AMERICA BY HORSEBACK
Las Cruces has been chosen as the host city for “Best of America by Horseback “reality TV show to initiate a new horseback adventure across America. About 2000 riders are expected to participate in a horseback trail ride beginning in late April in Las Cruces and concluding in Canada in September, 2009.
“They Can’t Be Stopped”
By S. Derrickson Moore
Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — If you spot monsters in a neighborhood near you, don’t be alarmed. The gory guys are all part of “They Can’t be Stopped,” another movie being filmed here this summer.
Producer and assistant director Lisa Clark describes the Bears Ride Bicycles production as “an action/horror grindhouse movie.”
Director Jaron Whitfill reports that the film will feature local cast and crew members, including students from New Mexico State University.
“Our goal is to enter the film into the festivals, like Sundance, and see where it goes from here.” Whitfill said.
Watch for details about both projects
in the July 4 SunLife section.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Keeping in touch n the global village...
LAS CRUCES — The realization we are living in a global village is never more obvious than during times of trouble.
It all came home with a shock when I was holed up for the weekend, glued to the TV and the telephone, monitoring rising floodwaters around Iowa City, a pretty little Midwestern university town that also happens to be the home base for my soulmate, Dr. Roger.
We realized we were both watching the same national network anchor commenting and showing us pictures of University of Iowa students stacking sandbags in an attempt to protect university buildings. And we shared a sense of surreal communion, he a few miles away from the raging river, me in high, dry New Mexico.
During a lull in the deluge, I decided to take a break and call grandson Alexander the Great, who now makes his home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
As fate would have it, I reached my comadre, instead, Alex’s other grandmom, Alexandria Brighton.
Alexandria had just talked with her Las Cruces daughters and asked me for an update on the fires in the Organ Mountains.
“WHAT fires?” I asked with a shock.
With the local heat and the angst over distant floods, I’d spent almost all of the weekend inside my house, and though I’d noticed a smoky smell blasting through the evaporative cooling ducts, I’d figured someone in the neighborhood was grilling something and hadn’t given it much thought.
Alexandria suggested I step out on my back patio and check things out. I did, and, sure enough, what looked like a white puffy atomic cloud was billowing above those familiar craggy peaks.
I called a friend who lives in Soledad Canyon and learned she’d just gone through a very tense night, wondering if she’d have to evacuate.
I offered her my guest room and apologized for not getting in touch sooner, admitting it had taken a phone conversation with someone in Idaho to alert me to what was going on in my own backyard. And I’m supposed to be in the news biz, after all.
It was not, alas, a first, in terms of convoluted communication, which is increasingly wacky in our global village.
When my childhood Michigan next-door neighbor showed up in Las Cruces, we discovered, though we had been out of touch for decades, that we were again neighbors. Linda found me by following my Las Cruces Style column in the Sun-News and putting clues together, though she did not know my married name.
We reconnected and found we were then living within a block of each other in Las Alturas.
Yet when her husband, a prominent Michigan businessman, died, it was my brother who first e-mailed me the sad news from Michigan, as soon as he read about it on the Muskegon Chronicle’s online Web site.
I was recalling all this last week as I started to tell a usually very well-informed friend from Albuquerque about the impact of fires in the Organs.
“WHAT fires in the Organs? We never seem to get news from southern New Mexico up here,” she complained.
So I immediately e-mailed her the most dramatic fire photo I had, which I’d just received from my friend in … New York City. Cecilia Lewis said she’d received the photo from Buddy Ritter, who told me he’d gotten it from Joe Taylor. After a flurry of e-mail and online inquiries, I’m still not sure of the photo’s origins.
These days, the trails could take you around the planet several times before landing in your own home town. Instant connections are swift and plentiful and profound in our global village. And someone in Idaho might alert you that the mountains are burning in your New Mexico backyard.
So this weekend, no matter how hot it gets, I’ve resolved to get out and do an in-person, real-time, 360-degree scan of my local horizons ...
Or at least, check my e-mail every day.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
It all came home with a shock when I was holed up for the weekend, glued to the TV and the telephone, monitoring rising floodwaters around Iowa City, a pretty little Midwestern university town that also happens to be the home base for my soulmate, Dr. Roger.
