weeks

molly has left for MN; minneapolis, maple grove, and ely. strange to come home and see the jeep and try to think that she is not in fact here. usually if the jeep is home it means she is here. I have a tough commute like that.

alma graduation went down for 23 seniors on friday night. 3/4 through the ceremony it started raining real hard (we were inside), and a parent I know came up to me while I was spectating and told me, "The school is flooded."

Ok, I've seen the ceiling drip before and put buckets underneath it, thinks I, getting up from my seat and being led to the quote scene unquote. Upon arriving my adrenaline immediately redlines as I see 3 inches of water in the back hallway with more coming through the stairwell door. hmm... I open the stairwell door and water rushes over my feet, coming down through a hole in the corner ceiling (roof) 4 foot by 4 foot, rushing down the wall in a waterfall, with a shitload of insulation and hail messy on the landing, more water pouring down the stairs at me. ok.

we spent two hours pushing water towards mini-zamboni with mops, shoveling up bits of insulation, climbing on the roof and identifying the problem. very... fun. I feel bad for the school, but it will become better because of this. Mr. Dorn was mopping close to underneath the hole and the 4 X 4 chunk fell down and missed him by a foot. He laughed so I laughed and then he bought me beer at high desert with the other americorps. quite a night.

next day cousin bob came. busy busy. we spent saturday meeting people and different places... afternoon picked up joe chavez and with internet directions struck north toward radium springs and eventually a secret area called Broad Canyon, reached by trekking 20 miles west from the freeway over high-clearance necessitated choss. broad canyon paid off big time, a definite list maker for Dona Ana county. serpentine wash-trail reveals ever-increasing rock walls eventually leading to 200+ foot vertical rock faces, massive and ampitheatre shaped. serious climbing potential. after that a quick freshening then on to student carla's graduation night swimming party. her dad was responsible! I only drank with graduates!

Today we ate breakfast at Pancake Alley then went for golf at the university course. the beautiful and warm sunshine spontaneously gave way to strong wind gusts and slanted rain which pursisted for 3-4 holes, after which we witnessed a shady/breezy period which was quite nice and was followed by more pure sunshine 75/80 low wind new mexico jaw dropper, in addition to which we happened to be hitting the balls like fucking pros. bob got 2 and I got 3 on the same par 3 and we did that one in about literally 6 minutes. god I love cart golf, followed by a beer on the western facing patio, followed by La Posta.

now we will probably pass out! no pictures because camera is in Ely with wifey.

dan deacon

just found out about this guy, and I think people need to check this out.

these guys definitely get it. I might go so far as to say that these guys get it all... everything that is going on... at this moment. I expect this could be the start of something.

weekend

just got back from the chiracahuas. molly blogged and pic'd very well again with all that and I don't want to overlap too much. I must put in my two cents though.

this place is amazing. I know that pictures never do justice to a sense of scale, but I think these pictures do a close job to justice. with a little imagination and some keen observation, one can start to get a sense of what is going on out there. if you've seen or been in the organs, for example, this place is about the organs time 10 or 15. if you've been to city of rocks, then city of rocks is elk river and chiracahua is new york city.

look closely at the pictures. first of all, they may seem kind of monotonous. they are not. we were actually taking pictures of completlely different areas of the park. what looks like different angles of the same area are actually completely different pictures of many different areas. this place is huge--on and on with these crazy ass rock formations. another note: the average size of on of these rock formations is roughly 75-150 feet tall. go back and look at a few of those pictures where it seems that there are a bunch of little ones spread accross a broad area. those aren't little ones, they are full size formations. that broad area is a huge expanse of mountain valley. one cannot get ones mind around it while hiking in it. best to just look and keep walking.

another note, regarding the other side of the park, the side we drove out of on sunday: look at the base of some of those rock faces. notice the trees that dot the base. those are gigantic mountain junipers and firs, many with trunks bigger around than one person can wrap around. those are the kinds of trees that dot the mountain side. now look at the pictures again. notice how small the trees look at the base of the rock faces. these faces are literally thousands of feet in vertical expanse. the "sugarloaf" looking peak must have been at least 2000 vertical feet from peak to tree line. and this type of rock face is 360 degrees around you, with faint hints of more rock faces behind those and behind those yet again.

