Hopper’s in Town, the Harwood is Hot and UNM Graduation

Editor’s Note: Tonight UNM Bachelor’s and Graduate Program will celebrate 43 grads who will get their bachelors’  diplomas  at 5:30 in the Sagebrush Convention Center. Three cheers for students receiving GEDs, Associate Degrees and various four-year degrees. Hip, hip, hooray. 

One Degree of Separation

Take time out to celebrate Dennis Hopper’s birthday on May 17 this Saturday and think about how life imitates art. Not far from the Honorary Mayor of Taos’s final resting place, a combo of federal, state, and local cops busted a plumber for “allegedly” dealing and financing the dreaded substance, i.e. cocaine, so celebrated in the Opening Scene of Easy Rider. There local stand-ins, like Antonio Mendoza sold Billy and Captain America some dope as hope to recreate the American Dream. As Captain America (Peter Fonda) says at the end of Easy Rider, “We blew it.”

Right there in the historic village of El Prado at La Contenta (was there ever a better name for a bar?) and yes, when Easy Rider made its Taos debut in historic Ranchos at the El Cortez Theatre, so came the grinning gaped tooth hombres, who watched the Fonda-Hopper transaction from the front porch of La Contenta and did they not sign autographs for their local fans? Indeed. Asked about Los Hombres, Bernabe Visarriagas, son of Visarriagas senior, said they just happened by the bar the day the scene got filmed and they were immortalized.

So now you have a bit of history peculiar to Taos.

They say the motorcycles will gather and roar in Ranchos for the parade to celebrate Mr. Hopper’s birthday.  Think about the one to whom Jack Nicholson gave the high sign as they lowered the casket into the grave out there in the cemetery on the edge of Ranchos and Talpa, where Mr. Honorary Mayor himself lies in peace surrounded by both gang bangers and locals of repute. For the motor sickle rider himself rolled his wrists and rapped out the sound of a Harley Davidson in a last salute to Mr. Easy Rider per Jack’s impromptu instructions.

For sure the Honorary one has become now the gift, which keeps on giving, the Town hopes, in search of publicity to revive the infamous Town of Taos’s once and future Plaza as the progenitor of weirdness in the nation-state of El Norte, the heart of Aztlan and the “Soul of the Southwest.” Even Taos Pueblos’ own Governor Clyde Romero will be present along with Mayor Dan Barrone.

Didn’t both Mabel Dodge Luhan and Dennis himself claim that Taos would be at the heart of America’s great awakening?

Mostly, as I think about Dennis and the Bikers I am reminded of all those Roger Corman movies, exploitation fare with bits of art and magic, due to experiments in cinema and the presentation of the next generation of Hollywood talent back in the 60s. Not only did Dennis get in his licks as biker in Corman’s Glory Stompers and as acid guru in The Trip but also Peter Fonda starred in the biker epic Wild Angels, while Jack Nicholson did a turn in Psych-Out, and Martin Scorsese directed Barbara Hershey in Boxcar Bertha.

And, of course, Hopper buddy Dean Stockwell was there for much of it as he was for Dennis’s great comeback in Blue Velvet, the latter movie, which locals claimed they saw the Hollywood buddies rehearse at various safe houses in the demimonde of Taos.

At the Harwood

Don’t forget to visit the Harwood this weekend, where the historic museum of art is featuring Sneaky Pete Gus Foster’s collection, the man with an eye for art, who they say, slipped in and out of the back door of studios, picking out the best and most enduring objects, hither and yon. Oh, yes, the man with a golden eye and a purse to prove his love purchased this and that to preserve for posterity those obscure objects of desire. Now  one and all can visit the Harwood repository, a collector’s prism of Taos delights.

At the Gorge

At the Gorge Bar and Grill on Saturday from 11 am to 1 pm, the Taos Arts Council will sponsor a public forum to hear comments about the once and future arts community in an effort to collaborate on ideas. The man in front and behind the scenes, one Paul Figueroa will be there, he who is also promoting fall arts, including an exhibition of WPA historic photos at the old County Courthouse. The WPA Frescoes dominate the room and remind us how the laws suggest the shadow of crime competes with justice in terms of reconciling the self with society.

One story below the fabulous frescoes you can enter the jail, where Dennis filmed Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider and transformed an unknown actor into a household name. See the old County Courthouse and see how your Taos County Commissioners support the Arts and Culture District even as they collaborate with the new mayor and manager from the Town of Taos.

At the Ag Building

Also on Saturday, we hear, the TVAA will meet at 11 am with parciantes from local acequias to discuss reorganization and the interminable Abeyta/Taos Pueblo Water Settlement at the Juan I. Gonzales Ag building on Chamisa Road. No doubt strong statements will be made about the frustrating disappearance of agricultural exemptions, due as much to drought as shortsighted legislators, who listen much to the Governor’s oil and gas lobbyists and less so to the farmers of yore.

At the Youth and Ballet Center

And Cindy Valerio reminds her friends that she and Olga Baiga “are offering: Summer Singing & Dancing Workshops from June 23- July 30, 2014 for kids, 6 to 12, and 13 to 18. Performance on July 30. ” All Classes at Taos Youth Ballet Studio C. Contact: theatregirl5@gmail.com & 575-770-7658.

Questions

Everybody wants to know why ex-mayor Darren Cordova, a onetime democrat, has gone over to the dark side and endorsed republican Gov. Martinez as “one of us” ? Say what? And does the first gentleman’s sidekick Erminio “Doncito” Martinez, the Dog’s faithful suitor, still support a governor, who would would pollute the state’s ground water? We’re only asking.