"I really love this place out here, and I love the way it looks. I like the way it smells. I like to go outside at night and just look at the sky and feel the wind, and I think it's a really precious place, and I think it's a precious place because of what has come before and because of what's here now."
-- Dallas Baxter
Now available: the full transcript of Marfa Mondays Podcast #12 "This Precious Place: An Interview with Dallas Baxter, Founding Editor of Cenizo Journal"
> Listen to the podcast
> Read the transcript
> All Marfa Mondays podcasts (16 of a projected 24)
Other transcripts now available include:
>Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Funding Composition in the Landscape
>Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands
>Looking at Mexico in New Ways: An Interview with Historian John Tutino
More transcripts to be posted soon.
Podcasts in-progress include interviews with Enrique Madrid and Lonn Taylor.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
Showing posts with label Far West Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Far West Texas. Show all posts
Transcript of the Marfa Mondays Podcast #16: "Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape"
Marfa Mondays 16: "Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape" was posted as podcast (listen in anytime on podomatic or iTunes) back in January, but the transcript has just been posted here.
I'm aiming to post transcripts of all my podcast interviews, both the Marfa Mondays and Conversations with Other Writers (for the latter, so far, transcripts are available for Rose Mary Salum and Sergio Troncoso). Stay tuned for Marfa Mondays 17, an interview recorded in Fort Davis with Texas historian Lonn Taylor.
> Your COMMENTS are always welcome. My newsletter goes out soon; I welcome you to sign up here.
P.S. If you want to just follow the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project and related posts, check out my other blog, Marfa Mondays.
Cyberflanerie: Solitario Dome Edition
 |
| Inside The Solitario Photo: C.M. Mayo March 2015 |
Meanwhile, a few links about the latter:
Chase Snodgrass's flight over the Solitario:
by Jean Evans Hardy, Iron Mountain Press, 2009
(Whoa, call the chiropracter, I brought this one home in my carry-on.)
Geology of the Solitario
by Charles E. Corry, et al. Geological Society of America Special Paper 250, 1990.
"Igneous Evolution of a Complex Laccolith-Caldera, the Solitario, Trans-Pecos, Texas:
Implications for Calderas and Subjacent Plutons"
by Christopher D. Henry, et al. Geological Society of America Bulletin, August 1997
(Super-crunchy PDF)
 |
| Google Maps screenshot |
Megan Hicks, The Big Bend Paisano, Winter 2004/2005
(PDF)
"Geology at the Crossroads"
By Blaine R. Hall, Big Bend Ranch State Park
(PDF)
 |
| Entering the labyrinth of the Solitario via Los Portales (That's my guide, Charlie Angell, he's the best, check him out on Tripadvisor.com) Photo: C.M. Mayo, March 2015 |
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
>Listen in to all the Marfa Mondays Podcasts anytime. The most recent is "Tremendous Forms: Finding Composition in the Landscape," an interview with Paul V. Chaplo, author of the magnificent Marfa Flights.
A Batch of US-Mexico Border Mini Travel Clips
Just posted a batch of what I call "mini travel clips," that is, super brief videos, nothing fancy (taken with my iPhone), but edited and with audio—in these, by that jaw-droppingly prolific clangy-bangy soundmaestro of Bridport, U.K., Ergo Phizmiz.
FAR WEST TEXAS MINI CLIPS
Casa Piedra Road, Far West Texas
(with a view of a fire in Mexico)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my podcast. "A Visit to Swan House." Swan House, a unique adobe teaching house inspired by the legacy of Egypt's greatest architect, Hassan Fathy, is on Casa Piedra Road.
> Read my article in Cenizo Journal, "A Visit to Swan House."
Over Burro Mesa and Into Apache Canyon
(Big Bend National Park)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my "Marfa Mondays" podcast, "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors"
> Read the essay, "Over Burro Mesa."
Pecos River Crossing (Highway 90, near the US-Mexico border)
(:41)
West of the Pecos is Far West Texas. The end of the video is a gaze south into Mexico.
And I did some slight edits on a video I had posted a few weeks ago, Descent into Eagle Canyon (:53), near Langrty, Texas— Eagle Canyon flows into the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border.
> Listen in anytime to "Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands."
