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Home for the Fourth of July

2011-06-30T06:44:00.001-07:00

LAS CRUCES — A recent Saturday amble around the Downtown Mall (or historic Main Street Downtown, as we are supposed to officially call it) convinced me it’s the place to start my Fourth of July weekend celebrations.
My favorite Downtown Mall block is finally nearing completion — great news after many moons, dodging barriers and rerouting walks to get to favorite designations like the Branigan Cultural Center, the Las Cruces Museum of Art, Coas My Bookstore, Blue Gate and Main Street galleries, Black Box and Las Cruces Community theaters and assorted other galleries, shops and restaurants.
The fences — most of them — are down, and a line of brave little trees are up.
“I’ve already seen Flo outside, sitting in the shade of the new trees and making some sketches,” quipped Jim Turrentine of Main Street Gallery/The Big Picture.
He was referring to his next-door mall neighbor, Flo Hosa Dougherty, who hosted recent exhibits of artwork created from the wood of the late, great Chinese pistaches that once provided verdant, leafy canopies for her Blue Gate Gallery.
Word on the mall is that the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market vendors could be back on their original block by October, or even September, if all goes well.
The market has blossomed and burgeoned in its relocated territory, with a reported 230 vendors, so they’ll still be offering their wares on the Rio Grande Theatre block, as well.
In the meantime, the color schemes have been discussed, the paint chips are chosen and volunteer crews are planning to spruce up old mall buildings, one by one.
I heard about the New Mexico MainStreet Program’s “Façade Squad” from Laura Kindseth, executive director of Downtown Las Cruces Partnership.
“It’s a new program designed to attract and inspire private property owners in downtown districts to renovate and rehabilitate the front and street-side façades of their buildings. The program employs professional architectural and design assistance provided by New Mexico MainStreet Program and the state’s Economic Development Department and the Friends of New Mexico MainStreet. The idea is to organize resources, materials, volunteers and local property and business owners to execute a façade improvement project efficiently and cost-effectively over one or more days,” Kindseth said.
She showed me the color scheme: a collection of warm, earthy, adobe-inspired hues.
A volunteer posse has already been busy prepping the first buildings in the project (Coas Bookstore and the Camuñez building next to the Rio Grande Theatre will be among the pioneers) and painting is supposed to start today.
If you’d like to help on future Main Street painting projects, contact Kindseth at (575) 525-1955 or e-mail director@dlcp.org.
Since the Fourth of July has conveniently landed on a Monday this year, we’ll have a nice long holiday weekend to explore our territory.
I’m going to start at home with the Ramble monthly tour of galleries, shops and museums from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday on the Downtown Mall. It’s a nice chance to preview our up-and-coming block in a festive setting.
I think it’s looking good. Let me know what you think.
• • •
Meanwhile, back at home on the high desert range, I’d like to thank all of you who took the time to call and e-mail with your own stories about close encounters of the bat kind.
I suspected the daily patio doorstep deposits of black pellets and moth wings were just that, and you confirmed it.
I heard about various methods to discourage bats, from wires and bits of flapping fabric to electronic devices and attempts to lure the homesteaders to bat houses in more desirable locations.
In the end, I’d decided daily cleanups were easiest, especially since I found the bats a lot better than the usual annual moth invasions, inside and out, which the bat feasts seemed to have eliminated this year.
But the bat evidence vanished about the time I posted my desperado critter column on my blog. (Bats must be online rather than print fans, or maybe they’re the original sonar tweet maestros.) Or maybe they ran out of moths and flew off to the next fast food joint.
It’s a great weekend for humans, too, to hang out at home or head out to explore someplace new.
Happy Fourth of July weekend.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Creative ways to please dads on their day

2011-06-16T14:17:00.001-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Ready for Father’s Day?
For some reason, most of us find that it’s harder to come up with great gift ideas for dad than for mom.
Some studies I’ve seen say it’s because it’s still primarily a man’s world; men generally make more money than women, and so most guys are more likely to buy what they want most for themselves.
I’m not sure that’s still true, and even if it is, it’s a cop-out to give up and say you can’t find anything appropriate for the dad who has everything already.
After many years on the planet, I’ve learned that most dads would rather do things with you than get gifts, and the world is full of imaginative adventures you can share.
While browsing through Pulse and SunLife calendars, I noticed this weekend was packed with intriguing opportunities for outings with your dad.
If my father was still on the planet (and wherever you are, Pop, I hope you’ve found a great afterlife river loaded with Brookies and rainbow trout), I think I’d start the day with the Father’s Day Chuck Wagon Breakfast at Fort Selden. It runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, so even if dad wants to sleep in, you’ll still be able to make it. Maybe you could serve him a continental breakfast in bed — his favorite pastry, coffee and fruit juice — and plan on brunch at the fort, where the menu includes scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, sourdough flapjacks, coffee and hot chocolate.
If you’ve never been to the fort, it’s worth a trek around the ruins and may prompt a discussion of your own family history. It’s just 13 miles north of Las Cruces. Take I-25 north to exit 19 and head west to the monument entrance. It’s free for all fathers and for New Mexico residents and $3 for others, so you can splurge a little more on another gift for dad.
If su padre is a mariachi fan, you could pack up a picnic and end the day at an outdoor concert, part of the city’s Music in the Park series, at 7 p.m. at Klein Park, 155 N. Mesquite St. The concert features Mariachi Feminil Flores Mexicans and Mariachi Real de Chihuahua, and it’s free, too.
If you still want to add a present or two to your gift of quality time together, a little creativity goes a long way.
Bring along your camera and shoot still photos or video of the day’s adventure and present him with memories in a photo album or digital frame.
If he lives far away, and you’ve been lax on your techno skills, this is a great day to brush up on Skype and arrange for some cyber facetime, or call him and promise to set things up so you can enjoy more online communication on a regular basis in the future.
If he’s a sports fan, consider tickets to a game featuring his favorite team, with a promise to take him there and treat him to lunch or dinner, too.
Equipment, accessories or clothing for his favorite sport are always appreciated, too, along with DVDs, books or supplies related to his favorite hobby.
Try to avoid the cliché tie. But if you must, get creative and don’t be afraid to go a little wild. Give him the New Mexico State tie, a bolo. Surprise him with a bowtie, or something one-of-a-kind, like a hand-painted tie featuring horses or desert scenes. If he lives here, he’ll be in line with local style. And if he’s far away, it will give him a good excuse to put it on and brag about his children or grandchildren who sent him that wild and crazy tie.
A hug and “I love you” are the gifts dads will remember and cherish most, along with a poem, a card, a drawing, a song or a letter that expresses what he means to you and maybe sharing a few of your happiest memories of experiences together.
When it comes to parenthood appreciation, as with parenthood itself, creativity counts and love is most important of all.
Happy Father’s Day to dads everywhere. We love you.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Creative ways to please dads on their day

2011-06-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Life with garden desperados

2011-06-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — There can be an upside and a downside to a prolonged drought.
The downside is that it can be very tough to get anything to grow.
The upside is that there are fewer weeds to leave you with chronic obsessive-gardening backaches, and so far, at least, fewer noxious flora and fauna to prick, bite and/or poison you.
This year, what the freeze and the drought didn’t get seems to be fodder for UDCs (Unidentified Desperate Critters).
Something keeps gnawing off large chunks of my only surviving cactus, a prickly pear that apparently is not quite prickly enough.
Another UDC (or maybe the same one, moving into to the back yard) munched all the buds off my new gardenia plant just as it was about to bloom and seems to have killed it off.
Some UDCs which I have tried, but never managed, to catch in the act, swoop in every night and leave a fresh crop of tiny black pellets in the corner of my patio doorway every morning, sometimes with a deposit of moth wings. (Any ideas on possible suspects, experienced Southwest nature experts?)
Families of quail and the occasional pigeon stage periodic invasions. I don’t know if they’re eating bugs or plants, but nothing other than the pines, cedars and the few agave survivors seem to go unsampled.
Not that I begrudge them what they can forage. I throw treats over the wall for the neighborhood roadrunner, who does a good job of wrangling desert rattlesnakes out of the suburban courtyards and deserves extra treats, I feel.
I try to keep up with demands for fresh kegs of hummingbird nectar at the Humm-diner.
And I worry that the regular wind drifts of dried leaves from my neighbors’ dead (but still, reportedly, deadly) oleander bushes will poison whatever new growth I can coax along, and some neighborhood pets and wild UDCs trying to survive.
I commiserate with my loved ones in other parts of the country, recovering from recent encounters with poison ivy and was going to admonish myself that it could be much worse, until I did a little online research that revealed we have poison ivy in New Mexico, too.
I grew up hearing tales about the summer when my dad went skinny-dipping and, to get dry, rolled in what turned out to a big patch of poison ivy.
After violently allergic full-body reactions, he was confined to bed for most of the summer. He was still in his mid-teens then, and got very, very bored. He learned cribbage and canasta and bridge and even allowed his sister to teach him to knit. He read the entire encyclopedia. Since he had a photographic memory, it all made for some entertaining dad moments when he grew up and had adventurous kids and dogs.
My mom, on the other hand, was immune to poison ivy and could gather and arrange big bunches of the shiny leaves in attractive flower arrangements with no ill effects.
So far, I haven’t encountered any poison ivy in the Land of Enchantment myself, but I have friends who have been hospitalized after backyard encounters with noxious vegetation here.
I’ve suffered a few slings and arrows and spikes from a cactus or two, but I figure anything tough enough to survive in high desert country has a right to bear arms and defend itself.
I try to remember to wear heavy duty gloves, even if I’m just deadheading petunias or grooming the brown needles from the green dreadlocks of the pine grove. And I’ve been on the planet long enough to know you should never turn your back on the ocean during hurricane season, or on an ocotillo in a windstorm.
After months of drought, the UDC list seems to be moving up the food chain and scattered suburban sightings of bobcats, mountain lions and bears no longer seem surprising.
I think about how we human critters would feel if the green chile crop fails. And I sympathize with drought-ravaged desperadoes everywhere and pray we all get through this tough year together.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

How would you spend the last day on Earth?

2011-06-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — As we now know, the world did not end last month.
But I’d like to thank Harold Camping, who’s now moved his end-game call to October, and his Family Radio multi-media campaign for giving us all something to think about and supplying a possible answer to a question I’ve been pondering for decades: Would today’s mass media cover the second coming of Christ?
Years ago, I was on a university panel in which veteran journalists pondered such questions, and I’ll never forget the comments of political reporter Sander Vanocur, whose resumé includes stints with the New York Times, NBC News, PBS and the Washington Post.
Here’s how, he suggested, contemporary journalists might cover another famous Biblical event: “Moses came down from Mt. Sinai carrying what he described as ‘Ten Commandments from God.’ Here is our correspondent with a summary of the most important four commandments.”
We all laughed and agreed that most of the editors we knew could not resist the urge to edit anyone; not even God.
But we also agreed that mainstream media would probably ignore the story, all together. That may have changed at a time when anyone can start his or her own worldwide information — or disinformation — campaign via the Internet and assorted social media. And anything can become international and deadly news in a tinderbox era when any religious claim, or even the threat of burning a religious treatise, can lead to terrorist reprisals, uprisings or all-out war.
Personally, I always welcome a good theological debate and I enjoyed the chance to contemplate with friends and colleagues this potentially revealing and enlightening question: What would you do if you knew the world would end in 24 hours?
I was surprised by my own conclusions: I’d do pretty much what I do every day.
Prayer would be a major priority among my friends who believe in God. Most of us pray daily anyway, but there could certainly be cause for some special conversations, maybe to ask for forgiveness, for more time, for ourselves or the world in general, or for a quick and painless transition.
But it would probably be prudent to limit it to a soul-felt “thank you” and a classic that covers all the basics, like The Lord’s Prayer, the choice of Jesus, who demonstrated He knew what He was doing when it comes to major transitional states.
I thought briefly about seeing if there was anything I could do to mitigate environmental damage, about cleaning up a little, at home and the office, and maybe organizing my books and papers and writing a final column about how some of us spent our last day. But if the premise is that the world and everything on it will be destroyed, why bother?
A last earthly romantic evening with your soulmate, maybe? A walk with family and friends? A dance? A tune?
Mundane desires don’t seem that important. Some of us would crack open that bottle of wine or eat that Belgian chocolate, but I’d just as soon give it to someone else who might enjoy it, content to test my son’s afterlife theory: “Heaven is a place where chocolate chip cookies aren’t fattening and no one has to make a living with their art.”
I could cash in my 401-K and fly anywhere and buy luxury items for myself and my loved ones. But I couldn’t think of anything we would want more than hugs and facetime.
I don’t fear death, but I’d look around and see what I could do to help make people who are scared and alone feel more loved and comfortable.
Many of the people I love the most live thousands of miles away. But I would definitely not want to spend my final hours here in airports or on planes, and probably most pilots and airport personnel would feel the same way and would want to be home with their loved ones, too.
I think my loved ones know how I feel about them. Most of my adult life, I’ve ended our conversations with “I love you,” but I don’t think it’s something you can O.D. on. I’d make at least one last round to tell them all that I love and have faith in each and every one of them, and God, and why. I might tell them what they’ve meant to me and share a favorite memory or two.
There would be no LOL texts or tweets, though. I’d do it in person, by phone or via Skype.
It wouldn’t take too long; I’d pray that, God willing, we’d all be able to continue our conversations the next day in the afterlife.
I wouldn’t say goodbye. I’d use more appropriate Spanish terms: Hasta la vista. And adios. A Dios. To God.
But of course, there is little in nature or the Bible to indicate that the whole world would end crisply, cleanly, with a bang or a whimper. More likely there would be a long series of messes and opportunities.
And maybe, if we plugged away each day, cleaning up the messes and seizing the opportunities, we could leave a world in better shape for the earthly journeys of generations to come.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Creative memorials in the Land of Enchantment

2011-06-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — A cozy group of stuffed animals lovingly nestled on a child’s grave. Crosses, creatively handcrafted out of everything from yucca branches to PVC pipe and weathered wood.
Colorful wreaths made out of red, white and blue silk flowers, positioned carefully on the grave of a soldier who died in World War II. A photograph and a frilly dress commemorating the tragically short life of a pretty young woman who was murdered in Juarez.
A descanso with flowers on the side of a busy street, where a promising teenager lost his life to a reckless driver. Ashes, scattered with a handful of rose petals, and prayers and a song for a dear friend, echoing on the banks of the Rio Grande.
An unexpected glimpse of pueblo mourners on horseback, gathered in a sacred circle in the mountains of ancient Acoma.
That’s just a small sampling of tender displays that have moved me while encountering memorial tributes here.
A sage once told me that the best way to get to know the corazon y alma (heart and soul) of a community is to walk through its cemeteries.
So that’s what I did, when I first moved to Las Cruces in the 1990s. I visited final resting grounds from Mesilla to the foothills of the Organs and the village of Tortugas.
I traced the history of famous figures and families who have buried their loved ones here for many generations, at the Masonic Cemetery on South Compress Road and San Albino Cemetery in Mesilla.
I visited artist John Meig’s backyard burial site for a beloved adopted son in San Patricio, a little community outside Ruidoso.
I found some of the most creative expressions of love and caring in the very heart of downtown Las Cruces, at St. Joseph Cemetery on Las Cruces Ave., near what native Las Crucens still call the “new” St. Genevieve’s Church.
The graves often tell a poignant tale themselves: dates on a gravestone testify about lives cut short ... in battle, in childbirth, in childhood. There are loving words, sometimes photos of the beloved, and statues of saints and angels.
Occasionally, you’ll find elaborate family compounds, sometimes with fences and landscaping; hardscaped perpetual monuments in the eternal mode of the great pyramids.
But it’s the more ephemeral tributes that speak to me: cards, notes, letters and fresh flowers, a small toy. Things that can travel with the wind, or meld into the earth with the coming of summer rains.
Things like the tiny origami birds in the Peace Crane Wall, the project of a Las Cruces couple, Tim Reed and Vickie Aldrich.
They were inspired by a memorial thousands of miles away. In 1955, moved by a Japanese legend of a recovery inspired by the creation of 1,000 paper cranes, people throughout Japan folded cranes for Sadako Sasaki, who was a toddler in a home about a mile from ground zero when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Radiation and ensuing leukemia killed her on the threshold of her teens.
The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park features a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane, and an inscription: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.”
Tim and Vickie decided to create a monument with an origami crane and a brief biography and photo, if available, of every U.S. service man and woman who dies in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I first met them when we were a few years into what has become the longest continued conflict in our nation’s history.
Since then, Vickie has taken the ever-growing memorial on a 2008 trip to Washington, D.C., and there have been displays of all or parts of the memorial at sites ranging from Día de los Muertos observances on the Mesilla Plaza to the Las Cruces Veterans Park.
“There were over 5,000 cranes when we updated it last year. We last set it up on April 9 near Johnson Park, by the Branigan Library,” she said.
Tim once told me he made it a point to really pay attention to each life sacrificed, as he folded every crane and searched online for photos and information about each person. And sometimes, even —or especially — after years of folding cranes, he cries, while memorializing people he has never met.
The truest, most enduring memorials live in our hearts and minds and souls, I believe.
But there is much to be said, too, for finite expressions in our material world which can inspire us to ponder the lives we live now and the ways we will be remembered.
And experiencing the creative, thoughtful, tenderly sacred ways we memorialize in the Land of Enchantment can make you feel good about living here and better, I think, about eventually heading for the hereafter yourself.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Creative memorials in New Mexico

2011-05-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
A cozy group of stuffed animals lovingly nestled on a child’s grave. Crosses, creatively handcrafted out of everything from yucca branches to PVC pipe and weathered wood.
Colorful wreaths made out of red, white and blue silk flowers, positioned carefully on the grave of a soldier who died in World War II. A photograph and a frilly dress commemorating the tragically short life of a pretty young woman who was murdered in Juárez.
A descanso with flowers on the side of a busy street, where a promising teenager lost his life to a reckless driver. Ashes, scattered with a handful of rose petals, and prayers and a song for a dear friend, echoing on the banks of the Rio Grande.
An unexpected glimpse of pueblo mourners on horseback, gathered in a sacred circle in the mountains of ancient Acoma.
That’s just a small sampling of tender displays that have moved me while encountering memorial tributes here.
A sage once told me that the best way to get to know the corazon y alma (heart and soul) of a community is to walk through its cemeteries.
So that’s what I did, when I first moved to Las Cruces in the 1990s. I visited final resting grounds from Mesilla to the foothills of the Organs and the village of Tortugas.
I traced the history of famous figures and families who have buried their loved ones here for many generations, at the Masonic Cemetery on South Compress Road and San Albino Cemetery in Mesilla.
I visited artist John Meig’s backyard burial site for a beloved adopted son in San Patricio, a little community outside Ruidoso.
I found some of the most creative expressions of love and caring in the very heart of downtown Las Cruces, at St. Joseph Cemetery on Las Cruces Avenue, near what native Las Crucens still call the “new” St. Genevieve’s Church.
The graves often tell a poignant tale themselves: dates on a gravestone testify about lives cut short … in battle, in childbirth, in childhood. There are loving words, sometimes photos of the beloved, and statues of saints and angels.
Occasionally, you’ll find elaborate family compounds, sometimes with fences and landscaping; hardscaped perpetual monuments in the eternal mode of the great pyramids.
But it’s the more ephemeral tributes that speak to me: cards, notes, letters and fresh flowers, a small toy. Things that can travel with the wind or meld into the earth with the coming of summer rains.
Things like the tiny origami birds in the Peace Crane Wall, the project of a Las Cruces couple, Tim Reed and Vickie Aldrich.
They were inspired by a memorial thousands of miles away. In 1955, moved by a Japanese legend of a recovery inspired by the creation of 1,000 paper cranes, people throughout Japan folded cranes for Sadako Sasaki, who was a toddler in a home about a mile from ground zero when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Radiation and ensuing leukemia killed her on the threshold of her teens.
The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park features a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane, and an inscription: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.”
Tim and Vickie decided to create a monument with an origami crane and a brief biography and photo, if available, of every U.S. service man and woman who dies in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I first met them when we were a few years into what has become the longest continued conflict in our nation’s history.
Since then, Vickie has taken the ever-growing memorial on a 2008 trip to Washington, D.C., and there have been displays of all or parts of the memorial at sites ranging from Día de los Muertos observances on the Mesilla Plaza to the Las Cruces Veterans Park.
“There were over 5,000 cranes when we updated it last year. We last set it up on April 9 near Johnson Park, by the Branigan Library,” she said.
Tim once told me he made it a point to really pay attention to each life sacrificed, as he folded every crane and searched online for photos and information about each person. And sometimes, even — or especially — after years of folding cranes, he cries, while memorializing people he has never met.
The truest, most enduring memorials live in our hearts and minds and souls, I believe.
But there is much to be said, too, for finite expressions in our material world which can inspire us to ponder the lives we live now and the ways we will be remembered.
And experiencing the creative, thoughtful, tenderly sacred ways we memorialize in the Land of Enchantment can make you feel good about living here and better, I think, about eventually heading for the hereafter yourself.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

¡Drat those Doña Anas!

