Mountainair Wired (sort of)

This take on "Mountainair Wired," which may turn into a regular feature, takes a quick look at new pages & local blogroll. You can also get a fair overview just by counting local links listed in sidebar. If you remember what the number used to be just a few years back, you'll have to agree that "Mountainair Wired" just might not be the oxymoron you thought.

Call for blogs
The local blogroll up to 8. Surely there are more out there... Got or know of a new page of local blog? Send it to me for blogroll and local links lists. No MySpace blogs listed yet. Many of those are private - for friends (a loose term on social networks but still not public)

available at Meds & More, photo by Straw Mountain

Major blog treat - Jude and Roy are back. Don't miss her blogging their road trip on Notes from Straw Mountain. Great pictures. Dennis brought up idea of virtual vacations, a variant on the "staycation." Take a virtual vacation right here. While you are at it, catch what Jude's been creating at her Straw Mountain Studio page

George Hewett's blog, Mountainair News & Information, reincarnating Country Chronicles, is back (never left but was inactive) and now carrying complete fire alerts. Mountainair Announcements carries them as well but with George blogging as well as emailing all alerts, I won't mind missing a few from time to time. There's overlap to be sure, but even more synergy as we work out our niches.

Check out High Boondocks Home, a new blog and newly added to the local blogroll, chronicles the efforts of "resettler" building here and settling.

New pages include the dot gov Town of Mountainair page and the iCreate page, both by Dennis Fulfer; Celeste's Simon's page by Kathleen & Alan Clute, who also do the the Manzano Mountaint Arts Council page. An attractive site but I'd recommend more pix less text on main page though - send that verbiage to an about or artists statement page and do what Roy did for Jude' art - show not tell.

Jubilee jubilation

Hopefully no tribulations although speed bumps and unique Mountainair moments are built into any local event - and give them a unique quality, an aura of authenticity so often missing elsewhere.

Mostly, at least for now, I'll just point you to the Jubilee post on Mountainair Announcements. Complete with links to poster and quickie web page for online calendar listings (forms always ask for a link and some even require it) that I turned poster into.

Jubilee is on my mind not just because I blogged it on Announcements but also spent a considerable chunk of yesterday submitting Jubilee information to NM Magazine, NM Tourism and Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau online calendars - what you might call the state big three. Plus tweaking Chamber calendar listing and posting on main page. Once I get word that the listings are up, I'll post links so you can bookmark, share and forward.

Past Jubilee Parade, photo Roy Kirby

Then compare them to the information-challenged calendar entries for the Sunflower Festival. If this comment goads relevant entities into upgrading calendar entries, so much the better for all of us. Seriously and not just in the spirit of snark, every Mountainair event posted on event calendars - the better and more complete the entry, fleshed out with details, description, links, images - promotes not just that event but our town as well and every other local event. Think synergy and networking. Got an event? I'm happy to share my online calendar listing resources. Just ask. But be sure to use them.

I'm working on Poets & Writers Picnic online promotion too but was getting today's Senior Center Open House triple blogged (mine + on NM Central) but hope to make up by reporting on it.

Jubilee, the short version:

• Traditional Pancake Breakfast @7 am at MAC (former campgrounds) Dining Hall
• Parade down Broadway @ 10 am, ending at the Mountainair Activity Center
• where a fun-filled day of food & fun - games, vendors, live music, pet show & more at MAC awaits you. See poster for more details.
  
• Fireworks at airport off NM 55N at dusk followed by
• Dance & jackpot raffle drawing at the Community Center.
  

@ $10 / table, Jubilee is still the best vendor booth/ table deal going for local events.

The parade is open to anyone and everything that rides, drives, walks or rolls. No entry too small or too large. Not even tanks or elephants. Prizes for entries. If photographed, immortality by blogging.

Pictures (by Ray Terhorst & Frances Mercer) from Jubilee 2007:

Jubilee! (2006) - 2007 Parade Pictures - More Jubilee 2007

Senior Center Open House, June 25

Yes that's tomorrow - June 25. The Senior Center (107 N. Summit) is
having an Open House from 2-4 pm to show off the recent renovations,
expanding and upgrading the facility. There's no way you could have
missed the construction - or failed to notice how attractive the
building is now.

