PAIGE McKENZIE UPDATE

Actually not much new to report here about the vicious attack on Paige McKenzie, GOP gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl's spokeswoman and longtime Republican activist.

Paige was severely beaten in the face when she stopped to fix a flat tire in a parking lot in Bernalillo after 7 p.m. Wednesday. Luckily EMYS were nearby.

Police say they have no suspects. Dendahl has told reporters that a friend told him Paige might have recognized her attacker, though police won't confirm that.

The good news is that Paige is no longer in "critical" condition. Late yesterday afternoon, UNM Hospital changed her condition to "serious."

Her parents, who live in Florida, arrived in Albuquerque yesterday and issued a statement through p.r. whiz Tom Garrity:

"We are saddened by the brutal sequence of events that have left our daughter fighting for her life. We appreciate the prayers and support that has come through in various forms. The support, skilled doctors and Paige's faith will get us all through this difficult time. We are grateful for the Sandoval County EMT's who first found Paige and started work to save her life. The care and attention by the doctors here at UNMH is unparalleled.

We hope that those responsible for this despicable act will be brought to justice soon. We appreciate your prayers and support during this very difficult time."

Garrity said the family will set up a fund to help defray Paige's medical cost. I'll post that here when I get the details.

A few details, I learned yesterday:
NewsMax, a conservative publication for which McKenzie has worked, quoted her brother Patrick McKenzie saying the flat tire apparently had been slashed.

McKenzie had been working at state Republican headquarters in Albuquerque shortly before the attack and was apparently was on her way home when she pulled over to fix a flat tire.

Personally I hope by the end of the day I'll be writing about an arrest.

UPDATE: This just in:

Albuquerque, NM - Today family and friends of Paige McKenzie established a charitable fund at First Community Bank with the goal of offsetting rising medical costs associated with the brutal attack against her earlier this week. People can donate money to the "Paige McKenzie Fund" at any First Community Bank in New Mexico. First Community Bank made the first donation of $500.00 today. People can donate funds in person or send a check to:

First Community Bank
Attn: Paige McKenzie Fund
Post Office Box 3686
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87190

Checks should be made payable to the "Paige McKenzie Fund."

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: INFORMATION, PLEASE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 6, 2006

Kitchen-sink troubadour, poetic salad-shooter and rock ’n’ roll puppetmeister Beck is back with a new album that’s delightfully all over the map.

I have to admit, since 2002’s Sea Change — which I found to be a one-note pity-party downer, even though it was loved and praised by virtually everyone else through the hallowed halls of criticdom — I tend to approach Beck albums with a little trepidation.

And yes, I was a little worried when I read that the new one is produced by Nigel Godrich, who had the same position on Sea Change as well as Mutations, another subdued Beck album.

But thankfully, The Information, released this week, is full of Beck’s trademark sonic goofiness, his weird sense of humor, and even some kinda-purdy tunes here and there.

This one might not rank with his best, but it’s a great listen that doesn’t get dull.

As we’ve come to expect with Beck, this album contains fascinating blends of white-kid hip-hop, carnival-freak funk, folk/blues/bossa nova, Plan 9 From Outer Space electronica accompanying surreal, absurdist lyrics. It’s a crazy tour of Beck’s private universe. There are sudden stops — and no seat belts.

“One, two, you know what to do.” That’s the studio chatter that kicks off the first song, a hip-hoppy track called “Elevator Music.” With this song I’m almost tempted to think Beck has been listening to old Gluey Brothers CDs.

One of the most musical and straightforward cuts on The Information is the bouncy “Think I’m in Love.” It’s a little poppy, though not without some nicely insane Beck touches, like the wild bongo percussion during a couple of the instrumental breaks. I’m actually surprised that this wasn’t the one the record company markets as a single. (Instead the company chose “Nausea,” a more hopped-up number.)

One of the prettiest songs here is “New Round,” in which, after an intro of stray banjo thumbs and what sounds like a mock Gregorian chant, Beck experiments with multitracked vocals, even indulging in some self-harmonizing.

