Howl On Wolfmoon

John picture are always a treat and not to be missed. This one is way too good to leave in the sidebar widget: "Let’s All Take A Break For A Well-Deserved Howl" from New Mexico Central by John Weckerle. By the way, for all you movie fans, the wolf moon is also the "Moonstruck" moon.
 

Fell voices drifting through the night?  Maybe so, and maybe not – but regardless, tonight is the Wolf Moon. This month’s “full” moon is closer to the Earth than it will be at any time in 2010.

Enjoy it while you can, folks, because this precious resource is on its way.  The Moon is moving away at 1.6 inches every year.  For those who didn’t get a chance to see it, we took the New Mexico Central camera outside and took a shot.

2010 Wolf Moon Over The Estancia Valley
photo by John Weckerle

Related articles by Zemanta

• Last Night's "Wolf Moon" was a Perigee Moon (neatorama.com)
• A marvelous night for a Moon (and Mars) dance (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
• Moon Was Created By Nuclear Explosion On Earth, Scientists Argue (huffingtonpost.com)
• How to Watch NASA's Probe Smack the Moon Friday (space.com)

Tag Galaxy

Do you have a Flickr account? Do you remember to tag your images? If so, the online image aggregator, Tag Galaxy will create attractive an display of your pictures by tag. Just type in the tag.

Sunflower Tag Galaxy

 You don't even need your own account to create a multi-image display. Just type in Mountainair, Salinas Pueblo, sunflowers, Shaffer, Manzanos, etc and watch the globe fill with images, and then save with a simple screen captures.

State of the Arts

State of the Arts Welcome to State of the Arts, Creative Albuquerque's twice monthly newsletter with news you can use about the arts and culture scene both in Albuquerque and beyond - trends, people and what makes this industry tick. It's all State of the Arts. NM Film Co Makes Good With Two Docs Cody: The First Step, produced by Christopher Productions (Chris Schueler Producer/Director) continues its film Festival run after appearing on PBS across the country. The film has been named Best Documentary, Dark River Film Festival - Louisville, KY; Most Inspirational Film, Orlando International Film Festival; Spirit of Independents Award, Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival;  and an Official Selection in Santa Fe Film Festival and George Lindsay UNA Film Festival. "The First Millimeter: Healing the Earth" about a solution to global warming also appeared on PBS, and has been named an "Official Selection" at the Santa Fe International Film Festival and the Virginia International Film Festival. To read more, click the headline. Top ABQ Art Events In 2009 The Alibi's Arts Editor Erin Adair-Hodges recaps the top arts happenings of the last year. Is your favorite there? For more, click the headline.

Kathleen's February 2010 Tour

Kathleen Clute writes: I want to let you know that I'll be performing several concerts in mid-February. Joining me for the concerts will be fellow solo piano artists Lisa Downing (from Denver, CO) and Lee Bartley (from Mancos, CO). Our tour schedule is: Friday, February 19, 7:15 pm — First Unitarian, 3701 Carlisle Blvd NE, Albuquerque Saturday, February 20, 6:30 pm — Vanessie Santa Fe, 434 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe Sunday, February 21, 2 pm — Pagosa Springs High School, 800 S. 8th St, Pagosa Springs, CO The tickets are available online at Brown Paper Tickets and are $20/$15 (students & seniors; and we count seniors as 60 & up!). They will also of course be available at the door. I will be sending you another email later this week with more information, photos, and direct links for purchasing the tickets online.  Those of you who came to one of the Whisperings concerts last year already know that Lee is a fabulous musician, with quite a bit of jazz influence in his music. Lisa is also a skilled composer and player, maybe a touch more classically oriented. You can learn more about Lee at his website: http://www.leebartley.com; and about Lisa at her website, http://www.lisadowning.com. (And whatever did we do before we could have musician websites?) I'm very excited about our upcoming concerts together. We will play 90 minutes, straight through, and all of the music is composed or arranged by whichever of us is playing it. Lee and Lisa are both Whisperings artists, so their music tends toward the lyrical and uplifting, like mine. Please give yourself the treat of an evening (or afternoon) of beautiful and original music. Put us on your calendar, and let your friends & family in New Mexico know about our concerts. Watch for my next email! Kathleen (Ryan Clute) http://www.kathleenryan.com http://www.indigomesamusic.com

snow and hail but a good day

Time enough tomorrow or another day for elections, gardens (in the winter no less!), arts council news, Chamber notes, calendration (accompanied by grumbling), Red's big rodeo news ...