You've seen the outside, now come to the Open House and see the inside.
There will be a tour of renovations and redecorated interior,
refreshments, live music and information on Senior Center programs. Our
own Wana Beth Fox, selected last year to hand paint a Christmas ornament
for the White House Christmas Tree, curated the Center's art collection,
refurbishing, reframing, rehanging and arranging paintings, as well as
loaning the Center some her own work. What was once a haphazard
collection of donated paintings now looks quite nice. Wana Beth has also
volunteered to organize an art instruction program at the Center, which
along with the collection could be the start of another Mountainair "art
nexus." Heather Wilson is sending a representative and Rhonda King will
attend personally.

The Center is also holding a Quilt Raffle, Tickets $1 each or 6 for $5,
available at the Senior Center. The raffle quilt, handmade by the Golden
Girl Quilters, can be viewed at the Senior Center.

"Open" mean just, so come on over for refreshments, a tour and to visit.
For more information, call the Mountainair Senior Center at 847-2885.

exciting developments at iCreate

My thanks to Dennis for sending me this news about iCreate. If you will recall, iCreate is a youth focused service organization using creative projects to promote education and reach out to underserved groups. Doubtless, you are more familiar with iCreate in its recent role of putting on monthly ShareFest gatherings at the Community Center. Dennis writes:

New developments with iCreate:

The new iCreate website is live: www.icreatenm.org. We had a board meeting Thursday night. The Sharefest program will be cut because it doesn't seem to be getting momentum and we've got new projects that seem to be more fun and socially conscious. We have 5 programs/goals now:

1. School Facility
2. Educational Outreach (two of the pre-existing programs brought together under one umbrella)
3. SEEDS (Secure, Edible, and Educational Distribution Source), a Community Garden addressing the effects of high gas prices on non-locally grown food by offering locally grown organic, pesticide free produce.
4. Recording Studio
5. Educational Farm (Lenora Romero has donated the use of a 3.5 acre parcel between Punta and Manzano for a farm)
   

Check the iCreate website for more complete descriptions of our projects and mission, which is:

• To act and operate as a benevolent organization in providing relief for youth and seniors;
• To change lives in underserved (youth and senior) populations through creative arts mentoring;
• To foster creativity and arts in the underserved populations;
• To encourage publication of rural voices;
• To develop educational programs.

Thursday night's meeting focused on shuffling a few board positions (I'm now President and Audrey Vaughn is the Treasurer) and SEEDS. We just named it tonight! I'm excited about iCreate's new direction and proposed projects - and especially what it all means for Mountainair. I'll be updating the website to reflect the latest developments, so keep checking back.

Current iCreate time and talent donors

• Kay Stillion - music and other education
• Dennis Fulfer - web design services
• Lynda Chavez - grant writing
• Amada Chavez - secretarial
• Lenora Romero - music and other education, land

We don't have anything planned for Jubilee, but will be doing fund raisers, perhaps a bake sale - perhaps one accompanied by music, quite soon. As part of the Outreach program, Kay has been teaching a few homeless or disadvantaged youth how to play the guitar. The deal is if they attend all lessons (12 in all), write 5 songs, and perform them at a party in their honor, they get a guitar. Two students are coming close to fulfilling their side of the bargain.

We have one guitar but need to raise money for another one (if someone doesn't happen to donate one to us). One of the up and coming "shows" will be semi-private because it's at a youth shelter and they don't allow random folks from coming. But I'm hoping the other one will be public. Regardless, I'll be playing backup.

The iCreate Band (for lack of an actual name), comprised of myself, Lenora Romero and Kay Stillion, may be performing August 9th in Abq. Dates are tentative and time is still unknown. We're putting together a demo...so I don't suspect we're actually on the bill just yet.

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Ed note: the iCreate website (soon to be added to the blog's list of local links) is still under development. Bookmark it and keeping checking back, Think about what you could contribute. As for me, I think "publication of rural voices" would be right up my alley. That and maybe patrol for comma abuse.

WIS Reminder & Friday Gallery Talk

Written in Sand, Art show at Harwood - June 5-26

This Friday, June 20th at 6:30 pm is our Gallery Talk for Written in Sand, upstairs at the Harwood in the North Gallery. This is a good opportunity to see the art show if you haven't already. Some special guest participants are Canyon Road gallery owner Debbi Brody, artist & traveler Inara Cedrins, naturalist & poet Lou Liberty, and petroglyph preservation activist Charles Usmar.

