December 09, 2020: Santa Fe Reporter

Gear Swap

Santa Fe Police Department keeps promise to demilitarize but sends armored vehicles just down the road

By Katherine Lewin + Jeff Proctor, P.12

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DECEMBER 9-15, 2020 | Volume 47, Issue 49

NEWS

I AM

OPINION 5

Studying and working from home can be challenging. eBanking at Century simplifies my day so I don’t have to fit another thing into my schedule.

Century is MY BANK.

NEWS 7 DAYS, CLAYTOONZ AND THIS MODERN WORLD 6 TOO FEW KEEPING WATCH 8 In New Mexico’s oil patches, inspections lag as production—and pollution—rebound LET THEM EAT LOCAL 11 Santa Fe Public Schools’ farmer partnership helps other districts too

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COVER STORY 12 GEAR SWAP Santa Fe Police Department keeps promise to demilitarize but sends armored vehicles down the road

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CULTURE

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SFR PICKS 17 Make a felt artwork because COVID-19 is trash, find your X-mas mojo (probably), actually see Chaz John this time and defend yourself A&C 18 THE FOOD FUTURE IS FEMINIST Food and Feminsim panel aims to address the weirdly misogynist aspects of food systems and cultures with badass panelists who are now our heroes FOOD 19 INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES Another Santa Fe nonprofit leader calls it quits MOVIES 20 CHICK FIGHT REVIEW Look, it was between this and that amazing-looking Riz Ahmed film about the metal drummer who starts to lose his hearing (we think it’s called The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down), and we were just in a really weird and heavy headspace that day, so we chose this— deal with it! Oh, and it sucks!

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DECEMBER 9-15, 2020

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My holiday ‘to do’ list: bake something delicious

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DECEMBER 9-15, 2020

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This holiday season, skip the naughty (overspending and increased debt), and do something nice: get started on your path to owning a home and creating greater financial stability in your life. Homewise is here to help! A local nonprofit, Homewise has helped thousands of New Mexicans become successful homeowners. We can help you prepare for and achieve your dream of owning a home.

build a snowman

Check off your list by calling or visiting us online:

call Homewise!

505.983.9473 www.homewise.org

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Just finished decorating at our new office.

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NEW MEXICO ARTIST COLLECTIVE CLAIMS CREDIT FOR WORLDWIDE MONOLITH STUNT Visit their website for extras and ringtones.

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READ IT ON SFREPORTER.COM “A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL” State officials have asked for delivery of the first vaccine doses here, and scientists from Los Alamos National Labs are already modeling its impacts on tranmission of COVID-19.

W E A R E WAY M O R E TH A N W E D N E S DAY H E R E A R E A CO UP LE O F O N LI N E E XC LUS I V E S :

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DECEMBER 9-15, 2020

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Too Few Keeping Watch In New Mexico’s oil patches, inspections lag as production—and pollution—rebound

BY JERRY REDFERN a u t h o r @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

T

he oil fields of the Permian Basin in southeast New Mexico are quieter since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

But that hasn’t made the job any easier for oil field inspectors.

As a staff manager and inspector with the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (OCD), Gilbert Cordero spends his days driving a truck around a region bigger than Connecticut, checking for leaks in the tens of thousands of oil and gas wells, connecting pipes and storage tanks.

Monica Kuehling, an OCD compliance officer in the opposite corner of the state, inspects wells in the San Juan Basin in northwestern New Mexico. She and the other site inspectors often visit between 20 and 50 well sites a day.

Although sometimes, inspectors get to just one.

Kuehling has a four-and-a-half hour drive to some wells in her area, and thanks to distances and bad roads, she tries to hit every well every three years.

Cordero and Kuehling are two of OCD’s 10 inspectors—responsible for checking on more than 52,000 operational oil and gas wells in New Mexico. Their inspections are key to protecting the health of residents and to monitoring the leaks causing massive methane plumes over the San Juan and Permian basins.

They’re also important to ambitious plans

by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s oil and gas industry, which make up more than half the state’s total.

