Archive for June, 2006
I went to Marfa to see the infamous Marfa Lights. They show up on a regular basis, but not necessarily every night, in the sky outside the town of Marfa, Texas. Nobody can explain what they are and I think these days the town of Marfa would prefer that they remain a mystery because it’s become an attraction for tourists and their cash. They were first documented in the 1880s but locals had been seeing them for decades before. Dozens of explanations have been proposed like reflected car lights (in 1880?) or the standard weather balloons - my favorite has to be that the lights are actually rabbits that have walked through a phosphorescent liquid and are running around the mountainside. So I swung by the “El Cheapo†liquor store (I’m not kidding… see the photo)
and got a couple beers and headed out to the viewing area to see what I might see. Interesting side note: The building for the viewing area was designed by a group of gifted high school students and then built by the Texas highway department. The architecture is more beautiful and functional than 90% of what passes for design these days. I want to meet those kids. Check out what they did.
So I watched the desert sky for an hour and a half and saw plenty of lights that looked like car headlights. Everybody there agreed that we were seeing car headlights and that the true Marfa lights would look very different when they showed up. Except they never showed up. I guess that gives me an excuse to swing by “El Cheapo†once again and enjoy the kid’s architecture on my next visit to the Davis Mountains in another attempt to see the fabled Marfa lights. Hey at least I got to see a good sunset for my troubles…
June 16th, 2006
I’m in the Davis Mountains and camped in Davis Mountains State Park. It’s a beautiful park and the surrounding area is gorgeous. When I checked in at the office there was this really spunky older woman of maybe 70 years working the counter. She was really nice and asked if I wanted any information on what to do while here. I said, “yeah, where can I road bike?â€. She got this wry smile on her face and pulled out a map. She said, “the bikers call this ‘touching heaven’†and proceeded to show me a stretch of road starting right at the park entrance. I said thank you and returned to my trailer to prepare to ride. As soon as I got 500 yards from the park entrance on my bike I saw where the name ‘touching heaven’ comes from. The road is in great shape and has a 6-foot wide shoulder for bikes and the views are continuously breathtaking. The photos below are not highlights… they’re what you see for the entire ride. If there’s a better ride than this in the USA, someone please tell me where because I’m going there to ride it! There are some killer hills on this ride though. I would have been in deep manure if I hadn’t been riding in the mountains of NM and the Texas hill country for the last several weeks. I was still damn beat up afterwards.
Well… as I sit here writing this a deer just walked up and is staring in my living room window. Wow… and another one. See picture below. (nah, it’s not on fire.. but then again, maybe it’s the deer del infierno)
Anyway, back to the blog. After the ride I went to the McDonald Observatory where they have the 4th biggest telescope in the world. Not only is the mountain top setting beautiful but the power of the equipment attracts some of the best astronomers in the world to do their work there. The newest and biggest telescope was built with the help of 5 universities, 3 from the US and 2 from Germany. It’s a great example of international cooperation. I went back at night for what they call a star party which is kind of a lesson in astronomy with the chance to look at the cosmos through some of the smaller telescopes that they have there. The big ones have a waiting list of professional astronmomers and researchers so we couldn’t utilize those but even some of the little ones are as big as my pickup truck. Yeah, if I wouldn’t have gotten bitten by the music bug, I think I woulda been a rocket scientist…
June 13th, 2006
If you haven’t been to White Sands National Monument, go if and when you can. It’s near the town of Alamogordo, New Mexico and only about a half hour drive from Oliver Lee state park where I was camped. It’s one of the most eerily beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s not eerie as in creepy – I mean eerie as in how strange it is to find a place so unique, beautiful and fun all at the same time. I went for the first time on a Thursday evening and saw a wild sunset because of the ominous storm clouds floating overhead (they didn’t unload until much later that night). The place was nearly empty and gave a feeling of isolation mixed with awe. The road twists and turns among the sand dunes, which look just like snow, and you have the feeling you’re on another planet because it’s 95 degrees even at sunset.