We realized we were both watching the same national network anchor commenting and showing us pictures of University of Iowa students stacking sandbags in an attempt to protect university buildings. And we shared a sense of surreal communion, he a few miles away from the raging river, me in high, dry New Mexico.
During a lull in the deluge, I decided to take a break and call grandson Alexander the Great, who now makes his home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
As fate would have it, I reached my comadre, instead, Alex’s other grandmom, Alexandria Brighton.
Alexandria had just talked with her Las Cruces daughters and asked me for an update on the fires in the Organ Mountains.
“WHAT fires?” I asked with a shock.
With the local heat and the angst over distant floods, I’d spent almost all of the weekend inside my house, and though I’d noticed a smoky smell blasting through the evaporative cooling ducts, I’d figured someone in the neighborhood was grilling something and hadn’t given it much thought.
Alexandria suggested I step out on my back patio and check things out. I did, and, sure enough, what looked like a white puffy atomic cloud was billowing above those familiar craggy peaks.
I called a friend who lives in Soledad Canyon and learned she’d just gone through a very tense night, wondering if she’d have to evacuate.
I offered her my guest room and apologized for not getting in touch sooner, admitting it had taken a phone conversation with someone in Idaho to alert me to what was going on in my own backyard. And I’m supposed to be in the news biz, after all.
It was not, alas, a first, in terms of convoluted communication, which is increasingly wacky in our global village.
When my childhood Michigan next-door neighbor showed up in Las Cruces, we discovered, though we had been out of touch for decades, that we were again neighbors. Linda found me by following my Las Cruces Style column in the Sun-News and putting clues together, though she did not know my married name.
We reconnected and found we were then living within a block of each other in Las Alturas.
Yet when her husband, a prominent Michigan businessman, died, it was my brother who first e-mailed me the sad news from Michigan, as soon as he read about it on the Muskegon Chronicle’s online Web site.
I was recalling all this last week as I started to tell a usually very well-informed friend from Albuquerque about the impact of fires in the Organs.
“WHAT fires in the Organs? We never seem to get news from southern New Mexico up here,” she complained.
So I immediately e-mailed her the most dramatic fire photo I had, which I’d just received from my friend in … New York City. Cecilia Lewis said she’d received the photo from Buddy Ritter, who told me he’d gotten it from Joe Taylor. After a flurry of e-mail and online inquiries, I’m still not sure of the photo’s origins.
These days, the trails could take you around the planet several times before landing in your own home town. Instant connections are swift and plentiful and profound in our global village. And someone in Idaho might alert you that the mountains are burning in your New Mexico backyard.
So this weekend, no matter how hot it gets, I’ve resolved to get out and do an in-person, real-time, 360-degree scan of my local horizons ...
Or at least, check my e-mail every day.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
Thursday, June 19, 2008
What are your favorite green chile treats?
Here are a few of my favorite green chile sources and treats. Do you have some recommendations to add?
can't get enough of that good hot green stuff.
We particularly need some great green chile ice cream, sorbet or other frozen treats, I think. Any ideas, chile lovers?
The staples
• Green chile chicken enchiladas are a tasty staple of the Southwest, perfect for a patio supper — or lunch or breakfast. Some say the blue corn version at Pink Adobe in Santa Fe ranks as the state’s finest. Chile heads we surveyed had several regional picks for enchiladas as well as any dish that could be improved by adding some great green chiles (in other words, pretty much everything) including El Comedor in Mesilla, Chope’s in La Mesa and in Las Cruces: Nellie’s, Napolito’s, Ranchway, The Pit Stop, Roberto’s and El Sombrero. El Sombrero has some spectacular chile quesadillas, too.
• Green chile chicken tamales are a unique treat at La Cochina Restaurant.
• Green chiles are wonderful in tacos, stews, caseroles, sandwiches, soups and salads.
Oriental fusion exotics
• Green chile chicken egg rolls at Teriaki Chicken on El Paseo are a surprisingly delicious, multicultural treat, with or without the fruity dipping sauce. Try their green chile tempura in season, too.
