Is NM Hollywood East?

No. But the state adds two more productions - from the New Mexico Independent
Richardson announced 07/10/2008  that a week's worth of filming for the moivie My One and Only, starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, will happen in New Mexico. Specifically - this is the movie causing all the local buzz and storefront repainting.

From the press release:

My One and Only is a film about the childhood experiences of actor George Hamilton. The production will be shot in Albuquerque and Santa Fe in August and plans to employ approximately 90 local crew members and over 190 actors.

It's unclear from the release whether stars Zellwegger and Bacon will drop by for the filming in the Land of Enchantment but local sources claim both are already in residence at the Shaffer.

From the NM Film office:

The feature film, My One and Only, starring Renee Zellweger, Kevin Bacon and Chris Noth. The production will shoot for one week in New Mexico.

My One and Only is a film about the childhood experiences of actor George Hamilton. The production will be shot in Albuquerque and Santa Fe in August and plans to employ approximately 90 local crew members and over 190 actors.

Since Governor Richardson took office, over 100 major film and television projects have shot in New Mexico, adding over $1.8 billion dollars in economic impact.

Yet again, the proverbial red-haired child. To wit - "shot in Albuquerque and Santa Fe"

IMDB page on "My One and Only"

from Variety:

Zellweger plays Anne Deveraux, a glamorous dreamer who travels from city to city looking for a wealthy man to fund a new life for her and her sons. Noth plays a retired military doctor who might just fit the bill. Kevin plays Anne's philandering band leader ex-husband that she tries to leave behind.

The film is based on a true story that Hamilton shared with original producer Merv Griffin about his early life on the road with his mother and brother. Financed by Herrick Entertainment, whose Norton Herrick is producing with Aaron Ryder of Raygun Prods, "My One and Only" is the first film Herrick has financed. He made his money in construction projects and also co-owns a stable of racehorses. Filming began on June 9, 2008 in the Baltimore area.

ARTS Call for Proposals DEADLINE

Thursday, July 31 is the final day to submit applications for 2009 exhibitions in the Arts Alliance Gallery Arts Alliance Gallery photo by Jerry Grayson Deadline: Thursday, July 31, 5 p.m. or postmarked no later than July 31. Applications can be hand delivered between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to the Arts Alliance, 1100 San Mateo Blvd. NE, Suite 8 (corner of San Mateo and Lomas in The Courtyard shopping center) or mailed to P.O. Box 27657, Albuquerque, NM 87125-7657. Eligible applicants are New Mexico arts organizations, artists collectives, groups of artists (minimum of three), and institutions of higher learning. Contact: phone: 505-268-1920

Free stuff

Local freecycling - books and other stuff tomorrow 10 am in front of
Alpine Alley coffeehouse. Come by for coffee and see if anything speaks
to you.

comings and goings

Chris & Rhoda Hall, who bought property near Manzano, not far from where Chris has family roots and spent time as a youngster, but don't live here yet, are in the area for a visit. We missed connecting this time - maybe next. Remember that neat picture of LeRoy Simmons' metal sculpture ship in front of Dragon Ash Forge? Chris took that picture and let me blog it and other pictures. More pictures from sets on Flickr- NM & AZ and Mountainair property

Chris' photo of Salinas Visitors Center, train mural in background

Michael and Tamra Hays - Hays Travelogue - are in from Cairo for the summer but they won't be returning to the teaching gig that took them there. Instead, Michael will be teaching at Roberts College in Istanbul. Due to new school orientation and peculiarosities of travel schedule, they'll be heading out earlier than usual in August, again missing Sunflower. I'm going to miss Tamra's Cairo pictures but look forward to experiencing Istanbul virtually and vicariously.

Small world dept: both Halls & Hays spent time in Spain as did I - different times and parts & no time machine, so we never crossed paths. Both Chris and Tamra are talented photographers whose pictures grace and enhance this blog. Is there a poet in the Hall family? A musician? A biker in the Hays?

Jude and Roy, the road trip (can the movie be far behind?). Check it out on Notes from Straw Mountain Notes

Embellished stairs at Jude's mom's -
apples not falling far from trees & all that

High Boondocks Home, described by blogger David Doler as

A journal of everything connected with building our country home on 40 acres in south-central New Mexico, from the construction details of the first 12x16 storage shed to the completion of the infrastructure needed to sustain a green lifestyle. We will be installing composting toilets, gray water recovery, and wind-solar grid connected electrical power.

is picking up local readers, Jude & Roy // the Hays // maybe more, hopefully from recommendation and blogroll listing here. Join the wave. Let us know. Ask a question and become part of the post that answers it. I wish Billy Weinem were also blogging his own permaculture project, a local retrofit (a hint by any other name).

