Two Days in Santa Fe

Before leaving New Mexico it was a no-brainer to spend a couple of days in Santa Fe. Here are a few photos that reflect the time I spent there this week.

I drove north on I-25 from the Sandia Resort to Santa Fe, about 50 miles away. Once in town, I took Hwy. 285 north through the heart of downtown and continued on north until I reached the small rural community of Tesuque. I visited the Shidoni Foundry and Sculpture Gardens located there, and it's a must-see if you like large bronze sculptures. I spent an hour or so walking the gardens and visiting the indoor gallery.

After leaving Tesuque, I drove to the plaza area of downtown Santa Fe. I parked near the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. I walked up a few blocks and turned the corner and saw the Burrito Company, a small café just of the plaza. I had lunch there.

After lunch I continued to take a walking tour of the downtown area. I took photos and visited some of the retail outlets. The sidewalk vendors were out, and I was reminded of them from previous visits. They sell their handmade jewelry, blankets, and leather goods. I took a number of photos of the plaza, and the Civil War memorial at its center. It was a beautiful day, and just warm enough for a nice walk. I strolled on past the Cathedral Basilica and took a lot of photos on my way back to the car.

I left downtown around 3 p.m. and set out to find a motel for the night. I knew that Cerrillos Ave. was "motel alley", so I drove in that direction. When I passed the El Rey Motel, I had to stop. I decided to stay away from the franchise motels and find a local place, and the El Rey looked promising. I’m glad I found the place. Built in the 1930s, and expanded since then, the place has a real charm to it. Very clean, very nice, very Santa Fe. (A picture of my room is on the right. Each room has it's own patio, a great feature.)

I cleaned up at the motel and departed for the Filmmakers Intensive Open House and Screenwriter’s Program at the College of Santa Fe. I really enjoyed the evening. I took a tour of their facilities (sound stages, editing rooms, classrooms, etc.) and then stayed for the program. There were 30-40 people in attendance, plus the staff and actors. The presentation included readings from a dozen screenplays, and then actors presented a short scene from each play after a brief introduction from the writer.

I woke up early on day two, Wednesday, and had a free breakfast courtesy of the El Rey: granola, peaches, toasts, a small muffin, orange juice and coffee. I then checked out and drove to downtown once again. I spent the morning walking the plaza area and taking photos. Then about noon I drove to the Canyon Road area, the premier location for the Santa Fe art scene. Galleries galore are located along the narrow street, about a half mile from downtown. I spent a couple of hours visiting various art galleries. I then went to the Photo-Eye Gallery and the Garcia Street Bookstore.

For a late lunch I went to Posa’s Restaurant. I found it on Rodeo street, a few miles east of the mall. It was a small, local, informal place so I knew the food was going to be great.

After lunch I found scenic Hwy. 14 on the map, wanting to take the “Turquoise Trail” back to ABQ. What a beautiful drive! Hwy. 14 is the only way to travel between ABQ and Santa Fe, especially if you want to see some beautiful scenery. Along the way there are numerous tourist stops, little shops that sell jewelry and all kinds of local art. Madrid is the place to stop and visit, located about halfway between ABQ and SF. Unfortunately, they were paving the street in Madrid at the time, making it a pain in the ass to get through. But I stopped and spent some time there amid the smell of a new blacktop road surface and piles of road dirt.

The wonderful views of the mountains south of Santa Fe along Hwy. 14 are worth the extra time it takes to maneuver along the two-lane highway. You will want to stop in Cerrillos and Madrid before making your way south to catch I-40 west that takes you into ABQ.

Sandia National Lab to Close the Book on Books

The Sandia National Laboratories Technical Library is having a minor crisis, and it’s not alone. All across the world, research and technical libraries are closing the books on real books.

With the Internet and technological innovation leading the way, libraries are turning their backs on books, tossing them aside for digital versions that are accessible online. The Sandia National Laboratories Technical Library announced this month that they are placing the content of their library entirely online, and closing the door on the thousands of volumes of real books housed in their library.

Researchers at the Lab are understandably upset. While they are using their desktops to supplement their research, many of the technicians like browsing the library shelves for resources and enjoy studying an actual text. Some of them hate the idea of not having access to a traditional “brick and mortar” library with hardcover books.

Much of the ballyhoo is a response to the Library Without Walls Project, which is an international movement to place research and technical materials online for easy access from researchers around the world. The basic idea seems to be, “Let’s put all of the content of our books and journals online so we can easily access them at home, or at our labs and offices, from anywhere in the world.”

