Flowers Behind Ear - Pen Between Teeth

What is not to like about a man that sticks flowers behind his ears and pens between his teeth? 

No longer green behind his ears, this man writes furiously (with three pens or more) in public places in to big tomes at times. I wonder what he is writing about. He seems very private, not exactly approachable. I heard him sing in what sounded latin and watched him dance and enjoy live music. Stolen take after 7 pm on the Santa Fe plaza, with dogs, while in a hurry, with my Panaonic Lumix.

Girl Plays Deep Blue Guitar

 A Singer/Songwriter

 the girl sings hauntingly beautiful songs

 this evening

 on the Santa Fe plaza.

VI

A tune beyond us as we are,
Yet nothing changed by the blue guitar;

Ourselves in the tune as if in space,
Yet nothing changed, except the place

Of things as they are and only the place
As you play them, on the blue guitar,

Placed, so, beyond the compass of change,
Perceived in a final atmosphere;

For a moment final, in the way
The thinking of art seems final when

The thinking of god is smoky dew.
The tune is space. The blue guitar

Becomes the place of things as they are,
A composing of senses of the guitar.

-- The Man with the Blue Guitar, Wallace Stevens

Contributed by cunningba on flickr 

Boys And Bikes

I lied

I focused some more on the action in and around the portal of the Palace of the Governor. I just love the drama of the light and shadows, enhanced by the action of the people coming and going.

Once some of the native artisans have left, 

space then opens to serve as a stage for the actors, 

the people, to come and go. 

Diversity is the name of the game in our City Different.

Plaza Scene IV

Plaza Scene III

Plaza Scene II

Plaza Scene

Mister Fuchs

Mr Fuchs (he does not mind my using a Germanic version of his real name) was about to have his morning coffee on the plaza in the company of his two Pitbulls. In danger of getting entangled, the sight of them all made me laugh out loud, hard. I had to exert serious control to keep my hands steady enough to take this shot.

Of course I too was in the company of two dogs.  This would usually necessitate plenty of respectful space between us. That one Pitbull puppy of his was still rambunctious and could do serious damage potentially to my terrier pups. In fact Mr. Fuchs did fall off his bike because he had lost control of his dog. I believe he broke his collar bone and carried his arm in a sling for a good long while.

Mr. Fuchs, despite, or is it because of his disheveled look, is a gallery owner and the editor of the Santa Fe Sun News. As an activist he worked tirelessly on a legislative change that would have banned the artificial sweetener Aspartame. We met while I played secretary to two House Representatives. Mr. Fuchs was committed to try his best to push his bill through the legislative process. It made it down to the floor on the very last day of that legislative session only to be obstructed by Republicans that refused to yield the floor so as to halt further legislation and I suppose further potential spending on any and all bills. It was very disappointing to have come so far thanks to Mr. Fuchs unrelenting pursuit and then fail due to obstructionism of the minority party. What a waste of taxpayers money! 

While no doubt many resented Mr. Fuchs' pushiness, I could not help but admire his drive, his scheming and last minute interventions. his commitment. Aspartame is a very toxic substance I would have happily seen banned in our state. I needed no special convincing, I have been long enough in the field of health and wellness to know. Meeting Mr. Fuchs after we had shed our roles at the legislature was always a cause of some wonder and amazement to me. Maybe a bit like the peeling of an onion, the shedding of roles reveal different aspects of ourselves to one another. There is always more to us then what meets the eye at first sight.

More of my 'hood

 On the plaza on a recent early, Spring-like afternoon.

Bobbie playes with his buddy, they make a good team.

Notice below, Bobbie's belt buckle fashions a real gun.

Unconcealed weapons are legal!

If I wanted anyone to carry a gun, it would be Bobbie.

The guy is so cool and calm, 

an artist, he not only writes, but composes his songs, 

writes about life and creates silver jewelry as well, 

including the gun totting belt buckles - for sale!

Made For Each Other

They are such a cute couple and a class act, as they entertain on the plaza to fund their trip to Colorado and on to the West Coast. They travel with two dogs. Their car died along the way, after they had  just put all their money in to it. A to me all too familiar story.

George kinda grilled the girl about her life and her choices. She was very kind and forthcoming and we learned that not surprisingly she had felt like a misfit, got very depressed and had left home still a teen to travel cross country. Amazing to think that such a wild and wonderful girl with such bright lights in her eyes could have been seriously depressed!

 

This all led to their very upbeat, what they called their Post-Apocalyptic Heavy Metal Blues. I might suggest with a good measure of Zydeco thrown in, a rather class act performance, really rhythmic, fun and very entertaining. I wish them only the best with safe travels and happy trails!

