JIM HIGHTOWER IN SANTA FE

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 18, 2004

Populist agitator, author and radio personality Jim Hightower backed Ralph Nader for president four years ago. But on Wednesday he told a Santa Fe audience that he's supporting Democrat John Kerry this year.

"Ralph Nader is a longtime personal friend of mine," Hightower said. "I love the man. But I do not support him for president."

Referring to the Bush administration, Hightower said, "These people are not only nuts, they're dangerous. We've got to unite and get him out."

Hightower, wearing his trademark straw cowboy hat, spoke before about 200 people at a luncheon at the Eldorado Hotel. The event was sponsored by KSFR, Santa Fe Public Radio.

A former Texas state commissioner of agriculture, Hightower is known for his down-home style. He didn't disappoint his audience Wednesday as he sprinkled his speech with phrases like, "This makes me happier than a hog in a fresh wallow," and wisdom such as "Even a dead fish can go with the flow."

The luncheon doubled as a book-signing for Hightower, who sold and autographed several copies of his latest work, Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush.

Referring to himself as "an itinerant book hustler," Hightower said his 57-city book tour is designed to "spread the populist gospel. I want to raise some issues, raise some hope and raise some hell along the way."

Said Hightower, "You can fight the gods and still have fun."

Despite his decision not to support Nader this year, Hightower was critical of efforts by some Democrats to curtail Nader's campaign.Democrats in several states have challenged the Nader organization's attempts to get a place on the ballot.

In New Mexico, Democrats have been vocal in pointing out that the Nader campaign hired a Republican-owned organization to gather petition signatures. Nader must have more than 14,000 signatures by Sept. 7 to get on the ballot in New Mexico.

"Efforts by Democrats - some Democrats - to assail the Nader campaign are destructive," Hightower said. "Don't worry about Ralph. Push ahead."

Even though Hightower wants Kerry to win in November, he said "Beating Bush is a progressive victory. It's an essential step, but it just gets us back to square one. We're going to have to be in the face of the Kerry Edwards administration. Our fight is not for Kerry. Our fight is to take back this nation."

He described Kerry as "the lesser of two elites." But he added, "Franklin Roosevelt was an elite. It's certainly possible to rise above your class.

"Kerry will only be as good as we make him," Hightower said. "We'll cheer at his inauguration, but the next day we'll be across the street at LaFayette Park saying, 'Where's that health care for everyone?' "

Hightower said it's up to citizens to take action in their own communities and not wait for leaders to do it for them.

"It's no longer enough to be progressive. We've got to be aggressive," he said. "The powers that be are regressive. They're stealing faster than a hog eats supper."

In his travels, Hightower said, "I see a very different America than the one they show you in the media. People are not cowering in fear, not marching in lockstep with the commander in chief and not rolling over for corporate interests."

He praised Santa Fe for being one of several cities to pass its own Living Wage Ordinance instead of waiting for the federal government to raise the minimum wage by $1.

He also praised communities that have "stood up to Wal-Mart" by thwarting the giant discount store's plans for new stores.

"People are asking the right question - 'Whose town is it?' " Hightower said.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: INTRODUCING THE GOV

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 19, 2004

It used to be that Gov. Bill Richardson had to give reporters jobs in his administration before they started singing the governor's praises in public.

But after last week, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

As reported by The Albuquerque Tribune, three Albuquerque television news anchors gave introductions for Richardson at the recent Border Governors Conference, reading scripts written by the governor's office.

And apparently one of them was downright sparkling.

Monica Armenta of KOB-Channel 4 reportedly credited Richardson for "one of the most dramatic economic turnarounds in U.S. history" and said he "has done more for New Mexico in two legislative sessions than any previous governor accomplished in decades."

Richardson, according to the account, referred to Armenta as "the Katie Couric of New Mexico."

That hurts.

I thought I was the Katie Couric of New Mexico.

If nothing else, the governor's cozy relationship with the TV news folk has united people with disparate views.

In an e-mail newsletter, state Republican chairman Alan Weh referred to the introductions: "Unfortunately we encounter the media's liberal bias on an almost daily basis; here is a blatant example we wanted to share ..."