Mountainair under the skin... have you that some leave Mountainair declaiming its unredeemable backwardness but still identify themselves with Mountainair handles/ nics? Alternately, but related is the case of resettlers dissing all things local but singing a different tune online for marketing purposes.

Today's burning question

Drawger

A change of pace in posts - Drawger. Neat site I came across - don't remember how, pure serendipity - and am now sharing. Less an "arts mandate" thing (been disrespecting mandates too long to change now) than for the neat visuals, which include lettering, illustrations, comic and other not-quite-high-canon art. I hope you do too.

Linzie Hunter's hand lettering - what fun.... I tried to pick one but couldn't decide. Here's the link - see for yourself.

Rob Dunlavey does Thoreau & sure catches the spirit of "Civil Disobedience" (1849 essay on the right and obligation to follow your conscience)

About Drawger & FAQ

Drawger is a central spot on the web where illustrators are writing about whatever it is they're writing about at the time, and showing stuff as well.

How can anyone resist a name Duck Songs? "If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck...."

Save the date - Poets & Writers Picnic Aug. 23

from Dale Harris on the Poets and Writers Picnic

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Hi All,

Here's some early info on the 11th annual Poets & Writers Picnic in Mountainair, Sat. Aug. 23, noon to 5 pm, at the historic Shaffer Hotel - outside in the gazebo yard. There are terrific featured readers and music alternating with a gentle open mic throughout the afternoon. People bring picnic lunches, spread out blankets on the lawn (there's actually grass!) under the tall trees and come and go as they wish. The town is doing its Sunflower Festival that day, so it is a fun time to drive out, noticing the fields of sunflowers along your way. Both events are sponsored by the Manzano Mountain Arts Council and are free.

Featured readers at Poets & Writers Picnic this year are Hakim Bellamy, Gary Brower, Maria Leyba, Lou Liberty, Merimee Moffitt, Connie Rossingol, Miriam Sagan, Charles Usmar, and the Santa Fe Moon Writers poetry writing group: Lauren Camp, Zoe Dwyer, Ann Hunkins, Mary McGinnes, Elizabeth Raby, and Rachelle Woods. Music is by "The Blue Rose Ramblers" Jessica Billey & Bud Melvin, and "LuLu" Lou Blackwell and Gregory Louis Candela.

Make it a whole poetry weekend by signing up for the Sunflower Poetry Writing Workshop, also at the Shaffer Hotel from Thursday afternoon Aug. 21 thru saturday noon Aug. 23 - then stay on for the Poets & Writers Picnic, of course! A special feature this year is Plein Air writing at Tom & Edit Cates' THE LAND/an art site located in nearby Loma Parda. Guest teacher Miriam Sagan just completed a poetry & art residency there and will guide us in some fine fresh air writing. Actor-Director Scott Sharot will coach us on performing poetry. Guest teacher Vanessa Vaile will give us a head start on presenting poetry on-line and you can begin your own blog. Tuition is $125. for the entire 3 day workshop and does not include lodging or meals. Accommodations are limited, don't wait! Contact me, Dale Harris, to enroll.

There's much more info about the Poets & Writers Picnic, the Sunflower Poetry Writing Workshop and the Town of Mountainair's Sunflower Festival available on the Poets & Writers Picnic blog (yes, curated by Vanessa the blog goddess!) The site includes bios and poems by many of the Poets & Writers Picnic features and interesting links to other parts of the poetry cosmos.

Meet you at the Shaffer in Mountainair!


Dale Harris
poetdale@yahoo.com
505-242-4930
2115 Aspen Avenue NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104

Poets & Writers Picnic - Mountainair, New Mexico
Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008 during Sunflower Festival
Sunflower Poetry Writing Workshop, Thurs. - Sat. Aug. 21-23
More info at http://poetsandwriterspicnic.blogspot.com

around and about

Look for Mountainair featured on the MountainView Telegraph page highlighting area Chambers of Commerce. OK so it's shilling for the Chamber and we know the purpose is to sell ads, but the deal also includes a fab break on advertising for Chamber members - 30% of standard rate just for local member ads on the chamber highlight page. A step closer to a much discussed cooperative advertising program.

Goin' to the dogs... dogs and the local animal benefited big time at Jubilee. Two popular activities, the Chamber of Commerce's Pie in the Face booth and the Funday Pet Show, raised money to improve the town's animal shelter facilities.