But at a time when inspections and monitoring should be increasing and becoming more stringent, inspection numbers keep falling short and the number of new wells keeps rising. Furthermore, OCD’s parent, the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, proposed a 20% cut in funding for the division in the upcoming fiscal year. And even at full capacity, inspectors alone can’t tighten the

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DECEMB ER 9-15, 2020

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lid on the oil and gas industry’s impact on climate change.

In a report released earlier this year, Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at Environmental Defense Fund, wrote, “There’s so much methane escaping from Permian oil and gas operations that it nearly triples the 20-year climate impact of burning the gas they’re producing.”

Nathalie Eddy of the nonprofit Earthworks also monitors emissions from oil and gas wells in the state.

“The emissions in the industry, it’s totally out of control in New Mexico,” she says. * * * In 2019, Lujan Grisham came into office with a pledge to dramatically reshape the state’s environmental policies and greenhouse gas footprint. With an eye toward addressing climate change impacts on New Mexico, one of the first bills she signed into law set out to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources across the state by 45% compared to 2005 levels.

This was always going to be a difficult goal for a state that relies heavily on oil and gas revenues to pay its bills. Tax revenues generated by the oil and gas sector funded more than 40% of the last state budget.

The difficulty in reining in the industry became even more clear with the October release of the governor’s 2020 Climate Change Report. Included is a new, more accurate greenhouse gas study, which shows emissions from the oil and gas industry are higher than previously reported and account for more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

These emissions form clouds over the San Juan and Permian basins that are harmful to people’s health, leading to asthma and breathing issues in young and old alike.

And the emissions are a potent contributor to climate change. As the state continues warming and drying, a trend that will only strengthen, river flows are

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declining, fire season is lengthening, extreme heat events are becoming more regular, and the state faces increasing challenges when it comes to everything from water security to the economy.

Because wells are complicated collections of plumbing—loaded with high-pressure gas, oil and sometimes both—they require regular inspection to ensure they’re not leaking. Or if they are leaking, that the emissions are with in permitted levels.

According to OCD’s quarterly performance reviews, the division had a goal

There’s so much methane escaping from Permian oil and gas operations that it nearly triples the 20-year climate impact of burning the gas they’re producing.

-Steven Hamburg, chief Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund

of completing 42,000 inspections in the 2020 fiscal year, which ended on July 1.

It managed to do 36,852.

And OCD plans to inspect even fewer wells in the coming year—31,000, despite a growing number of wells.

These numbers lag behind what inspectors accomplished under former Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican whose administration slashed OCD funding by a quarter and left field inspector jobs vacant. During three of the last four years of that administration, there were between 40,000 and 50,000 inspections annually.

Despite ambitious plans under Gov. Lujan Grisham and increases in funding, OCD hasn’t been able to fill positions. For most of this year, half of OCD’s compliance officer positions were vacant.

OCD Director Adrienne Sandoval acknowledges the inspection gap and says the agency has tried to hire more inspectors. But people with the technical skills necessary for the job are in demand for much more lucrative positions in the oil

and gas industry—the same industry that OCD monitors.

Then the COVID-19 recession hit, bringing a state hiring freeze. Now, “We may not ever have as many inspectors as we might like,” says Sandoval.

The problems could be compounded in the coming fiscal year if her budget takes a proposed $2.7 million cut—equivalent to 20% of the division’s total and part of statewide budget cuts brought on by the pandemic-induced economic downturn.

Sandoval says she’s leading a restructuring effort at the agency to increase its efficiency and is planning to increase the use of technological monitoring solutions “so we can hopefully work smarter with the resources we have.”

That technology has yet to be chosen and implemented.

Meanwhile, OCD continues approving drilling permits for new wells in both the Permian and San Juan basins.

And that’s one goal OCD did achieve: In the past year, OCD cleared 95% of well drilling permits within 10 days of submission. * * * The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), too, regulates emissions from the oil and gas sector. While the OCD monitors spills and waste—in an effort to preserve oil and gas reserves, valuable to the state for their tax revenues—NMED’s Air Quality Bureau is in the business of monitoring air quality. Unlike the OCD, the AQB receives its budget from federal grants and permitting fees, not the state general fund. However, the Legislature still must approve how much of that can be spent each year.

In the oil patches, NMED has issued permits for more than 4,800 active oil and gas production facilities.