Beck’s acoustic guitar is out front on “No Complaints,” while “1000BPM” is a clattering percussion workout that doesn’t play at the speed the title implies.

The title song starts out with relentless, almost industrial drums and an ethereal female voice singing “ahhhhh,” passing through an electronic asteroid belt before slowing down and melting into a cello-driven cool-down that ends in an explosion. This goes directly into a slow synth air called “Movie Theme.”

The album concludes with the menacing if meandering 10-minute suite “The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton.” This little odyssey starts out with a funky bass line — the tank that carries the listener over rugged musical terrain - incomprehensible Beck-rapping, an enticing psychedelic guitar, old-fashioned scratching, and a robotic female voice. About six minutes into the piece, the bottom drops out and you’re floating through the cosmos. The last couple of minutes is a bizarre monologue about space travel. The end is so sudden that the listener feels abandoned.

The main problem with The Information is its lack of truly memorable tunes. There’s certainly no “Loser,” “Devil’s Haircut,” or “Mixed Bizness” (where he tried to “make all the lesbians scream.”) But, as with his best albums, The Information is a treat for ears that makes you keep listening for those funny little moments of Beckian wonder.

Big Beck block: Hear selections from this album and other Beck goodies Sunday night on Terrell’s Sound World. That’s 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR 90.7 FM, Santa Fe Public Radio. And don’t forget The Santa Fe Opry, Friday night, same time, same station.

Also recommended:

*Good Bread Alley by Carl Hancock Rux. Rux is a multifaceted artist — poet, playwright, and photographer — and an amazing musical force as well.

This album basically is art-damaged blues. Blues for the literate.

Rux saves his best for the first. The title song is a slow (almost plodding), nearly six-minute blues riff, complete with a ghostly trumpet. But while the beat is unhurried and deliberate, Rux sounds like a preacher on fire, almost breathless as he chants and rants about “the magistrates and the apostates” and dreams that “always begin with bruises.” His vocals fade in and out, making the whole track sound alternatively urgent and magnificently spooky.

“Living Room” is based on a mutated, pounding “Gimme Some Lovin’” hook. Again, Rux sounds like a mad prophet who’s broken into recording to get his message out.

A more subtle attack is used on “Thadius Star.” The piano here sounds like “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” while “Behind the Curtain” starts off slow but ebbs and flows with gospel fervor.

While Rux is best-known as a writer, there’s one cover here, the obscure Bill Withers protest song “I Can’t Write Left Handed.” It’s the story of a soldier who lost an arm. “Will you write a letter, a letter to my mother?” he cries. “Tell the tale, tell the tale, tell the tale.”

You’ll find some compelling tales here.

GOP OPERATIVE ATTACKED

Paige McKenzie, currently the spokeswoman for the John Dendahl gubernatorial campaign, was viciously attacked in Bernallillo last night and is in critical condition ay UNM Hospital in Albuquerque.

I just spoke with Dendahl, who said Paige is expected to survive, though she's going to require some surgery.

Apparently she was attacked and beaten in the face with a tire iron when she stopped in a bank parking lot to fix a flat tire. Fortunately, paramedics were across the street and heard Paige's screams. They rushed her to the hospital.

Paige reportedly recognized the attacker. At this writing, no arrest has been reported. The attack isn't thought to be related to politics.

Paige, who moved to New Mexico from Nashville several years ago, has held a number of positions with the GOP. She's well known to anyone who's covered state politics here in recent years. I often talk with her and laugh about the craziness of New Mexico politics.

I met her when she was the spokeswoman for House Republicans a few sessions ago. I got both of us in trouble during that time when I quoted her referring to Ben Lujan, Lucky Varela and Max Coll as the "Santa Fe Mafia." Max denounced me as well as Paige on the House floor that morning.

She's also been executive director for the Bernalillo County Republican Party. In addition to workng for Dendahl, she's also been helping in Demesia Padilla's campaign for state treasurer.