Check out the buzz for the iCreate community garden at local meetings, in print and around the blogosphere - here and at NM Central.

a well attended parade

In retrospect:
Another Jubilee is behind us. A good time had by all, despite no live music as advertised and fewer vendors than last year. Funds raised to benefit community good causes - volunteer fire department, animal rescue. Dennis took parade, fireworks and other Jubilee pictures. Anyone else with a camera and pix to contribute? On dial-up so please no MB plus memory hogs!

photog gets a faceful...

The rains came in time for Jubilee fireworks: one assumes the fireworks ban was officially lifted in advance. A break from the weeks of non-stop fireworks leading up to the holiday was a welcome side effect of the ban that also heightened enjoyment of Jubilee fireworks. Unfortunately, local enthusiasts took the fireworks as unofficial legitimizing. One of the privately set fireworks was so loud that it sounded more like dynamite or a battlefield firefight, suggesting dangerously mis-loaded blasting caps. Fortunately, there were no injuries, although local pets and livestock reacted adversely and suffered from the noise - but not in silence

Coming up:

• SHARE order reminder - Friday deadline to order with Shirley; next Friday to order online.
• Cibola June/July shows, Steppin' Out article "Mountainair Gallery Fetes Shirley Simmons and Deb Vetterman in June & July Shows"
• First performance in Summer Concert Series is this Saturday night, July 12
  

See posts on Announcements for more details on Share and concerts

Looking ahead:

• Call for participants: Holiday Craft Fair, Saturday November 8. Book your space early to get the location you want - it's already filling. Contact Joan Page zieggos@yahoo.com; tel# 847-2450. We'll have more to say about this event in separate posts... maybe even its very own web page
  
• Sunflower Festival update - iCreate group (string trio - Lenora Romero, Kay Stillion, Dennis Fulfer) added to music list; although not included (we're getting used to that) on Sunflower's list of featured music groups, Festival music also includes the Blue Rose Ramblers and Lulu performing at the Shaffer Gazebo for the Poets &Writers Picnic.

Speaking of sunflowers... please note changed on the blog sidebar... our bit to spread sunflowers. There will be more. We all know that there won't have sunflowers unless the weather cooperates. and even then they might bloom too late for the Festival. Let's all do what we can to spread sunflowers by other means... and remember to thank anyone who remembered to plant sunflowers by late June.

seasonal migrations

Some seasonal comings and goings (by no means an inclusive list) - Kristine L. to California for a couple of months after frenetic pace readying houses to rent to Karbon Zero wind farm construction personel; Joan Page back and forth between Mountainair and NMT in Socorro for Master's program (science education); indeterminate number from Lost Tribes of SoCal back to CA - less seasonal migration than year round semi-commuting pattern; Annie and Frances from Florida (escaping the humidity) who rented Kristine's Limit St house last summer and bought a house arrived about a month ago for the summer and into fall
.
Many of us are here for duration, making do with short jaunts, staycations and virtual vacations. I'd been thinking about a virtual fireworks display for the 4th and may yet get to it today. But thinking about comings and goings reminded me that Annie had sent me some of Frances Mercer's NM paintings. l-r Belen Cabin, Caketop, Chupadera Mesa. More NM paintings.



Adding links to Frances' Florida watercolor scenes turns comings & goings into blogzibit + staycation.

iCreate community garden project

Thanks, Dennis for sending us this

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Hey everyone,

At our last iCreate meeting, we began filling in some details on the community garden concept. We came up with a few places to put the garden but felt we needed to get some endorsements from our community leaders before approaching anyone.

I requested an endorsement from the Chamber of Commerce at our July 1st meeting and the idea was met with enthusiastic response. We received a unanimous decision to endorse the community garden, including by B-Street Market's Scott Remmich who would like to sell our produce to the community.

As it stands now, the iCreate Board of Directors and project directors will flesh out a general framework and criteria for implementing this project. We will then open discussion to the public for community input - your opinions and suggestions. The reason for this is we want to maintain a certain amount of quality control of the end product, i,e. produce must be pesticide/herbicide free and cultivated using environmentally friendly methods.

I'll post updates as project planning progresses.

Dennis Fulfer
http://dennisfulfer.com

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Ed Note: FYI - more about community gardens

• American Community Gardening Association
• Urban Community Gardens
• Community Gardens - TAMU
• Community Garden Resources
• Community Gardens - Forum, GardenWeb
• How to Start a Community Garden on a Vacant Lot