Weh gave the phone numbers of the two stations, urging readers to call " if you think that three news anchors subjectively stumping for Governor Richardson is biased or inappropriate ..."

Meanwhile, on the left, Jim Naureckas, editor of Extra, a publication of the New York-based organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, agreed that such an introduction was inappropriate.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Naureckas said, "News anchors are not expected to be entangled with the governor's office. Reading P.R. handouts from the governor's office is entanglement."

Naureckas added, "A lot of people have serious doubts that news media is as impartial as it claims to be. Stories like this confirm those suspicions."

But two of the three anchors said Wednesday their roles in the introductions were significantly less than Armenta's. Armenta couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

Nelson Martinez, also of KOB, said all he did was say the names of the various governors and where they were from. The only compliments he gave were directed to an old table at the conference on loan from the Palace of the Governors.

"My script was very cut and dry," Martinez said. He said he wouldn't have said the same things his colleague did. "I know where the line is," Martinez said.

Cynthia Izaguirre of KOAT Channel 7 said, "to be lumped in with remarks by another anchor is libel."

The only thing she said about Richardson was that he was "a very busy man," Izaguirre said. "The governor and I have had some tough interviews."

Who's the brain?: An e-mail advertising the debut of a new anti-Bush film Bush's Brain - a critical profile of political adviser Karl Rove - excitedly announced that the film would be showing in major cities later this month.

But the list makes me wonder how serious the folks in charge of this are about trying to affect the election.

Of the 19 cities listed, nine are in California - one of the bluest of the blue states by virtual every estimation - while four are in Texas, where George W. Bush would have to forget the Alamo to come even close to losing. The other cities include the Democratic strongholds of New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Nothing in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, or New Mexico.

Somehow, I don't think Karl would have done it this way.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAY LIST

Sunday, August 15, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Now Webcasting:
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell
Co-host: Laurell Reynolds

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
I Want to See You Bellydance by The Red Elvises
You Broke My Mood Ring by Root Boy Slim & His Sex Change Band
Everybody's Gonna Be Happy by The Kinks
Abra Cadavaer by The Hives
Greasy Heart by The Jefferson Airplane
Gypsy Eyes by Jimi Hendrix
Jenny I Read by Concrete Blonde
Uncomplicated by Los Lobos

Monsters of the Id by Mose Allison
Wake Up Sally by Stan Ridgway
For A Thousand Mothers by Jethro Tull
Flowers and Beads by Iron Butterfly
The Letter by P.J. Harvey
The Gnome by Pink Floyd
Let's See Action by The Who

Isley Brothers Set
Shout
Hello I'ts Me
I Turned You On
Fight the Power
Ohio/Machine Gun

I Know You Are There by The Handsome Family
About To Begin by Robin Trower
Indian Summer by The Doors
Kiss From an Old Flame by Mercury Rev
Melt Away by Brian Wilson
Rivendell by Rush
Port of Amsterdam by David Bowie
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

SANTA FE OPRY PLAY LIST

The Santa Fe Opry
Friday, August 13, 2004
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays MDT
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Shakin' the Blues by Gail Davies & Robbie Fulks
The Boys From Alabama by Drive-By Truckers
New Fashioned Imperialist by Jason Ringenberg
King of Fools by Billy Joe Shaver
Pigeon Heart by Marah
Union Square by Eric Ambel
Innocent When You Dream by Elvis Costello
They Call The Wind Mariah by The Buckerettes

Sputnik 57 by Jon Langford
Blinding Sheets of Rain by The Old 97s
Robot Moving by Jon Dee Graham
Madman by Chrissy Flatt
Stranger in the Mirror by Jody Reynolds & Bobbie Gentry
Are You Still My Girl? by Joe West
Been a While by ThaMuseMeant
On the Sea of Galilee by Emmylou Harris & The Peasall Sisters
The Bum Hotel by Uncle Dave Macon

