The Fire Eating New Mexico is Still Eating New Mexico

So large! And not even including the fire in the San Mateo Mountains southwest of Magdalena.

A Different Idea About Coronado's Path

Here is an interesting video about one of those understudied, enduring mysteries: Coronado's exact path on his way to Cibola in 1540. The Arizona-New Mexico landscape can be interpreted in different ways, as can the original Spanish documents, which are a bit vague anyway because the Spanish explorers were in a new, unfamiliar land. This fellow mentions Nugent Brasher, so he is familiar with Brasher's work, but he places his path farther east than Brasher does. Which is all good for the purpose of debate. For me, for now, I stay faithful to Brasher's interpretation, which places Chichilticale west, not east, of the Chiricahuas.

 

"The Duke"

I saw this delightful film with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren last Friday at The Tower Theater.

 

Yung L & Wizkid - Eve Bounce (Remix)

I'm still going and still liking LaToya's Dancehall Power Up (DHPU) on Thursday nights.

Here's one of the better recent Jamaican Dancehall songs we dance to.

 

Thomas Edison Elementary School Showcase and Family Night - May 6, 2022

These New Mexico Fires Are Huge

And it's not even really fire season. New Mexico is no different than Colorado or California with these off-season fires. People and forests have a hard time mixing.

Neighborhood Century Plant Stalk is a Year Old Now!

I had no idea they could last this long. I thought they are supposed to collapse after a few months. It looks blackened, battered, and weather-beaten, but there's no sign it'll collapse anytime soon.

"Mother And Child Reunion" - Paul Simon

A 1972 memory:

 

Half-Barrel Vaults in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul"

In Vince Gilligan's universe, architecture may be used for humor. 

For example, after Ted and Skyler's tryst in BrBa "Green Light," we see a drawing on the wall of a half-barrel vault in a gallery such as you might find in a Romanesque church. Skyler complains that Walt is frustrating her efforts to throw him out of the house. 

In BCS "Hit and Run," we get a view of Gus' tunnel to his neighbors' house. We see a small-scale half-barrel vault. The message seems to be that, unlike that lunatic Walt, Gus knows best when and how to leave his house. 

Half-barrel vaults are rarely-used in either television series. Why they seem to be related to leaving the house is a mystery to me.

So Hard On The Dancers, Who Have To Choose

Devastating:

When ballet dancers are described as God's athletes, well, you could offer up Olga Smirnova as supporting evidence. She treads on air, coming in on little cat feet. She's a Russian prima ballerina—one of the world's leading dancers. But days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Smirnova pirouetted and stepped off her stage at the renowned Bolshoi Theater, with dramatic flourish. She took to social media to express her outrage. And then fled the country, the modern-day version of Nureyev or Baryshnikov defecting.

Jon Wertheim: When you sat down to write that social media post, what did you want to communicate? What did you want to say?

Olga Smirnova: I just couldn't keep it inside. I was so ashamed of Russia. This is the true. I'm not ashamed that I'm Russian, but I'm ashamed because of Russia started this action.

Jon Wertheim: I want to read what you wrote. You said you were against this war with every fiber of your being." But I now feel that a line has been drawn that separates the before and the after." 

Olga Smirnova: It's how I felt. 24th of February, this is, was the line, Because it's all changed. All changed. The reputation of Russia and Russian people, even if you are not a soldier, you're just Russian. It, it's all, it still make a shadow on you.