Valles Caldera National Preserve

NewMexiKen has written about the Valles Caldera previously. The Valle Grande alone, just the one-fourth of the Preserve that’s visible from New Mexico Highway 4, is magnificent.

As Scott Momaday wrote in House Made of Dawn:

Of all the places that he knew, this valley alone could reflect the great spatial majesty of the sky. It scooped out of the dark peaks like the well of a great, gathering storm, deep umber and blue and smoke-colored. The view across the diameter was magnificent; it was an unbelievably great expanse. As many times as he had been there in the past, each new sight of it always brought him up short, and he had to catch his breath. Just there, it seemed, a strange and brilliant light lay upon the world, and all the objects in the landscape were washed clean and set away in the distance.

Saturday, the Trust that has managed the Preserve since it came into federal ownership in 2000, opened the property to all comers. Normally access is tightly restricted, so it was a big event for many of us — a chance to see the back country, if only from the window of a car. According to local news reports, about 1500 vehicles showed up, more than expected and more than could be accommodated. Rains had washed out parts of the planned tour route and the result was congestion unfitting for such a beautiful place.

Still, we were glad we went. Even driving just a few miles across Valle Grande changed perceptions and made it seem beautiful all over again.

Photos rarely serve the Valle Grande well. For one, its almost too big for the human eye, let alone the two-dimensional reproduction. That said, here a few photos taken Saturday, including some of the traffic. Click any image for a larger version.

Traffic Lined Up Sign

Traffic backed up in both directions on Hwy 4 waiting to turn in.

Traffic Going In Get a Horse

View showing the road into Valle Grande, and a way of travel many of us envied.

Flowers in the Breeze East Fork Jemez River

Some of the beauty found, especially in our verdant summer of 2006. That’s the East Fork of the Jemez River.

A Vista Tree Framed Vista

Too beautiful for words. Too beautiful for photos.

Too Many Cars

Too many car-bound nature lovers snake along at a few miles an hour.

Handsome Eye Contact

Would you like a rider, good lookin’? How about you? Hmm, maybe not.

Third Battle of Manassas

Jill, oldest daughter of NewMexiKen, sent along these photos taken yesterday at a reenactment at Manassas National Battlefield Park.

Manassas Artillery Manassas Infantry

Manassas Cavalry Manassas Skirmish

The Second Battle at Manassas was fought on August 29-30, 1862.

Click each image to see larger version.

Willie Nelson and John Fogerty

NewMexiKen attended the Willie Nelson-John Fogerty concert Saturday on a beautiful, cool (and no rain!) evening at Albuquerque’s Journal Pavilion. It was awesome.

Willie Nelson and Family began a 75-minute set at exactly 7:30 with “Whiskey River.” The crowd, many still milling on the patio with the vendors, scurried in. Among the many songs, nearly all of them part of the pop-country canon, were Willie’s own “Crazy” and “Night Life,” standards like “Blue Skies” and “Georgia on My Mind,” Nelson hits “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” and, of course, “On the Road Again.” The band closed with Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light.”

A highlight was the piano playing of Willie’s sister Bobbie. Another, just seeing how incredibly well Willie plays after all these years, and how well his voice has held up.

Another member of the Family, Willie’s drummer, Paul English, was celebrating 40 years with Willie last night, and so we got “Me and Paul.”

It’s been rough and rocky travelin’,
But I’m finally standin’ upright on the ground.
After takin’ several readings,
I’m surprised to find my mind`s still fairly sound.

I guess Nashville was the roughest,
But I know I said the same about them all.
We received our education
In the cities of the nation, me and Paul.

Almost busted in Laredo,
But for reasons that I’d rather not disclose,
But if you’re stayin’ in a motel there and leave,
Just don’t leave nothin’ in your clothes.

Willie has looked old for some time and he looked every bit of 73 in his baggy jeans last night. A small man, he appears to have become even more compact. He does however, have forearms a man half his age might envy. That’s what all the guitar playing will do. And Willie’s guitar (that incredibly beautiful sounding Martin) — is so worn it has a large hole in it.

Trigger has been played so much, there is a rather sizable hole worn right through the top, one that Willie considers so sentimental, he won’t have it repaired. In addition, Nelson estimates that he has 100 signatures on his Martin including those of Leon Russell, Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, lawyers, football coaches, and other friends and associates. When asked why his guitar is named Trigger, Willie explains: “Roy Rogers had a horse named Trigger. I figured this is my horse!” (Harmony Central)

Seeing Willie Nelson is a lot like seeing Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon. You can’t quite be a complete American unless you visit these icons. When Willie and Family appear near you, go. Don’t wait too long. As Willie reminded us:

Too many pain pills
Too much pot
Tryin’ to be something that I’m not
I ain’t Superman

Then, after a 20-25 minute intermission, we rocked. Rocked hard for nearly two hours. And I’m thinking the nearby Albuquerque International airport probably called to complain about the noise.