The entrance fee of $3.00 per person is good for a week – a bargain that can’t be beat anywhere. I went back on Saturday night because it was my last night and I wanted to see it one more time. What a difference… it was a clear night and the place was filled with families with the kids sledding down the dunes in plastics sleds or even just cardboard boxes. There was a cacophonous battle of car stereos blasting either classic rock or Mexican ¾ time oom-pa-pa accordion music (* see footnote rant on Mexican oom-pa-pa music). Everyone was having a rowdy blast including the kids but if you walked a hundred yards back into the dunes, you couldn’t hear a thing. It was like the Thursday night except with a clear sky the mood was less ominous and more awe inducing. I couldn’t help but feel I was out in the Alaskan tundra and the disconnect between the visual image of snow (sand) and the 95 degree temperature was even stronger. I took an inordinate amount of photos both nights and so I put several of them here in the hopes that I can inspire you to go there. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere but it’s well worth the trip especially if you like the desert.
* I love Mexico and I love the Mexican people but that oom-pa-pa accordion music doesn’t do it for me. I used to wonder ‘how could that be?’ – how could a country with such a strong sense for the visual arts and for the folk arts have music so… um… distasteful? Outside of the fact that they have a curious way of handling the timing on their interchanges between the tonic chord and the dominant there isn’t much musical interest at all – and those singers all sound like they all have sinus trouble. I swear I’m bringing a case of Sudafed next time I go to Mexico.
Then I went to Oaxaca and heard the beautiful ‘son’ music from that region and from Vera Cruz as well. Susana Harp is a well-known young singer from Oaxaca and I think that all Mexicans should be forced to listen to her music before they’re allowed to buy any oom-pa-pa CDs, a boom box or especially an accordion. Seriously, I recommend you all check her music out if you can. On the disc that I have, Susana has a wind band backing her up and the orchestration sounds like Gil Evans’ writing on Sketches of Spain - except with Susana in place of Miles Davis. It really induces a strong but sublime feeling and I urge you to check it out – especially if you hate Mexican music. You’ll change your mind – I guarantee it.
June 13th, 2006
I must say that I think that New Mexico is the most beautiful state in the US. When the Great Overseer was dishing out natural beauty, he gave that part of the country an extra dose. The mountains, the mesas, the desert flatlands the high altitude pine forests and most of all the unique light from the sun give it a character like no place I’ve ever seen. Scientists have shown that the chemical composition of the atmosphere in that area is different because of a variety of factors including the combination of mountain ranges and it’s location at the northern edge of both the Chihuahua desert and the Sonora desert. The composition of the atmosphere filters and refracts the sunlight such that it will reflect differently on the objects in the environment. Simply put, everything looks different – including the sky itself.
Another fantastic thing about New Mexico is its food. Their variations on traditional Mexican cooking are just incredible. In New Mexico it’s all about the chilies. Note the spelling – for them, chili is the Texas soup-like dish with beans and beef and chile is a Spanish word for pepper and the name of a country. Chilie is the English word for the hot peppers that you put in things or stuff with cheese or meat. I have never had better chile rellenos in my life and the salsas served with homemade chips in the restaurants are just amazing. In Mexico the dishes are not served spicy – they put out hot salsas and jalapenos for you to doctor your food to your taste. In New Mexico it’s served blazing hot and you just better like it that way or you’re outta luck. Fortunately I like it that way. All of these things are why the state of New Mexico uses “The Land of Enchantment” as their official motto.
However, on the down side, New Mexico is one of the poorer states in the US fiscally speaking. From the cyclist’s or motorist’s perspective this results in a lot of unpaved roads and quasi-paved roads that are in very bad condition. There is an odd divide among the residents in that the old-time New Mexicans tend to be quite poor and the transplanted ones have money. They come from California and the Midwest and buy up all the beautiful land and build fancy adobe houses, driving up prices quite high, which makes it even more difficult for the locals to buy real estate. This seems to have lead to a “who gives a shit†attitude amongst the poorer segment and the state has become really dirty and trashy in a lot of places. See the photo below for a classic view of trash with a breathtaking background. I love the state but I find it frustrating that it’s so poorly cared for. All in all I must say it’s a great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.