• Green chile wontons, a specialty at Double Eagle on the Mesilla Plaza, are another classic fusion treat. The wontons are served with pineapple jalapeño salsa to double your pepper pleasure. The Double Eagle’s bartenders also keep a big glass “infusion” jar of Hatch-raised, fire-roasted green chiles marinating in vodka. It’s used for their Green Chile Vodka Bloody Mary as well as chile-enhanced martinis and margaritas, if you’re in the mood.
Sweet heat
• Chocolate-covered chile mango bonbons are a unique taste sensation at the Chocolate Lady in Mesilla.
• Chile lollipops come in several tempting combinations at Mesilla’s Billy the Kid Gift Shop. Try chile corn, peach and chile, or cucumber con chile.
• Hot fudge takes on a new meaning when you try the rather mild pastel green jalapeño fudge or the pleasingly fiery orange habañero fudge at El Platero in Mesilla.
• Chile ice cream and frozen treats seem to be in short supply. We used to love Caliche’s chile sundae: creamy vanilla frozen custard topped with a spicy green chile relish and a red-hot cinnamon candy in the shape of a chile pepper.
When we insisted on a Caliche’s chile sundae this week, we were finally served the custard with a ladle of chili con carne. Oops. We meant chile, not chili. And while we gamely tried a taste, remembering how well sour cream goes with chili, we’d say, don’t try this at home. Instead, you might try a sweet green chile relish on ice cream or sherbet, or make your own with roasted, diced chile mixed with a little honey or fruit preserves. It’s great on a scoop of chocolate ice cream, or top with dark chocolate shavings and a generous sprinkling of chile power.
• Green Chile Nut Brittles (available in peanut, piñon, pecan and pistachio and also in red chile versions of each) offered by Luis Flores of Las Cruces Candy Company at the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market on the Downtown Mall, start with savory sweetness and follow with a lingering hot kick.
Red or white with red and green?
•The late, great international wine expert Alexis Bespaloff, in his last days in Las Cruces, recommended serving champagne with green chiles, advising that the bubbles could stand up to the spiciness and heat of our local peppers.
Travel or picnic chile survival kit
• RX: Chile OTC: Tia Rita’s offers dried red and green chile powders, spicy mixes and concoctions at area supermarkets and the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market that are a great way to get your chile fix when you travel or add some zest to your fast food salad or burger at the office.
• Canned Heat: When you’re on the road, without refrigeration or in sad areas of the world where fresh chiles are not readily available, you can make due with fiery standbys like Hatch brand green chile enchilada sauce. Their Hatch Santa Fe combo of diced tomatoes, chile peppers, cilantro and lime can serve as emergency salsa: pack a can opener, chips and fresh veggies to dip for a full-tilt fiesta picnic.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
can't get enough of that good hot green stuff.
We particularly need some great green chile ice cream, sorbet or other frozen treats, I think. Any ideas, chile lovers?
The staples
• Green chile chicken enchiladas are a tasty staple of the Southwest, perfect for a patio supper — or lunch or breakfast. Some say the blue corn version at Pink Adobe in Santa Fe ranks as the state’s finest. Chile heads we surveyed had several regional picks for enchiladas as well as any dish that could be improved by adding some great green chiles (in other words, pretty much everything) including El Comedor in Mesilla, Chope’s in La Mesa and in Las Cruces: Nellie’s, Napolito’s, Ranchway, The Pit Stop, Roberto’s and El Sombrero. El Sombrero has some spectacular chile quesadillas, too.
• Green chile chicken tamales are a unique treat at La Cochina Restaurant.
• Green chiles are wonderful in tacos, stews, caseroles, sandwiches, soups and salads.
Oriental fusion exotics
• Green chile chicken egg rolls at Teriaki Chicken on El Paseo are a surprisingly delicious, multicultural treat, with or without the fruity dipping sauce. Try their green chile tempura in season, too.
• Green chile wontons, a specialty at Double Eagle on the Mesilla Plaza, are another classic fusion treat. The wontons are served with pineapple jalapeño salsa to double your pepper pleasure. The Double Eagle’s bartenders also keep a big glass “infusion” jar of Hatch-raised, fire-roasted green chiles marinating in vodka. It’s used for their Green Chile Vodka Bloody Mary as well as chile-enhanced martinis and margaritas, if you’re in the mood.