AND AWAYS YONDER WEST
Finally, almost the border (well, a two hour drive) is Joshua Tree National Park in California (2:24). Herewith my mini travel clip of that:
> More mini travel clips here and
> Mini clips of Far West Texas (apropos of my book-in-progress) here.
> Watch Ergo Phizmiz starring in "I Am the Music Man," a video by Martha Moopette.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
FAR WEST TEXAS MINI CLIPS
Casa Piedra Road, Far West Texas
(with a view of a fire in Mexico)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my podcast. "A Visit to Swan House." Swan House, a unique adobe teaching house inspired by the legacy of Egypt's greatest architect, Hassan Fathy, is on Casa Piedra Road.
> Read my article in Cenizo Journal, "A Visit to Swan House."
Over Burro Mesa and Into Apache Canyon
(Big Bend National Park)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my "Marfa Mondays" podcast, "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors"
> Read the essay, "Over Burro Mesa."
Pecos River Crossing (Highway 90, near the US-Mexico border)
(:41)
West of the Pecos is Far West Texas. The end of the video is a gaze south into Mexico.
And I did some slight edits on a video I had posted a few weeks ago, Descent into Eagle Canyon (:53), near Langrty, Texas— Eagle Canyon flows into the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border.
> Listen in anytime to "Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands."
AND AWAYS YONDER WEST
Finally, almost the border (well, a two hour drive) is Joshua Tree National Park in California (2:24). Herewith my mini travel clip of that:
> More mini travel clips here and
> Mini clips of Far West Texas (apropos of my book-in-progress) here.
> Watch Ergo Phizmiz starring in "I Am the Music Man," a video by Martha Moopette.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
At the US-Mexico Border, Descent into Eagle Nest Canyon
Back in December I went with the Rock Art Foundation down into Eagle Nest Canyon, which drains into the Rio Grande just past the Pecos near Langtry. There was rock art to see, of course, and the second largest buffalo jump in North America. This mini-travel clip, an edited 50 seconds, shows only the descent into that spectacular canyon.
> More mini-travel clips
> Visit the Rock Art Foundation at www.rockart.org
> The music is by Ergo Phizmiz under a creative commons license. P.S. Ya'll check out Ergo From the Factory.
> Listen in to my podcast interview with Greg Williams, director of the Rock Art Foundation: Gifts of the Ancient Ones: The Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands
Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
> More mini-travel clips
> Visit the Rock Art Foundation at www.rockart.org
> The music is by Ergo Phizmiz under a creative commons license. P.S. Ya'll check out Ergo From the Factory.
> Listen in to my podcast interview with Greg Williams, director of the Rock Art Foundation: Gifts of the Ancient Ones: The Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands
Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
Marfa Mondays 16: Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape
Marfa Flights was published to coincide with the opening of the exhibition of Chaplo's large format color photographs in the Museum of the Big Bend, in Alpine Texas. That show is open through January 18, 2015. Don't miss it!
>Listen in anytime here.
>Listen in to the other Marfa Mondays Podcasts here.
>Find out more about Chaplo's magnificent Marfa Flights here.
Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands
Marfa Mondays Podcast #15 is now live. Listen in anytime to my interview with Greg Williams, Executive Director of the Rock Art Foundation. Though the Rock Art Foundation's tours and website have been spreading the word, it still seems a well-kept secret that some of the most spectacular rock art in the world is tucked into the nooks and crannies of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Far West Texas (and into Coahuila, Mexico). I had the great privilege of being able to view some it, specifically, the rock art at Meyers Springs, through the tour offered by the Rock Art Foundation. My interview was recorded in the Meyers Springs Ranch house kitchen, just after the four hour tour (and target shooting had commenced).
Recommended reading:
Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, edited by Harry J. Shafer
Rock Art of the Lower Pecos, by Carolyn E. Boyd
Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
> Listen in anytime to all the Marfa Mondays podcasts here.
Marfa Mondays #14: Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors
Just posted #14 of a projected 24 podcasts for the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project, Exploring Marfa, TX & the Big Bend: "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors."
Listen in any time.
