May 12, 2021: Santa Fe Reporter

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MAY 12-18, 2021 | Volume 48, Issue 19

NEWS

WE ARE

OPINION 5

Remodeling !

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NEWS 7 DAYS, CLAYTOONZ AND THIS MODERN WORLD 7 BLANK CHECK 9 AG’s Office, State Police investigating allegations of embezzlement by former civilian employee, possible cover-up at state Department of Public Safety COVER STORY 12 FAST GOVERNMENT As Mayor Alan Webber seeks a second term, SFR provides a report card comparing his campaign promises to his performance on the first

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CULTURE

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER JULIE ANN GRIMM

SFR PICKS 17 Light and lasers, learn to poetry, Lebowski, Big and melted sand from more than 30 Indigenous artists

ART DIRECTOR ANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN CULTURE EDITOR ALEX DE VORE NEWS EDITOR JEFF PROCTOR

A&C 18 SHREDDING THE GNAR Conor Flynn’s Packrat combines printmaking and woodworking for sick ol’ skate decks he for sure wants you to shred

SENIOR CORRESPONDENT JULIA GOLDBERG STAFF WRITERS LEAH CANTOR WILLIAM MELHADO CONTRIBUTING WRITER RILEY GARDNER

FOOD 19 CALLING ALL PLANT-EATERS Chase the vegan dream at Plant Base Cafe on the Southside MOVIES 20 MAINSTREAM REVIEW Internet influencers are scary enough, but toss Andrew Garfield into the mix and you’ve really got...something—Logan Paul still sucks, though THE CALENDAR Since everyone decided we don’t really have to worry anymore, find a veritable cornucopia of real-life events at sfreporter.com/cal

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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the biggest beneficiaries of a corporate merger were Mother Nature and you?

The PNM parent company is merging with AVANGRID, a national leader in clean energy. Together, we will advance New Mexico’s renewable and sustainable energy development. The merger will enhance the PNM carbon-free energy 2040 pledge while keeping customer bills affordable, and customers will see a credit on their bills. We’ll continue to invest in new technologies and New Mexico’s energy infrastructure, a huge economic benefit for the state. “What if” just became “we can.” Learn more at PNM.com/whatif.

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APRIL 14-20, 2021

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LETTERS

Mail letters to PO Box 4910, Santa Fe, NM 87502; or email them to editor@sfreporter. com. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. Letters will be edited for space and clarity.

JULIE ANN GRIMM

S F R EPORT ER.COM / NEWS / LETTERSTOTHEEDI TO R

Have you had a negative dental experience?

Michael Davis,

DDS

New Patients Welcome

SMILES OF SANTA FE

Would you like to experience caring, smiling, fun, gentle people who truly enjoy working with you?

NEWS, MAY 5: “LIGHT UP THE STREETS”

GOOD AND BAD

Michael W. Davis, DDS 1751 Old Pecos Trail, Suite B (505) 988-4448 www.SmilesofSantaFe.com

P R OV I D E R F O R D E LTA A N D U N I T E D C O N C O R D I A D E N TA L P L A N S • M O S T I N S U R A N C E S A C C E P T E D

So glad light pollution is being considered before moving forward! LEDs are a no-brainer, but there are good and bad ways to implement that change.

BRENT BROOME VIA FACEBOOK

LET’S GET IT RIGHT light sensitivity disabilities.

APR PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS

RD.

3909 ACADEMY RD.

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Sure wish the National Guard Building on the south end of town would adhere to this policy. Those lights shine for miles.

AIRP

LOS RD

OUT OF TOWN TOO?

SPECIALIZING IN:

CERRIL

MARK BAKER SOFTLIGHTS.ORG

OWS EAD S. M

Soft Lights would like to commend Councilor Michael Garcia for wisely recommending that Santa Fe pause the attempt to install toxic LED streetlights all around Santa Fe. If the city is going to take out a large loan for this project, why not do it correctly?

Regina Wheeler continues her efforts to make the selection process secret. First she hid the list of streetlights she received from Dalkia....Then she tried to keep the names of the Streetlight Steering Committee secret. Now her latest effort is in hiding the color temperatures from the public during the demonstration process. Selecting the streetlights has major health implications.

City officials must stop hiding the toxicity of these street lights from the public. Besides color temperature, what is the peak luminance of these lights?

Your article did not mention the disability community and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Soft Lights has informed the city over and over again that high-color temperature, high-luminance LED streetlights are discriminatory because they prevent people with light sensitivity disabilities from navigating the city without undue harm. ...We hope that your next story can focus on how harmful these lights are and explain why Wheeler refuses to protect people with

3909 Academy Rd., Santa Fe, NM 87507 | 473-3001

7 DAYS, MAY 5 BAD FORM “Joking” about exterminating a species one week after an article pointing out our ecological precarity. Can you, like, not? Thanks.

ARLO JAMES BARNES SANTA FE

SFR will correct factual errors online and in print. Please let us know if we make a mistake: editor@sfreporter.com or 988-7530.

SANTA FE EAVESDROPPER “With no bartender at home, who’s supposed to cut me off?”

—Overheard by a fellow blood donor on Rodeo Road

Send your Overheard in Santa Fe tidbits to: eavesdropper@sfreporter.com SFREPORTER.COM

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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S FREP ORTER.COM / FUN

SANTA FE RAILYARD BUSTLING AGAIN AS VIOLET CROWN, SECOND STREET BREWERY REOPEN You been over there?

It’s, like, beer city.

WORK SEARCH REQUIREMENTS RETURN FOR NEW MEXICANS ON UNEMPLOYMENT Cool. We were just thinking everyone needed a sucking ball of stress in the pit of their guts.

E, WE THIS TIM AN E M T H MIG !

BUSINESS

SPEAKING OF RETURNS, THE “TOSS NO MAS” CAMPAIGN IS BACK, BABY! Although, if it didn’t solve littering the first time...

NEW-ISH BISHOP’S LODGE RESORT MIGHT HAVE DEFAULTED ON $43 MILLION LOAN The state should make it start looking for other jobs.

NEW MEXICO MAKES NEW RULE ON METHANE EMISSIONS In your face, ozone hole.

MULTI-CULTURAL MURAL ON SITE OF UPCOMING VLADEM CONTEMPORARY BUILDING COVERED UP IN PREP FOR REMOVAL Santa Fe: Where government and whites with money always get their way.

READ IT ON SFREPORTER.COM FORMER MEOW WOLF CEO VINCE KADLUBEK’S CAR STOLEN, RECOVERED No word on Meow Wolf’s missing local jobs, though.

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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SFREPORTER.COM

WE’RE NUMBER 3!

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts was named third-best arts museum in the country in a recent USA Today readers’ poll.

W E A R E WAY M O R E TH A N W E D N E S DAY H E R E A R E A CO UP LE O F O N LI N E E XC LUS I V E S :

THE UP-AND-UP Despite the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad 2020—maybe you remember it?—Santa Fe’s GRT is on the rise, even surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

YOU' VE WORKED HARD TO MAKE IT A

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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APRIL 7-13, 2021

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phs.org/santafe

SFREPORTER.COM/NEWS

Blank Check

AG’s office, State Police investigating allegations of embezzlement by former civilian employee, possible cover-up

BY J E F F P RO CTO R j e f f p r o c t o r @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

S

tate investigators have been examining for months whether a former New Mexico State Police civilian employee ripped off nearly $100,000 in funds meant for undercover operations—and whether her superiors, including some high-ranking officers, aided in the alleged embezzlement.

The state attorney general’s office began digging late last year, spokesman Matt Baca tells SFR. He would not name the investigation’s targets, but confirmed that the former civilian employee, Sally Archuleta, died shortly after the alleged stealing stopped last spring.

“We obviously want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible,” Baca says.

SFR has learned that interim Department of Public Safety Secretary Tim Johnson was among those named

by State Police investigators—and identified in a letter sent to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and, later, the entire state Senate days before the regular legislative session began in January.

Neither the governor nor any senator responded directly to the four-page letter or its allegations, its author, State Police Lt. Jeremy Vaughan, tells SFR. A spokeswoman for the governor says the administration advised Vaughan to file a formal complaint—something he says he did long ago.

The problem: One of his complaints was against Johnson, who subsequently got promoted and whom Vaughan says ignored problems as they grew with the department.

The letter alleges mismanagement and possible criminal activity at the state’s third-largest law enforcement agency, including the alleged embezzlement, which is said to have been carried out via a blank check scam from the unit’s “contingency fund” used for tobacco and alcohol violation enforcement.

Johnson supervised the Special Investigations Division, now called the Special Investigations Unit, during the time of the alleged embezzlement in the unit.

Reached by telephone Monday, he says he learned of the alleged check scam “late last year” and then forwarded the case to the AG.