June 11th, 2006
I spent 5 days in Alamogordo, New Mexico at the Oliver Lee State Park. It’s a really cool and unusual park right at the base of the escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains. The staff there was really helpful and polite and it cost only 14 bucks a night! It was HOT, somewhere around 100 degrees every day but that’s part of being in the desert in June. There were some good and some passable roads for biking but the view was so incredible that the road condition didn’t bother me much. I did have to outsprint a rotweiler that wanted to chew on my ankles (question: why do people who live in dumpy double wides always have the meanest dogs?) but the rest of my rides were peaceful and I could soak up the mountain and desert views. I went to the Museum of Space History which was great and well worth the $3 admission. I also went to White Sands National Monument but I’m going to give that it’s own blog entry with photos. For now, here’s the photos of my yard this week…
My front yard
My back yard
The side view… does it look like it’s 102 degrees?
June 10th, 2006
The campground I’m at in Silver City, NM is very nice. It’s decorated in an old west theme and they have 15or 20 old wagons and ploughs and such placed around the park. Each campsite is cordoned off from its neighbor by a wooden fence and several trees so it feels very private. I decided to go for a run since after arriving and setting up camp it was a little late to start a bike ride. The campground hostess had told me that there was a walking trail back behind the campground so I decided that would work nicely for running as well. All in all in did work pretty well outside of having to deal with the washed out bridge over the arroyo. After getting a mile or so out into the desert I saw an animal dash behind a large cactus ahead of me. I thought, “what the heck, is that… maybe a deer, a big dog… or a coyote?â€. Well I stopped in my tracks and waited to see what it was. I was having visions of being ambushed by some starved and crazed desert animal desperate for the taste of flesh. After about 15 seconds the animal shot out from behind the cactus and I saw that it was a gigantic…… rabbit. I thought, “Dois mio, es el conejo del infierno!!!! (oh my god, it’s the rabbit from hell!!!) It was indeed a monster jackrabbit as tall as my waist but it was probably far more afraid of me wanting to feed a family of 8 a meal of rabbit stew with his flesh than I was of him taking me out. He took off like a bat (rabbit) out of hell and I decided I should switch brands of tequila.
The lair of the evil rabbit
Another known hideout
June 5th, 2006
While in Houston I spent some time recording with my friend Ricardo Sweatt Rodriguez. Ricardo plays steel string guitar in both standard tuning (EADGBE) and the 5ths tuning (CGDAEB) of Robert Fripp and his League of Crafty Guitarists. We recorded several pieces and had a blast doing it. I’ve put 3 of them here for y’all (hey, I’ve been in Texas over a month) to listen to. (click on each title below to listen)
Distant Shores – This piece was created on the spot by the both of us. Its undulating flow and exotic hints gave way to the title. We are both really happy with the outcome. Ricardo on steel string and me on classical.
The Bishop’s Palace (Obispado) – This is a tune of Ricardo’s from his first cd that I worked up a second guitar part for on my classical. Ricardo plays the tune more or less as written, although we expanded the arrangement to accommodate the second guitar. I play the lead solo part and provide textural parts during the rest of the piece.
The Line Between Beauty and Fear – This one was also created on the spot but didn’t turn out as planned. Our guitar parts changed keys at different times and to different keys and it created some odd dissonances. I was going to scrap it but then I got an idea. I put my part way in the background, put Ricardo’s through a double tap delay and added strings, harp, flute and glockenspiel. The result is reminiscent of early 20th century classical music with a dose of Ornette Coleman and for many people may be a little “outside†but it does have a certain shimmering beauty to it.
June 3rd, 2006