literally multiple lifetimes of climbing. I have no idea why this place is simply a national forest. it is among the most amazing natural sites I've ever seen, surely one of the most impressive rock playground I could imagine.

most people in cruces have never heard of it.

notes on noting

I'm currently having a post-coital cigarette with last week. It was a blurring doozy, perhaps titled the ceramics/birthday week.

my birthday was last wednesday. the day was full of colleagues and students and friends from phone and email wishing me a happy day. and it was a happy day. right when I was leaving the school, I got a call from the potter's guild and they told me that the shipment had arrived and my supplies were waiting for me in the museum parking lot. this was not the call that I wanted to receive. they had just told me that the supplies were coming on thursday, but I guess that's what you get when a bunch of artists try to organize some business. it wasn't a problem though, I just went over to the parking lot and threw a tarp over all of our stuff, to be schlepped the following morning to the school.

at home things were getting kind of suspicious. molly had cleaned the entire house, changed into a nice outfit, and put out a fancy appetizer. ok, maybe these things can just happen on my birthday. but then when I helped her scoop 6 or 7 potatoes into boiling water I started thinking maybe something was up in a good way. no sooner was my suspicion peaked that nearly everyone I know in this city was in my yard singing happy birthday with hats on and foods in hands.

the food was magnifique. pasta salad with plum tomatoes and brie; stuffed mushrooms with couscous and something; garlic mashed; orange-glazed tofu with cilantro and green onions; SUSH!; apps; a growler of IPA for me; wine; more beer; fancy salad; robot cake. I was FULL! it was quite a meal. we've had two of those at our house now and they both turned out greater than the sum of their parts. it's been my experience that group projects rarely have this effect, but I guess when you throw food into the equation some alchemy transpires.

I got kind of drunk off the growler. we patio'd it up and the brownlee girls rapped me a white-girl's birthday rap. joe chavez gave me a t-shirt... that was heather with a turquoise double collar and turquoise double-sleeves; a 6-color wolf that I quickly dubbed "Pine Wolf," and the caption "las cruces New Mexico." It is truly one of the greatest t-shirts I've ever seen. Darcy and Juan gave me an illustrated copy of "the power of myth," from whence chase got his "follow your bliss" slogan. there may have been other gifts and other dishes, but the night became blurry and festive. I apologize to those I missed.

I know I got too much money from the two moms: Nancy and Patti. too much! thanks though, I needed it and it is awesome.

after dinner we went up to the organs and night-bouldered drunkenly on some choss. If you know what that means, KUDOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the next morning I woke up and realized that at 24, I was an adult. and being an adult doesn't mean getting drunk on a wednesday. it means getting drunk on a wednesday, then waking up at 8:00 and forcing your hangover into the shower drain, then assembling a small army of high school students to move 3000 lbs. of ceramics supplies 4 blocks. it was funner than it sounds.

day after that I went to the first art show opening that I was a part of. there was a modest turn-out and some really great scones. the show is, on average, above average. I was pleased to be in such ceramic company. come speech time I was surprised to hear the juror call my name for an honorable mention. she said something about "subtle grace and restraint" and I was thinking, 'I only had one decent glaze.' besides the title I was given a brand new giffin grip. If you are a ceramicist then you might think, like me, oh wow you got a giffin grip for free? yeah! after that I was informed that someone bought my work. after further inquiries I was able to determine that the person was not related to me and did not employ me. my first sale to a stranger! then I found out she was british. somehow that's even better.

that weekend I showed some of my work in the cinco de mayo sale in mesilla. that was not an art buying crowd, but I did manage to net $50 off of 3 pieces. it's like golf: you swear for the first 90% and then something happens right at the end that makes you say, "this is easy! I could do this!"

so that is why I'm now having pillow talk with the gift that was last week. this week is not so bad itself. there are some developments which I'm not at liberty to write but which could hold exciting possibilities for the future. also it hailed last night and the rain came down in great wide and fast sheets, almost solid in their mass, and the moist creosote came wafting down from the organs like it always does when it's wet in the desert.

molly has done a fine job of blogging along with this and in between the gaps. do check that out, I'm sure you have already, and also see photos of the birthday and the show at FLICKR!!!

in the meantime, here is a treat from one of my favorite late-model albums. the band is called the books, the album is called the lemon of pink. their style could be described as "concientious cut and paste," and this song is called take time: