BUT DID YOU FIND ANY PIC-A-NIC BASKETS, BOO BOO?

It's still early, but I'm betting this is the funniest press release I'm going to receive from the New Mexico state government all day. It's from my old pal and DeMolay brother Dan Williams at Game & Fish

Department of Game and Fish officers tranquilized and removed a young black bear from inside Presbyterian Hospital in Rio Rancho about 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Conservation Officer Darrell Cole described the incident as a "typical bear call" with a remarkably happy ending, especially considering it happened during rush hour. The bear, a 125-pound male estimated to be two to three years old, was transported and released in the Manzano Mountains later Friday morning.

"What was great about it was that at 7:30 a.m. when everybody was on the way to work or to school, the bear went into a building. He was contained," Cole said. "We were able to dart him and easily move him out of harm's way. If it had been outside, he could have run off and got hit by a car."

Cole said the bear could have made its way into Rio Rancho from the Jemez Mountains or the Manzano Mountains after it was displaced by its mother or a more dominant bear. It appeared to be in good health, although somewhat underweight, which is typical of a young bear in the springtime.

The bear apparently was able to enter the hospital by hitting an automatic door opener. A few witnesses inside said the bear did not threaten anyone or damage anything. Once inside, it retreated into a side room while Rio Rancho Police and Animal Control officers evacuated the immediate area. The bear retreated further into a restroom and was sedated within about a minute after it was darted by Game and Fish officers Cole and John Martsh.

"I guess if you're going to be darted with tranquilizer you might as well get it done in a hospital," Cole said.

BO DIDDLEY RECOVERING FROM STROKE

Rock 'n' roll founding father and former New Mexico resident Bo Diddley is recovering in Omaha, Nebraska from a stroke. Here's a news story about it: CLICK HERE This photo was taken back in 1985 in the lobby of the mayor's office in Santa Fe. I interviewed Bo for the Albuquerque Journal to preview a show at Club West. We talked about his years in the state during the 1970s. For awhile he was a member of the Valencia County Sheriff's Reserves and actually arrested a drunk driver, who he said had mouthed off to him. You'd have to be drunk to give Deputy Diddley any lip! Bo said he left New Mexico because "money got funny," but he came back in the late '80s to live south of Albuquerque for a few years. At my goading, back in '85 , Mayor Louie Montano made Bo an honorary citizen of Santa Fe. Get well Bo!

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: NOT THE SAME OLD GRIND

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 18, 2007

Rock ’n’ roll supposedly is a young man’s game — traditionally, some of the best of it is created by horny, sexually frustrated young guys. But with Grinderman, Aussie rocker Nick Cave proves that horny, sexually frustrated middle-aged men can rock, too.

After all, young-stud rock is propelled by the anxiety that you might not score tonight (or, for real young guys, that you might never score). The overriding anxiety throughout Grinderman is that Cave might never score again. And this fear can be even more intense than all that minor-league teenage angst.

It’s all laid out, so to speak, in the song “No Pussy Blues,” in which Cave begins with a spoken verse that begins, “My face is finished, my body’s gone.” He then relates a sadly humorous tale of picking up a young woman in his audience.

“I bought her a dozen snow-white doves/ I did her dishes in rubber
gloves/ I called her ‘Honey Bee,’ I called her ‘Love,’/ But still she didn’t
want to,” he snarls. “I sent her every type of flower/I played her guitar by the hour/I patted her revolting little chihuahua/But still she just didn’t want to.”

But even more desperate than the lyrics is the furious, spastic burst of electric-guitar squall that Cave unleashes as a solo. That’s one of the main differences between this album and previous Cave works. Nick is playing electric guitar instead of just piano. He’s no virtuoso, but his attack on the instrument adds to the crazy energy of this record.

Grinderman — which also is the name of Cave’s new band (actually a compact version of his old band The Bad Seeds) — shows Cave rocking harder than he has since he was a young man. I’m not the first voice in criticdom comparing Grinderman with Cave’s old ’80s band The Birthday Party. But the middle-aged Cave of Grinderman seems even more dangerous than the bellowing junkie of The Birthday Party.