This podcast mentions Wilhelm Knechtel's book, Memorias del Jardinero de Maximiliano, translated by Susanne Igler. There's more about that on my other blog, the research blog on Mexico's French Intervention / Second Empire, "Maximilian-Carlota."
The next podcasts will be:
#15 an interview with rock art expert Greg Williams; and
#16 an interview with photographer Paul Chaplo about his new book, Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country.
For updates, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter.
P. S. Check out Chaplo's show at the Museum of the Big Bend until January 18, 2015.
COMMENTS always welcome.
Listen in any time.
This podcast mentions Wilhelm Knechtel's book, Memorias del Jardinero de Maximiliano, translated by Susanne Igler. There's more about that on my other blog, the research blog on Mexico's French Intervention / Second Empire, "Maximilian-Carlota."
The next podcasts will be:
#15 an interview with rock art expert Greg Williams; and
#16 an interview with photographer Paul Chaplo about his new book, Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country.
For updates, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter.
P. S. Check out Chaplo's show at the Museum of the Big Bend until January 18, 2015.
COMMENTS always welcome.
(review)
Heterotopia by Crystal Ann Nelson in Marfa, Texas
Well, I am so delighted to be participating-- with my "Marfa Mondays" Podcasts-- with artist Crystal Ann Nelson for her show, Heterotopia in Marfa, Texas this October 5- November 2, 2013. Real all about at the ApexArt.org website
P.S. The latest Marfa Mondays podcast is an interview with Dallas Baxter, "This Precious Place." Listen in anytime at this link:
http://www.cmmayo.com/marfa/podcast-12-dallas-baxter.html
Next up on the Marfa Mondays Podcasts: Historian John Tutino, who says some very Atom Bomby things about Mexican North America.
COMMENTS
Boquillas is Big News for the Big Bend
>Read more in the San Antonio Express-News
I'll have a lot to say about these remote areas of the US-Mexico border in my "Marfa Mondays" podcasts and in my work-in-progress about far West Texas. Recently I visited the remains of the long demolished informal bridge over the Rio Grande at Candelaria. There was maybe 15 -20 feet across as I recollect, and I saw paw prints in the mud on both sides, going down from Mexico and coming up into Texas: a coyote, I mean canine, had crossed.
I'm also working on a podcast and an essay about the Big Bend National Park-- one of the most geologically varied and starkly beautiful places I have ever seen. Stay tuned.
Cowboy Songs by Cowboys: Marfa Mondays Podcast #11 with Michael Stevens, Craig Carter, and Doug Figgs
Cowboy songs from the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, Texas with Michael Stevens, Craig Carter, and Doug Figgs-- and an in-depth interview with Michael Stevens.
What's it all about? Who are these guys? Listen in anytime.
What's it all about? Who are these guys? Listen in anytime.
The Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project: Exploring Marfa, TX & the Big Bend in 24 Podcasts, 2012-2013 is apropos of a book-in-progress, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas.
Marfa Mondays Podcasts so far:
World Waiting for a Dream, Reading for PEN San Miguel January 29
 |
| Pinto Canyon Rd, looking towards Mexico |
1. Travels in the Big Bend?
2. Travels Far West Texas?
3. Travels in the Big Bend of Far West Texas?
4. Journey in the Big Bend of Borderlands Far West Texas?
ayy, blimey
Maybe right now... #4
Who's the guy in the photo? That's Charlie Angell, Big Bend expert and expedition guide. Don't go snerging around the Rio Grande without him. Listen in to my podcast interview with him here.
>Read more, and listen in anytime to the podcasts-- so far 9 out of 24-- at Marfa Mondays.
Including interviews with rock hound Paul Graybeal, desert pollinator expert Cynthia McAlister, artists Avram Dumitrescu and Mary Baxter, and more.
>More about the event here.
I will probably talk a bit about Cabeza de Vaca, the ghost lights, and glorious Swan House. Hope to see you there!
The Next Big Thing: A Bloggy Round Robin, from Karren Alenier to Yours Truly on World Waiting for a Dream
 |
| Karren Alenier |
>>Read Karren Alenier's blog post about her fascinating Next Big Thing, The Anima of Paul Bowles, here. (We almost coincided in Paul Bowles' workshop in Tangiers... she in 1982, me in 1983.)
