What a week! This week has been a doozy, dear friends, and I'm just now finding time to sit down and write about it. I'll try to write as much as can.

On Saturday, I went out in the afternoon with my church singles group to the Valles Caldera near Jemez Springs. Our purpose was a sleigh ride, yes, a sleigh ride, in New Mexico, land of dry winters. Well, believe it or not there was about a foot and a half to two feet of snow! We all got in a sleigh/wagon sort of contraption pulled by two horses and went about a half mile out into the caldera, close to an old movie set built for the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer spaghetti western comedy "Troublemakers." The set was also used in "Last Stand at Sabre River," and the Ron Howard non-hit "The Missing." I will send a photo of myself standing on the set's porch to my buddy Tom Betts who publishes the spaghetti western fanzine "Westerns...All "Italiana!" An absolutely beautiful day, cold but not too cold, just enough to be invigorating. A little bit of mild snowball tossing, picture taking and posing with the horses. In truth, the whole bit wasn't long enough, but we made our way back to Jemez Springs for a nice early dinner at the Leaping Lizard Cafe. Overall, a very pleasant way to spend Valentines Day. Little did I know what was going on at church while I was playing in the snow......more later, when I can finish this.

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This Week's Books. Business is slow now that the Bilingual Education Conference has left , so I'm getting a lot of reading done. Here's what I've finished recently.

Viva Las Vengeance by Daniel Klein. The third in the Elvis detective series. This one is set in Vegas in 1964, and has the King solving a series of crucifixion style murders involving people who have just been made fun of by an insult comedian patterned after Don Rickles. The plot also involves feuds between rival casinos, brothels, and wedding chapels. Along the road to crime solving, Elvis crosses paths with strippers, hippies, religious fanatics who think Elvis is the Savior, hit men, crooked cops, and a Hunter S. Thompson style journalist. As the mystery progresses, Elvis explores his own religious beliefs and explores his own spirituality by reading Autobiography of a Yogi. Another great book from Klein, combining history, humor, a gripping mystery and an accurate and compelling portrait of Elvis. Highly recommended!

Lost Light by Michael Connelly. Another excellent Harry Bosch mystery by one of today's best hard-boiled writers. This one has the now retired LAPD detective Harry going after an unsolved murder of a young woman that is somehow linked to a robbery involving $2 million stolen from a movie set. Only Connelly can make page after page of a guy pouring over old case files and newspaper clippings fascinating, and he does it by taking us through Bosch's mental process as he pulls the facts together. Not as complex, or as tormented and haunting as some of the Bosch books, but a quick and involving read nonetheless.

Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen. The first in the Molly Murphy series by the author of the wonderful Wales-set Constable Evan Evans series. This series features a young Irish lass in 1901, who has fled Ireland for America after killing a man in self-defense during an attempted rape. Taking charge of two young children for a ill mother who can't make the trip to America, Molly finds herself trying to solve the murder of an Irish bully on an overnight stay at Ellis Island. Bowen fills the book with rich historic detail, a great sense of humor and a complex plot full a twists and surprises.

Rickie Lee and Her Slave Boy. Had a great time at the Rickie Lee Jones show Monday night. The Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe is a very beautiful venue, that, dang it, happens to be 60-plus miles away from my house. I shouldn't complain, because the guy next to me said he came down from Taos for the show. Rickie was great, and was accompanied by a very versatile six person band in which each member played a variety of instruments. The stage was decked out with vertical strings of white Christmas lights interspersed with Chinese paper laterns. Very cool. Most of the songs were from her new album The Evening of My Best Day. Rickie said almost nothing to the audience until over halfway through the show, when she started in on some of her more "political" songs. And even then she said very little, just a one sentence intro to a couple of songs.

The weirdest thing about the show was her "slave boy." There was this typical roadie looking guy who came out after nearly every song and gave Rickie a new guitar, or a fresh beverage, or he would kick on a different effects switch with his foot. After about 6 songs and six different guitars, this just started to seem strange. Anyway, it reached a peak when he walked out with a shiny yellow electric guitar, then stood behind her for awhile. She ignored him, and he walked of dejectedly. Watching this poor guy work his butt off was almost as entertaining as the music.

I think I enjoyed seeing her live much more than listening to her CDs, due to the stage set, the multi-talented band, and slave boy. I have been listening to the new album for about a month, and it hadn't really grabbed me. By seeing the songs done live, it made the songs richer and more interesting, and now I've decided I really like the CD.

A couple minor quibbles. No encore. Right before the end, Rickie made an offhand comment about having a cold, played Pirates and said good night. The group stands up to give her a standing O and about 15 seconds later the lights come up. I hate when that happens. I also tried to buy an extra large tour shirt and the guy in front of me nabbed the last one. Bummer.

The Grammys. Since I am not into rap or pop my interest in these awards is minimal, but there were a couple of highlights worth noting this year.