This all sounds great and is inevitable. But here’s the rub: what happens to books and traditional libraries? Will the local library, college library, all libraries everywhere eventually close their doors? Is there any value in holding a real book in your hands? Do we need to spend millions of dollars storing hardcover books when we can digitize content and make it available to anyone anywhere?

I’m reminded of two television shows, both from the area of science fiction, that deal with this issue. Interestingly, both of these television shows occurred in the 1960s, when the Internet and desktop computers were infants in imagination and practice.

The first episode I recall first aired in late 1959, was from the series Twilight Zone and titled “Time Enough at Last”, and starred Burgess Meredith as a bank teller with poor eyesight. Mr. Henry Bemis wore these incredibly thick glasses. He loved books. He cared for them like children. And when an atomic bomb blast destroyed his city, he wept over the destruction of his beloved library. But the books survived. He carefully stacked them on the front steps of the library, which was a heap of crushed stone. He’s was thrilled to still have his books, with all the time in the world to read them. Then, tragically, at the end of the episode, he breaks his glasses. He’s now faced with a future surrounded by his beloved books, but he can’t read them. The last scene of him holding his books abreast in one hand, and his broken spectacles in the other, will always stay with me.

But I a love books.

The second episode comes from Star Trek. Titled “Court Martial” and first broadcast in 1967, the episode deals directly with the issue: the value of real books and human interaction versus the technological and digitization of content on computers. Captain Kirk is accused of a crime that ends in the death of a colleague, with evidence primarily being digital content on a computer. His attorney (played by Elisha Cook, Jr.), an old salt who loves books and hates technology, fights to save Kirk in court. His speech before the judge speaks directly to us: computers can lie. He passionately argues before the judge that computers and technology are destroying the reality of a world that was once real, a world with physical and emotional bonds that connect us as human beings. Computers are nothing more than circuit boards, chips, mechanical devices, bits and bytes of information that are not real, they are imitations of reality. The episode ends, naturally, with Captain Kirk acquitted after his pal Spock discovers the computer was intentionally reformatted and unreliable, and the person who supposedly died was in fact still alive and was behind the whole frame job. I’ll always remember the passionate speech of Kirk’s attorney (badly overacted I’ll admit), and the picture of him holding a stack of books in his hand as he delivered it.

So, the issue comes down to this: is there any value in a real book, a book with pages that you touch, smell, turn, spill coffee on, crease, bookmark. When I sit out by the pool, or snuggle up near a fireplace, or slumber in bed at night, or sit at Starbucks drinking a latte, and want to read a good book, I don’t want to, read a computer screen.

But I’m a lover of books.

I will always prefer holding print and ink in my hands. I will never give up the hope that books will remain, real books. And God help us the day that libraries around the world become a thing of the past, heaps of ruble destroyed not by an atomic bomb, but by man’s foolishness.

Sandia National Labs to Close the Book on Books

The Sandia National Laboratories Technical Library is having a minor crisis, and it’s not alone. All across the world, research and technical libraries are closing the books on real books.

With the Internet and technological innovation leading the way, libraries are turning their backs on books, tossing them aside for digital versions that are accessible online. The Sandia National Laboratories Technical Library announced this month that they are placing the content of their library entirely online, and closing the door on the thousands of volumes of real books housed in their library.

Researchers at the Lab are understandably upset. While they are using their desktops to supplement their research, many of the technicians like browsing the library shelves for resources and enjoy studying an actual text. Some of them hate the idea of not having access to a traditional “brick and mortar” library with hardcover books.

Much of the ballyhoo is a response to the Library Without Walls Project, which is an international movement to place research and technical materials online for easy access from researchers around the world. The basic idea seems to be, “Let’s put all of the content of our books and journals online so we can easily access them at home, or at our labs and offices, from anywhere in the world.”

This all sounds great and is inevitable. But here’s the rub: what happens to books and traditional libraries? Will the local library, college library, all libraries everywhere eventually close their doors? Is there any value in holding a real book in your hands? Do we need to spend millions of dollars storing hardcover books when we can digitize content and make it available to anyone anywhere?

I’m reminded of two television shows, both from the area of science fiction, that deal with this issue. Interestingly, both of these television shows occurred in the 1960s, when the Internet and desktop computers were infants in imagination and practice.