NEWS

“Otherwise, I’ve stayed completely out of it because my name was involved,” Johnson tells SFR. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I have nothing to hide, and I committed no crimes.”

The secretary, a 20-year State Police veteran and former chief, would not offer an opinion on the embezzlement claims, but denied the broader contentions offered in the letter about favoritism and shoddy leadership in his department.

Vaughan claims thousands of rounds of NMSP ammunition and at least one handgun have gone missing; that the department has promoted unqualified candidates—some of whom had even committed crimes in uniform—because they were connected to department brass; serial transparency violations; and the alleged embezzlement.

The 18-year State Police veteran lays the blame mostly at the feet of Johnson, interim Deputy Secretary William Weisler and interim Chief Robert Thornton in his letter to Lujan Grisham and asks that she “hold off, if not wholly reconsider, the confirmation” of all three.

None received hearings and, according to the governor’s office and a spokesman for Senate Democrats, Lujan Grisham never requested them.

Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, chairs the Senate Rules Committee, where all confirmation processes begin.

He tells SFR the committee prioritized confirming university regents this year,

Archuleta allegedly made many checks out to herself and cashed them and, with the help of a friend in the state accounting office, doctored the books to make it appear as if the checks had been properly distributed to agents.

In May 2020, a new captain was assigned to the unit, according to the sources. The new captain reviewed the books and began to notice discrepancies. He asked Skasik and another officer to explain; neither could.

The newly assigned captain informed Weisler, who was then a major, and Weisler asked for additional investigation. The captain dug in and detailed at least $85,900 in allegedly embezzled funds.

Archuleta died several weeks latANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN er following a lengthy illness, according to a published obituary.

The captain turned several checkbooks and other records over to the AG’s office, according to the sources. But Weisler, according to Vaughan’s letter, said there would be no Internal Affairs State Police investigation because the department preferred to “start with a clean because they cannot serve unless conslate.” firmed. Interim cabinet secretaries, how“I believe this is due to the fact that ever, can.

Tim Johnson was the supervisor over SIU Further, Ivey-Soto says he was not (formerly SID) at the time much of the aware of the embezzlement allegations money was misappropriated,” Vaughan or any other claims of misconduct by writes in his letter to the governor.

Johnson until contacted by a reporter— Ivey-Soto says the allegations did not despite being copied on an email sent to cause legislators to “look the other way” him and others during the session laying regarding a possible confirmation for out the allegations.

Johnson.

“As far as I know, the guy is a Boy A spokeswoman for Lujan Grisham Scout,” he says of Johnson. says Vaughan’s allegations “played no At SFR’s request, Ivey-Soto later role in the occurrence of any legislative searched his email, found the corresponhearings.” dence and said: “My bad.” He declines to Skasik, who is still with NMSP, did not comment on the allegations, telling SFR respond to an email seeking comment for he didn’t even want to hear them. this story.

“That’s why we do background State Police Lt. Mark Soriano tells checks” during the confirmation process, SFR on Monday that the department “has Ivey-Soto says. “That way we can do a opened up an internal affairs investigamore thorough review...as opposed to retion in reference to these allegations.” lying on a single letter.”

He would not comment on the status There is significantly more informaor answer questions about whether anytion available than a single letter, SFR has one has been disciplined, citing departlearned from two sources who detailed ment policy. (State Police has many times the embezzlement allegations on the released the fact of officer discipline.) condition of anonymity, citing concerns Johnson declines to say whether he about retaliation. is interested in taking the secretary job According to the sources: on a permanent basis. He plans to meet Archuleta began allegedly stealing with Lujan Grisham’s team in the coming money from the contingency funds in weeks to discuss the possibility. spring 2015. Her supervisor, Suzanne As for the allegations, Johnson says Skasik, then captain over the Special he wants them looked into.

Investigations Division, signed blank “We take each allegation seriously,” checks from the funds and allowed he says. “Lt. Vaughan is a respected memArchuleta to be a cosigner—an abnormal ber of our organization, so we are looking practice. into what he has brought forward.”

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ANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN

FAST GOVERNMENT A REPORT CARD FOR MAYOR ALAN WEBBER’S FIRST TERM

BY L E A H CA N TO R l e a h @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

I

n 2018, Alan Webber, the former businessman, journalist and founder of Fast Company magazine, decided he wanted a new job and spent more money than anyone in the history of a Santa Fe mayoral race. His bid was to make the city’s outdated bureaucracy function more like an efficient and modern enterprise.

It turned out to be a popular sales pitch.

By the time he won the race, Webber had outspent the other candidates three times over and had raised more than $311,000 in campaign contributions from prominent locals and out-of-state allies for the job that now pays $111,000 in annual salary.

“Tonight we commit to making our city government the most user-friendly, service-oriented one in the country. A city government that serves everyone and every neighborhood equally. A city government based not on who you know, but on what you need to get done,” he said during his inauguration speech after winning the city’s first ever ranked-choice election.

Webber earned 66% of the vote in a contest that saw 38% turnout.

For his first two years in office, Webber’s administration moved steadily toward meeting his stated goals on efficiency, housing, the economy and equity, with a few missteps along the way that did little more than raise a few grumpy eyebrows.

Then came 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic set the city back in many of its efforts, but it also motivated Webber to follow through on key campaign promises and earned him a reputation as a strong leader in many circles.

Yet, his bungled response to controversy surrounding historic monuments has left other Santa Feans feeling that the city is only becoming more divided.

His record on transparency has left open government advocates wanting, and criticism of the 72-year-old, first-time elected politician is seemingly coming from all ends of the political spectrum. Webber ran as a progressive and, while many of his

Top: Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber ran on a promise of making Santa Fe’s stilted bureaucracy work more like an efficient enterprise. Bottom: Webber founded Fast Company magazine in 1993.

The farsighted message of the very first issue says “Work is Personal; Computing is Social; Knowledge is Power; Break the Rules.”

initiatives have leaned in that direction, some on the far left have felt like he’s just another centrist Democrat. Meanwhile, among those who identify more in the middle, some have felt like the mayor has left them out of city decision-making.

Undeterred, Webber announced at the beginning of March that he plans to run for a second term.

As of the publication of this story, real estate agent and District 4 City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler is his fiercest competition in the race that will be decided on Nov. 2.

Vigil Coppler has made a name for herself as the City Council’s contrarian by consistently challenging Webber on issues big and small. While she will likely lose the money race, the public controversy regarding the destruction of the Plaza obelisk and Vigil Coppler’s appeal as a lifetime Santa Fean could boost her chances.

However, Vigil Coppler has already caught flack for her decision to vote against Santa Fe’s mask mandate, which she thought was unenforceable.

A third candidate, Alexis Martinez Johnson, announced her intention to enter the race last week. She ran as the Republican candidate in the 2020 election for the 3rd Congressional District. A Santa Fe Police officer charged her with breaking the city’s mask ordinance in September after she campaigned on the Plaza without a mask.

Webber, originally from Missouri, worked in the administration of Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt in the 1970s before moving to Washington, DC, to start his editorial and business career. He moved to Santa Fe in 2003. In 2013, he unsuccessfully ran for governor. He won Santa Fe’s mayoral race decisively in 2018 with progressive and business support and demolished four opponents who were entrenched in local politics.

In reporting for this story, SFR noted a lack of enthusiasm from city residents about the upcoming race, but it’s still early.

Before this year’s mayoral race heats up, here’s a reminder of what Webber said he would do when he took office, and our assessment of what he actually did—all in the context of long-standing, behind-theCONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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FAST GOVERNMENT

FIRST-TERM REPORT CARD

WHAT HE SAID

WHAT HAPPENED

CULTURAL RECONCILIATION

“We need to set a national example of how we deal with deep, traumatic, historical experiences and turn them into learning opportunities...We have to try to get ahead of the problem, not wait for it to become a flashpoint. Get together people in leadership, religious organizations, pueblos, and ask advice on how to make the history of Santa Fe something that is a healing experience rather than a divisive experience. “

Webber led months of meetings in 2018 among different groups, resulting in a proclamation of reconciliation and the end of the Entrada. In 2020, Webber promised a similar process to decide the fate of the Plaza obelisk. However, after months of inaction, protesters took down the offending monument themselves. Webber then removed the Diego de Vargas statue from a nearby park “for safekeeping.” The statue was later discovered in someone’s yard. After these events, the city eventually created the CHART committee to discuss solutions to the heightened cultural tensions, but the city later ditched that group in favor of a “culture, history, art, reconciliation, and truth process” led by a consultant. The process has yet to start.

HOUSING

In his inauguration address, Webber said his vision for Santa Fe included “affordable housing in safe neighborhoods with good schools and inviting parks in every part of our city.”