2011-05-20T12:35:00.002-07:00

I used to pooh-pooh those who complained about our winds. After all, I’d lived through Midwestern tornados, Pacific Northwest volcanoes and earthquakes and just before finding my querencia here, I survived Hurricane Andrew, the first of the biggies that devastated Florida.
I retain vivid childhood memories of the super-scary tornado siren and cowering, terrified, in the southwest corner of the basement of my Michigan home, something we’d all learned to do as tiny tots.
Once you’ve felt an earthquake rattle you to your very foundations, along with your home, your front yard and everything in your neighborhood, I don’t think you’re ever quite the same.
And how can you explain, to those who have never experienced them, the horror of volcanic eruptions and how it feels to see the fantasy snowcone mountain, that’s been a part of your daily landscape for decades, blow its top and transform overnight into a dark, jagged nightmare? What can you say about waking day after day to a darkened sky, getting almost accustomed to wearing masks and shoveling volcanic ash?
When reviewing disasters in order of their appearance in my life, my thoughts then turn to the monster hurricane and the rainy torrents that flooded my little coast community of Jupiter, Fla., and turned my umbrellas inside out and saturated my clothing in a drenching blast as I ran for shelter and watched neighboring communities ravaged into rubble.
By comparison, I would assure my Las Cruces amigos, a few windy spring days are nothing to fret about.
In fact, during my first years as a grateful refugee in the Mesilla Valley, I sort of enjoyed the spring winds. I bought kites and even wrote a column praising the refreshing breezes and had a contest to name them. After wading through nominations that included some pejoratives in Spanish that a kind, more fluently bilingual, reader warned me about, we finally agreed on a name: the Doña Anas. I greeted the winds fondly, by name, for several years thereafter.
But that was then and this is now. I’m about to start my 18th summer in Las Cruces and I have this to say about the once-somewhat charming Doña Anas: Enough already. I’m sick and tired of these infernal blasts.
This is the year they seem to go on forever, ruining perfectly good festivals, a lot of what’s left of my freeze-ravaged vegetation and many of the tender new plants I’ve tried to establish.
This is the year my kite collection seems to quake in fear rather than wag their tails in anticipation, every time I raise my garage door and let the furious vortexes swirl into their colorful refuge.
We all know about Charlie Brown’s famous kite-eating trees: my pretty little paper and plastic personal Air Corps have seen their comrades devoured by the kite-eating winds of 2011.
This is the year there were no April showers to bring May flowers, just lots more winds, triggering dust storms and fires in our scorched high desert lands.
Sand and dust seep in under our doors and coat everything with an aggravating layer of sticky grit.
The winds sandblast our plants, our kids, our pets, our homes, our cars and our very souls.
It’s time to strike back. I’m recruiting all of my most spiritual friends to pray for a balance in this year of floods and tsunamis and tornados. How about some relief for other parts of the globe and some rains for us, the gentle, cleansing kind?
I hope by the time your read this that our campaign, reinforced, I presume, by statewide San Ysidro commemorations and the annual Blessing of the Fields at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, has produced some relief.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Make time to daydream this summer

2011-05-20T12:35:00.001-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
It’s almost summer. Do you know what your kids are planning? What they’ll do? Where they will hang out?
After working on today’s SunLife features, roundups of summer camps in the area and what’s new and popular at the library, I was amazed at the range of options. (And delighted to hear from Marian Elzi, Branigan’s Young Adult librarian, that “Kids still really like to read and want to read.”)
Reading has always been one of my favorite summertime pastimes, a great way to explore new worlds. I remember stocking up at book stores and on library visits and how kids went hog-wild when the Bookmobile visited our neighborhood.
Bookmobiles are long gone in most areas these days, but if you have a hard time getting to the library yourself, don’t forget about Books by Mail, a free service. Just call the Books by Mail department at (575) 528-4010 and request your titles, or go online to the library catalog at chile.las-cruces.org and put holds on the titles you want. When the system asks you where you want to pick them up, choose the “Books by Mail” option.
I also discovered that the library has thousands of e-book titles available for free downloads, so there are some good ways to stock up and save on time and gas money.
You may have to make an initial trip if you or the kids don’t have library cards. They are still free and one of America’s best bargains. Just show a photo ID. And nothing beats a trip to the real library. You can learn about new programs and services and enjoy the serendipity of browsing for books or DVDs.
I always try to make time to stop in at the Library Friends bookshop near the front entrance, a great source of bargain beach books.
If I have a road trip planned, it’s my routine to estimate my travel time and make sure I’ve picked up some audio books. I’ve “read” everything from bestsellers to historical and sci-fi novels and self-help books while driving to Santa Fe and Taos and San Diego.
Whatever your age, I think a break in routine is one of the great boons of summer.
I like to explore different kinds of music, books and movies.
When I was a kid, and now that I’m definitely not, trying something new and going someplace you’ve never been, could be the ultimate summertime goal.
I have fond memories of music camps and journalism camps at Michigan State University when I was still in high school, along with summer school sessions to pick up some extra credits.
But however tough the economy, even — and especially — in hard times, everybody needs and deserves some summer vacation time.
While we frantically multitask and master new skills, finding time for thinking, pondering and daydreaming can seem impossible.
It’s a perpetual, rewarding paradox that the “lazy” days of summer somehow inspire many of us to dream new dreams, try new adventures, explore new paths, meet new people and maybe even change our lives.
And I still believe, for our kids and ourselves, that some unscheduled freewheeling leisure time is the best way to nurture and encourage that spirit of adventure that makes life worth living.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Make time to daydream this summer

2011-05-11T12:41:00.001-07:00

Birds flock to the Humm-Diner

2011-05-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — I let my hummers down this spring, and they let me know about it.
It’s been a tough year, with the freeze and the drought and the eternal, infernal winds.
But that’s no excuse.
I got my garden guy to clean up the major messes, to salvage the few agaves and the lone cactus that survived the freeze, to take away my own bumper crop of dead pine needles and the unlucky windfalls from my neighbor’s dead groves of willow and oleander that landed in my yard.
After all that, and a lot of sweeping and raking on my own, my interim spring “plantings” consisted mostly of dusting and hosing off a bunch of faux geraniums, tulips and hibiscus and sticking them in empty planters around the yard.
I got out my brand new hummingbird feeder a couple of months ago, and left it in the center of the kitchen table, so I’d remember to fill it and put it out.
But I didn’t. I figured I’d wait for the fiercest wind storms to blow over. I waited through February, March and most of April.
On Easter weekend, I went out on the front porch to try to salvage some scattered fake geraniums before a predicted mega windstorm and came face-to-beak with an indignant hummingbird, who had just emerged from checking out a bright red fake hibiscus blossom.
This hummer did not zip off, but decided to make a stand.
If you have ever doubted the reality of interspecies communication, you’ve never experienced prolonged eye contact with a furious, hovering hummingbird.
“C’mon,” said the hummer. “Get real!”
That did it. I went in, mixed some sugar and water, filled the new feeder, and braved the first of the almost-hurricane wind gusts to hang the feeder from a high hook on the back patio.
My first customer bellied up to the birdie bar before I had time to climb down and fold up my stepladder.
And I’m now convinced that hummers must be ascended masters of their own brand of Twitter.
The birds can field a feeding frenzy a lot quicker than human Tweets and Facebook rallies can foment a social revolution. The hummers’ social network was, well, humming.
I wondered, in fact, if my CEHK (Close Encounter of the Hummingbird Kind) had established a mind meld and the bird could sense me heading inside, mixing the sugared nectar and heading out the back door in time to alert and summon a hungry crowd.
And where did they come from? None of my near neighbors have feeders and the back of my yard is flanked by a strip of desert territory claimed mostly by quail, roadrunners and jackrabbits.
However it happened, the word was clearly out that Derrickson’s Humm-Diner was open for business.
Parties of two or three hovered over the three plastic flowers on the feeder and quickly discovered a new feature — tiny perches under each flower feeding station.
On the hummer Zagat Guide apps, my establishment was instantly upgraded from a mere fly-by drive-in joint to a five-star, sit-down (on perch-on) fine-dining establishment.
Instead of hovering, hummers hung out and lingered, quickly establishing their own psychic reservation system.
Singles and couples perched in a nearby pine tree and waited patiently for a flowery “table.”
And the clientele has steadily escalated from dawn to dusk, even in the worst windstorms.
I’m grateful for the CEHK alert and promise my loyal customers I’ll do my best to open early and close late from now on. In fact, I’m thinking of investing in a franchise and expanding to Humm-Diners in the side yard and front porch.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

It's easy to celebrate May Day

2011-04-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

You’ve shared Cinco de Mayo, Noche de Luminarias, the Whole Enchilada Festival, the Deming Duck Races and so many other unique Borderland fiestas with me. (To say nothing of 24/7 availability of green chile treats, which make every day a fiesta.)
In return, I think I owe you, Las Cruces. And I can deliver.
Do I have a great Anglo fiesta to share with you? I do.
It’s today, but don’t panic. May Day is not a big credit card debt-incursion occasion and you won’t have to rush out to hit the malls for gifts and decorations.
In fact, you probably already have everything you need to create a memorable May Day for yourself and your loved ones, starting with the very newspaper you’re now holding in your hands. (If you’re reading this online, you now have a great excuse to go out and buy the Sunday newspaper, which is still more fun than a cold, hard PC, laptop or smart phone, to stretch out and curl up with in bed or on the couch, or in a hammock on the porch.)
And a newspaper is the only handheld daily informational device that you can transform into a traditional May Day basket.
Here’s how: Take a couple of pages of newspaper, fold ‘em in half, roll into a cone shape and secure with tape or staples. If you want to get fancy, you can fiddle with the cone shape and fold over or trim the opening neatly. Or you can search online and find all kinds of elaborate varations using woven strips of newspaper glued around empty paper towel or toilet paper rolls, cone designs that tuck into themselves and origami variations.
But I say, keep it simple. Once you have the cone, you can make a little handle by taping or stapling a hunk of ribbon, if you have it, or simply fold a few thickness of newspaper to form a strip for a handle.
Now comes the good part. Fill the basket with flowers — from your garden, wildflowers from a walk, pretty silk faux flowers, your own homemade paper posies or some combination thereof, maybe with a little greenery.
Go hang the May Day basket on the door handle of your amigo of choice, ring the doorbell and run like the wind.
If you get caught, the traditional “punishment” is a kiss, so plan accordingly.
That’s all there is to it.
In my family, we went beyond the basics. Both my mom, an art teacher and perennial springtime free spirit, and my sister’s daughter shared a May Day birthday, so it was a big deal and an excuse to go full-tilt medieval Celtic/Scandanavian.
With very little notice — or provocation — I think I could still whip up a daisy chain, floral wreaths and garlands and a respectable Maypole if the demand arises.
Mom used to tie ribbons and scarves to a clothesline pole in the back yard and let us invite all the neighborhood kids to latch on and dance around it. I don’t know if it would hold up with younger generations in the era of advanced virtual reality games, but I personally would still prefer a Maypole dance to an online round of “World of Warcraft.”
Especially on May Day.
So finish reading this newspaper, roll up some cones and fill them with flowers. Whip up a few boutonnieres, a wreath for your hair and maybe a few floral leis or garlands.
Get a posy posse together to distribute the May Day treats to your friends and neighbors.
Take it slow and do your best to get caught and kissed. Then invite everybody over to your casa for a Maypole dance and maybe some honey mead and tea cakes. You can make do with dark beer with a dollop of Mesquite honey, May wine or fruit punch, and cupcakes.
Because all occasions, and especially holidays like May Day that call for maximum euphoria, are better with green chile, don’t forget my traditional May Day favorite: nachos sprinkled with a few edible flower petals and lots of diced hot peppers for the ultimate Maypole dance-green chile endorphin rush.
¡Viva May Day!

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

A chile cookbook & other fun freebies

2011-04-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

Spring fever hits us all in different ways, but there seems to be a universal urge to get away from our usual routines, kick up our heels and plan breaks and adventures and fiestas, large and small.
It was a week that started with a belated income tax filing deadline, progressed through the Jewish Passover commemoration of deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and closes with today’s Easter celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In that spirit of freedom from bondage, transcendent spiritual journeys and new starts, there’s a lot to celebrate.
It’s a time to rejoice in the triumph of faith and hope, in highest aspirations of humanity and miraculous soul perspectives that soar beyond the material realm.
It can be hard to remember during an era when budget deliberations seem to be turning into a blood sport, but sometimes, some of the best things in life really are free, especially when you live in the creative Mesilla Valley.
This week, I’d like to share some of my favorite online freebies of 2011, portals to virtual adventures that could help cheer you up through the rest of the year.
The first involves our favorite fruit — or veggie, some say. Personally, I think chile transcends all limiting classifications and should simply be considered nature’s most perfect food, a legal endorphin rush that’s good for what ails you at any time of the day or night.
If you like some new ideas, or a refresher course on some chile basics, check out a free downloadable Chile Cookbook from Linda and David Taylor, who run Guacamole’s and The New Mexico Catalog in Fairacres. For your free copy, go to www.nmcatalog.com/graphics/cat/COOKBOOK.pdf.
And now, how about some uplifting music to go with your chile treats?
If you missed the semi-flashmob experience during February For the Love of Art Month, when more than 100 singers converged on the Las Cruces Museum of Art to make music among the sculptures, the magic (and the music) lingers on in cyberspace.
Jerry Ann Alt, director of New Mexico State Choirs, rounded up singers of all ages from throughout the community. Juan Robles, Jeanne Gleason, Tomilee Turner and Frank Torres worked together to make sure there was a YouTube record for posterity.
Here are three links for a good time.
• Hear “Five Hebrew Love Songs” at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMHaKvqFiuk.
• Enjoy “City called Heaven” and the angelic voice of soloist Guo Ying at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyDsCvOc6z8.
• And finally, check out my fave: “All You Need is Love” at www.youtube.com/watch?v=weA1YB3Ru4M.
If you feel like a little getaway and aren’t in the mood to wrestle with luggage or reservations, check out 360cities.net, my current favorite of the online map sites for casual international virtual flights. I recently zipped out to Christchurch, New Zealand, and then checked out some of my favorite old haunts in Europe and the Caribbean. That inspired me to spend a little time in beaches I love in Michigan (Lake Michigan at Muskegon, and my grandparents’ old cabin on Lake Margarethe) before comparing the old growth pines at Hartwick Pines near Grayling to our own Gila Wildnerness.
From there, I headed for the Grand Canyon and Sedona, and decided to take the scenic route home, through Taos, Santa Fe, a leap to Shiprock, and then back to Albuquerque, where I did a quick zoo fly-by and pondered a Sandia Tramway ride before deciding to follow the Rio Grande south as far as Elephant Butte Reservoir.
Then I went soaring over White Sands and hung a left, landing on my own little adobe rooftop.
It’s nice to be back home, where we have a lot more chile and creativity to look forward to as we enter spring in the Mesilla Valley.
Life is good. Happy Easter.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

A unified theory of space dust relativity

2011-04-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
Let’s blame it all on space dust.
No matter how hard we try this time of year, even the most diligent of housekeepers can’t keep up with the challenges of living in a land where the weather forecasts are frequently “mostly dusty.”
I’m a big fan of the Great American Cleanup, a nationwide campaign to beautify our cities and neighborhoods, and I’m all for picking up as much organic and manmade litter as possible.
But if you’re a newcomer, take it from me: don’t agonize about the household dust, especially this time of year.
I fought the good fight for many years. At the first sign of spring, I was out there cleaning the windows, sweeping the patio and doing my best to keep up with new insulation and sealing technologies and techniques that would keep the fine, gritty and sometimes sticky dusty stuff at bay.
Just last month, I found myself boring friends and colleagues with the news that I just found an inexpensive little vacuum cleaner that finally got my carpets really clean and relatively dust-free for the first time since I’d moved in over a decade ago.
I happily harvested and disposed of canister after canister of dust in my bagless vac until a quick run through the house came up nearly empty.
I was euphoric. Until the next weekend, after a big duststorm (the Las Cruces version of a brownout), when I harvested several canisters of new dust.
Or maybe ancient space dust. A few years ago, I read about scientists who drilled an ice core in Antarctica and documented a record of cosmic dust fall that goes back 30,000 years.
In addition to our own dust (and we all know how bad that can be, here in the primo dust ground zero), it seems we are coping with about 40,000 tons of extraterrestrial dust hitting the Earth every year, and some scientific websites I’ve checked have concluded that’s a very conservative estimate.
I’ve been working on my own unified theory of space dust relativity. And I suspect that, in addition to being a UFO and extraterrestrial magnet, New Mexico gets a lot more than its fair share of ET dust.
Like attracts like, and maybe dust wants to hang out with kindred particles, or is even enticed to blow through beautiful and exotic places like our White Sands, perhaps the hottest spot in the solar system, or even the universe, for vacationing space dust particles.
You have to admit that dust here is capable of some pretty extraordinary feats. Plug in a brand new shiny fan or climb up and clean your ceiling fans and before long they will be coated with a film of tenacious dust, clinging even through 24-7 use of furiously twirling fan blades.
Wash your car and dry it meticulously, or pass though a barely discernible 10-second rain drizzle, and still, your car will be instantly polka-dotted with sticky adobe-gray dust particles.
The dust is everywhere, in everything, including us, coating our lives, weighing us down. And it’s getting worse.
If I exercised this much and ate so sensibly when I was a teenager, I could lose 20 pounds in a month. Now, I’m lucky if I knock off a couple of pounds, or just break even.
Sluggish metabolism? No way. Like so much of what is wrong with the world these days (maybe even the murky brains and cloudy judgment of our political leaders), I blame it on space dust.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Tell it like it is

2011-04-07T05:45:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com

I’m not sure just which euphemism sent me over the edge, or which hyperbolic institution is most to blame.
Maybe it was the latest crop of militaryspeak, or a media release that referred to an “event facilitating community building through play.” (Translation: fiesta.)
Oxymoronic terms abound, from the classic example: “military intelligence” to the nonsensical movie rating: MV, for “mild violence.”
And we’re moving into pure Madison Avenue flights of fantasy on the front lines. Literally.
Operation Odyssey Dawn? C’mon. It sounds more like a romance novel or a cleaning product for posh travelers than whatever it is that we’re doing in Libya. I actually prefer “squirmish,” the weirdly apt, squirrely-skirmish hybrid term offered by Sarah Palin, who seems to be taking up George W.’s mantle as maven of malapropisms.
The usual offenders are getting worse, but just about everybody seems to be joining in the obfuscation Olympics these days, from the military industrial complex to corporations, government, medical and economic spheres.
And speaking of the economy, it’s not enough to correct stupid euphemisms like “course correction.”
To tell it like it really is, we may need new mascots for Wall Street, and find animals that more accurately reflect contemporary reality.
Instead of bears, sensible animals who know when it’s time to hibernate and when to wake up, I’d suggest groundhogs, who seem to make official appearances only to participate in seasonal superstitious rites with no basis in fact. And to replace bulls (again, sensible animals that aren’t inclined to charge without provocation, and otherwise lead productive lives), I think the logical substitute to represent the dominant behavior in today’s market is obvious: sharks. (Though it may be an insult to the intelligence, skill and practicality of the average shark. Let me know if you can nominate a more apt predator.)
And if you were being tortured, would you feel less pain if you were experiencing “enhanced coercive interrogation techniques”?
I was moved by a quote attributed to retired U.S. Army Col. Harry Summers: “The use of these euphemisms … really hides the reality of what war is and we ought not to do that. We ought to make sure that everyone understands what a terrible, bloody thing war is.”
These troubled times call for calling a spade a spade, instead of a self-automated, off-line terrestrial excavation device. Here are a few full-disclosure, honest suggestions for starters. I’ll bet you could make a list of your own.
• We’re downsizing: You’re fired.
• Stocks are correcting: You’re broke.
• Must-see TV or guilty pleasures: time wasters
• In harm’s way: danger
• Surgical strikes: bombing and shelling
• Soft targets: bombing of civilian targets
• Neutralize: kill
• Collateral damage: dead civilians
• Friendly fire: shooting ourselves
• Transparency: honesty
• Spin: creative lying
• Spin doctors: experts at creative lying
• Nuclear deterrent: more and faster bombs than the other side has
• Permanent pre-hostility: peace
• Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Odyssey Dawn, etc.: World War III

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

In search of a kinder month ,,,,

2011-04-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

What can you say about March, a month in which the brightest spot seemed to be the death of perhaps the last of the great movie star?
Yes, we’ll miss Elizabeth, but there was something wonderful about being treated to a few days of images of her beauty, her adventures with (mostly) handsome and intriguing husbands, her over-the-top jewelry and some truly entertaining movies that trigger all kinds of life memories for Boomers, members of the Greatest Generation and younger pop culture and film buffs. She lived a high-profile, dramatic, difficult, often painful and sometimes exuberantly glamorous and highly original life with resilience, charm and an earthy wit.
Ms. Taylor was regularly reinventing herself with passionate and imaginative style long before Madonna was born. She was one of the first public figures to be honest and open about her problems, operations and diseases. And she ended up being a poster child for rehab and a courageous champion and fundraiser for HIV/AIDS causes.
There’s something that’s somehow uplifting about pondering Elizabeth having a happy reunion with her amigo Michael Jackson in that exclusive portion of afterlife paradise reserved for terribly exploited child stars who have struggled to emerge and help others (with possible side trips to visit her two fave hubbies, Mike Todd and Richard Burton).
So far, the new year seems to have provided an endless stream of new wars, revolts and crises. We can only pray that we are not seeing a triple whammy model for the future in Japan’s ongoing struggle with the aftermath of earthquake-tsunami-nuclear calamity.
Stephen Colbert termed it “the turducken” of disasters: catastrophes stuffed into more catastrophes. (For those not familiar with the concept, a turducken is made by stuffing a de-boned chicken into a de-boned duck, which is then stuffed inside a de-boned turkey. My friends who have attempted to make turducken suggest that you should not try this at home, if you wish to avoid adding culinary catastrophes to our miseries.)
And we can only hope that T.S. Eliot is wrong about April being the cruelest month. How can we follow, how can we bear, a month more brutal than March 2011?
We could all use a break in this strange surreal spring, and maybe some good laughs, but it seems too early even for wryly sympathetic metaphors, let alone jokes.
Instead, how about some inspirational quotes from, rather than jokes about, someone we’ll miss, a superstar who was voluptuously entertained and entertaining during her 79 years on the planet.
Here are thought-provoking comments from the late, great Ms. Taylor:
• “It’s not the having, it’s the getting.”
• “I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.”
• “So much to do, so little done, such things to be.”
• “It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.”
• “When people say, ‘She’s got everything,’ I’ve got one answer — I haven’t had tomorrow.”
Tomorrow is something most of us will have … hopefully with growing patience, to see us through tough times — and rewarding adventures — ahead.
Here’s to a healing, rejuvenating and kind April. We and our embattled world really need it.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Our dysfunctional nuclear family

