D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
September 2009
The To-Do List
A September to remember.
LABOR DAZE: We don't want to hear from anybody, "There's nothing to do. . . ." If anything, there's too much to do in Desert Exposure Country this month, leaving us wondering how the heck to fit it all in! Every weekend brings a fresh cluster of festivals and fun, starting with Labor Day weekend, which the calendar has slid as late into September as possible — no wonder there's a traffic jam of things to do.
If it's Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5-7, it must be time to tip your glass at the Harvest Wine Festival at the Southern New Mexico State Fairgrounds, 11 miles west of Las Cruces on I-10. The best part is that you don't even have to bring a glass, as a souvenir one is included in the adult admission price of $13. Participating wineries this year include Tierra Encantada, Rio Grande Winery, DH Lescombes, Wines of the San Juan, Heart of the Desert, Luna Rossa, Southwest Specialty Wines, Blue Teal Ponderosa Valley, Tularosa Vineyards, St. Clair, Dos Viejos and San Felipe Winery. But don't worry if those names and terms like "nose" or "Shiraz" don't ring a bell — you can brush up on your oenology at the University of Wine, daily from 2:30-5:15 p.m., featuring tastings with Bobby Lee Lawrence. (Now that would have been the old college try for us! Go team!)
While you're sipping, you can listen to Captain Radio (Saturday, 12:15-3 p.m.), Guitar Slim (3:15-6 p.m.), Nosotros (Sunday, 12:15-3 p.m.), John Arthur Martinez (3:15-6 p.m.), Billy Townes (Monday, 12:15-3 p.m.) and Poppy & the Usual Suspects (3:15-6 p.m.).
Labor Day weekend also brings the Grant County Rolling Stones Gem and Mineral Society's 26th Annual Gem and Mineral Show at the Silver City Recreation Center. Admission is free, and more than 60 dealers from throughout the US, Mexico and even Asia will have wares for sale. Activities include free daily field trips, a silent auction, "Wheel of Fortune" and door prizes. New Mexico Tech's Mining and Mineral Museum brings specimens for display each year, presenting a theme display of local and state minerals. Members of the Rolling Stones also show off highlights of their own mineral collections. This year's field trips, which depart from the Recreation Center parking lot at 9 a.m. each day, will include the club's geode claim at Bear Mountain, Saddle Rock Canyon and Turkey Creek.
Also packed into Labor Day weekend is the annual Hatch Chile Festival and the San Vicente Artists' 17th annual Labors of Love art show, Sept. 5-6, at the historic Silco Theater in downtown Silver City.
And Sept. 5 is the big day for the Melanie Zipin CD Release Concert at the Buffalo Dance Hall in Silver City. "With this CD, we felt the desire to stretch ourselves in a different direction," says Zipin. "We wanted to try a whole new approach, and, though slightly afraid of venturing into unknown territory, work and collaborate with total strangers. I admit that I was pretty nervous walking into a strange studio and wondered what they would think of my songs — and me. The result was all that we had hoped for and more. We made some great new friends, played with some great new musicians and stretched our music and ourselves to some new ground."
She's joined at the concert by hubby Jeff LeBlanc on guitar and Joe Victor on bass, Kevin Zoernig on keys and David Waldrop on drums. Advance tickets are available at the Mimbres Region Arts Council and Leyba & Ingalls.
PICKING UP THE PACE: If you have any energy left after Labor Day, the following weekend, Sept. 11-13, brings even more music to Silver City with the Mimbres Region Arts Council's second annual Pickamania. This autumn counterpart to the spring Blues Fest celebrates instead bluegrass, folk, Americana, roots and singer/songwriter music — but it's also free. Headliners at Gough Park and other venues include the Pine Leaf Boys, Mollie O'Brien, Anne and Pete Sibley, Finders & Youngberg, Boris McCutcheon and the Salt Licks, Fish Tank Ensemble, Adobe Brothers, Dusky Buskers, and Melanie Zipin.
The Pine Leaf Boys, featured Saturday at 5 p.m., are two-time Grammy nominees who've made a name for presenting their own brand of Cajun music with youthful exuberance. They play old-fashioned dance hall standards while bringing many of the more obscure songs of past masters into their repertoire, which ranges from Cajun to Creole to Zydeco.
Mollie O'Brien, performing Sunday at 4:45 p.m., performs roots music with a voice described as "bright and bold as sheet lightning." A West Virginia native, she joined brother Tim in Colorado and has collaborated with him on three albums. She also teamed with bluegrass greats on the Grammy-winning "True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe." For the past few years, she's worked with Garrison Keillor and Robin and Linda Williams as the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, with her own five-piece band, and as a duo with husband Rich Moore.
Friday, Sept. 11, is also the Dona Ana Arts Council's 16th Annual ArtsHop, showcasing 14 galleries in Las Cruces and Mesilla. Each gallery will be opening a new exhibit for the event with the featured artist present. Plus, special exhibits of Temporary Installations Made for the Elements (T.I.M.E.) environmental art will be displayed at various locations.
And on Saturday, Sept. 12, the Red Hot Children's Fiesta fills Silver City's Community Built Park with games, crafts and good times for families. Best of all, the fiesta is free.
MAKE A SPLASH: The sounds of bluegrass will barely have faded from Silver City before the next big to-do, the Gila River Festival, Sept. 17-20. This year's theme is "Celebrating 100 Years of Aldo Leopold's Legacy in the Southwest." You can read more about Leopold in last month's feature story, and check out the calendar of festival highlights in this issue's event listings.
That same weekend, Sept. 18-19, the annual Fort Bayard Days celebrates the history of the former frontier fort. Copper Creek Ranch will be selling a biscuits and gravy breakfast, followed by living history exhibits, a tour with entrance into the nurses' quarters and commanding officer's home, a BBQ lunch, and the Buckles and Bustles Military Ball on Sunday night.
This year's Fort Bayard Days will make some history of its own: The Chihene Nde Warm Spring Band of Chiricahua Apache has been invited to attend. According to Carlos Benavides of Silver City, an elder of the band, "There has not been a presence of the Warm Springs Apache for over a hundred years."
HARVEST TIME: Adding to September's bounty of can't-miss events is the fourth annual Mimbres Valley Harvest Festival, which has moved up a few weeks from its traditional October date to land on Saturday, Sept. 26. A day-long hoedown, when farmers put down their hoes for the season, is planned with local growers, storytellers, musicians and craftspeople coming together to share their love of the Mimbres at the San Lorenzo Elementary School, just off Hwy. 152. Food will be in abundance, including entries in the Best Tasting Pie Contest, along with agricultural workshops. The Grant County Health Council adds a free Health Fair with more than 20 comprehensive health tests and evaluations.
That same Saturday, at the Bayard Community Center, the Southwest Women's Fiber Arts Collective holds its Tapestry of Talent fundraiser, a "wearable art fashion show." Handmade items by collective members will be for sale, and quilts will be featured along with an "Artful Bra Contest" to support breast-cancer awareness. Curious Kumquat and Shevek & Co. will serve up light refreshments. Advance tickets are available at The Common Thread.
If you're more into, well, heavy refreshments, the annual Whole Enchilada Fiesta will again be making the world's largest enchilada, Sept. 25-27 in Las Cruces. The street party will feature Los Lobos, Michael Salgado, James Douglas Show and Fungi Mungle.