The new album is full of memorable tunes. The opening number, “Get It On” is, in Cave’s words, “a lament for the messianic rock ’n’ roll hero.” It starts out with an incomprehensible spoken (actually shouted) tirade about baboons, white mice, and black dogs. Over a fuzz-tone backdrop and a crashing rhythm, Cave recites,

“He crawled out of the ooze/He defied evolution/He had green
flippers and sang the blues/He caused a revolution ... I call out from the storm/For those who gave their lives/So we could get it on.”

“Honey Bee (Let’s Fly to Mars)” features that strangled guitar playing beneath a Steppenwolf-like organ and apocalyptic drums. A couple of tunes remind me of John Cale. The grating but somehow beautiful “Electric Alice” (supposedly a tribute to jazz harpist Alice Coltrane) is slow, screechy, and surreal (there’s bouzouki and violin crunched up in the mix), while the title song is a slow burner that builds up to some nice guitar chaos.

(Historical note: The name of the band, album, and song comes from bluesman Memphis Slim, who had a song called “Grinder Man Blues.” But unlike the narrator of many of the songs on this album, Slim’s Grinder Man is a tireless gigolo who has “got so many customers, it takes me a week to get around.”)

Not every tune here is abrasive or thunderous. “Man in the Moon” is slow and pretty and wouldn’t have been out of place on some of Cave’s more subdued efforts like The Boatman’s Call. It does seem out of place on Grinderman, though. Thankfully, it’s the shortest song on the album.

For the past couple of Cave albums there have been hints that a rock ’n’ roll werewolf has been struggling to break out of Cave’s brooding theologian persona. Back in 2003, on his album Nocturama, there was a 14-minute celebration of raw lust called “Babe, I’m on Fire.” A year or so later Cave’s double-disc set, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, also featured several tough and gritty rockers such as “Hiding All Away” and “Get Ready For Love.”

Grinderman fulfills the promise of those works. It’s also a welcome affirmation to all us dirty old men who love to rock.

Also noted:
* Rock en Español Vol. 1 by Los Straitjackets. These masked Tennessee surfers have made me rethink my general rule of hating “guest star” albums. I loved their Sing Along with Los Straitjackets (2001), in which this instrumental band was joined by a bevy of guest singers (especially Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, who did a muy bitchen cover of Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right”).

And now comes this collection of Spanish-language renditions of ’60s rock and soul hits (and even a stray Marty Robbins song) featuring vocals by Big Sandy, Los Lobos’ Cesar Rosas (who produced the record), and Little Willie G of the East L.A. rockers Thee Midnighters.

This is how I imagine a Tijuana rock club sounding in 1965. My favorite here probably is the stinging guitar cry of “El Microscopico Bikini,” sung by Rosas. The melody actually is “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” written by Larry Williams and popularized by The Beatles. Other early Beatles numbers represented here are Williams’ “Slow Down” (retitled “Calor” and sung by Big Sandy), and the Arthur Alexander ballad “Anna” (now called “Ana” and sung by Little Willie).

While there’s nothing earthshakingly innovative here, it’s good basic rock that underscores the contributions of Hispanics to American music.

Songs from the Cave: Yes, it’s time again for a good, long Nick Cave set on Terrell’s Sound World. Hear Grinderman, The Bad Seeds, and The Birthday Party Sunday night on KSFR-FM 90.7. Santa Fe’s finest freeform weirdo radio show starts at 10 p.m., while the Cave set will start right after the 11th hour.

RICHARDSON: MORE THAN A BLIP

Bill Richardson finally is out of single digits in an important primary state, according to a new poll by the Zogby organization.

The latest Zogby poll of New Hampshire shows Richardson in fourth place. But he's jumped from 2 percent to 10 percent since early April.

The poll shows Hillary Clinton barely leading Barak Obama 28 percent to 26 percent. John Edwards is in third place with 15 percent.

Commenting on the Democratic race in New Hampshire, pollster John Zogby said, "Of greatest significance is the move of Bill Richardson into double-digits from merely a blip on the screen. He is now a player in all this.”

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has jumped ahead of both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

The poll was conducted May 15 and 16, 2007, included 500 likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters and 503 likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters. The margin of error for each survey is +/- 4.5 percentage points.

jj sez

Reporter Jackie Jadrnak, currently on leave from The Albuquerque Journal has been spending some of her off time starting a new blog called jj sez.

She talks about about health, the environment, politics, sexism and lot of issues. Check it out.