BLOGGER BLUES

It's been Hell trying to get stuff posted the last couple of days. On yesterday's Roundhouse Round-up post there were some cut-and-paste glitches I was trying to straighten out. And then I wanted to update when the governor vetoed the bill I'd written about. But I couldn't get onto Blogger.

This was true of my home and work computers. After midnight I was trying to post the new Terrell's Tune-up but I couldn't get on.

I learned I was not alone. CLICK HERE.

The advice the Blogger status page is giving is to delete all your cookies. I tossed my cookies a couple of times. It didn't work right away, but finally I was able to edit Round-up and post Tune-up. I just hope Blogger gets everything fixed real fast. When I turned in last night I was having serious flashbacks about the troubles I had with my old Dreamwater site.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BIBLE STUDY

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 8, 2005

Somehow I completely missed The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers when it originally was released in the mid 1990s. Though I peripherally was aware of this Welch band through the years, somehow I never checked them out.

One excuse I have is that until the recent 10th Anniversary Edition, this record never was released in these United States. The set includes a re-mastered original version of the album, a previously unreleased American remix, several bonus live and demo tracks and a DVD featuring live performances and a lengthy interview segment.

This one of the most intense, emotional, visceral, disturbing rock ’n’ roll albums ever made.

Some Manics fans have compared Bible to The Clash’s London Calling. True, there’s some good left-wing political screedery going on in songs like “Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit’sworldwouldfallapart.”

But I hear it more aligned with John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band or Nirvana’s In Utero.

And yet the gloom of its darkest lyrics are offset by its melodic, even catchy accessibility -- high-energy guitars crunching happily as nightmares flow through the mouth of singer James Dean Bradfield from the damaged mind of lyricist Richey Edwards.

There’s even a bizarre and tragic mystery associated with The Holy Bible. In February 1995, soon before the album was to be released in the U.S., guitarist Edwards left his hotel room in London was never seen again.

His car was found near a bridge known as a jumping-off place for suicides. Most assume that was Edwards’ fate. But no body was ever found. And he didn’t leave a note. Unless you count some of the lyrics in this album.

In the years before his disappearance, Edwards was a self-destructive rock ‘n’ roll mess -- alcoholism and anorexia being among his chief symptoms.

The song “4st 7lb” (that means 4 stone, seven pounds -- or 87 pounds), included on this album is a terrifying description of a young girl in the throes of anorexia.

“See my third rib appear/A week later all my flesh disappears/Stretching taut, cling-film on bone/I'm getting better … Self-worth scatters, self-esteem's a bore/I long since moved to a higher plateau/This discipline's so rare so please applaud/Just look at the fat scum who pamper me so …”

In the interview on the DVD, Manics bass player Nicky Wire says that Edwards wrote about 75 percent of the lyrics on The Holy Bible. Wire wrote some of the more political songs, but he says he was fairly happy at the time -- he’d just gotten married and bought a house.

But the dark and stark lyrics were just flowing out of his bandmate at the time.

Images of dictators, serial killers, murders and cruelty splatter all over Edwards’ songs. “We are all of walking abortions,” he wrote -- and Bradfield wails it like he means it.

The self-loathing and deeply embedded cynicism is unrelenting:

“I eat and I dress and I wash/And I still can say thank you/Puking, shaking, sinking/I still stand for old ladies/Can't shout, can't scream/Hurt myself to get pain out …” (from “Yes“)

“Self-disgust is self-obsession honey and I do as I please/ A morality obedient only to the cleansed repented …” (from “Faster.”)

“The Intense Humming of Evil” with a nightmarish repeated industrial scaping noise as a sonic backdrop drop, deals with the “six million screaming souls” of the Holocaust, concluding with “Drink it away, every tear is false/Churchill no different/Wished the workers bled to a machine.”

Edwards’ disappearance caused the U.S. division of Sony to decide not to release the album in this country. I’m still not exactly sure why.

But be glad they finally did release it. No matter when the music was actually made, this record still sounds fresh. The wounds are still raw.

Also Recommended:

*Worlds Apart by And You Will Know us By the Trail of Dead. O.K. maybe Bob Dylan can get away with doing a song about the Egyptian goddess Isis, but a hard rock band that starts off an album with such a tune -- especially with an eerie soundtracky female chorale and strings -- they can expect to catch a certain amount of crap for invoking hobbit-hugging ‘70s prog rock.

But while there are a few weird missteps on this album, there’s plenty to like about Worlds Apart.
This clearly is a departure from their previous work. It’s more melodic, less muddy and definitely more experimental.