2011-03-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
Koyaanisqatsi.
It’s a Hopi word, and I’ve heard the long and short definitions from Hopi elders I’ve known. The simplest is a version of la vida loca, or “crazy life.” Koyaanisqatsi is life that is out of balance, in great turmoil, disintegrating ... or what I think is now most apt and urgent: “a state of life that calls for another way of living.”
Koyaanisqatsi was the word that came to mind in the 1970s, when I worked for an Oregon nuclear safeguards ballot measure campaign.
What can you say about a world that builds nuclear power plants with untested cooling systems on coastal areas in high-risk earthquake and tsunami zones? How do we tell our grandchildren (and great-great-greats and more) that we thought it was acceptable to generate lethal garbage that’s toxic for thousands of years, before we know how to safely process, store or transport it?
Many of us raised those questions decades ago. Spokesmen for interests that spent a lot of money to defeat that ballot measure told me it was too dangerous to test those cooling systems for the “unlikely to impossible” contingencies we worried about.
Now we’ve tested them. At Three Mile Island. At Chernobyl. And this month in Japan.
They didn’t work.
We were told that ways to safely process and store nuclear waste were coming soon and in the meantime, we could safely stash the stuff in places like New Mexico that “never have earthquakes.” Especially “geologically stable” places like Carlsbad, which later became the site of the U.S. Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the world’s first underground nuclear storage facility. Carlsbad’s adventures since that first load of waste arrived have included some earthquake activity and a large explosion of a natural gas line.
I think of all the people I love in southern New Mexico and along the routes from the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast, the Southeast and the Southwest, all the roads traveled by those very toxic garbage trucks.
I know we invested billions in nuclear power at a time when many of us hoped it would be the safe, green, nonpolluting alternative we needed. The spin doctors are already gearing up to tell us we have too much invested to bail out now, while many nations of the world are seriously reexamining their commitment to nuclear energy in light of recent developments.
Some of us wonder what would have happened if we’d invested the same amount of energy — and money — in sustainable technologies like solar, geothermal, wind and other prospects that have the added advantage of avoiding messes for future generations to cope with and try to clean up.
We are a society with a short attention span.
The worst oil spill in our nation’s history seems a distant memory to many, less than a year later.
Newborn dolphins wash up on our shores. Birds fall from the skies.
It’s been 25 years since our worst nuclear plant disaster. When will Chernobyl be safe?
An online inquiry turned up this from BBC News: “The spent nuclear fuel is the most hazardous material to deal with. It includes one isotope of Plutonium, Plutonium-239, which has a half-life of 24,000 years. After 240,000 years (10 half lives) only 0.1% will remain. After 720,000 years (30 half-lives) it should be fairly safe.”
Prophet and philosopher Tenny Hale, who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II, told me innocence and ignorance were the spiritual diseases of her generation. Her diagnosis for our generation’s most challenging plagues: “Arrogance and greed.”
I thought of my Hopi friends when I heard from another amigo this week, erstwhile National Geographic photographer John Flannery, who now makes his home in aptly named Truth or Consequences.
“I go back to my old adage that homo sapiens is the only species you could remove from the ecosystem and indicate a plus, and maybe that’s what we are doing,” said John.
Is our dysfunctional nuclear family doomed? Or can we muster the right stuff to save humanity: wisdom to learn from experience, the humility, compassion and generosity to change course? Will we heed the koyaanisqatsi call for another way of living?

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Get crafty for some left-brain relief

2011-03-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — This is a very crafty city.
If I didn’t know it already, hitting all the major arts and crafts shops within a few days would have convinced me.
It’s no accident that the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in May, has been ranked No. 1 in New Mexico (no small feat in competition with arts meccas like Santa Fe and Albuquerque) and in the top ten in the nation.
Excellence in, excellence out.
We start ‘em out early, I learned in my years as a doting grandmom of Alexander the Great, who lived here from ages 3 to 10, prime time for creative arts and crafts adventures.
I still have some goodies he made in preschool and at Hillrise Elementary: a cinnamon ornament that still retains its spicy fragrance (his teachers clearly did not skimp on the high quality oil for the ornament dough), a pensive eagle pondering a storm cloud that still hold pride of place on my refrigerator art gallery.
We spent a lot of fun weekends, sampling hors d’oeuvres and chatting up artists at art openings, where the artistic atmosphere inspired some imaginative Play-Doh sculptures, crayon and fingerpainted masterpieces and creative culinary efforts back at homebase.
I’ll never forget how he moved his big dad to near-teary admiration with his own uniquely Alexian arts and crafts exhibit, complete with teensy hors d’oeuvres of his own invention: a sunflower seed sandwiched carefully between two raisins, produced in impressive quantities.
We had our faces painted and did a little face painting ourselves (Alex’s mom Shannon, an artist and former runway model, showed particular talent for ornamenting our visages). We did crafts at kids’ corners of museums and the Saturday market, at Las Cruces Mariachi Conferences and what was then known as the Renaissance CraftsFaire.
We were maestros of Play-Doh, papier-mâché, polymer clay, cookie dough and assorted pseudo ceramics arts. We poured plaster of Paris in rubber molds and painted the products in Day-Glo colors.
We drew with pastels and colored pencils and painted with whatever we could find on whatever was standing still (and occasionally, things that weren’t, like visiting cousins and the nails and tail of long-suffering granddog Benji).
Since Alex moved away, our vacation meetings have always had some intense arts and crafts components. The fishing, swimming and hiking are simply brief interludes in the daily art that is our family life: writing songs and composing guitar riffs with his dad, shopping for art supplies with his mom and me.
I remember a motel room filled with tiny polymer clay figures on motorcycles in various poses, awaiting animation with cell phone videos and stop action antics.
It’s clear that his artistic beginnings are not forgotten, though I worry that Las Cruces arts and crafts may have been a little bit too much fun ... in high school freshman art classes in less artistic Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, maestro Alex balked at plebeian assignments like repetitive sketches of a piece of plain, crumpled white paper.
I forgot to stress that in large portions of the Muggle world, success hinges on putting in a lot of time doing boring things you don’t want to do. Artistic Las Cruces is just not a great place for building up a tolerance for humdrum Sisyphean tasks, unless, maybe, you’re involved in almost endless urban renovation street projects.
Las Cruces is a nurturing and inspiring epicenter for arts and crafts adventures: left-brain fiestas and journeys into creative lands where time is transcended and you can end up with masterpieces almost as wonderful as the memories of their creation.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

I'm with the teachers

2011-03-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
At the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market this month, I spotted a woman carrying a sign: “EGYPT. LIBYA. WISCONSIN.”
Some looked puzzled, but I thought the connection was pretty obvious.
What really seems to be in contention are the same old battlegrounds: power and resources. Who has the right to determine who gets what, and how?
I shouldn’t have been surprised to find teachers first on the frontlines in the first major American protests of what is turning out to be a worldwide watershed year.
Similar battles hit home long ago, when my teacher mom went out on strike against my dad, who was president of the school board in our district in Muskegon, Mich.
So I’ve heard all the arguments on both sides. And there’s no question about which side I’m on.
I’m with the teachers.
It seems frivolous to even go there in an era when 10 percent of Americans control 90 percent of the wealth (and we all know in our hearts that public school teachers aren’t in that top ten). That top ten should realize it’s in their best interest, too, to ante up a bit more in taxes for the best possible investment: America’s kids.
And I’m not about to quibble about middle class salaries. I have a basis of comparison. As a journalist, I’ve had my tires slashed and my life and family threatened. I’ve weathered staff cuts, long hours and many technological changes. Journalists work hard in what is often classed as one of the most stressful jobs. But even though most teachers probably make more than most journalists in this region, I don’t begrudge them a dime.
I witnessed the career of a very good teacher close up, for 20 years. And I know the truth about their alleged “short hours” and their “months of summer vacations” that seem to irritate so many conservative pundits. (And I suspect those who are screaming the loudest make several times what the average teacher makes.)
I still have vivid memories of the times I’d wander into the living room at midnight, or even at 2 or 3 a.m., to find mom still grading papers, preparing lesson plans or working on displays for her elementary school classes, or later, when she taught high school history and art, to help bring historical events alive, or trying to find ways to scrounge art supplies for talented kids who could not afford them.
She nurtured the best in so many kids and cheerfully took on “problem” gifted students and steered them to creativity and college when they could have drifted into drugs and dropping out.
Caring for students was a year-round activity for her, even when she wasn’t spending her “extended summer vacations” on educational training required for ongoing certification, or courses she took on her own time and time to offer more to her students.
She was still giving her all when she died at age 54.
She deserved great medical benefits and the comfortable retirement I wish she’d survived to enjoy.
I’ve heard sad tales from dedicated teacher friends in Las Cruces in recent years, who have worked long and hard and looked forward to finally getting some time off after decades of dedicated service. I know a talented teacher whose carefully planned retirement was subverted by antics in Texas that gutted her pension fund, a haunting harbinger of what’s being threatened in Wisconsin and other places around the county, including more drastic educational cuts in Texas.
If we’re willing to offer tax bailouts and bonuses and big incentives to “attract the best and the brightest” in banking, why don’t we do the same to reward and attract the best to those professions doing the world’s most difficult and vital tasks: police, firefighters, service men and women, researchers, healers and of course, those who teach and prepare us to do all those jobs?
Teaching is the hardest job in the world. And being a good teacher ranks with good parenting as the world’s most important job.
When we’re deciding what to cut, it shouldn’t be at the expense of the soundest investment we can make for the well-being of our future: the education of our kids.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Royal invite in the mail?

2011-03-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com

Maybe it was lost in the mail.
I got excited when I saw the pale brown envelope, so like the one that’s already a legend in social circles. But alas, it was just an invitation to a computer sales seminar. There was no white card inside, with the queen’s initials die-stamped in gold on the card below a crown, inviting me to join William and Catherine Middleton for their April 29 wedding at Westminster Abbey.
I realized it was a long shot, but they say it’s who you know. And for a kid whose rambling relatives who left the old county in the 1600s, I’ve chalked up quite a few brushes with royalty, especially if you allow a degree or two of separation.
Both my sister Sally, who lives in Florida, and mi hermana cosmica Cecilia Lewis, an erstwhile Las Crucen, have met Queen Elizabeth.
“At the invitation of a friend, I met the queen in London, in 1967, at a reception held at Whitehall Court by the Farmers Club, whose membership, in those days, included many of England’s great land owners. The queen was, and I imagine still is, the club patron and seemed to be on friendly terms with many of the members. She is very attractive and warm in person with beautiful skin,” said Cecilia, who now lives in New York City.
“Some years later, with my then-husband-to-be, Alexis Bespaloff, I attended a reception on the Royal Yacht Britannia in New York. The queen was not present but one of the officers told us about dining with the queen every evening when they were at sea. He said that she had told him that one of her funniest moments was once, when she was greeting President Reagan, he curtsied to her and they both collapsed with laughter.”
Sally’s big moment came during a royal visit she covered for the Palm Beach Post.
“I met the queen in Nassau and attended a reception aboard the royal yacht, which since has been decommissioned. Prince Philip was quite charming, despite a mouthful of very crooked teeth which made his face more interesting. I told the queen I lived on a boat the size of the royal dinghies, and asked if she ever got seasick. She didn’t, though she said she could feel a bit of motion on rough days. Her aides said we could ask about her cold, which was much better, thank you,” said Sally, who adds, “I still have the sleeveless polka dot dress I wore, but not the gloves. The Post reimbursed me for panties and pantyhose I tore climbing over barricades as I raced to keep up with the queen’s entourage the next day.”
In person, the queen looked a lot like our mom, Sally said, confirming a resemblance we’d noticed in pictures dating back to their teen years.
I was artist-in-residence at a resort, Frenchman’s Cove in Port Antionio, Jamaica, where the queen and other royals were once regulars. It’s owned by the Weston Family and it’s a place everyone should be lucky enough to visit at least once in a lifetime (check it out at frenchmans-cove-resort.com).
My friends, Grainger Weston and his son, Gregg, were very discreet about protecting guests’ privacy, but I heard tales through the grapevine about Hollywood royalty (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton spent one of their honeymoons there) and assorted visiting Sloane Rangers. And I learned that Grainger’s brother Galen played polo with Prince Charles.
But not while I was there. My mother always mused that perhaps my sister or I would marry him, but HRH Chuck and I have suffered from a lifetime of bad timing.
I just missed him at a reception in Los Angeles when his entourage was held up in traffic and I was late for a flight home. I left a copy of my first book, “Tenny Hale: American Prophet,” for him at his hotel, knowing of his interest in spiritual matters, but a real-time meeting of the minds and souls eluded us.
Shortly thereafter, Sally saw him at a polo event in Florida, “though we had no opportunity to chat,” she reports.
A decade later, when I was with the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, there was an exhibition of Prince Charles’ paintings at the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach. Once again, we missed each other, but I did spend some quality time communing with his creations, and I still remember how touching I found his ethereal castles and landscapes. They had a winsome, wistful quality as if he, too, believed in the fairy tales that still hold so many in thrall.
I like to think he’s enjoying a modicum of happily-ever-after with Camilla. And I hope things work out for the first-born son of Chuck and Di, and for William’s apparently level-headed bride-to-be Kate.
As it happens, like Fergie (the Duchess, not the Black Pea), I have commitments here in the states through April and won’t be able to attend, anyway.
But I’ll keep an eye on the mailbox, just in case my schedule changes.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

A city of storytellers

2011-02-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Some of us do it with plays and movies.
Some think songs are the best way to do it, in every style from rock and pop to symphonies. Music is just the starting point for some talented souls who mix in ballet, pantomime, belly dancing, hip hop, tap or even hula hands.
Others prefer poems, books and short stories.
I’ve done it with nothing but a pencil and scrap paper on an isolated lagoon in Jamaica. Now, I do it almost every day with a pen and notebook, or on park benches and hillsides with my new Macbook, or on a keyboard in a shifting series of newsrooms.
I’m doing it right now, in fact.
However we do it, we all tell stories.
And Las Cruces, more than any place I’ve ever lived, is a city of eloquent storytellers.
To paraphase an old line from TV shows and film noir classics, there are thousands of stories in the City of the Crosses and thousands of storytellers to tell them.
When I decided to do a little sidebar for today’s SunLife story on the Jennie Curry Storyfest, it quickly became clear what Jennie had wrought during her century on the planet.
I started with what I thought would be a short list of place where people could hear or tell stories. The list kept growing, beyond the Storytellers of Las Cruces themselves, who share tales regularly at both Coas Books (a good deal, I can attest as a grandmother, which includes free entertainment plus a coupon for kids to choose a free book).
I thought about Dave Edwards Saturday storytelling at the Rio Grande Theatre, plus all the events at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library. Then I remembered that storytelling, from poems to standup to orginal songs, is a big part of the burgeoning number of open mic events around town.
Author and Border Book Festival founder Denise Chavez has made storytelling an integral part of the festival and related year-round programs.
And that’s only the beginning. Irene Oliver-Lewis, a founder of Court Youth Center and Alma d’arte charter high school for the arts has led a resurgence of interest in oral history project and made a milestone cultural contribution of her own with her award-winning play, “Dichos de mi Madre.”
Tony Award-winning Las Cruces playwright Mark Medoff has brought epic stories twice to Broadway, to many movies (including “Children of a Lesser God,” which garnered an Academy Award for Marlee Matlin and an Oscar nomination for Mark) and is still helping new generations tell their stories through ground-breaking projects like “Another Planet” and at New Mexico State University’s Creative Media Institute, which he helped found.
Ceil and Peter Herman built their own theater —The Black Box — and theater company to tell stories, adding to a burgeoning number of storytellers at the American Southwest Theater Co., the Las Cruces Community Theatre, the Fountain Theatre, and several children’s theater groups.
Bob Diven has become our resident Renaissance storyteller, sharing his stories through original songs, plays, videos and multimedia artworks that range from oil paintings and Sun-News cartoons to weekly chalk renderings during the Las Cruces Farmers and Crafts Market, Saturdays on the Downtown Mall.
Stephen Hansen’s whimsical sculptures tell amusing at-a-glance stories in museums, corporate headquarters and embassies around the world.
Dance, music, theater, literature … visual and performing artists all tell stories in their own way.
Five minutes into my “short” list of Las Cruces storytellers, I realized there’s no way I could list all the storytellers of the Mesilla Valley.
But February For the Love of Arts Month is prime time to come up with a list of your own favorite stories and storytellers. And it’s the perfect season to go out and see and collect some new favorites, and maybe be inspired to share some stories of your own.
That’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Adios Agaves

2011-02-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
The spring weather the last couple of weekends has been delightful, give or take a 50 mph dust gust or two.
But the pre-spring euphoria has been bittersweet, as I’ve wandered through my favorite neighborhoods, watching my amigos mourn their lost agaves and assorted other bushes, trees and shrubs.
I saw a friend say a sad “Adios” to the beautiful variegated agave in the courtyard of his Mesilla adobe home.
“It’s time had come,” he sighed.
I checked out the giant saguaro that survived a move from the old city hall to the Branigan Cultural Center. It rallied to delight us with big waxy white blooms for the last couple of years. The tough old beauty looks like it has one slightly sprained arm, but it appears to be hanging in there.
What can you say about the devastation of a February that will go down in the record books — literally — as we recorded some of our biggest highs and lows, from zero and even subzero in some parts of the territory to almost 80 degrees within a couple of weeks.
It’s a twilight zone step beyond the usual suspects. What do we blame?
Global warming? Global climate change? La Niña phenomena? Solar flares? In a February of extremes, what triggered what? Why did millions of Egyptians, after more than 5,000 years of pharaohs and assorted other dictators, decide this was the perfect month for a Facebook-induced freedom fiesta?
It’s global weirdness of cosmic proportions, humanity and nature busting new moves in this strange surreal pre-spring.
And speaking of surreal, back home on the high desert range, all of my cacti are still assuming the molten poses of Salvador Dali watches, but they seem likely to survive.
I’ve been having heartfelt talks and cheering them on, but I’m not as hopeful about my now-giant agaves, nurtured since puppyhood, victims of the record freeze siege.
To be accurate, agave are not cacti, but succulents, and they seem to agree with me that snow sucks.
I planted them when I moved into my new semi-adobe abode over a decade ago. Like my burgeoning collection of Facebook friends, they keep growing and multiplying in mysterious ways, and (also like the Facebook gang) they have a tendency to deliver a bumper crop of sometimes irritating pokes when I least expect them.
I can be innocently pruning my pines and tending my petunias when I feel the prickle of a stealthy spike that I could swear was not there yesterday, or even a few minutes ago.
Though my assertive agave occasionally draw blood, I still feel they’re just trying to be friendly … agave adolescents, feeling their oats.
They’ve never really hurt me and their sculptural beauty always seemed a fair trade-off for a little territorial encroachment.
My agave amigos and I have been through a lot together and it’s hard to see them dying. I wonder if there is some kind of plant Viagra that will lift their spirits, their sadly sagging leaves, their joie de vivre.
Some of their puppies look like they have a chance but the dowager queen and king parental units seem to grow sicker by the day.
Should I wait until April as some experts advise, before I decide if they are ready to go to that great desert in the sky? Can anything be salvaged? Could I coat them with adobe or paint their skeletons lapis blue to form some sort of lasting sculptural tribute?
This could have been the spring that four or five of them sprouted those remarkable Godzilla asparagus stalks that seem to grow several feet almost overnight. It wouldn't seem quite so sad, if they’d been able to flower and go out in a blaze of glory, instead of departing just as they were reaching their prime, before their time.
Adios, agaves.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Harvest a bumper crop of Valentines