The city has made casita regulations more flexible and updated its inclusionary zoning codes to make it easier for developers to meet affordability requirements or pay a fee instead. The city recently announced it will fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund up to $3 million this year and next fiscal year. Nevertheless, housing is even less affordable now than it was when Webber took office.

“We can and must be the most sustainable city in the country.”

In 2018, the city published its 25-year sustainability plan, a project that was started under former mayor Javier Gonzales and was continued under Webber. Last year Santa Fe won a LEED Gold certification for cities, and is continuing sustainability efforts with a plan to transition the city’s streetlights to high-efficiency LED bulbs. (Even that move has stirred controversy, however.)

“All permitting requirements, wage claim documents and other important city information should be in English and Spanish.”

SFR reviewed 40 wage claims and permitting forms and documents on the city website, and found just two in Spanish. The city’s main website has a translation function for all of its content, but the new online permitting sites set up during the pandemic are only in English. Information specifically about the COVID-19 pandemic is available in English and Spanish. The city has proposed $75,000 in its upcoming budget for comprehensive translation services.

“Our job is to make the government work better. And to make the budget work.”

The scathing McHard report found that the city did not have good systems for tracking its finances, did not have well-trained staff, and was using shockingly outdated technology and software systems. Webber’s administration has made several internal changes to address these issues and replaced 600 devices. In 2020 the mayor pushed for the reorganization of city government in an effort to make departments more efficient. Still, the city submitted its 2019 audit to the state six months late last year, and is three months past the deadline to submit the audit for 2020.

“Community policing is the way to build a safer Santa Fe.”

Webber’s reorganization of city government combines fire, police and community services into a new Community Health and Safety Department. This month the city launched an “alternative response unit” that will be staffed by a police officer, an EMT and a caseworker to respond to behavioral health related 911 calls. Still, Webber’s police department has had an abysmal record on transparency, sparking several lawsuits (one filed by SFR), and the public still has questions about a scandal in the department’s evidence room that led to destroyed evidence in several high-profile cases.

“I think women belong in every part of city government.

I think the city ought to do a study of pay equity and take seriously the opportunity for women to occupy every possible job in city government. I take a lesson from the Prime Minister of Canada—50% of his cabinet was female from day one. If I was the mayor I would make a similar commitment.”

Based on the city’s previous organizational chart, 10 of 19 department heads—or about 52%—would currently be women. Under the new organizational structure, which combines police, fire, and other previously separate departments, seven out of 10—or 70%—of department heads are female. These include high-power positions such as the city manager, the city attorney, and the director of the Finance Department. Results of a 2019 pay equity study found that while women who work for the city earn slightly more than men on average, only 28% of the city’s total workforce is female.

SUSTAINABILITY

EQUAL ACCESS TO CITY GOVERNMENT

EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT

POLICE

GENDER EQUITY

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Did Mayor Alan Webber fulfill his promises in his first term? SFR gives a letter grade for each. The following quotes are all taken from things he said in campaign materials and debates, speeches, news releases and news stories from Webber’s 2018 campaign and his first year in office. The mayor’s statements are on the left side of the chart below, and our analysis is on the right.

MAY 12-18, 2021

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SFREPORTER.COM

Putting the House Back in Order

When Webber ran for office, the city was in financial disarray.

In September 2017, officials released the damning results of an external audit conducted by McHard Accounting Consulting. The McHard report became central to Webber’s campaign as he waved around a copy at debates and slammed it down on the podium at campaign events.

The report highlighted problems from employees’ habit of passing around customer credit card numbers on sticky notes, to the city’s reliance on outdated software and paper record systems that left ample room for fraud and error. The report found that some employees had broad and unsupervised access to the city’s financial accounts, and staff said they were bullied into silence by members of the Finance Department when they raised concerns about the lack of internal financial controls.

Webber pledged to clean up the mess, but it’s unlikely he understood the size of the task.

As ITT Program Manager Manuel Gonzales told city councilors during the city’s fiscal year 2022 budget hearings that when Webber took office, most of the city was one year into a transition to a new efficient Enterprise Resource Planning system, but most departments were still using a 25-year-old software system and computers more than a decade old.

Under Webber’s watch, the city has replaced over 600 electronic devices and integrated the new system into all of its departments, ushering in some improvements.

This helped the city to continue functioning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know they aren’t perfect systems. But without those systems, the city wouldn’t

have been able to operate remotely this past year. If we were relying on the old way, which was a paper trail, we would have been shut down completely,” said Gonzales at the budget hearing in April.

Problems remain: Despite improvements in the Finance Department, the city was six months late in submitting its Fiscal Year 2019 financial review to the state.

An independent auditor’s report released in June of 2020 lists 21 deficiencies, weaknesses and other issues in the city’s financial practices, mostly due to a lack of regular accounting throughout the year.

The city has blown its 2020 audit deadline as well—a shortcoming State Auditor Brian Colón called “deeply concerning.”

“Continued failure to timely submit audits is unacceptable and can jeopardize critical funding, such as federal funding,” Colón wrote to Santa Fe city officials.

Webber blames COVID-19 for the delay, and says he’ll use the Fiscal Year 2022 budget to push for fixes, including hiring additional staff in the Finance Department to oversee the massive influx of pandemic relief funds the city expects to receive.

“We are trying to improve a city government that has a lot of challenges,” Webber tells SFR over Zoom. “With the audit, we are getting there, but we’re not there yet.”

A contentious reorganization of multiple city departments that was approved in a divided vote by the City Council last September has been another albatross for Webber.

Vigil Coppler, who has previously worked as a human resources director for the city, Los Alamos County, and the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, raised concerns about the timing, the lack of input or buy-in from lower-level employees, and lack of transparency about the process with councilors and the public.

“I think we’re on a fast track to nowhere.…I think this is not the way to do

MATT GRUBS

scenes problems that impact the city’s most basic functions, as well as hot-button issues that could shape the upcoming election.

Webber beat opponent Ron Trujillo in 2018 after four rounds of ranked-choice voting.

Trujillo has become one of the most vocal critics of Webber’s response to controversy over historic monuments.

a reorganization and I’m kind of embarrassed that an organization like us that should be a leader in everything that we do carries on something like this during a pandemic,” she said during a committee meeting on Aug. 24 last year.

The initiative was wildly unpopular with city employees, and played a role in the employees union’s vote of no confidence in the mayor in September. The local branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees recently won a lawsuit against the city for failing to give adequate notice of furloughs in the spring.

The union has clashed with the mayor since the beginning of his term, when he initially defended raises awarded by thenCity Manager Brian Snyder without council approval to a select group of upper-level employees responsible for the city’s modernization project. Snyder, who approved the pay hikes just days before Webber was elected, resigned at Webber’s request after Vigil Coppler raised concerns that the pay bumps violated city policy.

Webber’s decision to appoint his chief of staff, Jarel LaPan Hill, as city manager last year salved some of those wounds—

and follows a trend of young women filling high-powered positions in Webber’s administration.

One part of the reorganization combined the police, fire, recreation and community services departments under the single umbrella of the Department of Community Health and Safety.

“The way you structure your government is an expression of how you want to solve people’s problems,” Webber tells SFR. “I see public health and safety as being really two sides of the same coin.”

He says the new structure will move the city toward a “community policing” and public safety model that relies more on social services and less on police enforcement.

On May 5, the city launched its first “alternative response unit,” which sends out a firefighter, an EMT and a social worker to non-violent and non-criminal 911 calls instead of relying solely on police.

The city has budgeted for a second unit next year along with funds to fill over a dozen positions in the police department­— and a police workload assessment to determine how many additional officers the city needs.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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FAST GOVERNMENT charges of misconduct or misbehavior, they ought to be able to see how those are resolved,” Webber says. “We have had discussions with the police union about a modified review of internal affairs findings, but not the entire investigation.”

While this could signal a shift in the city’s approach, Webber has consistently given the go-ahead for the city to fight tooth and nail against transparency requests in court.

The police department’s response to protests on the Plaza last summer in which dozens of demonstrators tore down part of the obelisk have also been a source of widespread criticism. It comes both from people who thought the police should have cracked down harder on protesters and those who fault the police for pressing charges against individuals involved. After

brief altercations with protesters, officers on the scene were commanded to stand down. Later, the department tracked down a handful of people who now face criminal charges.

Adios, Diego

Before the obelisk, there was de Vargas.

At the beginning of the mayor’s term, the city was in turmoil regarding the Entrada, a fall Fiesta tradition that included a reenactment of Diego de Vargas’ reconquest of Santa Fe in 1692, 12 years after the Pueblo Revolt. Many Santa Feans cherished the Entrada as a celebration of New Mexico’s Hispanic history and culture, but Indigenous activists argued it glorified and sanitized the bloody colonization of the area and its Native tribes.

A year after dramatic protests under

KATHERINE LEWIN

Several scandals have plagued the Santa Fe Police Department during Webber’s term.