There’s strange little touches like the muted trumpet in “Will You Smile Again?”, the chamber music interlude of “To Russia My Homeland,” the Billy Joel piano-ballad style of “Summer of ’91” (Sweet Lordy Jesus! There’s already nostalgia songs about the ‘90s?)

No, Trail of Dead hasn’t completely forsaken its swirling guitar rage that some said made them a Texas answer to Sonic Youth. You can hear it in “A Classic Arts Showcase” and “Let It Dive.”

Probably the most jarring tune here is the title cut. In some ways it sounds like a generic, neo-Green Day hoppy-poppy, latter-day punk tune. It talks about new music sounding all the same and jerks on MTV and soccer moms who raise their kids on television, American materialism, hypocrisy, blah blah blah. Pretty standard modern rock kevetching.

But in the final refrain, Conrad Keely sings, “How they laughed as we shoveled the ashes/Of the twin towers/Blood and debt, we will pay back the debt/For this candy store of ours.”

Never mind the Egyptian chants and Russian violins. There’s still danger along the Trail of Dead.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: CARD SHARKS, CON MEN AND SHADY LADIES

UPDATE: Late Thursday afternoon, the governor's office announced that Gov. Bill Richardson had vetoed SB 384.

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 7, 2005

Imagine this scene: It’s a big ceremonial bill signing in the governor’s Cabinet Room. A few reporters and TV cameramen scramble for a place around the big marble table. The room is crowded, as has been the case with bill signings for the past couple of weeks.

But this time it’s not anti-driving-while-intoxicated activists or election-reform advocates or animal-rights crusaders who crowd into the room.

No, this is the official signing of Senate Bill 384, which would allow the state Gaming Control Board to grant gambling licenses to people and organizations that have had their gaming licenses revoked in other states. Dozens of disgraced casino operators, crooked racetrack owners, card sharks, con men and shady ladies from around the country have come to take turns saying, “I’d just like to thank the governor.”

(Swirling music ... columnist awakes, sputtering ... it was only a dream ... only a dream ... )

No, such a scene won’t happen. Not even if Gov. Bill Richardson signs SB 384 by Friday’s deadline. No separate bill signing has been scheduled for that bill, Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks confirmed Wednesday. If he signs it, it will be behind closed doors with no TV cameras or passing out of red ballpoint pens or press releases about how the bill boldly moves New Mexico forward and helps working families.

Sparks gave no hint how the governor would act on the bill.

Current state law says the state Gaming Board shall not issue a license to an applicant who has been denied a license or had a license revoked or suspended in any state. The new bill would change “shall not” to “may refuse to.” (Emphasis mine.)

The Hubbard factor: If signed into law, SB 384 could rescue Ruidoso and Hobbs racetrack owner R.D. Hubbard. He is in danger of receiving disciplinary action from the state of Indiana, which could jeopardize his gambling license here.

Hubbard’s problem stems from a 2001 scandal at the Belterra Casino Resort, operated by Pinnacle Entertainment, for which Hubbard was board chairman. Among other allegations, the company was accused of flying in prostitutes to entertain high-roller guests at a Belterra golf tournament.

In a settlement with the Indiana Gaming Commission, Hubbard voluntary relinquished his gambling license there.

However, a federal lawsuit filed by Pinnacle in January could result in the commission imposing further sanctions against Hubbard, which, under the current law, could affect his New Mexico license.

Not that filthy lucre would ever affect a politician’s actions, but for the record, Hubbard companies contributed $40,000 to Richardson’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign.

Legislative debate: Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, who introduced SB 384 the same day Pinnacle filed its suit against Hubbard, said he had no knowledge of the lawsuit at the time.

“That bill wasn’t brought to me by Mr. Hubbard or the casinos,” Griego said Wednesday. “The Gaming Commission brought me the bill. I’ve never met Mr. Hubbard.”

The commission wanted the bill because it also removes a cap on the salary of the commission director, Griego said. He also said the bill would help nonprofit clubs that have been turned down for gambling licenses in other states.

Griego said he hadn’t been aware the state prohibited people who had gotten in trouble in other states from getting gambling licenses here.

On the last day of the legislative session, Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, gave an impassioned speech attacking SB 384 on the Senate floor. Such legislation sends a message, he said, that New Mexico welcomes “the dregs” of the gambling industry.

“Why should we make our standards so low?” McSorley said Wednesday. “The gambling industry preys on people too stupid to know the odds. Why would we ask people who don’t have to play by the rules to run our gambling institutions?”

However, McSorley’s protests didn’t come until well after the Senate unanimously had passed SB 384. McSorley admitted even he voted for it.

