Example sweater.

Just in case you haven’t heard this news blip that might affect your warmth situation tonight, here it is in two parts:

1. Natural gas outages throughout the state prompt Guv Martinez to declare a state of emergency and send state workers home.

2. Mayor Berry makes like Jimmy Carter, says: lower your thermostat 10 degrees, wear a sweater.

I used my fireplace and turned off the gas last night, so don’t blame me.

Of course you know the old dancing-about-architecture thing. Well, synesthesia aside, it is bloody hard to hear without ears or see without eyes. So if you happened to read last week’s “Best of 2010 for weirdos and malcontents” and were almost intrigued enough to seek out the music, dissemble no more. Here’s a mix with one track from each of the albums, including the ones I was too lazy to write about.

More Videos

• Great new song available for download! (StormeeATL) [ Mon Jan 10 2011 6:35 AM ]
  
• yeah, lots of Tesla in this mix (jerry) [ Mon Jan 10 2011 11:36 AM ]
  

 

Justin Wright, a.k.a. Expo ’70, channels the deep-space kosmische kourier aesthetic of early psychedelic improv practitioners Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel and (perhaps especially) the pre-sequencer Tangerine Dream. His echoing soundscapes embrace the synthetic and the organic, from the otherworldly skirling of analog synths to the earthy rumble of distorted guitars. If you notice vibrations in your diaphragm or a distant hissing in your ears, do not panic, these are merely the first signs of imminent sonic destruction. Albuquerque dronesters Hedia and Luperci start this all-ages show at Winning Coffee Co. (111 Harvard SE); the doors of perception open at 7 p.m.

arcosanti.org

A hippy haven on Indian land?

Early last week the Santa Fe Indian School exhibited some bloody typical short-sightedness by announcing that the 45-year-old Paolo Soleri Amphitheater was to be demolished. This architectural landmark is not only a marvelous outdoor venue, but a groovy exemplification of Soleri’s synergistic design philosophy. Yesterday the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council and the All Indian Pueblo Council came down firmly on the side of the School, offering “blessings” for the demolition. Somehow, the Councils contend, the amphitheater is directly responsible for Native children going under-educated and the only solution is to destroy it before it can cause more harm.

Pardon me if I seem unconvinced. The School has exhibited a bad attitude about preservation in the past, having casually torn down historic buildings and old-growth trees without public notice or input. The School is an island of sovereign territory inside Santa Fe, so the usual requirements of notification and cooperation (conveniently) do not apply, but the attitude exhibited here is downright un-neighborly, even hostile. The short version could be: “Shut up, hippie.”

salma1 / CC BY-SA 2.0

Hippy music: bad for Native education?

Maybe the pueblo leaders ought not to be quite so quick to bless destruction. Soleri himself nails the problem with a blistering quote:

“This American culture is bent on demolition in all fields. It is a deleterious way of making history and forfeiting memories, the very memories cutting the landscape of history for country in search of culture and civility.”

In Albuquerque, we only have to look to the wholesale destruction of many of the buildings in the downtown area, culminating in the ignominious razing of the Alvarado Hotel in 1970, which remained a vast parking lot until downtown redevelopment raised a sad simulacrum of the hotel in the same spot. If it all comes down to capitalism, to the pathetic fact that destroying and rebuilding yields more profit than preserving and appreciating, then we need some kind of cap-and-trade program to stop this gaming of the system, some kind of financial incentive to halt the business-as-usual of demolition. What demolition emphatically does not need is a “blessing.”

Unsurprisingly, a Save Our Soleri movement has sprung up with great ferocity, and if the Indian School has any neighborliness left in its sovereign bones, it will view these concerned citizens as potential partners who could raise money, awareness and public participation to correct whatever alleged negative impacts the amphitheater is having on Native education. To view them as enemies or as “hippies” who need to “shut up,” would be a colossal mistake.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

• paolo soleri
• demolition
• santa fe indian school

• Wow, it almost all seems so unreal (7meds) [ Thu Jul 1 2010 10:50 PM ]
  

If you own property in this green wedge, you can vote.

For once there’s been a decent amount of press about the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District election, in large part due to the current board’s unanimous rejection of the Ditches With Trails project—three years in the making and one sweaty, crowded, ill-mannered board meeting in the killing.

Since that fateful night, people like state senators Dede Feldman and Jerry Ortiz y Pino have been pointing out the unresponsiveness and conflicts of interest that plague the MRGCD’s policies and politics, and have thrown their support behind opposition candidates Adrian Oglesby and Karen Dunning.

If you’re still saying “the what election?” then this post’s for you:

What: Four seats on the MRGCD board (two in Bernalillo County)

When: Tuesday, January 2

Why: Because there’s more than one way to keep the valley green.

