evidence

i swear I'm not making this up. I was on foot the other day with Sparky (our hero) for a little walk in the river bed. I see something, but can't quite make it out, or believe there's something that big down the way, and as I got closer I was even more amazed! check it out:

This thing is HUGE, and made out of the boxes you get at the post office, turned inside out and spray painted. There's a cockpit and looks like there's going to be a propeller soon. How the heck did the people get it down there, and what is the message here? Perhaps a statement on what a river landing would look like here...(none too pretty).

Dang, I love this place.

summer necklace

Here's my summer necklace.( I made it!) I love blue in the summer, don't you? The shadow at the top of the photo is Bad Marie. She likes to help with these things... It's been a rather soggy summer here so far. Amazing and cool. They claim it's going to get hot next week. However, they've been claiming this for some time now...

get up or outfit.... you be the judge

In my opinion, if you're at the rodeo, it's definitely not a get up. Went to the rodeo the other night. It's a bit corn ball for sure, but dang it, I love seeing people tearing around entirely too fast on the horses. It made me miss roping. However I don't miss the injuries...

employee of the month

Sparky, security chief! On Friday, I was in hell, otherwise known as the DMV.... when I got home I discovered someone attempted to break into my house! Since I've watched hundreds of detective shows on TV, I'm practically and expert on crime, so with my carefully honed deductive reasoning skills I came to the conclusion that once they opened the sliding glass door, Sparky went into action and scared them off! There was some stuff rearranged in the studio, but nothing missing. And all pets alive and accounted for. Now one has to know that there isn't much to steal over here. My stereo could be called a "hi-fi" it's so old, and the TV is WAY old and has a vcr, no dvd player. so that may have something to do with it too. Never the less there's a happy meal in it for our security system!

Here's why I was at the DMV. I got a NEW CAR! well, ok it's used, but NEW!! to me. It's a toyota matrix. After I got it home I realized there were all these "m's" pasted on the car. It stands for matrix, but anyone who knows my deal knows that M's all over my car just won't do. On the back it said "m theory". who knows what the heck that means. I got the car at Beaver toyota. So I was able to just peel the M's off the thing, but now on the back it says "beaver theory"??? I haven't quite decided how I feel about that, but I will tell you for sure, there aren't many cars that say beaver theory out there, so if you see one, chances are it's me.

art is everywhere

In the last few weeks on the usual ride, these sculptures have begun to appear. This was one of the first. I don't know if the picture shows it but there is a purple plastic cup at the top which to my way of thinking is the most clever use of a plastic purple cup known to mankind.

Sparky approves.

As time goes along another appears, and more elements are added to them.

This week the artist has out done his or herself. This beauty appeared out of nowhere. It is a round platform mounted on a ceiling fan, mounted on a rolling office chair. There are streamers (designed to scare the heck out of horses no doubt) hanging down, a tiny mirror, a bell. All made up of junk found, dumped out in the arroyos where we ride. The whole thing spins . Keno the horse thought he'd smell it, and bonked it with his nose. The bell rang, the whole thing began to spin, and the streamers flapped...whoo boy, that was WAY more than he bargained for.

The artists identity is a mystery. I've never seen anyone carrying this junk around, or doing anything resembling sculpting... I hope to somehow make contact with this person. I am thinking right now a message in a found bottle and other articles of junk I've picked up out there. The idea is still in the formulation phase.

Brilliant

OK, I LOVE THIS

FOR ME THE SCREAMING IS THE BEST PART:

New Orleans

I am back from an all too brief trip to New Orleans. The weather was fab, even HOT!!! and of course the food really really good. The big biennial art show was interesting and some of it was quite delightful. Long story short, it was a great trip, I love New Orleans, and I will be going back there for sure.
One of the take home messages was TALK TO STRANGERS! No one passed on the street without greeting one another. At least a "good morning", and if you lingered even a second they would talk as long as you wanted. I found that to be really comforting somehow. I want to take that up as a habit, even in my own town. Here I am talking to a stranger...well actually it's a statue...

Here's Nancy talking to a stranger, well it's a statue too....

Now here's an actual stranger that we did talk to. His name is James May. He is a street musician and a pretty entertaining guy. He told us of his escape from the city, after Katrina, with his stuff in a boat. He left town in a truck with an "eccentric friend, his pit bull and pot bellied pig" wow. He sang us a song, "Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans" oh yeah.

travel time

I'm getting ready to go on a trip to New Orleans. As is my custom, I'm asking everyone I know for suggested activities and advice. I've got a couple guide books too. So one thing I keep hearing over and over is that "New Orleans is a dangerous city, BE CAREFUL". One of the guide books had two paragraphs devoted to the safety tip of "avoid wearing beads!!" Now I personally think that may be taking things too far, being that I'm a fan of jewelry. Why, I think most events require beads of some sort. So in addition to reading up on the history and sights of New Orleans I thought I'd better brush up on my Robert Pelton Young while I'm at it.
I'm still very interested in people's suggestions. I'm not leaving til early Thurs morning, so if you've got ideas for me send on!!

Happy New Year!

I had the best New Year's day. It was sunny and warm and along with a few pals went to Santo Domingo Pueblo for a special lunch and to watch the ceremonial dances. First of all the red chile was either tied with the best I ever had, or maybe even the best. A bit of a bite to it but no too hot, creamy and over meat. The woman who made it made beans in case we didn't eat chile. Couple that with home made bread from the horno OMG the best ever. There weren't that many visitors there. So we were of about a dozen non-natives watching the dances. You can't take pictures so imagine this: There's a block of about 30 or 40 men surrounding the drummer. They are singing mostly what sounded so me like "ah way, ah way" and the beat of the drum is steady like boom boom boom boom and every now and again there's a pause just long enough to be like a long taking of a breath then again the boom boom boom. There are about 200 people dancing. They have bells around their ankles and shells tied to their clothes. The women have on black dresses and turquoise painted head dresses, they are carrying sprigs of evergreens. The men have rattles. so along with the drumming and singing there is the rhythmic pulsing of the bells, shells and the rattles are shaken every now and again. There was a man who held this banner that was probably on an 8 foot pole. the banner had a picture of corn on it, and was long and skinny, topped with a yellow doo dad and red feathers. He waved it around like a blessing on all of us. The dance was held in the plaza between the two kivas, and the sound echo'd off the adobe houses and reverberated inside of my body. I was so ready for this without knowing it before hand really. It was very moving and felt like just the thing to be doing on the first day of the new year. The dances went on all day. We didn't stay that long, but I feel it still ...

Here are some cattle. it has nothing to do with anything except a preview of the year of the ox