Last year, an internal audit found flawed evidence-handling practices led to the loss of evidence in several murder cases and other violent crimes. The debacle threw victims and their families into limbo as courts considered whether remaining evidence was sufficient to convict a suspect in at least one case.

The city is working through recommendations from a 2020 evidence room audit that include uploading videos from body and dashboard cameras to a cloudbased storage system, installing new evidence management software and conducting a complete internal audit of sexual assault examination kits.

It is unclear if the department has held anyone accountable for the loss of evidence, adding to a shroud of secrecy around how officers are disciplined when they violate policy.

The city faces multiple lawsuits over its refusal to release records in response to requests under the Inspection of Public Records Act, including one filed by SFR over the failure to release the disciplinary records of two police officers who have been the subject of citizen complaints.

This follows the city’s legal battle with SFR over the disciplinary records of officers who fatally shot Anthony Benavidez in 2017.

In May 2020, a state District Court judge in that case ruled that the city broke the law by withholding the records of officers who no longer work for the city. But the judge also ruled that the city acted properly in withholding records for Ben Valdez, the commanding officer in the Benavidez case, who is now the deputy chief of administration for the department.

Webber tells SFR he now thinks there should be more transparency.

“We need to be able to indicate to the community who their police officers are and what their training is and if there are

Webber watches a protest on the Plaza in June 2020.

former Mayor Javier Gonzales in which police snipers lined the roofs of the buildings surrounding the Plaza and activists were dragged away by officers, Webber successfully convened representatives from the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the Caballeros De Vargas— the group responsible for organizing the Entrada—and other groups to sign a proclamation of mutual respect and replace the Entrada celebration with other festivities.

“It was really a beautiful group. We prayed together, we respected each other… and we came up with a beautiful proclamation. If you read the words, they will touch your heart,” says Melissa Mascareñas, who was the president of the Santa Fe Fiesta Council at the time and is one of the people who signed the proclamation. “I think change had to happen, whether some people liked it or not.”

Mascareñas says she appreciated Webber’s leadership at the time.

However, that success has been overshadowed by the way the mayor handled the removal of the Diego de Vargas statue from Cathedral Park and protests over the destruction of the obelisk.

Mascareñas tells SFR the events of the summer were “heartbreaking,” and she has lost trust in Webber.

Mascareñas joins others in feeling that Vigil Coppler, who was born and raised in the city, who’s worked in both government and in the private sector, and who understands the complex cultural context of Northern New Mexico will be better able to heal the city’s wounds and successfully lead Santa Fe out of the COVID-19 crisis.

For his part, Lawyer Bruce Throne tells SFR he thinks Webber’s response was not ideal, but he’s willing to give the mayor a second shot.

“I believe he was trying to do the best thing he can to preserve peace in the community and not have the kind of violent outbreaks that have been experienced

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AARON CANTÚ

Webber watches as local Hispanic and Pueblo leaders sign a proclamation effectively ending the Entrada.

in other communities regarding some of these controversial monuments, so I understand the criticisms against him, but I think he handled the Entrada issue with grace,” Throne tells SFR. Throne also credits Webber with steering the city through the pandemic and getting Santa Fe into turquoise—the state’s least restrictive category for COVID orders.

“I credit the mayor with setting a tone in the community and earning a lot of buy-in from people about caring for their neighbors, wearing masks, and so forth,” says Throne.

A City for Everyone

Leading up to the pandemic, Webber’s administration and City Council changed regulations to make it easier to rent a casita, and updated Santa Fe’s inclusionary zoning laws to incentivize construction by giving rental developers flexibility in meeting affordability requirements.

These were important steps, but in many ways they were low-hanging fruit.

Between 2018 and 2020, the city only invested about $1.5 million a year in its Office of Affordable Housing.

Today, Santa Fe is short over 7,000 housing units, according to the Santa Fe Association of Realtors—that’s 2,000 more than the number reported in 2018.

New apartment complexes are being built all over the city, but almost all will be rented at market rate.

Meanwhile, more Santa Feans than ever are paying rents higher than they can afford, and median home sale prices are now over half a million dollars.

When COVID-19 hit, the city responded by finding temporary housing for all homeless people. In recent weeks, the city also announced it would use unexpect-

ed GRT revenues to fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund at the recommended $3 million annual sum in the current fiscal year. Next year’s proposed budget would allocate another $3 million to the fund.

Former Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association President Kim Shanahan, who supported Webber in the last election because of his promises to address the housing crisis, thinks it’s all too little, too late.

Shanahan now works as a sustainability consultant and is a columnist for The Santa Fe New Mexican. He says he does not plan to endorse any political candidate in the upcoming election, but he still has a critique for both candidates.

The city’s biggest housing failure in the last three years, he says, is the lack of a plan for Midtown campus, a 64-acre, cityowned property near the intersection of St. Michael’s Drive and Cerrillos Road that was formerly the campus for the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and costs the city $2.2 million in annual debt payments.

A deal with a Texas-based master developer with plans to build housing and a tech and educational center on the campus fell through in January.

Additionally, he says, the mayor and the City Council have done little to support long-range planning. In his opinion, funds appropriated in the upcoming budget to hire consultants to conduct a long-range planning study would be better spent in-house to hire locals with deep knowledge of Santa Fe’s housing dilemma.

“At the end of the day, we have gone basically three years and have accomplished very little in terms of housing,” he says.

Better housing options, improved tech infrastructure and more jobs were all part of Webber’s vision for Santa Fe.

During his campaign, Webber frequently called for the expansion of broadband access in underserved neighborhoods and to bring the city up to the quality of service expected by the tech sector.

However, City of Santa Fe Asset Development Manager Sean Moody tells SFR this is an exceedingly difficult promise to fulfill due to complicated dynamics between service providers and existing infrastructure that is out of the city’s control.

When the pandemic hit, the city set up mobile internet hotspots in public locations and is still in the process of setting up hotspots to serve a number of mobile home parks on the Southside where there has never been the necessary infrastructure in place to provide quality internet connections.

“The free public hotspots are meant to target the folks who are hardest hit by the pandemic to get the Internet access they need. And for that reason, it’s brilliant,” says Moody, crediting the mayor for acting quickly to make this happen and for keeping equity concerns at the center of the effort.

In another effort to improve Santa Fe’s infrastructure, under Webber’s administration the city approved plans for a long-debated pipeline that would take treated wastewater from Santa Fe’s sewer plant on the Southside and release it into the Rio Grande just below the Buckman Direct Diversion where the city pulls water from the river for municipal use.

The pipeline would allow the city to claim return-flow credits and take more water from the river.

Former Santa Fe Mayor David Coss, who endorsed a different candidate in the last election but tells SFR he’s not going to weigh in this year, says the tensions Santa

Fe currently faces are entrenched.

“I think water and growth are always going to be primary issues; I think how cultures coexist here has been an issue from the beginning and will always be,” says Coss.

Still, he says, with New Mexico leading the nation in its response to COVID-19 and the Biden administration’s plans to spend big bucks on COVID-19 recovery, he sees a massive window of opportunity for whoever gets elected next.

“I think it’s going to be an interesting time, and the City of Santa Fe can benefit a lot from working with the state administration and the administration in Washington,” says Coss. “There are a lot of things to work on, and I would hope the next city administration is really able to be engaged and make the gears match between the city, the county, the state and the federal government to get things done.”

Register to Vote This is the first year that the municipal election will take place on Nov. 2 rather than the spring.

• Mail voter registration by Oct. 5.

• Or register in person at any of the county’s early voting locations on the day you vote beginning Oct. 5. The county will also begin mailing absentee ballots on this date.

SFREPORTER.COM

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MAY 12-18, 2021

15

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CONGRATS CLASS OF 2021!

SFR salutes this year’s graduates from high schools, colleges and universities!

We can’t wait to see what you do next.

YOUR GRAD HERE School

Your Family is so proud of you and wish you the best at Texas Tech University in the Fall.

Makenzie will be studying Child Psychology and received two scholarships.

Recognize your grad’s name and school along with a picture and 20 words for $25 in the MAY 26 ISSUE.

Congratulations!

You did it!

Contact Robyn at 395-2911 or robyn@sfreporter.com or www.sfreporter.com/grad 16

MAY 12-18, 2021

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SFREPORTER.COM

If ever there were a need for flowery language, it might be now. We speak of poetry—though, of course, there’s much more to it than a pretty turn of phrase or an adorable couplet or two.