And going back from there, check out previous blogger, Sammy Greenspan of Kattywompus Press, here.
This week, along with me, Karren Alenier tagged one of my favorite poets, Bernadette Geyer, who used her round robin to talk about her forthcoming book, The Scabbard of Her Throat.
Now for Yours Truly:
Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:
 |
| C.M. Mayo on Pinto Canyon Rd, south of Marfa, Texas |
1. What is your working title of your book (or story)?
World Waiting for a Dream: Travels in the Big Bend of Far West Texas
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
World Waiting for a Dream: Travels in the Big Bend of Far West Texas
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
More than a decade ago I visited this jaw-dropping place and have yearned to explore and write about it ever since. Finally got around to it.
3. What genre does your book fall under?
Travel memoir / creative nonfiction / literary journalism.
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Tommy Lee Jones would have to make an appearance at some point. I wouldn't mind being played by Deanna Durbin bursting out in a rendition of "Grenada!" Just kidding. 5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
In-progress, starts with Cabeza de Vaca, the conquisitor who got lost (really), works its way through Comaches and Apaches, railroads, the Mexican Revolution, the arrival of the wizard of cubes aka Donald Judd, scads more about Mexico and Mexicans than one might expect, OMG the sky, and OMG the sky at night, meditations on dinosaurs, et voila.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Agency, but as I'm writing it I'm hosting a podcast series, Marfa Mondays: Exploring Marfa, Texas & Environs in 24 Podcasts 2012-2013.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I'm not there yet. My goal is to finish the podcasts by the end of 2013 and then spend a year on the manuscript.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
It will be similar in structure and style to my previous travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions). And that was modeled on a mashup of V.S. Naipaul's A Turn in the South, and works by various other travel writers / literary journalists, among them, Sara Mansfield Taber, Ted Conover, Bruce Chatwin, Ian Frazier, Robert Byron, and Alma Guillermoprieto.
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I was born in the furthest west of Far West Texas (that would be El Paso) and I wanted to write about this part of the country that, because I grew up in California, I don't know all that well, at but mainly, it was just a strong intuition that this book needs to be written. And I'm curious enough to stay with it for as long as it takes.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
Have a listen to some of the podcasts. Many are interviews with artists and/or about remote and beautiful places such as Chinati Hot Springs. The area is also famous for its ghost lights which were noted by the Apaches more than a century ago. Listen in anytime.
P.S. I'll be reading from the work-in-progress this January 29 for PEN San Miguel in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Tagging for next week:
---> Rose Mary Salum
PS I tagged Deborah Batterman, but she declined because she'd already been tagged! Read about her Next Big Thing, Dancing Into the Sun, here.
---> Rose Mary Salum
PS I tagged Deborah Batterman, but she declined because she'd already been tagged! Read about her Next Big Thing, Dancing Into the Sun, here.
Marfa Mondays: A Spell at Chinati Hot Springs
http://www.cmmayo.com/marfa/podcast-8-chinati-hot-springs.html
World Waiting for a Dream: Travels in Far West Texas
Meanwhile, listen in any time to the ongoing Marfa Mondays podcasts which, so far, include interviews with art expert and museum curator Mary Bones, artist Avram Dumitrescu, Big Bend wilderness expert Charles Angell, Chihuahuan Desert bee expert Cynthia McAlister, Rock hound Paul Graybeal of Moonlight Gemstones, and Yours Truly recounting some super weird experiences with the Marfa Lights. And... I've got several more podcasts in line to upload this month and next. There will be a total of 24 podcasts through the end of 2013 at which point I expect I'll have a complete draft of the book. Which may look nothing like the podcasts. A ver qué tal.
Want to be notified? I welcome you to sign up for my newsletter.
View previous newsletters here.
The Marfa, Texas Chamber of Commerce: Why I Joined
But 2012? Different game. I mean, like, can we even have a convrstn w/o texting? "Friends" are snapping pix of their kids, their dogs, their cats, their dogs with their cats, their cats with their kids, and by the way, the peanut-butter sandwich they ate on Tuesday, and post them all on Facebook. The other day, someone posted a picture of a blenderful of carrots he was about to zap and that peeved me enough to actually, like, lift a finger, and "defriend" him. (Why am I on FB anyway? Sandra Gulland, my amiga the crackerjack historical novelist and Internet book PR expert--check out her excellent podcast-- is why. SANDRA IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT.)