2011-02-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

Who are your valentines this year?
Sweethearts get the most attention from the merchants, but I think for a lot of us, the roster of loved ones gets a lot bigger and a lot more diverse, the longer we’re on the planet.
Many of us have given up Christmas cards these days and are waiting until February to catch up with loved ones, both far-flung and local.
As with other holidays, there are funny, beautiful and touching e-cards available, but somehow, when it comes to valentines, only the real, tangible thing will do, snail-mailed or hand-delivered. And I always try to slip in a few anonymous cards, signed “Your secret admirer” or sealed with a bright red lipstick print.
Handmade or embellished v-cards are always appreciated, with sweet notes and quotes … preferably original, but timeless poems and thoughts from your favorite authors are also nice.
Every year, I scour the stores for interesting packages of valentines, the kinds school kids give each other.
If you haven’t checked them out lately, you’ll be surprised. My favorites this year are the 3D and holographic shapeshifters: flowers that morph into ladybugs; X-ray effect dinosaurs that go from skeletons to fully-fleshed prehistoric monsters; cute puppies, kittens and jungle animals that move from distant to extreme close-ups with a flick of your wrist.
There are cards for good sports: fold-it-yourself basketball hoops with teensy paper basketballs and artistically patterned oblongs that you can form into magnificent flying machines.
The kids’ assortments offer not only some of the most innovative, cute and beautiful stuff out there, but also are a good fit for almost every budget.
In fact, you could delight and disrupt your entire office and field an entire fleet of paper airplanes or establish several paper basketball leagues for less than the cost of one or two super fancy-schmancy card shop valentines.
I couldn’t limit myself to just one or two kinds this year. I rounded up several varieties and sent assortments to loved ones all over the globe, from tots and seniors to city sophisticates and soldiers.
Maybe I should have pondered if it’s really appropriate to send school-kid valentines — however high-tech, amusing and/or touching — to cool and worldly teenage grandson Alexander the Great, or to my nephew on the front lines in Afghanistan.
But I’m pretty sure that there’s not a person on the planet who wouldn’t welcome a little token of love. And if there is such a soul, he or she is exactly who most needs to be bombarded with valentines.
Every year, I try to brainstorm a little and come up with some new potential valentine recipients.
We all think about our A-list sweethearts, whatever we call them: spouses, fiancees, significant others, life partners, boyfriends and girlfriends. Most of us remember our family and extended family: kids, granddkids, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.
To really get in the spirit of things, maybe the people who come to mind last should be moved up to first place, for a change. Surprise that black sheep, track down the long-lost and remember the forgotten with the biggest and best valentine, maybe with a special note with your memories of happy times together.
If you’ve lost a loved one recently, Valentine’s Day can be a lovely time to scatter ashes, take flowers to a grave, or join with others they loved to share a meal, memories and maybe a few laughs and a few tears.
Fill your pockets with valentines and hand them out all day long — to casual acquaintances, strangers at supermarkets, people you’ve always meant to get to know better.
You could enrich lives in ways you’d never expect. And you might end up with a bumper crop of new and renewed valentines yourself.
Happy Valentine’s Day.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Missing my newsroom nicho

2011-02-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — I used to grumble about it from time to time, but I miss my newsroom nicho.
I flung stuff into the “move now,” “clean and save” and “throw out” boxes, to make way for cleanup crews dealing with the aftermath of the Sun-News fire.
As I tried to make snap decisions about things that have been a part of my life for decades, the realization finally hit me. I have occupied that corner of newsroom real estate longer than I’ve been anywhere else. Ever.
It’s been 17 years since I wandered in for my first day of work and settled into my little cove. The newsroom was very full then, and the late, great, Harold Cousland had told me it was the only desk available.
I was daunted. My last offices in Palm Beach County, Fla., had seemed at least half the size of the whole newsroom, and I’d had them all to myself. One office even adjoined a lobby with a manmade lagoon and a little indoor tropical jungle. With palms. And swans swimming through it.
Colleagues consoled me that I’d landed in a great location in the heart of the newsroom, complete with lucky travel vibes. A former occupant had just gotten a great job and gone off to live with his girlfriend in France, if I remember right.
I scoffed, but shortly thereafter, the paper sent me to Germany for two weeks to cover a Sister Cities trip. I’m pretty sure it was the first and only Sun-News foreign correspondent gig, before or since, that involved more than a 100-mile roundtrip border run to Texas or Mexico.
I already loved Las Cruces, and settled into the newsroom portion of my new querencia. I created a floor-to-ceiling art gallery, and purchased a large, white pre-fab counter to top my battered old metal desk.
I came in one weekend with a gallon of New Mexico sky blue paint and transformed — or at least improved — battered old bookcases, files, tables, a wall or two, and even, with the help of an artistic and rebellious Sun Life editor, made a stab at beautifying the upstairs men’s room.
Most of what I painted was promptly swiped by other departments, but it kicked off the first of several renovation attempts.
I’ve seen lots of ceiling tiles come and go, along with several coats of paint, a couple of layers of carpet, and repeated attempts to get something to grow in the brick planters by our front door. I found a xeriscaping expert who put in some great desert plants that flowered and thrived in benign neglect until one of our new publishers had everything ripped out. He thought they were weeds.
Except for publisher Michael Bush’s gift of a fleet of the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever enjoyed, and a nice assortment of Ashley’s furniture, a lot of the improvement efforts turned out to be, as one reporter quipped, “pretty much lipstick on a pig.”
Still, it was our pig.
I’ve spent more total time than I’ve been in my newsroom nicho in a couple of states — Michigan, Oregon and New Mexico, if you add in my two years in Santa Fe. But I’ve moved around a lot, at various jobs, cities and houses within each state … in an apartment and three adobe abodes in the Las Cruces area, for instance.
But during all my local time, except for vacations and a week or two for various in-building relocations for renovations, I’ve been in that same newsroom nicho.
Our interim digs have their own perks, of course.
“How many journalists have worked in a newsroom with seven chandeliers and gilded mirrors?” I mused as we left the Ramada Palms ballroom for more extended temporary headquarters at 715 Idaho Ave., conveniently located within walking distance of Tom Young’s, where I’ve been a regular almost as long as I’ve been at the Sun-News.
We have newsroom windows for the first time, and other new amenities.
But windows and proximity perks, like swans and chandeliers, aren’t everything. I miss my Downtown Mall ‘hood and my newsroom quenencia nicho, and I’m looking forward to moving back home, soon.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450.

Celebrate For the Love of Art Month

2011-01-28T08:08:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — February may be the shortest month, but it will be packed with artistic activities. during For the Love of Art Month (FLAM).
Even those who don’t consider themselves culture vultures are likely to find some irresistible attractions and arts aficionados should be prepared to go into full-tilt fiesta mode.
Every year, there are more reminders of just how much the Mesilla Valley has to offer, with world-class artists and more venues and events that showcase just how rich our cultural community is, from theatrical performances and poetry readings to music, dance and visual arts in a variety of media.
ArtForms professional artists founders Kelley S. Hestir, Myriam Lozada Jarvis and others, deserve a lot of praise for coming up with the concept at a Mesilla Park backyard brainstorming session in the 1990s.
I sat in on those first sessions and have been pleased to see how FLAM has grown from a hopeful seed into a blooming, month-long fiesta that involves artistic souls from tots to seniors, all getting down with their artistic selves.
It’s always been clear to me that we’re a creative city that thinks outside the box, and during February, we always manage to outdo ourselves.
It’s become a Herculean task to organize and chronicle all the venues in time to put out an official directory of events and maps of artists’ studio tour sites. Kudos to Cheryl Fallstead and all the ArtForms volunteers and artists who make the event possible.
In true artistic spirit, the month is always full of surprises and some last-minute events that don’t make the officially-sanctioned guide.
This year, I’m especially looking forward to a first- time event organized by Jerry Ann Alt which will bring together singers from all over the community to the Las Cruces Museum of Art for some song among the sculptures on Feb. 26.
I hope you’ll feel free to burst into song whenever the spirit moves you before and after the event.
Mesilla artists have had their own little event on the Mesilla Plaza in recent years.
It’s never in the official guide, which is one reason I’ve decided to attach my own unofficial FLAM event to the date they choose.
So be on notice and save the date: For the Love of Art Month Wearable Art Promenade and Parade (FLAM WAPP), now in its second year, will again start out the morning of Feb. 12 at the Saturday Las Cruces Farmers and Crafts Market on the Downtown Mall, and then will move to the annual Mesilla For the Love of Art Celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Mesilla Plaza.
Your job is to don your favorite wearable art wardrobe items and strut your stuff on our favorite public plazas.
This gives you almost two weeks to get out your art supplies and sewing boxes and whip up something new to accent favorites from your closets and jewelry boxes.
Or get out their and discover some new artistic treasures for yourself and your Valentine.
I’m also issuing my annual reminder that there are a lot of talented artists our there, and they’re dealing.
I’ve lived in artists’ communities in good times and bad, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a single artist who was unwilling to negotiate with a fan who has fallen madly in love with his or her work.
I have it on good authority that the late, great R.C. Gorman once traded a fresh-caught Pacific salmon for an original painting and I know art-loving school kids in Santa Fe and Silver City who’ve acquired masterpieces by sweeping studios, engineering creative swaps or arranging very generous layaway plans.
Maybe you can strike a deal to acquire a treasure of your own. In the meantime, get out there and admire our visual and performing artists. Happy FLAM.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

"Beatlick Joe has left the building"

2011-01-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — “Beatlick” Joe Speer, writer and editor of a poetry journal that attracted a worldwide fan base, died Tuesday in hospice care in Albuquerque. He was 62.
Speer, who, with Wayne Crawford, was profiled in a Jan. 23 SunLife feature about poets’ courageous and creative attitudes in the face of catastrophic illness, was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer on Nov. 19.
“Beatlick Joe has left the building. He went out with style and panache,” said Pamela Hirst, coeditor of the Beatlick News and Speer’s longtime “soulmate and life partner.”
In a mid-January phone interview, Speer was philosophical about his life journey.
“I’m not upset. It’s not really for me to decide when I come and go. Those decisions are made by some other forces and it’s out of my control. You never know how long you have, how many miles you’re going to log on this road trip. When you’re ripe, they pluck you,” Speer said.
“I’d hoped Joe would have lived long enough to hold a copy of his new book in his hands,” Hirst said.
The compilation of Speer’s writings, “Backpack Trekker: A 60s Flashback,” went to the printer this week and will soon be available on amazon.com, Hirst said.
She expressed gratitude that “so many people are coming together to honor Joe. I know how loved he is. I am the lucky woman who got to live with him for 22 years."
Speer, a New Mexico State University graduate, was born Oct. 24, 1948, in Albuquerque. He and Hirst have largely been based in Las Cruces in recent years, but also lived in Tennessee, helping Hirst’s mother in the last days of her life, and have spent a lot of time on the road and house sitting for friends.
They’ve continued to distribute print and online versions of their poetry and arts newsletter, “Beatlick News,” and until recently were taking part in poetry readings and literary events throughout the United States.
His poetry journal, Speer said this month, “was what we really enjoyed doing. It really connected me with a lot of writers.”
Chronicles of Speer’s final months, “Pamela’s Journal,” updates on Speer’s book and what Hirst said will be the last edition of the Beatlick News are accessible at www.beatlick.com.
Hirst said a tribute to Speer is planned at a Downtown Ramble Open Mic session at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Rio Grande Theatre on the Downtown Mall. A memorial is also planned at New Mexico State University Library at a date to be announced. Contributions in Speer’s memory may be sent to Hospice.
In addition to Hirst, Speer’s survivors include his brother, Paul A. Speer, and a nephew, Aaron Avery, both of Nashville.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Creative life cycles Two poets and their partners explore life's final frontiers

2011-01-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — It could be said that the job of a poet is to offer fresh, creative insights on life and all its cycles.
That's a life mission for two Las Cruces-based poets, Wayne Crawford and "Beatlick" Joe Speer, who were each diagnosed last fall with pancreatic and liver cancer.
Both have praised their friends and partners. Speers, and his "life partner and soulmate of 22 years," poet Pamela Hirst and Crawford and his "creative and collaborative partner," singer-songwriter-poet and musician Randy Granger, have been explording life's final frontiers with courage, creativity, and sometimes enthusiastic dollops of wit and wisdom.
For each, the diagnosis was a surprise.
Crawford has been traveling to Houston regularly for treatment.
He said he has been working for a balance "between pain control and cognitive ability. I've lived pretty much an intellectual life and that's how I'm going out."
All the poets are on the move in this life. Crawford and Granger decided to downsize and moved from their Rio Grande riverfront home to a townhouse in Las Cruces this week.
Spees and Hirst have largely been based in Las Cruces in recent years, but also lived in Tennessee, helping Hirst's mother in the last days of her life, and have spent a lot of time on the road and house sitting for friends.
They've continued to distribute print and online versions of their poetry journal “Beatlick News” and until recently were taking part in poetry readings throughout the country. Currently, they are making their home base with friends in Albuquerque to be near Joe's doctors and friends, some of whom will join in a "pass-the-hat" benefit for Speers on Thursday at the Source month poetry reading in Northern New Mexico. Those who would like to send him cards or help him with medical costs can send a check to Beatlick Joe Speer, care of Malpais Review, .P.O. Box 339, Placitas, NM 87043.
"We saw another oncologist here in Albuquerque and with each doctor we receive less hope, less time. The Albuquerque doctor said that without treatment, from diagnosis to death is three months. I can hardly do the math. But let it suffice to say that Joe's decline is extremely rapid," Hirst said, who has sent regular bulletins lauding friends and hospice personnel.
"This isn't cheerful or optimistic. I didn't know what to expect and I haven't expected things to go downhill so rapidly," Hirst said last week, bemoaning the impossibility of some travels on Joe's bucket list. "So many people are coming together to honor Joe, I know how loved he is. I am the lucky woman who got to live with him for 22 years."
Crawford has planned a more aggressive treatment program and said he tends to disregard time predictions.
When he was given 12 weeks to live and the chemotherapy was particularly rough, he thought about throwing in the towel. "But then, I get to the 11th week and decided to sign on for another 12 weeks."
Both have kept in close touch with friends and family through high-tech sources and said supporting messages and visits from friends have been a great comfort.
Speer, a New Mexico State University graduate, has enjoyed hearing from friends all over the world.
Among Crawford's recent contacts in one of his former journalism students who won a Pulitzer Prize in photography. Crawford holds a Ph.D. and attended Columbia College in Chicago and illinois State University. He has taught everything from English to journalism, on the high school and university level and edited the online poetry site Lunarosity.
In the meantime, life — and poetry — go on.
"Anyone can go online and post some thoughts on Joe," said Hirst, by entering "Beatlick Joe Speer" on Facebook.
His new book,"Backpack Trekker: A 60s Flashback," is ready to go.
"Five proofs of Joe's book are on the way," Hirst said. "Joe needs to have some wits about him to write the author's note for the book and to do his reviews for the next newsletter. I thought he was a lot better today, more alert and he is sitting up and holding court with many visitors. I am encouraged that he can get the book finished."
The book will soon be available at Amazon.com.
"I pray Joe will live to hold his own book in his hand. I have edited 600 pages, worked 15 hours a day, all week. Next I am rebuilding beatlick.com to present all the wonderful responses Joe has received from around the country and the world,
Crawford recently collaborated on the title track of Granger's latest CD, "Pura Vida" (Pure Life) and is working on an anthology of his own poetry, "Dancing Skin," with Granger's help.
"Will I finish it? I hope so. The creative impulse is still there," Crawford said.
He described a rewarding Thanksgiving celebration with friends and family here and said he is looking forward to spending time with his two grown children and three grandchildren.
"I find poetry is less important than real people. I'd rather spend time with the people I care about," said Illinois native Crawford, who has been a guiding force in open mikes, poetry journals and Poetry Month celebrations here.
Speers said he is philosophical about the ways things turned and does not fear the future.
Crawford agrees. "I always wake up and believe today would be a good day. I'm optimistic and I'm not afraid. I've never felt resentful. There are some really good things in my life," he said.

S.Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450.

About the fire...

2011-01-28T07:56:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES ˜ En route to the Saturday Farmers & Crafts Market, I noticed the artistic creations on the old whitewashed Sun-News storage building. There was a colorful Sesame Street Big Bird making a balloon comment about standardized testing, next to a giant turtle with a scrawled statement about the state of the environment. I saw some blank white panels and thought it might be nice to see if we could get some young artists to paint something interesting and colorful.
But that ship has sailed. Or that barn has burned, to coin a cliché a little closer to the mark. Less than 24 hours later, those enticing, potential-filled white panels had gone up in flames, along with most of the building behind them.
The calls started coming from amigos in my downtown 'hood shortly after 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Just minutes before, city editor Brenda Masengill, the only person in the building early on Sunday, had been alerted by a passing good Samaritan who banged on the door. She managed to file an online story just before firefighters carried her out bodily, still streaming updates on our website.
Heather Pollard, who lives right around the corner, gave me a count of firetrucks as they battled the blaze. And she told me about the ambulances, which, mercifully, turned out to be unnecessary.
Long-time Las Crucen Pollard, and later, Sylvia Camunez and Irene Oliver-Lewis, both Mesilla Valley natives, told me about the days when the building had housed a dry cleaning business. Though we in the newsroom have been regaled with many stories about the days when the brick Las Cruces Sun-News building was a supermarket, so far, no one has come up with any heart-warming dry-cleaning anecdotes.
By Monday, there was still no official word on the cause of the fire, though there seemed to be a lot of discussion around town.
"I wonder if it's going to be one of those big unsolved Las Cruces mysteries, like the three 2010 murders or that house that blew up," I overheard someone musing at the Tom Young pool.
I wonder, too. No terrorists have claimed credit for the fire. Here at our interim newsroom at the Ramada Palms, theories abound.
"Maybe a mouse spontaneously combusted," mused Sun-News business editor Brook Stockberger.
We were lucky. No one was hurt. Personally, I'd procrastinated about storing a decade's worth of negatives there, so my vintage photos are still safe and sound, if barbecue-scented in my newsroom work area.
It all could have been so much worse. I doubt that the old building was on anyone's top-ranked historical preservation list.
But it was my first personal experience with a fire, if you don't count volcanoes. And Mount St. Helens just dropped a few inches of ash, but no flames, in our backyards. We're displaced persons, if only for a few days, and we miss our desks and filing systems and spellcheck.
Still, we've all been touched by the offers of help and support, by those of you who called and e-mailed, people who came in on a national holiday to help us get settled, by those of you at our sister newspapers in New Mexico who rallied to help us continue to get the paper out every day, by friends and colleagues from Oregon and Santa Fe to Maine and Florida who've contacted us to express their concern and sympathy.
And, of course, we're grateful to those firefighters who worked so hard and skillfully to contain the fire.
It's great to know you have our back. We appreciate it.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450.

Poets teach us about creative transitions

2011-01-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore (with column sig)

Even though I expected something exceptional from the creative souls profiled on this page today, I was surprised at what an upper it turned out to be to talk with “Beatlick” Joe Speers, Pamela Hirst, Wayne Crawford and Randy Granger.
After years of interviews and lots of shared performances and special events, all four seem more like amigos than just sources and I came to know them all better after following. though their e-mails, newsletters and blogs, their triumphs and in recent months, some very tough times.
I’ve been so impressed, inspired and sometimes even amused by their grace under pressure, that I asked if they’d be willing to share their insights and experiences.
It’s rare that such sensitive and talented people are willing to so articulately share what it’s like to face a diagnosis like pancreatic and liver cancer.
In America, in general, and even in the open and creative land of Dia de los Muertos celebrations, we don’t often talk frankly, let alone poetically and with wit and wisdom, about what it’s like to face that final frontier — what my philosopher-physician friend Dr. William Sheldon once termed “the potentially pleasant adventure of dying.”
Chronicling the poetic pioneers on their third act adventures as they blaze a vital trail for we Baby Boomers is turning out to be a story about living, rather than dying.
After several decades as what my relatives call “the family death midwife,” I’ve been through a lot of transitions with those nearest and dearest to me.
The older I get, the more similarities I see between childbirth and the experience we journalists are taught to call “death,” though my own experiences have led me to believe that what I once thought of as polite and comforting euphemisms like “passing,” “crossing over” and “transitions,” may well be more accurate description of what really happens.
Like childbirth, there’s a lot of labor involved, and unless you go quickly, “with your boots on” as we used to say in the Wild West, there can be quite a lot of work involved, for the one making the journey and also those helping with the travel plans and accommodations. There are umbilical chords on both ends of the life process, from medical apparatus to the biological and soul ties that bind.
There is great sadness involved, but as with all profound life experiences, there can also be great love and joy.
In Las Cruces, I went through this journey with two of my best friends, photographer-philosopher and community educator and activist Cecilia Lewis and her husband, Alexis Bespaloff, who wrote some of the best selling wine guides of all time and was a columnist for New York Magazine and other national pubs.
A later-in-life merger of two very independent people who’d survived incredibly difficult childhoods became a profound bonding of soulmates. They personified Cecilia’s family motto: “Never postpone joy.”
After he was given only a few months to live, feisty Alexis managed to carry on and delighted us with his local presence for nearly a decade. And for most of that time, he and Cecilia agreed, life was pretty darn good.
I loved Wayne’s attitude about life expectancy pronouncements.
“I was given 12 weeks to live, and about the 11th week, I decided I’d go for another 12,” he quipped.
I hope both Joe and Wayne keep renewing their earthly subscriptions.
Their friends, fans and family members will be grateful for as much local time as possible with these extraordinary souls.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450 or dmoore@lcsun-news.com