Today was a good day... the weather did not prevent delightful visit from my daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, lunch at the Shaffer to check out changes. Meeting the new manager, Mary Jane Lackey, was a pleasure, as was our lunch ~ and learning that Texas chili, gumbo and Texas style chicken and dumplings (very best kind) will appear on the menu.

I'll do a more complete review and welcome when the promised pictures of the spiffed up dining room arrive ... until then, how gratifying to learn that this Mountainair landmark and icon is in good hands.

Snow swirled outside the window during lunch but, by the time we returned to the house, let up enough for Deacon and Damian to play with 1/2 Pyr Molly while Pilar (lawyer daughter) popped over to Wana Beth's to help her with an insurance matter. When the hail started, they left for Albuquerq before driving conditions got worse.

So now going through my feed reader, I see David Doler's "Hail the size of peas" post + pics on High on High Boondocks Home.... yes that's what to  blog today...  David writes:

This will be the view from the future southeast corner window.

National Geographic Photo of the Month

The National Geographic.com has  a new look.. PHOTO OF THE MONTH by David Liittschwager, from the February 2010 story "One Cubic Foot" Within One Cubic Foot Guess how many organisms you'll find in a cube of soil or sea. See dozens of images from the February 2010 "One Cubic Foot" story in a special interactive photo gallery. Download new wallpaper of featured images.

Belated #Mountainair Monties

Monties  and minus links. Well, maybe I can add them later. At least it's still January...
Mountainair Monties. The #Mountainair hashtag is because I synced the blog with twitter. If that's confusing, wait for my next installment of Mountainair Wired

My nominations ~ my opinions since no one submitted names. Feel free to post your nominations as comments.

Community service/ outreach
Shirley Jones, Gary Fulfer and company at the Nazarene Church, SHARE grocery cooperative; Lenora Romero, St Vincent de Paul, Thrift Store and community Food Bank Network;
Evelyn Walker, Librarian, Mountainair Community Library;
Patty Mahoney, Director, Mountainair Community Choir;
Leroy Dimas, among other activities (teaching, mentoring, flying gliders), keeps local AA support programs going, a less glam side & generally unsung side community service; Joan Page, Christmas Crafts Fair organizer, chocolateer, local business owner (Olde Tyle Shoppe), librarian (save community library from closing & kept it going for years), MPS teacher, returning NMT student (there is no expiration date for learning), local go to gal for GED, long time vendor manager for Mountainair events including but not limited to Ranchers Day, Jubilee, Arts Tour; KC and Lori Autrey, doing so much more than just Meds & More

Big Event of 2009:
Gran Quivira Centennial Celebration, the "year long birthday party" took in not just one but a series of events put on Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument (National Park Service)

Cause - Animal Rescue & Shelter Project: (rescue & rehoming) Shannon DeRemer, Tanisha Starr, PH Dube (not in Mountainair but she finds homes for so many abandoned dogs); (fund raisers extraordinaire) Dee & Jerry Melargno

Organizations:
Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument (National Park Service); Mountainair Gymkhana Association/ Mountainair Rodeo Association (not just Red but past and present secretaries (Greene, Smythe) and the many local supporters who can be counted on to turn out for events, volunteer to work.

Now, what about a Decade Retrospective? How do you remember Mountainair in the "oughties"? This one's only for those who were here for the whole decade...

Jan 23, Through the Flower Opening, Belen

Subversive Stitching: Feminist Artists with a Needle opens 2-4 pm, January 23rd, at Judy Chicago's Through the Flower Gallery and the Belen Hotel Gallery in Belen. The exhibit runs through May Judy Chicago and Laura Addison, Curator of Contemporary Art at the New Mexico Museum of Art, juried a selection of works from over forty artists. They chose fifteen artists to be a part of the group exhibition. Shirley Klinghoffer won the completion and will receive a cash prize and a solo exhibition to be held in 2011. Make A Day Of It In Belen! Through the Flower is a short walk from the train station. For more information about the Rail Runner please visit their website www.nmrailrunner.com. From the station cross over the train tracks via Reinken Avenue going west and cross Reinken at 2nd Street which takes you in to the historic rail yard district of Belen. Through the Flower is on the corner of 2nd and Becker. There is more to see in Belen. Learn about The Hub City at www.belen-nm.gov. Through the Flower and the Belen Hotel Gallery will be open from 2:00  to 4:00 PM. Visit the Historic Harvey House Museum, just a half block away from Through the Flower. They are open Saturday 12:30 to 3:30. Have lunch or dinner at Pete's Cafe, around the corner from Through the Flower. The Belen Art League, up the street, is open from 12:00 to 4:00.

¿Poets Corner?