Crow Hollow Blues by Stan Ridgway
My Sister's Tiny Hands by The Handsome Family
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
Richland Woman Blues by Maria Muldaur
Uncle Smoochface by Michael Hurley
New White House Blues by Peter Stampfel & The Bottle Caps
Shake That Thing by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
I Love Onions by Susan Christie

Beautiful Dreamer by Raul Malo
Wild Irish Rose by George Jones
Foot of the Bed by Tres Chicas
Green Green Rocky Road by Dave Van Ronk
Single Girl by 16 Horsepower
That's the Way Love Goes by The Harmony Sisters
Jacob's Ladder by Greg Brown
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots
Radio list

NADER'S NEW HELPER: ROD ADAIR

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 13, 2004


Although backers of Ralph Nader’s bid to get on the New Mexico ballot say they’re confident he’ll make it, a prominent conservative Republican is trying to help make sure Nader can overcome Democratic efforts to block him.

State Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, on Thursday asked the nearly 24,000 recipients of his e-mail newsletter to sign petitions seeking a ballot slot for Nader, who is running as an independent presidential candidate.

“We happen to believe that every candidate — right or left of center — should be on the ballot,” Adair wrote, attaching a download of the official Nader petition for his readers to sign and distribute.

The national Democratic Party, fearing Nader will be a spoiler for their presidential candidate in a close race with incumbent Republican George Bush, has lined up an army of volunteers in 20 states to fight Nader’s ballot efforts by challenging the validity of petition signatures.

Nader supporters abandoned their effort to get him on the ballot in Arizona after Democrats challenged thousands of petition signatures there. In New Mexico, the Nader campaign has to gather more than 14,527 valid signatures by Sept. 7 to force election officials to list his name among the presidential choices.

Nader’s New Mexico coordinator, Carol Miller, said Thursday she is responsible for about 100 volunteers who have been traveling the state gathering petition signatures.

“We got about 100 signatures at the recent Ani DiFranco concert (in Santa Fe),” she said. Referring to the left-wing singer’s fans, Miller said, “I don’t think there were many Republicans in that crowd.”

Adair said Thursday that he decided to distribute the petitions because he didn’t like the way television news reports were handling stories of Republicans helping Nader get on the ballot.

“If the Republicans were trying to keep the Libertarians off the ballot,” he said, “we’d get fried.”

Adair said Nader’s presence helps the Bush ticket. But he said other parties, including the Libertarians, aid the Democratic ticket headed by John Kerry.

Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik has secured a spot on the New Mexico ballot.

Adair wrote in his e-mail that “the Republicans have never tried to block the Libertarian Party in New Mexico — and there is little doubt their votes in 2000 cost President Bush New Mexico’s five electoral votes.”

Libertarian candidate Harry Browne got just over 2,000 votes in New Mexico four years ago, when Bush lost to Al Gore by 366 votes.

State Democratic Chairman John Wertheim on Thursday said Adair’s mass e-mail “demonstrates conclusively that Ralph Nader’s effort to get on the ballot is not a legitimate effort. It’s an effort orchestrated by the Republican Party.”

Miller, Nader coordinator, said she believes state Democratic officials are following the advice of former U.S. Rep. Toby Moffett.

Moffett, a former ally of Nader's, told the New Mexico delegation to last month’s Democratic National Convention that polls show the best argument to use with potential Nader voters is: “Ralph is in bed with Republicans.”

RIDGWAY IN SANTA FE

As Published in the Santa Fe New Mexican
Aug. 13, 2004

To paraphrase one of his songs, Stan Ridgway is just a little too smart for a big dumb music industry.

Ridgway is known to weave elements of jazz, techno-pop, horror-movie music, blues and country into his sometimes dark, sometimes funny, sometimes outright lovely songs. The basic sound is rooted in the spooky, New-Wave, Wall of Voodoo rock from which he sprang and often colored by his trademark chromatic harmonica. But listing the ingredients hardly does justice to his sound. He’s hard pressed to describe it himself.

“As one plays more music and gets older, all music comes together,” Ridgway said in a phone interview last week. “Unless you’re into marketing.