John Fogerty, 61 years old, but looking startlingly younger, seemed like he was having the time of his life, from one side of the stage to another. And how does his voice hold out? He wore out the audience, much of which was on its feet for the entire set. (We all seemed to particularly appreciate Willie Nelson returning for a duet with Fogerty on Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.”)

Playing an incredible number of different guitars (the antithesis of Willie Nelson in this regard), he covered all of his Creedence Clearwater Revival hits — “Travelin’ Band,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Green River,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Heard It through the Grapevine,” “Born on the Bayou,” “Down on the Corner” (with teen-age son Shane playing that great rhythm guitar opening) — and some of his more recent as well, like “Centerfield,” played with a Louisville Slugger guitar.

Oh, put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach – I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.

Fogerty’s even more recent, anti-war song, “Deja Vu” (All Over Again) was warmly received:

Did you hear ’em talkin’ ’bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I’ve heard it all before
It’s like Deja Vu all over again

Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score

Fogerty closed with his most famous anthem, “Fortunate Son,” but we didn’t have to work too hard to get him back for a two song encore. And what would the night have been without “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary”?

Left a good job in the city,
Workin for the man evry night and day,
And I never lost one minute of sleepin,
Worryin bout the way things might have been.

Big wheel keep on turnin,
Proud Mary keep on burnin,
Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river.

And I’m still rollin’ this morning.

Organ donor wannabes

Two guys were gunning their motorcycles and doing wheel stands in traffic this afternoon — doing 70 or so in a 55 zone. What’s with these kidneys and livers on wheels?

Meanwhile half of the rest of traffic seemed to be signaling for turns they decided not to take. I should have guessed, as no one in Albuquerque signals for an actual turn or, god forbid, a lane change.

Then there was the woman at Costco who refused to back up a few feet (no one was behind her) so I could more easily get into a parking place. Instead she honked (it is easier to honk than to put a car into reverse I guess). It took me a reaaaaaaal long time to make it into the place — I’d probably still be maneuvering if other traffic hadn’t eventually come along behind her.

On the back of her car: “Be Loud for Christ.” I guess that explains the honking.

Refuse to be Terrorized

A thoughtful, provocative column from Bruce Schneier at Wired News. Read it all, but his key point, one with which NewMexiKen agrees:

I’d like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics.

The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.

Money quote: “The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized.”

Stuff

Ken Jennings has the answers to yesterday’s Capitol Statuary Hall trivia and some more Capitol trivia.

Michael Bérubé responds to a pretty good meme about books: One book that changed your life, One book you have read more than once, etc.

Speaking of books, Bob Cesca thinks “No Way In Hell President Bush Has Read 60 Books” —

Yet, he’s somehow found time to read not one, not five, not 20, but 60 books this year alone (via Crooks & Liars). According to US News & World Report, he’s in a competition with Karl Rove to see who can read more books over the course of the year. Rove is trailing by 10 books, until November when Diebold will put him up by three.

Maybe it is 60. Laura’s a librarian and maybe she introduced George to the “for Dummies” series. You know, Foreign Policy for Dummies, Economic Policy for Dummies, Military Strategy for Dummies, Healthcare Issues for Dummies, Disaster Assistance and Recovery for Dummies.

Oh, and The Constitution for Dummies.

Live, local, trivial

Some 36-38 years ago in Tucson NewMexiKen lived across the street from a small supermarket. At the rear of the store they parked a large, flatbed trailer with a wire cage on it. As they stocked the store’s shelves they’d toss the empty cardboard boxes into the cage. Once-in-awhile someone would come by, drop off a new trailer and haul the full one away.

One afternoon around three the boxes caught fire. It was a pretty spectacular bonfire for about five minutes and during that brief time a local news guy happened by (he must have had a scanner to hear the fire call). He took a few seconds of film. We laughed, but sure enough that night on the news there was film of cardboard boxes in flame. If I remember right, it was the lead story.

It wouldn’t happen that way anymore. Oh, TV news would still cover a cardboard box fire, but here’s what we’d see.

A news crew would show up, more than likely after the fire was out. They’d videotape a few seconds of fire engine lights flashing, a firehose leaking, and a soggy, charred mess of cardboard. They’d interview a guy in a tank top, who’d say it was the biggest box fire he’d ever seen.

Then, at 10PM, they wouldn’t just use the video like Channel 13 in Tucson did all those years ago. No, they’d send a reporter and van out to the now deserted store, hours after the fire. The reporter would stand in front of a now even soggier mess and introduce the seven hour old video.

Live, local, late breaking.

If you don’t believe me, I just saw a live shot of an empty trash container tipped over by flooding earlier today.

Best lines of the day, so far

“I wish someone would try to blow up a plane using New Age music, so I wouldn’t have to sit and listen to that shit while people are boarding.”

“Do you think we could pay a terrorist to try to kill some infidels using some kind of “lack of legroom in coach” bomb?”