It is the soul laid bare (or something), and it’s actually the kind of activity that might help any budding writers, n00bs or even just the pent up to vent. You probably won’t find a better teacher locally than Santa Fe Poet Laureate Elizabeth Jacobson, who hosts a free virtual workshop as part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read initiative in partnership with the Santa Fe Public Library. We can’t promise you’ll be great, but we can just about guarantee you’ll feel better. (ADV) NEA Big Read Poetry Workshop: 6 pm Thursday, May 13. Free. santafelibrary.org

COURTESY POLYGRAM FILMED ENTERTAINMENT

FILM SAT/15 DUDE! Are you sitting down? You might want to be sitting down. OK, that’s melodramatic—we’re just trying to say Motorama at the Downs is back. Yup, that Southside outdoor drive-in moviegoing experience born within the fiery crucible of shut-downs and super-sadsies is hanging its massive screen again, and this weekend’s cinematic selection is the Coen Brothers’ 1998 classic The Big Lebowski. Bowling, porn, nihilism, Sam Elliott—this tale of mistaken identity, ruined rugs and subterfuge gone awry catapulted into the shared lexicon lo those 20ish years ago and stayed there. Also, Mototrama has snacks and stuff. (ADV) The Big Lebowski: 8:15 pm Saturday, May 15. $2-$12.

Motorama at the Downs, 27475 W Frontage Road, facebook.com/motorama.santafe

COURTESY NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS

EXHIBITION SUN/16 GLASS ACT After renovations and pandemic closures and, and, and...the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture is at long last reopening its doors, and its first exhibit within its updated space pretty much makes the wait more than worth it. Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass is the intersection of more than 30 Native glass artists. Curated by former Heard Museum CEO Letitia Chambers, the exhibit finds so many glass artists in one place, in fact, that it might just be the biggest glass exhibit we’ve ever seen—and we’ve seen many a glass exhibit. Works by Priscilla Cowie, Dan Friday, Preston Singletary, Lillian Pitt, Dale Chihuly and sooooo many more artists than we could possibly list will be on hand, and since the show’s open for a full 13 months, you’ll have plenty of chances to see why the glass arts are straight up just alchemical magic. (ADV) Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass Opening: All day Sunday, May 16. By admission.

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 710 Camino Lejo, 476-1269

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EVENT SAT/15

Shine On, You Crazy Diamonds CURRENTS826 celebrates the light at the end of the tunnel Steel yourselves for a sea of stories from arts outlets about how shows that were in process have been tragically canceled. In better instances, they’ve just been postponed. Then rejoice, because, as pop-punk band MXPX once mused, some things are better late than never. Case in point: CURRENTS826, that ongoing gallery bastion/satellite arm of the annual CURRENTS festival (which is slated for a smaller but no less powerful appearance at the Center for Contemporary Arts this year) has a doozy. Despite postponement during the great lockdown of 2020, its theme is eerily appropriate for the current era of spring/renewal/mass vaxxing.

Enter Altered Light, a seven-artist group show featuring a bevy of light, ­laser, projection and holographic arts hailing from both near and far. And though the show’s been running since February, CURRENTS officials have ­selected May 15—the eve of UNESCO’s International Day of Light—for a special one-off nighttime event.

“We kept putting it off and putting it off,” says Mariannah Amster, co-executive and artistic director for CURRENTS. “And the more we kept putting it off, the more we realized how appropriate it is for the moment we’re in right now—the transition out of the pandemic.”

“It’s this idea of spring and light and the altering of spring,” adds Co-Director Frank Ragano. “I would say [this time of

year] in general is upbeat and beautiful with light.”

Amster and Ragano tapped the likes of Santa Fe-based artist August Muth, a holographer since 1980 with roots in physics and astronomy, whose mastery of the Denisyuk single-beam technique is both riveting and beautiful. Find also pieces by Chinese video artist Yuge Zhao (a CURRENTS alumna), Santa Fean C. Alex Clark, multimedia creator Joan Stango, visual poet Dora Tass, installation and video artist Alison Nitkiewicz, and Fred Unterseher who, according to his CV, is a “pioneer of holography.”

A limited number of visitors will be allowed into the gallery’s interior during the show, but the real draw will be the outdoor holographic and projection elements, many of which will remain a surprise until they’re unveiled. Amster and Ragano say they basically gave Muth carte blanche to go wild—they’ll even hold a raffle for one of his pieces, and tickets for that run as low as $10. Altered Light is otherwise free to attend.

“As the show got pushed further into the evolution of the pandemic,” Amster says, “it found its own special place and time.” (Alex De Vore)

ALTERED LIGHT AT NIGHT 5-11 pm Saturday, May 15. Free; raffle $10.

CURRENTS826, 826 Canyon Road, currentsnewmedia.org

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MAY 12-18, 2021

17

A&C

Artist Conor Flynn presses the skateboard advantage with Packrat

BY ALEX DE VORE a l e x @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

F

rom an unassuming Midtown live/work warehouse space about a stone’s throw from DIY metal v­enue The Dave Cave, 20-something ­multimedia artist Conor Flynn emerges to open the metal gates to Shangri-La. No, Flynn didn’t name the space, but the smell of paint, wood and metals wafting out of an open-concept studio space deeper inside hits me, and I realize this is paradise.

But let’s go back a bit.

Flynn has called New Mexico home since 2013 after stints in California, Texas and Delaware, the latter of which is where his father’s from. His time in New Mexico is the longest he’s lived anywhere, which, he notes, makes it feel most like home base. Flynn also made it out of the Santa Fe University of Art & Design with a degree in general studio studies shortly before it closed a few years back. He’d long held an avid interest in the arts, but attending the school bolstered practices in illustration, painting, printmaking and woodworking.

To be fair, that last one was instilled by his mother, an Indian immigrant who came to the states in her mid-20s and, according to Flynn, has “a passion for woodworking and...just making things.”

“I remember she built this window seat when we first moved to New Mexico,” he says, “and I remember thinking, ‘Why would you do that?’ Then I saw it—she had this idea in her mind that it would be perfect to sit there, so she made this thing that

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changed how you experience the space.”

Flynn’s college career was a bit more open than one mere focus. Leaving high school, he says, he “just wanted to make and share art with my friends.” More interested in what he calls abstract image-making, Flynn says teachers at the school like Linda Swanson, Karina Hean, David Leigh, Julia Catron and Jane Lackey opened his eyes to illustration, graphic arts, printmaking via woodblock and linocut, and other styles. He’d go on to do assistant work for notable Santa Fe printmakers like Michael McCabe and Steven Prins, both of whom passed on knowledge and know-how. Someplace between his own burgeoning print, paint and illustration practices, a thought occurred: “Skateboards could bridge those gaps,” he tells SFR. The world of skateboarding boasts a long and proud lineage of both graphic and fine arts. Even Santa Fe has a footnote or two in the skate/arts biography; curator Bobby Beals’ Kamagraph brand, for example, collaborates with artists to raise money for various organizations both local and not—and the boards are skateable or hangable. Flynn’s on a similar mission with his own brand, Packrat, though he readily admits he’s a little more interested in people shredding with his boards than hanging them.

“If people want to hang them on the walls, I guess I’m happy with that, too,” he says with a laugh. “I want to do the art side of it, but I want them to be skateable, strong enough, affordable enough.”

Most decks run $55, though more complicated styles and designs cost more.

Graphically, Flynn illustrates designs for his decks, makes his own screens and then prints them by hand. It’s been a trial-anderror process, including building his own press, importing Canadian hard maple wood and finding a flow that works, but he’s zeroed in on a one-man assembly line situation. Each deck is hand-hewn and seven-ply, according to Flynn, which results in 14 total wood faces. Of those, 12 must be glued within a brief (and intense) 15-minute period or, Flynn says, “Usually about half a record.” As we sit and chat, he breaks down a whole list of wood considerations, ranging from resin

ALEX DE VORE / @PACKRAT_SKATEBOARDS

Shredding the Gnar

SFRE PORTE R.COM / ARTS

Flynn in his Midtown studio with his roommate’s cat Chimi.

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content and moisture concerns to availability, sustainability and beyond. In the end, he says, it’s about sharing his own passions while enjoying what he does, but in a way that emphasizes quality.

“Society wants us to have an identity based around our careers being our passions, but it’s hard to fit all one’s passions into one career, one identity,” he explains.

“I’m trying not to limit myself with the things I do, but within reason.”

To wit, in a corner of the studio beyond the skateboard assembly line sit a few paintings based on Flynn’s grandfather on his maternal side. He built fishing boats, Fynn says, but also worked in construction.

Using old photos from his grandfather’s job sites unearthed just recently, Flynn has married abstraction and representation with muted blues, whites and beiges.

Looking to the photos, a more discernible picture emerges, without them, the paintings become something else entirely. It’s beautiful and almost familiar, but dreamlike and distant. Flynn’s illustration practice is thriving as well, both on and off his boards. One recent drawing, for example, features a potato overgrowing with sprouts; another finds a mother rat with her babies attached that Flynn says he saw skitter up a sheer wall—ratlings included.

For now, you’ll find Packrat decks at Initiate Skateboarding (2882 Trades West Road, 490-8226), or you can reach out via Instagram for pricing and commissions.