Meanwhile the actor Willem Dafoe was hanging outside the Plaza Cafe where they were and will be shooting a movie for a few more days here in Santa Fe. Strange to experience such an exciting, balmy evening here while not so far away a tornado created unimaginable damage, with more then one hundred (116) lives lost tragically. Of course our hearts go out to those folks and to that whole huge area, across several states that has more severe weather in the forecast with more extreme tornadoes likely, especially for today.

Homeward Bound

It took this guy 6 months of travel on horse 

an average of 25 -30 miles a day

5 days a week, followed by 2 days of rest

to make it to Santa Fe from Michigan

accompanied by his two dogs.

When I had seen him for the first time on the plaza

with his horse and two dogs,

he had created a traffic stopping sensation downtown.

His boots were held together with duct tape.

His horse looked to some too skinny.

The man, very sociable indeed, was in need of a job.

Two years later

this man has no complaints.

He found work on a ranch in Cerrillos.

His horse now wears a fine new bridle.

His pups look plump and very happy.

His boots now are no longer in need of duct tape.

Proof that here in Santa Fe

the Wild West is well and alive!

Girl With Cat

A witch in the making?

How come the cat stays up on her shoulder?

Close encounters of different kinds.

 

The girl with her pimply face and sweet expression

reminds me of my younger self.

Today's Catch

Patriotic Pride and/or Shame

The man with flag delighting in what unfolded up on stage, swaying and smiling, to me is what this fourth of July is all about. Mindless, uncritical, innocent, simple and pure pleasure. To enjoy this patriotic display of emotion one has to suspend one's critical function, knowledge of foreign affairs, disdain for two wars and despair in regard to hopes for real change.

I am disgusted with our country that accepts war as reasonable and necessary answer. I hate all this money going in support of war and away from the real needs of the people of the US. (I know several no longer young women personally that are about to lose their homes and all their belongings.) While I do believe in the primary importance of security, I am not even close to being convinced that these wars are necessary. A handful of Taliban in Afghanistan simply do not warrant our endeavors there (to my very limited understanding.) Nuclear power in the wrong hands no doubt must be one of the worst case scenarios. But what if we waged an effort of to build up those nations, got our youths to work for Afghanistan and Iraq rather then fight them. In Iraq the infrastructure is supposedly worse then before the war! What if we gave them more reasons to like then hate us. Which would mean ending the uncritical support (especially financially) of Israel and demanding just solutions that grant rights to the Palestinians. By the way being critical of Israel does not equal wishing them back to Nazi camps. But it is a well known fact that those that suffered trauma tend to inflict trauma, unless they got debriefed. Without US financial support Israel would likely have had to find a solution for peace already.

Sadly, while I was proud at the election of our President Obama and felt maybe for the first time patriotic stirrings, I no longer feel that way. I fault our president for not being able to convince us of the necessity of those wars and not getting us out of there either.  The health care reform that did come to pass lacks a public option, because President Obama did not stand  and fight for it. While it does good for a few, I see it mainly as a give-away to corporate greed. The poor will now have to come up with insurance money they will not be able to afford, because the power is still with the corporations rather then the people. 

Further I bemoan that our  President is not using the oil 'spill' for serious efforts to advance clean, green and renewable energy. It seems like so many good opportunities to forge ahead towards a more sustainable, peaceful existence fall by the  way side and with it the goodwill of so many that not so long ago were so eager and ready to embrace and work for change. All this said, I am greatly relieved to find President Bush out of the picture and out of the news. 

Finally I had a wonderful time hanging out on the plaza watching the lines for pancakes get longer, the non-organic strawberry toppings getting fewer, and the canine companions that made it passed security, illegally, behaving sweetly.

Quintessential Santa Fe

On the first day of Spring, the day after my neighbor's Aspen tree buds burst open and we all then had to deal with an assault of thunder, hail and another snow storm that delivered again inches of very dry snow, I felt blessed to take our evening walk under a blue and sunny sky on roads that had mostly dried by the end of our first day of Spring. Heading back home this is what we encountered:

I was enchanted by this quintessential Santa Fe look: The magic golden light just before the sun sets with the very long shadows. An almost deserted plaza even on a Saturday evening offering plenty of space even downtown. And a Mariachi band that played with gusto and skill so that even I could enjoy this style of entertainment. I felt delighted to be in the right place at the right time where the eyes and ears got their due.

Notice the light off the buttons on the musicians costumes, such a feast for the eyes with the Governor's Palace making a perfect background.

They say now happiness is contagious and so is misery. Experiencing this scene made me feel delighted, despite having had to go out and walk the dogs in still frigid air. The charms are many in the Land of Enchantment or - Entrapment.