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EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
JULIE ANN GRIMM
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
ROBYN DESJARDINS
ART DIRECTOR
ANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN
CULTURE EDITOR ALEX DE VORE
NEWS EDITOR JEFF PROCTOR
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT JULIA GOLDBERG
STAFF WRITERS ANDY LYMAN
ANDREW OXFORD
CONTRIBUTING WRITER JERRY REDFERN
CALENDAR EDITOR SIENA SOFIA BERGT
DIGITAL SERVICES MANAGER BRIANNA KIRKLAND
CIRCULATION MANAGER ANDY BRAMBLE
OWNERSHIP
CITY OF ROSES NEWSPAPER CO.
PRINTER THE NEW MEXICAN
My mom had a litter of 10 girls and thankfully, Española Humane offers free shelter and free spay/neuter. After surgery, I was adopted by a family with three kids and another dog, all of whom adore me. Without you, who knows what would have happened to me?
Light Among the Ruins
DECEMBER 9–10, 5–9 pm
Jemez Historic Site
Jemez Springs
Holiday Open House
DECEMBER 10, 11 am–4 pm
New Mexico History Museum and New Mexico Museum of Art
Santa Fe
Las Posadas
DECEMBER 11, 5:30–7 pm New Mexico History Museum
Santa Fe
Events like these, supported by New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, are happening across the state this winter season. Visit: nmculture.org/traditions
Winter Glow Holiday Stroll on Museum Hill
DECEMBER 16, 4–7 pm
Museum of International Folk Art, Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, and Santa Fe Botanical Gardens
Santa Fe
Lights of Los Luceros
DECEMBER 17, 5–9 pm
Los Luceros Historic Site Alcalde
Holiday on the Hill: A Space Tradition
DECEMBER 17, 10 am–5 pm
New Mexico Museum of Space History Alamogordo
Farm-La-La
DECEMBER 20, 4–7 pm
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum Las Cruces
Thank you for continuing to cover the noise issue. Contrary to some councilors’ concerns, the muffler noise conflict is absolutely not about age or culture—it’s about rude behavior. Illegal behavior, in fact. And it most certainly is not just a downtown issue—people are sick of it all around the city. I live in Midtown and the noise is awful.
As for the idea that the proposed fine schedule would target youth—well, underage drinkers are also youths, so should we avoid targeting them? Perhaps we should prohibit insurance companies from charging youthful drivers more for insurance. That sounds like targeting to me.
As for culture—I don’t believe northern NM car culture is historically about noise, and in any case it can’t claim a special identity by citing behavior that slack-jawed white boys all around the US practice. If anything, I would think it
would prefer to distance itself from that. I will happily be impressed by a cool car that’s quiet
Basically, some people believe young Hispanic drivers would be targeted by this ordinance. Young Hispanic drivers with loud cars would be no more targeted by this law than smokers have been for smoking in public places or truckers for using Jake brakes in city limits or drivers placed on home detention for driving drunk. The list goes on.
Drivers with loud vehicles know perfectly well they are disturbing others everywhere they go. That is the whole point. I think any coun cilor’s residual sympathies for their imagined plight should stop right there.
JEFF DONLAN SANTA FE
Editor’s Note: A graphic in last week’s “Muffled Frustrations” gave the wrong age bracket for the second highest number of tickets for loud mufflers. Those went to drivers ages 32 to 41. The highest number of tickets were issued to drivers 31 and younger.
SFR will correct factual errors online and in print. Please let us know if we make a mis take: editor@sfreporter.com or 988-7530.
Actually, they’re called Candle-Sack-Sandies, so...
He is not a steel-drivin’ man.
Who’s going to explain that hiking is walking to the top of a hill and then coming back down that hill?! PNM
Maybe the new state Outdoor Recreation honcho, whoever that’s gonna be, can show us how hiking keeps you warm.
Because Santa Fe drivers have proven time and again they can handle them with...Nope. Scratch that.
In this chaotic marketing world, pre-COVID, during lockdown, and now that ev eryone is “back on stage,” the Santa Fe Reporter has had The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus covered and “had my back” person ally time after time—keep ing us in the spotlight weekly for our numerous concerts, special gatherings, galas and free community events around Santa Fe each month. That said, I want to give a HUGE shout-out to the entire team at the Reporter—from ideas to press, and everything in between. (You are a small team of extremely talented individuals that get a ton of information out each week and I’m not sure that people realize how much you are all working it over there!) With spe cial thanks to Advertising Director Robyn Desjardins, it really feels like we are work ing at the same organization many days. You have our season all mapped out and ready to go before it even begins, and you don’t find that kind of customer service everywhere.
I’m always chuffed when we are in this cool and funky publication that manages to spread the word about the endless per forming and visual art events happening all over Santa Fe each week. Let’s face it, there is a lot going on! And we all love it. For what is truly a pretty small town, we are fortu nate to have a plethora of entertainment choices in the City of Santa Fe. From a mar keting perspective, this requires me to be on top of my game with so many incredible performances going on in Santa Fe on any given night. Thank goodness we have an
amazing product—our musi cians rock.
Upon moving to Santa Fe in 2001, it became ap parent to me how critically important it is to support local businesses, especially our local publications that help get the word out about the music and art scenes, plus so much more. SFR is one of the main “go to” pub lications of fun and unique things to do in Santa Fe each week, and frankly something we can’t live without—if we like getting out of the house that is …Although! Our virtual perfor mances on SantaFeSymphonyTV.org have received tons of recognition from SFR too—and you don’t need to leave the house for these offerings.
SFR has not once let me down and has always found a way to get the symphony in the spotlight, even last minute, when we have something cool and unique that we want to share with the community. I love seeing what sparks the interests of SFR journalists throughout the year. We can count on them to share articles about our concerts with an interesting twist or call out the eccentricities of our phenomenal guest artists. Never boring … ever.
The Santa Fe Reporter keeps us in the running and, as a nonprofit, we couldn’t reach the broad audience that we do with out this innovative publication. Every Wednesday you hear “Did you grab a Reporter?” “Can you get me the Reporter?” “I left a Reporter on your desk!” “Did you see the Reporter?” “For the love of God, does anyone have a Reporter?”
-Kathryn Nun, Creative Director for The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
This letter is part of the annual year-end campaign for Friends of the Reporter, a community model for supporting our journalism mission. Our newspaper and website remain free. Will you give the gift of journalism? Can you help offset the cost of paper, distribution and newsgathering? Donate now and double the contribution! New Mexico Local News fund will match up to $5,000 in donations through Dec. 31. Plus, those who give before Dec. 8 can enter to win free tickets to The Nutcracker, returning live after a two-year hiatus. Visit sfreporter.com/friends, to make a one-time or recurring donation or via check at PO Box 4910, Santa Fe, NM 87502.
“It became apparent to me how critically important it is to support local businesses.”
extreme end of the spectrum,” says Allison Anderman, senior counsel and director of local policy for Giffords, a national gun violence prevention advocacy group.
BY ANDREW OXFORD oxford@sfreporter.com“Nofirearms” signs could soon pop up on city buildings around Santa Fe.
About six months after Mayor Alan Webber called for an outright ban on guns from city facilities, he has introduced a resolution that does not go so far but may push the boundaries of what the city can do. It relies on an expansive reading under a provision of New Mexico’s Constitution that largely ties the hands of local government officials looking to regulate guns. Webber’s idea, which he unveiled last week, would ban deadly weapons from any city facility used for school-sanctioned activities. That includes libraries, municipal soccer fields and City Hall.
“If school kids are in City Hall on a learning trip, it should be as safe as a school,” Webber tells SFR.
If you are surprised Santa Fe cannot already ban guns from City Council chambers or libraries, look at a 1986 amendment to the New Mexico Constitution. Backed by the National Rifle Association and passed overwhelmingly by voters, the amendment bars cities and counties from passing their own restrictions on firearms.
The NRA’s Political Victory Fund argued in a full-page ad in The Santa Fe New Mexican days before the ‘86 election that the amendment would prevent cities from passing handgun bans, as a Chicago suburb had famously done a few years earlier. But the amendment also bars local governments from enacting comparatively banal policies commonplace in other parts of the country, such as banning guns from parks or libraries.
“A provision in the state constitution prohibiting localities from regulating firearms in any way is definitely on the more
Anderman says some states have repealed similar provisions in recent years, includ ing Colorado, or are picking away at such policies. And states that still bar local gov ernments from regulating guns often allow towns, counties and cities to at least set pol
The city asked department heads across municipal government to identify any site that is used for school-sanctioned activities, whether sports events or field trips. That list even includes the Buckman Direct Diversion Water Treatment Plant. If approved, the res olution would require city staff to post signs at all such locations stating deadly weapons are prohibited.
It is not a novel approach. Albuquerque’s then-chief administrative officer issued an order in 2020 using a similar reading of state law to ban firearms from city facilities.
Still, enforcement has been rocky.
Albuquerque police used the executive order to cite at least two people participat
“Nothing ever solves everything but we keep looking for ways to make a difference and at least go on the record to oppose ram pant gun violence,” he says.
It’s up to state legislators to go further, the mayor adds, arguing they need to “lead, follow or get out of the way.”
“They’re not doing any of these things,” he says.
lawmakers moved last year to ban guns from the state Capitol after a years long off-again, on-again debate, cities still don’t have the op tion of banning guns from council meetings or other facilities.
As recently as this month, the Attorney General’s Office issued a legal opinion stating that Bernalillo County does not have the au thority to prohibit firearms in the Bernalillo County Government Center.
Webber argues cities have a way around that provision inside a state law banning guns from school grounds—defined not only as school buildings but as any public facility used for school-sanctioned activities. That includes city facilities that students use reg ularly, by the mayor’s reading.
ing in a protest on Civic Plaza that year. But Second Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez raised concerns in court about the order’s constitutionality. And later that year, the Albuquerque City Council voted down a broader proposal to ban guns in city facilities.
Webber’s initial call for a ban on firearms in city facilities followed a gunman’s killing of 19 children and two teachers at an elemen tary school in Uvalde, Texas. It also comes amid record gun sales in recent years and an increase in gun deaths among New Mexicans 19 and younger.
Webber concedes his proposal—due to begin making its way through council com mittees this month—has limitations.
But if “getting out of the way” in this instance would mean the Legislature put ting repeal of the 1986 amendment up to a statewide vote and potentially letting New Mexicans untie the hands of local govern ments to create new gun policies, Webber isn’t exactly pushing for that, either. The mayor says he supports repealing the amendment but is quick to concede one of the main points raised by the NRA when it was pushing the measure: It could lead to a range of inconsistent gun laws from one city to the next.
“Imagine a world where the City of Santa Fe can regulate guns,” he says, arguing New Mexico needs “a blanket, not a patchwork” of gun policies.
But back at Giffords, Anderman says there is no one-size-fits-all approach to gun policy. Cities can act, even when local leaders’ hands are tied, she argues, including steps Santa Fe officials want to take.
Still, she says: “Local governments can really be incubators for new gun safety pol icies.”
With an expansive reading of state law, Santa Fe mayor proposes banning guns from city facilities
Arecent agreement between an en vironmental group and an oil and gas company that dramatically cuts excess oilfield pollution at a Southern New Mexico facility could be a model for quicker resolutions to pollution violations and a legal roadmap for private groups looking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable under the Clean Air Act.
In late September, WildEarth Guardians entered into a consent decree with a branch of the multinational Oxy USA for regular ly exceeding permitted emission limits of lung-damaging air pollutants at an oil and gas pumping and compressor station north east of Carlsbad. In its lawsuit, the group claimed that the releases were so frequent they couldn’t possibly be accidents or mal functions but were a part of the company’s normal operating procedure and a violation of its state-issued air pollution permit.
The parties agreed to settle the case before trial to avoid costly, long-term and public prosecution—without an admission of guilt or liability. A judge is reviewing the settlement, with a final decision likely before the end of the year. Of note: WildEarth Guardians sued the company under a section of the federal Clean Air Act called the “citizen suit” provision, leapfrogging the usual prosecution by state or federal agencies and setting a playbook for similar cases in the future.
State permits set both hourly and yearly limits on how much of certain air pollutants a facility can release. According to online pub lic records from the Air Quality Bureau of the New Mexico Environment Department, over the past three years Oxy’s Turkey Track gas compressor station, which opened in October 2018, racked up nearly 280 releases exceed ing the facility permit, both before and after the company twice asked for and received pollution limit increases from NMED in 2019.
“There are a lot of companies and a lot of facilities that regularly report excess emissions,” says Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director at WildEarth Guardians. “But this one, this Oxy facility, re ally rose to the top and really seemed to be a poster child for how the industry chronically violates and [passes] it off as just the cost of doing business.”
Fossil fuel production companies across the state file monthly reports with NMED,
tallying how much of four types of emis sions—sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds— were released in excess of their allowed, li censed amounts. Monthly reports dating back to October 2019 are posted online.
“Industry reports. They do. They’re dil igent,” Nichols says. “Because if they don’t report and then if they get caught, the conse quences are much more severe and you start to veer into the criminal realm.”
For Oxy, the lawsuit’s impact entails $500,000 in fines, another $500,000 for air quality and public health projects in the area, $5.5 million in upgrades to the Turkey Track compressor station and other facilities and multiple changes in how the company deals with the excess, unwanted, harmful gasses that are a normal part of the oil and gas pro duction process.
“The Clean Air Act is one of the most com plicated environmental statutes, and so it is challenging to bring these kinds of suits,” says Gabriel Pacyniak, an associate professor of law at the University of New Mexico and the school’s primary faculty supervisor of its nat ural resources and environmental law clinic.
Government’s “approach to enforcement is different than ours,” Nichols says. But this case was so obvious that “they could have easily launched their own enforcement case here, and they didn’t. You know, that’s on them.”
Matthew Maez, director of communi cations at the New Mexico Environment Department, says historic underfunding has limited the department’s “ability to conduct significant enforcement activities.” He point ed to NMED cases against three gas plants in recent years that led to millions in fines and two of them being shuttered entirely.
“Citizen suits that help curb air pollution are positive outcomes for public health and the environment,” Maez says. “Government agencies are not in competition with private groups when it comes to enforcement.”