He said there was no discussion initially of the controversial section about gaming applicants who had trouble in other states. “It was presented as a way to help the nonprofits,” McSorley said.

But after the vote, he studied the bill. So when the House amended the bill and sent it back to the Senate on that last morning of the session, “I was lying in wait,” McSorley said.

The Senate refused to go along with the House amendment. But in the last few minutes of the session, the House voted, with no debate, to approve the Senate version.

Springtime in New Hampshire: The news that Richardson is headed to New Hampshire in June to speak to a Latino summit in Manchester and a local Democratic gathering sounds like a rerun.

In this very column, almost exactly a year ago, I revealed the governor was going to the University of New Hampshire to give a commencement speech. “It’s got absolutely nothing to do with the 2008 New Hampshire primary,” Sparks said last year.

Brace yourself for more such denials in the months to come.

Bonus: Here's the Indiana Gaming Commission minutes on the infamous Belterra golf tournament. These hookers were so loud, they disrupted Howie Mandell! And hey, nobody should be allowed to disrupt Waylon Jennings and get away without a serious ass whoopin'!

On June 26, 2001, eight or more women were flown to an area airport on an aircraft leased by Pinnacle. According to numerous witnesses these women were brought to Belterra for the entertainment of the guests of the golf tournament. On several occasions several of the women were referred to as "hookers". On the evenings of June 26, 2001 and June 27, 2001, Hubbard directed Belterra casino employees to provide money to the invitees for gambling and to pay other fees without the necessary paperwork. On at least one occasion, on Hubbard's authority, Belterra employees made a distribution from the cage to an associate of Hubbard's. On the evening of June 27, 2001, Howie Mandel performed in the Belterra concert arena. At this concert, a party was hosted in the Celebrity Room of the concert arena where the women and the invitees of the golf outing were present. The party was loud and Mandel had to stop the concert several times because of the disturbances caused by the group in the Celebrity Room. On the evening of June 28, 2001 Waylon Jennings performed in the Belterra concert arena. Again, during this concert a party was hosted in the Celebrity Room for the women and the invitees to the golf tournament. The party became loud and disrupted the concert several times. After the concert the invitees and the women retired to a room on the 15th floor where the party continued. On June 29, 2001 the majority of the invitees and the women left the casino via ground transportation or air transportation.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 3, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now 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
Faster by Manic Street Preachers
Wargasm by L7
Don't Bring Me Down by Eric Burdon & The Animals
Fall on You by Moby Grape
Worlds Apart by ... and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
I'm the Ocean by Neil Young & Pearl Jam
Whiskey Sex Shack by The Mekons
Odessa by The Red Elvises

Burn the Witch by Queens of the Stone Age
Lover Street by Heavy Trash
The Young Psychotics by Tav Falco
My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama by Frank Zappa
I See the Light by The Five Americans
Black Tambourine by Beck
Dude Ranch Nurse by Sonic Youth
Judy in Disguise With Glasses by John Fred & His Playboy Band

Too Many Puppies by Primus
Going Down by The Monkees
Little Japan by Los Lobos
Million Miles by Bob Dylan
Down Fall by Stuurbaard Bakkebaard
I Can Make Music by Al Green

Sail on Sailor by The Beach Boys
Stop Coming to My House by Mogwai
Drawn in the Dark by X
When I Was Cruel No. 2 by Elvis Costello
This One's From the Heart by Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, April 1, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Evening Breeze by Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
When I'm Drinkin' by Devil in the Woodpile
The Streets of Bakersfield by Jon Langford & Sally Timms
That's All it Took by Gram Parson & The Fallen Angels
Ashgrove by Dave Alvin
The Moon is High by Neko Case
Mother's Not Dead by Acie Cargill
Flop Eared Mule by Charlie Poole & The Highlanders

Walking Bum by Heavy Trash
Factory Dog by John Schooley & His One Man Band
Across the Borderline by Ry Cooder with Freddy Fender
Rocking Chair by The Band
Country Darkness by Elvis Costello
TruckDrivin' Son of a Gun by Dave Dudley
Girl from the North Country by Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash
Hard When It Ain't by Waylon Jennings

Tom Russell Set
(All Songs by Tom Russell except where noted)
Pilgrim Land featuring The Rev. Baybie Hoover & Virginia Brown
Old America
Hotwalker by Little Jack Horton
Blue Wing (TR with Dave Alvin)
Touch of Evil (TR with Eliza Gilkyson)
Grapevine
The Sky Above, The Mud Below
The Kid From Spavinaw
Swap Meet Jesus by Little Jack Horton
The Outcast by Dave Van Vonk
Haley's Comet (TR with Dave Alvin & Katy Moffat)
Sitting Bull in Venice
Coda by Little Jack Horton
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LAMENT FOR A LOST AMERICA

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 1, 2005

Tom Russell‘s new CD Hotwalker, subtitled A Ballad for a Gone America, is a sad celebration of a lost time, a bittersweet, nostalgic work about the literary, musical and cultural milieu of Russell’s formative years in Los Angeles, a righteous invocation of “the old America when music still resonated through nightclubs, people gambled and drank and screwed and smoked. People went down to the border and sipped highballs and cocktails and went to the bullfights. The old America where the big guilt and political correctness and the chain stores hadn't sunk in so deep.”