Here's a link to a story about the attack: CLICK HERE

UPDATE: The governor's office just issued this statement:

“I am shocked and disgusted by this brutal, senseless attack. Our thoughts are with Paige and her family and we pray for her full recovery. I have also offered the resources of the State Police to assist with the investigation, should they be needed.”

Here's a little feature about Paige the Albuquerque Tribune did a couple of weeks ago: CLICK HERE

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: FREE RIDES TO THE ROUNDHOUSE

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 5, 2006

As I watched the Ethics Reform Task Force finalizing its list of recommendations to the governor this week, I couldn’t help but think of the probable fate of many of the ideas in next year’s legislative session.

Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday indicated he’ll get behind most of what the panel wants. “I expect my recommendations to the Legislature will closely parallel the task force report,” he said in an e-mail to reporters from his office.


But then there’s the little matter of the state Legislature.

The proposed reform bills will ask a group of people who have grown used to virtually unlimited gifts and campaign contributions (legally nobody’s supposed to get campaign contributions while the Legislature is in session) and lax reporting requirements to voluntarily put a clamp on all that.

This just might be asking too much, judging by the reaction to last year’s unsuccessful batch of ethics and campaign finance reform bills that made it to the state Senate last year.

So I suggest reform advocates unite, make your voices heard and make it clear you will back the first legislative candidate — Democrat, Republican, Green or whatever — to promise to back these recommendations. In the process, you might shake things up, get some new blood in the Roundhouse and start talking seriously about some other reforms that always seem to die somewhere in the esoteric maze of the legislative process.

Oh wait. ... That cock won’t fight.

As normally is the case, there’s little chance of meaningful electoral change in the Legislature.

Out of the 70 House of Representatives seats, all of which are up for election, only 29 are contested.

That’s right, there are 40 “races” in which there is only one candidate, plus one — the northeastern New Mexico seat currently held by Rep. Hector Balderas, D-Wagon Mound, who abandoned that race to run for state auditor — where there is no candidate. Whoever is elected governor in November ultimately will appoint that representative.

The number of uncontested races is in line with numbers from recent election years.

None of the 42 state senators are up for election this year. All of them run only in presidential election years.

Out of the 40 uncontested candidates, 29 are Democrats and 11 are Republicans.

Two GOP legislative candidates getting a free ride in the general election are newcomers — Paul Brady of Aztec and Richard Berry of Albuquerque.

All three Santa Fe representatives — Luciano “Lucky” Varela, Jim Trujillo and Peter Wirth — have no opposition, as is the case with House Speaker Ben Luján of Nambé. Luján, Trujillo and Wirth also were unopposed in the primary. All are Democrats.

In some ways, you can’t blame potential challengers for not running in many of these districts. Just like their counterparts in Congress, legislators are quite capable of drawing up districts that tend to protect incumbents.

One ray of hope: If legislative races get any less competitive, maybe there won’t be any need for campaign contributions and thus no need for campaign finance reform. (Don’t hold your breath on that one.)

De-Foley-ation: Republicans have to be wishing for some way to pin the whole Foley sex scandal on the Democrats.

Maverick GOP congressional candidate Ron Dolin, who is running a Quixotic race for Democrat Tom Udall’s seat, came up with one idea Wednesday. In a campaign e-mail, with the subject line “Candidate Dolin on Tom Foley and the U.S. House,” the Los Alamos Republican wrote, “No American, be they Democrat or Republican, can look at what Tom Foley did and not find it horrible and horrendous. Tom Foley should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

One problem: The former Florida Republican congressman who admitted sending all those e-mails and raunchy instant messages to teenage pages is named Mark Foley.

Tom Foley, a Democrat, was speaker of the House who lost re-election in his Washington state district in 1994. To my knowledge, he never was accused of anything horrible and horrendous.

Oh well. I know one Republican legislator from Roswell who’s undoubtedly happy that Dolin didn’t used the name “Dan.”

Inc. Credible: Richardson is one of the top four governors in the latest issue of the national business magazine Inc. The magazine rated the 26 governors up for re-election on their support of their state business community.

“We judged the governors on several criteria: tax and fiscal policy, workforce and economic development, health care, education, and regulation,” the magazine said. “We also took into account a state’s business climate.”