Oxy began filing the reports soon after the Turkey Track plant opened in 2018, and all of these events led to toxic gasses being flared or vented, contributing to air pollution in the Permian Basin. Jennifer Brice, director of communications and public affairs at Oxy, says that since the case started, the company has made repairs and changes and, “in addi tion to the upgrades and operational changes at our New Mexico facilities, we will continue to focus on initiatives to reduce emissions in our Permian operations.”
Oxy promotes itself as a leader in re sponsible fossil fuel production and carbon reduction. “We also have a history of collabo rating with environmental organizations that share a commitment to minimizing emis sions,” Brice says, adding that Oxy has denied WildEarth Guardians’ allegations.
WildEarth Guardians’ main allegation is that the Turkey Track facility breached its emissions limits so often that it should have applied for more stringent licenses from the start. Nichols thinks industry’s first response to problems is to vent or flare the unwanted gasses. And in this case, Nichols says, Oxy came to the table and negotiated because of the seriousness of the allegations “and a recognition that we kind of had them dead to rights.”
In late 2021, excess emission reports dropped precipitously at the Turkey Track plant, highlighting Nichols’ point.
While this type of citizen-initiated case is uncommon in the region, the pollution isn’t.
From Oct. 1, 2019 to Oct. 31, 2022, oil and gas operators across New Mexico reported emitting nearly 10,400 tons of regulated air pollutants above and beyond their licensed limits to New Mexico skies, most of it in the Permian Basin. That averages out to 9.2 tons combined, every day.
In that period, 16 other companies re leased more air pollutants than Oxy USA WTP, the branch that runs the Turkey Track compressor station. In fact, that branch of Occidental Petroleum isn’t even the multi national company’s biggest polluter in New Mexico—Oxy USA had more incidents and released almost twice as much pollution over the same time period. Among all facilities noted, Turkey Track had the fourth largest number of emissions, though in total it re leased orders of magnitude less gas than the biggest polluters on the list.
Pacyniak at UNM calls the Oxy settlement “a great model of a successful suit” brought by a citizens’ group. The pro-bono environ mental law clinic he leads represents Native, low income and other legally underserved communities facing environmental threats in New Mexico. He says the clinic could use the settlement as a template if the right case presents itself in the future.
This story was published by journalism nonprofit Capital & Main, which reports on economic, environmental and social issues in the West. capitalandmain.com
Public prosecution “a great model” for future suits against polluters
T he Clean Air Act is one of the most complicated environmental statutes, and so it is challenging to bring these kinds of suits .
Gabriel Pacyniak, associate professor of law at the University of New Mexico
BY JACK HAGERMAN tips@sfreporter.com
When we were decorating the house for the holidays this year, I was reminded of this same time back in 2006.
I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard a loud crashing noise coming from downstairs. My eyes shot open, and I sat up in bed trying to decide if my home was being invaded by a robber, or possibly a serial killer. A really clumsy robber or se rial killer.
With my heart pounding in my chest, I crept down the stairs holding a Pottery Barn candle holder as a weapon. Then I saw the source of the loud crashing noise. Exhaling, my shoulders slumped at the realization that my home wasn’t being ransacked by a robber or serial killer. This invader was far more dangerous.
“What did you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from raising along with my blood pressure. “What. Did. You. Do?”
The 10-foot Christmas tree that took the help of three people to haul into my living room, and four hours of meticulous decorating with dozens of delicate orna ments, lights and crystal bulbs was now toppled over and lying horizontal on the ground like a passed-out drag queen af ter too many eggnog martinis.
Perched just beside the fall
en tree with several pine needles sticking out of his fur, a bit of glitter glistening on his twitching whiskers, sat Bailey the cat.
I stared him straight in the eyes and asked again, “What did you do, Bailey?”
He stared right back at me, eyes blink ing lazily as if my visible outrage was no more intimidating than an arm wrestling
dumb. You put a tree in my living room full of sparkly things to play with. It’s like you were daring me to climb it. Idiot.”
Smug little bugger. He was right, though. For me, decorating a Christmas tree was a festive way to bring the hol idays into my home. For him though, it was a giant sparkly toy to be played with. Every year since, if I put up a Christmas tree, I make sure to anchor it to the wall and away from furniture.
More than any other time of the year, the holiday season presents a prolonged period of health and safety issues for our pets. From holiday decorations, meals and visiting relatives, our pets’ daily routines are disrupted with a great deal more sparkly objects, sounds and social activities—which means there are more
You may love to treat your pets to holiday leftovers, but any change in diet may cause indigestion. Bones can tear up or obstruct your pet’s digestive system. Cooked turkey bones can easily splinter.
Skip the people food in favor of holiday pet treats. Just be sure to give them to your pet in moderation. A plump figure may be adorable, but if you want your pet to live a good long, healthy life, maintaining a healthy weight is key. Now if only I could apply that to my own diet…
Candy and sugar may give your pet intestinal problems. Chocolate can be especially dangerous for pets.
Crowds and holiday festivities may frighten some animals. If your pet does not like loud noises and large groups of people, set aside a safe and quiet place as a
Keep all doors closed. A scared pet might use an open door as an opportunity to escape. Monitor all interactions with your pet around children and new visitors to the home.
Research your local emergency vet clinic before the holidays. Most regular veterinary practices will be closed, so it’s important to know where to take your pet in case of emergency.
If your pet does get lost, please visit sfhumanesociety.org daily. The online list of lost and found animals is updated hourly.
Oh, and by the way, if you’ve been thinking about adding a new member to your family during the holiday season, Santa Fe Animal Shelter is hosting an adoptions event through Dec. 11, sponsored by Bissell. Adult animals adoption fees are waived, and puppies and kittens may be adopted for only $25. There’s never been a better time to bring love home for the
ince its founding in 1976, Project Censored has been focused on stories—like Watergate before the 1972 election—that aren’t censored in the authoritarian government sense, but in a broader, ex panded sense reflective of what a functioning democ racy should be, censorship defined as “the suppression of information, whether purposeful or not, by any method—including bias, omission, underreporting, or self-censorship—that prevents the public from fully knowing what is happening in society.” It is, after all, the reason that journalism enjoys special protection in the First Amendment: Without the free flow of vital information, government based on the consent of the governed is but an illusory dream.
Yet, from the very beginning, as A.J. Liebling put it, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”
In their introduction to Project Censored’s annual State of the Free Press, which contains its top censored stories and much more, Project Censored’s Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth take this condition head-on, under the heading, State of the Free Billionaire, in con trast to the volume’s title, State of the Free Press 2023 Following a swift recap of historic media criticism high lights—Upton Sinclair, the aforementioned Leibling, Ben Bagdikian, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky— they dryly observe, “History shows that consolidated media, controlled by a handful of elite owners, seldom serves the public interest,” and briefly survey the con temporary landscape before narrowing their gaze to the broadest of influencers:
Despite the promise of boundless access to infor mation, Silicon Valley mirrors legacy media in its con solidated ownership and privileging of elite narratives. This new class of billionaire oligarchs owns or controls the most popular media platforms, including the com panies often referred to as the FAANGs—Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet).
Obviously, this was written before Elon Musk’s pur chase of Twitter, but it’s an apt reminder that his wildly out-of-touch worldview is not just an individual, per
sonal aberration, but also a symptom of wider systemic dysfunction.
“In pursuit of their own interests and investments, media tycoons past and present, again and again, ap pear to be conveniently oblivious to the main frame through which they filter news—that of class, including class structure and class interests,” Huff and Roth write. “Consequently, they often overlook (or ignore) conflicts of interest that implicate media owners, funders, inves tors and advertisers, not to mention their business cli ents on Wall Street and in big pharma, big tech, and the military–industrial complex.”
This observation perfectly frames the majority of stories in Project Censored’s top 10 list, starting with the first two stories: massive subsidies of the fossil fuel industry and rampant wage theft—concentrated on the most vulnerable workers—that eclipse street crime in the magnitude of losses, but is rarely punished, even when offenders are caught dead to rights. It echoes clearly through the stories on Congress members’ in vestments in the fossil fuel industry, the role of corpo rate consolidation in driving up inflation in food prices, Bill Gates’ hidden influence on journalism, and major media outlets lobbying against regulation of surrepti tious online advertising, and only at slight remove in two others having to do with dark money, and one about the suppression of Environmental Protection Agency reports on dangerous chemicals. Indeed, only one story out of 10 is somewhat removed from the sphere of cor porate corruption concerns: the story of the CIA’s plans to kidnap or kill Julian Assange.
Every year, I note that there are multiple patterns to be found in the list of Project Censored’s stories, and that these different patterns have much to tell us about the forces shaping what remains hidden. That’s still true, with three environmental stories (two involving fossil fuels), three involving money in politics (two dark money stories), and two involving illicit surveillance. But the dominance of this one pattern truly is remark able. It shows how profoundly the concentration of corporate wealth and power in the hands of so few dis torts everything we see—or don’t—in the world around us every day. Here then, is this year’s list of Project Censored’s top 10 censored stories:
Globally, the fossil fuel industry receives subsidies of $11 million per minute, primarily from lack of liability for the externalized health costs of deadly air pollution (42%), damages caused by extreme weather events (29%), and costs from traffic collisions and congestion (15%). And two-thirds of those subsidies come from just five coun tries—the United States, Russia, India, China and Japan. These are key findings from a study of 191 nations pub lished by the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, in September 2021, that were reported in the Guardian and Treehugger the next month, but have been ignored in the corporate media.
No national government currently prices fossil fuels at what the IMF calls their “efficient price”—covering both their supply and environmental costs. “Instead, an estimated 99 percent of coal, 52 percent of road die sel, 47 percent of natural gas, and 18 percent of gasoline are priced at less than half their efficient price,” Project Censored noted.
“It’s critical that governments stop propping up an in dustry that is in decline,” Mike Coffin, a senior analyst at Carbon Tracker, told the Guardian. “The much-need ed change could start happening now, if not for the government’s entangle ment with the fossil fuels industry in so many major economies,” added Maria Pastukhova of E3G, a climate change think tank.
“Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies could lead to higher energy prices and, ultimately, political protests and social unrest,” Project Censored noted.
“But, as the Guardian and Treehugger each reported, the IMF recommended a ‘comprehensive strat egy’ to protect consumers—especially low-income households—impacted by rising energy costs, and workers in dis placed industries.”
No corporate news outlets had re ported on the IMF as of May 2022, ac
cording to Project Censored, though a November 2021 opinion piece did focus on the issue of subsidies, which John Kerry, US special envoy for climate change, called “a definition of insanity.” But that was framed as opinion, and made no mention of the indirect subsidies, which represent 86% of the total. In contrast, “In January 2022, CNN published an article that all but defended fossil fuel subsidies,” Project Censored noted. “CNN’s coverage em phasized the potential for unrest caused by rollbacks of government subsidies, citing ‘protests that occasionally turned violent.’”
showed that “US employers that illegally underpaid workers face few repercussions, even when they do so repeatedly. This widespread practice perpetuates in come inequality, hitting lowest-paid workers hardest.”
“Wage theft includes a range of illegal practices, such as paying less than minimum wage, withholding tips, not paying overtime, or requiring workers to work through breaks or off the clock. It impacts service work ers, low-income workers, immigrant and guest workers, and communities of color the most,” Project Censored explained.
Lax enforcement is “especially problematic” in some 14 states that “lack the capacity to investigate wage theft claims or lack the ability to file lawsuits on behalf of vic tims,” according to a 2017 Economic Policy Institute report. In contrast, the center’s report “mentioned lo cal successes in Chicago (2013), Philadelphia (2016), and Minneapolis (2019),” Project Censored noted, but “workers’ rights advocates continue to seek federal reforms.”
“Since May 2021, a handful of corporate news outlets, including CBS News, covered or republished the Center for Public Integrity’s report on wage theft,” Project Censored noted, but, “Corporate coverage tends to focus on specific instances involving individual employers,” while ignoring it “as a systemic social problem” as well as ignoring the “anemic federal enforcement.”
In 2017, the FBI reported the cost of street crime at about $13.8 billion, the same year that the Economic Policy Institute released a study saying that just one form of wage theft—minimum wage violations—costs US workers even more: an estimated $15 billion annually, impacting an estimated 17% of low-wage workers.
One reason it’s so rampant is that companies are sel dom punished, as Alexia Fernández Campbell and Joe Yerardi reported for the Center for Public Integrity in May 2021, drawing on 15 years of data from the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. “The agen cy fined only about one in four repeat offenders during that period. And it or dered those companies to pay workers cash damages—penalty money in addi tion to back wages—in just 14 percent of those cases,” they wrote. In addition, “The division often lets businesses avoid repaying their employees all the money they’re owed. In all, the agency has let more than 16,000 employers get away with not paying $20.3 million in back wages since 2005.”
We’re talking about some ma jor companies. Halliburton, G4S Wackenhut and Circle K Stores were among “the worst offenders,” they reported.
That report kicked off the cen ter’s “Cheated at Work’’ series, which
In January 2019, the US Environmental Protection Agency stopped releasing legally required disclosures about chemicals that present a “substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.” They had previously been posted in a searchable public database called ChemView.
In November 2021, as part of the Intercept’s “EPA Exposed” investigative series, Sharon Lerner reported that EPA had received “at least 1,240 substantial risk reports since January 2019, but only one was publicly available.” The suppressed reports documented “the risk of chemicals’ serious harms, including eye corrosion, damage to the brain and nervous system, chronic toxici ty to honeybees, and cancer in both people and animals,” Lerner wrote.
CNN’s coverage emphasized the potential for unrest caused by rollbacks of government subsidies, citing ‘protests that occasionally turned violent.’
“The reports include notifications about highly toxic polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemical compounds that are known as ‘forever chemicals’ be cause they build up in our bodies and never break down in the environment,” Project Censored noted. “The Environmental Working Group explains that ‘very small doses of PFAS have been linked to cancer, repro ductive and immune system harm, and other diseases. For decades, chemical companies covered up evidence of PFAS’ health hazards.’” Their spread throughout the world’s oceans, along with microplastics, was Project Censored #5 story last year.
It wasn’t just the public that was kept in the dark, Lerner reported. “The substantial risk reports have not been uploaded to the databases used most often by risk assessors searching for information about chemicals, according [to] one of the EPA scientists…They have been entered only into an internal database that is dif ficult to access and search. As a result, little—and per haps none—of the information about these serious risks to health and the environment has been incorporated into the chemical assessments completed during this period.”