Sweet heat
• Chocolate-covered chile mango bonbons are a unique taste sensation at the Chocolate Lady in Mesilla.
• Chile lollipops come in several tempting combinations at Mesilla’s Billy the Kid Gift Shop. Try chile corn, peach and chile, or cucumber con chile.
• Hot fudge takes on a new meaning when you try the rather mild pastel green jalapeño fudge or the pleasingly fiery orange habañero fudge at El Platero in Mesilla.
• Chile ice cream and frozen treats seem to be in short supply. We used to love Caliche’s chile sundae: creamy vanilla frozen custard topped with a spicy green chile relish and a red-hot cinnamon candy in the shape of a chile pepper.
When we insisted on a Caliche’s chile sundae this week, we were finally served the custard with a ladle of chili con carne. Oops. We meant chile, not chili. And while we gamely tried a taste, remembering how well sour cream goes with chili, we’d say, don’t try this at home. Instead, you might try a sweet green chile relish on ice cream or sherbet, or make your own with roasted, diced chile mixed with a little honey or fruit preserves. It’s great on a scoop of chocolate ice cream, or top with dark chocolate shavings and a generous sprinkling of chile power.
• Green Chile Nut Brittles (available in peanut, piñon, pecan and pistachio and also in red chile versions of each) offered by Luis Flores of Las Cruces Candy Company at the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market on the Downtown Mall, start with savory sweetness and follow with a lingering hot kick.
Red or white with red and green?
•The late, great international wine expert Alexis Bespaloff, in his last days in Las Cruces, recommended serving champagne with green chiles, advising that the bubbles could stand up to the spiciness and heat of our local peppers.
Travel or picnic chile survival kit
• RX: Chile OTC: Tia Rita’s offers dried red and green chile powders, spicy mixes and concoctions at area supermarkets and the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market that are a great way to get your chile fix when you travel or add some zest to your fast food salad or burger at the office.
• Canned Heat: When you’re on the road, without refrigeration or in sad areas of the world where fresh chiles are not readily available, you can make due with fiery standbys like Hatch brand green chile enchilada sauce. Their Hatch Santa Fe combo of diced tomatoes, chile peppers, cilantro and lime can serve as emergency salsa: pack a can opener, chips and fresh veggies to dip for a full-tilt fiesta picnic.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
How do you feel about being quoted?
Check this out and let me know if you have reservations about being photographed and quoted, or if you'd rather be anonymous, online or in Sound Off!
By S. Derrickson Moore
Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — We have several names for the process, here in the newsroom, like “walk & talk” or “speak out.”
Back in the day, they were called “roving reporter” features.
Some surprising people have done roving time. Before she was international socialite superstar Jackie O or First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a then-23-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier was a $42.50-per-week reporter and photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, roaming the city with her clunky camera to capture citizens’ reactions to issues of the day, for her column “Inquiring Camera Girl.”
The cameras have changed, but the basic process remains the same. We choose a topic or question and a likely spot or two to amble and start looking for a diverse group of people willing to comment and let us quote them and take their pictures.
Some days, that can be a difficult process.
It’s hard to predict, but responsiveness can be affected by the blustering Doña Anas, the movement of the planets, the ambience of a particular place and the choice of topics, and some walk & talks are much tougher than others.
Getting people to tell me the best thing about their moms for a Mother’s Day feature was a snap ... an hour on the Downtown Mall and I was done. Virtually every person I asked was delighted to sing their moms’ praises. In fact, when the word got out on the yellow brick road, I was turning people away.
Just a month later, with basically the same question, focusing on dads this time, it took me several hours, two days and three locations to get enough of you to agree to talk on the record and get your photos taken.
Maybe part of it can be attributed to the mood and vibes of the inquiring reporter. I can’t help remembering the first times I roved in the line of duty, in my teens and 20s, when I was known by my colleagues as the “oppression editor” for a semi-great, metropolitan newspaper. My beat was basically whatever was going wrong, and that was quite a lot in the late 1960s and 1970s.
This month, I once again hit a stream of misery and troubles on my rounds. I finally managed to communicate with non-English speakers who suffered through my Spanglish questions and then told me that they were illegals who didn’t want to risk getting their names and photos in the paper.