Although Russell is one of the finest songwriters of this era, this isn’t a collection of songs. Though there are a couple of new tunes hidden within, this actually is an audio documentary narrated by Russell.

He lets us eavesdrop on a conversation with a border town cab driver (“donkey show … especial for you …) and hear snippets from old-time gospel music from Rev. Baybie Hoover and Virginia Brown as he talks about skid-row gospel buskers. We hear a Tex-Mex version of “96 Tears" by accordionist Joel Guzman as Russell reminisces of Norteno music and pachuco boogie.

Border town cantinas, smoky L.A. jazz clubs, and Bakersfield honky tonks provide much of the backdrop in Hotwalker. The Bakersfield sound was “fueled by a million Okies hopped up on Okie moonshine and amphetamines … it was the other side of Steinbecks’ Grapes of Wrath mixed with Nudie suits and women in push-up bras and it was real gone. It was gone hillbilly music too rude for polite middleclass white-boy ears …”

Russell speaks and signs lovingly of his heros from California and beyond -- Charles Bukowski, Edward Abbey, Lenny Bruce, Buck Owens, Jack Kerouac, Woody Guthrie and hobo/musical innovator Harry Partch. And in many cases they speak back with jokes, songs and benedictions in old scratchy old sound clips.

And Dave Van Ronk, the “Pope of Greenwich Village,” the gravel-voiced folkie father figure. (Personal note: Van Ronk is responsible for me getting into journalism. He was my first interview 25 years ago -- an assignment that entailed getting smashed with him on Irish whiskey and tequila at La Posada. That momentous evening is captured in this Feb. 1980 photo by my first ex-wife Pam Mills.)

Standing tall among these giants is a midget -- Little Jack Horton, a Bukowski drinking buddy. As Russell explains, "He's been shot out of canons, he did the pass of death on a Shetland pony, he rode the Four Walls of Eternity on a motorcycle. He appeared in movies like The Terror of Tiny Town and One-Eyed Jacks with Marlon Brando. And he wrote poetry. This is a true American voice from the sawdust back lots of the Old World."

Horton, who died last year, tells crazy stories. He talks about stealing a train engine at 4 a.m. with Bukowski. He talks about the time in 1951 when he was hired to substitute for Roy Weller, a dwarf evangelist known as “The World’s Smallest Voice of God.” Horton riled the rednecks in the gospel tent when he told the all-white crowd that the God of the Black people was better than theirs because their music was better.

One could argue -- and some critics have -- that beatnik/counter-culture heroes like Kerouac, Guthrie, Bruce and Bukowski have been eulogized plenty, and, as a recent review by Barry Mazor in No Depression said that the icons Russell memorializes here “would seem over saluted, for anybody that would hear this.”

That could be true. It can be argued that a lot of people in this country need to know about these underground titans. I was outraged when Allen Ginsberg died in 1997, a young editor on duty at this very newspaper didn’t know who he was. Of course that editor probably would never pick up an album like Hotwalker . So there is this unfortunate question of “preaching to the saved.”

And while I agree with Russell when he said, “There’s a deadening of the spirit in America today, and the record hits out at that.” (from a March 17 interview in The Georgia Straight) I have trouble with Russell’s implication that all the good stuff is all gone.

It’s true that Van Ronk and Bukowski are dead; that 99 percent of radio sucks; that those Bakersfield beer joints have been replaced by Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, where Buck comes out and sings recent hits by Shania Twain and Toby Keith.

But in reality, did this Golden Age really exist? Even in the ‘40s ‘50s and ‘60s most the people who Russell canonizes were unknown to mainstream America. Name all of Woody Guthrie’s top 10 radio hits. Some, like Bruce, were demonized and persecuted by the law, with middle America firmly in agreement with the oppression. And some, like Kerouac, were marginalized and turned into some cartoonish joke by the mainstream.

And I believe there still are vital, vibrant voices out there creating crazy music and literature worth reading. You have to look in off-the-beaten track music hangouts, coffee houses, churches and -- dare I say it? -- weird corners of the Internet. You won’t find it on Clear Channel stations.