“At this point in my life I just play the music I like,” he said. “But I should probably think of a clever little label for it. Metropolitan Rodeo? Neo-Neanderthal? Fuzzy Folk?”

Ridgway will play Santa Fe Saturday as part of a “broken elemental trio,” with his wife Pietra Wexstun (of the band Hecate’s Angels) on keyboards and Rick King on guitar and slide.

Twenty-plus years after a fling with national fame when his old band Wall of Voodoo’s pioneering music video became an early staple of MTV, Ridgway is still best known as the guy who sang “Mexican Radio.”

One recent article about Ridgway called “Mexican Radio” an “albatross” around the singer’s neck, claiming the artist is burdened by the song‘s success.

“Music is all about hits for some people,” he said. “I read an interview with Randy Newman where someone asked him what he’d be remembered for. He said `Short People.’ Sure, people who like him know Randy Newman’s got all sorts of great songs. But most people will remember him for `Short People’ because that was the hit.”

He still performs his MTV hit. “But we do it in a different way,” he said without elaborating.

But even back in the New Wave era, Ridgway already was showing big hints of his deeper talents. On Wall of Voodoo’s Call of The West, the album containing “Mexican Radio,” there was a low-key little heartbreaker called “Lost Weekend,” a sad dialogue between a couple who’s just lost everything they had in Las Vegas. You couldn’t pogo to it, and it never got its own video, but “Lost Weekend” was a punch in the gut.

The truth is, he ought to be famous for his impressive, iconoclastic musical output since the Wall of Voodoo came tumbling down -- seven albums of original music under his own name, another one of big-band standards and show tunes, one under the name of Drywall (he swears a follow-up to Drywall‘s Work the Dumb Oracle is just around the corner), an album of otherworldly instrumentals in collaboration with his wife, a bunch of live albums available only on the internet, an out-of-print compilation of his soundtrack music … and I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t a few so obscure even I haven’t heard of.

But even more that his unique brew of musical styles and influences, Ridgway’s greatest strength is his story-telling. He sings of losers, loners, small-time crooks, drifters, screw-ups and the women they love. He tells tales of bartenders suffering mid-life crisises, low-level smugglers, street vendors who sell newspapers, lonely kids listening to train whistles, old women too scared to leave their homes.

Not to mention “fuzzy folk” ballads honoring Johnny Cash, CIA godfather “Wild” Bill Donovan and a ghostly Marine named “Camouflage.”

Sometimes Ridgway’s lyrics tell elaborate stories. Sometimes they sound like conversations he might have overheard at a bus station.

Ridgway said he likes to write about characters on society’s margins. “Those are the stories worth telling in a song,” he said. “When you’re listening to music, you really are a solitary listener, even if you’re with other people. We’re all stuck in our own skins and you can’t get out. We’re encased in this skin and bones. When you play a song, it sings directly to your soul.

“I’m always drawn to this character,” he continued. “He’s got bits of me and people I know.”

Of some of the recurring themes in his songs -- the drifter arriving in a strange new town, the man on the highway, running from the law -- Ridgway said, “Sometimes my songs are obsessions. I start writing it and I find myself saying `Here I go again.’ “

Ridgway would be rich if he had a buck for every story about him that compared him with Los Angeles detective writer Raymond Chandler. That probably started because the title song of his first solo album, The Big Heat was about a private eye.

“I’m not arguing about being compared with Raymond Chandler,” he said. “It’s better than being called the Pinky Lee of Rock, or, as one reviewer called me, `The Porky Pig of Rock ‘n’ Roll.’ That was something to do with my voice.”

Ah yes, the Ridgway voice, an acquired taste to be sure. The All Music Guide describes it as an “unforgettable adenoidal vocal delivery that makes him sound like a low-level wise guy in one of those old Warner Bros. gangster films of the '30s.”

“The first time I heard my own voice it was just horrible,” Ridgway said. “I thought, `What a creep! What a jerk!’ “

Ridgway’s latest album, Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads & Fugitive Songs, has backwoods stompers, a sad cocktail jazz ballad called “Our Manhattan Moment,” a Civil War love song, a couple of songs that really are about fugitives and a sinister-sounding cover of an obscure Mose Allison tune (“Monsters of the Id“).