“Basically, they are just going into a black hole,” one whistleblower told Lerner. “We don’t look at them. We don’t evaluate them. And we don’t check to see if they change our understanding of the chemical.”
Apart from the Intercept, “only a handful of niche publications have reported on the matter,” Project Censored noted.
However, in January 2022, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit to compel EPA to disclose the reports, following up on an earlier public records request which, the National Law Review reported, was “built upon information reported in a November 2021 article in The Intercept.” Just weeks later EPA announced it would resume posting the re ports in ChemView, Project Censored noted. “Clearly, independent journalism contributed significantly to this outcome,” they said. “Had it not been for the work of investigative journalist Sharon Lerner at the Intercept, EPA whistleblowers would not have had a platform to share concerns that ultimately led the agency to resume these critical public disclosures.”
At least 100 US representatives and 28 US senators have financial interests in the fossil fuel industry—a major impediment to reaching climate change goals that’s gone virtually unmentioned by the corporate media, despite detailed reporting in a series of Sludge articles written by David Moore in November and December of 2021.
Moore found that 74 Republicans, 59 Democrats, and one independent have fossil fuel industry investments, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats in both chambers. The top ten House investors are all Republicans. But it’s quite different in the Senate, where two of the top three investors are Democrats, and Democrats’ total investments, $8.6 million, are more than double the Senate Republicans’ total of nearly $4 million. Topping the list is Joe Manchin, West Virginia, with up to $5.5 million of fossil fuel industry assets, while John Hickenlooper, Coloardo, is third, with up to $1 million. (Most reporting is in ranges.) Many top investors are Texas Republicans, including Rep. Van Taylor, with up to $12.4 million worth of investments.
“Most significantly, many hold key seats on influential energy-related committees,” Project Censored noted. Senators include Manchin, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, chairs of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, and Tom Carper, D-Delaware,
chair of the Committee on the Environment and Public Works. “Manchin cut the Clean Electricity Performance Program, a system that would phase out coal, from President Biden’s climate bill,” they added.
In the House, they explained, nine out of 22 Republican members of the Energy and Commerce Committee are invested in the fossil fuel industry. As Project Censored detailed in the #4 story on the Top 25 list two years ago, these individuals’ personal financial interests as investors often conflict with their obligation as elected legislators to serve the public interest.
Oil and gas lobbying totaled $119.3 million, according to OpenSecrets, while 2020 election spending topped $40 million for congressional candidates—$8.7 million to Democrats and $30.8 million to Republicans. This came as the International Energy Agency warned that no new fossil fuel developments can be approved for the world to have a 50/50 chance to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Moore reported. Yet, “production of oil and gas is projected to grow 50 percent by 2030 without congressional action,” Project Censored noted. “The fact that so many lawmakers have invested considerable sums in the fossil fuel industry makes it extremely unlikely that Congress will do much to rein in oil and gas production.”
The same group of conservative dark money organi
Dark money interference in US politics undermines democracy
zations that opposed President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nomination—Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), The 85 Fund and their affiliated groups—also funded entities that played a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a report by the watchdog group Accountable.US. They’re closely linked to Leonard Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society, with money coming from Donors Trust (a dark-money group backed by the Koch network) and the Bradley Foundation.
“These dark money groups not only funded Leo’s network of organizations to the sum of over $52 million in 2020, but also funded entities in 2020 that played a role in the insurrection to the sum of over $37 million,” Accountable.US reported.
While there has been coverage of dark money spending on Supreme Court nominations, Igor Derysh at Salon was alone in reporting this—the related involvement in Jan. 6.
Just one group, JCN, spent $2.5 million “before Biden even named his nominee,” Ketanji Brown Jackson, Derysh reported, “accusing Biden of caving in to leftists by promising a ‘Supreme Court nominee who will be a liberal activist.’” On the other hand, “JCN spent tens of millions helping to confirm justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, according to Open Secrets, and launched a $25 million effort to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett just weeks before the 2020 election,” he reported.
But more disturbingly, “Donors Trust has funneled more than $28 million to groups that pushed election lies or in some way funded the rally ahead of the Capitol riot,” while “members of the Federalist Society played key roles in Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election,” including attorney John Eastman, architect of Trump’s plan to get Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election, senators Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who led the objections to the certification of Trump’s loss after the riot, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a lawsuit to throw out election results in key states, effectively overturning Biden’s victory. In addition, 13 of the 17 other Republican attorneys general who joined Paxton’s suit were also Federalist Society members.
dits and partisan commentators to the contrary,” Project Censored reports. “The establishment press has covered the current wave of inflation exhaustively, but only rarely will discuss the market power of giant firms as a possible cause, and then usually only to re ject it,” as they did when the Biden administration cited meat industry consolidation as a cause of price in creases in September 2021, “treat ing administration attempts to link inflation to consolidation as a rhe torical move meant to distract from conservative critiques of Biden’s stimulus program.”
But as Food and Water Watch reported in Nov 2021, “while the cost of meat shot up, prices paid to farmers actually declined, spur ring a federal investigation.” That investigation is ongoing, but meat conglomerates Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Smithfield Foods and JBS have paid just over $225 million to settle related civil suits in the poul try, beef and pork markets.
That’s just part of the problem. A July 2021 joint investigation by Food and Water Watch and the Guardian “reported that a handful of ‘food giants’—including Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Conagra, Unilever, and Del Monte—control an average of 64 percent of sales of sixty-one popular grocery items,” Project Censored noted. Three companies own 93% of carbonated soft drink brands; while another three produce 73% of the cereals on offer, and a single company, PepsiCo, owns five of the most popular dip brands—88% of the market. Altogether, “four firms or fewer controlled at least 50% of the market for 79% of the groceries,” the Guardian reported.
It’s not just producers: “In an October 2021 article for Common Dreams, Kenny Stancil documents that food producers, distributors, and grocery store chains are engaging in pandemic profiteering and taking ad vantage of decades of consolidation, which has given a handful of corporations an ever-greater degree of mar ket control and with it, the power to set prices,” accord ing to research by the Groundwork Collaborative.
Collaborative, and David Dayen revealed that one of the most common inflation scapegoats, supply chain problems, is itself a consequence of consolidation,” Project Censored noted. “Just three global alliances of ocean shippers are responsible for 80 percent of all car go... These shippers raked in nearly $80 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, twice as much as in the entire ten-year period from 2010 to 2020,” by increasing their rates as much as tenfold.
Supply chain consolidation reflects a broader shift in the global economy, the Prospect argued. “In 1970, Milton Friedman argued in The New York Times that ‘the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.’” Manufacturers used that to rationalize a financial im perative to benefit shareholders by seek ing the lowest-cost labor possible.” This led to a surge in outsourcing to East Asia, and eventually China. “This added new costs for shipping, but deregulating all the industries in the supply chain could more than compensate.”
Occasionally articles touched on the issue of consolidation (mostly to debunk it), though there are a couple of opinion pieces to the contrary. “But these iso lated opinion pieces were far out-num bered by the hundreds, even thousands, of reports and analyses by commercial media outlets that blamed everything but oligopolistic price goug ing for the rising cost of groceries,” Project Censored concluded.
“Corporate consolidation is a main driver of record inflation in food prices, despite claims by media pun
As for grocers, “Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the country, cited rising inflation as the reason for hiking prices in their stores even as they cut work er pay by 8 percent,” Project Censored noted. “Yet, as Stancil explained, Kroger’s CEO publicly gloated that ‘a little bit of inflation is always good for business.’ That CEO earned 909 times what the median worker earned, while worker pay decreased by 8% in 2020, and the company spent $1.498 billion on stock buybacks be tween April 2020 and July 2021 to enrich its sharehold ers,” the Groundwork Collaborative reported. Kroger was one of just four companies that took in an estimat ed two-thirds of all grocery sales in 2019, according to Food and Water Watch.
More broadly, “A report for the American Prospect by Rakeem Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork
The list of billionaires with media empires includes familiar names like Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and, most recently, Elon Musk. But, “While other billionaires’ media em pires are relatively well known, the extent to which [Microsoft co-founder Bill] Gates’s cash underwrites
Concerns for journalistic independence as Gates Foundation gives $319 million to news outlets
Corporate consolidation is a main driver of record inflation in food prices, despite claims by media pundits and partisan commentators to the contrary.
the modern media landscape is not,” Alan MacLeod wrote for MintPress News in November 2021.
MacLeod examined more than 30,000 individual grants from the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and found it had donated “more than $319 million to fund news outlets, journalism centers and training programs, press associations, and specific media campaigns, raising questions about conflicts of interest and journalistic independence,” Project Censored summarized.
“Today, it is possible for an individual to train as a reporter thanks to a Gates Foundation Grant, find work at a Gates-funded outlet, and to belong to a press association funded by Gates,” MacLeod wrote.
“Recipients of this cash include many of America’s most important news outlets, including CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS and The Atlantic. Gates also sponsors a myriad of influential foreign organizations, including the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom; prominent European newspapers such as Le Monde (France), Der Spiegel (Germany) and El País (Spain); as well as big global broadcasters like Al-Jazeera,” he reported.
“MacLeod’s report includes a number of Gatesfunded news outlets that also regularly feature in Project Censored’s annual Top 25 story lists, such as the Solutions Journalism Network ($7.2 million), The Conversation ($6.6 million), the Bureau of Investigative Journalism ($1 million), and ProPublica ($1 million) in addition to the Guardian and the Atlantic,” Project Censored noted. “Direct awards to news outlets often targeted specific issues, MacLeod reported. For example, CNN received $3.6 million to support ‘journalism on the everyday inequalities endured by women and girls across the world,’ according to one grant. Another grant earmarked $2.3 million for the Texas Tribune ‘to increase public awareness and engagement of education reform issues in Texas.’ As MacLeod noted, given Bill Gates’ advocacy of the charter school movement—which undermines teachers’ unions and effectively aims to privatize the public education system—‘a cynic might interpret this as planting pro-corporate charter school propaganda into the media, disguised as objective news reporting.’”
“[T]here are clear shortcomings with this non-exhaustive list, meaning the true figure is undoubtedly far higher. First, it does not count sub-grants—money given by recipients to media around the world,” because there’s no record of them, MacLeod reported.
“For a tax-privileged charity that so very often trumpets the importance of transparency, it’s remarkable how intensely secretive the Gates Foundation is about its financial flows,” Tim Schwab, one of the few investigative journalists who has scrutinized the tech billionaire, told MintPress
Also missing were grants aimed at producing articles for academic journals, although “they regularly form the basis for stories in the mainstream press and help shape narratives around key issues,” he noted. “The Gates Foundation has given far and wide to academic sources, with at least $13.6 million going toward creating content for the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.” And more broadly “even money given to universities for purely research projects eventually ends up in academic journals, and ultimately, downstream into mass media. … Neither these nor grants funding the printing of books or
establishment of websites counted in the total, although they too are forms of media.”
“No major corporate news outlets appear to have covered this issue,” only a scattering of independent outlets, Project Censored noted. This despite the fact that “As far back as 2011, the Seattle Times published an article investigating how the Gates Foundation’s ‘growing support of media organizations blurs the line between journalism and advocacy.’”
went so far that “Pompeo and others at the agency proposed abducting Assange from the embassy and surreptitiously bringing him back to the United States via a third country—a process known as rendition,” they reported. (Assassination entered the picture later on.) Since it would take place in Britain, there had to be agreement from them. “But the British said, ‘No way, you’re not doing that on our territory, that ain’t happening,’” a former senior counterintelligence official told Yahoo News.
“US plans to kidnap or assassinate Julian Assange have received little to no establishment news coverage in the United States, other than scant summaries by Business Insider and The Verge, and tangential coverage by Reuters, each based on the original Yahoo News report,” Project Censored notes. “Among US independent news outlets, Democracy Now! featured an interview with Michael Isikoff, one of the Yahoo News reporters who broke the story, and Jennifer Robinson, a human rights attorney who has been advising Julian Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010. Rolling Stone and The Hill also published articles based on the original Yahoo News report.”
The CIA seriously considered plans to kidnap or assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in late 2017, according to a September 2021 Yahoo News investigation, based on interviews with more than 30 former US officials, eight of whom detailed US plans to abduct Assange and three of whom described the development of plans to kill him. If it had been up to CIA Director Mike Pompeo, they almost certainly would have been acted on, after WikiLeaks announced it had obtained a massive tranche of files—dubbed “Vault 7”— from the CIA’s ultra-secret hacking division and posted some of them online.
In his first public remarks as Donald Trump’s CIA director, “Pompeo devoted much of his speech to the threat posed by WikiLeaks,” Yahoo News noted, “Rather than use the platform to give an overview of global challenges or to lay out any bureaucratic changes he was planning to make at the agency.” He even called it “a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” a designation intended to grant the CIA wide latitude in what actions it took, while shielding it from congressional oversight.
“Potential scenarios proposed by the CIA and Trump administration officials included crashing into a Russian vehicle carrying Assange in order to grab him, shooting the tires of an airplane carrying Assange in order to prevent its takeoff, and engaging in a gun battle through the streets of London,” Project Censored summarized. “Senior CIA officials went so far as to request ‘sketches’ or ‘options’ detailing methods to kill Assange.”
“WikiLeaks was a complete obsession of Pompeo’s,” a former Trump administration national security official told Yahoo News. “After Vault 7, Pompeo and [Deputy CIA Director Gina] Haspel wanted vengeance on Assange.” It
Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United relaxing campaign finance regulations, dark money spending has exploded, and now Republican lawmakers across the US are pushing legislation to make it illegal to compel nonprofit organizations to disclose who the dark money donors are. Recently-passed laws in Arkansas, Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia are based on model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which brings together corporate lobbyists and conservative lawmakers to advance special-interest, business-friendly legislation.
“ALEC is deeply enmeshed with the sprawling political influence networks tied to billionaire families like the Kochs and the Bradleys, both of which use non-disclosing nonprofits that help to conceal how money is funneled,” Donald Shaw reported for Sludge on June 15, 2021. “Penalties for violating the laws vary between the states,
but in some states could include prison sentences.”