Still, it’s early in his career and he’s yet to show many places. I tell him I think that should change. He kind of shrugs that off.

Even if he could wake up tomorrow with a brick-and-mortar skateshop for Packrat, he says, he isn’t sure that’s what he wants.

“I think if I could continue to work out of this space and maybe reconfigure a little to facilitate a higher production level,” he says, “that would be my dream. I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it.”

Find Flynn on Instagram: @conor.flynn @packrat_skateboards

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Calling All PlantEaters Options abound for the vegan crowd on Plant Base Cafe’s diverse, sustainable menu

BY WILLIAM MELHADO w i l l i a m @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

A

small, green-trimmed door sprouted up in April in an unlikely territory awash with mortgage lenders and commercial hotels on the Southside, quietly stating its presence just off Cerrillos Road.

Spreading good vegan vibes to all, Plant Base Cafe (1372 Vegas Verdes Drive, 365-2556) doesn’t deal in frills or gimmicks to satiate Santa Fe’s vegan community. True to its name, the new restaurant serves up meals inspired by and using only plant-based ingredients. That’s right—no meat, no dairy, no eggs, nothing that comes from our furry or feathered friends.

And while vegan cuisine certainly isn’t new in Santa Fe or elsewehere, recognition for its complexity and value is. While more diners and restaurants delve into veganism and vegetarianism, the arrival of Santa Fe’s newest meat-free joint was only a matter of time.

“The culinary arts are coming around to it,” says head cook Thomas Conboy.

“It’s a different system, so there’s an enor-

mous number of options and variety of foodstuffs you can choose from.”

For those true vegans out there, Plant Base Cafe aligns with all the ­values: lowimpact on the environment, healthconscious plant meals, cruelty-free from farm to table. Aside from Ras Rody’s much-loved Jamaican vegan food truck off Agua Fría Street, Annapurna’s World Vegetarian Café and a smattering of mostly OK options at some of Santa Fe’s brick-and-mortar establishments, the plant-based food scene in Santa Fe has room for growth. Even the Root 66 vegan food truck is waiting out the pandemic sans service; Plant Base Cafe aims to occupy that niche. And the number of menu items at the up-and-coming eatery deserve some attention—almost every dish can be customized to your liking. With different protein, sauce and faux cheese options to choose from, for example, Conboy can craft over 140 unique calzones to satisfy anyone’s taste.

And that’s just calzones.

Still, you might want to peruse the café’s menus, which are split across three

main categories: American, Mexican and Italian. Between them, Plant Base Cafe’s selections are almost as extensive as a phone book.

For now, Conboy and crew only offer pick-up and delivery, but because of this, the packaging game is on point. Served in entirely compostable to-go containers, the food comes hot from the grills and packaged to be enjoyed out of the box—or for those fancy folks, easily transferred to a plate and eaten with real cutlery.

While the restaurant relies heavily on meat and dairy analogs, part of us wanted the dishes to celebrate the great plant-based foods for what they are—so much more than just animal substitutes. Conboy also cites numerous vegan cheese options.

“I have feta, I have blue cheese,” he tells SFR. “I have all the variety of hard whites, a cheddar that’s just remarkable.”

These faux cheeses, he explains, behave exactly like the real thing—that means melting—and someplace between that and the meat substitutes, a satisfying dining experience emerged. The chili con carne from fake meat brand Beyond in the Mexican lasagna ($18) gave the dish a lasting rich-

Meat, schmeat—Plant Base Cafe caters to the vegans and vegetarians with tasty lasagnas, salads, wings, sandwiches and more.

FOOD

ness that other lasagna substitutes can never seem to convey appropriately. The portions of this entree also extended to not just one, but two leftover servings. The low-key star of the show, however, turned out to be a simple blue cheese wedge side salad. The blue cheese dressing had that savory tang with a creaminess one would expect from dairy. Paired with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and “bacon” bits, this crunchy, refreshing mélange was the perfect size for two to share.

For spice lovers, the Buffalo cauliflower wings ($12) don’t disappoint. Tender cauliflower florets fried in gluten-free batter serve as the vehicle for a spicy kick that might force some to a glass of milk. Though the notorious Buffalo flavor didn’t take center stage, it was present enough to ensure that none of these addictive bites made it into leftover territory.

The oyster mushroom sandwich wowed as well. Accented by arugula, gluten-free toast and queso fresco (one of 10 total cheese options), it was the kind of sandwich that puts a major onus on other delis and sandwicheries for not boasting better meat substitutes—though chicken-fiends beware: The chewy texture of the oyster mushroom, here dubbed “chickn,” is not a 1:1 version of actual chicken patties. Even so, well-seasoned fries added more bang to the dish, especially when considering Plant Base Cafe’s commitment to gluten-free, soy-free and organic ingredients. At $17, this sandwich obviously runs more than fast food chicken-on-a-bun, but enjoying a battered mushroom patty is well worth the extra ­ dollars alone. Countless other selections carry a similar gravitas. It’ll take time to wend one’s way through all of Plant Base Cafe’s menus, so for the full picture, order online at plant-base-cafe. square.site and witness the sheer variety of dipping sauces, protein bases, add-ons and—you get the point.

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MAY 12-18, 2021

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MOVIES

RATINGS

Mainstream Review

BEST MOVIE EVER

Andrew Garfield really wants you to know he’s kinda weird

10 9 8

Frankie (Maya Hawke of Stranger Things) lives a monotonous life as a disrespected bartender with dreams of making mainstream online content—whatever that is—but things haven’t quite panned out. After meeting Link (Andrew Garfield), an eccentric drifter with contempt for people’s low entertainment standards, the two hatch a plot to degrade the beautiful people ­industry by infiltrating it, with Link becoming the ­influencer type he’s long despised.

Despite its head-scratching setup, Mainstream is an energetic if perplexing ride. It can be f­ unny and shocking, yet the more versed you are in modern internet culture, the less shocked you’re bound to be by its machinations.

Like Garfield’s character here, influencers are often good-looking winners of some cosmic genetic lottery who are rewarded for ultimately doing very l­ ittle (“Viewers aren’t looking for entertainment, they’re just horny,” one character muses). There’s a lot to unpack there, and plenty to criticize, but rather than dive into a more astute or nuanced analysis of the what and why

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 WORST MOVIE EVER

HERE ARE THE YOUNG MEN

5

++ PERFORMANCES; CINEMATOGRAPHY -- FUMBLES ITS THEMES

Here Are the Young Men from filmmaker Eoin Macken seemingly believes itself philosophically rich, though the sad truth is that it winds up feeling more emotionally bankrupt.

Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman of Game of Thrones), Kearney (Finn Cole) and Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo of Sing Street) roam the streets of Dublin carousing and drinking, dabbling in hard drugs and having the type of tedious Socratic gab sessions most youths have when they’re feigning worldliness. Amidst the booze and the waxing philosophical come debates about what it means to be truly free and, for them, freedom seems to be an existence beyond any and all authority—like an Ayn Rand novel on ecstasy informed by those too young to understand objectivism’s myriad inherent flaws.

Thus, when the trio witness a tragic accident during one of their binges, reactions vary from terror to pleasure, and young Kearney’s emerging psychopathy begins an irrevocable split just as the boys realize freedom is ultimately beyond their control. Macken’s setup is unquestionably intriguing, but those who came for a c­ hallenging look at disparate psyches

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++ GARFIELD’S

ENERGY OFF THE CHARTS -- TELLS US NOTHING NEW

of influencer culture, Mainstream’s commentary comes across like the crotchety old person screaming at youths who embrace a system put into place long before they could work within it.

What the film hints at, however—like how race, socioeconomics and corporate forces fuel marketing in terrifying ways and keep the capitalist juggernaut going—is unceremoniously pushed aside for the more obvious points about internet celebrity. The messaging feels murky, and if director Gia Coppola hoped to hold a mirror up to society, she has done so fleetingly; audiences will either already jive with the film’s message with little need for prodding, or they’ll file it under “OK, Boomer.”

Coppola has a cinematic eye that feels otherwise absent within the contemporary indie scene, but while she can build a great frame and direct actors, her film suffers from the horrid

should take note—much of the promise of Young Men is sacrificed early on to focus on murder, drugs, and drawn-out sequences of partying and drama involving “the girl;” Anna Taylor-Joy of The Queen’s Gambit, who gives a hell of an effort here despite being given too little. Gross.

Macken’s tale does strike impressive notes, particularly in how some performances come off so well with hardly any motivating factors scene by scene or line by line. The central theme of individualism runs amok, however, becoming a mere vehicle for getting to the flashy guts the director evidently finds appealing: hypnotic drug-fueled raves and meta-commentary on the American brand of capitalism told through an exposition-spouting TV show that exists solely within the boys’ minds.