Ridgway was happy when he learned that Allison had performed “Monsters” last month at his Santa Fe concert. He said he sent Allison’s son a copy of the cover. “He played it for his dad right before Christmas,” Ridgway said. Allison’s song told Ridgway Allison’s reaction was “Stan got it right.”

Then there’s “Afghan/Forklift,” which deals with a warehouse worker who stumbles on to a terrible secret that compels him to unsuccessfully attempt to warn the president.

But like Bobbie Gentry holding on telling anyone what Billy Joe McAllister threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, Ridgway demurs when asked what was in those mysterious crates bound for Afghanistan.

“All I can say is that it was once a much longer song,” he said. “I chopped it up and lost some verses.”

Ridgway, 50, apparently has had his sense of drama ever since he was a kid growing up Barstow, Calif.

Even before he got involved with rock ‘n’ roll, he said, he’d spend hours producing homemade “radio shows” with his brother and making 8mm movies of plastic models of werewolves being set on fire.

“We’d do anything having to do with ghost stories, myths, monsters,” Ridgway said. “I have a theory why people our age liked those Universal monsters so much -- Frankenstein, The Wolfman. … Those monsters were like overgrown children. They weren’t normal. They were looking for friends and trying to do the good thing, but they’d always make a big mistake and got the whole populace to rise up against them. Just like being a teenager.”

When: 8 p.m. Saturday Aug. 14
Where: The Paramount Lounge & Nightclub, 331 Sandoval St.
How much: Tickets are $15 at CD Cafe, The Candyman, Bar B (after 5:00 p.m.), the Lensic Box office (988-1234) and online at Tickets.com.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: SHOUT FOR THE ISLEY BROTHERS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 13, 2004

For 40 years or so the songs of The Isley Brothers have popped up unexpectedly on the soundtrack of the collective consciousness of America.

The highlights of the Isleys’ lengthy career can be found on the new two-disc collection The Essential Isley Brothers.

Back in 1958 there was that primal "Shout," in which the three oldest brothers Ronald, O’Kelly and Rudolph followed the Ray Charles gospel/soul road to a joyful destination.

A few years later during one of those teen dance craze phases, they reemerged with "Twist and Shout," inspiring a certain British quartet whose later version became more famous.

There was a brief fling with Motown, producing a minor hit "This Old Heart of Mine," that sounds a whole lot like the Four Tops. There was a period where they had a young guitarist sideman who would later become famous as Jimi Hendrix.

Then in the late ‘60s The Isleys reemerged with a new crop of younger brothers, guitarist Ernie and bassist Marvin and Isley in-law Chris Jasper on keyboards.

With the cool and funky "It’s Your Thing," the group showed that they weren’t some nostalgia act.

By the mid ‘70s the Isleys had completely reinvented themselves as the funkiest of the funky. Their album covers and publicity photos of that era show that they were right up there with Parliament and Earth, Wind & Fire in the wild multi-color Afrosheen, Superfly/Superpimp/Superhero fashion stratosphere.

But more importantly their music also was in the same league as the funksters whose music remains timeless.

With 1973‘s "Who’s That Lady," Ernie Isley established himself as a guitarist for the ages.

And if you think Public Enemy came up with the concept of "Fight the Power," think again. The brothers’ 2-part, 5-minute gurgling soul workout from 1975 was an unusual call-to-arms during the relatively sedate Gerald Ford era. Even though the lyrics of the song protest people who complain about Ronald playing his music too loud, the rebelliousness is refreshing.

The above listed tunes are on The Essential Isley Brothers, as is the relatively obscure -- an, actualy inconsequential -- "Move Over and Let Me Dance," an early ‘60s track featuring Hendrix on guitar.)

There are plenty of lesser-known Isley cuts here. "Keep On Doin’ " and, especially "Freedom," both from 1969, are great examples of the Isleys transforming from the soul shouters of their earliest incarnation to the Funkytown champs of their later years.