“Shaw explained how these bills create a loophole allowing wealthy individuals and groups to pass ‘dark money’ anonymously to 501(c) organizations which in turn can make independent expenditures to influence elections (or contribute to other organizations that make independent political expenditures, such as Super PACs), effectively shielding the ultimate source of political funds from public scrutiny,” Project Censored summarized. “‘These bills are about making dark money darker,’ Aaron McKean, legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, told Shaw.”
The South Dakota law was overwhelmingly passed by the GOP-dominated legislature despite the fact that voters passed a 2016 ballot measure requiring disclosure of “the identity of donors who give more than $100 to organizations for the purpose of political expenditures,” a requirement the legislature repealed a year later, Shaw reported in February 2021.
There’s a federal impact as well. “In a March 2022 article for Sludge, Shaw documented that the federal omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2022 contained a rider exempting political groups that declare themselves ‘social welfare organizations’ from reporting their donors, and another preventing the Securities and Exchange Commission from ‘requiring corporations to publicly disclose more of their political and lobbying spending,’” Project Censored noted, going on to cite a May 2021 article from Open Secrets about Senate Republicans’ “Don’t Weaponize the IRS Act,” that “would prevent the IRS from requiring that 501(c)(4) nonprofits disclose their top donors.”
Democrats and good government groups have pushed back. “On April 27, 2021, thirty-eight Democratic senators sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig urging them to roll back an anti-disclosure rule put in place by the Trump Administration,” Project Censored reported. “In addition, the Democrats’ comprehensive voting-rights bill, the For the People Act, would have compelled the disclosure of all contributions by individuals who surpass $10,000 in donations in a given reporting period. The bill was passed by the House but died in the Senate.”
While there’s been some coverage of some aspects of this story—a Washington Post story about Democrats pressuring the Biden administration, the Associated
Press reporting on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s defense of her state’s law—except for regional papers like the Tampa Bay Times, Project Censored reports, “There has been little acknowledgment in the establishment press of the stream of ALEC-inspired bills passing through state legislatures that seek to keep the source of so much of the money spent to influence elections hidden in the shadows.”
CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC, Time, US News and World Report, the Washington Post, Vox, the Orlando Sentinel, Fox News, and dozens of other media companies,” Fang explained. “The privacy push has largely been framed as a showdown between technology companies and the administration,” but, “The lobbying reveals a tension that is rarely a center of the discourse around online privacy: Major media corporations increasingly rely on a vast ecosystem of privacy violations, even as the public relies on them to report on it.” As a result, “Major news outlets have remained mostly silent on the FTC’s current push and a parallel effort to ban surveillance advertising by the House and Senate by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-California, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey,” Fang concluded.
“Surveillance advertising”—collecting users’ data to target them with tailored advertising—has become a ubiquitous, extremely profitable practice on the world’s most popular social media apps and platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. But now, as Lee Fang reported for the Intercept in February 2022, the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is seeking to regulate user data collection. Lobbyists for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, or IAB are pushing back.
“In a letter, IAB called for the FTC to oppose a ban on data-driven advertising networks, claiming the modern media cannot exist without mass data collection,” Fang reported.
“The IAB represents both data brokers and online media outlets that depend on digital advertising, such as
“The IAB argues that targeted advertising—and, by extension, the siphoning of user data—has become necessary due to declining revenues from print sales and subscriptions,” Project Censored summarized. “Non-digital advertising revenue decreased from $124.8 billion in 2011 to $89.8 billion in 2020, while digital advertising revenue rose from $31.9 billion to $152.2 billion in the same period, according to Pew Research.” Complicating matters, “The personal information collected by online media is typically sold to aggregators, such as BlueKai (owned by Oracle) and OpenX, that exploit user data—including data describing minors—to create predictive models of users’ behavior, which are then sold to advertising agencies. The covert nature of surveillance advertising makes it difficult for users to opt out.” In addition, “The user information collected by media sites also enables direct manipulation of public perceptions of political issues, as famously happened when the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica tapped into personal data from millions of Facebook users to craft campaign propaganda during the 2016 US presidential election.”
“The corporate media have reported the FTC’s openness to new rules limiting the collection and exploitation of user data, but have generally not drawn attention to IAB lobbying against the proposed regulations,” Project Censored noted, citing articles in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post as examples “[N]either outlet discussed IAB, its lobbying on this issue, or the big media clients the organization represents.”
©Random Lengths News, a division of Beacon Light Press, 2022
There’s a certain stillness that only comes with a blanket of fresh snow. While the city has yet to experience deep snow this winter, deep stillness is already achievable.
The Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble presents In the Still of December as part of its 42nd season. Expect exquisite execution of familiar carols from Austria, Germany, France and Wales (think: “Still, Still, Still,” “In Dulci Jubilo;” “Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella;” and “Deck the Hall”), along with other winter-themed tunes. Plus, hear the world premiere of “A Christmas Telling of St. Bride of the Isles,” commissioned by the ensemble from composer Sarah Jaysmith. The bride in question is said to have been transported from Ireland across the sea by angels to attend the birth of Jesus over yonder in Bethlehem. What a ride! (Julie Ann Grimm)
Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble: In the Still of December: 3 pm, Saturday, Dec. 10 and 17, Sunday, Dec. 11 and 18. $25
First Presybterian Church, 208 Grant Ave. (505) 303-8648 sfwe.org
Oh, Santa Fe, where we have entire institutions dedicated to art—like the aptly named Santa Fe Art Institute, that glorious bastion of progressive and thoughtful creations, residencies, shows and so on. And yet, we can’t shake this inkling that not everyone knows what’s going on over there. Luckily, you’ll find an open house event this week end, complete with a site-specific musical/performance work from North Carolina-based artist Kamara Thomas dubbed Tularosa: An American Dreamtime. You’ll learn a thing or two about how the institute impacts our town’s arts and faraway artists; you’ll also get a chance to meet folks working within its hallowed halls, like locals Calixte Raifsnider, Laura Yu Hu and others. (Alex De Vore)
Holiday Open House: 5-8 pm Friday, Dec. 9. Free Santa Fe Art Institute, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive, sfai.org
In lieu of a traditional gift guide wherein SFR staffers would write kicky little things about what shops to peruse, see instead this week’s main pick and the very one you’re reading—this one dedicated to the seventh annual String of Lights market. It works like this: A veritable cavalcade of arts, crafts and service-based booths descend upon Tumbleroot for the rootin-est’, tootin’-est bunch of locally- and artisan-made stuff you can find anywhere. Sure, you could gift a slightly larger television or, like, a bathrobe, but wouldn’t you rather support the local makers, alchemists, stationers, artists and such from Matron Design, Tia Coco Chocolates, Heidi K Brandow and beyond? Yeah, you would. (ADV)
String of Lights: Noon-5 pm Saturday, Dec. 10 and Sunday, Dec. 11. Free. Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St., (505) 303-3808
As the season of high-intensity shopping once again looms over Santa Fe, folks aim ing to create social impact with their gifts are hunting down wares from local cre ators of color. But in the wake of SWIAIA’s increasingly fraught sway over Santa Fe’s Indigenous art scene, it can be tricky to suss out how and where to appropriately support Native artists outside the internet. That’s especially true for those of us with limited budgets (the Indian Market artists who make five figures per piece absolutely deserve every cent, but not everyone can swing those prices)—or for people trying to prioritize organizations founded directly by Indigenous people.
The Santa Fe Indigenous Center’s Holiday Bazaar is the newest and per haps most accessible answer. The cen ter—which is founded and run entirely by and for Native folks—may be best known for its bi-weekly food distribution events, which aim to reduce food insecurity for Indigenous people in Santa Fe County. The center also offers emergency financial assistance, collects mental health resourc es and connects those in need to special ized services. And among the multitude
of holiday craft markets and pop-ups, the organization’s first annual Bazaar stands out as much for the inclusive ethos it rep resents as for the art it offers.
“This a unique economic opportunity that we’re providing for our people that live in Santa Fe County. We’ve opened the show up to any type of Native crafts. It could be [anything from] jewelry, pot tery, paintings, to holiday arts and crafts and baked goods,” Director Caren Gala (Laguna, Taos and Nambé Pueblo) tells SFR, noting that among its roughly 40 booths there will be plenty of opportuni ties to fill up on Frito pies. “We’re charging a minimal booth fee of $30, which goes to the organization, but as far as sales, artists will keep 100%. We’ll also have a booth for the center; people donate to us all the time, so we’re also going to be selling some of the art that we’ve gathered over the year.” (Siena Sofia Bergt)
9 am-4 pm Saturday, Dec. 10. Free
Santa Fe Indigenous Center 1420 Cerrillos Road (505) 660-4210
Santa Fe Indigenous Center brings communalism to the holiday craft fair
ART 1111: MANIFEST
Vital Spaces Midtown Annex 1600 St. Michael’s Drive vitalspaces.org Writings, drawings and more. 5-8 pm, Weds-Thurs; 3-7 pm, Fri; Noon-4 pm, Sat, free
A NEW MEXICAN BURIAL
No Name Cinema 2013 Pinon St. nonamecinema.org Photo survey of cemeteries. During events or by appt., free
ANDREW FISHER: ILLUMINATIONS
LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta (505) 988-3250
Gilded tapestries merge boldness with a delicate touch. 10 am-6 pm, Mon-Fri; 10 am-5 pm, Sat, free
ART IS GALLERY: GROUP EXHIBIT art is gallery santa fe 419 Canyon Road (505) 629-2332
The group is huge. Know that. 10 am-5 pm
CAMILLE HOFFMAN: MOTHERLANDS form & concept 435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 216-1256
Transmuted landscapes. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
CATHERINE EATON SKINNER: EARTH AT OUR BACKS
Pie Projects 924B Shoofly St., (505) 372-7681 Encaustic painting and beyond. 11 am-5 pm, Tue-Sat, free
DENNIS MIRANDA: THE MASK NEVER LIES
LewAllen Galleries 1613 Paseo de Peralta (505) 988-3250
Engravings meet caricature. 10 am-6 pm, Mon-Fri; 10 am-5 pm, Sat, free
EARTH’S OTHER Currents 826 826 Canyon Road (505) 772-0953
Earth and otherworldliness. Noon-5 pm, Thurs-Sun, free
ENCHANTED LAND Cafe Pasqual’s Gallery 103 E Water St., Second Floor (505) 983-9340
A group show featuring carved figures, photos, watercolors and more.
10 am-5 pm, free
ESSENTIALLY ISENHOUR
Ventana Fine Art 400 Canyon Road (505) 983-8815
The peaceful solitude of abandoned buildings. 9:30 am-5 pm, free
GIFTED HOLIDAY POP-UP
GEORGIA ELECTRA 825 Early St., Ste. D (505) 231-0354
Marble, bronze, photography, painting, jewelry, and more. 10 am-4 pm, Sat-Sun, free
Turner Carroll Gallery 725 Canyon Road Ste. A (505) 986-9800
Inspired by a single peony from the artist’s mother’s garden. 10 am-5 pm, free
HOLDING THE EDGE FOMA Gallery 333 Montezuma Ave., Ste. B (505) 660-0121
Literal and figurative fracturing. 11 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
I’LL
ANDREW SHEARS
Evoke Contemporary 550 S. Guadalupe St. (505) 995-9902
Intimate dream imagery. 10 am-5 pm, free
SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Immersive, interactive digital art. 10 am-5 pm, Thurs-Mon, free
JANE
Strata Gallery
418 Cerrillos Road, Ste. 1C (505) 780-5403
Pastels from the artist/poet. 10 am-5 pm, free
We’d love to hear from you. Send notices via email to calendar@sfreporter.com.
Make sure you include all the pertinent details such as location, time, price and so forth. It helps us out greatly.
ONE-OF-A-KIND II
Obscura Gallery 1405 Paseo De Peralta (505) 577-6708
Unique photo-based artworks. 11 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free OUTRIDERS: LEGACY OF THE BLACK COWBOY
Harwood Museum of Art 238 Ledoux St., Taos (575) 758-9826
Images of cattle rustlers with African heritage.
11 am-5 pm, free REGALOS
Hecho Gallery 129 W Palace Ave. (505) 455-6882
UNDER A ROCK, ALONG THE SHORE
form & concept 435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 216-1256
Alternative approaches to depicting landscape and the body.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
WENDY FAY & MARY OLSON: 40TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW
El Zaguán
545 Canyon Road (505) 982-0016
A joint show from artists and educators Fay (a painter) and Olson (a sculptor). 9 am-5 pm, free
JARED WEISS: THE PARTY’S OVER Ellsworth Gallery
215 E Palace Ave (505) 989-7900
Strange moments in the desert. 10 am-5 pm, free JERRY UELSMANN
Scheinbaum and Russek 812 Camino Acoma (505) 988-5116
Exploring the late surrealist. By appt., free
KELLY SENA: FOR THE WILD
Foto Forum Santa Fe 1714 Paseo de Peralta (505) 470-2582
Landscapes born from correspondence with incarcerated activists.
12:30-5 pm, Tues; Noon-5 pm, Thurs-Fri, free
MARK HEINE: SONG OF THE SIREN
Keep Contemporary 142 Lincoln Ave. (505) 557-9574
Heine explores the symbolism of sirens.
11 am-5 pm, Wed-Sat; Noon-5 pm, Sun, free
MAX COLE: ENDLESS JOURNEY
SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Paintings and works on paper spanning 1962-2022.
10 am-5 pm, Thurs-Mon, free
MEGAN BENT: PATIENT/ BELONGINGS form & concept
435 S Guadalupe St. (505) 216-1256
Meditations on the artist’s experience as a disabled person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
MICHAEL & SANDY KADISAK: WILD THINGS Wild Hearts Gallery
221 B Highway 165, Placitas (505) 867-2450
Ceramic pieces inspired by the natural world.