Here’s a round-up of information on this tiny little election that could have a great big impact on life in the Rio Grande Valley. Read up, saddle up, and vote on Tuesday:

• MRGCD 2009 Election Information (mrgcd.com)

• Battle over irrigation ditches comes to a head (newmexicoindependent.com)

• Dede Feldman's Take on the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Race (senatorfeldman.typepad.com)

• Ortiz y Pino: Voting Day Is June 2 Are you as surprised as we are? (alibi.com)

• Perplexity, Persistence, and the MRGCD Elections (dukecityfix.com)

• MRGCD - VOTE ! Find a Location Near You & Go to the Polls June 2 (senatorfeldman.typepad.com)

• Conservation Voters endorses slate in MRGCD board election (newmexicoindependent.com)

• Challenger Promises Change (abqjournal.com)

• MRGCD Diversity Focus of Hopefuls (abqjournal.com)

• MRGCD Candidates Square Off at Forum (abqjournal.com)

• MRGCD Radar Misses Water-Rights Transfer (abqjournal.com)

Brion Vibber

Los Angeles Union Station, western terminus of the Southwest Chief that serves Albuquerque. You can even rent a car here.

Here’s another positive side-effect of high gas prices: Amtrak ridership is way, way up. Last year, Amtrak carried 25 million passengers, an 11% increase. This year, it’ll probably carry more, and that means good press for the little engine that could.

Last week the San Francisco Chronicle published Catherine Watson’s travelogue of her epic train trip from St. Paul to Las Cruces, and yesterday NPR had her on Talk of the Nation fielding comments from listeners. The pro-rail consensus that’s building seems to include: (1) forgiveness for delays (which, for the most part, aren’t Amtrak’s fault), (2) joy over not being subjected to airport hassles, and (3) appreciation of the intangible, but very real benefit of seeing the country from the ground without being stuck behind a steering wheel.

A gentle reminder: Albuquerque is blessed with daily Amtrak service to Chicago and Los Angeles. I’ve personally been booking a sleeper compartment to L.A. once a year, and it rocks. Four little words: Margaritas in the room.

• BYOB (jerry) [ Wed Jul 16 2008 10:07 AM ]
  
• Do you smuggle in a blender (marisa) [ Wed Jul 16 2008 1:56 PM ]
  
• You could (jerry) [ Wed Jul 16 2008 2:05 PM ]
  

sysadminday.com

I’d know that tush anywhere.

Full disclosure: I am a Systems Administrator for an Albuquerque-area newsweekly and website, but it has been brought to my attention (thanks, Sloppy), that today marks the 8th annual celebration of Systems Administrator Appreciation Day. I don’t want a hug and I don’t want a box of candy (well, what kind of candy is it?), but I do want to quote a few good ones from the document “Advice to employees on the proper use of the System Administrator's valuable time.” For some reason, they call him Ted:

• Never write down error messages. Just click OK, or restart your computer. Ted likes to guess what the error message was.

• When the printer won't print, re-send the job 20 times in rapid succession. That should do the trick.

• When you get the message saying "Are you sure?", click the "Yes" button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren't sure, you wouldn't be doing it, would you?

• When you receive a 130 MB movie file, send it to everyone as a high-priority mail attachment. Ted's provided plenty of disk space and processor capacity on the new mail server for just those kinds of important things.

OK, maybe I will take that candy.

• Sysadmins don't like mysteries.. (sloppy) [ Fri Jul 27 2007 4:09 PM ]
  
• garbage man, police man, beggar man, thief (Viral_​​Load) [ Sat Jul 28 2007 11:20 AM ]
  
• Dude (punchme) [ Wed Sep 12 2007 12:42 AM ]
  

 

Last Friday, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (we like to call ‘em AAN) announced the winners of their 12th annual AltWeekly Awards, and your little old locally-owned, independent Alibi managed to nab a few honors in its weight class. To wit:

• Marisa Demarco scored an honorable mention for snappy short-form news, exemplified by the nominated articles “Downtown Fights Back,” “Through the Cracks,” and “The Path to a Cure.”

• Jim Scarantino took third place in the political column category for “The Popsicle Prophecy,” “The Belly of the Beast,” and “Staying the Course is Not a Strategy.”

• Jerry Cornelius, our pseudonymous tech writer (for whom I feel a certain fatherly affection) took second place in the web feature category for “Ecstatic Technology,” all about everyone’s least favorite videogame genre, the 2-D shooter.

Yeah, no gold medals, but we’re psyched anyhow, so sue us. And now, we’d like to thank all the little people …

MRGCD motto: “Keeping the valley green.”

If you are a property owner within the boundaries of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, today’s the day to vote for two board positions. Was that a “who cares?” from the back row? Listen, buddy, last time around nobody voted, and as a result we got a guy who buys water rights sitting on the board of a friggin’ irrigation conservancy. Can you say “conflict of interest”? I knew that you could.