And one thing I’ve always loved about the Isley Brothers is their incredible knack of taking lightweight pop and turning it into burning soul. Carol King’s "Brother Brother" and Seals & Crofts’ "Summer Breeze," are prime examples here.
As strong as the music is on this collection, I’ve still got a few quibbles with the compilation.

First of all, there’s the whole issue of rampant repackaging that grips the music industry. The mighty Sony Empire released a fine 3-disc Isley retrospective It’s Your Thing just a few years ago. I guess the new Essential package is for the benefit of those who can afford a two-disc set but can’t afford a three-disc set.

Secondly, this collection is extremely skimpy on early Isley material. There’s just a handful of pre-1969 songs. While it’s certainly true that the funky early ‘70s were the Isley Brothers’ greatest period, more from their formative years would have given more context. (It also would have helped had the selections been in at least a rough chronological order.)

And finally, from the you-can’t-please-everyone department, there are a few missed gems that should have been in this collection.

An obvious omission is the Isleys’ cover of Curtis Mayfield’s "I’m So Proud," which is one of their most gorgeous tunes.

And an obscurity that I’d have loved to have seen here is the group’s cover of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young’s "Ohio," the song about the Kent State killings, which appeared on the Isleys‘ 1971 Givin‘ It Back, done as a 9-minute medley with Hendrix‘s "Machine Gun."

At the time they were criticized because they deviated from the original opening line, "Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming," instead singing "Tin soldiers with guns they’re coming."

It’s not clear why they changed it. Some assumed they didn’t want to offend Republican Isley fans, but if that was the case, why do that song in the first place?
Perhaps they wanted to make the song more timeless. Even without the image of Dick Nixon, the Isley version of Ohio is a bone-chiller. While Neil Young captured the rage and anger in the original, the Isleys captured the fear of watching a government violently turn against its own people.

Also Recommended:

*Live It Up by The Isley Brothers. Two of the eight tracks of this recently re-released 1974 record appear on The Essential Isley Brothers.

But this one’s worth it if only for their gut-wrenching, Isaac Hayes-inspired cover of Todd Rundgren’s signature song "Hello, It’s Me."

Not only that, there’s a bonus cut -- a version of the title song as performed on The Dinah Shore Show in 1974. Yes, the Isleys in the kitchen with Dinah. When the hostess proclaims, "I really felt that!" at the end, you know it had to be true.

Hear some Isleys this week on Terrell’s Sound World, 10 p.m. Sunday on KSFR, 90.7 FM -- now web casting on http://www.ksfr.org/. And don’t forget The Santa Fe Opry -- same time, same station Friday.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: SEPARATE BUT EQUAL

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 12, 2004

At the seemingly neverending campaign appearances in New Mexico by the national candidates, event organizers for both major political parties have made a sharp separation between the national and local press.

There are separate seating areas (although at Wednesday’s Albuquerque visit by George Bush, Dan Balz of The Washington Post sat with the local yokels). Sometimes there are separate entrances.

At last month’s rally for John Kerry and John Edwards at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, New Mexico reporters were kept away from a post-speech food spread for reporters traveling with the national ticket.

At Bush’s Albuquerque campaign event at Eclipse Aviation, however, the division went even further.

When this writer stepped out of the building to use the restroom, there was a friendly Bush volunteer assigned to escort people to the facilities.

“Are you local press or national press?” she asked.

Yes, it’s true. Separate-but-equal portable toilets for the local and national press.

Attempts to get an explanation from the Bush campaign about the reason for separate toilets were not successful.

Presidential speeds: The next time there’s a complaint about Gov. Bill Richardson speeding on the state’s streets and highways, Richardson can say he only was acting “presidential.”

According to a White House press pool reporter, quoted in the Washington Times’ online Insider section, an “uneventful motorcade to the airport” with President Bush last Sunday in Kennebunkport, Maine, turned out to be a pretty wild ride.