The world needs love songs

2011-01-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

I heard from some enthusiastic singers in response to a recent column suggesting we starting tuning up to prepare to spend February For the Love of Art month breaking into spontaneous song. (In the shower, the supermarket, at the office, in the park, etc.) I’ll keep you posted on community sing ops.
But there are always the naysayers.
This manifesto was e-mailed to me: “The Donnybrook Writing Academy, in partnership with Empty Reviews, decrees the following songs never to be played on the radio ever again. They shall never be played live again. They shall never be sung in the shower again. We’re monitoring the airwaves; we’re going through your iPods; we’re peeking in your bathroom windows. And best believe, we will be handing out citations for any violations.”
I checked things out at godonnybrook.com and found a lot of my faves on the list, golden oldies from Elvis to the Boss.
We Baby Boomers are ever more prone to getting a random song stuck with peanut butter tenacity to the roof of our palates and the corners of our brains and sometimes the only way to get it unstuck and make room for vital things, like where we put our car keys, is to give up and sing it all day long.
Further investigation revealed that the ban was hatched, not in a think tank, but in a Colorado bar by members of Donnybrook Writing Academy, described as an “elite institution for cultural advancement, founded in 2007. Its writers publish an online magazine devoted to music, culture and the arts.”
I e-mailed a protest and got a prompt reply.
“We love the classics! In fact, we were just watching the ‘Last Waltz’ last night. That’s how songs get on our list — by being so classic, people overplay them so much that we can recite them from memory. At that point, it’s time to discover the new classics — by different artists, or even the same ones, on the B-sides. At any rate, that’s how we feel about it all,” said an academy member who identified herself as Angora.
There was also a picture of what I presume to be seven members of the group, dressed in what could be tennis whites, or maybe their underwear. There are a couple of rackets in the picture, but there’s also a picnic basket and what looks like a champagne bottle and a squash. Maybe it started out to be a tennis (or squash) match. but the champagne diverted the group to a picnic, a pumpkin patch and other pursuits.
They look like nice kids, but I’m not willing to give up “American Pie,” “Bad to the Bone” and “Born in the U.S.A.” to support their cause. And that’s just the top of the list. No one who has done hard time in Florida should be asked to sacrifice “Margaritaville.” And frankly, (here’s that old Boomer thing again), I’ve just recently learned all the words to “Poker Face.”
I’m not sure I’ll ever lose my affection for the Righteous Brothers’ soulful “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” and Elvis’ classic, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love.” If so, it sure won’t be during For the Love of Art Month.
And they’re asking us to ban “Light My Fire,” “In the Air Tonight” and “Born to be Wild” from our hearts, minds, airwaves and corner doo-wop groups forever?
I don’t think so.
In the words of “The Gambler,” which the group also wants to ban, you gotta know when to fold ‘em.
Give it up, dudes.
Abandon this ill-conceived crusade and abort all plans to return to that bar and trash talk about more tunes we all know and love. Why don’t you skip the drunk part, save some brain cells and write some songs of your own that might be worthy of classic status? At worst, it’d keep you off the streets, out of the bars and at best you might slip from destructive/crabby mode into creative hyperspace.
Of course, if “The Little Drummer Boy” had been on your list, I might have been tempted to join your crusade.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Sing in the New Year

2011-01-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Internationally, they’re known as “flash mobs,” and sometimes characterized as part of the “random acts of culture” movement.
Groups have sprung up (sometimes in disguise as cell phone addicts or cleaning personnel) to sing renditions of the “Hallelujah Chorus” in shopping malls, pop tunes with the Black Eyed Peas in Chicago, or show tunes in theater district neighborhoods.
Since we may have more talented singers and musicians per capita than most any place on the planet, I’d like to start encouraging some random acts of love-theme tunes anytime, anywhere — and especially during February for the Love of Art Month.
Frankly, despite some very impressive festivals and accomplishments, 2010 was sometimes kind of a touchy year for the arts community. There was more evidence of discontent, dissing, free-form crabbiness and grousing than I’ve ever seen here before, triggered, I suspect, by tough times, fear and short funding.
But don’t panic. Compare to other arts communities, we are still artistic goodwill heaven. Las Cruces is filled with enlightened souls who understand that art and artistic expression is not a luxury, but a necessity for personal — and societal — mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health and happiness.
As the Beatles informed us in 1967, all we need is love … and increasingly effective ways to generate some of the global attention we now rate.
Feel free to sing along with me now as you read this column. All you need is love … dut-dut-dut-dah-dut ……
Let’s get the performing artists in on this. We might even dub ourselves the burgeoning capital of “Glee” with the growing number of choirs and singing groups.
There are award-winning groups at area high schools and children’s groups featuring local elementary and middle school kids. NMSU’s choral department has added a gospel choir and smaller groups to its students’ and community choirs.
There are several thriving community singing groups specializing in everything from golden oldies to classical, patriotic and contemporary pop tunes. There are church choirs and mariachi groups with stunning solo and group vocalists.
There are individuals who put on one-person stage and cabaret shows that include original tunes, and tributes to icons such as Gilbert & Sullivan and Patsy Kline.
And all this is just the tip of the melodic iceberg. Experience has taught me that music runs in the DNA. For every talent warbling on stage, I figure, there must be anywhere from one to several dozen local relatives who are able to carry a tune, but maybe just have not had the time or opportunity.
If you need an excuse, February is the time and the place can be anywhere in the Mesilla Valley during For the Love of Art month, so start exercising those vocal chords and get ready. The good news is that music is the ultimate multitasking option. Whistle while you work. Sing in the shower. Shower with a friend and save water and develop duets. Start your favorite show tune in a supermarket line and see if you can recruit others to join in.
Sing in the office, at indoor and outdoor malls, in the hood when you’re walking your dog. Sing with the coyotes on desert full moon nights. At open mikes and jams around town. With street performers at the Farmers & Crafts Market.
Sing your favorite love songs. Need inspiration? Go to www.bobborst.com/popculture/love-songs/for a handy list of love songs that topped the pop the charts, from Benny Goodman’s 1943 upbeat “Taking A Chance On Love” to the 2010 Drake hit “Find Your Love.”
It’s looking like 2011 could be the best ever for our burgeoning Las Cruces artistic community. All we need is love and talent, and we are blessed to have a lot of both, here in the City of the Crosses.
It’s something to sing about. Let’s get to it.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Going Angel Zen for 2011

2011-01-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — There are angel wings on my living room wall and halos on my lampshades.
And now I see three angels every time I hit the garage door remote.
There was just one, until I undecked my halls last week, a remarkably easy task this year.
Since I created the newsroom tree and helped decorate a large tree for the Sun-News lobby, I decided I’d given at the office this year and that would be sufficient.
My plans for a holiday open house never got off the ground, somehow, and when work schedules didn’t allow family gatherings, I figured I’d curb my chronic holiday decor enthusiasms and just skip it this year. I flung a pre-decorated wreath on the front door and called it a day, especially after I took a gander around the house and realized it looks like it’s decorated for the holidays year-round anyway.
I have a Charlie Carrillo-carved nativity scene hanging by the fireplace. My collections of festive crosses and bultos of assorted saints and images of Our Lady of Guadalupe adorn my living room, home office, guest rooms and both baths.
And yes, I do have that outsized pair of angel wings hanging on my living room year-round now, because they don’t fit in my Full-Tilt Fiesta Season all-purpose costume closet.
It was all part of my resolution to go Zen and simplify my life. I’ve decided to wear angel outfits for all occasions requiring costumes and invest only in new halos, which don’t take up much space and look rather ethereal and lovely topping my lamp shades when they aren’t in use.
This was the year I’d planned to thoroughly clean out all my costume and gift closets and pack up everything not likely to be used by, or given to, loved ones and donate it all to a worthy charity.
I’ve also considered skipping my 2011 Christmas shopping season, which usually starts about now with the best of the post-season sales and ends by July. Wouldn’t everyone really have cash, anyway?
Well, maybe not.
A lot of us get the blues this time of year and good books, warm scarves, entertaining CDs and DVDs and sweet and silly little gifts do a lot to cheer us up through the pre- and post-holiday doldrums.
And when I went to put away the few Christmas decorations I couldn’t resist, I came across the next seasonal stash of decor items for Valentine’s Day, one of my favorite holidays.
I’ve decided some compromises and transitional strategies are in order, before I really try to go full-tilt cold turkey Zen.
I’m going to recycle some of my Christmas package boxes and pack up some of those long-stored spectacular holiday tableaus and lights so they’ll be all ready to send to Alexander the Great and my son and daughter-in-law next year. I figure they’re still a few decades from simple Zen longings.
And I’m going to hover awhile and keep moving toward my simplify-simplify goals with a Zen angel decor strategy.
I’ll fling a heart ornament or two on the living room wings and think cupid.
I’ll bend the halos into heart shapes for Valentine’s Day and transform them into shamrock configurations for St. Patrick’s Day.
The two wrought-iron angels an amiga gave me for Christmas wouldn’t fit into any of my Christmas storage boxes, so they are now ornamenting the shelves over my garage back door entrance, along with a large lighted glass angel, another gift too big for the closets. Maybe I’ll move them to the patio after the spring windy season is over.
In the meantime, they’re an inspiring sight when I hit the garage door remote and pull into home base after a long day.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Relax and enjoy a few silent nights

2010-12-23T13:44:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — After the holiday stretch of FTFS (Full-Tilt Fiesta Season), things quiet down around this time of year.
It’s been a great year for fiestas throughout the state, especially in our part, FTFS ground zero. Winterfest and its spin-off progeny, Winterfest II: La Fiesta de Las Luminarias, are behind us now, part of a holiday superweekend that included the debut of La Casa Bazaar in its new Las Cruces Convention Center location.
A Saturday pilgrimage date this year and balmy December weather made Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrations one for the book. Many concerts, art shows and exhibits, and traditional plays and pageants are history now, along with luminaria displays from the shores of Elephant Butte Lake to the village of Doña Ana, the streets and lanes of NMSU and finally, Christmas Eve on the Mesilla Plaza.
Now, the (relatively) silent nights begin. This week is a time for family in the Mesilla Valley.
Play with your presents. Write thank you notes.
Eat leftovers, then plan some walks around the neighborhood to see the lights and decorations or head for the fitness center to lift some weights, swim some laps and work some of it off.
Next week is New Year’s resolution time and maybe this is a time to hold the line, catch up on your naps and make the make the best of what’s left of 2010.
I figure I’ll feel a little better about that Jan. 1 weigh-in if I pile that leftover turkey on a bed of mixed greens or in a veggie stir-fry or soup instead of in a triple-decker sandwich or what I really want, green chile turkey enchilada casserole.
Still, It’s hard to feel too deprived the week after Christmas, after a month of treats that seem to appear mysteriously upon plates, despite your best efforts.
It’s a good time to ponder where you’ve come from, where you’ve been and where you hope to go. Without the pressure of those holiday newsletters, it’s more comfortable to take a honest inventory and ponder some fresh starts and course corrections.
I haven’t seen many studies about office productivity in late December, but unless you’re working the returns desk at a major shopping center, probably things aren’t really hopping for you.
Even in some of the highest stress, 24-7 deadline professions, from law enforcement to medicine to, yes, journalism, things seem a little more laid back this time of year, and real crises, if they happen, have a surreal sense. Even amid violence, tragedy and mayhem, there’s a lingering, if sometimes wistful, sense that peace on earth and good will toward men might just be possible, somewhere, someday, somehow.
When I started asking people about their resolutions for 2011, I was surprised to find that many people told me they were thankful just to be here and hoped to get through another year.
It’s apt that the symbols for the changing of calendar years are an elderly guy and a newborn. Even if we’ve had a pretty good time, all in all, we’re weary of 2010 and ready for a bouncing baby 2011.
Those of us who are parents and grandparents may not be able to entirely suppress the knowledge derived from long experience. With that new hope and fresh start also come diaper changes, feedings, demanding cries and other assorted around-the-clock responsibilities.
Still, there’s something appealing and very human about the chance to see life and the weary world through new eyes, with a fresh prospective.
I hope you and your loved ones enjoy the last of 2010 and have a chance to make plans and savor hopes for a wonderful 2011.
Happy New Year.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Christmas creativity

2010-12-10T13:24:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — The spirituality of Christmas is what means most to me. No matter how hot the hype and siren lure of commercialism, it’s really about love, hope, faith and the joy and promise of new beginnings.
For me, and, I’d say, for my loved ones, the path to those joyful conclusions has had a lot to do with the creative journey.
I’ve known times both lean and lush and I’ve been fortunate to get some pretty opulent gifts over the years, including things I really, really wanted.
I can remember the sensation of yearning and that it was sometimes fulfilled, but I’m hazier on just what those highly coveted gifts were.
What I remember most vividly are the creative components of Christmas.
Music fills my Christmas memory bank. There were the songs I sang with my family on car trips to visit my grandparents or snowy treks to our riverfront acreage in northern Michigan, where we often sang while choosing, cutting and dragging back a scraggy white pine in the dense forest.
Then there were the more elaborate arrangements in school bands and choirs. I still remember first time I heard “O Holy Night,” and the milagro tingles it sent up and down my spine, along with the day our maturing high school choir finally had the skills to get those powerful chords and crescendos right.
But equally impressive were the first times I heard my son — and then my grandson — warble their childhood renditions of “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night.”
Not a dry eye in the house.
My sense memory banks are filed with the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas kitchens. More singing. The feel of gooey dough stiffened by just enough flower to prepare it for our holiday cookie cutters. The smells of dates and cinnamon and peppermint and gingerbread. The sights of bright neon sprinkles, raisin eyes on snowmen and reindeer confections.
Decking the halls has always been a sure route to Christmas sprit and major memories. Ornaments seemed more precious and rare in the old school days. We cherished the heirlooms and debated just where to and how to position the lighted angel, our personal fave. But making decorations was even more rewarding: strings of popcorn, clove-studded oranges and the loops of colored paper that we hung on the tree, with an extra chain of 25 loops to hang by our bed and tear off each day until the magic date arrived.
There were the Christmas literary traditions: Santa tales told and read by dads and granddads, with more exotic permutations in Charlie Brown TV specials and holiday movies.
The real Christmas story somehow always came through, in some fusion of song, literature and hall-decking, in celebrations in church, home, schools and shopping centers.
The crèches always offered a creative touch, too. At the top of my memory smorgasbord are the annual arrangements of a little carved stone nativity set I shared with grandson Alexander the Great during his Las Cruces years, ages 3 to 10.
I told him the story of the little family and their journey to Bethlehem that first toddler year and a few years later, he was telling it to me. Some years, a few latter-day superheros and action figures joined the gathering and a sheep or horse sometimes ended up perching on the church and manger roofs with the angels, but I was surprised by how quickly he grasped the essence of what the holiday is all about.
Creativity and spirituality are a potent mixture.
It’s a smooth transcendent step to the most powerful fusion of all: love, hope, faith and miracles.
Have a creative holiday season with those you love.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Remember the troops on the holidays

2010-12-10T13:22:00.001-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
It’s sounding pretty good to me about now.
The morning e-mail included two shots of my toddler nephew’s first visit to Santa Claus. It came on the same day his dad was shipping off to Afghanistan.
In this long, long, war, just about all of us know someone who’s “over there.”
As a parent, grandparent and aunt, I mourn for all the moments those brave moms and dads will miss with their kids. First steps and sentences, first dances and days at school. Christmases. Birthdays. Sunday dinners and summer picnics.
We pray for their safety and their swift return. And a world that can somehow find alternatives to war before these kids grow up and have kids of their own.
In the meantime, you can brighten the holidays just a bit for servicemen and women far from home this year.
My brother, father of a recently deployed troop, has been researching procedures to ship off packages to his son and recommends visits to the post office for guidelines. He said he’s found helpful information on this toll-free number: 1-800-ASK-USPS (275-8777).
It’s worth some time to investigate procedures and be sure your have the exact address correctly written on all cards and packages, not just for the holidays, but year-around, when morale reportedly can take a leap or a nose dive, depending on the mail call harvest.
Another great resource is the Let’s Say Thanks program at www.letssaythanks.com, a web site that lets you send a free printed postcard to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas. You can’t specify who will get the card, but you can select your favorite designs from a touching assortment of cards created by children. The easy, three-step process continues by entering a message with your name and home town (write your own or choose a message that best expresses what you want to say from a group of suggestions). Then press send and you’re done.
You can also check out the site to see messages sent by others and the response from servicemen and women.
“Thank you for sending the postcards to our unit! While soldiers routinely grab all the snacks, toiletries, magazines and books out of care packages, it is the letters, cards and postcards with heartfelt messages that mean the most and truly remind us that the folks back home care and appreciate what we do,” said a military policeman.
Another, who signed as simply “a soldier,” sent “thanks for this outstanding effort to make our Military personnel feel a touch of home wherever they are. I have been deployed several times to various parts of the world. No matter what is going on around us, when we get encouraging words from home, it seems to make a difference that is beyond description. Something as simple as words. Something as common as a crayon drawing. These things can mean the world when you are a world away.”
Others said the colorful little postcards “made my day” and report that they read and share them with others.
It’s a big payoff for a free service that takes just a minute of your time and could make a world of difference for a soldier you may never meet.
You can also help out with a tax-deductible donation to the USO, which is “committed to supporting our troops wherever they serve — from free phone cards to care packages full of much- needed items and entertainment tours to just a simple hug,” according to www.uso.org. That’s the source to donate online, or call 1-800-876-7469 or send a check, payable to USO to: USO, P.O. Box 96322, Washington, DC, 20090-6322.
And it’s always a good time to greet a soldier. When you see a man or woman in uniform, a pretty common sight in our military hub, even if you can’t get within handshake distance, you can make eye contact and pat your left hand on your heart to express your appreciation and support.
If you’re close enough, offer a verbal “thank you” and a handshake.
And your prayers and wishes for peace on earth.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Find and spread some seasonal joy

2010-12-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — The hard part is done. From now on, it’s all tree trimming and candy canes, carols and gingerbread, reverence and pageantry, love and wonder. Blessings and joy.
I love the holidays and more than half a century amidst Scrooges, Grinches and seasonal depressives (some of them, alas, bah-humbugging in my own circle of loved ones) have not been able to beat it out of me.
I’ve learned to get most of my gift list filled by July and my presents wrapped and shipped off before Thanksgiving, thus avoiding my least favorite thing — shopping in frantic herds of stressed-out holiday hunter-gatherers.
I cut myself out of that bipolar (or is it North Polar?) herd and opted out of the madding throngs decades before it became a blood sport, with obsessive, acquisitive Olympic shopping kicking off on Black Friday. And no matter what the spin doctors say, I don’t believe for a moment that the “black” refers to the fact that merchants move their annual financial tallies out of the red and into the black profit margins that day.
I’ve worked retail during the holidays and I KNOW where the black references come from, and have weathered the black and blue bruises and moods that really inspired dour and punishing Friday’s moniker.
But all that’s behind me, now, and I hope it is for you, too, or will be soon.
Maybe this can be the year when you can streamline your gift list a little. I find many of my older relatives, especially those who live far away, are happy and relieved at suggestions to exchange e-mails and phone calls instead of hefty packages. I give priority to kids, people who’ve moved to new areas or who are having tough years or are prone to holiday blues.
More and more, I’m finding that close friends and relatives are happy to substitute visits or lunches or dinners for other gifts. Or we agree to make a bigger deal of gift-giving during birthdays, when we all seem to have more time for up-close-and-personal celebrations.
With some of the pressure off, we can find more time to enjoy the season, especially important, I’ve found, during years like this when work or economic issues prevent many of us from managing to gather with distant loved ones.
I make it a point to put as much light in my life as possible, stopping to witness every luminaria display I can. And every year, I try to catch at least one local pageant, concert or holiday event, particularly something I haven’t experienced before, pretty easy with an escalating amount of intriguing options in our territory.
This year, after seeing some inspiring YouTube videos, I’m working to field some guerrilla caroling groups. Jerry Ann Alt, director of NMSU Choirs, seems ready to rally for some random acts of Christmas culture. So don’t be too surprised if you find yourself in the middle of a “Hallelujah!” chorus when you least expect it. Actually, we hope you will be surprised. And delighted. And inspired to join in.
Start your own impromptu caroling group at home, at the office, in your neighborhood park or in line at the supermarket or post office. Recruit a friend or two and before you know it, you could be part of a caroling conga line.
Invite someone who will be alone over the holidays to join you and your friends and family for a brunch, lunch or dinner. Give to those less fortunate. If your budget is tight, give yourself. Volunteer to help. It’s a pretty reliable cure for the blues — theirs AND yours.
If you’re alone, make it a priority to get out and sign up for a holiday craft class or go to a seasonal fiesta, movie or concert. You could make a friend who’s looking for someone to enjoy a stroll or a drive to see the holiday lights and displays.
Whatever your beliefs or your resources, we can all use some joy this time of year.
Go to a church or synagogue or take a long walk on a sunny December day and ponder spiritual meanings of life, love, hope and new beginnings.
May the season bring you a bumper crop of joy and the wherewithal to spread it around.
Happy holidays.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Holidays in the Land of Enchantment

2010-11-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — If you feel Scroogish about this merry season, it may be because you’ve never experienced the holidays in the Land of Enchantment.
Christmas in New Mexico is like nothing else on the planet. And Hanukah and Kwanzaa have their own special flavor here, too.
It’s time again for our annual milagro fusion of sacred rites that inspire joy with creative and touching Southwestern traditions that conjure up sentiments ranging from awe and wonder to amazed amusement.
Here are a few of my favorite Mesilla Valley holiday things.
La Posta’s tanks of piranhas decked with poinsettias. Rolling fields of fluffy white stuff that turns out to be not snow, but cotton harvest remnants. Hand-crafted snowguys (if we have a rare December snowstorm) with red chile noses. Giant roadrunner sculptures made out of recycled trash, glittering with twinkle lights. Ristras and reindeer sharing porch space. The glow of luminarias and the aroma of piñon fires.
Gathering with amigos on Christmas Eve on the Mesilla Plaza. Watching dancers in feather bonnets and Our Lady of Guadalupe tunics at Tortugas Pueblo. Yucca pod wreaths and tumbleweed Christmas trees.
There are some one-performance-only memories, like watching grandson Alexander the Great sing “The 12 Days of New Mexico Christmas” with his Hillrise Elementary school classmates. It’s a great production number and I hope they’re still doing it. If you get a chance to catch a local holiday school pageant, don’t miss it.
Then there’s the fun of figuring out the many ways red and green can make our season bright. I’m talking chiles here. I learned to make (and appreciate) homemade holiday tamales at Denise Chávez’s workshop with the Grijalva family at La Cochina Restaurant. At Carmen Garza’s house one Christmas, I was introduced to the wonder of turkey and mashed potatoes with red chile gravy. (I contributed my own holiday chile invention: cranberry-green chile sauce.)
I’ve seen new traditions born and old traditions revived, like La Posada on the Downtown Mall. Amigos who grew up here told me it’s like a Christmas version of trick or treat. As kids, they went from house to house asking if there was room at the inn, and were rewarded with tamales and biscochitos and all kinds of goodies.
In recent years, La Posada and gone public on the Downtown Mall, sometimes with a Holy Family, a donkey borrowed from the Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, and singing followed by goodies and a piñata.
“Los Pastores” plays, an ancient ritual with deep roots in the Mesilla Valley, were started here half a century ago by a group of Mesilla families who are determined to keep it alive.
For me, Mesilla is the corazon of celebrations both transcendent and sometimes, a bit eccentric. (The aforementioned holiday piranhas at La Posta, for instance, and our favorite outlaw keeping vigil with his trusty gun under a lovely nativity scene perched on the roof of the Billy the Kid Gift Shop.)
The late, great Josefina Gamboa Biel is credited with starting Mesilla’s tradition of luminarias, carols and drinks on the Mesilla Plaza on Christmas Eve. It’s one of the most wonderful ways to spend Dec. 24 to be found anywhere on the planet, in my opinion. Josefina’s daughter, Kathleen Foreman, transformed her late mom’s adobe home into one of the region’s loveliest lunch and tea rooms where the famed Josefina’s Gate remains a favorite gathering sport for holiday photos.
And now we have Christmas SuperFriday and Winterfest, which debuted a few years ago and demonstrated what a delight our downtown area can become.
Catch as much as you can of this enchanted season in our enchanted land. Happy holidays.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com

I'm thankful for...