A recent MMAC reference to a local "Poets' Corner" startled and confused me. Whatever could this unfamiliar appellation refer to? What is the Mountainair "Poets' Corner"? As event co-coordinator blogging poetry and our annual poetry event year round, I do know Mountainair has a Poets and Writers Picnic that predates (and always under the same name) and runs concurrently with the Sunflower Festival.

That brings me back to Poets' Corner. The most famous Poets' Corner is in Westminster Abbey, literally a Dead Poets Society because so many famous poets and writers are buried or have memorials there. Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey due to the number of poets, playwrights and writers now buried and commemorated there. The first poet to be interred there was Geoffrey Chaucer. Want to sit under the gaze of poets ther but strapped for airfare? Then visit this most famous Poets' Corner online

Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey

We don't have that kind of Poets' Corner here. Too bad. If we did the arts council, LTB and Chamber would be throwing money at the Poets & Writers Picnic for being a world famous tourist attraction drawing visitor $$ to Mountainair from around the world.

Here's an idea: what if the Picnic took to knocking off famous poets and songwriters and burying their bodies in the Shaffer Garden to ensure financing? Surely there's an appropriate line from TS Eliot for the occasion... not Yeats though because no self-respecting Irishman would be caught dead going to church with the bluidy Sassenach any more than he would wear orange on St Patrick's Day.

Other less fabulous Poets' Corners include the now defunct Steppin' Out's online poetry forum yclept Poets Corner that no one visited or posted at. I know because I kept checking for signs of life. Another, more promising Poets' Corner, is one of the largest and oldest poetry text resources on the web, a user-friendly library that is both a useful reference and an appealing place to browse and explore poetry. With a collection covering roughly 7,000 works by about 800 poets, there is plenty of material to explore.

Don't forget! Another Shelter+ Challenge begins Monday

Another round of The Animal Rescue Site's Shelter Challenge starts this coming Monday. Posted by GreaterGood.org The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter+ Challenge -- together with Petfinder.com starts January 18! Cast your vote every day after you click on the purple button and you could help your favorite eligible shelter or rescue organization win a grant worth up to $10,000! Each week we'll award two rescue organizations with a $1,000 prize. A total of 85 grants will be given throughout the Challenge. Click here for more information on how you can help animals for free. What about the animals in Haiti? Our longtime nonprofit partner for disaster animal rescue work, International Fund for Animal Welfare, is monitoring the situation in Haiti. Because the humanitarian need is so great and transportation/access so limited, they are not in Haiti yet, but we will update you on animal rescue efforts as soon as possible. The Animal Rescue Site supports IFAW's emergency rescue teams, animal shelters, food, supplies, and medical care for animals in distress throughout the world through our Gifts That Give More™. program. To find out more, click here. In the meantime, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to Help Earthquake Survivors in Haiti Gift That Gives More™. GreaterGood.org  sent $125,045 today (January 15) to the nonprofit group Partners In Health, which has a long history of working with our sister site The Hunger Site. In Haiti for more than 20 years, PIH staff were among the first emergency responders on the scene. Despite personal losses, they have continued to work around the clock in Port-au-Prince and outlying areas to aid survivors while awaiting the arrival of volunteer medical groups and additional supplies. Causes thanks you for doing for others, both human and animals, today. Address: PO Box 492, Berkeley, CA 94708 United States Tip: Don't miss any opportunities to change the world. Go to Cause.

Haiti earthquake - help urgently needed

Oxfam has over 200 aid workers already on the ground in Haiti, coordinating relief efforts after Tuesday night's devastating earthquake. Donations are needed immediately. Please read the email below and donate now >> Dear Friend, "This is the Western Hemisphere's tsunami." More than 2 million people have been affected by Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti. Your help is urgently needed to help save lives. Donate now to Oxfam's Haiti Earthquake Emergency Response. Tuesday night's earthquake in Haiti has left the capital city of Port-au-Prince in ruins. The damage is catastrophic; more than 2 million people have been affected, but the human toll is still unknown. Haiti's president has said the impact on the country is "unimaginable" and estimates that thousands have died. Donations are urgently needed to rush aid to the area – please give now >> The initial earthquake struck just before sundown and as many as 28 powerful aftershocks continued throughout the night – the darkness made initial recovery efforts nearly impossible. Oxfam has four offices in Haiti and over 200 highly-experienced aid workers on the ground. They are already responding to the situation where our assistance is most needed, but we need your help immediately. Donate now and help us respond to this emergency. Our emergency response teams are working with partners to assess the damage - we already know that water systems in the capital have been severely damaged. Emergency supplies, like clean water, temporary shelters, and sanitation equipment have already arrived from our base in Panama. Your donation will go immediately to the most critical needs in Haiti, and we will ensure that every penny is used wisely. Please make a generous tax-deductible gift right now to help us save lives in Haiti. Haiti is already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere – a place where 85% of people live in poverty. This disaster has already had an extreme impact, and conditions are expected to worsen, especially in the next 24 hours, even as aid is rushed in. Please be as generous as you are able. Donate now to Oxfam's Haiti Earthquake Response Fund. Thank you for your part in this global response to this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti today. Sincerely, Raymond C. Offenheiser President Oxfam America Who We Are | What We Do | What You Can Do | News & Publications | Contact Us Care2.com, Inc. 275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 300 Redwood City, CA 94065 http://www.care2.com

