artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
City to appeal county’s Agua Fría decision
The City of Santa Fe on Wednesday filed notice in the First Judicial District Court of its plans to appeal Santa Fe County’s approval last month of a map expanding the historic village of Agua Fría. That map represented a compromise regarding an area of the county designated as 1B and allowed a few hundred homeowners into the village, while leaving other portions available for annexation by the city. The area was identified in a settlement agreement as territory the city would annex, but it sat in limbo after the city failed to complete the process by 2018 as the agreement stipulated. Mayor Alan Webber, city councilors and county commissioners reinitiated the process in 2021 with a joint resolution aimed at negotiating a deal. A citizen petition lobbying for portions of the area to be incorporated into the village rather than the city sparked multiple public meetings, as well as a legal challenge from the city. Homewise, which has a planned development for the area, had also filed a legal notice of administrative appeal in May, but then came up with the map compromise solution the county commission approved. While city officials had testified against the plan to incorporate portions of land into Agua Fría village, they did not attend the final county meeting last month at which commissioners approved the compromise plan. At the time, Mayor Alan Webber told SFR the city would need to “check our legal options and we’ll see what we make of it.”
SFPD evacuates downtown over possible bomb hoax
Santa Fe Police evacuated numerous downtown locations yesterday in response to a potential bomb threat, but concluded the event may have been a hoax. At approximately 1 pm, SFPD responded to a report of a suspicious package near Hotel Chimayo, 125 Washington Ave. According to a news release, police secured the area and activated the department’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, sending out shelter-in-place and evacuation messages to several locations in the area, which remained in place for about two hours or so. (Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Phaedra Haywood live-streamed some of the event). Several hours later, SFPD reported that upon evaluating the device, the EOD team “determined it was an inert non-explosive device. However, the appearance and construction of the device led EOD investigators to believe it may have been an intentional hoax; the device closely resembled an improvised explosive device. The device was collected as evidence and will be further evaluated to determine its origins and to investigate if the device was intentionally meant to be used in a bomb scare. which is a criminal offense under New Mexico State Statute.”
State issue first cannabis business license revocation
The state Regulation and Licensing Department yesterday revoked a cannabis business license for the first time since adult recreational sales began in April of last year. According to a news release, the department’s final decision revoking Albuquerque’s Paradise Distro LLC, Cannabis Control Division followed numerous violations by the company including: possessing, receiving, and selling cannabis products that were not native to New Mexico and were marked with California stampings; displaying products such as edibles and concentrates that were not properly documented on the required shipping manifests; and inaccurately reporting sales data, including more than $56,000 in cash and $8,338 in additional funds that were not reported in BioTrack, the state’s required track and trace system. “This revocation should serve as a warning to those selling or receiving out-of-state cannabis products,” New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department Superintendent Linda Trujillo said in a statement. “Our compliance officers are ramping up inspections and we will work to remove bad actors from within the New Mexico cannabis industry.” Close to 100 cannabis business owners recently signed a letter asking the state to temporarily stop issuing licenses until regulators could get a handle on the illicit market.
Archbishop and others commemorate Trinity Test
A consortium of local faith and anti-nuclear groups will mark the 78th anniversary of the Trinity Test with a vigil and event, “From Reflection to Action: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test,” from 4-6 pm this Sunday, July 16 at Santa Maria de la Paz Community Hall (11 College Ave). Doors will open at 3:15 pm for the event, which will also feature music and an art exhibition; Pre-registration is encouraged, and the event will be live streamed. Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Soka Gakkai International-USA, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, and United Church of Santa Fe, the event will feature remarks by Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe. “We can no longer deny or ignore the extremely dangerous predicament of our human family,” Wester said in a statement. “We are in a new nuclear arms race far more dangerous than the first, and I believe we need to rejuvenate a sustained, serious conversation about universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament.” Read Wester’s longer pastoral letter on the topic of nuclear weapons here.
Listen up
KUNM News Director Megan Kamerick talks with Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, whose installation “This Art Is A Hammer That Shapes Reality” opened recently at Container Gallery in Santa Fe—the international premier of artwork by Tolokonnikova, who spent two years imprisoned in Russia with her bandmates for performing a song critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The work reflects Tolokonnikova’s experiences: “A lot of my art is my healing,” she tells KUNM, adding that she hopes her show inspires courage in others. “Courage is an ability to act in the face of fear,” she says. “My every day is a struggle between my fears, and my courage.”
All about Ali
Vanity Fair spotlights Santa Fe’s favorite celebrity (sorry, Gene): Ali MacGraw, and her “semi-charmed life.” The story is part of VF’s “old Hollywood book club,” and focuses on MacGraw’s 1991 memoir, Moving Pictures: An Autobiography, which the magazine characterizes as “the autobiography of someone who lived a dream life, but found herself lost in the glamor she craved.” To underscore that take-away, VF excerpts the following: “For so many years, in circumstances that seemed so perfect to the great invisible ‘them’ out there, I existed as a kind of shadow woman,” she writes. “Part of me performed appropriately, and sometimes even brilliantly—much more so in life than I usually did on screen. But there was another part of me that always, always felt that everything was happening to the shadow standing right next to me.” The story breaks down the different phases of MacGraw life and career (with plenty of wonderful photos), and ends with the following: “After a long search, MacGraw finally found the true self she had lost while living out her fantasies. In 1990, she moved to Tesuque, New Mexico—where she still lives, designing, creating, and volunteering tirelessly for progressive and charitable causes. ‘At long last,’ she writes, ‘I have come to realize that none of us has anything more valuable to offer than who we really are.’”
Star turns
According to Spin magazine, this year’s “breakout star” is University of New Mexico student Hataałiinez Wheeler (Diné), aka Hataałii (a Navajo term that means “to sing” or “singer”), a 20-year-old film major who released his latest album Singing Into Darkness at the end of June to much critical fanfare. Raised in Window Rock, Arizona, Hataałii “thinks” he’s a junior at UNM, and says he created most of the demos for his recent album his first year at the school and professionally recorded them later. The album, apparently, has prompted comparisons between Hataałii and musicians such as Jim Morrison and Lou Reed, the latter of which prompts Wheeler to recount the time he skateboarded around UNM at 2 am listening to “Coney Island Baby.” He’s not certain what he plans to do with his film degree, he tells Spin. “I just want to do something.” As for influences, Hataałii tells Rolling Stone magazine, the late author Cormac McCarthy was a major one: “Because of McCarthy I figured out that the desert was more than just a void, but rather it was filled with spirit and that the people who truly live in the desert see things differently,” Hataałii says. “There was a sudden appreciation and immense respect that I now held for the history of the area and even the landscape formations, which saw me and every other generation that came before me, and that I was simply in line with my ancestry and that me and my ancestry were the same thing.”Hot, hotter, hottest
The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory from noon to 8 pm today for the “northwest plateau,” which includes Santa Fe, with a forecasted high temperature here of 98 degrees, accompanied by northeast wind 5 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. That heat advisory recommends drinking fluids, staying in an air-conditioned room and out of the sun and taking extra precautions when outside by wearing lightweight and loose-fitting clothings. Find more information about heat-related illness here. Temperatures will remain in he mid 90s throughout the weekend, and will continue to be extremely hot into at least the start of the week.
Thanks for reading! The Word looks forward to celebrating National Ice Cream Day this Sunday...possibly with coffee ice cream (New Mexico’s favorite flavor apparently), or possibly a more adventurous scoop.
