Tristan Taormino is trying to take a deep breath. When we speak, she's about to embark on a four-week tour and is using the day to read books. The titles are telling: When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön, an ordained Buddhist nun, and Wide Open: On Living With Purpose and Passion by Dawna Markova, described on Amazon.com as teaching "how to live with heart and mind wide open to all life's possibilities."

Councilors wasted no time as they sped through their Monday, Nov. 2 meeting and put off many items for the incoming Council to deal with. They did, however, manage to spend several million dollars in less than two hours.

I remember my first byline in the Alibi. It was attached to an article on Albuquerque's brand-new rapid transit bus system, called the Rapid Ride. I sought out that precious byline at the paper's little blue box outside the Co-op in Nob Hill. White Christmas lights had already been draped around nearby trees. It was a Wednesday around 6 p.m., the time my editor had told me papers would start showing up in that part of town. The issue was the Holiday Film Guide. When I flipped through it, I found my story on page 14. I jumped a little.

Dateline: India—The corpse of a missing dead man was located more than two years after it disappeared—on the roof of a police station in Northern India. The body of Chukkan Nishad, a 22-year-old who died in 2007, was meant to be sent for DNA testing, but was instead put in a body bag and placed on the roof. “I admit it is a horrible case, possibly the first of its kind,” Ram Sabad Ram, the new station master in Azamgarh in northern Uttar Pradesh state, told the Mail Today newspaper. “I joined here only recently and didn’t know that the corpse was kept on the roof.” The Mail said the body was placed there after local authorities refused to release the funds for a DNA test on Nishad. His death remains a mystery. Mr. Ram said police were completing formalities to return Mishad’s remains—which are little more than bones at this point—to his family.

I’m not sure who is writing the “Hoots Smalley” blog, but the recent entries regarding the New Mexico Film Industry have been inaccurate and very misleading. Contrary to the assertions made in the blog, the state’s film industry remains strong and among the most successful and respected in the world. An upcoming edition of a major trade publication ranks New Mexico third, after California and New York. There are currently six major films prepping or shooting in the state, including Due Date starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, Passion Play starring Mickey Rourke and Megan Fox, and Let Me In starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz and Richard Jenkins. In addition, the award-winning TV series “Breaking Bad” (AMC) is shooting its third season here, the series “Crash” (Starz) just wrapped its second season and “In Plain Sight” (USA) has announced it will return to New Mexico to shoot its third season beginning in January. And there are many more major film and television projects heading to New Mexico in the next six months.