A society built on individual rights as a screen for anarchy feels like a great thesis for a story to build upon, but when it’s clear the minds behind the film don’t believe in what they say and only want to dazzle with impressive camera tricks, you get 90-ish minutes of actors playing support pillars to a poorly constructed narrative that winds up straining beneath the weight of its considerable promise. If the only message is “things suck,” what’s the point in all the effort, anyway? (Riley Gardner)

VoD, NR, 96 min

c­ reative decision to bring on real-world influencers like Jake Paul, Casey Frey and others.

Maybe these small cameos were meant to add realism, but giving such people the very audience Mainstream is out to critique is bizarre. Why did Coppola think this would work?

Garfield is insane here, however, and totally in his element playing Link with an astonishing devotion that occasionally inches past too far. He’s the kind of actor who’d have chemistry with a flagpole, so for for any Garfield stans in search of his increasingly bizarre roles, this is the sweet spot. This is his film, too, even if Coppola’s ­messaging feels so 2005.

COLLECTIVE

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++ JOURNALISM! ETHICS! SYSTEMIC CHANGE!

-- SOME MIGHT FIND IT DRY

There’s a funny saying I rather like: “First they came for the journalists and I did nothing; then we don’t know what happened next.” Maybe the word is actually “maudlin,” but still, America is one of the few places where the press is so strongly woven into the very fabric of society that, while being the only job expressly noted in the Constitution, it is often taken for granted. But this isn’t a story about the American press—it’s the tale of the small Romanian paper Gazeta Sporturilor which, in 2016, uncovered a shocking conspiracy within the country’s healthcare system.

In 2019’s Collective (or Collectiv, if you like), filmmaker Alexander Nanau follows the sports (yes, sports) paper’s then-editor Catalin Tolontan and his small team as they come to learn about shady hospital dealings across Romania. In 2015, the Romanian nightclub Collectiv caught fire during a show. That night, over two dozen in the audience were killed, and over two dozen more died of infections in the weeks that followed due to absurdly lacking policies in Romanian hospitals.

At first, it seems as simple as shady mob deals and hospital managers diluting disinfectants to a horrifying degree, but as Tolontan and company

MAINSTREAM Directed by Coppola With Garfield and Hawke VoD, R, 94 min.

dig deeper into the issue and reveal more to the story, murder, governmental shifts and systemic failures come to a head, and the country itself is forever changed.

Full disclosure: We like movies about investigative journalism, but Nanau’s look at Gazeta Sporturilor’s herculean efforts goes beyond mere insights into how the press is valuable and shows us the results of difficult reporting. Nanau hits it from three main angles—the paper’s day-to-day reporting on the issue; the fire’s surviving victims and the families of the dead; and newly appointed Minister of Health Vlad Voiculescu, a former patients’ rights activist who, in perhaps one of the more shocking twists in the film, actually cares about the Romanian people.

Through whistleblower doctors, gut-wrenching footage of the fire and the hospital conditions, we observe how the country itself changes. A small team did that, and it’s important for everyone— from everyday people to journalists themselves, even in small towns—to understand what can come from an unwavering dedication to the truth and transparency. There simply is no overstating how important the press can be, and Nanau’s dive into what it takes to make that a reality—especially as it applies to the people’s right to know what their government is doing—is nearly flawless in execution. (Alex De Vore) Hulu, NR, 99 min.

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by Matt Jones

CALL FELINES & FRIENDS

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WHISKERY is one of a group of lucky cats rescued from being euthanized at a shelter in Southern New Mexico.

WHISKERY is a sweet, handsome male kitty, with a Maine Coon mix heritage.

He came to us with burnt whiskers, and we are not sure how that happened to him. He loves to be held and snuggled.

WHISKERY would do best in a home alone or with a laid-back female kitty.

He is approximately three years old and at our Adoption Center inside Petco.

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16 Maroons 52 Dijon’s here 17 Misheard phrase such as 53 Santa Monica area in early “nerve-wrecking” skateboard documentaries 18 Thought that one could 55 Biden, to GIs 19 Complete beginner?

56 Beauty chain since 1970 20 Martial arts-based Lego 58 Model who’s the daughter set that launched a cartoon of Wayne Gretzky and subsequent movie 60 About .035 ounces 22 Req. for a restaurant to 61 Connecticut-born cartoonserve alcohol ist known for big stripey cats 23 Eric who said “I believe in the 62 Say again separation of church and planet” 63 Like old parchment 25 Spread for some bougie brewpubs DOWN 26 Dal ___ (Rajasthani dish 1 Spell out with wheat bread and ghee) 2 Rooted for 27 “Barbarella” actress 3 Malaysian-born comedian 29 Heart diagnostic, for short who gained fame in 2020 for 30 Lammermoor bride of opera his online cooking reviewer 31 Virtuoso guitarist persona Uncle Roger Malmsteen 4 Happy coworker?

33 Use your break time, in a way 5 About 90% of all refined metal 35 In the meantime, in Latin 6 Places in the heart 37 How “Waiting for Godot” 7 Johnson who invented the was originally presented Super Soaker 40 Jays’ and Yanks’ div.

8 Harmful bloom makeup 44 Gotta-haves 9 Long sushi order?

45 ‘50s Dem. presidential 10 Ballpoint pen, in the U.K. candidate 11 “Taiwan” suffix

12 Arsenic partner, in film 13 Wright who played Shuri in “Black Panther” 14 Withdrawn, perhaps 21 Big no-no for stand-up comedians 24 King nicknamed “Longshanks” 26 Sucky situations 28 Professional staff 30 Ali who had a perfect record in the ring 32 One, in Bonn 34 La la leader?

36 March Madness event 37 Canine neighbor 38 Division of the Tertiary period 39 Former Mexican president CalderÛn and baseball manager Alou, for two 41 Puerto Rico observatory site where a notable telescope collapsed in 2020 42 City north of Flint 43 Chianti’s region 46 Visit 49 He was in a “Subsequent Moviefilm” 50 Caffeinated 53 “___ and the Lost City of Gold” (2019 film) 54 Lacking value 57 Companion of wt.

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BLU needs a foster home.

He is a gorgeous and deliciously affectionate Lynx Siamese looking for a soft place to land while we navigate his renal failure diagnosis. BLU would prefer to have all of your love and attention, so being an only cat would be ideal. He loves to be held and cuddled and sleeping with him next to you will make you feel like the most adored person in the world. BLU is quite playful and loves a wand or string-like toy to chase. He would do great with gentle children.

Despite his kidney issues he is excellent with using the litter box. BLU is on one medication at this point that is easily mixed with wet food. All food and medication will be provided.

We need fosters for mama cats and kittens. Please fill out a foster form here if you can help:

www.FandFnm.org

FOSTER HOMES URGENTLY NEEDED FOR ADULT CATS OF VARIOUS AGES SANTA FE CATS not only supports the mission of FELINES & FRIENDS from revenue generated by providing premium boarding for cats, pocket pets and birds, but also serves as a mini-shelter for cats awaiting adoption. For more information, please visit www.santafecats.com

The Forest Service intends to cut most of the trees on 21,000 acres and then burn 43,000 acres, repeatedly, in the Resiliency Project, from Tesuque to Glorietta.

Please sign the petition at:

OnceAForest.org Save our forests!

Only we can stop this!

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MIND BODY SPIRIT MIND BODY SPIRIT

ACUPUNCTURE Rob Brezsny

Week of May 12th

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In one of her poems, Emily Dickinson tells us, “The pedigree of honey / Does not concern the bee; / A clover, any time, to him / Is aristocracy.” I suggest you be like Dickinson’s bee in the coming weeks, my dear Aries. Take pleasure and power where they are offered. Be receptive to just about any resource that satisfies your raw need.