The conversation will be lively, come add your voice to theirs! Master flute maker Ingrid Burg will be playing her bamboo flutes. Following the Gallery Talk, artist Peggy Dobbins will give a "dwelling in tents" performance. We are documenting the evening in a film to send to China next month for the 16th World Anthropology & Ethnology Conference.

Thanks, hope to see you Friday! Dale

Quick Takes

According to my last post, my posts are all way too long. A hard habit to break but I'll try.

Check Announcements for today's additions. Arthur Park Summer Schedule. ShareFest. Jubilee Car Wash. Flag competition deadline. Saturday concert. And by tomorrow, maybe more...

Jubilee is coming up fast. Note the change from usual pattern, which has been Saturday preceding the 4th. This year, Jubilee is the day after - July 5th. Next on the blogging menu. Briefly - all the familiar features associated with the event: parade, vendors; food; crafts; fireworks at dusk; dance.

New features include a Jackpot Raffle and a pet show with fun classes to raise much needed funds for the animal shelter. Vendor tables are $1o. Contact Kathy Anglin at Town Hall to reserve space. Hoping to get more on parade details.

It's coming up Raffles all over.

• Art Council's Sunflower Mosaic Raffle for Sunflower.
  
• Senior Center Quilt Raffle.
  
• Jubilee fund raiser, a 50/50 Jackpot Raffle
  

1st prize is 50% of ticket money, 2nd TBA. Ticket Prices: $1/ 1Ticket; $5/6 Tickets; $10/13 Tickets. Winner announced @ The Jubilee Dance, July 5th, 2009. Tickets available for purchase @ Mountainair City Hall.

Sunflower Festival could use a few good hands for sign painting. Contact Tomas Wolff to volunteer yours.

To spread sunflowers (since neither idiosyncratic local sunflower cycle nor weather may be cooperating), Sunflower pages (Hats, Quilts, etc) at Mountainair Online will display sunflowers in abundance, as will the blog sidebar feature, Sunflowers (not exclusively art images), replacing Mountainair Art & Artists until Festival, by which time more local artists might submit pictures.

So, what ideas do you have for bridging a sunflower gap?

How we read online

You're probably going to read this.

It's a short paragraph at the top of the page. It's surrounded by white space. It's in small type.

To really get your attention, I should write like this:

• Bulleted list
• Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
• Short sentence fragments
• Explanatory subheads
• No puns
• Did I mention lists?

What Is This Article About?
For the past month, I've been away from the computer screen. Now I'm back reading on it many hours a day. Which got me thinking: How do we read online?

It's a Jungle Out There
That's Jakob Nielsen's theory. He's a usability expert who writes an influential biweekly column on such topics as eye-tracking research, Web design errors, and banner blindness. (Links, btw, give a text more authority, making you more likely to stick around.)

Nielsen champions the idea of information foraging. Humans are informavores. On the Internet, we hunt for facts. In earlier days, when switching between sites was time-consuming, we tended to stay in one place and dig. Now we assess a site quickly, looking for an "information scent." We move on if there doesn't seem to be any food around.

Sorry about the long paragraph. (Eye-tracking studies show that online readers tend to skip large blocks of text.)

Also, I'm probably forcing you to scroll at this point. Losing some incredible percentage of readers. Bye. Have fun on Facebook.

Read the rest of the article here

Post in search of a title

Apologies to Pirandello.

Another long stretch without posting (though I did update features in the right hand column yesterday), not since last Thursday. Must be ever vigilant so as not to fall of blogging wagon (blogon?) and into another Dip. No shortage of material - Peter Nieto and Kathy Anglin sent me an abundance of Jubilee related material that I plan to blog with selected Jubilee images. Likewise, Dale has sent more (including a writing workshop brochure to update) on the Poets & Writers Picnic, which I've been blogging at http://poetsandwriterspicnic.blogspot.com/. I've found MMAC and Cibola Arts material in the MMAC newsletter but really prefer to have it sent me instead of having to go look for it (which is why no links or boldface this time). By contrast, I am seriously considering putting up a Jubilee page at Mountainair Online if Dennis does not get to it first.