“Get Your War On” by David Rees in the September 7, 2006, issue of Rolling Stone.

The Risk Pool

As he always seems to do, Malcolm Gladwell has written a provocative piece in The New Yorker. The current article discusses the burdens that worker pensions and health coverage have placed (particularly) on America’s older heavy industries, for example, GM. He notes that in most other countries these matters are centrally funded (i.e., government) and businesses are better able to rise or fall on their own merits without regard to the age of their workforce. It’s well worth reading.

Gladwell discusses some of the reaction to the article and elaborates here and here.

Looking for a job?

Maybe you could work for Netflix. How’s your manual dexterity?

Stuffing styles vary. One associate’s hands move so quickly that she seems to be a fan operating at highest speed. She is among the fastest workers, with a stuffing rate of about a thousand per hour. In fifty-seven seconds, she stuffed “Oyster Farmer,” “Elizabethtown,” “Where the Buffalo Roam,” two copies of “Brokeback Mountain,” “Hill Street Blues: Season 2: Disc 6,” “Picture Perfect,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” two copies of “Firewall,” “The Ice Harvest,” “Elfen Lied: Volume 1: Vector One,” “Best Motoring: Rotary Reborn,” two copies of “16 Blocks,” “Rumor Has It,” “24: Season 3: Disc 2,” and “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”

Jobs start at $9 an hour according to an interesting “Talk of the Town” piece in The New Yorker, which also includes this detail regarding one of 41 Netflix processing centers.

After the warehouse closes, a truck returns to the post office, which accepts first-class pre-sorted mail for next-day delivery until 8 P.M. A hundred and twenty-six thousand DVDs came out of the post office in the morning, a hundred and twenty-six thousand went back that evening. Netflix is one of the ten largest users of first-class mail in America.

A list Albuquerque didn’t make

Forbes ranks America’s Drunkest Cities. Milwaukee, home of the beer that made Milwaukee famous, is number one.

Coming in second on our list is another chilly metro: Minneapolis-St. Paul. The twin cities ranked No. 2 for adults who reported having had a drink in the last month, No. 3 for binge drinkers and No. 12 for heavy drinkers.

Rounding out the top five drunkest cities are Columbus, Ohio; Boston; and Austin, Texas.

Curiously, several towns with a reputation for partying and drinking didn’t rank very high on the list. You might be able to score a free cocktail in any Las Vegas casino, but overall, the city comes in at only No. 14. New Orleans is home to Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras, but it only ranked in 24th place. And spring-break party spot Miami placed all the way down at No. 33 of 35.

Must reads

NewMexiKen intended to take the day off but I think these are must reads:

Dan Froomkin:

There is a popular sentiment among the Washington elite that what went wrong in the run-up to the war in Iraq has been sufficiently examined, and that it’s all water under the bridge anyway.

It’s popular in the White House and among Republicans for obvious reasons. But it’s also remarkably popular among top Democrats and the establishment media, because they aren’t all that eager to call any more attention to the fact that they were played for suckers.

There are, however, some people who believe that what led this country to launch a war of choice under false pretenses must be examined in detail — over and over again if necessary — until the appropriate lessons have been learned.

Otherwise, one might argue, history is doomed to repeat itself.

Enter history, stage right.

Once again, powerful neoconservative politicians who just know in their hearts that there is a terrible threat posed by a Middle Eastern country they have identified as part of the axis of evil are frustrated by the lack of conclusive evidence that would support a bellicose approach. So they are pressuring the nation’s intelligence community to find facts that will support their argument.

And, at Slate, Emily Yoffe in a fun, insightful article:

I am a baby boomer, which makes me one of those sickening, self-obsessed, rapidly aging people you nonboomers wish would just shut up and shuffle off already. Although at age 50 I still have a margin of five years of “youth” before I can become a resident of Leisure World, the frequent entreaties I receive from AARP remind me how long ago my youth really was. (And if you think the Bush administration is monitoring you, try keeping your 50th birthday a secret from AARP.) For this Human Guinea Pig, I wanted to preview what old age would be like. Usually this column is about exploring odd corners of life so you don’t have to. But this time, I’m just getting there ahead of you, because if you’re lucky, you’ll get there, too.

Oh, and via Duke City Fix, How Angry Is Your City?. Albuquerque is 14th; Orlando — Orlando ? — is first.

What makes me angry is that when I thought it would be fun to comment at Duke City Fix that Albuquerque’s being ranked 14th made me angry, some commenters had already beaten me to it.

Calculate your Body Mass Index

Calculate your BMI.

Anything over 24.9 is overweight. 30 or over is obese.

None of your business, but thanks for asking.

Update:

After a decade, the researchers found that those who were moderately overweight when they were 50 were at significantly elevated risk of dying prematurely, and those who were obese were two to three times as likely. Just being overweight was not nearly as dangerous, but it still boosted the risk by 20 to 40 percent, the study found.

The Washington Post