take a flower break

Something to bring a breath of spring into your day: a virtual flower garden ~ mouse click the black screen and watch the flowers spring up. Time enough later for announcements, politics and the like... for now, stop to watch the flowers grow ~ but you'll have to wait until spring to smell them for real.

MMAC mystery meeting, Jan 14

Indirectly I am informed that there will be an MMAC meeting Jan 14 in the Turner Inn conference room (hope the heat is working). Sorry, but I cannot tell you whether it is a board meeting or a general meeting because I don't know. That's why the title reads "mystery meeting" ... The only agenda details I have is that the MMAC Board has unspecified "concerns" to address about (maybe funding) this year's 13th annual Poets and Writers Picnic.

An ominous word choice, not "questions" or even "issues" but concerns. Does the arts council need to save Mountainair from poetry? Odd mission for an arts council, don'cha think?

At least I know there is a meeting and at least one item on the agenda, which is more information than usually available to the public (which btw funds arts council projects via grants).

Post Script:  the meeting was rescheduled (without notifying Dale, who drove up from 'burque to plead the Picnic case. But all is well that ends well: the 2010 Picnic is fully funded.

Call for Submissions: Postmarked 2010

Jude Mowris blogged this at Notes from Straw Mountain. Jude and Mountainair Arts started promoting Postmarked in 2008. The miles between Mountainair NM and Meadsville PA are no obstacle to continuing our collaboration.

 

Try your hand at mail art for Postmarked 2010 and support the Claremont Prison Library Project

Mosaic Mural Workshop begins January 13th.

The next arts council sponsored Mosaic Mural Workshop begins Wednesday, January 13^th.

 

Would you like to learn the basics of mosaic construction using broken tile and found objects? Want to find an aesthetically satisfying use for all those interesting small objects you have been collecting over the years? Are you also willing to work with others here in Mountainair to create a community mosaic mural to enhance the beauty of the area?

 

Here is your opportunity: beginning next Wednesday, January 13th and every Wednesday for the next 8 weeks, we will meet at Celeste Simon’s home studio (between the elementary school and the bank) from 9 AM until 1 PM to learn mosaic making techniques and how to make mosaic panels for murals.

 

This workshop is free: materials are provided with the sole provision that participants partly assist with the community mural. The workshop is sponsored by the Manzano Mountain Art Council to bring more public art to Mountainair. You can be part of this project as you learn and apply the basics of mosaics.

 

Please email Tomas Wolff at wolff.clayworks@gmail.com or call 715-4565 if you are interested. Mountainair’s Murals need you!

 

Ed Note: I’d hoped to accompany this announcement with images from last mosaic workshop, panels for the B St Market mural that will be mounted this spring and do hope there will be pictures to accompany coverage of this workshop in the series.

Strengthening Rural Economies through the Arts

Strengthening Rural Economies through the Arts ~ an Issues Alert from the NGA Center for Best Practices.



Mountainair Art and Artists poster
available from Cafe Press

The reports opens, "Every state has areas with rural characteristics," reminding us that NM, especially our area, is more rural than many. Additional points note:

Rural areas are often noted for providing an enhanced quality of life and some of the highly distinctive and treasured dimensions of a state's culture and character. However, these regions also may face economic development challenges such as geographic isolation from metropolitan areas, infrastructure deficiencies, poor links with metropolitan and global markets, and the flight of skilled human resources to metropolitan regions. States have successfully addressed these challenges through the arts.

An arts-based economy can enhance state efforts to diversify rural economies, generate revenue, improve the quality of life, and attract visitors and investment. Rural areas often feature various arts and cultural industries, which, with some assistance, can become productive economic sectors. In addition to stimulating substantial employment and tax revenues, arts enterprises are highly entrepreneurial, readily available in many communities, and attractive to tourists. The arts also create a highly desirable quality of life that draws businesses and knowledge workers to further stimulate the economy.