Tue-Fri, 10 am-4 pm; Sat-Sun 10 am-2 pm, free
NEAL AMBROSE-SMITH: CULTURE HACK
Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art 558 Canyon Road (505) 992-0711
Figurative icons meet geometric patterns from Salish blankets. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sat, free
A juried show of artists living and working in New Mexico. 10 am-5 pm, Weds-Sat, free RITES OF PASSAGE: RAVEN|BLACKWOLF|WHITE BUFFALO
FaraHNHeight Fine Art 54 E San Francisco St., #4 (575) 751-4278
Indigenous fine art group show. 11 am-6 pm, Fri-Mon, free
Patina Gallery 131 W Palace Ave. (505) 986-3432
Exploring Marcel Breuer’s architecture through sculpture. 11 am-5 pm, free
SANDRO GEBERT: IDEOGRAMER
Gebert Contemporary 558 Canyon Road (505) 992-1100
Contemporary 2D mixed media. 10 am-5 pm, free
SHIRIN NESHAT: LAND OF DREAMS
SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Pics of New Mexicans embellished with Farsi calligraphy. 10 am-5 pm, Thurs-Mon, free
THE SPELL: THE MAGIC OF WORDS AND IMAGERY
Santa Fe Community College Visual Arts Gallery 6401 Richards Ave. (505) 428-1000
Celebrating the artistic inspiration of the written word.
8 am-5 pm, Mon-Fri, free
A SPOON TO DARK MATTER
Susan Eddings Pérez Galley 717 Canyon Road (505) 477-4ART
Paper and stained-glass explorations of identity and sexuality.
10 am-5 pm, free
THE THREE OF US Santa Fe Public Library Main Branch 145 Washington Ave. (505) 955-6780
Paintings and photographs. 10 am-8 pm, Tues-Thurs; 10 am-6 pm, Fri-Sat, free
THE TONY VACCARO CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION
Monroe Gallery of Photography 112 Don Gaspar Ave. (505) 992-0800
A celebration of the acclaimed photographer’s 100th birthday.
10 am-5 pm, free
GEEKS WHO DRINK
Second Street Brewery (Railyard) 1607 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-3278
UK-style pub quiz. 8-10 pm, free
LAS POSADAS
San Miguel Chapel 401 Old Santa Fe Trail (505) 983-3974
La Sociedad Folklorica keeps this traditional devotional alive. 5:15-7 pm, free
OPEN MIC
Alas de Agua Art Collective 1520 Center Drive, Ste. 2 alasdeagua.com
The collective’s last open mic of the season.
5-7 pm, free
PLAY PICHENOTTE!
Santa Fe Children's Museum 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 989-8359
Improve those developing motor skills with disc throwing. 4-6 pm, free
SFCC GLASS CLUB SALE
Santa Fe Community College 6401 Richards Ave. (505) 428-1000
Handblown gifts, anyone? 10 am-4 pm, free
SANTA FE FOODIES TOY DRIVE HAPPY HOUR
The Alley 153 Paseo de Peralta (505) 500-8222
Nosh and sip while dropping off toys for the Northern NM Toy Drive.
5-7 pm, free
TAOS AVALANCHE CENTER
FUNDRAISER
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
Support the local extreme weather resource center while watching Spirit of the Peaks 6 pm, $10
WEE WEDNESDAYS
Santa Fe Children's Museum 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 989-8359
Story time for the little ones centered around fun weekly themes. This week's it’s snowflakes.
10:30-11:30 am, free
can consistently feel comfortable playing. Musicians do a good job creating the community they need, but we’re trying to give them something extra...a little sugar, a little sweetener.
We all learned after COVID that you’ve gotta have patio game, and I think the entire world benefitted from having more indoor/outdoor spaces. We combined the vision for Honeymoon’s needs and to create something special for musicians.
Does this mean we’ll see more events?
Enjoy a walk along the river trail with your pup
Cook out under the Pavilion beneath enchanting Santa Fe skies
Relax by the Pool and make dinner in the Pizza Oven Work-out any time in the fully equipped Fitness Center Plant herbs in the Community Garden
Listen to music in the Gathering Area And.. Love Where You Live!
Unique Apartment Homes Along the Santa Fe River Taking Applications for Occupancy in Early 2023
Call the Leasing O ce at 505.474.0001 or Email us at leasing@acequialofts.com for more details.
2725 Agua Fria Street Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 AcequiaLofts.com
Honeymoon Brewery (907 W Alameda St., Unit B, (505) 303-3139) has always supported Santa Fe musicians while serving up some of our fair city’s finest hard kombuchas and local beers. Then came the pandemic (blah, blah, blah, we’re all sick of hearing about that part) and major changes for how all food and drink businesses stayed open. According to Honeymoon co-founder Ayla Bystrom-Williams, though, learning the value of solid outdoor and indoor/outdoor seating has changed the game, and that’s why she and others from the brewery plan to build a new removable structure for making the great outdoors feel a little nicer—while creating a better place for performers to do their thing. We caught up with Williams to learn how she plans to make that happen, and it all starts with a benefit event on Friday, Dec. 9 (6 pm, free) with acts like The Spiraling Buds and Steve Rydeen—plus a $5 raffle for exciting prizes such as a $75 Paper Dosa dinner. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. (Alex De Vore)
OK. Hit me—what’s going down at Honeymoon?
We recently started working with [bartender] Kyle Perkins, and he’s been doing all the music at Honeymoon. I met Kyle about six years ago when he was busking in front of the co-op; when Honeymoon first opened, he started playing regular shows here. After the pandemic, we hired him, and he has a really interesting connection to musicians in town and a vision that is really cool. After he started bartending at Honeymoon, he wanted to help getting the music scene going again, because things haven’t gotten back to normal since COVID— understandably so. But we’ve been doing music here and, he was like, ‘I think we should do a fundraiser, not only to help Honeymoon, but that supports the small music scene.’ We know one of the points for musicians, especially after COVID, is to not have a lot of places where they
I don’t know about more, but with Kyle’s energy and connections, we’re looking to do more consistent things, and definitely that are more thought through. Special stuff. But as we change with the seasons we’re filling out what’s going on. It’s kind of a combination of what people are looking to see when it comes to live music, and what do they need to do that? What do musicians need? We’re a small space so it’s crazy we even have music at all. We really started the music thing when Raashan [Ahmad] did the first Love & Happiness [DJ] thing. That was so organic, so after that, we couldn’t stop, even if we were telling people, ‘You know we’re small?’
We’re building a space that’s more like a greenhouse. It’s going to not be a permanent structure, but we’re going to make it conducive for people to sit out there and perform out there. We’re just trying to fill a void with a space that’s comfortable and that feels like outside, but has electricity and heat. It’s stuff I see in other cities, for sure. When we had musicians want to play here after COVID, 90% wanted to be outside, but if the weather changes it’s...hard for DJs to perform when it’s windy, or stringed players to play when it’s cold.
Are you hoping anyone can get involved? Yeah, definitely. I think that there’s a lot of gray area in terms of how the space can be used. We‘re curious to see if people want to use the space as they need, be it an event, a performer, an album release party. It’s super-small, and I think everyone knows we’re small, but we’re trying to make it as functional and useful as possible.
I learned from my days of going to shows in Seattle that sometimes small can be an advantage in terms of building the right kind of vibe. This is why we continue to do music here. Kyle also spent time in Seattle, so we both have this appreciation for, ‘Let’s have this little space, make it vibey, try to give people a really good experience for what it is.’
The benefit is to help pay for the lumber and pay [artist] Christopher Merlyn to do a mural on the [floor of the structure]. But I want to be clear that we want to keep our shows free. We’re really trying to be that kind of space where we’re accessible to everyone.
ATAKRA
Altar Spirits
545 Camino de la Familia (505) 916-8596
The goth/darkwave you crave. 7:30-10:30 pm, free KARAOKE NIGHT Boxcar
530 S Guadalupe St. (505) 988-7222
Classic karaoke options. 10 pm, free
MARION CARRILLO
Cowgirl
319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Singer-songwriter—a term you’ll hear a lot in regards to shows at the Cowgirl. 4-6 pm, free
NATURAL LITE
El Rey Court 1862 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-1931
Subversions of honky-tonk. 8-10 pm, free
The Mineshaft 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
Join O.G. Willikers & DJ D-monic every first Wednesday. 7-11 pm, free
TRAVIATA ENCORE
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
Piave and Verdi’s tale of upper echelon love gone weird. 6 pm, $0-$22
THE PHYSICAL GREEK
CHORUS
Theater Grottesco Studio 8380 Cerrillos Road, Ste. 404 (505) 474-8400
An exploration of the Greek chorus as an entity that moves as one. Part of a four day masterclass.
10 am-noon, 3-4:30 pm, $500
TODDLER STORYTIME
Vista Grande Public Library
14 Avenida Torreon, Eldorado (505) 466-7323
Books for toddlers—win/win. 10:30 am, free
GEEKS WHO DRINK
Social Kitchen & Bar
725 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-5952
UK-style pub quiz.
7-9 pm, free
PAJAMA STORYTIME
Santa Fe Public Library Southside 6599 Jaguar Drive (505) 955-2820
Cozy storytime for families with children ages 5 and under.
6:30-7:30 pm, free
Railyard Plaza Market and Alcaldesa St. (505) 982-3373
A socially-paced bike ride. 7 pm, free
SEEDS AND SPROUTS
Santa Fe Children's Museum 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 989-8359
Craft ornaments with the kids. 10:30-11:30 am, free
STORY SLAM
Second Street Brewery (Rufina Taproom) 2920 Rufina St., (505) 954-1068
Share five-minute stories on the monthly theme: roots. 7-9 pm, free
BRONZE AND CERAMICS BY ROBERT BRUBAKER (OPENING)
art is gallery santa fe 419 Canyon Road (505) 629-2332
Anthropomorphic sculptures. 4 am-6 pm, free
GERD J. KUNDE: CAPTURING NEW MEXICO (OPENING)
Zalma Lofton Gallery 407 South Guadalupe St. (505) 670-5179 New Mexico in black and white. 5-9 pm, free
HAT RANCH GALLERY: GROUP SHOW (OPENING)
LITTLEGLOBE
Santa Fe Public Library Southside 6599 Jaguar Drive (505) 955-2820
Local shorts, skits and more. 7 pm, free
BOB MAUS
Cava Lounge, Eldorado Hotel 309 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-4455 Blues and soul. 6-9 pm, free
INFECTED
Hat Ranch Gallery 27 San Marcos Road W (505) 424-3391
New works from 11 artists. 4-7 pm, free
JANE SHOENFELD: PAREIDOLIA READING Strata Gallery 418 Cerrillos Road, Ste. 1C (505) 780-5403
A poetry reading as part of the artist’s solo exhibition. 5 pm, free
Meow Wolf 1352 Rufina Circle (505) 395-6369
World-renowned DJ duo. 8 pm, $45
TROY BROWNE
Cowgirl 319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Singer-songwriter. See? They’re always over at the ol’ C-Girl. 4-6 pm, free
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
Santa Fe Playhouse 142 E De Vargas St. (505) 988-4262
The bond between a frog and his toad never dies.
7:30 pm, $15-$75
BATHSHEBA
Downtown Santa Fe exodusensemble.com Immersive biblical thriller. Email exodus@exodusensemble.com and they’ll share the address. 7 pm, free
Circle Round Boutique 4486 Corrales Road, Corrales (505) 897-7004
Discuss favorite ways to meditate. No proselytizing allowed. 5:30-7 pm, free
SLOW YOGA
Circle Round Boutique 4486 Corrales Road, Corrales (505) 897-7004
Gentle, low pressure yoga. 4-5 pm, $5
EARTH DANCE BODY 333 West Cordova Road (415) 265-0299 An immersive dance party. 7-8:30 pm, $10
ENTREFLAMENCO: CHRISTMAS SEASON 2022
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave. (505) 209-1302 Castanets for Christmas. 6:15 pm, $25-$45
FINE ART FRIDAYS
Santa Fe Children's Museum 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 989-8359
Kiddos get to paint with sound. 2-4 pm, free
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
The Santa Fe Art Institute 1600 St. Michael’s Drive (505) 424-5050
Learn about SFAI's programs and shop for presents. (See SFR Picks, page 21)
5-8 pm, free
HONEYMOON CONCERT
Honeymoon Brewery 907 W Alameda, Unit B (505) 303-3139
Show the venue some lovewhile listening to Nostalgic Pilgrims and more. (see 3 Qs, page 24) 6 pm, free
LIGHT AMONG THE RUINS
Jemez Historic Site 18160 Hwy. 4, Jemez Springs (575) 829-3530
Ruins get lit for the holidays. 5-9 pm, $10-$20
Join The Santa Fe Symphony for its annual Holiday pops concert at The Lensic led by Maestro Guillermo Figueroa! Bring the entire family for this brilliant program packed with winter favorites and the outstanding “future players” at the Santa Fe Youth Symphony for some fun “side-byside” performances. No children under 6 years old. Tickets start at $22. Kids 6 to 14 half price—available at 505.983.1414.
Santa Fe Spirits Distillery 7505 Mallard Way, Ste. 1 (505) 467-8892
Snacks, cocktails and discounts. 4:30-7:30 pm, free
CHANCEL BELL CHOIR
First Presbyterian Church 208 Grant Ave., (505) 982-8544
The world premiere of Beatty's Midwinter Scenes arrangement. 5:30 pm, free
Cowgirl 319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Singer-songwriter. You get it. 4-6 pm, free
SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Saxophonist Horace Young gets so Christmassy it's nuts. 6:30 pm, $25-$30
SCROOGE!
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St (505) 988-1234
The NM Gay Men's Chorus takes on the 1970 musical. 7:30 pm, $20
The Mineshaft 2846 Hwy. 14, Madrid (505) 473-0743
We're told these tunes will be "surf-edelic." 8-11 pm, free
WINTER SCENES
Harwood Museum of Art 238 Ledoux St., Taos (575) 758-9826
A snow-infused piano repertoire. 5:30 pm, free
10TH ANNUAL A MUSICAL PIÑATA FOR CHRISTMAS
Teatro Paraguas 3205 Calle Marie, (505) 424-1601
The extravaganza returns with poetry, skits and Santa Claus. 7 pm, $15
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
Santa Fe Playhouse 142 E De Vargas St. (505) 988-4262
Can a frog really be friends with a toad he finds attractive?
7:30 pm, $15-$75
COCK
Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528
John meets his dreamgirl while on a break from his boyfriend.
7:30-9:15 pm, $20-$50
ROADRUNNER RUNWAY: OFF WITH HIS HEAD!
