Outside Insider

I just got a message from Governor Sean Parnell inviting me to order up a travel guide to the state of Alaska. I two weeks ago, I surrendered my Alaska drivers license and got my New Mexico one.

It has been a couple of years since I held an Alaska address, but I still consider myself Alaskan. I don't try and capitalize on it like certain recent political figures. I consider it more of a mindset than an asset. I don't bring it up too early in conversation these days because it inevitably turns the conversation to another Alaskan ex-pat, Palin. I don't mind a little political discussion but I miss the days when the first thing people brought up was igloos or The Deadliest Catch.

I am fascinated by the effort to get New Mexicans to visit Alaska. I don't recall an effort to get Washington state residents to head north. I see adds in New Mexican magazines. I have seen those sultry Alaska commercials (more catchy that the visit California commercials) and been sent some very official looking invites to the state of Alaska. Oddly though, the invite looks an awful lot like it was printed on the same machine they use to make moose tags.

If Alaska needs an ambassador down here, I would be more than happy to help. Send me a moose suit and I will see what I can do.

History Rocks

On Wednesday Meg and I checked out the Tsankawi section of Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos. The trail was a 1.5 mile walk along a mesa, viewing cavates, petroglyphs and the Ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi.

This was one of the petroglyphs that lined the rock face. In an art history class I learned that some of these are better seen at certain times of the day. The mid afternoon sun did not make it easy to spot the weather worn glyphs.

The hike itself was pretty crazy. Much of it was along a rock face, with about a 30 to 40 foot drop. There were several ladders to easily get up some of the rock faces. They were often near worn cut outs, originally used to climb the rock.

Meg is walking in one of the cut walk ways leading from one dwelling to another in the sandstone. Though the soft rock was worn more in recent history because of the hard soles of the shoes of us moderns.

The petroglyphs and pottery shards are some of artifacts that were mentioned in an art history class that are easily seen from ancient peoples. It was pretty awesome to see pieces outside of textbooks and not in a museum setting. Seeing artifacts the way it has been for hundreds of years, even though they were faded glyphs and shattered post, was stunning.

Buffalo Student

While in my Native American Art History this week, a student announced that there was a group of students were trying to put together a class on how to hunt, harvest and take apart a buffalo. I don't know if it will just be a theory of class or if there will be a point where students in the class will head out where the buffalo roam with the intent to kill.

I guess before I commit to enrolling in this class, I need to know what sorts of prerequisites for this class are. I don't know if my pistol marksmanship class from University of Alaska Fairbanks transfered down here. If I were to enroll, I don't know if that would help me in anyway. I wonder if this class falls in the culinary arts program? Is just being from Alaska enough of qualification for anything that involving harvesting animals?

I personally don't know how comfortable I feel when it comes to trying to take down a beast that is about the size of fur covered Chevy LUV pickup. I know I could shoot a buffalo (or a moose for that matter). After fur hits the ground, it is touch and go. I have no problem working with any of God's creatures covered with feather or fin. It is just the large four legged variety that I have little experience dealing with. I have never actually taken a moose or been part of a successful moose hunting. At this point, if I need to learn about the innards of a large four legged mammals I may just have to take a class. Until then I will just have to eat store bought beef.

Rio Grande

Meg and I have a little pattern in our explorations. We usually head out to an area we have never been before, often on a whim, then we head back the next weekend and explore the area in depth.

Today we ventured out towards Los Alamos. It is a pretty chunk of the world, though there were one too many No Trespassing signs in a few places. The Rio Grand certainly carved a pretty canyon in the area.


There are a couple of nice hikes in the area, a nice bit of ruins and a pie place we need to check out in the area.

One thing I noticed about this area is that it is a little hard to spot wildlife. There are no moose or bears to be had. I was pretty stoked to see a road runner cruise..... on the road.

Label Mania

After spending a semester playing with text, type and fonts on a computer it was strangely satisfying to play with a vinyl label maker. The uniquely tactile task of printing a label, preparing it to mount on a wall and then mounting it was very satisfying. The deep red wall was in the student gallery on campus. It is a teaching gallery so crazy colors are the norm. How can you tell if something will work if you don't throw it up on a wall and see if it works?

Day of the Dead

Meg and I work a bit too early in the morning to have really head out and party for Halloween. Which is O.K. All I had for costumes idea were Husky Sarah Palin or Harry Potter after the magic has gone.

We took a few to enjoy a Dia De Los Muertos gathering at the Museum of International Folk Art.

The line to decorate sugar skulls was a bit out of control. My skull had eyes and Meg's did not fare much better. It was fun to see the exhibits of this celebration.






There were also many other decorations to go around the skulls. It was a bit hard for us to shoe horn our way to these things too.











Also at the museum was an exhibit of shadow puppet called Dancing Shadows and Epic Tales. Meg enjoyed trying out one of the hands on displays.

Photographer's Playground

I will admit that I really have not been to downtown Santa Fe much since my arrival more than two months ago. I equate it to another state capital, Juneau. Much like Juneau, Santa Fe has a very active tourist district in the historic downtown area. You can find much art for sale in both capitals and lots of people. The one major difference is that there are no tour boats spawning tens of thousands of tourist in Santa Fe.

I was surprised to learn that the place is ver photogenic. I will go as far to say that it is a photographers playground. I decided to poke around to see if I can do a little bit of street photography. Maybe I was fueled by actually seeing a Henri Cartier-Bresson print in a gallery.




I just love the brown adobe color and how it contrasts with the blue sky in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a place that people go to find themselves. It is a place where it is O.K. to throw on a bolo, a cowboy hat and a buck skin jacket.