With all this texting and facebooking, does anyone have two minutes to read literary travel memoirs? Well, that isn't going to stop me from writing one (the aim of art, in my view, is to lead, not follow, the market). But with the explosion of digital communication and social media, the experience of traveling for writing is now a kind of ever-possibly public Orphic Journey. (How's that for an oxymoron?)
 |
| Engraving by Boris Artzybasheff, from Padrac Colum's book, ORPHEUS, 1930, now available online at www.archive.org |
Give your name to almost anyone anywhere and chances are (if they are curious and/or have nothing better to do), they'll google you. So it's handy to have a website that offers what you'd like them to see, as opposed to, say, what Creepy Weirdo spewed on some obscure discussion forum.
But not only is the writer with a website (and what writer doesn't have a website?) more potentially visible now, so are the subjects of the writing themselves. Just for example, and to state the obvious, perhaps, even the tiniest B & B or cottage for rent by owner, even the eensy weensy of the weensiest sandwich shops, all have websites and Facebook pages, and many maintain twitter feeds. (Check out the fabulous Food Shark food truck, y'all.)
When I was traveling in Baja California back in the late 90s, many villages had only just-- literally a month or so ago-- gotten their first telephone. The larger towns, such as Cabo San Lucas, had (very patchy) Internet service, but there were so very few websites that when, apropos of my book, I posted a "Baja" page with links, it popped right up near the top of the search engines. Nowadays... ha! My little Baja page is buried on the other side of Planet Jupiter in another galaxy. (I don't even bother to link to it. But here are some podcasts.)Plus, anyone, including your neighbor's uncle's monkey, can post on Tripadvisor.com, amazon.com, wikipedia, twitter... It's totally, ayyy, here comes everybody.
So now when I'm traveling through far West Texas for this latest book project-- as yet untitled-- most of the places I want to see and people I want to talk to have some (or a huge) on-line presence. To just to give you an idea, I'm thinking that, for my next foray, I might:
---> take the rock art tour at Hueco Tanks State ParkNeed I mention that almost all the relevant websites have a "contact" page. Click and ye shall communicate.
---> interview Big Bend Sentinel columnist and historian Lonn Taylor, whose book, Texas, My Texas, I am reading right now
-->get more of that unholy (both literally and figuratively) Swiss chocolate at Squeeze Marfa
--> go stargazing
--> hike to an Apache hideout in the Big Bend with wilderness guide Charles Angell
--> interview Simone Swan, who has a rather astonishing adobe Hassan Fathy-inspired house
Far West Texas is a bodaciously big area but, people-wise, pretty small. So who's this C.M. Mayo person? What's she writing about us? As I write and travel, I feel exposed in a way that was impossible to imagine only a decade ago. So I realized when I started this new book that I'd need to approach it in a fundamentally different way. I decided to embrace the Internet and social media, to be as forthright and as visible as reasonably possible (but no worries, I won't show you what I zapped in the blender last Tuesday). Yes, the book itself is under construction and that work, as ever, is a good old-fashioned, I mean solitary Orphic Journey. But the fact that I'm writing it and what, in a general sense, I'm after, information about what I've previously published-- all of this is public with a side project I've dubbed
Towards that end, I made that webpage, frequently mention it in this blog, opened YouTube and vimeo accounts, started a twitter feed, got an iTunes RSS feed going, and. . . drumroll . . . joined the Marfa, Texas, Chamber of Commerce.
Well, porquoi pas? They are happy to have new members, the price is right, and they are -- bless 'em-- announcing my monthly podcasts in their weekly newsletter.
Here's the latest:
--->Click here for the direct link to the podcast.
(What would John Steinbeck say? Not sure I'd want to know. Oh. Eh, I think he's laughing. In a good way.)
P.S. Check out this article on Marfa by Ramón Rentería in the El Paso Times: "Metamorphosis in Marfa: Newcomers Offer Infusions of Arts, Enthusiasms." (It sounds like the very doppelgänger of chapter 2 of Miraculous Air, about the town of Todos Santos.)
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