I encountered about a dozen disgruntled souls who apparently had awkward, painful, abusive or nonexistent father-kid relationships.
There were people with dads at war and kids and adults who reported they had troubled relationships with their dads and stepdads. Some told me they had grown up in one-parent households and their dads were simply not in their lives.
“Las Cruces just isn’t a very dad-friendly town. I guess a lot of dads here aren’t so loyal to their kids,” explained a young man who preferred to remain anonymous, but welcomed me to come back any time to talk — on the record — about his awesome mom.
Maybe, I’ve been thinking, it’s easier to talk about our feelings about our moms because most moms find it easier than most dads do, to tell us how they feel about us.
Or maybe we have more complicated relationships with our dads, or more complicated dads.
I persisted and found some of you who thought of your dads as heroes who took care of their kids and families in very difficult circumstances, dads who were funny, creative, playful and compassionate.
Thanks to all of you who are willing to take a moment out of your day to talk with us, share your stories and sometimes even let us shoot your picture when it’s 102 degrees in the shade and you think you’re having a bad hair day. (You’re not — you look terrific!)
In an era when election polls and marketing surveys seem to have a burgeoning margin of error, I can’t help reflecting on the things I’ve learned in decades as a roving reporter.
And I’ve been wondering lately, if the people who would rather not go on the record have as much to tell us as those who will. Maybe even more. And maybe things we really need to hear right now.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
By S. Derrickson Moore
Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — We have several names for the process, here in the newsroom, like “walk & talk” or “speak out.”
Back in the day, they were called “roving reporter” features.
Some surprising people have done roving time. Before she was international socialite superstar Jackie O or First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, a then-23-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier was a $42.50-per-week reporter and photographer for the Washington Times-Herald, roaming the city with her clunky camera to capture citizens’ reactions to issues of the day, for her column “Inquiring Camera Girl.”
The cameras have changed, but the basic process remains the same. We choose a topic or question and a likely spot or two to amble and start looking for a diverse group of people willing to comment and let us quote them and take their pictures.
Some days, that can be a difficult process.
It’s hard to predict, but responsiveness can be affected by the blustering Doña Anas, the movement of the planets, the ambience of a particular place and the choice of topics, and some walk & talks are much tougher than others.
Getting people to tell me the best thing about their moms for a Mother’s Day feature was a snap ... an hour on the Downtown Mall and I was done. Virtually every person I asked was delighted to sing their moms’ praises. In fact, when the word got out on the yellow brick road, I was turning people away.
Just a month later, with basically the same question, focusing on dads this time, it took me several hours, two days and three locations to get enough of you to agree to talk on the record and get your photos taken.
Maybe part of it can be attributed to the mood and vibes of the inquiring reporter. I can’t help remembering the first times I roved in the line of duty, in my teens and 20s, when I was known by my colleagues as the “oppression editor” for a semi-great, metropolitan newspaper. My beat was basically whatever was going wrong, and that was quite a lot in the late 1960s and 1970s.
This month, I once again hit a stream of misery and troubles on my rounds. I finally managed to communicate with non-English speakers who suffered through my Spanglish questions and then told me that they were illegals who didn’t want to risk getting their names and photos in the paper.
I encountered about a dozen disgruntled souls who apparently had awkward, painful, abusive or nonexistent father-kid relationships.
There were people with dads at war and kids and adults who reported they had troubled relationships with their dads and stepdads. Some told me they had grown up in one-parent households and their dads were simply not in their lives.
“Las Cruces just isn’t a very dad-friendly town. I guess a lot of dads here aren’t so loyal to their kids,” explained a young man who preferred to remain anonymous, but welcomed me to come back any time to talk — on the record — about his awesome mom.
Maybe, I’ve been thinking, it’s easier to talk about our feelings about our moms because most moms find it easier than most dads do, to tell us how they feel about us.
Or maybe we have more complicated relationships with our dads, or more complicated dads.
I persisted and found some of you who thought of your dads as heroes who took care of their kids and families in very difficult circumstances, dads who were funny, creative, playful and compassionate.
Thanks to all of you who are willing to take a moment out of your day to talk with us, share your stories and sometimes even let us shoot your picture when it’s 102 degrees in the shade and you think you’re having a bad hair day. (You’re not — you look terrific!)