Roots & Leaves Casa de Kava 301 N Guadalupe St. (720) 804-9379
Join your favorite enby emcee to protest the church of greed and excess.
7 pm, free
MANDELA SCHOOL ART SHOW AND CRAFT FAIR
Mandela International Magnet School 1604 Agua Fría St. (505) 467-1901
Check out 40 booths of local art, from jewelry to pottery.
9:30 am-3:30 pm, free
SANTA FE ARTISTS MARKET
In the West Casitas, north of the water tower 1612 Alcaldesa St. (505) 983-4098
Weekly outdoor art market. 9 am-2 pm, free
9TH ANNUAL GUADALUPE GROUP ART SHOW
Eye on the Mountain Art Gallery 614 Agua Fría St. (928) 308-0319
'Tis the Season for all (multimedia) things Guadalupe. 5-8 pm, free
WILD THINGS (RECEPTION)
Wild Hearts Gallery 221 B Hwy. 165, Placitas (505) 867-2450
Ceramic pieces inspired by the natural world. 1-4 pm, free
CONTRA DANCE
Odd Fellows Hall 1125 Cerrillos Road (505) 690-4165
Bring your proverbial dance card and literal vax card. No partner needed.
7 pm, $5-$10
ENTREFLAMENCO: CHRISTMAS SEASON 2022
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave. (505) 209-1302
Dinner tickets available. 6:15 pm, $25-$45
IAIA HOLIDAY ART MARKET
Institute of American Indian Arts 83 Avan Nu Po Road (505) 424-2351
SFCC and IAIA team up for a double holiday art market. 9 am-4 pm, free
INDIGENOUS HOLIDAY BAZAAR
Santa Fe Indigenous Center 1420 Cerrillos Road (505) 660-4210
Buy your gifts from local Native artists. (See SFR Picks, page 21) 9 am-4 pm, free
LIGHT AMONG THE RUINS
Jemez Historic Site 18160 Hwy. 4, Jemez Springs (575) 829-3530
BOB MAUS
Inn & Spa at Loretto
211 Old Santa Fe Trail (505) 988-5531
Blues-infused songwriting. 6-9 pm, free
CHATTER (IN)SITE: STRANGE LOOPS
SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Anna Clyne and Ohori’s coffee.
10:30 am, $5-$20
JOURNEY INTO WINTER
Harwood Museum of Art 238 Ledoux St., Taos (575) 758-9826
Rachmaninoff and more.
5:30 pm, $12-$30
COCK
Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528
Directed by Zoe Burke. 7:30-9:15 pm, $20-$50
JAYSON
Downtown Santa Fe exodusensemble.com Exodus Ensemble does modern-day Medea. Ages 18+. Email exodus@exodusensemble.com to sign up and get the address.
7 pm, free
SCHMOOZING WITH GOD AND OTHER PLAYS
Teatro Paraguas
BACA
Baca Street Pottery 730 Baca St., (505) 204-6346
Handmade, functional pieces. 10 am-5 pm, free
El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe 555 Camino de la Familia (505) 992-0591
An eclectic collection of art and antiques. 8 am-4 pm, free
FLEXI-VERSE
Meow Wolf 1352 Rufina Circle (505) 395-6369 Yoga flow and sound bath. 8 am, $35
Santa Fe Public Library Southside 6599 Jaguar Drive (505) 955-2820
Come in costume to get sorted, decorate wands and watch Return to Hogwarts 1-4 pm, free
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
New Mexico Museum of Art 107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5072
Teatro Duende's marionette show, the Youth Symphony Jazz Ensemble and Santa selfies. 11 am-4 pm, free
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
New Mexico History Museum 113 Lincoln Ave., (505) 476-5100
Ornament-making and performances from Coro de Agua Fria. 11 am-4 pm, free
The ruins get lit for the holidays. 5-9 pm, $10-$20
SFCC HOLIDAY FAIR
Santa Fe Community College 6401 Richards Ave. (505) 428-1000
SFCC and IAIA team up for a double holiday art market. 9 am-4 pm, free
SCIENCE SATURDAYS
Santa Fe Children's Museum 1050 Old Pecos Trail (505) 989-8359 Check out the new planetarium. 2-4 pm, free
STRING OF LIGHTS 2022
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
More than 60 makers. (See SFR Picks, page 21) Noon-5 pm, free
MEXICAN CHRISTMAS COOKING CLASS
Open Kitchen 227 Don Gaspar Ave. openkitchenevents.com
Make mole and other festive specialties. Register online in advance. 10 am-1 pm, $115
RYANHOOD
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
The acoustic duo's holiday show. 7:30 pm, $20
LUMINATRIX AND LALIAS Skate School
825 Early St., (505) 474-0074
Preview the new album.
7:30-10 pm, $12
THE MET: LIVE IN HD—THE HOURS
Lensic Performing Arts Center
211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
Like the movie, but minus Kidman’s prosthetic nose. 11 am, 6 pm, $22-$28
RON ROUGEAU
Pink Adobe
406 Old Santa Fe Trail (505) 983-7712
Acoustic ‘60s and ‘70s tunes.
5:30-7:30 pm, free
First Presbyterian Church 208 Grant Ave., (505) 982-8544
World premiere of A Christmas Telling of St. Bride of the Isles (See SFR Picks, page 21) 3 pm, $10-$25
10TH ANNUAL A MUSICAL PIÑATA FOR CHRISTMAS
Teatro Paraguas
3205 Calle Marie, (505) 424-1601
Poetry, skits and Santa sightings. 2 pm, $15
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
Santa Fe Playhouse
142 E De Vargas St. (505) 988-4262
Frogs. Toads. Friendship. 2 pm, 7:30 pm, $15-$75
3205 Calle Marie, (505) 424-1601 A staged reading of three plays by Jerry Labinger.
7:30 pm, free
HOW TO BE COMPASSIONATE: A HANDBOOK FOR CREATING INNER PEACE AND A HAPPIER WORLD
Thubten Norbu Ling Buddhist Center
130 Rabbit Road, (505) 660-7056
Using the Dalai Lama's beloved book to overcome anger. 7-8:30 pm, free
SOUND HEALING: AN INSTINCTUAL MODALITY
Fruit Of The Earth Natural Health 909 Early St. (505) 310-7917
Explore sound healing and how it can be used to remove blocks. 1:30-3 pm, free
YOUR SOUL'S MISSION Prana Blessings 1925 Rosina St., Ste. C (505) 772-0171
We’ve heard you’ll learn about your karmic purpose. 10 am-12:30 pm, $100
9TH ANNUAL GUADALUPE GROUP ART SHOW
Eye on the Mountain Art Gallery 614 Agua Fría St. (928) 308-0319
All things Guadalupe. 11 am-6 pm, free
Wild Hearts Gallery 221 B Hwy. 165, Placitas (505) 867-2450
Nature-inspired ceramics. 1-4 pm, free
POETRY READING WITH JOANNE DOMINIQUE DWYER
Teatro Paraguas 3205 Calle Marie, (505) 424-1601 Dwyer reads from RASA 5 pm, free
ENTREFLAMENCO:
CHRISTMAS SEASON 2022
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave. (505) 209-1302 Get clacking. 6:15 pm, $25-$45
46TH ANNUAL LAS POSADAS
Santa Fe Plaza 63 Lincoln Ave.
Light a candle, yell at Mary and watch out for rooftop diablitos. 5:30 pm, free
BACA STREET POTTERY HOLIDAY SALE
Baca Street Pottery 730 Baca St., (505) 204-6346 Handmade, functional pieces. 10 am-3 pm, free
El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe 555 Camino de la Familia (505) 992-0591
Art and antiques. 10 am-4 pm, free
AUCTION AND CELEBRATION
SITE Santa Fe 1606 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-1199
Drink Champagne (and buy art) to support local artists’ medical costs.
3-5 pm, free
SAN MIGUEL CHAPEL
San Miguel Chapel 401 Old Santa Fe Trail (505) 983-3974
Learn to be a volunteer docent. 12-3 pm, free
SLEEPY SUNDAY OPEN MIC
Travel Bug Coffee Shop
839 Paseo de Peralta (505) 992-0418
Share stories, poems, etc. Time limit is a firm seven minutes.
4-6 pm, free
STRING OF LIGHTS 2022
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808
More than 60 makers. 12-5 pm, free
WINTER WONDERLAND: UGLY SWEATER DANCE
PARTY
El Rey Court 1862 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-1931
Seems fun, if potentially very sweaty.
5-7 pm, free
ARMED FOR THE APOCALYPSE
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 2791 Agua Fría St. (505) 303-3808 Sludge metal. 7 pm, $10
BILL HEARNE
La Fonda on the Plaza 100 E San Francisco St. (505) 982-5511
Americana, roots and country. 7-9 pm, free
DK & THE AFFORDABLES
Cowgirl 319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Southwestern rockabilly jams. 12-3 pm, free
JOURNEY INTO WINTER
Harwood Museum of Art 238 Ledoux St., Taos (575) 758-9826
Rachmaninoff and more. 5:30 pm, $12-$30
ROSY NOLAN
El Rey Court 1862 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-1931
Country-ish songwriting. 7-9 pm, free
SF WOMEN'S ENSEMBLE: IN THE STILL OF DECEMBER
First Presbyterian Church 208 Grant Ave., (505) 982-8544
European carols—and a world premiere. (See SFR Picks, page 21) 3 pm, $10-$25
THE PIPER JONES BAND op.cit Books
DeVargas Center 157 Paseo de Peralta (505) 428-0321
Celtic dance tunes at one of the coolest bookstores in the land. 2:30 pm, $20 suggested donation.
THE SANTA FE SYMPHONY: SOUNDS OF THE SEASON
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
Winter favorites for the family. 4 pm, $22-$80
10TH ANNUAL A MUSICAL PIÑATA FOR CHRISTMAS
Teatro Paraguas 3205 Calle Marie, (505) 424-1601
The holiday extravaganza returns. 2 pm, $15
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
Santa Fe Playhouse 142 E De Vargas St. (505) 988-4262
Frogs. Toads. Friendship. 2 pm, $15-$75
BEDTIME STORIES: NAUGHTY OR NICE
Meow Wolf 1352 Rufina Circle (505) 395-6369
Why dream of sugarplums when you could watch neo-burlesque? 8 pm, $27
COCK
Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528
Directed by Zoe Burke. 5 pm, $20-$50
DRAG BRUNCH
Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528
Nothing beats it. NOTHING. 11 am-5 pm, $20-$50
JAYSON
Downtown Santa Fe exodusensemble.com Modern Medea. Ages 18+. Email exodus@exodusensemble.com to sign up and get the address. 7 pm, free
CULTIVATING LOVE, COMPASSION, AND INNER STRENGTH IN OUR DAILY LIVES
Thubten Norbu Ling Buddhist Center 130 Rabbit Road, (505) 660-7056 Explore the primary qualities of buddha-nature. 10-11:30 am, free
ENTREFLAMENCO:
CHRISTMAS SEASON 2022
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave. (505) 209-1302 Seasonal stomping and such. 6:15 pm, $25-$45
SANTA FE SWING
Odd Fellows Hall 1125 Cerrillos Road (505) 690-4165
$8 for the class and for the dance, $3 for just the dance. 7 pm, $3-$8
GEEKS WHO DRINK
Jean Cocteau Cinema 418 Montezuma Ave. (505) 466-5528 New prizes every week. 7-9pm, free
BILL HEARNE Cowgirl
319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565 Americana, roots and country. 4-6 pm, free
BILL HEARNE @ COWGIRL BBQ Cowgirl
319 S Guadalupe St. (505) 982-2565
Americana, roots and country. 4-6 pm, free
QUEER NIGHT WITH VELVET VISION
El Rey Court 1862 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-1931
Synthy, emotive pop excellence. 7-9 pm, free
A JOHN WATERS CHRISTMAS
Lensic Performing Arts Center 211 W San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234
The Pope of Trash warns attendees against Manger Danger. 8 pm, $35-$145
A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD
Santa Fe Playhouse
142 E De Vargas St. (505) 988-4262
Frogs. Toads. Friendship. This show has it all.
7:30 pm, $15-$75
ENTREFLAMENCO: CHRISTMAS SEASON 2022
El Flamenco Cabaret 135 W Palace Ave.
Dinner tickets available. 6:15 pm, $25-$45
GEEKS WHO DRINK TRIVIA
Santa Fe Brewing Company 35 Fire Place, (505) 424-3333 UK-style pub quiz. 7-9 pm, free
LAST STOP COMEDY NIGHT
Second Street Brewery (Railyard) 1607 Paseo de Peralta (505) 989-3278
Fresh jokes and brews. 7:30 pm, free
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM
217 Johnson St. (505) 946-1000
Radical Abstraction. Selections from the Collection. Spotlight on Spring.
10 am-5 pm, Thurs-Mon, $20 (under 18 free)
IAIA MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY NATIVE ARTS
108 Cathedral Place (505) 983-8900
Athena LaTocha: Mesabi Redux. Matrilineal: Legacies of Our Mothers. Art of Indigenous Fashion.
10 am-4 pm, Wed-Sat, Mon 11 am-4 pm, Sun, $5-$10
MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE
706 Camino Lejo (505) 476-1200
Grounded in Clay. ReVOlution. Here, Now and Always. Painted Reflections.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $3-$9
MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART
706 Camino Lejo (505) 476-1200
Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia. Fashioning Identities. #mask. Yokai: Ghosts & Demons of Japan.
10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $3-$12
NEW MEXICO HISTORY
MUSEUM
113 Lincoln Ave. (505) 476-5200
Honoring Tradition and Innovation. The First World War. The Massacre of Don Pedro Villasur. The Palace Seen and Unseen. Righting a Wrong. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $7-$12, NM residents free 5-7 pm first Fri of the month
NM GOVERNOR'S MANSION HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE
New Mexico Governor's Mansion One Mansion Drive (301) 318-0940
Peek at the holiday decorations and art collection. There’ll be docents on hand to answer any burning NM history questions you might have, too. 1-3 pm, free
TOASTY TUESDAYS AT LA REINA
El Rey Court 1862 Cerrillos Road (505) 982-1931
Signature cocktails and s’mores. 5-11 pm, free
CHRISTMAS IN SANTA FE
San Miguel Mission 401 Old Santa Fe Trail (505) 983-3974
Schola returns for an evening of medieval music.