Speaking of which, the Mountainair Online project, migrating Mountainair, event and personal pages from the old, free & sans domain name site is back on track and progressing - slowly but progressing. Slow because it's not just migration but reorganization and general re-design and overhaul. Tedious too because it involves massive link repair and checking. I'm working my way through it one folder at a time, starting with Poets & Writers (aka pwp) and trying very hard not to think about how many pages to work through since the first one, Sunflower (changed from Sunflower Festival to just plain Sunflower), in 2000

The Library and reading figure prominently on my list too. Please drop by the library or call to ask Evelyn if she still needs volunteers at the library. No whining about the bookmobile either. Times are getting tighter and some communities don't have a library - they're the one bookmobiles are for. If the library here does not have books you are looking for, order them by interlibrary loan. Ask Evelyn to order them or order them by mail from the State Library - flyers at Town Hall. Use WorldCat to make a list and see what state or relatively close libraries hold them. No excuse not to keep reading - and it uses up no gas.

NM-Central blog picked up notice here about the Sunflower Mosaics Raffle, linking us (me + this blog = dual personality?) and online Sunflyer. That's the way of hypertext, networking and the virtual global village. There always something new there - I'll try to keep linking but it's definitely worth your while to bookmark and check regularly. Latest - reprieve for Workforce Connection, a splendid, multi-part "grow your own" gardening series, public service announcements like the one for the June 26 Fire Preparedness Meeting, mandolin raffle and online concert ticket sales for Wildlife West's Music Festivals.

What else? The What to blog? poll was not working. I took it down. Thanks to Dennis for the heads up and apologies it anyone trying it. I am creating a poll elsewhere, more than one question but still short, to link here, email, put on web page and so on.  Suggestions for poll questions welcome, eagerly invited, enthusiastically encouraged...

Sunflower Mosaic Raffle

This 27" x 18" Sunflower mosaic composed of tile and glass will be raffled off during the Sunflower Festival (August 23, 10am-.4pm) The mosaic will be on display at the "B" Street Market.

Tickets, available at B Street Market on Broadway across from the Post Office and Cibola Gallery (across the street), are $1 each or six for $5. Proceeds support the arts in the greater Mountainair area.

The mosaic is a collaborative creation by Manzano Mountain Arts Council artists Nancy Stone, Mary Schultz, Celeste Simon, Kristine Lauritsen, Kathy Baur and Tomas Wolff, under the direction of mosaic artist Tomas Wolff.
Mosaics, an ideal medium for recycled and found art, can range in size from trivets and tiles to murals.

2002 Triennial Award, Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers,
mosaic murals at Thomas Coram Early Childhood Centre, London

Outdoor mosaic murals (something we could do right here in Mountainair) - Magic Garden, Philadelphia, marvelous mosaic murals on South Street

More mosaics - pictures of ancient mosaics from all over the world.

Links to pages describing mosaics in the making - pictures and descriptions of the creation process and problems encountered.

Torrance County 50+ games

Thanks to Jerry Melargno for this report on recent Torrance County 50+ Games These games, held in 130+ communities and 31 Local Game Sites across the state, qualify participants for the New Mexico Senior Olympics, featuring over 90 events in 26 different sports

The games offer all seniors ages 50 and above the opportunity to participate in a wide range of events and serve as the qualifying competition for the annual NM Senior Olympics to be held in Las Cruces July 30 – August 3, 2008.  This year 17 Torrance County seniors participated in 45 different events held in Mountainair and Estancia May 12 – 17.  All participants qualified for the state games. 

Our oldest participant was Frances Addison, 86, of Mountainair (12 events) and our youngest participant was Barb McCune, 55, of Willard (13 events). The others who competed were Zona Boyer, Larry Foltzer, Laura Kayser, Jerry Melaragno, Bob Mundis, Richard Shovelin, Bill Stephens, Jean Stephens, Ray Terhorst, Nancy Townson, Tom Valdez, Virginia Valdez, Bill Winn, all of Mountainair; Jeanne Mackenzie of McIntosh, and Tommy Negrete of Torreon. 

We invite all active seniors to join us next year: contact Jerry Melaragno, Torrance County 50+ Games Coordinator for more information (847-0402, jerrymel@wildblue.net).