Leaks from these pumping stations, pipelines, tanks and compressors lead to huge blooms of methane and other noxious gases over the San Juan and Permian basins—blooms that endanger the health of anyone who breathes there.

They also contribute to New Mexico’s sizable greenhouse gas emissions totals, which are twice the national average per capita.

To track those emissions, NMED relies on infrared video monitoring flights arranged by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

“One benefit of the flyover is you can conduct a huge amount of that type of surveillance over thousands of sources in a relatively short period of time,” Air Quality Bureau Chief Liz Bisbey-Kuehn says. Inspectors then “ground truth” sites with significant emissions. But those

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flights happen twice a year. Then it takes months for the EPA to collate and verify the data before handing it over to NMED. NMED also conducts in-person inspections. These are based on reviews of facility operators’ self-generated reports, which are required as part of their operating license. Inspectors visit large facilities once a year and smaller sources every five years. While several people work in the Santa Fe-based office reviewing reports, NMED currently has three field inspectors.

Bisbey-Kuehn says that the gaps between testing—whether by plane or in person—aren’t a big deal: Producers must self-monitor and will face fines if the state learns they have violated their permits.

She thinks this generally keeps them on time and honest with their reports.

Eddy, of Earthworks, is, at best, skeptical.

“I think that reliance on self-reporting is problematic,” she says.

She, too, tracks oil patch emissions in New Mexico (and in Colorado) and trains locals to do it as well. Self-reporting, she says, gives operators the chance to clean things up before an inspector ever arrives.

Not only that, but she says the state isn’t doing enough inspections.

Eddy uses an infrared video camera, which allows her to see methane leaks that aren’t apparent to the naked eye. In fact, she can stand well

off of an operator’s property and spot and record leaks. It’s equipment the EPA uses, but not all state inspectors carry.

In the San Juan Basin, for example, OCD’s Kuehling says that when she enters a well site, she first makes sure tanks aren’t overflowing. Then, “Mainly, we’re listening.”

“If there’s a little hole anywhere, a leak, a valve is open or cracked, we can hear that,” she says. And when she finds a leak or other problem, she alerts the well operator, who is supposed to report back after fixing the problem. It’s the same process in the Permian Basin.

“The huge challenge is the gap between what these agencies are up against, in terms of ensuring any kind of accountability or oversight, and their current capacity,” Eddy says.

It’s not just a question of hiring more people, she says. “I know they’re trying to be creative and innovative on how to address this,” Eddy says, “but it seems they

are up against a battle that is not going to be won in the short term here.”

When asked about apparent gaps in monitoring, Lujan Grisham’s office replied with a statement reading, in part, “The governor applauds both departments’ efforts to build our agencies back up, but there is still work to be done to have the agencies fully staffed.

“All New Mexico agencies are looking for ways to work more efficiently with improved technology.” * * * Meanwhile, one positive outcome from the COVID-19 pandemic was a decline in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

NMED’S Bisbey-Kuehn chalks much of that up to a drop in oil and gas production, with many companies shutting wells and waiting for a market rebound.

But that respite may have already passed: A recent drilling and production update from the chief economist of the state’s Legislative Finance Committee shows that as of August (the most recent data available), New Mexico oil production had already rebounded to late-2019 levels.

And New Mexico’s natural gas production level is higher than it was before the COVID-19 crash. This is also reflected in the methane clouds re-forming over both the Permian and San Juan basins since the end of summer. At the same time, there are fewer people in the field to monitor and fix wells.

NEWS

“Used to be you couldn’t drive anywhere without almost getting run over down here,” says Cordero, the inspector from OCD. “There’s just not that many people out there right now.” That means fewer people to check on rigs and tanks, fewer people to write reports and fewer people to make repairs.

Cindy Hollenberg, the compliance inspections manager for NMED’s Air Quality Bureau, says that producers have asked if they can stop reporting and testing because of pandemic staffing reductions.

“We just said, ‘No.’” “Any company that is still running,” she says, “they are required to follow the rules.”

Meanwhile, on-site inspections continue. COVID-19 hasn’t affected inspectors’ workloads, and, thankfully, there have been no coronavirus infections among the workforce, says Sandoval at OCD. And due to the pandemic, inspectors steer clear of people they do see. Sandoval has told inspectors they don’t need to interact with oil field workers. If there are workers on a site, inspectors are to stay in their trucks or move on to the next facility.