Record of the Year. Clocks by Coldplay. Try as I might I just can't hate this band. They are becoming the U2 of the new millenium.

Best Pop Instrumental Album. MamboRy Cooder and Manuel Galban. My friend Sue gave me this for Christmas, and it is excellent. Highly recommended and worthy of the award.

Warren Zevon. Warren won posthumously for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (with Bruce Springsteen) for Disorder in the House from The Wind. He also won Best Contemporary Folk Album (?) for The Wind. One of the greatest singer/songwriter that ever lived in my opinion, I'm sure these votes were partly for sentimental reasons, but it's great to see Warren recognized in any way. I certainly wouldn't call The Wind a folk album, but that's just me.
Lyle Loses. My favorite musician of all time, Lyle Lovett, lost the best country album category to the Louvin Brothers, but there's always another chance.

Local Group Wins Big Black Eagle, a drum group from Jemez Pueblo, won best Native Amercan Album for Flying Free.

And the biggest suprise of the year: No nudity or crotch grabbing. Man what a disappointment. Afterall, why else would we watch CBS?

Even More Random Thoughts. A very busy week. On Friday I finally put the house up for sale. My realtor has already had two inquiries and has shown the house twice, but no one is waving any money in my direction ...yet. Had a guy down the street yell at me because when I walk Harley and Perkins in morning, Harley likes to bark at all the dogs in their yards as we walk by. He threatened to call Animal Control on me....get a life, sir. Just another reason to move out of here.

Went to Silent Thunder Center for Asian Studies Thursday and did my usual Chi Gong session, but also stayed for the Sacred Singing and Chanting class. It was only three of us but we spent a wonderful hour singing all sorts of spiritual songs and chants in Chinese (I think), Japanese (I think), English, Latin and some other languages I don't remember. Great fun, and it really got my chi flowing. My throat was sore for the next two days, though. I want to do this at least once a month now!

Had a game night over at Sue's on Saturday. I brought over my Scene It DVD movie trivia game, and believe it or not, the movie trivia king (me) lost! Great game, but I guess I'm out of practice in my movie trivia.

Went to see The Cooler with William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin. A very odd, gritty and highly unusual movie. Macy is a sad sack loser who works in his "friend" Alec Baldwin's seedy casino as a "cooler," a guy who vibe is so bad, just his walking by causes people to lose money. This changes when he falls in love with a cocktail waitress, causing lots of problems for Macy, Baldwin and the girl. The movie is alternately funny, sad, shockingly violent, and very adult. What is great about the picture is that I could never second guess what was going to happen. Absolutely brilliant performance by Alec Baldwin, as perhaps the most memorable movie "villian' in years. He should get an Academy Award. This movie is highly recommended for adventurous moviegoers, but those who prefer more upbeat conventional stuff should stay far away.

Yeehah!!!!! I going to see Rickie Lee Jones at the Lensic in Santa Fe on Monday with my friend Sonya. A totally last minute, spur of the moment deal, and we're sitting in the back of the balcony, but who cares? I finally get to see Rickie L live! Should be a blast! Will report back.

Random Thoughts.
Had my first Men's Yoga class tonight. Thought it would make a good companion to my Chi Kung practice (see below), and I think I'm going to enjoy it a lot. Not difficult, really, just a lot of stretching and feeling muscles I haven't felt in long time. Actually quite refreshing and relaxing. There are about 15 guys in the class, with the average age maybe 45. Most are desk jockeys with little or no yoga experience, so I wasn't intimidated by any little rubber bendy guys I expected but did not get in class. No, we did not have to wrap out legs around our necks...yet.

Started back doing Chi Kung (Qi Gong) on Thursdays a couple of weeks ago, and I realized how much I missed it. For those of you that never heard of it, Chi Kung is often referred to as Chinese yoga. If focuses on meditation, breathing, and very mindful movement helping to move and stimulate energy throughout the body. There are also some similarities to Tai Chi. I took a class last summer at Silent Thunder Center for Asian Studies and got hooked on it. I find it helps me focus, calms me down, relaxes me, and has helped to relieve my intestinal problems. The instructor, Master Mokurai is excellent, the classes have a serious yet relaxed atmosphere, and the sessions are inexpensive. He also has a sacred singing and chanting session on Thursday evening, as well as a meditation. I'm going to participate in all three classes tomorrow evening.

Went to my first meeting of the USSRG, (the Ultimate Saturday Spiritual Reading Group) last Saturday, and was very glad I attended. Hosted by my friends Rita and Louie, this is a wonderful, loving and open group of folks all following a similar spiritual path. We discussed The Da Vinci Code, and next month's book is The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. This group is a blessing as it insures I will read at least one spiritual book per month. Oh, and thanks Vicki for the Chakra Coloring Book. By the way, I intend on visiting the Dan Brown web page and trying to decipher all the hidden codes on the book cover. Looks like fun!