2010-11-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — For many of us, this has been a very tough year. There have been mysterious illnesses, continuing wars, disastrous environmental accidents and catastrophes and some difficult unemployment and economic issues.
This year, most everyone seems to know someone who has been personally touched by Borderland violence, or even suffered the death of someone they know, in Juárez, our Borderland neighbor that has been termed the murder capital of the world.
I have many friends and relatives with American Indian roots who have never been too thrilled about celebrating Thanksgiving, when they ponder the consequences of that original generosity to desperate newcomers.
They find more truth than comedy in Jon Stewart’s caustic quip: “I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”
When I think of Thanksgiving 2010, the first thing that came to mind was a quote from my spiritual mentor Tenny Hale: “Ah, for an unmixed blessing for once.”
When blessings seem hardest to find is the time we need to work hardest on our attitudes of gratitude.
I started with simple things, in my own neighborhood. For instance, I know many Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market vendors were sad to vacate their old Downtown Mall site, but the market seems to be better than ever, ranking high in polls and growing.
I’m sad that my favorite downtown tree seems destined for destruction, but I was happy to see so many citizens speaking up for our leafy green amigos. I’m glad to see a city commitment to plant and transplant so many trees in the downtown area.
And I was heartened by Flo Hosa Dougherty’s campaign to make something beautiful out of her favorite Chinese pistache, which met the ax during the current phase of downtown renovations. Stop by Blue Gate Gallery and see the tree’s lovely wood, resurrected as everything from jewelry to furniture and a bear sculpture.
Musician, singer-songwriter and wood artisan Eddy Harrison is even crafting a guitar. Maybe we can recruit talented souls to create wooden flutes, drums and other instruments and end up with a whole band or orchestra. Our desert hills could be alive with the sounds of Chinese pistache music for generations to come.
This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful I live in a community of inventive souls like Flo and talented artists who help express her creative vision.
Though it’s been a challenging year, I’ve found that every time I started to work up enthusiastic complaints, the universe delivered someone who severely outclassed me in the misery department.
That old line, “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet,” came to mind a lot.
Actually, I have lots of shoes. More than I need, I realized, and felt better after I gave some of them away to worthy causes.
In fact, though times are still tough, they’re improving, and in the worst of times, most of us have rather high-class worries compared to the rest of the world.
This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful that most of my loved ones are still alive and are finding creative ways to heal and help others. I’m thankful I got to know and spend time with some wonderful souls who have since moved on to other realms.
I’m grateful to live in America in general and milagro-filled Las Cruces in particular.
I’m pleased that the more I count my blessings, the more I find to count.
And when it comes time for eloquent sentiments on turkey day, I’m going to remember Meister Eckhart’s simple but powerful advice: “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
Thank you. And happy Thanksgiving.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Las Cruces art scene is hopping

2010-11-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

New galleries join art scene
By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — If you’re new to Las Cruces, you might think that Full-tilt Fiesta Season is drawing to a close. But stay tuned for a fun-filled December—and a burgeoning year-round art scene.
It’s true we’ve had an action-packed fall, from the traditional favorites like the Deming Duck Races and Labor Day fiestas to The Whole Enchilada Fiesta, Dia de los Muertos, Diez y Seis de Septiembre, Día de los Muertos, the Renaissance ArtsFaire and newcomers like the new Plein Aire Festival and the SalsaFest, now in its second year.
And if we had to call it, I’d say that this is the year artshops really came of age.
When I arrived in 1994, the annual Doña Ana Arts Council ArtsHop was just starting, and it was pretty much the only game in the territory. Now it’s spun off into a festival (DAAC’s Color Las Cruces Plein Aire Competition and Community Arts Festival) and the Downtown Ramble, the first Friday of each month. And now we have this year’s newcomer: Camino del Arte Tour, a second Saturday of each month tour of as many as 10 galleries and studios (many of them brand new in 2010) and 10 restaurants in the historic Mesquite Street District.
In addition, there are annual For the Love of Art Month studio tour weekends, and artists Georjeanna Feltha and Ouida Touchon have coordinated two more annual downtown artists’ studio tours in the spring and fall which attract a growing number of artists, studios and art fans.
Any artist who complains there’s no place to show work here just hasn’t been paying attention.
Despite tough economic times, our roster of galleries continues to grow, especially when it comes to artists’ co-ops.
Mesilla, which once had just one plaza-area artists’ cooperative gallery, Mesilla Valley Fine Arts, now boasts three co-ops, with the addition of Los Artesanos Galeria and Art Galaxy.
The Border Book Festival Foundation and its headquarters, which has always nurtured artists and craftspeople, as well as authors, has branched out to add Galeria Tepin.
There will soon be two new additions to the Mercado de Mesilla complex, home of the Preston Contemporary Art Center, which has attracted national attention and offered a venue for top international, national and regional artists during its brief history.
The late Ben Boldt envisioned the Mercado (itself an artistic achievement, thanks to the design of sculptor Kelley Hestir) as a little art mecca, maybe with some “mom and pop” artists living in or above galleries in the complex.
Reinforcing that vision will be A.me and Mitch Alamag’s ROKOKO Kosmic Soul Kaboom Studio & Gallery, slated to open by spring.
And Carolyn and Henry Bunch will soon open a gallery (their fourth in the Mesilla Valley) at the Mercado.
“We tossed a lot of names around and finally returned the one we used before: The Adobe Patio Gallery and Studio,” said Carolyn.
They hope to open in late November or early December.
The Mott family are also back. Many of us remember their PK studios on Alameda. Now artist Kate, daughter Padma, and Kate’s potter husband Russell have opened MVS Studios near the Branigan Cultural Center.
M. Phillips Gallery and Justus Wright Galeria have moved from their original sites to reopen in bigger and more interesting downtown locations.
Many area shops and restaurants, some inspired by participation in February for the Love of Art Month exhibits, have become art venues themselves, rotating year-round exhibitions.
And brand new galleries seem to be opening all the time. David Jacquez just opened Jardín de las Cruces, 4010 N. Valley Drive, with a group show Nov. 6.
Watch for more soon. Arts are hopping in Las Cruces.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Visiting the aspen light shows

2010-11-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
“This is a REAL light show,” said my soulmate Dr. Roger, as we journeyed through patches of golden aspens in the hills and valleys and mountains of Northern New Mexico.
Autumn could be the best time to visit Northern New Mexico and this is a particularly spectacular fall. In late October, many of my favorite summer flowers — including big, beautiful stands of cosmos — were still in bloom and it was pretty close to prime time for those amazing Aspens.
No photographs I’ve ever seen can really capture their brilliant and ethereal beauty, and I’m not sure words can describe them, but I’ll give it a shot.
You’ll find them glowing In fields of fading green, on gray and rosy mountain tops, in a serene river valley by an isolated monastery, and within familiar Abiquiu vistas etched on the brains of fans of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings.
Mysteriously backlit with powerful luminosity, even when the day is rainy and overcast, the aspens radiate an ebullient, big yellow joy. They’re an annual surprise that never gets old.
There’s gold in them thar hills.
We found them at Pecos Benedictine Monastery near Pecos, an easy afternoon trip about 25 miles east of Santa Fe, within a thousand serene acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, anointed with ponds and a winding stretch of the Pecos River.
We explored an autumn wonderland to discover a bridge linked to an island with flowering bushes, and on a quiet riverfront path, we came upon the “Hosanna Madonna,” a deeply moving rustic statue of an exuberant mother lifting her holy child skyward, showing him to the heavens.
We saw them on daily explorations from our home base at Santa Fe’s newly renovated St. Francis Hotel, when we set off on short strolls to the Santa Fe Plaza and longer hikes down Canyon Road and through the trendy railroad district.
We found bursts of them in the thoughtfully designed and lovely eco-friendly landscaping at El Monte Sagrado Resort in Taos.
A few early fliers swirled in golden gusts as we wandered paths by the resort’s streams and waterfalls and walked through the Taos Plaza and visited galleries on Ledoux Street.
I’ll be writing more about adventures in Northern New Mexico in coming weeks.
Santa Fe’s special 400th anniversary celebrations are coming to a close, but it’s hard to imagine a better time to celebrate the City Different’s unique beauties.
The tourist jams have abated a bit. The skies are that crisp autumn-winter New Mexico lapis lazuli. Bargains abound in everything from arts and crafts to clothing, home accessories and meals and lodging.
You can plan your own quadracentennial homage to Santa Fe: 1610-2010 with a self-guided tour of the New Mexico History Museum and historic sites and buildings on and around the Santa Fe Plaza.
It’s always fun to put together your own fall picnic. Visit the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays in the Santa Fe Railyard. It’s not as big or well-stocked as ours (they were voted No. 2 in the state in the same poll that ranks the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts market No. 1 in New Mexico), but it’s a market with style and tasty treats.
Stop by Kaune’s Market, on Old Santa Fe Trail for some gourmet goodies. Or fill your picnic basket at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, located close enough to one another to make buffet comparison shopping easy.
And if you hurry, you might still be able to catch the last of the aspens, the best autumn light show in the state.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Quest for the perfect costume

2010-10-29T12:23:00.001-07:00

LAS CRUCES — It’s that time of year again, when all patriotic Las Crucens suit up for Full-Tilt Costume Fiesta Season (FTCFS).
This year, the pressure has been on for both sprints and marathons.
Dia de los Muertos events started with two, count ‘em TWO — Frida Kahlo look-alike contests on the same day and stretched on to include a costume ball, plus this weekend’s Dia de los Muertos festivities on the Mesilla Plaza. One of those days is, of course, Halloween. Then there’s the dusk Day of the Dead procession on Tuesday, for which it is traditional to dress up, perhaps as your favorite difunto (deceased loved one), and bring musical instruments and noisemakers. This year, the procession falls on election day. Don’t forget to vote and we hope you won’t be in mourning for your favorite candidates the next morning.
Then, or course, there’s next weekend’s Renaissance ArtsFaire, which is not the same weekend as Dead Day fiestas this year, as sometimes happens.
That’s probably good news for costume marathoners, but not so hot for sprinters, who enjoy the adrenaline rush of suiting up appropriately for a variety of parties, fiestas, ceremonies and, on double-booked occasions, fly-bys.
Speaking of which, angels and ghosts are appropriate for all our dress-up occasions, and if you’re trying to simplify your costumed life, it’s always good to get back to the basics.
In recent years, I’ve gone the angel route. I have a couple of flowing white robes that I never seem to wear any time else, and they don’t take much space in my overstuffed costume closet.
It’s filled with costumes and accessories from my pre-Minimalist days. The mask section ranges from crow beaks and glow-in-the-dark ET faces to a large Dilbert head and a nice King Tut. (That one came in handy for the Branigan’s Egyptian exhibit a couple of years ago.)
There’s a whole section devoted to wizardry, which I once thought might be the answer to the universally appropriate costume quest. There are star-spangled robes, wands, and assorted wizard hats — great hits for matching gram and grandson Harry Potter soirees, when grandson Alex the Great was in residence.
Wizards were OK for Halloween and RenFaire, where I’ve picked up some spectacular bubble wands over the years. But the hats were hot and blew off at windy outdoor fiestas. And no matter how much magic attitude I tried to conjure, wizards never seemed quite right for Día de los Muertos occasions.
I think the angel is the best bet, though I’m still searching for the perfect wings, which would be soft, bendable, hypoallergenic, non-shedding and super comfy. In an ideal world (which, let’s face it, this isn’t, or what’s a heaven for?) I’d be able to retract and unfurl my wings at will, perhaps with a handy remote control device.
In the meantime, I take them off for car trips and seek out party occasions where I can remain standing or hang out on backless benches or other angel-friendly perches.
I don’t worry about storage for my favorite pair, which has a wingspan of about 6 feet. They hang on my living room wall, where they remain a focal point through FTCFS and on through Christmas, and a topic of conversation during the rest of the year.
I’m still working on display ideas for my halo collection, which includes bendable headband high-rise versions and an ethereal, gauzy, easy-on circlet I picked up last year at a RenFaire booth.
It’s easy to customize my basic angel ensemble for any and all FTCFS needs. Last year, I paper-clipped a “PRESS” card to my halo for an office party, pulled a black-and-white skeleton T-shirt over my robe for Dia de los Muertos, added a garland of small flowers for RenFaire and pondered stacking a halo atop a sombrero for the Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference’s Parque Festival. I just picked up a fun flashing-lights-and-sound gun at a costume store, so I plan to be futuristic avenging angel for Halloween.
The possible variations are endless. Maybe next year I'll add a black wig and a unibrow and enter a look-alike contest as the ghost of Frida Kahlo.
I’ve been around the FTCFS block and I’m here to tell you, it’s the perfect, all-season, all-star costume choice.
Angels, after all, are always appropriate.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

The Vampire wars

2010-10-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Vampires seem to be in season year-round these days, but this is a particularly good time of year to contemplate the great sisterly vampire wars of 2010.
Forget team Edward vs. Team Jacob.
For my sister Sally and me, it comes down to Team Sookie vs. Team Bella. If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past decade, or more likely, out in the bright sunshine away from any news of vampire literature, you may have no idea what I'm talking about. Bella is the heroine of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, basis for a hot movie franchise. Sookie is the mainstay of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, which inspired an HBO series.
Our differing vampire preferences may seem strange in sisters with nearly identical voices and tastes so similar that, even living and shopping in locales thousands of miles apart, we've often managed to give each other identical Christmas presents as esoteric as Guatemalan hand-woven patchwork tote bags.
But then again, there are some differences. Sally likes smokin' bad boys, big bowls of peel 'n eat shrimp and the smell of the ocean at low tide. I'm more partial to health-conscious, spiritually inclined guys with doctoral degrees and cowboy boots, green chile and cilantro, and the fresh aroma of ozone during a lightning storm.
So maybe it isn't so surprising that Floridian Sally likes Deep South Sookie and I'm fonder of Bella, whose primary homes are in the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest, where I've spent most of my adult life.
We could have endless debates about which heroine and which vampires are most admirable.
Bella, though she isn’t adverse to a close friendship with a werewolf/shapeshifter and doesn't appear to care if her daughter marries one, is a one-vampire woman. And whatta vampire!
Edward is a “vegetarian” vampire (which means he dines on free-range wildlife rather than humans) and lives with a close-knit family of humanitarians who use their superpowers for good and healing and fret over the state of their souls (and whether they have any). Bella wants to become a vampire mainly because it can mean a very long run with her soulmate and the love of her life. Bella’s unique superpower, pre- and post-vampirism, is to shield her thoughts and her loved ones.
I wouldn't call Sookie a supernatural slut, but she is a rather bewildered soul who has had long-term relationships with a couple of vampires and seriously dated a few werewolves and shapeshifters and is especially fond of the human/collie who owns the bar where she works.
Sookie has had trouble coming to terms with her superpower, the ability to read the minds of humans, but not vampires, in whose company she therefore finds some degree of peace, except, of course, for all the vampire violence and shenanigans. Eventually, Sookie discovers she is descended from a fairy (as in Tinkerbell) ancestor, a heritage that apparently heightens her appeal for vampires.
I love both the Twilight books and movies and concede that the Sookie books are page-turners, too, but the extreme and icky violence has dissuaded me from watching the TV series, "True Blood" (named for the synthetic blood developed by the Japanese that enabled the vampires in Sookie’s world to go public and hang out in blood bars).
Sally and I can agree that both series are well-written, and I'm grateful that Sally's Sookie partisanship has introduced me to the other series by prolific author Harris. I'm enjoying working my way through her books, including her three other mystery series starring Harper Connelly, who is able to communicate with the dead after being struck by lightning, smart Southern Belle librarian Aurora Teagarden, and crime-victim-turned-karate-aficionado Lily Bard, who leaves her upscale professional life to clean houses (and become an inadvertent crime-fighter) in a small Arkansas town.
Hmm. It takes all kinds — of humans, pixies, werewolves, vampires, crime-fighting heroes and other assorted critters — to make our big, wild, imaginative world. This is a great season to treat yourself to a good, perspective-stretching, original read.
Happy Halloween — and viva la difference!

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Día de los Muertos 101: A guide to Day of the Dead customs, terms and traditions

2010-10-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
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, Mesilla and throughout the region, 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 17 years of commemorations.
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 graphic artist and political cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada.
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 on 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.
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 Dia 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 usually 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 — 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 can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Las Cruces Style keeps evolving

2010-09-30T07:38:00.001-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Las Cruces style keeps evolving and just when I think I have a pretty good handle on our distinctive brand of panache, I have a couple of months that convince me that we just might be the global epicenter of innovation.
Some of the changes involve new twists on old favorites.
As I learned doing a Sept. 25 Mi Casa story on the Reynolds-Chávez-Fountain house, sometimes stylish souls born elsewhere, like Midwestern transplants Lori Miller and Len Gambrell, can have profound insights about enhancing — and dedication to preserving — Borderland style. Their renovations to the beloved 1860s, two-story adobe Territorial home and grounds is remarkable. Like settlers in the time of the home’s birth, they’ve gracefully merged their own heritage with vintage Mesilla style.
(And by the way, you city officials who balk at the challenges of preserving a single iconic Downtown Mall Chinese pistache tree, the couple have managed to transplant and preserve an entire small orchard of fruit and nut trees while renovating their pretty little acre.)
Sometimes, it’s a native son who travels the world and brings back some fresh ideas to contribute to the evolution of Las Cruces style. Check out today’s Artist of the Week profile of Michael Poncé. He grew up here and went off to live and study in San Francisco, New York and London, with exotic stopovers that have ranged from Kentucky to India, Australia and Hong Kong. I was amazed to see how gracefully he’s blended Pan-Cultural and Borderland influences in his art and downtown Las Cruces home. I can’t to see what he’s done in his new gallery, Michael Poncé Contemporary at 508 N. Mesquite St. Check it out from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday during the second monthly Camino del Arte tour of Mesquite historic district galleries and restaurants.
And speaking of stylish innovations, if you missed the first Camino tour, you’ll have more chances the second Saturday of each month at these locations: Gabriella Denton Studio, 403-B E. Court Ave., Unsettled Gallery & Studio, 905 N. Mesquite St., Mesquite Street Studios, 922 N. Mesquite St. Studios, Mesquite Art Gallery, 340 N. Mesquite St., Studio 308, No. 1, 308 N. Mesquite St., Nopalito’s Galeria, 326 S. Mesquite St., Joyce T. Macrorie Studio, 639 San Pedro St., New Dimension Artworks, 615-B E. Piñon Ave., Tony Pennock Studio, 721 N. Mesquite St. and Michael Poncé Contemporary, 508 N. Mesquite St.; plus 10 restaurants: Nopalito, La Nueva Casita, La Guadalupana, El Tiburon Mariscos, Kiva Patio Café, Tacos Santa Fe, Roberto’s, El Sombrero Patio Café, Church’s Chicken and Lujan Bakery.
I really enjoyed the first round, complete with a horse-drawn carriages, cosmopolitan artists and a transforming street that reminded me a lot of Albuquerque’s Old Town, with lots of people in the ‘hood for Camino, plus an event at Klein Park, and the first Color Las Cruces Plein Air Festival Community Art Festival.
I also ran into Las Cruces stylin’ trendsetter Bob Diven, making his own rogue plein air statement with a dinosaur chalk drawing on a Main Street sidewalk.
Now he says he’ll do some chalk art every Saturday morning during the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market. See some samples of his street creatures at http://wn.com/Street_Painting_by_Bob_Diven.
And speaking of the market, LCF&CM ranked No. 1 in New Mexico and No. 9 in the nation for markets with more than 56 vendors in a nationwide poll, despite an unpopular move in a time when the most popular part of the Downtown Mall is thoroughly torn up for renovations. And the market is looking better than ever, which is kind of an impressive Ginger Rogers achievement. (Wags have noted that she did everything just as well as Fred Astaire did, and she managed to do it backward, in heels!)
No wonder Pendleton is naming blankets after us and furniture and home accessory makers are coming out with Las Cruces lines.
Ah, Las Cruces style.
We always had it. Always will.
And we keep getting better all the time.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

We want to save our tree!