Eddy, from Earthworks, has seen these rig hands exposed to dangers beyond COVID-19. “We filmed workers wearing no protective gear getting significantly exposed as they stood on top of a [leaking] tank battery back in March,” she says. Exposure to high levels of methane can lead to rapid asphyxiation. When she returned recently on her first trip to the Permian since then, the tank battery was leaking again. She didn’t need her special camera to see it—she could smell it from the road.

“In our experience…you can smell something, or you might not, depending on the wind direction.” But often, “We turn the camera on and we see…basically an open venting event is taking place in some far-off site, and it might be happening for days. Or weeks. Or months.”

Eddy says that monitoring—either remote or in person—needs to happen every single day. “That’s the only way you’re going to catch these things. And no one’s doing that.”

Meanwhile, Kuehling, the inspector from OCD, continues her rounds. She now passes the quiet miles between wells with audio books. Really long audio books. Like War and Peace. “I got through it,” she says, while driving between as many wells as she could.

Jerry Redfern reported this story for Capital & Main, an award-winning publication that reports on economic, political and social issues. The Santa Fe Reporter is co-publishing.

ANSON STEVENS-BOLLEN

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Five Great Reasons To License Your Pet:

southwestcare.org

• It will keep you in compliance with state and local Animal Control Ordinances.

• It proves your pet is properly vaccinated.

• It can help get your pet home to you faster if he/she becomes lost.

• It will reduce fines if your pet is picked up.

• The fees help support other lost, stray, or abandoned animals in our care.

For more information about licensing, call our Admissions Desk at 505-983-4309 x1606, or visit our website at sfhumanesociety.org.

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Let Them Eat Local state and smaller school districts that don’t have the staff or capacity to organize local food programs on their own.

According to a Santa Fe Food Policy Council report presented to the city’s Quality of Life Committee at a virtual meeting last week, SFPS has developed “one of the most advanced procurement systems in the country.”

The Santa Fe Food Policy Council is asking the Legislature in the session set to begin in January to retain the $400,000 in recurring annual funding for the New Mexico Grown for School

Santa Fe Public Schools is at the helm of an effort to support local farmers by feeding hungry students

BY L E A H CA N TO R l e a h @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

LEAH CANTOR

F

or Elizabeth Cull, the director of Student Nutrition Services for Santa Fe Public Schools, there’s nothing quite like seeing kids’ excited expressions on the few precious days of summer when she can offer them something truly special: a handful of bright red cherries or a ripe peach fresh from a tree in a nearby orchard.

Local fruits are the rare gems of the district’s Farm to School program, which supplies 24% of the produce the district purchases annually and gives many children the opportunity to try things they might never otherwise have access to.

“The big thing for me is the cherries, because they are expensive…so I know there are probably many families that don’t ever buy those because they can’t afford them,” says Cull.

Even though COVID-19 has led to lower spending this year, SFPS has been putting local food onto children’s plates for decades, developing a well-established system for procuring produce from small farmers in the surrounding area. In recent years Cull has worked with Kendal Chavez, the Farm to School specialist with the New Mexico Public Education Department, to expand the program to include farms across the

Meals program that helps fund farm to school programs at SFPS and other school districts. The council is also requesting sustained or additional funding for a number of other programs that support local farmers by feeding New Mexicans, including New Mexico Grown programs for senior centers and early childhood nutrition initiatives, and the Double Up Food Bucks program that doubles SNAP benefits when used to purchase food at local farmers markets.

This year, lawmakers cut about $68,000 from the budget for the New Mexico Grown program in light of the pandemic.

At the end of November, policy experts and lawmakers from across the state met virtually at a “Reimagining the New Mexico Food Economy” conference to discuss what they called the state’s “food crisis.” Most of the state

Susan Higgins is a vendor of certified organic sprouts for the SPFS Farm to School program.

She has sold at the Santa Fe Farmers Market since 1994.