6:30-7:15 pm, $25-$30
KELLY HUNT
GiG Performance Space 1808 Second St. Folk and blues. 7:30 pm, $25
THE SANTA FE SYMPHONY CHORUS: CAROLS AND CHORUSES
Cathedral Basilica 131 Cathedral Place (505) 982-5619
The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus and Symphony Brass & Organ team up for an evening of classic carols.
6:15 pm, free
BE YOUR OWN THERAPIST
Thubten Norbu Ling Buddhist Center
130 Rabbit Road, (505) 660-7056 Learn to identify and unpack emotions. 7-8 pm, free
PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS: THE MAGICAL PRACTICE OF TAKING AND GIVING
Zoetic 230 St. Francis Drive (505) 292-5293
Holiday high expectations are stressful and bring disappointment. Practice caring about others with Buddha’s teaching. 6-7:30 pm, $10
MUSEUM
750 Camino Lejo (505) 982-2226
Pueblo-Spanish Revival Style: the Director’s Residence. Trails, Rails, and Highways.
1-4 pm, Wed-Fri, $5-$12
NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF ART
107 W Palace Ave. (505) 476-5063
Selections from the 20th Century Collection. Western Eyes: 20th Century Art Here and Now. Transgressions and Amplifications. 10 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $7-12
78 Cities of Gold Road (505) 455-5041
Di Wae Powa. Nah Poeh Meng: The Continuous Path. 9 am-5 pm, Tues-Sun, $7-$10
WHEELWRIGHT MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
704 Camino Lejo (505) 982-4636
Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry. Abeyta | To’Hajiilee K’é. The Mary Morez Style. Rooted: Samples of Southwest Baskets. 10 am-4 pm, Tues-Sat, $8
If I’m being honest, I’ve waffled at the thought of a long drive before a meal. It’s hard enough to get all your friends on the same page dining-wise without putting 45 minutes between you and lunch, but in the case of new-ish eatery NOSA Restaurant and Inn, it seemed more than worth the trek.
NOSA—which, according to the website both means North of Santa Fe and is an old Spanish word for “ours”—opened roughly six months ago just south of Ojo Caliente (its address is technically in Ojo, but a compan ion and I blew right past it on some kind of spa-propelled autopilot) and has since been on the lips of many a local foodie. It’s easy to miss with its nondescript driveway in an area we’ll call remote and that, frankly, will likely be a nightmare in the snow. Still, we managed to arrive early enough to take a brief look at the campus: four rooms available as Airbnbs and a pair of cozy dining rooms. Think minimal with high ceil ings and a quiet but warm ambiance; a charming and taste fully decorated Christmas tree stood in the corner and I wondered aloud if the main space had perhaps been a church at some point (though I later learned it had not).
Both the restaurant and inn are operated by chef Graham Dodds, a son of Dallas with British parents, decades of cooking expe rience and schooling from both Portland, Oregon’s Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (formerly Western Culinary, at least when Dodds was there) and the real-deal Cordon Bleu itself—the latter for pastry. His tale is familiar: Dodds visited Santa Fe on a road trip in the ’90s, fell in love and, he tells SFR, always knew he’d be back permanently.
NOSA’s premise is simple but enticing: Dodds experiments and creates rotating lunch and dinner menus based on whatever available ingredients are most fresh. There’s an art, he says, to consistently making the same dishes time and time again and keeping them high-quality; he, however, would rath er flex his creative muscle.
“My original intention was to have an a la carte menu,” Dodds told me the day after we visited NOSA, “to not commit to this multicourse tasting. It’s only me preparing the food and running the business, and it’s a lot for me to take on a multi-course menu. But we’re kind of growing into the scenario, and I think it’s nice to launch it with the multicourse thing, though I think eventually it would be nice to have a more casual side.”
My companion and I didn’t know all this when we visited, though. With visions of the recent Ralph Fiennes film The Menu (where in pompous foodie types travel to a remote upscale restaurant and earn their just des serts) dancing in my head, the promise of a prix fixe menu weaving through various veg gies, nuts, proteins and sweets was enticing but daunting. My tastes tend to hover in the single course/smother-it-with-chile milieu, but Dodd’s menu on this particular Sunday lured me in with ingredients like sunchokes (a cousin of the artichoke that somehow has more artichoke flavor than the artichoke itself) and hinona kabu turnips. In other words, things that don’t pop up on every last menu around here.
The first course of spinach dip made with the aforementioned sunchoke was a revela tion of flavor and texture. The parm-toast ed brioche added a cheesy tang, as well as a satisfying crunch and sweetness; those sunchokes should henceforth be ever on my shopping list. We wended our way through another phenomenal course of braised baby carrots with a radicchio and pecan salad and date puree. Usually with purees I can’t help thinking, “Thanks for the goo, I guess.” Dodds, however, crafted a sublime and light little number that melted almost like cotton candy on the tongue and exploded with a semi-sweet flavor that brilliantly com plemented the earthy braised carrots. This course is why you’d drive 45 min utes for lunch—so ultimately simple, but so excellently executed.
the blow, but just barely. It had obviously just come out of the oven, causing the included whipped cream to separate in its heat and its dulce de leche base to scald the tongue rather than augment the flavor. The cake itself was tasty and gooey and served in what I can only describe as a charming cast iron mini-caul dron, though, and that part I kind of loved.
did not fill up during our 2 pm lunch seating, it’s never easy to go it alone, and she handled the room with grace and kindness. That said, we waited a good 40 minutes past 2 before our first course arrived. At $65 a person ($85 for dinner), you figure things might arrive in a timely fashion, and I get that Dodds is almost always alone in that kitchen—but it might be time to hire some backup.
The final three courses left some thing to be desired, sadly. Triple-cooked Yukon gold potatoes, for example, prac tically amounted to fries with a little too much vinegar. And the chicken pot pie... well, Dodds employed what amounted to a flaky biscuit for the crust, and though its exterior achieved a golden-brown per fection, its innermost sections remained slightly doughy and undercooked. Dodds later told me he’s still acclimating to baking at high altitudes, though, and I completely get that—we’ve all been there. Even so, the chicken within appeared to be all dark meat, and though one wants a pot pie to be savory, this one was tragically over-salted.
By this point, nearly three hours in, we started to squirm and worry about getting back to town before dark. The final course, a so-named chocolate puddin’ cake, softened
Presentation, though, is not the issue at NOSA. In fact, the room itself, the plat ing and the atmosphere are all wonderful. The concept is also there in spirit, and it makes one feel rather special to be eating in some faraway dining room at the edge of nowhere. Look, maybe it’s naïve to think we could get through a five-course meal in un der three hours, and if that’s just the way it goes at NOSA, I’ll gladly eat my words. But from where I sat, the meal took entirely too long. Having said that, Dodds’ experiment is on the cusp of greatness, and it was cool he stopped by to say hello. With a little bit of help and little extra time, we might be talking something truly special. For now, though, I’d suggest holding off just a little longer should you plan to visit. Even another month or so could make all the difference.
Some years ago, while visiting Austin, Texas, I posted to Facebook in search of any Santa Fe friends who wanted to hang out. Santa Fe people are great at traips ing the globe, finding other Santa Feans and only hanging out with each other, and I’m no different. I thought it was a lost cause, but within minutes, I received a text from Mikey Rae, an old friend from my halcyon days hang ing around teen art center Warehouse 21: “Alex,” it read, “I’m here in Austin, I’ll see you! We simply must have coffee together.” Rae died on Nov. 23 in Santa Fe. He was 36 and leaves behind a grieving family, count less friends and collaborators and his beloved dog, Snoopy, not to mention a broad range of accomplishments in music, performance and visual arts.
I’ve been thinking about that Austin night a lot lately. It’s impossible to measure the im pact of Rae’s death on the Santa Fe commu nity. And someplace within the reminiscing and speeches, the crying and hugs and the old friends flying in to attend the memorial at Meow Wolf that more accurately resembled the parking lot at a Warehouse 21 punk show circa 1999, it suddenly and weirdly hit me how quickly Rae responded to my Facebook post on that summer night in Texas; how immedi ately he was ready to make time for someone he didn’t even know that well yet.
As Rae’s brother Andrew told me some days after his death, “Mikey always wanted to share art. He wanted to collaborate.”
I don’t know if you can call a Texas coffee date an artistic collaboration, but the conver sation that night was meaningful. We laughed a lot. I’ve been holding it close.
While it’s easy to find oneself bogged down in details, you’ll find the real reason so many are hurting so badly—the real reason a sea of people packed Meow Wolf—in how Rae lived, not how he died.
“What he reminded me of most was my in ner-child,” his close friend Hannie Lyles tells SFR. She’s talking about that piece of yourself
you let fade away over time—Rae was still in touch with his, he still embodied it, friends and family say, and it drove most everything he did.
Rae was born in Santa Fe in 1986 at St. Vincent’s Hospital—as puro Santa Fe as you can get, really. He attended Wood Gormley Elementary, Capshaw Junior High and Santa Fe High. He later graduated from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, with degrees in art and English. Before all that, though, he was a young goofball with an en couraging family and a pair of close brothers, Andrew and Christopher. As the legend goes, the family had a music room that housed var ious instruments, even a drum kit.
“It was kind of a strategy,” Rae’s father, Steven, says, “so all the musicians would come over here and play and we could keep an eye on them.”
“It was always something we did togeth er, whether it was drawing or games or mu sic,” adds brother Andrew. “And my mom and dad were really supportive of us and our interests.”
Indeed, you’ll rarely find parents who provide a full-on music room for their kids, let alone one with a very noisy drum kit. Rae would also become a guitarist, singer and lyricist.
“I think we only ran off one neighbor,” Rae’s mother, Susan, says with a laugh. “I think most of the neighbors loved the kids be ing around here.”
Rae was deeply into reading from an ear ly age, according to the family. He was, they say, the kind of 6 year old who’d toddle down the street toward the school bus stop with his brothers, his nose in Jurassic Park.
“A neighbor called one day to say, ‘He can’t possibly be reading that,’” Susan says. “I just told her, ‘That’s the second time he’s read it, and he knows every word in that book.’ He was very smart, very sensitive; he felt things deeply, and whether it was his love for family or friends or his passion for his art, he always
Friends and family say they’ll remember Santa Fe artist and musician as “magical”
felt very deeply whatever he was holding close. I remember him feeling that from a young age.”
That knack for art, music, words and sensitivity played a pivotal role in early music projects, particularly bands like Rok On Robot! and The Big Boo. (Full disclo sure: My brother was a member of those projects; they’re phenomenally good— conflict of interest or not). The latter act, which also in cluded beat-maker Adam Koroghlian, became a Santa Fe mainstay al most immediately, which led to a tour in California and a 2004 blurb in Teen Vogue. The band broke up shortly thereafter, how ever, with Rae head ing off to college and co-founding member Zac Scheinbaum moving to Boston to do the same. Scheinbaum, a lifelong friend of Rae’s, says he’ll remember him as “someone who had a lot to teach me.”
“Our first interaction was in kindergar ten, and we never left each other’s sides,” Scheinbaum says. “He also lived, like, 10 houses away from me then. I remember my parents wanted to move when I was 12 and I freaked out because I was worried we wouldn’t be friends anymore, and it wasn’t even out of town. That didn’t happen at all. I’d always see him over Christmas break, or when he moved to New York City and I lived there, he had his own life, his own stuff going on, but we’d still see each other.”
Scheinbaum says his friend was “a creative genius.”
“It’ll make me smile to think of Mike,” he con tinues. “It’ll also make me cry. It breaks my heart that we can never make music again or draw comics, but it makes me happy for all the nights we got to do that. Because of the music, too, I can still hear his voice.”
Rae widened his artistic impact post-college in tandem with the rise of Meow Wolf. Working with the then-fledg ling experiential arts company, he developed his Legit Concerns persona and style, a mon iker under which he would create a striking, illustrative style that almost always included quotes encouraging viewers to do things like “be cool,” or “floss.” With that work, Rae re leased two books through Meow Wolf, and a third was reportedly in the works, though it is unknown how or whether that will be released. In a 2019 interview with SFR, Rae
explained his Legit Concerns ethos, saying that, “If you ask them to draw, some people become terrified, and it’s something I think everyone should have permission to do.”
Friend and sometimes-collaborator Jesse Malmed expands on that point, saying, “There’s a way that his looseness and his sort of mode of making things found their way through; it was very in tentional, what he was doing, and it was mod eled like...improvisa tion. I’m a big believer in improvisation. He would say, ‘practice, not perfect.’”
Rae adopted that mindset across a series of murals still on display at Meow Wolf. Through them, viewers can see a certain level of confidence and iden tity. Rae spent years formu lating his signature style, and when he finally landed on its core tenets, his output became prolific. Still, it was com mon to see him working on bits and pieces of those murals long after they were techni cally completed. According to Lyles, he had recently been creating a new piece for the employee bathroom at Meow Wolf, and was sending photos and videos of his progress.
“He needed to do more,” she says. “It was endless.”
That might be the best way to categorize the levels of love and the outpouring of grief within the disparate communities that adopted Rae over the years. I’m not sure we fully appreciated the scope of what he was laying down, nor do I think anyone fully grasped the level at which he was operating. But his efforts as an artist and a person clearly meant a lot to more people than seems possible. I even heard about a mass held in Lisbon, Portugal, in Rae’s honor.
“He had a lot going on and a lot to look forward to,” Rae’s mom tells SFR, “and that’s giving us peace. I hope everyone can hold that in their hearts and lift up gratitude.”
As for our fateful Austin coffee, it’s an evening I won’t soon forget.
“How do you live with the sweatiness of this town, Mikey?” I asked, practically whining.
“It’s OK, man, it’s OK,” he said, laughing at my childishness. “You’ve just gotta put a spare outfit in your bag so you can change when you get where you’re going.”
Dedicated moviegoers could likely pick a Spielberg film out of a lineup with very little information. Sure, sure—he’s legendary and has helmed some sweet movies and all that, but there’s no denying he’s grown fond of certain devices, certain styles and editing techniques, a high level of schmaltz.
Spielberg is a sentimental guy with a whole lot of feelings, and that has never been clearer than in his new semi-autobiographical work, The Fabelmans.