But I love this amazing and eloquent work by Russell. And I love the ranting coda of Little Jack Horton, “half-drunk on bad wine,” when he declares, “it's our goddamn country. We built the goddamn midway didn't we? And we make the music that goes on the midway from sea to goddamn shining sea. You know, goddamn it, Ronald Reagan dies recently and they fly the flag half-mast. Well did they fly it half-mast for Ray Charles, did they fly it half mast for Johnny Cash? Declare a national holiday? These people moved to changed the daily lives of more people than these goddam politicians, who are just grifters and scum... One nation under God and Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Ray Charles, goddamn it!”

Tom Russell Special: Hear a wide load of Hotwalker and Russell tunes tonight on The Santa Fe Opry 10-midnight, KSFR 90.7 FM.

MY PAL AL

I just got this e-mail regarding an upcoming gig by my friend Al Faaet. Looks like my brother is involved in this too. Here's the whole e-mail:

"How is it that one group of men have stuck us, (so to speak)with a set of bleak, dead-end prophecies that we've been dragging around for centuries, not only making us complicit in the inevitable disasters they call for, but demanding that we make them come true?"

AL FAAET AND HIS MERRY FRIENDS present NEW,IMPROVED,PROPHECIES
@ HIGH MAYHEM STUDIOS
1703 B LENA ST, SANTA FE
SATURDAY APRIL 23 2005 9 PM

featuring
ADD/DAD w dave steinkraus doug wooldridge
LYRA BARRON
JACK CLIFT
J.A. DEANE
MATT DEASON
ROSS HAMLIN
JACK KOLKMEYER
ISHTA PAZ
THE UNINVITED GUESTS w/chris jonas, carlos santistevan, yozo suzuki
and special guests

LIMITED INSIDE SEATING $10
all proceeds benefit HIGH MAYHEM FESTIVAL 2005

Al Faaet has been playing relentlessly energetic, unpredictable, and edgy music in Santa Fe since 1984. He was the founder of the SPIRITUAL ENERGY COLLECTIVE in Bucks County PA, and co-founder of JOYFUL NOISE FOR PEACE in Santa Fe in 1991, and of the DRUM IS THE VOICE OF THE TREES. He was the "experimental" drummer in the infamous banning of improvisational music on the Plaza last summer.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: FRAMING & SPINNING

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
March 31, 2005

The Santa Fe County Democrats passed a resolution this week in favor of gay marriage.

Or did they?

I got an e-mail Tuesday from a local Dem who was at Monday night's Santa Fe County Democratic Party convention who said the story I had written about it was inaccurate in one respect.

The word "marriage" never is mentioned in the resolution.

"Please note that it is critical for the press to accurately frame the dispute," the e-mail said.

"Full Civil Rights is the issue; marriage is not," the e-mail concluded.

Yikes! Did the Legislature really eat my brain? How could I have ever made such a stupid mistake?

Looking at the resolution -- which passed on a voice vote with only one Democrat dissenting -- one "whereas" states that "same-gender couples in New Mexico in committed, loving relationships are not currently permitted to take advantage of the full array of civil rights freely given to opposite-sex couples that have full civil rights."

What civil right could that be? The right to chicken done right? Is "marriage" the civil right that dare not speak its name?

The next "whereas" says, "the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and several other countries in the international community of states have extended full civil rights to same-gender couples."

If I remember correctly the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that laws against same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Were there other civil rights for same-gender couples allowed there that I forgot about?

And finally the only "separate-but-equal" laws mentioned in the resolution are "domestic partnership or civil union legislation." (New Mexico doesn't have any such law.)

Somehow these things led me to believe Monday night's resolution had to do with marriage.

Actually, according to some party insiders, the choice not to use the word "marriage" in the gay-marriage resolution came about because "we were trying to frame it as a civil rights issue and not 'gay marriage.' "

As one local party honcho said Wednesday, " ... when you get blamed for losing a presidential campaign for the Democrats because of gay marriage, well you just get a little timid."

The claim that marriage wasn't the issue of the resolution reminded me of someone on the opposite side of this issue: Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, who said "I know you're trying to make this a homosexual issue. I'm trying to make this a marriage issue. It is a family issue," when I asked him at a press conference how allowing same-sex couples to marry threaten heterosexual marriages.

Wouldn't it be nice if politicos just said what they meant instead of worrying so much about "framing" and spinning?

Rapid response: It used to be that when a Congressman had a "town hall" meeting around here it wasn't much of a big deal. A few citizens with specific concerns would show up, the Congressman would listen to concerns, shake some hands and try to score some political points, and the press -- and just about everyone else would ignore it.