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meets the USDA qualifications for a “food desert” where access to healthy food is scarce. At the same time, 94% of locally grown food is exported out of state while 90% of what New Mexicans eat is imported from elsewhere, and 70% of farmers don’t make a profit.

According to the report by the Santa Fe Food Policy Council, one in six children in Santa Fe County experienced hunger before the pandemic. Now, that number has risen to one in three.

Farmers are also feeling the strain of COVID-19.

Susan Higgins is a Santa Fe farmer who has sold certified organic sunflower sprouts and pea shoots to SFPS for nearly 20 years. Normally SFPS would purchase around 20 pounds of sprouts per week, but this year the district reduced its purchases, as has everybody else.

Higgins says her revenues have dropped by 40% during the pandemic despite that she still sells at the Santa Fe Farmers Market and at local co-ops in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos. Still, she says, selling to SFPS plays a small but important role in keeping her afloat.

Higgins tells SFR over the years many parents have come up to her at the Farmers Market with positive feedback.

“They’d tell me this was the only greens their children would eat,” she says. “Children love sprouts, and they are very nutrient-dense.”

Kendal Chavez, from the PED, tells SFR Santa Fe’s program is different from most Farm to School programs across the state and the country because SFPS organizes the procurement process for multiple smaller districts.

“Santa Fe’s bid allows nine other districts across the state to also purchase local from 20 vendors…so Santa Fe is sort of acting like the hub or the anchor,” says Chavez. “The fact that they are taking the administrative burden to allow for New Mexico farmers to have more market opportunity is definitely standout.”

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Gear

Swap Santa Fe Police Department keeps promise to demilitarize but sends armored vehicles just down the road B Y K AT H E R I N E L E W I N + J E F F P R O C T O R k a t h e r i n e @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m j e f f p r o c t o r @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

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olice Chief Andrew Padilla divulged the decision on a Wednesday.

Public pressure was mounting in a summer of street protests. Marchers demanded an end to racist, militarized policing, often shouting and chanting at what would have looked 30 years ago like an occupying military force.

A few city councilors had joined the chorus, peppering Padilla with questions about why the police in Santa Fe sometimes looked and felt like a combat unit. So the chief, a former Marine, announced at a council meeting that he’d ditch a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle and a military Humvee, both obtained from the US Defense Department and perhaps the two highest-profile local symbols of police militarization. It’s a move he now tells SFR he’d have preferred not to make.

Four months after Padilla’s revelation on July 29, documents obtained by SFR through a request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act show, the chief kept his word.

But what happened to the two beefedup vehicles after they left a Santa Fe Police Department parking lot has a city councilor, civil rights and police reform advocates questioning whether Padilla’s action did much more than earn him a few pats on the back from the press and City Hall.

That’s because the Humvee’s voyage totaled just over 60 miles—to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. And the MRAP? It was transferred an even shorter distance to the Rio Rancho Police Department.

Over-aggressive policing is a statewide problem in New Mexico, where officers have fatally shot 116 people since 2015. That total accounts for the highest rate of deadly police shootings in the nation during the last five years, according to data gathered by The Washington Post and analyzed by SFR. Concurrently, military gear has permeated the state during the past decade-plus. It helps drive excessive force and sets officers apart from residents, experts say, by ratcheting up an already confrontational culture.

“Most people don’t make distinctions between law enforcement agencies. A

This military Humvee will be getting a new paint job after Santa Fe Police gave it to the Bernalillo County Sheriff in October.

cop is a cop,” says Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. “So, if one of these vehicles still makes an appearance in a neighborhood or on the front page of the newspaper, transferring it from one department to another does nothing to detract from the message that our police are militarized.”

And in Santa Fe, residents can still get a first-hand look at an MRAP without the hour drive south—the county sheriff’s department has one of the vehicles, which are often mistaken for “tanks” when they’re used by domestic police.

That department received the MRAP from the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office in 2015 through the same transfer process Padilla used to send his two vehicles to Bernalillo County and Rio Rancho this year.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza did not respond to multiple requests for an interview for this story. Other law enforcement officials, including Padilla, defended the transfer program and, more broadly, the use of MRAPs and other military equipment, saying they come in handy for desert search and rescue, hostage situations and protecting officers during high-risk calls.