The reporter, Edwin Chen of the Los Angeles Times, wrote that “at various points along the way, the presidential motorcade traveled at speeds that exceeded 75 mph, according to the speedometer. And this was mostly on a narrow, curving, and sometimes hilly two-lane road — sans sidewalk. More than once, we could hear tires squealing.”

Chen continued, “Adding to the thrill of the chase were the occasional clusters of people — including children — obviously out to catch a fleeting glimpse of (Bush). Among them, at one point, were more than a dozen seniors, in wheelchairs.”

Chen wrote that people in the press vehicle clocked the van’s speed at various points at 50 mph (in a 25 mph zone), 60 mph (in a 35 mph zone) and above 75 mph (in a 45 mph zone.) “The white-knuckles ride lasted about 25 minutes,” Chen reported.

According to The Washington Times account, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the reason for the high speeds was “to minimize the motorcade’s inconvenience to the local residents.”

Unlike Richardson’s spokesmen, the White House didn’t say the speeding was done for security’s sake.

American Indians for Kerry:

About the time that Kerry and Edwards were speaking Sunday at the 83rd annual Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Pow Wow in Gallup, their campaign released a list of 39 American Indian leaders who have endorsed the Democratic ticket.

Among them are three New Mexicans, including Santa Fe lawyer — and former acting state Democratic Party chairman — David Gomez, a member of Taos Pueblo.

The other two listed by the Kerry campaign are LaDonna Harris, president of Americans for Indian Opportunity and a member of the Comanche Tribe who lives at Santa Ana Pueblo, and her daughter Laura Harris, executive director of Americans for Indian Opportunity. Laura Harris also is daughter of former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris.

MORE ZOZOBRA

My story on the Kiwanis Club vote last night to allow Katy Lilienthal to assume the role of Fire Dancer at the burning of Zozobra this year -- contrary to the announcement by the club last week -- somehow didn't make it onto The New Mexican's new improved web site this morning.

(NOTE: Since posting this earlier this morning, the New Mexican web site guru has told me that the story will be posted on the site. But I'll keep this here anyway.)



As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 11, 2004

Despite an announcement last week to the contrary, a divided Santa Fe Kiwanis Club voted Tuesday to allow Katy Lilienthal -- daughter of longtime Fire Dancer James “Chip” Lilienthal -- to put the torch to Zozobra this year.

At the end of a sometimes heated, sometimes emotional three-hour meeting, the organization voted to keep the Fire Dancer in the Lilienthal family this year, although next year Kiwanis could choose another dancer.

“I’m overwhelmed, overjoyed,” Katy Lilienthal told a reporter after the organization’s 16-11 vote to accept her as her father’s successor. “I just want to put my best foot forward and be positive.”

Last week the club -- which has the rights to the annual pre-Fiesta event, which attracts tens of thousands of revelers to Fort Marcy Ballpark -- announced that Helene Luna would be Fire Dancer.

Luna for the past eight years has performed the role of “Gloom Queen,” who dances before the Fire Dancer appears in the pageant.

However, Downtown Santa Fe Kiwanis Foundation board members said Tuesday that the board never actually voted to give the position to Luna. A press release sent to local papers last week was wrong, several board members said.

The announcement that Luna had gotten the job angered Chip Lilienthal, who told the crowd at last year’s burning that he was passing the torch -- literally -- to his daughter.

But in last week’s press release, Kiwanis lawyer Ray Sandoval said, “"We know that Chip Lilienthal made the announcement to the crowd last year that his daughter would be performing the dance this year but that wasn't something that was his to give away.”

Both Luna and Katy Lilienthal live in Denver.

An emotional Luna thanked club members who wanted her to be the Fire Dancer. “All I can say is that when I was called last week I was so honored. … I would love to be the Fire Dancer. I just want to be part of the show. This is teamwork.”

Ray Valdez, who has produced and directed Zozobra for 10 years, told the club that Luna deserved to be chosen for the Fire Dancer role.

“She’s been the understudy for eight years,” he said.

As a condition of her approval, Kiwanis required the Lilienthal family to give up any claim it might have on intellectual rights to the Fire Dancer.