Also available as download: Strengthening Rural Economies through the Arts

The National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices, with research assistance from NASAA and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, has produced a series of Issue Briefs documenting the value of the arts in public policy, including but not limited to literacy, film industry, workforce development, student success, tourism and overall economic development in general.

Ed. note: Are you wondering if I am going to cover the election campaign and other items of local interest? The answer is yes. They are in the works: town election (candidates, campaign, issues, voter registration, etc); projected waste water to biofuel plant; iCreate's Community Garden; Farmers Market plans; local organizations; Chamber of Commerce meeting notes; recycling; Poetry Matters series; Mountainair Wired series, etc. 

But this article caught my eye as it came through my rss reader, reminding me that arts funding can all too easily get kneecapped in hard times, pushed aside as not important. It's been on my mind lately. Dale Harris and I already started planning the 13th annual Poets and Writers Picnic traditionally held in the garden of the Shaffer Hotel ~ funding not booking poets or organizing the writing workshop for Mountainair's longest continually running cultural event tops the worry list. The Poets and Writers Picnic (PWP) is both art and item of local interest.

Economic Development Project Announced

Several economic development announcements were made at the annual meeting of the Estancia Valley Economic Development Association on Tuesday night.

Mountainair Mayor Velta Gilley and Jay Mullins, CEO of Green Level Power NM, LLC, announced the launching of a renewable-energy project to be located near Mountainair. The company has acquired a 25-year lease of the 20-acre Mountainair wastewater treatment plant, which has an output of 100,000 gallons, according to a press release from EVEDA.

The waste from the town will be used, with the latest technologies, to produce methane and biodiesel fuels, Mullins said. Green Level Power expects the project to generate about 50 to 100 construction jobs, Mullins said, and the company hopes to begin construction within the next year.

The company is proceeding with purchasing a large greenhouse on 270 acres of land near the Mountainair "wastewater treatment plant" [quotation marks added to express irony]. Mullins said this will expand the productivity of the project with additional green jobs.

According to Mullins, the project will be emission free, and the next step is securing permits from government environmental agencies."We're using the best technology," Mullins said. "It will create a lot of jobs, and the community will share in the revenue."

Dec 17, Ashley Bergen, MountainView Telegraph, republished in All Business


Biofuel links to help you stay well informed:

• Green Level Power wastewater biofuel project
• Growing Biofuel in the Desert With Wastewater
  
• From waste water to biofuel in Santa Rosa CA
• From the Sewage Plant, the Promise of Biofuel, Greg Breining, published Yale Environment 360, July 2009
  
• Logan Utah Wastewater Lagoons To Be Transformed Into Algae Biofuel and Fertilizer Producing Facility

Poetry Matters: You've Been Broadsided, Jan 2010

Broadsided January 1, 2010: "One Lineage of Ice, Ravened" from "One Lineage of Ice, Ravened"  Poem by Jari Thymian and art by Kate Baird I  By moonlight, we skate on the lake's glass surface  on New Year's Eve 1968. My boyfriend orders  oysters on a half shell on a bed of ice. II  Babe the Blue Ox is alive and well  in the frozen North. Ice hotels  have two-generation waiting lists..... The Collaborators:  Writer Jari Thymian's poetry has appeared in Simply Haiku, Ekphrasis, The Christian Science Monitor, The Pedestal Magazine, The Progenitor, ByLine, and in various anthologies. Her poetry has won many awards including a performance in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Words of Art. Her book, The Meaning of Barns, was released by Finishing Line Press in 2007. Jari has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. To read more of her poetry, visit www.jarithymian.com. "One Lineage of Ice, Ravened," was published in a different form in Wazee Journal.  Artist Kate Baird looks for the distances and differences between places through drawing and painting. She received an MFA from the University of Chicago in 2005 and currently works as a teaching artist at the Guggenheim Museum and the Kentler International Drawing Space. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, and her work can be seen at www.katebairdart.com.   Read more of what Jari and Kate had to say about their Broadsided experience. Visit www.broadsidedpress.org to get the full broadside. January's Vector Photo:  New art in the old world -- a Vector traveling to Venice, Italy sent us this image of a collaboration between poet Jonathan Fink and artist Lisa Sette Broadsided in April, 2006 posted at the base of a canal bridge in the Canareggio district. Have a photo to share? We'd love to see -- email it to us at broadsided@gmail.com. Nothing fancy required. We'll put it on the Vector Wall: (Gallery of Vectorhood) New Vectors - Vector News:  We have new Vectors posting in Painted Post, New York. Are you printing and posting Broadsided? You're a Vector. Email us at broadsided@gmail.com to tell us where. The vector map is filling out! With Thanks, Elizabeth Bradfield, Sean Hill, and Mark Temelko