Each year, an anonymous writing committee creates the Fiesta Melodrama, turning the year’s comic—and comically tragic—goings-on to farce, like so many glooms turned to ash. The Santa Fe Playhouse’s 89th season brings Fiesta Melodrama 2010: Reefer Melodrama

This year, when collectors flood in for Indian Market, casting countless shutter lenses, interpretations and intentions on Native art, it will be amid the ongoing celebration for the 400th anniversary of Santa Fe’s founding by Spanish colonialists.

After 29 years in the US military, Col. Ann Wright retired and became a diplomat. In May, she was aboard Challenger 1 when it was raided by the Israeli Defense Forces.

When he moved to the US from Japan, Tetsuki Ijichi sought to sell American independent films to Japan. These days, it’s the other way around; he brings independent Asian films to North America.

Right now, in a secret training facility south of Deming, approximately 175 ducks are preparing for the defining moment of their lives: the Great American Duck Race, a weekend event this summer that will judge the feathered beasts’ speed, strength and general sense of direction under festival duress.

It behooves no one’s circadian rhythm to rise before dawn, chase a full moon down I-25 and arrive at the existential crisis that is the Bernalillo exit Starbucks in the bright light of daybreak for anything short of a death in the family—or wild horses.

In 1965, Institute of American Indian Arts officials commissioned Italian architect Paolo Soleri to build an outdoor amphitheater intended for the growing Native performing arts scene. Though humble in size, the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater is inspired in its design of earth-cast concrete shaped to frame the moon and sun.

Eighteen days after the Jan. 12 earthquake that has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people, Santa Fe resident Alexander Miller, an emergency technician for Rocky Mountain EMS, was en route to Haiti where, for nearly two months, he attempted to assuage some of the ongoing havoc writhing the Caribbean country. In the wake of his visit, Miller realized one of the greatest obstacles to medical care in Haiti is the lack of proper medical vehicles.

It’s 6:30 on a Friday night and happy hours around town are winding down. SFR hops into a cab in South Capitol for a ride-along with Capital City Cab driver Robert Seigle. A former mechanical engineer who builds PCs in his spare time, Seigle has worked for Capital for eight years.

When a mountain lion comes to Santa Fe, everyone pays attention. The Santa Fe New Mexican put related stories above the fold twice; SFR created the lion’s Twitter account (@SFMountainLion). We caught up with Department of Game and Fish Northwest Area Assistant Chief Robert Livingston March 17.