But those days might be numbered.

Twice this week I've received calls from Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. I got to know Diaz during the last election when he was a spokesman for the Bush campaign. He'd faithfully call any time John Kerry or John Edwards came anywhere near the state.

But "rapid response" isn't just for elections any more.

This week Diaz was calling to give responses to Congressman Tom Udall, who conducted four town halls about President Bush's social security privatization plan including a panel discussion in Albuquerque with U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

On Wednesday morning the e-mailed "response" to Udall's town hall in Taos from a Diaz assistant arrived about three hours before the meeting started.

There's not enough space here to get into the arguments for and against the social security plan. Let's just say Udall is against it and Diaz thinks he should be for it.

Town Hall flashback: The only congressional "town hall" I ever tried to cover was on a slow news day back when Gov. Bill Richardson was a Congressman. The only memorable thing that happened was when a local character -- a man known for always wearing a dress -- read an original poem. This epic seemed to go on forever with the poet getting angrier and more animated with each verse. When he started yelling "Goddamn you, goddamn you!" Richardson looked concerned. I glanced over at then-Richardson aide Butch Maki, who at the time was in the same karate school as me, wondering if Maki would have to use his martial-arts skills. Luckily the guy in the dress calmed down when the poem ended.

REPO WOMAN

Someone was asking me today about a lady I wrote about six years ago -- Kate the Repo Woman.

I haven't seen her in years, and I forgot her last name. In the story we agreed to use only her first name.

Last time I saw her was a few months after the article was published. I was on my way up to Taos and had stopped at a conenience store in Espanola for a soft drink. Kate talked me into driving her down to a place in San Juan Pueblo, where she had a vehicle to repossess. I dropped her off, she made the pop.

If anyone knows where she is, drop me an e-mail.

Here's the story I did:

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
April 18, 1999

Repo Woman needed a flashlight, so her driver pulled over and stopped his car at the side of the dark, narrow mean-dog street somewhere north of Espanola.

She was there to hunt for and hopefully "pop" a Pontiac Grand Am. In her hand was the contract the errant Grand Am owner had signed with the title company the year before. The interest rate was ridiculous, but the amount owed was only about $400. The owner had not made a payment in more than a year, had not made arrangements with the title company.

And the owner had signed the contract, which gave the company the right to send someone like Repo Woman whose real name is Kate, a 43-year-old Santa Fe resident who asked that her last name not be used to take back the Grand Am without notice.

She had the contract, and she had the keys, which the title company had retained in case the contract ended like this.

Earlier that day, Kate had done some detective work, calling someone listed as a reference on the contract. She used one of her favorite ruses, claiming to be someone from a package delivery service wondering where the a package could be delivered for the car owner. Using this subterfuge she learned that the car owner had moved. She got directions though rather vague directions to the new residence.

But in this semi-rural area in the dark of night, those directions had stopped being useful. The driver got out of his car to look for his flashlight in his trunk. As soon as he stepped out of his car, someone from a nearby house shouted at him in a belligerent tone. ``What do you want? What are you doing here?'' At this point the already nervous driver, who had never been out on a repo call before, turned into a sputtering, stuttering Porky Pig, shouting out a reply that made no sense in any known language.

And then a stranger's pickup pulled up behind him. ``What's happening, bro?'' someone in the truck yelled. The driver muttered something about the flashlight. The truck drove on.

Without the flashlight, the driver got back into his car and started driving down the road. Suddenly Kate, scoping out each driveway along the road, said, "There's a Grand Am. Maybe that's it." The driver turned the car around and pulled into a driveway so she could see the license plate.

Bingo!

The driver quickly backed out of the driveway, Kate telling him to kill the headlights. There are three or four other vehicles beside the delinquent Grand Am. There are lights in the house. It's not quite 9 p.m. so nobody is sleeping.

Repo Woman, dressed in dark clothing, crept like a cat up the driveway, along the driver's side of the Pontiac, crouching so she won't be seen from inside. The driver watched her shadow heading up the drive. Besides the obvious threat of the people inside, he was worried about the neighbors like the ones up the street who had been so suspicious only moments before. He locked both doors of his car. But then, worried that something might go wrong, he quickly unlocked the passenger side, in case Kate needed to get in quickly.


Sitting in his car he remembered the words of Harry Dean Stanton in the 1984 movie Repo Man (a film Kate says she has never seen): ``See, an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations''

Suddenly there was a light coming from the direction of the driveway and a second later the sound of an engine starting.

Score!