In the Schindler’s List director’s newest, we follow young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), a kid who has fallen in love with the movies after viewing The Greatest Show on Earth and will stop at nothing to become a filmmaker. It might have something to do with the fear of death, it might have something to do with the quest for truth—it might have something to do with some compulsive need to put however many inches of film between himself and the rest of the world. Whatever his reasons, Sammy’s folks nurture his budding obsession, even if his dad (Paul Dano) won’t stop calling it a hobby. Sammy’s mom (Michelle Williams), meanwhile— an artist type/pianist—seems to be grappling with some form of bipolar disorder, and though she fosters his cinematic obsessions in myriad ways, she can’t ever quite become the parent he needs; his
sisters twist in the wind, only coming up for air as plot devices and emotional prompts.
While satisfying in its premise that some folks just plain need to express themselves, The Fabelmans stumbles in its humanist/artistic messaging. Spielberg shoots a beautiful film, true, but he glosses over conflicts such as infidelity, antisemitism and divorce while spending minute after minute exploring Sammy’s heroic love of the camera. Even worse, just about everyone turns in John Lovitz-level “actiiiiiiiiing!” style performances, particularly Williams, who chews the scenery so hard it’s a wonder any was left. Dano fades into the background against her overt cheese, as does Seth Rogen in a quick role and any number of others whose very existence serves only to make jokes or drive Sammy with lines that prove they just plain don’t get it. LaBelle, though, proves capable and charismatic, and a brief turn from Reservation
Dogs actor Lane Factor feels promising. Oh, and Judd Hirsch pops up, too, ever the commanding presence.
And so it goes through jokes that’ll make you chuckle, but not laugh, and scenes that’ll make you think about how times sure have changed—which you’ll then forget. There was a time we could all freak out over a summer Spielberg blockbuster and know we’d at least have fun. The Fabelmans feels more like a wistful old guy in a bar explaining how he wound up there. We can all nod and feel uncomfortable, knowing that he was likely someone once...just maybe not so much anymore.
Directed by Spielberg
With LaBella, Williams, Dano and Rogen Violet Crown, PG-13, 151 min.
NOT ENOUGH PATRICIA CLARKSONA “he said, she said” situation implies differences in perception and irreconcilable conclusions. In 2017, when New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began investigating allegations against now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, even securing the “she said” part of the story presented challenges, given the decades of fear his victims had experienced and the non-disclosure forms others had signed. Kantor and Twohey persisted, and they document those efforts—which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize—in their book, She Said
The film version, adapted by screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz and director Maria Schrader, is more a movie about the process of journalism than it is about the Me Too movement Kantor (an empathic Zoe Kazan) and Twohey (played with fiery intensity by Carey Mulligan) helped ignite.
Like Spotlight and All the President’s Men, the film depicts journalists working: conducting interviews; taking notes; consulting with editors (shoutouts for the always perfect Patricia Clarkson as Rebecca Corbett and Andre Braugher as Dean Baquet). Phone calls, documents and meetings don’t normally make for exciting cinematogra-
phy, but She Said manages to function mostly as a thriller, if a slightly hushed one. Where it truly distinguishes itself from other journalism movies is by being singularly and empathetically focused on women: the female journalists who struggle to balance their own lives as new mothers while demonstrating unassailable commitment to their subjects, and those brave female subjects, such as Weinstein’s former assistant Laura Madden (Jennifer Ehle) and Ashley Judd, playing herself.
In their book, Kantor and Twohey say they intended the title She Said to be complicated: “We write about those who did speak out, along with other women who chose not to, and the nuances of how and when and why.” In so doing, their work serves as a roadmap for dismantling entrenched systems of abuse and power. (Julia Goldberg) Violet Crown, R, 129 min.
You likely know people who are just like some, if not all, of the principal characters in director Mark Mylod’s The Menu—a brisk and compel ling ode to/takedown of restaurant culture that ditches the rose-colored glasses for a darker dissection of obsession, burnout and charlatanry.
Mylod has, thus far, been more of a television director with numerous big-hitter series includ ing Shameless and Game of Thrones under his belt. With The Menu, however, he’s proven a knack for the eerie and unsettling, though within its normcore setup we can easily see ourselves, and it’s not the most palatable reflection to observe, even if it is a fun ride.
In The Menu, numerous well-to-do types trav el to a remote island to dine at the most exclu sive restaurant run by the most exclusive chef (Ralph Fiennes). Our in with the diners comes courtesy of ostensible foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult, The Great) and his companion, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), someone who clearly has a secret of some kind. He’s a loudmouth food lover who feels the need to aggressively explain how the rest of us should go about tasting food—the mouthfeel, the flavor, the chefs themselves—and who needs the chef to know he’s knowledgable; Margot, meanwhile, loudly proclaims she’s not as into it: Service folk, she says, need not be impressed by their diners. Elsewhere in the din ing room, wealthy mucky-mucks rub shoulders with douchey finance bros and pretentious food critics; John Leguizamo’s faded star emphatically lies about a close friendship with the chef, while the chef’s mother drinks herself into a wordless oblivion in the corner.
The big change, then, happens so gradually
that we hardly see it coming. The chef, seem ingly under pressure, starts serving concepts rather than dishes: A note that explains the bread they’re not eating was developed by suchand-such grain-based nonprofit, tortillas with damning bank records and images of cheating husbands etched into their surface with food lasers. Everyone seems willing to go along with its theatrical aspects because the chef is so bril liant, but Margot—the one diner not of means— finds herself at odds with the presentation.
The Menu is a tough film to review without spoiling its twists, so we’ll leave it at that before mentioning Fiennes’ commanding performance is an absolute career high. Similarly, Taylor-Joy, who will apparently be in pretty much any film we ever see again, nails the tough but tragic Margot. Against her date’s idiocy, she might be the most normal person on the island, though Hoult proves once again to be one of the finer actors working today. Writers Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, meanwhile, are the true heroes, particularly in how they painstakingly show us it’s silly to work ourselves to death, all the while obsessing over whether—and to whom—it mat ters. Do we ever stop to ask ourselves what we really think? Perhaps too late, The Menu posits. By the time we hit this realization, however, it’s entirely possible we’re trapped too deep. (ADV) Violet Crown, R, 107 min.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote, “To be free, you simply have to be so, without asking permission. You must have your own hypothesis about what you are called to do, and follow it, not giving in to circumstances or complying with them. But that sort of freedom demands powerful inner resources, a high degree of self-awareness, and a consciousness of your responsibility to yourself and therefore to other people.” That last element is where some freedom-seekers falter. They neglect their obligation to care for and serve their fellow humans. I want to make sure you don’t do that, Aries, as you launch a new phase of your liberation process. Authentic freedom is conscientious.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The term “neurodiversity” refers to the fact that the human brain functions in a wide variety of ways. There are not just a few versions of mental health and learning styles that are better than all the others. Taurus musician David Byrne believes he is neurodiverse because he is on the autism spectrum. That’s an advantage, he feels, giving him the power to focus with extra intensity on his creative pursuits. I consider myself neurodiverse because my life in the imaginal realm is just as important to me as my life in the material world. I suspect that most of us are neurodiverse in some sense—deviating from “normal” mental functioning. What about you, Taurus? The coming months will be an excellent time to explore and celebrate your own neurodiversity.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Poet Jane Hirshfield says that Zen Buddhism is built on three principles: 1. Everything changes. 2. Everything is connected. 3. Pay attention. Even if you are not a Zen practitioner, Gemini, I hope you will focus on the last two precepts in the coming weeks. If I had to summarize the formula that will bring you the most interesting experiences and feelings, it would be, “Pay attention to how everything is connected.” I hope you will intensify your intention to see how all the apparent fragments are interwoven. Here’s my secret agenda: I think it will help you register the truth that your life has a higher purpose than you’re usually aware of—and that the whole world is conspiring to help you fulfill that purpose.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Author Flannery O’Connor wrote, “You have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.” I will add a further thought: “You have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it and strive to transform it into a better place.” Let’s make this one of your inspirational meditations in the coming months, Cancerian. I suspect you will have more power than usual to transform the world into a better place. Get started! (PS: Doing so will enhance your ability to endure and cherish.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Many sports journalists will tell you that while they may root for their favorite teams, they also “root for the story.” They want a compelling tale to tell. They yearn for dramatic plot twists that reveal entertaining details about interesting characters performing unique feats. That’s how I’m going to be in the coming months Leo, at least in relation to you. I hope to see you engaged in epic sagas, creating yourself with verve as you weave your way through fun challenges and intriguing adventures. I predict my hope will be realized.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Venus is too hot and dry for humans to live on. But if travelers from Earth could figure out a way to feel comfortable there, they would enjoy a marvelous perk. The planet rotates very slowly. One complete day and night lasts for 243 Earth days and nights. That means you and a special friend could take a romantic stroll toward the sunset for as long as you wanted, and never see the sun go down. I invite you to dream up equally lyrical adventures in togetherness
here on Earth during the coming months, Virgo. Your intimate alliances will thrive as you get imaginative and creative about nurturing togetherness.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): As far as I’m concerned, Libran Buddhist monk and author Thích Nhất Hấnh was one of the finest humans who ever lived. “Where do you seek the spiritual?” he asked. His answer: “You seek the spiritual in every ordinary thing that you do every day. Sweeping the floor, watering the vegetables, and washing the dishes become sacred if mindfulness is there.” In the coming weeks, Libra, you will have exceptional power to live like this: to regard every event, however mundane or routine, as an opportunity to express your soulful love and gratitude for the privilege of being alive. Act as if the whole world is your precious sanctuary.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A reader named Elisa Jean tells me, “We Scorpio allies admire how Scorpios can be so solicitous and welcoming: the best party hosts. They know how to foster social situations that bring out the best in everyone and provide convivial entertainment. Yet Scorpios also know everyone’s secrets. They are connoisseurs of the skeletons in the closets. So they have the power to spawn discordant commotions and wreak havoc on people’s reputations. But they rarely do. Instead, they keep the secrets. They use their covert knowledge to weave deep connections.” Everything Ella Jean described will be your specialties in the coming weeks, Scorpio.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Sagittarians are least likely to stay in one location for extended periods. Many of you enjoy the need to move around from place to place. Doing so may be crucial in satisfying your quest for ever-fresh knowledge and stimulation. You understand that it’s risky to get too fixed in your habits and too dogmatic in your beliefs. So you feel an imperative to keep disrupting routines before they become deadening. When you are successful in this endeavor, it’s often due to a special talent you have: your capacity for creating an inner sense of home that enables you to feel stable and grounded as you ramble free. I believe this superpower will be extra strong during the coming months.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Edgar Allan Poe made this mysterious statement: “We can, at any time, double the true beauty of an actual landscape by half closing our eyes as we look at it.” What did he mean? He was referring to how crucial it is to see life “through the veil of the soul.” Merely using our physical vision gives us only half the story. To be receptive to the full glory of the world, our deepest self must also participate in the vision. Of course, this is always true. But it’s even more extra especially true than usual for you right now.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian theologian Henri Nouwen wrote, “I have discovered that the gifts of life are often hidden in the places that hurt most.” Yikes! Really? I don’t like that idea. But I will say this: If Nouwen’s theory has a grain of truth, you will capitalize on that fact in the coming weeks. Amazingly enough, a wound or pain you experienced in the past could reveal a redemptive possibility that inspires and heals you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen says it’s wise to talk to yourself. No other conversational partner is more fascinating. No one else listens as well. I offer you his advice in the hope of encouraging you to upgrade the intensity and frequency of your dialogs with yourself. It’s an excellent astrological time to go deeper with the questions you pose and to be braver in formulating your responses. Make the coming weeks be the time when you find out much more about what you truly think and feel.
Homework: What action could you take to rouse unexpect ed joy in a person you care about?
Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
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STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT CASE NO. D-101CM-2022-00491
ANGELA MARIE ULIBARRI and JOHN JEFFREY ULIBARRI, Petitioners, v. MARIO RUDDY ORTEGA and DEVYN NICOLE ULIBARRI, Respondents.
IN THE MATTER OF THE KINSHIP GUARDIANSHIP OF X.V.O., a child.
NOTICE REGARDING COURT HEARING AND SETTING SECOND HEARING
THIS MATTER came before the Court on November 3, 2022 for a hearing to address permanent kinship guardianship of Xariah Venessa Ortega. Petitioners Angela and John Ulibarri appeared; neither Respondent appeared, and this Court FINDS:
1. An Ex Parte Order Appointing Temporary Kinship Guardian was filed on September 9, 2022 and expired March 9, 2023.
2. The Respondents have not yet been served.
STATE OF NEW MEXICO
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
SANTA FE COUNTY IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF Lynn S. Macri, DECEASED. No. D-101-PB-2022-00278
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3. The Petitioners are Xariah’s maternal grandparents; Xariah has been in their care since January 1, 2022. Devyn Ulibarri agreed to the Kinship request.
4. Petitioners meet all requirements to be appointed as Xariah’s Kinship Guardians.
5. The Indian Child Welfare Act does not apply.
A second hearing to address permanent Kinship Guardianship is set for Thursday January 12, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. This will be held in person at the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, NM.
7. Petitioners will attempt personal service on the Respondents and will serve by Publication if personal service is not possible.
/s/
NOTICE TO CREDITORS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed personal representative of the estate of the decedent. All persons having claims against the estate of the decedent are required to present their claims within four (4) months after the date of the first publication of any published notice to creditors or sixty (60) days after the date of mailing or other delivery of this notice, whichever is later, or the claims will be forever barred. Claims must be presented either to the undersigned personal representative at the address listed below, or filed with the First Judicial District Court of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, located at the following address: 225 Montezuma Ave., Santa Fe, N.M. 87501 Dated: 11/23/22 Victoria Parrill 900 Calle Carmilita Santa Fe NM 87505
SYLVIA
LaMAR DISTRICT COURT JUDGEI, the undersigned Employee of the District Court of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, do hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing Notice Regarding Court Hearing was e-served on the date of acceptance for e-filing to counsel who registered for e-service as required by the rules and mailed to pro se parties, if any, to:
Angela & John Ulibarri 1723 Agua Fria ST Santa FE, NM 87505