But City Councilor Renee Villarreal, who was among those pushing Padilla to discard the vehicles, says they have no place in Santa Fe. Shipping them down the road to other local law enforcement agencies was “not at all” what she envi-

sioned when Padilla promised to get rid of them.

“We don’t want those kinds of vehicles in New Mexico in general,” Villarreal tells SFR. “So I think that has to be a state-level decision…

Hearing that we just moved them along to another jurisdiction is disappointing to me.”

None of the advocates interviewed for this story was aware of the transfers before SFR contacted them. Villarreal learned about it at last week’s Santa Fe Health and Public Safety Task Force meeting. They all say it amounts to a game of equipment musical chairs that leaves in place a status quo of police militarization in an already-troubled state and they wonder how widespread the practice is.

In-state transfers for big-ticket military equipment such as the ones Padilla executed are relatively infrequent, says Kelly Hamilton, deputy secretary for the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, which administers the federal program that handles military equipment for New Mexico law enforcement agencies. Hamilton writes in an email to SFR that on average, about three large-vehicle transfers take place each year.

One Santa Fe city councilor is displeased that the city police chief promised to demilitarize by getting rid of the department’s Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, only to ship it 50 miles down the road to another department.

WHEN MILITARY MUSICAL CHAIRS BEGAN What makes all this receiving and transferring of military equipment among local law enforcement agencies possible is the National Defense Authorization Act, first passed by Congress in 1990 and

reupped in 1997. Section 1033 gives the defense secretary the power to spread used military gear around the country.

It has come to be known as the “1033 Program,” and the vast majority of equipment distributed has been munmun dane—everything from a box of pencils to a digital camera to a sleeping bag. But rialongside came high-powered sniper ri fles, body armor, bayonets, night-vision scopes and MRAPs. The program has changed the public face of law enforcement in America.

Michael McGarrity, a local mystery novelist who spent 20 years working in criminal justice, including three with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in the 1980s, keeps tabs on the state of law enforcement as part of his book research.

He is not a fan of what 1033 has wrought. dif“It’s a completely dif ferent world than it was 35 years ago,” McGarrity says. “When I was a comcom missioned officer, we were issued a .357 revolver as a sidearm and a pump shotgun, and that was it…Today, I don’t think there is a police department in the country that issues anything less than a 9mm handgun as a sidearm and a semi-automatic assault rifle. And that’s before you get to anything like these arar mored vehicles.”

Militarization diminishes the role of police in America, McGarrity says, but solit shouldn’t come as a surprise. Like sol diers, police have become conditioned to believe that demonstrating an ability to handle more dangerous, specialized skills leads to promotion. That’s partly because of how police work is depicted on television and in the news media and partly due to police culture, which has become increasingly insular and opposed to the people officers are sworn to protect.

“The more you put things out there that are nothing but for primary military purposes, the greater the chasm between citizen and cop,” he says.

There are plenty of chasms in New Mexico.

The 1033 Program has ushered thousands of pieces of equipment into the state, both the innocuous items (known as “non-controlled property”) and the gear that has concerned communities and civil libertarians (known as “controlled property”).

A look at the data visualizer from the nonprofit Institute for Transparent CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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Policing shows 1033 equipment in nearly every New Mexico city, including a couple dozen armored vehicles.

According to documents turned over to SFR by the city, Santa Fe has 16 classifications of items obtained through 1033, including a reconnaissance robot and an ATV. When the military decides it’s finished with a 1033-eligible piece of equipment, it gets listed on a password-protected Defense Logistics Agency website on which law enforcement agencies can go shopping. Very few items are restricted from the list after the Trump administration rolled back some Obama-era limits in 2017.

“I hate to describe it this way because it’s not as friendly, but it’s almost like an eBay, a 1033 eBay-type store,” says Bernalillo County Undersheriff Larry Koren.

Local and state law enforcement agencies aren’t charged for the equipment—just the shipping. Police officials in New Mexico and elsewhere have cited the budget savings as a defense of the program, an argument that resonates even with reformers for items like cameras, but less so for MRAPs. The flow of 1033 equipment has slowed in New Mexico in recent years, records show.

As the former policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, Steve Allen has monitored the program closely.