At the outset of the meeting Bryan Biedscheid, an attorney for the Lilienthals, said there was a question whether Chip Lilienthal had some sort of intellectual rights to the Fire Dancer character, which was passed on to him in 1970 by dancer Jacques Cartier, who performed the dance for 30 years before.

Valdez told Lilienthal, “I’ve done this for 10 years and I never felt I owned anything about Zozobra. I do it for the good of the community and for the kids. But I always felt that you, Chip, feel you own this Fire Dance.”

Chip Lilienthal said he has never considered using the Fire Dancer role to benefit himself or his family, and never considered marketing Fire Dancer posters or merchandise. One member had raised that possibility.

Biedscheid also said that suing the Kiwanis Club was a possible option if Katy Lilienthal wasn’t allowed to dance.

This angered some organization members.

One man said “Chip’s holding the Kiwanis Club hostage,” while a woman accused Lilienthal of “blackmailing” the organization.

“A lawsuit would create more gloom than could be burned with Zozobra,” one member said.

Chip Lilienthal said he hadn’t considered suing Kiwanis. Katy Lilienthal also said there had been no discussion.

Both Chip Lilienthal and Kiwanis Foundation president John High told reporter they wanted to apologize to the community for “airing dirty laundry” in public in the Fire Dancer fight.

Some members said they didn’t see why the Fire Dancer role was so important because most people go see the event just to watch Zozobra, a 40-foot monstrous puppet, go up in flames.

“People have made a cult out of Zozobra,” one woman said. “I believe Will Shuster would be horrified. It was supposed to be just fun.”

The artist Shuster, who died in 1969, created Zozobra in 1924. He gave Kiwanis Club the rights to Kiwanis in the 1960s.

The Kiwanis Foundation Board will be responsible to come up with a set way to select -- and to fire -- the Fire Dancer. Some members suggested auditions for the role.

( Here's links to my previous stories on the recent Zozobra controversy:

August 5 2004

August 4, 2004 )

SOUNDTRACK ALBUMS

A BBC straw poll released yesterday showed the The Blues Brothers movie to have the most popular movie soundtrack in Great Britain.

Runner-ups included the soundtracks for Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Saturday Night Fever and Dirty Dancing.

I'm not a British straw voter, but here's some of my favorite soundtracks:

Repo Man: Some great mid 80s L.A. punk rock including "Agent Secreto" and "La Bamba" by The Plugz, "When the Shit Hits the Fan"
by The Circle Jerks, "TV Party Tonight" by Black Flag and a super bitchen title song by Iggy ("... pages from a comic book/A chicken hangin' from a hook/I didn't get fucked and I didn't get kissed/I got so fucking pissed ...)

House of 10,000 Corpses: compiled by Rob Zombie and mainly has his trademark ghoul metal, but also includes oddball cuts by Buck Owens, Slim Whitman and Helen "Betty Boop" Kane.

The Horse Whisperer: never saw the movie, but it's got Don Walser singing "Big Ball's in Cowtown," Iris DeMent doing Johnny Horton's "Whispering Pines" and the song that led to The Flatlanders' reunion, "The South Wind of Summer.

Wild at Heart: It's got "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaacs and "Baby Please Don't Go" by Them, but best of all is a long, weird Bizarro-
World David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti blues "Up in Flames" sung by Koko Taylor. Not to mention not one but two Elvis songs sung by future (short-time) Elvis son-in-law Nicolas Cage. (Speaking of Lynch and Badalamenti, I love both Twin Peaks soundtracks, the one for the TV show and the one for the movie, which wasn't nearly as bad as most critics said it was.)

And don't forget some obvious ones like, The Harder They Come, the album that introduced reggae to millions of people back in the '70s, O Brother Where Art Thou?, which was so important to the movie it should have been nominated for best supporting actor.

And then, of course, there's a whole sub-category -- soundtracks of concert films, some of my favorites being The Last Waltz, Only the Strong Survive, Down From The Mountain, The Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, Tom Waits' The Big Time, Laurie Anderson's Home of The Brave, and Sign O The Times by Prince.

Feel free to use the comments button to list some of your favorite soundtracks