2010-09-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — We aren’t ready to say die when it comes to our favorite tree, that venerable old Chinese pistache on the Downtown Mall that city officials first seemed inclined to save and now say will likely be cut down in the next phase of downtown construction, as noted in my Sept. 12 Las Cruces Style column.
Many of you are fighting mad about their change of tune — and it’s clear that you have not had a change of heart — when it comes to sparing that special tree.
Once again, you wrote, e-mailed, called and stopped me on the Downtown Mall by the tree, a popular, shady place to congregate on hot market days.
Tamie Smith has even created a commemorative website with photos of all the trees that have been cut down on the Downtown Mall.
Listen up, powers that be: We want to save that tree and make arboreal rescues a top priority, now and in the future.
Here’s a sampling of what you had to say. For more, or to post your own comments, go to lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.
Jean Bartels (a resident of Las Cruces for 44 years): “It’s unbelievable that the city, which already demolished trees on the yellow brick road for the current project, is thinking of doing the same with the tree at the south end. Thank goodness for the artists who are creating things of beauty out of the wood that was saved.
“I was going into the library the day the big gorgeous city Christmas tree was being cut down and, although I’d read in the paper that it was to happen, I could hardly believe my eyes and stood aghast. Only God can make a tree, but L.C. can certainly destroy. Put in a vote for me that the tree at the south end be left standing where it is!”
Jim Hayhoe: “I cannot agree with you more that we should do the engineering necessary to save the Main Street pistache tree. A tree such as this is worth several parking spots, especially in a Downtown area that IS YET to demonstrate the ability to attract patrons. If the city has any serious intention of thinking GREEN this is a way to show it to the area residents.”
Esther Matthews: “I disagree with Robert Ebler’s (the city’s senior civil engineer) statements regarding the Chinese pistache tree downtown. The 20 parking spaces may be business friendly, but not necessary. Customers prefer green shade and natural beauty. There is ample parking behind the buildings. When are ALL the spaces full? (Ebler said) It would cost $30,000 to $40,000 to design around it. That seems like nothing in the whole scheme of things. What percentage of that is compared to the whole cost, minus the cost of moving it?
“New trees won’t demand the same respect of this old, beautiful tree. It is also disheartening that government will sacrifice this tree against the wishes of its citizens, in the hope of more revenue.”
Mary Salais: “I am writing because I am concerned about the pistache tree at the south side of the Downtown Mall. It is near the Music Box. I want it to stay alive and not to be chopped down. It reminds me of a favorite childhood tree near the tennis courts on Picacho street that they chopped down and it made me very upset and sad not to see it there. I enjoyed the shade under the tree. It’s gone now and it’s been three years ago. I don’t want this to happen again. The tree is useful since we have very hot sunshine here.”
Jack Pumphrey: “For the life of me I can't understand the reasoning behind the decision to destroy one of the finest outdoor malls in the Southwest.
“The Farmers Market wasn't the only group to benefit from the absence of traffic and abundant shade. Visitors to Branigan Cultural Center, Coas, Big Picture, ABC Printing, Insta-Copy and so on, had a pleasant place to take a noon-day stroll, relax and meet friends, have a solo sack lunch and enjoy the shade of those (now) destroyed trees, planters and awnings.
“Now the powers that be are constructing a three-to-four-block long, two-way street with no parking with no possibility of shade in our lifetime. Why? If you can't stop the car and get out to shop, visit the galleries, dine in the new bistros or, have an espresso … Why?, Why?, WHY?
“And another thing, mark my words, the ‘up-town’ chic, roundabout will cause the city more grief than benefit. It’s going to be confusing enough just trying to figure out a good (any?) reason to drive up or down that obscure part of Main Street.
“I can see it now. Another car gets rear-ended from someone gawking at the new sidewalk restaurant and refurbished buildings. Or, running into one of those patina-green carriage poles while dodging jaywalkers! (Theater goers beware!)
“The best use, so far, is when the street is blocked off for special interest dinner parties and the Farmers Market. Huh? Isn't that what was destroyed? The use of a nice traffic-free open space?
“Now the paranoiacs/urban planners want to kill the last remaining elder-tree because it's too tough to figure out a positive solution? The tree is now a traffic hazard? Build the ‘road’ around it for the sense of what’s common and sane. Build a curving divided pretty lane around the tree. Construct pointy planters that face oncoming traffic and make it wide enough so emergency vehicles can make it through. It’s not as if there are going to be speed bumps to show down what sparse traffic that probably will be too light to justify stop lights. And finally: IT (the tree) would take away parking spaces? What parking places!
“Leaving the tree where it is will create a reason for driving the three or four blocks to accomplish … what?”
Tamie Smith: “Thanks for the tree article. Sad, isn’t it, that citizens can't trust the words of our elected and hired officials?
“At a couple of city council meetings before a date had been set for cutting down the large trees, I asked if I could be notified when that would be done. I was assured by the city manager and my councilor that someone would let me know. Right! (They didn’t notify me.)”
NOTE: To see Tamie’s website with “a few assorted pictures of the trees we used to have,” go to http://bit.ly/dnFfw5.
I checked out the site and had trouble understanding how curving around the tree would eliminate 20 parking places. But if so, so what? I have yet to see anything close to 20 cars parked on the “finished” downtown block.
And don’t give up the fight. I’ll send these comments on to Mayor Ken Miyagishima at mayor@las-cruces.org. If you’d like to save the tree, let our mayor and city council know.
Here are some letters that came in after our deadline.
Diana Ayers: “The city might take a closer look at what makes a place desirable. Plantings, natural or exotic, attract folks; hot parking lots do not.
“I was stunned to see that the city had cut down that stately pine which had been Las Cruces's Christmas Tree. What other city would let that go by without challenge? What other city of any reputation has no tree ordinances?
“Of course it would be a little bit harder to route the road around the pistache, but what is the point to making it straight? If this exercise is being done in the name of commerce, the merchants certainly won't benefit by traffic's zooming through.
“There is parking everywhere already, and many existing businesses have rear entrances. Patrons of the museums and galleries aren't going to resent walking around the corner, as presumably they are drawn by esthetics in the first place.
“What the place could use is some sidewalk cafes, such as occur as magnets everywhere else. But diners don't want to stare at parked cars (or moving ones). Some storefront awnings for shade would be nice, too.
“Whom does this project serve, anyhow?”
Carole Rickman: “Save our tree. A message for our City Council and the powers that be: As the song goes — ‘Take Paradise and put in a parking lot’— or in this case, a road.
“It seems such a shame to destroy such a beautiful part of our Downtown in the name of ‘progress.’ Please leave the tree —work around it.
“The birds, critters (and) people will thank you.
“S. Derrickson Moore — I love your columns and hope your rallying cry for our tree will help save it.”

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Fun with birthday numbers

2010-09-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — It’s a big year for significant birthdays in the Land of Enchantment in general and the City of the Crosses in particular.
We’re always up for a party, here in the city of fiesta moods and festive attitudes.
J. Paul Taylor turned 90 about the same time the Branigan Cultural Center turned 75. Initially, the August birthday bashes were scheduled for the same day, but “human-before-institution” honors prevailed, and the Branigan fiesta moved to anther day, Sept. 3.
The celebrations continue.
On Sept. 15, No Strings Theatre Company celebrated its 10th anniversary. As it happens, that’s also Guatemalan Independence Day and the birthdays of my late dad Jack and my early soulmate Dr. Roger. Hmm. I’m sure a good astrologer could enlighten me about the significance of these Sept. 15 events. Maybe I’ll write a play about it all and present it at the Black Box Theatre, No Strings’ home base.
There are some other interesting things involving birthday/anniversary celebrations, like the fact that our state is so much younger than its three biggest cities. New Mexico will celebrate its 100th birthday (the centennial of statehood) in 2012, yet our state’s capital, Santa Fe, is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year.
Albuquerque, if I remember right, had a big 300th birthday bash about four years ago and Las Cruces has a year of sesquicentennial (150th) celebrations in 1998.
Probably on some plain of existence, there are some chuckles about these “founding” dates and epic birthdays from Anasazis and Mimbres and other ancient souls, whose first appearances in shards and fossil remains date back thousands, not mere hundreds, of years.
Back on the home front, coming up soon is another, if much younger, milestone anniversary.
The Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico will celebrate with a 10th Anniversary Gala at 6 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Las Cruces International Airport. There’ll be dinner, dancing and a live auction and dress is “semi-formal or aviation costume,” so if you’ve ever wanted to dress up as a World War I flying ace, this is your big chance. Tickets and info: (575) 521-4794 or cfsnm.org.
Coming up is a season of 25th anniversary celebrations for the New Mexico State University Choral Department. In a few months, Court Youth Center, home of Alma d’arte Charter School, will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its rebirth.
Today you can read about the nation’s oldest two-story adobe theater, the Rio Grande, which first entertained Las Crucens in the 1920s. What we’re celebrating this month is the fifth anniversary of its facelift, or restoration. It’s an intriguing fiesta concept, a kind of rebirthday.
I’ve always wondered why the only birthdays deemed worthy of major fiestas always seem to end in “5” or “0,” whether they’re measured in two- or three- or four-digit increments. And we stop there. I can’t remember the 10,000th anniversary celebration of anything, can you? Though I do recall, growing up, monitoring the number of burgers sold on ever-changing signs at McDonald’s. I don’t think they do that anymore, but a website reports that by spring of 2010 the total was about 245 billion served.
Meanwhile, back home on the range, we have some more eco-friendly, organic, downhome numbers to celebrate. Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market fans who might have missed the earlier stories will be pleased to know that in the America's Favorite Farmers Markets Contest, we ranked first in New Mexico overall and No. 9 in the United States for markets with more than 56 vendors.
Chris Faivre of the Las Cruces Convention & Visitors Bureau noted that we were also “the only market within New Mexico to rank nationally in any one of the contest categories. In fact, the LCFCM was only one vote shy of an 8th place tie with the Chattanooga Market in Tennessee.”
The contest is sponsored each year by American Farmland Trust (farmland.org).
In 2011, the LCFCM will celebrate its 40th anniversary. If trends continue, our market could be No. 1 in the United States at age 40.
That could be quite a birthday present.
NOTE: City officials, spare the tree that shades our nation’s fabulous No. 9 market! Many of you are fighting mad about plans to cut down what many of us think is the Downtown’s most beautiful tree — and we’d also like to preserve some other old-growth faves. We’ll share your comments in next week’s Las Cruces Style column.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Is there still time to save our tree?

2010-09-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Bureaucrats, spare that tree!
Remember that big, beautiful Chinese pistache near the Music Box on the Downtown Mall? The one some of us think may be the most beautiful tree in the Mesilla Valley?
Many of us thought it was safe, after a controversy erupted in January and many of you wrote, called and e-mailed offering to petition, protest or even picket to save your favorite trees. Others suggested that the Downtown Mall plan be redesigned to accommodate the tree.
This is what some our city officials had to say then.
“I think it would be kind of nice to have the street curve around the tree. Maybe it would be like that street in San Francisco and people would come to see our street with the big tree right in the middle,” Mayor Ken Miyagishima said, referring to San Francisco’s Lombard Street, known as “the crookedest street in the world.”
Assistant city manager Robert Garza called the tree “a cornerstone that’s fortunately strategically planted right in the middle, which enables us to design a solution around the tree” and said “mechanics have now been set in motion” for a redesign that could save the tree when the final phase of revitalization begins on the south end of the mall, possibly as early as next March.
Garza won the hearts of tree-lovers when he noted, “It’s a perfect tree and it’s a happy tree and has been there a long time and should be there as long as possible.”
Sounds like our tree dodged a bullet — or a bulldozer — yes?
Well, apparently, no. Maybe you missed some crucial information in the last paragraphs of Amanda Bradford’s Sept. 1 story on the demise of the towering Downtown Mall Afghan pine that has served as the city’s Christmas tree for the past two years. Robert Ebler, the city’s senior civil engineer, said our tree is likely to be among a group (once scheduled to be spared or moved) that will be destroyed, after all.
“We could lose over 20 on-street parking spaces by leaving the tree in place and transitioning the road into tight quarters on the sides. Ultimately, it's best to remove the tree. We are planting over 50 new trees for about the same cost as moving just the one. Also, we feel it is more business-friendly to provide parking and related amenities with the proposed plan,” Garza said in an e-mail.
Eber said costs to move the pistache could be $30,000 to $40,000 and designing around the tree could cost $50,000. He opined that the flow of traffic would be pushed to one side, creating safety hazards and reducing parking and landscaping possibilities for the area.
To which I say, let’s consider the landscaping reality of that tree that’s been green and growing with us for more than three decades, and find a way to let it be and make it work.
If it’s the design money, maybe we can find some volunteers who will help us or give us a discount. I’ve toured eco-friendly developments here where planners have managed to curve roads and sidewalks and readjust mega-buck developments to save old growth mesquite. Surely we can find ways to do the same for the prettiest tree shading the corazon y alma (heart and soul) of our city, a place we want to revitalize to showcase what’s best about Las Cruces.
So what, if it means a little jog in the road, the sacrifice of a few parking spaces, or some artful landscaping to reroute pedestrians? We aren’t looking for a high-speed expressway there, anyway. And won’t it be worth it, especially when the street is closed off for market days and festivals, to see another generation of kids playing under its leafy canopy?
After the Christmas tree came down, I was stopped on a Downtown Mall stroll by Tamie Smith, who’s mad and sad about the tree topplings.
“If (auto) mall traffic is so great, why don’t they put a street down the middle of the Mesilla Valley Mall?” she asked.
She said she’s been ignored by bureaucrats and city officials when she comes up with plans for Downtown revitalization. She shared a few with me: a railway line running through the mall, acting as a tourist attraction and a way of transporting people to attractions in our burgeoning cultural corridor. She pointed to a strip of grass across from the Rio Grande Theatre and suggested we ask the bank if they’d be willing to allow a line of shade trees there, if we could get the city to provide and maintain the trees.
And she wants to save the big, beautiful pistache.
“The new trees aren’t enough. I won’t have another 30 years until they grow. I won’t be alive to see it,” she said.
What do you think? If you feel it’s worth the effort to slightly alter the mall plan to save the tree, or have some other ideas, let us know.
To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style, email dmoore@lcsun-news.com or write me c/o Las Cruces Sun-News, 256 W. Las Cruces Ave., Las Cruces, NM 88005.
There’s still time to save that tree, a symbol of so many things we love about Las Cruces. Let’s do it.

S. Derrickson Moore at can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450.

Fiesta Roundup

2010-09-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — This is it, party animals.
Last weekend’s old standby, Deming’s Great American Duck Races, and the new chica on the block, MainStreet Salsa Festival, now in its second year, kicked off the 2010-11 Full-Tilt Fiesta Season.
As today’s Labor Day weekend roundup shows, whether the economy has rebounded or not, our fiesta spirit is going strong.
And even the festivals that had called it quits seem to be coming back in some new forms.
The Hillsboro Apple Festival has been reborn as the Hillsboro Harvest Festival, with the same great attractions in a mountain town full of art galleries, antique stores and historic adobe homes. This year, they’ll also feature a new crop of apples.
From now on, we’ll be pretty much going full-tilt through New Year’s. Labor Day weekend attractions include the New Mexico Wine Harvest Festival, Hatch Chile Festival and the Franciscan Festival of the Arts, which evolved into the Doña Arts Council’s Renaissance Arts Faire, the region’s largest cultural event, before returning to its original name and site at Holy Cross.
DAAC has bee the source of other spin-offs, too. Their annual ArtsHop has morphed into the monthly Downtown Ramble and other artists’ neighborhood studio and gallery tours, including the brand new Camino del Arte, which will make it’s debut from 11 to 3 p.m. Sept. 11 in the city historic Mesquite District, along with DAAC’s brand new Color Las Cruces Plein Air Competition and Community Arts Festival Sept. 11 and 12. Fort Selden Frontier Days will be the same weekend, a boon for art and history buffs.
The White Sands Hot Air Balloon Invitational runs Sept. 17 to 19. Save some energy to celebrate Mexico’s independence at the Diez y Seis de Septiembre Festival Sept. 18 and 19 on the Mesilla, Plaza. Get ready for the city’s street party (and the world largest enchilada) at The Whole Enchilada Festival Sept. 24 through 26.
Livestock shows, a cowboy rodeo, a midway, food, music and fun, plus a showcase of our best animals, produce, arts and crafts and more, highlight the Southern New Mexico State Fair and Rodeo Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.
It will be a very jazzy FTFS. The Mesilla Jazz Happening will be Oct. 2 and 3, with wine gardens at both locations. at the Mercado Plaza and the Mesilla Plaza. If you’re up for a third venue, check out the La Viña Wine Festival, also Oct. 2 and 3.
And here’s more: “Jam Session in Las Cruces,” two months of events focusing on the art and culture of jazz, will feature multi-media exhibits, concerts, films, gallery talks, and educational outreach events at several locations from December 10 to Feb. 3 For more info: visit the "Jam Session in Las Cruces" website at: www.lcjazz.org. That’ll ease us into 2011 February For the Love of Art Month celebrations of visual, performance and literary arts.
Meanwhile, back in 2010, autumn fun continues with Dias de los Muertos celebrations around Las Cruces and from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 on Mesilla’s Plaza.
Deadheads and RenFaire fans will be able to spread out the fun this year, since two of our most popular celebrations won’t fall on the same weekend. DAAC’s Renaissance ArtsFaire will be Nov. 6 and 7 at Young Park.
The Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference Nov. 11 through 14, includes concerts, a Mariachi Mass and the Parque Festival.
December is packed with festive and spiritual celebrations, pageants and festivals, some with historic roots that stretch back centuries. The Tortugas Pueblo invites the community for events that include a pilgrimage up A Mountain, dancing ceremonies and a traditional albondigas feast during their Virgen de Guadalupe Festival, always held Dec. 10, 11 and 12. There are traditional luminaria displays at NMSU and Doña Ana Plaza, and the Christmas Eve lumniarias and carols on Mesilla’s Plaza.
There are holiday concerts, church and school events and pageants, bazaars and bake sales, holiday Downtown Rambles and lots more.
There are many more special events, too, from area autumn mazes to gallery and museum openings, special shows, theater openings, Las Cruces Symphony and NMSU Choral Department premieres and concerts, the Las Cruces Chamber Ballet’s annual presentation of the beloved holiday classic “The Nutcracker” and the La Casa Bazaar Dec. 3, 4 and 5, one of the first events at our brand new Las Cruces Convention Center. Pace yourself, ease into fiesta mode and we’ll do our best to keep you posted.
¡Viva Full-Tilt Fiesta Season!

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Tour Las Cruces' HIstoric Mesquite District

2010-09-03T06:33:00.001-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Sometimes an artquake can sneak up on you, virtually in your own backyard.
Ten studios and galleries will participate in Saturday’s first Camino del Arte tour, which participants hope will become a popular trek from 11 to 3 p.m. the second Saturday of each month.
It’s also a chance to see the wonderful old adobe buildings in what was once part of the legendary El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, one of the longest, oldest trails in the Americas, where indigenous peoples blazed footpaths that would become the route used by Spaniards and later settlers.
In 1849, Pablo Melendrez got some rawhide rope and patiently laid out a grid for the original Las Cruces townsite. Not too long ago, I was discussing Pablo and his colorful era with Carlos Melendrez, who’s among the descendents of those original founding families who still live in — or have returned to — the historic neighborhood.
When I decided to visit all the Camino del Arte gallery owners, I realized I already knew most of the people and/or sites on the tour.
I think my first Mesquite Street contact, almost two decades ago, was probably Tony Pennock, creator of our dramatic water tank murals, whose studio is on the tour.
Several years ago, I walked through a crumbling adobe with artist Sina Brush, someone I knew in Santa Fe and re-met here, when she was working to restore what would become Catherine and Don Brenner’s beautiful Unsettled Gallery.
Sina had a vision. She thought Mesquite Street could become an artistic mecca. We both love Santa Fe’s Canyon Road, and Sina clearly held that thought when she was researching the best ways to restore her property. She saw it as her own possible home and studio someday.
The Brenners shared her vision and as Catherine told me last week, they “bonded with the old adobe.”
The same attraction has enticed artists from around the U.S. and around the world, including Diana Ayres and her Australian-born husband Dean, who settled in across the street at what is now Mesquite Street Studios.
In recent years, studios were opened by multimedia artist Joyce T. Macrorie, who restored a cozy old adobe on San Pedro, and sculptor John Northcutt, who established New Dimension Artworks on Pinon Street.
One of the area’s newest galleries is the fulfillment of a long-held dream of a family with deep roots is the Mesilla Valley. Tina Gallegos’ dream came true with the opening of Nopalito Galeria.
“My mom has wanted to start a gallery in this house for a long as I can remember,” said David Gallegos, leading a tour of art-filled nooks and nichos next door to the family’s popular Nopalito Restaurant.
Nearby is the light-filled, contemporary Southwestern home and studio of Gabriella Denton, a Santa Fe transplant whose work I’ve admired for years in City Different shops and galleries.
Recently, she put me in touch with the only three Mesquite tour artists I hadn’t met.
Belgian Yanick D’hooge was still unpacking and arranging some lovely fin de siecle (that’s the fin of the 19th, not 20th century) wrought iron pieces she’s restoring while transforming another old adobe into a stylish, Europe-meets-Nuevo Mexico home and studio. She’s a talented photographer and videographer. She shared her intriguing Andy Warholian documentary on the many moods of our Organ Mountains. I also enjoyed a nice tête-à-tête with her chic and trés amical Weimaraner, who understood my high school French, or graciously pretended to, and bid me a fond adieu as I left Studio 308 and headed for Mesquite Art Gallery.
There, I met Mel Stone, another recent transplant who is enjoying a new career as a fine art photographer and gallery owner after nearly three decades as a “one-man band,” writing, shooting and editing TV features for Fargo’s NBC affiliate.
I felt like I’d come full circle on my surprisingly cosmopolitan backyard tour, when I met Las Cruces native Michael Poncé, who’s back after worldwide travels and impressive artistic accomplishments in San Francisco, New York, Mexico and Great Britain. He’ll borrow a site at 130 N. Mesquite St. for Saturday’s tour before opening his own gallery at 508 N. Mesquite St.
Take some time to investigate Camino del Arte. I bet you’ll be surprised, too, by the artistic treasures evolving in our own backyard.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Should school start in August?