Kate backed the Grand Am out of the driveway then both she and her driver went off zipping down the narrow little street, both missing the turn on the narrow dirt road that led back to the highway. They had to turn around and head back toward the house of the Grand Am. But nobody had seen Repo Woman at work. At least nobody from the house followed her. She drove back through Espanola to Santa Fe, where she parked the car in an unassuming lot off Agua Fr¡a Road, next to several rows of other recently repossessed vehicles.

For the virgin driver, it had been an intense adventure. For Kate it had been a routine "pop," an easy $75. It was her third repo that day.

Kate is one of two repo people working for Custom Wrecker Company, which holds one of about 50 reposessor's licenses in the state. Most of Custom Wrecker's business is in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, though Kate says she has repossessed vehicles as far away as Raton.

The company makes about $225 for each repo, she said, from which she is paid.

To obtain a repossessor's license from the state Regulation and Licensing Department, one must pay a fee of $250, have a surety bond of $5,000 and obtain a ``warrant'' from the state Public Services Commission's Transportation Department. This warrant shows that the repossession business is properly insured (most repo companies opt for a $500,000 policy to cover all employees, a receptionist at the PSC said) and that all drivers have been instructed about safety issues. There is a $15 fee for the warrant.

Under state law, any repo company transporting a vehicle without a warrant can be fined up to $10,000.

The application asks for a complete financial statement and asks whether the applicant or any partner in his business has ever been convicted of fraud, embezzlement or any other crime excluding traffic offenses.

The applicant must list three character references.

Henry A. Vigil, examiner supervisor at the state Financial Institutions Division of the Regulation and Licensing Department, said he receives very few complaints about repossession companies only two or three formal complaints a year.

"Most of the repo people know what they are doing," Vigil said. "In fact, of the industries we license in Financial Institutions, repossessors get the fewest complaints of all." His agency also licenses mortgage companies, small-loan companies, collection agencies, and escrow companies.

Vigil said that even though getting a repossessor's license is not easy, there is not a problem with unlicensed repo outfits in the state. "These companies are pretty good about policing themselves," he said.

The Repo Code:
``I shall not cause harm to any vehicle or the personal contents, thereof. Nor, through inaction let that vehicle or the personal contents come to harm.''
--Harry Dean Stanton, as "Bud" in Repo Man.

There are certain state laws that New Mexico repo men and women have to follow. While they may take an auto on the street, in a parking lot or even from a private driveway, they are not allowed to take a car from a closed garage, or take a car from property enclosed by a fence.

When a vehicle is taken without notice, the lending institution is responsible for notifying the owner that the car has been repossessed.

After a vehicle is repossessed, the owner has 10 days to get up to date on his or her loan and pay the cost of the repossession and any legal fees.

If the owner does not reclaim the vehicle, it is auctioned off. The money made in the auction goes to paying off the loan. If that amount does not completely pay off the loan, the person from which the vehicle was repossessed is responsible to pay the remaining portion.

How quickly a repo company is called is up to the individual lending company.

Collection supervisors of two area credit unions said in recent interviews that they make great efforts to work with people who have fallen behind on auto loans and that repossession is the very last resort.

"We really try to work with people," said Maria Trejo of the Guadalupe Credit Union. She said her institution will only order a repossession when the customer stops accepting calls or stops making even partial payments.

Fran Hogan of the Los Alamos Credit Union said that while the standard contract for her credit union gives it the right to repossess a vehicle without notice, "We don't do that except in extraordinary circumstances."

Her office sends out a series of letters and makes a number of phone calls in trying to get the car owner to get up to date, Hogan said.

She said that last year her institution repossessed somewhere between 50 and 75 vehicles but that these represent only a small percentage of the $72 million in the credit union's outstanding car loans.

The number of repossessions has risen slightly in the past three years, Hogan said. But this is because the number of loans has increased.

She blames contemporary attitudes about credit on defaults. "Young people think they can get something right away and worry about the credit bureau later. They don't realize what a serious mark a repossession will be on their credit record."

She also said five-year loans, while reducing the amount of monthly payments, sometimes become discouraging for those who have paid for so many years.

Some auto buyers do not realize the high cost of insurance, Hogan said. "If they don't pay their insurance, the company notifies us and we put the cost of insurance on top of the loan. And we want the (insurance) money right up front. "

Some who default on car loans think they can get away with not paying by moving the car to another state. However, Hogan said, her credit union uses the services of the American Recovery Association, a national repossession network, which will send local repo people to get the car.

"People are surprised at how much information we have on them and how we're all in cahoots," Hogan said.