Consider the possibility that substitutes and stand-ins may be just as good as the supposed original. OK? Don’t be too fussy about how pure or prestigious anything is.

a lover: “You seem to have knit all things in a piece for me. Things are not separate; they are all in a symphony.” In other words, Libra, I’ll be ecstatic if you experience being in such synergistic communion with an empathic ally that the two of you weave a vision of life that’s vaster and richer than either one of you could summon by yourself. The astrological omens suggest this possibility is now more likely than usual.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Sometimes people don’t like the provocative posts I publish on Facebook. They leave TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A fan once asked comcomments like, “You stupid idiot!” or “I hope you commit poser Johann Sebastian Bach about his creative prosuicide!” and far worse. When I delete their messages, cess. He was so prolific! How did he dream up such a they become even more enraged, accusing me of censorconstant flow of new music? Bach told his admirer that ship. “So you don’t believe in free speech, you jerk?” they the tunes came to him unbidden. When he woke up complain. I don’t try to reason with them. They don’t each morning, they were already announcing themdeserve any of my time or energy. But if I did communiselves in his head. According to my analysis of the cate with them, I might say, “My Facebook page is my astrological omens, Taurus, a comparable phenomesanctuary, where I welcome cordial conversation. If you non may very well visit you in the coming weeks—not came into my house and called me an idiot, would it be in the form of music, but as intuitions and insights ‘censorship’ if I told you to leave?” I hope these thoughts about your life and your future. Your main job is to be inspire you to clarify and refine your own personal receptive to them, and make sure you remember them. boundaries, Scorpio. It’s a good time to get precise and definite about what’s acceptable and unacceptGEMINI (May 21-June 20): “I love unmade beds,” writes Gemini poet Shane Koyczan. “I love when peo- able from the people with whom you engage. ple are drunk and crying and cannot be anything but SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Have you ever honest. I love the look in people’s eyes when they real- kissed a monster in your nightly dreams? Have you ize they’re in love. I love the way people look when won a chess match with a demon or signed a benefithey first wake up and they’ve forgotten their surcial contract with a ghost or received a useful blessing roundings. I love when people close their eyes and drift from a pest? I highly recommend activities like those to somewhere in the clouds.” In the coming days, in the coming weeks—both while you’re asleep and Gemini, I encourage you to specialize in moments like awake. Now is a good time to at least make peace those: when you and the people you’re interested in with challenging influences, and at best come into a are candid, unguarded, raw, vulnerable, and primed to new relationship with them that serves you better. I go deeper. In my opinion, your soul needs the surprisdare you to ask for a gift from an apparent adversary. ing healing that will come from these experiences.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What does it mean to CANCER (June 21-July 22): Trailblazing psychologist C. “follow the path with heart”? I invite you to meditate G. Jung said his loneliness wasn’t about a lack of people on that question. Here are my ideas. To follow the around him. Rather, it came from the fact that he knew path with heart means choosing a destiny that things that most people didn’t know and didn’t want to appeals to your feelings as well as to your ambitions know. He had no possibility of communicating many of and ideas and habits. To follow a path with heart the interesting truths that were important to him! But means living a life that fosters your capacity to give I’m guessing that won’t be much of a problem for you in and receive love. To follow the path with heart means the coming months. According to my astrological analyhonoring your deepest intuitions rather than the sis, you’re more likely to be well-listened to and understood than you have been in quite some time. For best expectations other people have about you. To follow the path with heart means never comparing your results, ASK to be listened to and understood. And progress with that of anyone else’s, but rather simply think about how you might express yourself in ways focusing on being faithful to your soul’s code. that are likely to be interesting and useful to others.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The French government regularly gives the Legion of Honor award to people deemed to have provided exceptional service to the world. Most recipients are deserving, but a few have been decidedly unworthy. In the latter category are Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, as well as drugcheating athlete Lance Armstrong, sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, and Nazi collaborator Marshal Pétain. I bring this to your attention, Leo, because the coming weeks will be a favorable time to reward people who have helped and supported you. But I also suggest that you pointedly exclude those who have too many negatives mixed in with their positives.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 2010, an American engineer named Edward Pimentel went to Moscow to compete in the World Karaoke Championship. He won by singing Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling in Love.” His award: one million dumplings, enough to last him 27 years. I have a good feeling about the possibility of you, too, collecting a new prize or perk or privilege sometime soon. I just hope it’s a healthier boon than dumplings. For best results, take some time now to clearly define the nature of the prize or perk or privilege that you really want—and that will be truly useful.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “It’s a good thing when people are different from your images of them,” wrote Aquarian author Boris Pasternak. “It shows they are not merely a type. If you can’t place them in a category, it means that at least a part of them is what a human being ought to be. They have risen above themselves, they have a grain of immortality.” I love that perspective! I’m offering it to you because right now is a favorable time to show that you are indeed different from the images people have of you; that you transcend all stereotyping; that you are uncategorizable.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You have personal possession of the universe’s most monumental creation: consciousness. This mercurial flash and dazzle whirling around inside you is outlandishly spectacular. You can think thoughts any time you want to—soaring, luminescent, flamboyant thoughts or shriveled, rusty, burrowing thoughts; thoughts that can invent or destroy, corrupt or redeem, bless or curse. There’s more. You can revel and wallow in great oceans of emotion. Whether they are poignant or intoxicating or somewhere in between, you relish the fact that you can harbor so much intensity. You cherish the privilege of commanding such extravagant life force. I bring these thoughts to your attention because the time is right for a holiday I call Celebrate Your Greatest Gifts.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I will love it if sometime soon you find or create an opportunity to speak words Homework: Send testimony or proof of how you’ve similar to what novelist D. H. Lawrence once wrote to seized control of your own life. Truthrooster@gmail.com

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700. © CO P Y R I G H T 2 0 2 1 R O B B R E Z S N Y 22

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ASTROLOGY

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Evening appointments and phone readings now available.

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TANTRA MASSAGE & TEACHING Call Julianne Parkinson, 505-920-3083 Certified Tantra Educator, Professional Massage Therapist, & Life Coach LIC #2788

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EspanolaHumane.org • petango.com/espanola MAMA B

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‘Tis the season to show some love to mothers! Mama B was an attentive and loving mamacita to her recent litter of kittens, and now she needs some love and pampering of her own - which she will return in spades to her forever family.

T h i s stunner of a tuxie is always looking for pets and attention, a n d she will be the life of your home once she settles in and gets comfy! For an adoption fee of $40 you can take this charmer home — spayed, vaccinated, dewormed, and microchipped! Apply on our website to schedule an appointment www.espanolahumane.com

Have you ever wanted your own Ewok? No need for travel to the Moon of Endor, because you can live out your Star Wars dreams right here in Santa Fe! Adopt Rogue from Española Humane’s Puppy Patch at Ojo Santa Fe resort for an adoption fee of $150 — so much cheaper than space travel!

Rogue is an 11lb 3-month-old baby terrier fresh from foster care, and she’s also a Parvo survivor. She is spayed, vaccinated, dewormed, microchipped, and goes home with six months of heartworm prevention too; apply on our website and we will schedule an appointment at the resort!

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STATE OF NEW MEXICO IN THE PROBATE COURT SANTA FE COUNTY IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF MARY LIDA BOWKER, DECEASED. No. 2021-0091 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 Probate Court of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, located at the following address: P.O. Box 1922, Santa Fe, NM 87504 Dated: April 27th, 2021 Loretta Joan Bowker /s/ Loretta Joan Bowker P.O. Box 1922 Santa Fe, NM 87504 505.230.9311 lidabowker@gmail.com merlene.bowker@yahoo.com FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF SANTA FE STATE OF NEW MEXICO No. D-101-PB-2021-00102 IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF EDUARDO L. SERRANO, Deceased.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed Personal Representative of this estate.

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 or sixty (60) days after the date of mailing or 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 Probate Court of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, located at the following address, 100 Catron Street, Santa Fe, NM 87504.

Dated: May 12th, 2021 Gino Serrano, Personal Representative, 47 C Comanche Drive, Santa Fe, NM 87508.

CALL: 505.988.5541

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IN MEMORIAM

Margaretmary Woodd passed away April 27, ending her 16 year battle with cancer. She was surrounded by family at her time of passing. Her strength of character, loving nature, humility, and resilience will live on in the hearts of everyone who knew her. She is survived by her husband Ed, daughter Brianna, grandson Nate, and five siblings: Buzz Cruz, brother; Rocky Lavery, sister; Mikilani Garcia, sister; Chelle Mackenzie, sister; and Kimo Cruz, brother. Her passing has left a void in our lives but the world is a better place for her brief time with us.

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OK to miss a class.

Cost: $10./ session, pay as you go. Benefits: Stress reduction, Balance and Coordination, Brain gym: Neurogenesis & Resiliency You must register by email: info@danieljbruce.com, NO pre-payment necessary.

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Daisy’s takes a unique approach to Holistic Health.

Newman’s Nursery

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Daisy’s Holistic Health is locally owned and dedicated to great customer service!

with full kitchens

• Retreat, staycation + work remotely

OCEAN FOREST

• 7-night minimum rentals with SAVINGS UP TO 40% for longer.

POTTING SOIL

• Near Ojo, 1 hr north of Santa Fe

Visit us at: 4056 Cerrillos Road – Unit D-1 on Facebook: @DaisysHolisticHealth

7501 CERRILLOS RD, SANTA FE • 471 - 8 6 4 2 ESTABLISHED 1965

www.cliffriversprings.com | 505-583-0002

25% OFF all Tile Murals!!!

Expires 05/26/2021

24

DECEM BER 18-31, 2019

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• 8 charming casitas

CARRIES THESE FINE PRODUCTS

We offer a wide range of Herbs, Vitamins, Supplements, and High pH H20.

AWAY FROM IT ALL

SFREPORTER.COM

www.artesanos.com