2010-08-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Grandson Alexander the Great said there are many things he misses about Las Cruces, but going back to school in the middle of August is not one of them.
I don’t think his selective memory is giving full credit to the joys of getting out of school in May. In fact, I think he’s still a little irked about the year he started school here in mid-August, moved and ended up having to finish the grade in a new state where school continued until mid-June. That’s a chunk of summer prime time the universe owes him and he’s not likely to forget it anytime soon.
We had a lengthy conversation last Sunday. He’d just gotten back from a weekend of camping and hanging out with some of his bandmates at the Warped Tour, not in Las Cruces this time, but at the Gorge Amphitheater in the Pacific Northwest’s dramatic Columbia River Gorge, a visually breathtaking place that makes our Rio look, frankly, not so Grande.
He was able to rock out, secure in the knowledge that the next day would not be a school day, as it would be for his unfortunate Las Cruces amigos.
I’ve asked a lot, during my 17 summers here, why we still have this strange schedule. I’ve heard many explanations, none of which Alex the Great and I found acceptable: That it’s related to NMSU’s schedule, and harvest schedules.
The smell of green chiles reminds us that it is indeed harvest season. And during this month’s presentation by Irene Oliver-Lewis on the history of Las Cruces Public Schools over the last century, Elizabeth Holguin Lannert reminisced about the days when students were routinely dismissed from schools to help harvest crops.
“Especially during the 1940s, when so many were away at war, we students went out to pick cotton and work in the fields whenever we were needed,” she said.
But we don’t pull kids out of school these days to toil in the fields, and it’s still kind of a mystery to me why we don’t let our niños vacation until after Labor Day, like most of the nation.
Yeah, it’s only a couple of weeks, and the kids will be glad to get them back in May and June, but there’s something special, magical even, about having that intact block in June, July and August, to do summer things.
It impacts the rest of us, too, I realized, talking with Alex in a kind of summer time warp between Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and the Land of Enchantment.
I’d already done back-to-school features and was planning fall vacations and he’s still in the last hazy daze of blissful summer denial, when school seems a lazy aeon away.
Yes, he’s willing to talk about hot trends in teen clothes (“skinny jeans, still, and V-neck T-shirts and tank tops, plain white or colors”) but not the kind of clothes — sweaters and coats and boots — needed to make it through the school year of northern Idaho’s chilly autumn, winter and spring.
We talked about summer stuff: vampire books and vampire spoof movies, concerts and camping, his stint as a summer volunteer with Habitat for Humanity projects, and summer fun as lead vocalist and composer with his still-unnamed rock band.
It took me a little more than a split second to realize that cheerful deep baritone “Hi” emanates from the same soul who once delighted us with merry baby chirps, who finally taught me how to roll my R’s and shared entertaining Spanish kid slang during his pre-school days in Las Cruces.
But the Alex vibes are the same. We discussed computers and his friends, what sizes I should look for to fit his lanky and still upwardly mobile six-foot-frame.
And the fact that he enjoys being able to celebrate his birthday in a place where it’s still summer, before school has started.
Alex turns 14 today, and he’ll be a high school freshman soon.
But not for a few weeks. School or no, let’s enjoy the sunrises, the sunsets and all the last succulent bits of summer in between. Even slow summer days can move deceptively fast. Stop and savor whenever you can, or you might miss some of the best parts.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Great moments in theater

2010-08-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Let’s take time to take stock of just what we have here, Las Cruces theater fans. (Please hold your applause: It’s quite a list.)
Three full-fledged theater companies.
Top notch children’s theater groups.
The Doña Ana Lyric Opera company, Las Cruces Symphony, NMSU Choirs and the Las Cruces Chamber Ballet, all of which occasionally put on theatrical programs which combine drama, music and dance.
Musical revues and original productions at cafés and restaurants and the state’s oldest adobe theater, the renovated Rio Grande Theatre.
Surprisingly polished theatrical presentations by students at local public and private schools.
World premieres of original plays by prize-winning writers.
Mark Medoff plays that made their world premieres in Las Cruces before moving on to Broadway include “Gila” and “Children of a Lesser God,” which won a Tony and went on to become a film that garnered Academy Award nominations (Marlee Matlin won a Best Actress Oscar for her role).
Starting in 1994, for several years, I saw just about every adult theatrical production and several impressive children’s theatrical and school presentations in the Mesilla Valley.
Though some stretch back more than a decade, I still vividly recall some highly diverse, but nonetheless undeniably great moments in theater:
• A play with lovely animated monsters created by artist Stephen Hansen.
• Medoff’s imaginative drama that featured a winsome American Sign Language-literate gorilla, a young woman with a giant Gila monster tattoo on her back, and an onstage underwater romantic encounter.
• Medoff’s feminist Wild Western opera “Sara McKinnon” and his showstopping song, “As Children We Dream.”
• A Bob Diven play that featured singing dinosaurs, and another in which multitalented Diven sang and created original works of art in a tribute to John Singer Sargent. (He also wrote the play.)
• Watching the faces of Irene Oliver-Lewis’ mom and dad as they watched a local presentation of “Ceciliaisms: Dichos de Mi Madre” about her family life, growing up in Las Cruces.
My personal great moments weren’t all from big productions. Talent in a theatrical community seems to be the only trickle down concept that actually works.
I still find myself both tickled and a little teary when I remember a Hillrise Elementary School holiday pageant number, a Southwestern version of the “12 Days of Christmas” sung by a kids' choir that included then-small grandson Alexander the Great.
A few years ago, Sun-News management decided we would no longer send reporters to review the ever-burgeoning number of live performing arts theatrical, musical and dance productions.
I was sad, because I think a measure of a community’s cultural life can be gauged with the presence of treasures like a resident symphony, opera, ballet, and great theater, dance and vocal groups. We are blessed to have them all, an astounding thing in a city our size.
And I grew up thinking that the measure of a metropolitan newspaper was having skilled critics and reporters who could produce intelligent and entertaining reviews of a city’s cultural life.
But cultural treasures have accrued so fast that there’s no way we could cover it all these days.
So we’re asking for your help. If you’ve involved in an upcoming production and would like to share some photos, video clips or preview comments, e-mail me at dmoore@lcsun-news.com.
This week, we’re starting a new blog called YouReview. You’re invited to share your reviews of area plays and performances and find out what others are thinking at our new interactive online feature. Visit www.lcsun-news.com, go to our Blogzone at the right of the screen, click on YouReview and add your comments. You can also find our blogs at the same site by going to the green directory bar and clicking on Opinion, and then Blogs.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Art selection process draws protest from two

2010-08-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — Should publicly-funded state art projects be awarded only to New Mexico residents?
That’s the controversy emerging as internationally- known Las Cruces artist George Mendoza protested a decision to choose five out-of-state finalists to vie for a $171,000 large scale art project commissioned by New Mexico State University.
“It’s horrible, especially with the economy and the art market the way it is,” said Mendoza, a legally blind abstract artist who has been the subject of a movie and documentary, had national touring exhibitions of his paintings and created works used in an international lime of fabrics.
Medoza said he was inspired to protest the decision by David Boje, whose NMSU marketing class helped him with an application for the large scale work in a three-story glass atrium at O’Donnell Hall, the home of NMSU’s College of Education.
“When he heard about this David (Boje) just screamed out, ‘How can they do this? With 36 New Mexico artists out of 359 artists who applied, doesn’t New Mexico have any artist good enough to do this?’ I know if I was chosen, I would use local people and spend money here to do this,” Mendoza said.
Boje confirmed he was upset with the decision.
“I think of the five, at least one should have been from New Mexico,” said Boje, who added that he is “investigating” issues that include “possible conflict of interest, violations of mission statements” and changes in selection criteria after the application deadline.
“I’m not saying there is a conflict of interest, I’m just saying it should be investigated,” Boje said.
None of Boje’s charges are valid, said Wynn Egginton, director of NMSU’s Education Research and Budgeting office and a member of the seven- member selection committee who chose finalists.
“It’s sad that this is putting a cloud over what has been a very exciting and exhilarating opportunity. I think our selection committee is very professional and conscientious. We went looking for the best art we could find for the space in an award-winning building,” Egginton said.
“I think the art kind of falls above all this. Art is more universal and we selected the top five people that would best do the project,” said Sally Cutter, also a member of the selection committee.
In addition to gallery owner Sally Cutter and project director user/agency representative Egginton, the selection committee included NMSU’s University Architect and Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Michael Rickenbaker, architect Jim Vorenberg, artist Tom Gerend, and community members Sheryl Parsley, an NMSU alumna, and Liz Marrufo, Director of Elementary Instruction, College of Education at NMSU.
“I was looking at the art. I don’t think I even looked at where (the artists) were from until late in the selection process. There were some wonderful submissions and the quality of the art was just unbelievable,” Cutter said.
A New Mexico state law stipulates that one percent of public money for building and renovation programs must be allocated for art, but there is no stipulation that all commissions must be awarded to artists who are New Mexico residents, said Chuck Zimmer, manager of New Mexico Art in Public Places.
“Commissioned projects are done on a case-by-case basis. We offer a number of projects that are for New Mexico artists only. It’s up to a selection committee to decide the scope and whether to open it up to nationwide searches,” Zimmer said.
Zimmer said that Boje’s charges were unfounded, that selection criteria had not been changed from 2-D to 3-D works and that the processing of choosing the selection committee involved no conflicts of interest.
“The criteria never changed and if any of the artists (who submitted proposals) misunderstood the criteria, that number was relatively small,” Zimmer said.
Egginton agreed wih Zimmer that there was no indication of conflict of interest.
Egginton said selection committee members were initially chosen by an NMSU group seeking representatives of the arts and educational communities.
“Our selection committee list was vetted and approved by New Mexico Arts,” without changes in recommendations, Egginton said.
Boje implied that there is a conflict of interest because Glenn Cutter serves as a New Mexico State Art Commissioner, and the selection committee includes his wife, Sally Cutter, and Dr. Tom Gerend, who has exhibited at the Cutter Cutter.
Glenn Cutter said Tuesday that he had “absolutely nothing to do with the selection of the committee members or the committee’s selection of finalists. Sally and I never discussed any of it.”
After learning that Zimmer and Egginton had confirmed the independent processes in committee selection, Boje said,“Well, I’m glad you investigated. I guess I was wrong about that, and I’ll tone things down on my website.”
In a Tuesday e-mail he wrote: “Still there is for me the issue of process, and representativeness. Still it’s not clear how the mission of the university or the state agency, the Department of Cultural Affairs, is being served by this particular use of taxpayer dollars.”
According to the New Mexico Arts website, www.nmarts.org: “Since its inception nearly 25 years ago, the (Art in Public Places) program has placed more than 2,500 works of art in all of New Mexico’s 33 counties. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of the arts in New Mexico, the Southwest, and the nation while building a dynamic public art collection for the State of New Mexico,”
Cutter and Zimmer both expressed concerns that if New Mexico limited eligibility to state residents, other states might decide to bar New Mexico artists from vying for projects in their states.
"I don’t care. The main criteria should be how are we’re helping New Mexico artists compete for these commissions. At least one candidate (among the finalists) should have been from New Mexico. We need to change the process and see that people on the selection committee reflect the artistic and demographic diversity of the community,” Boje said.
“It should be noted that all of the local selection committee members are residents of the Las Cruces area. The selection process that New Mexico Arts has in place is a fair and equitable process and the Art in Public Places staff would never second guess a local selection committee nor dictate art choices from Santa Fe,” Zimmer said. “While it is a tempting idea to limit the public art competitions to New Mexico artists, that would be short-sighted and could actually hurt New Mexican artists in the long run as other states would respond by not allowing New Mexico artists to compete for public art projects in their states – and we do want our New Mexico artists to be competitive in getting public art projects across the country and around the world.”
Zimmer said the state’s research “has shown that contracting with out-of-state artists brings a significant economic impact to local New Mexico businesses. The selected artist will stay in a Las Cruces hotel, eat at Las Cruces restaurants, and buy supplies and rent equipment from Las Cruces area stores. On average, our research shows that an out-of-state artist spends about one third of their project budget in the community where the art is being installed.”
Zimmer said artists interested in information about New Mexico Art in Public Places programs and upcoming projects are invited to visit online www.nmarts.org and click on Art in Public Places, Current Opportunities and Commissions.
Among current opportunities is a $278,800 commission for “a site-integrated project” for the New Mexico State University Center for the Arts Performance Hall. Application deadline is Sept. 30.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450

Las Cruces: Eclectic salon capital of the world

2010-08-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

LAS CRUCES — When I think about salons, places where the great minds and creative talents of an era gather to share ideas, I think about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, whose Paris abode was a magnet for early 20th century up-and-coming artists like Matisse and Picasso and literary lions Ernest Hemingway and Thorton Wilder.
Some noted salons were held in public places rather than private homes, like the Algonquin Round Table, where a group of writers, critics, actors, journalists and assorted other witty souls gathered in the 1920s at New York’s Algonquin Hotel. Mainstays included Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman and Heywood Brown, with frequent appearances by Harpo Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Edna Ferber and other luminaries of the time.
Sometimes, a salon is a fortuitous combination of outstanding people and places. Mabel Dodge Luhan’s exotic two-story adobe in Taos attracted noted poets and authors, societal movers and shakers like Margaret Sanger, John Reed and Emma Goldman, as well as artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” author D.H. Lawrence, who in a surprising fit of modesty, painted scenes on all the windows of her second floor bathroom, reportedly in a quest for privacy. In the 1960s, the house passed to Dennis Hopper, who established a counterculture salon of his own there.
The salon tradition is far from dead, especially in New Mexico. I have fond memories of Santa Fe gatherings of interesting minds and souls in the various Canyon Road adobe galleries and abodes of artist Carole La Roche, from the 1980s to the present, where visitors and amigos could range from the likes of actors Robert Redford and Christopher Walken to Liz Taylor’s son, writers, poets, journalists, psychics, assorted soon-to-famous artists, philosophers, arts aficionados, and always, a few surprises. During a recent visit, a small group of us were pondering the mysteries of the universe, when a neatly-dressed man in his 30s appeared at her door, dressed in what looked like a Brooks Brothers shirt and a toga made from a designer sheet.
If I remember right, he was a former stockbroker or investment banker who’d taken a vow of poverty and was on a spiritual quest of some sort. He held out a lovely little copper bowl and Carole quickly put together a ham and cheese sandwich, plunked it in his bowl and sent him on his way, about the time another artist showed up to talk about his newly animated Earth Day website for kids.
That’s the kind of serendipity that makes for a great salon.
When I was pondering the prospects of salons in Las Cruces, I realized we already have several.
I’ve heard tales of the founding of a great theatrical salon-Algonquin club hybrid launched here in the 1970s and nurtured by Mark and Stephanie Medoff, the Herschel Zohns, Bruce and Mary Streett and others.
Last Sunday’s profile of Jewell and her MyPlace at 140-A Wyatt Drive reminded me that that Las Cruces public access salon concept is thriving here. Jewell’s a founder of our burgeoning local dance, drum and belly dancing communities, and from our brief, fun interview, struck me as a welcoming host for anyone interested in the arts, fashion, alternative healthcare or just about anything new and colorful, ethnic, traditional and spiritual.
Award-winning author and Border Book Festival Denise Chávez hosts another salon success story.
Visit her at Border Book Foundation headquarters next to the Mesilla Post Office, and you’re almost guaranteed to pick up some new ideas, a great book or maybe even a new best friend.
And that’s just the start of great Las Cruces salons, past, present and future.
Many of us are missing philosophy sessions at Corie Lane’s Pure Energy Juice Bar and are hoping she emerges with another salon soon.
At the home of the late New York magazine wine columnist and best-selling wine expert Alexis Bespaloff and his wife, Cecilia Lewis, who’s since moved back to New York, I met everyone from renowned Chinese scholars to soap opera stars.
Salon stars still here and shining include Charlotte Lipson. At her stylish suburban loft home and pool, I’ve encountered economic gurus, TV stars and political movers and shakers.
I’ve had some fascinating discussions about the future of the visual and performing arts and the evolution of city life at Warren and Heather Pollard’s elegant abode.
Gatherings at Irene Oliver-Lewis’ home or office (at Alma d’arte Charter High School) could mean great talks with songwriters, filmmakers, educators and Japanese philosophers and maybe even a limousine ride with Edward James Olmos.
In fact, Las Cruces could be the new millennium’s eclectic salon capital of the world.
If space permitted, I could list a dozen public and private salons where great minds are gathering to make poetic and practical sense of the universe and its component parts. And I’ll bet you could suggest a dozen more.

Share comments about your favorite salon. S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.

Peaking too soon for the holidays

2010-07-30T07:01:00.001-07:00

LAS CRUCES — It’s August. Have you finished your Christmas shopping?
If you’re like most of my friends and relatives, you haven’t, and furthermore, you don’t want to hear about it. If I share my elation at having most of my holiday shopping done, I’m likely to be met with stony glares and dark mutterings, rather than the congratulations I feel I deserve.
I thought with all the “Christmas in July” brouhaha at shops and arts and crafts markets in recent years, my early bird proclivities would finally be embraced and appreciated.
But no. I still have a hard time recruiting amigos to join me on my super-early holiday shopping expeditions.
That’s okay. More bargains for me —and actually for you, too: I’ll feel free to get your gifts, since I won’t have to worry about hiding them from you.
Although chances are, you might have time to forget what I got you, since I started my shopping for December 2010 during the 2009 post-Christmas sales.
And alas, I might, too. Forgetting just what was intended for whom is among an increasing number of reasons I’ve begun to question my system for the first time.
There are lots of good reasons to shop early, of course. You can often find exactly the right gift for a hard-to-please or hard-to-shop-for amigo when you always have your radar out for the perfect present.
You can save a lot of money by taking advantage of sales, seasonal clearances and going-out-of-business events. When the holidays come around, you can relax and enjoy the season. You don’t have to worry about crowds and scarce popular items selling out before you can find them.
But this year, my system is falling apart. I blame it on the Leos and Virgos I love. Most of the people on my birthday list now were born in August and September.
I used to have a gift closet: A couple of shelves in my big, two-door, hall linen closet. Now, the gifts have taken over all three long shelves and the floor and part of the newly-designated linen armoire in one guest bedroom.
There’s another room, formerly the guest lair of grandson Alex the Great, that I’d planned to finish converting to a home office with the laptop, printer and accessories that dear friends gave me for Christmas last year.
Alas, again. It’s August and I still haven’t selected and brought home those 2009 gifts, a shocking lapse for an early bird like me.
But I have a good excuse: The office room floors, daybed, desk and file cabinet tops are currently covered with wrapping paper, ribbons, gift bags and birthday gifts, and yes, I admit it, a few more Christmas presents.
I’m working hard to rectify the situation. In early July, I packed up and shipped off all the gifts for out-of-town recipients born in June through September. Gifts for locals have been stashed in designated eco-friendly reusable totes, so I don’t have to worry about forgetting who gets which carefully-wrapped presents.
Before long, they’ll all be out of here and I’ll have some floor space, a staging area for phase two.
This year, I’m determined to clear out all the gift closets and cupboards and armoire. If I’ve been holding on to it because I forgot it, or the intended recipient’s size or tastes have changed, I’ll give it to someone else or donate it to charity.
I’ll acknowledge what I suspect are the true desires and needs of recipients and give cash and consumables whenever possible. I know some of my aging recipients have just about everything they need, except, for instance, fresh green chiles. For the last few years, I’ve relied on the nice folks at New Mexico Catalog in Fairacres to procure and (my least favorite part of gift-giving) pack and send the always-appreciated hot stuff.
This year, I’m determined to clear the decks before it’s time to deck the halls. And reclaim enough territory so I finally have room to claim and use my own 2009 Christmas presents.
Sometimes, it’s not only better but also necessary to give before you receive.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style.