The first episode I recall first aired in late 1959, was from the series Twilight Zone and titled “Time Enough at Last”, and starred Burgess Meredith as a bank teller with poor eyesight. Mr. Henry Bemis wore these incredibly thick glasses. He loved books. He cared for them like children. And when an atomic bomb blast destroyed his city, he wept over the destruction of his beloved library. But the books survived. He carefully stacked them on the front steps of the library, which was a heap of crushed stone. He’s was thrilled to still have his books, with all the time in the world to read them. Then, tragically, at the end of the episode, he breaks his glasses. He’s now faced with a future surrounded by his beloved books, but he can’t read them. The last scene of him holding his books abreast in one hand, and his broken spectacles in the other, will always stay with me.

But I a love books.

The second episode comes from Star Trek. Titled “Court Martial” and first broadcast in 1967, the episode deals directly with the issue: the value of real books and human interaction versus the technological and digitization of content on computers. Captain Kirk is accused of a crime that ends in the death of a colleague, with evidence primarily being digital content on a computer. His attorney (played by Elisha Cook, Jr.), an old salt who loves books and hates technology, fights to save Kirk in court. His speech before the judge speaks directly to us: computers can lie. He passionately argues before the judge that computers and technology are destroying the reality of a world that was once real, a world with physical and emotional bonds that connect us as human beings. Computers are nothing more than circuit boards, chips, mechanical devices, bits and bytes of information that are not real, they are imitations of reality. The episode ends, naturally, with Captain Kirk acquitted after his pal Spock discovers the computer was intentionally reformatted and unreliable, and the person who supposedly died was in fact still alive and was behind the whole frame job. I’ll always remember the passionate speech of Kirk’s attorney (badly overacted I’ll admit), and the picture of him holding a stack of books in his hand as he delivered it.

So, the issue comes down to this: is there any value in a real book, a book with pages that you touch, smell, turn, spill coffee on, crease, bookmark. When I sit out by the pool, or snuggle up near a fireplace, or slumber in bed at night, or sit at Starbucks drinking a latte, and want to read a good book, I don’t want to read a computer screen.

But I’m a lover of books.

I will always prefer holding print and ink in my hands. I will never give up the hope that books will remain, real books. And God help us the day that libraries around the world become a thing of the past, heaps of broken stone, remnants not of an atomic bomb, but of man’s foolishness.

On the Road

It seems like everything I read these days is dealing with "the road." Maybe it's because I left Texas a few weeks ago to travel the southwest, and the road has been my only companion.

Having stopped in Albuquerque for a month or so, I've been catching up on my reading. It turns out that most of the books deal with someone on "the road." Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic tale "The Road" was one of the first novels I read while in ABQ. Then I read Hunter S. Thompson's novel of his Latin American adventures in "The Rum Diary." He laments that as he is getting older, being on the road and traveling around the universe is getting tiresome. Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" was published 50 years ago and is getting attention in the press, plus was reissued in a new edition to mark the anniversary. I became interested in Kerouac a few years ago and read everything I could get my hands on about him, including a book of his notes and drawings (more doodles, really, than drawings).

I left Texas with a desire to just go, somewhere, anywhere. I had a desire to travel the country and to write about my experience. I was at a time and place in my life where I had the opportunity to pack up the car and leave. So I did. I'm not sure there is any meaning to it, any reason for it, or any life-altering revelations to be discovered by it. I do think I will be different, though, once I settle down again.

The road has an allure, an attraction, a seductive quality for someone hungry to experience the unknown. I was starving for a change, a new world. After a lifetime of relative security, stability, and normalcy, I needed a mistress. The road is a jealous lover, and I can see it's going to be difficult to let her go.

For Jack Kerouac and others like him, the idea of staying in motion was vital to their sanity. Kerouac's survival as a writer depended on his westward journeys on the road, his passion to discover meaning in unknown places and people.

I'm beginning to discover the passion he felt for experiencing life on the road and it's a little unsettling. To read about my travels, visit my blog "1,100 Miles to Las Vegas" at http://2Vegas.blogspot.com.

"What most people are at 25, I don't think I became until I was 38...I thought, even if I could just make enough to buy a loaf of bread and not starve to death, this would be the greatest adventure that I could ever go on. I said, 'I don't give a damn what happens to me. I'm doing this.'"
Jerry Seinfeld, October, 2007, on being a star and a comedian.