Went to the "Pack the Pit" UNM Lady Lobos game with a bunch of church folk last Saturday. Great time, them gals can really run. Noticed that our team is made up mostly of big Nordic blonde women, which seemed a bit odd to me. I'd expect that maybe for BYU or Wisconsin, but not us. Very exciting game, we were down as many as 10 points during the game but won by 4 points. Still wanting to buy season tickets next year because I think the women are more fun to watch than the men's team.

My minister, Guy Lynch, who is a big stand-up comedy fan, invited me to go see a stand-up show at Sandia Casino which featured the winner of that "Last Comic Standing" TV show, Dat Phan. I really like that guy, but I couldn't go due to yoga class. Oh well, maybe Dat will show at one of our other comedy venues soon. Also hoping those stand-up comedy classes at Laffs are restarted soon. Still want to do that, very much.

I'm going to talk to my realtor on Friday about finally putting the house up for sale. Hopefully I can sell it before my birthday in May. I would actually like to be in a new house by then.

Finished reading the mystery Black Rubber Dress by Lauren Henderson. My friend Jim G. met her at the Vegas Bouchercon, and recommended the book to me. Well, I liked the wisecracking English sculptress heroine, but found the mystery to be somewhat lacking. Most of the book concerns her social encounters with London's snobby elite, or descriptions of what people are wearing, and very little on building plot or suspense. A non-recommendation from me.

I'm almost done with Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen, who also writes the great Constable Evan Evans series set in Wales. This one is the first in the Molly Murphy series, about a Irish immigrant in 1901 New York city. These are wonderfully fun and evocative books. Bowen really knows how to write a good tale with colorful characters and vivid descriptions of time and place. So far this one is even better than The Death Riley, the second Molly story, which I read last year. I've got the third one, For the Love of Mike, in my "next to read" pile.

The Nipple Effect. Better late than never, but I have to add my two cents on the Janet Jackson Super Bowl nipple controversy. Missed it when it happened, so it's thanks to the Drudge Report that I got a "close-up look" at things. At least that site is good for something! Several points to make:

1) Relax, folks. It's just a nipple. Everyone has them. Although few put that kind of "adornment" on them. Maybe they need a new rating for this type of thing: BP for "body parts."

2)Why isn't a fuss being made over Nelly or P. Diddy, or Doowhaddy, or whatshisname grabbing his crotch repeatedly? This is acceptable behavior? Maybe he had a rash. Also, I wasn't thrilled by Kid Rock's American flag pancho.

3) It was cut away from so quickly, few people actually saw it. You needed a big screen TV to get a good look anyway. Only one person in our group of about 8 watching at the time saw it.

4) Non-premeditated, my hairy butt! The lyrics are "I'm going to get you naked before the end of this song." Why wasn't she wearing a bra? Does she always wear that little sun thingy? I doubt it. Technically, that is a pasty, and I suppose it may have been put there to legally prevent her from "indecent exposure" charges. Of course CBS knew about it. Otherwise they would have lingered on it in shock. They knew when to cut away.

5) It was prime time, during the most watched show of the year, when people of all ages are viewing. Not in the best of taste.
But what about "good taste"? How is a little bit o' boob any worse than commercials featuring guys getting bitten in the groinage, horse farts toasting carriage riders, Scotsmen cooling their privates, and Mike Ditka tossing a football through a tire (Come on, you don't have to be Freud to figure that one out!)? Good taste has departed us, friends. It is gone, kaput, fini. This is prime time mind you. Twenty years ago, the FCC probably would have fined CBS for all this stuff automatically. Now its no big deal. If this is how far we've sunk, then Janet's breast is just one more step into the abyss.

6) Remember CBS's track record for bad decisions. This is the network that spawned "Survivor" and the whole reality show fad, lowering the bar for programming to new depths. They refused to run that movie they felt was critical of Ronald Reagan. They also refused to run a commercial critical of Bush during the game. Oh yeah, and they used to run Matlock!

7) I think CBS predicted that the game would be a dull, long, blow-out, so they had to come up with something for people to talk about on Monday. Face it, what did you talk about first on Monday? The actual game? Of course not. Granted, it turned out to be one of the best Super Bowl games ever, and it will forever be overshadowed by a breast. What a shame.
Enuff said!

Another Pointless Exercise. Here's something else that allows me to post something cool without really writing anything. This is a map of states I've visited. Visited states are in red.

create your own visited states map
Favorite states (in order): Hawaii, New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, California.
Least Favorite: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, New York.
Oregon will be added soon, as I'm going to visit friends there in March.
Places I want to go, but haven't: Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Washington (both the state and D.C.), Maine, and Maryland.
I have a lot to say about other stuff, and will get to it soon!