Production in the Ponderosas

January 18, 2010

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, from the barstools to the boondocks, and all Sherpas at skein. Now: the news. County votes 3-2 approving the Rock Garden. New venue and brewery can break ground, just in time after the seasonal closing of the KTAO Solar Center. Will “Sylvia� play Dixon? Can Jane Ayles’ play from The Space, late of Angel Fire, complete a trifecta tour of the upper Rio Grande theater scene? Could be the longest running campaign here since the Confederate army took Bernalillo. Details to follow ... Taoseño sources in the Big Apple tell us the hot ticket on Broadway is at NYC’s Lyceum Theater, where Sarah Ruhl’s new “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)� takes a hard, pulsating look at Victorian sexuality. Locally, TCA impresario Usherwood plans to do Ruhl’s last lethal Broadway folio, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,� later this year. Killing in New Haven is the omnibus healthcare monologues “Let Me Down Easy,� written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith. Let’s bring even more Broadway hits to Taos! I can’t afford to go to NYC and New Haven, Connecticut.

On the national scene: “Book of Eli� opening at theaters now, starring (in the background): New Mexico. Denzel promises new heights of physical violence ballet and Washingtons cannot tell a lie. The movie will be a big hit thanks to Tom Waits. Next week in “Legion,� God uses Angels to exterminate the human race starting with ... Galisteo, New Mexico. Who can stop it this time? The answer, “Dennis Quaid,� leaves us cold, but we hope he’ll do his best. Two more post-apocalyptic scenarios in the bank. Nobody beats our White Sands for all-out creepy. If Hollywood does one more apocalypse here, everybody get a free dust-buster.

Competition from the Lone Star state ... Austin, Texas, (who knew?) says, I’ll see your pair of action movies and raise you a Terrence Malick film with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. We’ve got Sigourney Weaver’s next alien comedy, they’ve got Robert DeNiro’s next thriller. We’ve got “MacGruber,� they’ve got “John Carter Warlord of Mars.� Jessica Alba is two-timing us with Austin, starring in “Machete� there while here in Santa Fe she enjoys “The Killer Inside Me.�

On-going N.M. shoots include USA Network’s “In Plain Sight� and in Alamogordo—for the sands, of course—MGM’s “Stargate Universe.� Arizona’s Talmarc Productions needs to finish a bunch of Western movies for several posters they’ve made. Luminaria Films has Ruben Blades for “Spoken Word.� Tashtego Films is tying up loose ends for “The Loop.� And let’s all try to forget that Jackie Chan shot anywhere in New Mexico for “The Spy Next Door.� Early previews are dead right. That movie looks “irredeemable in the trailers.�

Can we give David Carradine some kind of award? He’s shot more film in New Mexico than the Manhattan Project. He was in 10 films last year, including the award-winning shot-in-New Mexico indy, eerily named “My Suicide.� He’s got four more films in post-production, one in development and he’s been dead since June. Way to go, John Jr.! We’ll miss you in Kill Bill Volume 3, but I guess you really are dead this time.

Other Christmas success stories ... Taos Library raises money for itself. Stalled expansion efforts get a $1K boost from a crowd of 50 at Bataan Hall for Tony Hillerman send-up, just a year after the brilliant, detective story novelist’s death. Daughter Anne and photographer husband Don Strel present new tribute book, “Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn.�

Also: Wilder Nightingale Gallery and Tom Blankenhorn sell art, raise $5K for homeless shelter. “Hearts and Stars� paintings double from last year. Nice sales plus donations at the door show a charmed crowd of 200 plus. Music and entertainment by Tenney Walsh and Melody Romancito. Atmosphere glazed with duck and pear by El Monte Sagrado’s chef, Dennis Boitnott. Yearly event benefits artists and their charities as everyone gets a cut. Says Rob: If artists keep giving it away, they are going to become homeless.

Clever idea: linking business sales to needy causes. But can art save itself? Stray Arts Gallery is raising money for stray animals, Nightingale for the homeless, KTAO for Community Against Violence.

Can artists raise money for the arts, too? We’d love to see more film festivals, music festivals and multi-million dollar renovations to the Plaza Theater, but artists and art-lovers seem to keep going broke doing stuff like that. When it’s “the Arts� vs. “the Suffering,� I want to give my money to “the Suffering,� as much as anybody. But if there were a few more events in town, maybe people wouldn’t suffer so much.

Taos Center for the Arts
133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, 758-2052
January 17, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Leo Kottke
April 23 & 24, 7:00 p.m.
ARCTISTICS present “Departures�

The Space
212 Bendix Street (Two blocks west of Salazar off Cañon)
January 16 &17, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Seasonal auditions for Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard and more.