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I'll be spending my last week in ABQ trying to prepare for the next leg of my Fall Adventure. My plan is to visit Santa Fe on Tuesday and Wednesday. I can't be this close to Santa Fe without spending some time there before leaving the area. On Tuesday night I'll be attending the "New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive," at the College of Santa Fe. Screenwriters who attend the school will be reading from their screenplays, and the college will have an open house for those interested in attending the school. Actors will also be performing some of the scenes from scripts actually produced in 2007.

On Wednesday in Santa Fe, I'll be attending a new photography exhibit at the Photo-Eye Gallery on Garcia Street. Mark Klett is opening an exhibit titled "Saguaros," with a reception and book signing after the opening.

My last day in ABQ will be Sunday, October 28.

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One of the items to hit the paper this week concerns a lawsuit against the Sandia Casino. Good Morning America was on site Friday to do a feature story that will air sometime next week. The pending lawsuit might make it to the Supreme Court and have an effect on how Indian casinos operate in the future. That's why it's attracting the national press.

The lawsuit concerns Gary Hoffman's complaint that the casino failed to pay him a slot machine jackpot prize of almost $1.6 million. Hoffman was playing a nickel slot machine last summer when he supposedly hit the jackpot. He even took a photo of the slot machine showing his good fortune with his camera phone. Casino officials claim the slot machine malfunctioned, and therefore, they don't owe Hoffman a dime.

Hoffman wants to sue the casino in state court, but the Sandia Pueblo tribe that owns the casino and the surrounding reservation lands believes they are a sovereign nation and cannot be sued in a state or federal court. Thus the Supreme Court may need to decide if Indian tribes that owe casinos can ever be sued for such a thing. Poor Hoffman just wants his money but for now must fight it out, probably for years, and he may end up with nothing.

The fact that Indian tribes are sovereign entities within the U.S. shouldn't provide a shield from someone wanting their day in state or federal court. It's only fair, it seems to me, that Hoffman have his case heard. The tribal governments have their own courts, but few people believe he could ever receive an unbiased opinion in a court run by the same people who run the casino.

I'm beginning my last week in ABQ, with plans to head for Tucson on Monday, October 29. The photos below show the year's first real cold front moving into the Sandia Mountain area today, so I'm leaving at just the right time. While beautiful, the mountains today look ominous and very cold. Some elevations will get their first snow this week.

Later in the week, warmer weather will return. Tonight it will dip below freezing sometime after midnight, but by Tuesday night the evening temps will return to the mid 40s.

In Tucson, Arizona, the temperatures will be much milder during the next few weeks. I'm seeking the warmth of the sun this Winter, so it's time to move on west and south. Once in Tucson, I'll see how things go. The Casino del Sol looks nice. I'll check it out first and go from there.

I've enjoyed my time in ABQ, but it's time to hit the road once again.






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I’m guessing the best place to taste the real flavor of a community is the coin-operated Laundromat. One of life’s necessary duties is washing clothes. Almost everyone must do it. I say “almost everyone” because I doubt Paris Hilton has ever put a cup of Tide into a washer, unless of course it was done on some goofy reality TV show. Without the local coin-operated machines where would a person go to wash their smelly socks?

The American Laundromat provides a snapshot of the community in which it is located. Visit any of these places and you’ll find a cross section of locals: college students, senior adults, single mothers with kids in tow, middle-aged couples, and travelers like me. And it’s amazing how quiet the place is.

For whatever reason, the Laundromat is the one gathering place in the community where very little talking takes place. I suppose it is the nature of cleaning clothes in public—exposing of your dirty laundry before a gawking crowd tends to make you tight-lipped. When you walk in with your duffle bag full of soiled underwear, the last thing you want to do is have a deep conversation with a stranger about the war in Iraq. So, the result is often silence.

I wonder if the Laundromat is uniquely American. Do other countries have such places? For some reason, I just cannot picture a Laundromat in Paris, or Stockholm, or even London for that matter. Obviously, foreigners must wash their clothes somewhere. Unless your in Germany, that is. And I know in many places around the world the local river serves as the place to clean your pants, so I guess we are lucky to have these places.
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I know I’m fortunate to have found some wonderful Laundromats since I’ve been on the road. The nicest one I’ve seen is located near the University of Oklahoma in Norman. It was clean, had an attendant ready to help you with a big smile on her face, and there was a color TV so you could watch “Oprah” while waiting for the rinse cycle to finish. Of course, the day I was there Paris Hilton was Oprah’s guest.

My Christmas Wish List

My Christmas Wish List

The Winnebago View, 2008, is now available and I want one. I only need to raise about $50,000. No problem.