In an era when election polls and marketing surveys seem to have a burgeoning margin of error, I can’t help reflecting on the things I’ve learned in decades as a roving reporter.
And I’ve been wondering lately, if the people who would rather not go on the record have as much to tell us as those who will. Maybe even more. And maybe things we really need to hear right now.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
Friday, June 13, 2008
BILLY, ATVs & PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
By S. Derrickson Moore
Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — Ah, Billy. You lived so briefly, so long ago, but it seems there’s no getting over you.
With so many sterling souls to choose from — heroes, authors, artists, playwrights, filmmakers, musicians, even scientific pioneers who discovered whole new worlds — in the end, our leading icon and claim to fame always seems to end up being a kid from New York who lived a fast, rough, life.
I love “Prairie Home Companion,” and was delighted that they came to do a live broadcast from Pan Am Center, but I must admit I was less than thrilled at some of host Garrison Keillor’s characterizations of our local culture: “If you’re looking for a place where ... you can drive your all-terrain vehicle around at high speed late at night, naked, drinking a beer and firing a shotgun...or maybe you just like to blow things up...this is the place.”
No, no, Garrison. Maybe you were thinking of Texas?
As regular readers of this column know, I am no fan of ATVs. I think they are a lousy way to “appreciate” nature. They waste fuel, have shattered the tranquility of both rural and urban neighborhoods where I’ve lived and are unconscionable in a desert environment so fragile that isolated areas still bear the scars left by the passage of ancient wagon trains.
But even I concede that, in all my years of paying very careful attention to the menace, I have never seen a naked, beer-swilling, shotgun-wielding, explosives-hurling ATVer anywhere in New Mexico.
And then there’s Billy, who rated not one, but two songs from the PHC cast and guests.
I’ve been thinking, ever since, about William “Billy the Kid” Bonney, who died, most agree, in 1881, but who still rates a 2008 Google total of 2,900,000 “personalized results.”
By contrast, our late, great Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, rates 102,000 Google online references, and Clyde didn’t get a single PHC musical tribute.
I talked this week with Pauline “Pola” Chiavone, who two years ago discovered what she thinks is a rare photo of Billy with her maternal grandfather José Dolores Lueras. She’s copyrighted the photo, stashed it away in a bank safe deposit box and is awaiting news about further authentication efforts from a museum official working on the process. My story about her discovery ran on page one of the Sun-News on July 23, 2006, and Mrs. Chiavone and I are both still getting occasional inquiries from Billy fans around the globe.
So Billy still has groupies, clamoring for fresh images. And Garrison Keillor, warbling sympathetic songs.
And while we’re at it, Prairie Home Companion, why oh why, with all the talent around here, from a Tony-winning playwright to a world-renowned mandolin player, a terrific symphony orchestra and a whole slew of fantastic performing artists, did you pass over all our local stars in favor of folks from Albuquerque and Texas?
But oh, well. At least you came to the chile capital of the universe and appreciated our salsa. And you managed to pointedly make all those rather disparaging allusions to the wide open spaces of New Mexico. (Fair enough: though I don’t recall that you got specific, we are the fifth biggest state in the union, but 36th in population.) But with that and all the singing about Billy Boy, you didn’t have time to even hint, really, at the true perks of life in the Land of Enchantment.
You did a pretty fair job of upholding the stereotypical view of New Mexico as a lawless, forsaken wasteland of yahoos and desperados, instead of focusing too much attention on the scintillating mix of innovative art, spicy agriculture, burgeoning academia, cutting-edge science, fascinating filmmaking and diverse cultures that we fear too many are coming to know. So there is a bright side to it all. You didn’t blow our cover.
Mil gracias.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — Ah, Billy. You lived so briefly, so long ago, but it seems there’s no getting over you.
With so many sterling souls to choose from — heroes, authors, artists, playwrights, filmmakers, musicians, even scientific pioneers who discovered whole new worlds — in the end, our leading icon and claim to fame always seems to end up being a kid from New York who lived a fast, rough, life.
I love “Prairie Home Companion,” and was delighted that they came to do a live broadcast from Pan Am Center, but I must admit I was less than thrilled at some of host Garrison Keillor’s characterizations of our local culture: “If you’re looking for a place where ... you can drive your all-terrain vehicle around at high speed late at night, naked, drinking a beer and firing a shotgun...or maybe you just like to blow things up...this is the place.”