Of Richardson the magazine said, “The booming oil industry has allowed Richardson to rack up accomplishments. He has increased state funds for education and health care while backing an income tax cut that will reduce the state rate to 4.9 percent in 2008, a 40 percent drop.”

The magazine also complimented Richardson on last year’s news conference with Richard Branson to announce the spaceport.

Other governors to get a coveted four-star rating were Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Jim Douglas of Vermont.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 1, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away by Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah
Don't Leave Me by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
Watch Out for Me Ronnie by Yo La Tengo
Making Believe by Social Distortion
40 Miles of Bad Road by Dead Moon
Cold Night for Alligators by Roky Erikson
Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind by NRBQ with John Sebastian

Powder Burns by The Twilight Singers
Peace Attack by Sonic Youth
Swingin' Party by The Replacements
Seasons in the Sun by Too Much Joy
Painting Box by Incredible String Band
The 3B by The Sadies

Pirates of the Caribbean Theme
Fire Down Below by Nick Cave
Hog Eyed Man by Martin Carthy
The Gay Pirate Dance Song by Ray Stevens
Mingulay Bay by Richard Thompson
Hanging Johnny by Stan Ridgway
The Port of Amsterdam by Dave Van Ronk
Bully in the Alley by Morrigan
Leave Her Johnny by Lou Reed

The Banana Boat Song by George Clinton
Like a Monkey in the Zoo by Vic Chesnutt
Two Dogs and a Bone by Los Lobos
Tears Tears Tears and More Tears by Elvis Costello & Allen Tossaint
Viola Lee Blues by Ry Cooder
The One I Love by Brian Wilson
Except for Ghosts by Lisa Germano
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

CHRISTIAN RADIO TO NAB KBAC?

OK, granted that Clear Channel is Satan. However Santa Fe's local Clear Channel station may soon be in the hands of the opposite team. The proverbial Rev. Billy Bob might soon be preaching over KBAC's signal.

The New Mexican's Natalie Storey apparently came upon this revolting development before everyone got their press releases together.

From the article:

An employee at KBAC, who did not want to be named, said a sale of the station and a sister station, KSFQ-Smooth Jazz 101.1, is in the works. The employee said there was a meeting at the station Friday to discuss the situation. That employee said Clear Channel was trying to keep the negotiations quiet until the potential buyer sealed the deal. The employee said the potential buyer was expected to visit the station in coming weeks to make sure everything was in order.

Well, let's give 'em a big ol' Santa Fe greeting when they come to town ...

Anyone halfway familiar with the workings of radio realizes this was bound to happen to KBAC some day. I always figured they'd turn it into a "classic rock" station like they tried a few years ago.

I'm a public radio partisan, of course, so I really don't have a rooster in this cockfight. But I always liked the folks over at KBAC. I'm wishing them all well during the transition, whatever that might entail.

I notice there's no response to Natalie's article on the KBAC Web site. Stay tuned.

SUNDAE, BLOODY SUNDAE

I don't mind some light-hearted features with my news. God knows I've written my share of those.

But something I just heard on NPR's Sunday Edition pissed me off to the point that I have to blog for the sake of my blood pressure.

There was a substitute host, one Andrea Seabrook, whose voice and demeanor is far better suited for MTV than NPR. But on one feature, she was completely over the top.

It was a feature about some restaurant in New York City that has an ice cream sundae on the menu with a list price of $1,000.

Now I'm not a complete proponent for class warfare and I'm no sackcloth-and-ashes kind of fellow. But it's outright offensive that in a country where people die because they can't afford proper healthcare there are spoiled, elitist pricks who can and do shell out a thousand bucks for dessert.

But apparently Ms. Seabrook doesn't share my bad attitude. She sounded like a giddy teenager during this segment. And when the restaurant guy started describing the ingedients of his Golden Opulence Sundae, (Edible gold! Truffles! Dessert caviar!) she sounded like Meg Ryan in that infamous scene in When Harry Met Sally.

No, I don't want what she's having.