Allen credits the slowdown to community outcry and pushback. He points to Padilla’s decision to give up the MRAP and Humvee as another signal that residents don’t want to be policed with armored vehicles and weapons of war.

“I would call this a step in the right direction. For the chief to get rid of these vehicles, whatever his motivation was, should be applauded,” Allen says. “But what happens next is just as important.

There needs to be better follow-through,

2 3

4 1

1

Musical Chairs 1. Santa Fe County receives an MRAP from the military in 2009. It returns the vehicle in 2015.

6

2. Santa Fe Police Department receives a Humvee from the military on July 2, 2013.

3. Santa Fe Police Department receives an MRAP from the military on Nov. 14, 2013.

5

4. Santa Fe County receives an MRAP from Rio Arriba County in 2015.

5. Bernalillo County receives the Humvee from SFPD on Oct. 15, 2020.

6. Rio Rancho Police receives the MRAP from SFPD on Nov. 17, 2020.

Total major vehicles throughout New Mexico MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle)

Armored Vehicle

Helicopter

SOURCE: INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPARENT POLICING: SANTA FE COUNTY AND CITY OF SANTA FE

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Gear

Swap follow-through that’s in the spirit of our whole community. Policing is a statewide problem in New Mexico, and New Mexicans should not have to play whacka-Mole with this kind of equipment.”

“My opinion is that we should get rid of ours as well as soon as we are able to, budget-wise, because we would probably need to replace it with some kind of vehicle that can withstand bullet fire,” Hughes says. “When we have the increase in revenue that would allow us to replace [the MRAP] and give it back, I would be in favor of that.”

‘IT’S NOT A WEAPON’ Military equipment in the hands of domestic law enforcement can leave communities confused and scared, wondering what role the police really play, says McGarrity, the author and former deputy.

Allen, the former ACLU executive, agrees. He says this year’s protests pushing for fundamental changes in policing have shone a new, brighter light on the issue.

“It’s very problematic, and we’ve seen it once again all year in 2020, particularly with racial justice implications,” Allen says. “It’s becoming obvious to a wider

KATHERINE LEWIN

SANTA FE’S FORCED MOVE TO DEMILITARIZE SFPD welcomed, with great fanfare from some in city government, the Humvee (valued at $50,548) and the MRAP (valued at $658,000) in July and November of 2013, respectively, through the 1033 program.

Fast forward seven years, and Padilla was fielding sharp questions about the vehicles at that July City Council meeting, driven by a few councilors suddenly eager to question resources put toward local militarization in the burning face of a national police reform movement.

They forced the chief’s hand, and his department sent out a statement saying, in part, “we can and should dispose of the two vehicles,” according to a story published in The Santa Fe New Mexican at the time.

Padilla has since tiptoed away from that sentiment, telling SFR last week that the department “would have loved, obviously, to hang on to those vehicles.”

He says they were used for SWAT and crisis negotiations.

“But it was the overall consensus of the city government that just because of the stigma that came along with them, we turned them back and offered them up through the state program,” Padilla says.

So he contacted Hamilton, the state Homeland Security official who coordinates the 1033 program for New Mexico, to ask what his options were.

Hamilton says that, in normal times, Padilla could have chosen to send the vehicles straight back to the Defense Department. But the department’s receiving centers have been closed since spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was up to Hamilton, then, to seek takers for the equipment. He sent word to every law enforcement agency in the state that participates in 1033; Bernalillo County and Rio Rancho responded.

Rio Rancho added the MRAP to its collection—it now has two—and BCSO took the Humvee for its fleet of two other identical, though older, vehicles. It is not clear which agency paid for the shipping of either vehicle.

Santa Fe residents could still be confronted with a tank-like vehicle cruising the streets. A short drive down the road from the city center, in the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office parking lot across from the county jail, sits a MRAP obtained through 1033. It arrived by the

same means by which Padilla shipped his two vehicles out: a transfer from the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office in 2015 for the vehicle with a $733,000 price tag.

It’s the newest model the department could get after discarding an older version, which it received in 2009 from the Albuquerque Police Department.

Sheriff Mendoza’s is an elected position, meaning he is not answerable to a governing body on policy or equipment decisions in the same way as Chief Padilla, who was appointed by Mayor Alan Webber.