Earlier this week, the Albuquerque Tribune provided an excellent overview of the recent MRGCD political chaos, with lots of inflammatory statements from both adversarial board member Bill Turner (”These people are evil, flat-out evil.”) and MRGCD mouthpiece (not to mention former Alibi staffer) Dennis Domrzalski (who calls Turner a “pathetic clown” in one especially vituperative press release). It’s all pretty entertaining, but the issue is serious: Valley irrigation creates a green space where there would otherwise be sand and scrub. The ditch system is already endangered and it needs protection from water rights scavengers. Who will provide the right guidance for the beleaguered MRGCD?

I voted for Adrian Oglesby, a progressive water attorney with ties to smart-growth advocates in the North Valley, and Eugene Abeita, an Isleta Pueblo farmer favored by the South Valley Acequia Association--both candidates also endorsed by the Journal, as it turns out.

Do you care yet? Don’t worry, polls are open until 7 p.m., there are a ton of locations, and I personally guarantee no long lines. For your convenience, here’s the list for Bernalillo County:

MRG 201 4-H Center 1500 Menaul Blvd. NW Albuquerque

MRG 202 Adobe Acres Elementary School 1724 Camino del Valle SW Albuquerque

MRG 204 Alvarado Elementary School 1100 Solar Road NW Albuquerque

MRG 205 Armijo Elementary School 1440 Gatewood Ave SW Albuquerque

MRG 206 Atrisco Elementary School 1201 Atrisco Drive SW Albuquerque

MRG 207 Barcelona Elementary School 2311 Barcelona Road SW Albuquerque

MRG 210 Dolores Gonzales Elementary School 900 Atlantic Avenue SW Albuquerque

MRG 211 Duranes Elementary School 2436 Zickert Rd NW Albuquerque

MRG 212 Jack Candelaria Comm & Boxing Ctr 400 San Jose Avenue SE

MRG 214 Ernie Pyle Middle School 1820 Valdora Ave SW Albuquerque

MRG 215 Garfield Middle School 3501 Sixth Street NW Albuquerque

MRG 216 Griegos Elementary School 4040 San Isidro NW Albuquerque

MRG 218 Harwood United Methodist church 420 San Lorenzo Ave NW Albuquerque

MRG 219 Holy Family Catholic Church 562 Atrisco Drive SW Albuquerque

MRG 220 Isleta Pueblo Elderly Center Kiva Room Isleta Pueblo

MRG 221 Isleta Pueblo Headstart Chical Road Isleta

MRG 222 Wells Park Community Center 500 Mountain Rd NW Albuquerque

MRG 223 Los Padillas Elementary School 2525 Los Padillas Rd. Albuquerque

MRG 224 MacArthur Elementary School 1100 Douglas MacArthur Rd NW Albuquerque

MRG 225 MRGCD Board Room 1931 Second SW Albuquerque

MRG 227 Pajarito Elementary School 2701 Don Felipe SW Albuquerque

MRG 228 Polk Middle School 2220 Raymac Rd SW Albuquerque

MRG 229 Reginald F. Chavez Elementary 2700 Mountain Rd NW Albuquerque

MRG 230 Los Ranchos Elementary School 7609 Fourth Street NW Albuquerque

MRG 231 Rio Grande High School 2300 Arenal Road SW Albuquerque

MRG 233 Taft Middle School 620 Schulte Rd NW Albuquerque

MRG 234 Taylor Middle School 8200 Guadalupe Tr NW Albuquerque

MRG 235 Valle Vista Elementary School 1700 Mae Avenue SW Albuquerque

MRG 236 Valley Christian Church 2850 Gun Club Road SW Albuquerque

MRG 237 Valley High School 1505 Candelaria Rd NW Albuquerque

MRG 238 Washington Middle School 1101 Park Avenue SW Albuquerque

MRG 241 Atrium North/Bernalillo Fire Dept. 6840 Second St NW Albuquerque

MRG 242 Westside Community Center 1250 Isleta Blvd. SW Albuquerque

MRG 243 Navajo Elementary School 2936 Hughes Rd SW Albuquerque

MRG 244 Raymond G. Sanchez Community Center 9800 Fourth NW Albuquerque

MRG 245 Sandia Pueblo Tribal Council Chambers 481 Sandia Loop Bernalillo

MRG 246 Mountain View Community Center 201 Prosperity Ave SE

• I was just telling Kyle ... (editorial) [ Tue Jun 5 2007 10:31 PM ]
  
• How was this not in the paper? (Jessica) [ Wed Jun 6 2007 11:16 AM ]
  
• Shoulda been (jerry) [ Thu Jun 7 2007 3:59 PM ]