Results for local qualifying games

Ch 4 story: Gas prices, Estancia

Gas prices hitting rural residents hard

With gas prices nationwide averaging more than $4 a gallon, just about everybody is feeling the pain. But families in rural areas are feeling it much worse than everyone else. Full Article

Gas and rural economies

Rural US takes worst Hit as gas tops $4 average. A survey late last month shows that the gasoline crisis is taking the highest toll, as a percentage of income, on people in rural areas of the South, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota....[A]cross... the rural South [and Southwest], little public transit is available and people have no choice but to drive to work. Since jobs are scarce, commutes are frequently 20 miles or more. Many vehicles on the roads are old rundown trucks, some getting 10 or fewer miles to the gallon.

From "Rural US Takes Worst Hit as Gas Tops $4 Average," Clifford Krauss, The New York Times, Monday 09 June 2008

Even so, driving that heap is still better than flying - cheaper, uses less gas and does less damage to the environment. Remember that the next time a frequent flyer lectures you.

NM Art and Artists series - Marsden Hartley

Inaugural test drive of a new feature/series - New Mexico Art and Artists that emphasizes lesser known and overlooked artists, many from earlier periods but mostly serendipity based, e.g. whatever catches my eye, lands in my mailbox. Nominations invited. Hartley's NM landscapes remind me of Martin Shaffer's (Pop's son) oil landscapes and Frances Mercer's more recent watercolor forays into NM landscape. Neither Dadaist as far as I know.

Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 - September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet and Dadaist in the early 20th century.

A special exhibition, Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism. June 14–August 24 at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, brings together 38 works from Hartley’s New Mexico years, a personal journey to find something authentically American in the landscape of the West. The exhibition was organized by Heather Hole, formerly a curator at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and now a curator of American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Dust and Dips

Or would that be "dips in the dust"? The first title sitting in drafts - no draft, just title - was just "dust" (the minimalist sequel to "wind" and "oops"). I came across "dip" on a blog about blogging. It refers to a dry spell blogging. Blogger's block variant on writer's block. I thought of blaming it on the dust. Around here, dust, ever swept but never ending, gets all of us down. When is the last time you heard anyone say how much they enjoy wind and dust? Cold, yes. Even rain or heat. Never wind and dust. They grate and do nothing for anyone's disposition. Best not to blog under those conditions.

Australian Dust Storm at Sunset
(we're not alone in the dust)

But if that is the reason or just because dips go with the territory, then why dip just here and not on announcements or poets and writers? Aha. That is the question. I'm thinking on it - and changes. I'm open to suggestions and will share process/ ruminations (appropriately labeled so you can pass on following). No changes will involve truckling subservience: indeed, the contrary is altogether likelier. Announcements and pwp are more straightforward, less personal. In the meantime - until I nail cybertheses to the virtual door, the game plan is just to keep writing.

Tree of Life, Klimt, c. 1905-09

No real reason for posting this picture other than that I like Klimt and have a long standing fascination with "tree of life" symbolism and images.

As for news and upcoming this and that - catch updates for on deck and upcoming at Mountainair Announcements. The new blog on the block, NM-Central covers a range of subjects - meetings, restaurant reviews, issues affecting our area, locavore gardening and more. I expect it to pick up blog slack, freeing up time to follow subject areas that interest me more.

Tomás' Wolff's clay workshop starting this Tuesday and Sunday's Gymkana rodeo strike me as the week's most promising.

Japanese sunflower mosaic

I'd hoped for updates on Sunflower and have an image of the sunflower raffle mosaic (no quilt this year). I would have posted it with this message to whet your appetites for purchasing raffle tickets, but have since been asked not to post because the arts council is "still working on the details." Scratching my head over that one since all I had in mind was displaying image and direct readers to contact arts council for further information.

Until otherwise informed, I'm assuming the information blackout applies to any and all Sunflower information, including links and flyers. Even if I don't get around to updating my personal sunflower pages this year, I'll still have my out for sunflower images to blog.

Envoi: Sunflower is the same weekend as the Edgewood Harvest Festival, which, quite frankly, sounds like a lot more fun.

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Also blogging Mountainair from Poets & Writers Picnic and Mountainair Announcements