Repo: A Male-dominated industry

Kate says she has wanted to be a repo woman since she was about 20 years old. She was working at an all-night gas station in her native New Jersey about 3 a.m. when a man in a tow truck drove in the station hauling a new Chevrolet Camaro.

``He'd just snagged it from an apartment complex down the road,'' she said. ``I was just intrigued. Before that my image of a repo man was a 300 gorilla with half his teeth missing.''

However, Kate who says she's had about 75 jobs in her life, mainly blue-collar, unskilled labor did not act upon her dream until last October when she saw a newspaper advertisement for a job at an area repo company.

She said the owner of that company initially was reluctant to hire a repo woman. "It's a male-dominated industry," she said.

But she was hired and worked for the company several months before going to work for Custom Wrecker.

And, she says, it's one of the most enjoyable jobs she's ever had.

Kate has repossessed more than 75 vehicles since starting last October. The work load varies. "There's some weeks I only got two. Then I've gotten up to 13 in a week."

Says Kate, "I've taken cars out of church parking lots, I've taken cars while the owner is shopping inside a store. I'm always on the look out. I've gotten very good at identifying different models of cars, especially the backs of cars."

She says she has repossessed cars for which the owner was only $100 away from paying off.

Repo people have different styles and methods of going after cars.

Gil Salazar of Del Norte Collections in Espanola said, unless instructed differently, he likes to speak face-to-face with the vehicle owner and talk them into giving up their car key voluntarily.

Kate, on the other hand prefers to take the vehicle without dealing with the owner.

Frequently she has had to confront or has been confronted by the person about to lose his or her car.

"Usually I'm just real sympathetic with them," she said. "Most of them are just honest people who have gotten in over their heads. I tell them I'm just doing my job."

There have been some fairly intense confrontations though, she said. One angry car owner tried to run her down on a south-side Santa Fe street. She called the police in that incident, which convinced her attacker to hand over the keys, she says.

Another time she received a major cussing out from a man whose check, it turned out, really was in the mail.

"That's one of the few times I ever lost it," she said. "I can usually keep my head, but he was so abusive, I sunk to his level. I suppose I should apologize to him. Maybe if I see him again ever, I'll buy him a bottle of wine."

Kate says that she still enjoys the "major adrenaline rush" she gets when she starts the engine of a stranger's car and drives off into the night.

But she also enjoys the intellectual challenge of the detective work it takes to track down people who have changed addresses, or who don't leave their vehicles in a place for an easy pop.

She's done the parcel delivery ploy countless times. She's passed herself off as a prospective employer.

Once a married man whose car she was hunting for asked her for a date without ever actually seeing her. She gave a false description of herself, arranged to meet him at a local bar. She watched from across the street as he went inside. Not only was he stood up that night, but he also lost his car.

Even though she is enjoying the job, Kate does have an underlying fear in the back of her mind. "I suppose if someone every seriously attacked me, that would be the day I'd hang it up," she said.

Despite the nature of the business and the violent images of botched repo jobs from the Repo Man movie etched into the popular consciousness violence against repossessors is rare. Henry Vigil from the state Financial Institutions Division said the only case he can remember was an instance in Las Cruces when a repo man wrecked a recovered car while being chased by the irate owner.

Three repos in one day wasn't a bad haul. But Repo Woman wanted to make one more pass at it. She convinced her driver to check out the parking lot of an south-side apartment complex where she was trying to find an elusive Dodge. She'd checked out the parking lot several times before and even knew where others of the same model were parked. But once again, the vehicle under contract was nowhere to be found.

Perhaps the owner had moved. Perhaps the owner was actively hiding it. The next day Repo Woman would check out the owner's work place, maybe call some of the references listed on the loan application. Repo Woman was confident that in the near future she'd be feeling that adrenaline rush when she was behind the wheel of the stranger's car.

THE REVIEWS ARE COMING IN

I made the Rep. Greg Payne's "good" list in the Albuquerque Republican's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" report on Legislature coverage.

"Terrell tops the list of Il Buono because his by far the best journalist covering the Roundhouse. Balanced and fair to both sides on most issues (he slipped a bit toward the end on medical marijuana ...), Terrell also has a rare perspective for a reporter these days: he attempts to cover events without letting his personal perspective and opinion seep in. It's also clear he has absolutely zero interest in being a part of the Roundhouse "scene" -- which put him head and shoulders above many of his peers."

This is embarrassing. Politicians aren't supposed to say nice things about me! At least he was kind enough to mention the medical marijuana coverage. (CLICK HERE and HERE.)

Payne, by the way, is the only lawmaker I know of who writes a blog. I bet by next session others will pick up on the idea.