No, no, Garrison. Maybe you were thinking of Texas?
As regular readers of this column know, I am no fan of ATVs. I think they are a lousy way to “appreciate” nature. They waste fuel, have shattered the tranquility of both rural and urban neighborhoods where I’ve lived and are unconscionable in a desert environment so fragile that isolated areas still bear the scars left by the passage of ancient wagon trains.
But even I concede that, in all my years of paying very careful attention to the menace, I have never seen a naked, beer-swilling, shotgun-wielding, explosives-hurling ATVer anywhere in New Mexico.
And then there’s Billy, who rated not one, but two songs from the PHC cast and guests.
I’ve been thinking, ever since, about William “Billy the Kid” Bonney, who died, most agree, in 1881, but who still rates a 2008 Google total of 2,900,000 “personalized results.”
By contrast, our late, great Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, rates 102,000 Google online references, and Clyde didn’t get a single PHC musical tribute.
I talked this week with Pauline “Pola” Chiavone, who two years ago discovered what she thinks is a rare photo of Billy with her maternal grandfather José Dolores Lueras. She’s copyrighted the photo, stashed it away in a bank safe deposit box and is awaiting news about further authentication efforts from a museum official working on the process. My story about her discovery ran on page one of the Sun-News on July 23, 2006, and Mrs. Chiavone and I are both still getting occasional inquiries from Billy fans around the globe.
So Billy still has groupies, clamoring for fresh images. And Garrison Keillor, warbling sympathetic songs.
And while we’re at it, Prairie Home Companion, why oh why, with all the talent around here, from a Tony-winning playwright to a world-renowned mandolin player, a terrific symphony orchestra and a whole slew of fantastic performing artists, did you pass over all our local stars in favor of folks from Albuquerque and Texas?
But oh, well. At least you came to the chile capital of the universe and appreciated our salsa. And you managed to pointedly make all those rather disparaging allusions to the wide open spaces of New Mexico. (Fair enough: though I don’t recall that you got specific, we are the fifth biggest state in the union, but 36th in population.) But with that and all the singing about Billy Boy, you didn’t have time to even hint, really, at the true perks of life in the Land of Enchantment.
You did a pretty fair job of upholding the stereotypical view of New Mexico as a lawless, forsaken wasteland of yahoos and desperados, instead of focusing too much attention on the scintillating mix of innovative art, spicy agriculture, burgeoning academia, cutting-edge science, fascinating filmmaking and diverse cultures that we fear too many are coming to know. So there is a bright side to it all. You didn’t blow our cover.
Mil gracias.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
ANOTHER NEW FILM: TRANSFORMERS
By S. Derrickson Moore/Sun-News reporter
ALAMOGORDO — White Sands and southern New Mexico will again be principal locations for the film producers of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” the next installment of the 2007 box office hit “Transformers,” slated to hit theaters next summer.
“Transformers was a huge success and I am pleased that Dream Works, Paramount Pictures and Michael Bay have decided to return to New Mexico to film the second installment,” Gov. Bill Richardson said in an announcement this week.
The first film, which featured extensive location shooting at White Sands National Monument and Holloman Air Force Base, grossed more than $700 million worldwide.
The current production has been preparing in Alamogordo since April and filming is expected to begin in the fall. According to www.imdb.com, the cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Jon Voight, Rainn Wilson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, and Matthew Marsden.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
ALAMOGORDO — White Sands and southern New Mexico will again be principal locations for the film producers of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” the next installment of the 2007 box office hit “Transformers,” slated to hit theaters next summer.
“Transformers was a huge success and I am pleased that Dream Works, Paramount Pictures and Michael Bay have decided to return to New Mexico to film the second installment,” Gov. Bill Richardson said in an announcement this week.
The first film, which featured extensive location shooting at White Sands National Monument and Holloman Air Force Base, grossed more than $700 million worldwide.
The current production has been preparing in Alamogordo since April and filming is expected to begin in the fall. According to www.imdb.com, the cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Jon Voight, Rainn Wilson, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, and Matthew Marsden.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com
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