However, the Santa Fe County Commission does control Mendoza’s budget.

County Commissioner Hank Hughes tells SFR via telephone he was not aware the sheriff has an MRAP. A short time later, he called back to say the vehicle is mainly used as a backup to the department’s Bearcat, a smaller armored rig that was not obtained from the military.

Hughes says he’d prefer to see the MRAP discarded.

Police Chief Andrew Padilla says he would have preferred to keep two vehicles his department received from the US Defense Department, but pressure from the public and City Council convinced him to give them up.

and wider swath of Americans: When protesters took to the streets this summer, they were met with a heavily militarized police force. That’s the legacy of 1033.”

Top Rio Rancho and Bernalillo County officials see it another way. Neither addressed criticisms of the message residents receive by encountering an MRAP during a police action, but they defend the decision to keep such equipment around.

Rio Rancho Lt. Richard Coschade tells SFR the department wanted a Bearcat but couldn’t afford one. The used, but free, MRAP from SFPD was the best option.

Coschade says people who don’t work in law enforcement don’t understand the purpose of the armored vehicles, which is “to protect officers or the public.”

“It’s not a weapon,” he says.

Koren, the Bernalillo County undersheriff whose department took the Humvee from SFPD, tells SFR it made “good sense” given the cost savings.

He says the department plans to use it mostly for search-and-rescue purposes as well as chasing suspects eluding law enforcement in the desert.

As for higher-grade military equipment such as an MRAP, Koren echoes Coschade’s sentiments about the usefulness and even necessity for these types of vehicles.

“Law enforcement in general that are involved in these 1033 programs, they’re trying to make things work and they realize the hard financial times that we’re facing…It’s not because of the cool factor, I guess,” Koren says. “It’s because that’s what they have available to them and they’re going to utilize their resources to protect their personnel. But I don’t have any objections to any law enforcement leader working towards protecting their own personnel.”

Councilor Villarreal isn’t opposed to officer safety. But she says local governments should consider not just their own constituents, but the rest of the state as well.

“There’s a combination of political pressure from constituents as well as political will,” she says. “I think it helps to then have another level of scrutiny from the public, saying…why they don’t think it’s needed to militarize our law enforcement offices in New Mexico.”

The MRAP and Humvee transfers left her feeling like Santa Fe officials were passing equipment they considered problematic down the road.

“It was really disappointing to me,” she says, “because the whole intention is to return them to the entity that is distributing military equipment.”

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It’s not feeling entirely Christmassy around here of late (thanks a bunch, coronavirus!), but at a certain point, setting the mood is really on us.

Enter the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and the Lensic Performing Arts Center. This Friday, the celebrated, Grammy-winning Latin jazz group streams into your home with the assist from the Lensic, and its Salsa Navidad program should not only be like a bunch of hot, hot fire blasting into your home, it’ll probably do wonders for making it feel like an actual holiday. This year marks the group’s 15th year of existence, too, so one might call it a bit of a milestone. Look—we need this. You need this. Feliz Navidad. (ADV) Spanish Harlem Orchestra: Salsa Navidad: 7:30 pm Friday, Dec. 11. $35-$115. lensic.org

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ONLINE ART OPENING SAT/12 CHAZ 4 PREZ Did we just feature artist Chaz John (Winnebago, Mississippi Band Choctaw and European) on our picks page recently? Yes, but we have a good reason for bringing him back. See, the opening for John’s Manifest Destiny’s Child at Ellsworth Gallery a couple weeks back was postponed due to the state’s temporary two-week extra-tough lockdown, so anyone who was curious about finding out what the piece “Andrew Jackson’s Dumb-Ass Leg” was all about wound up in the lurch. Not to worry, though, as things seem to be looking up and Ellsworth is bringing John out of the lockdown strong with a virtual Zoom artist talk about his new show. You’ll be glad we reminded you.

(ADV) Chaz John Artist Talk: 1 pm Saturday, Dec. 12. Free. ellsworthgallery.com

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ONLINE WORKSHOP TUE/15 SAFETY LESSONS It’s never bad to learn a thing or two about personal safety, and when it comes to teaching classes about things like body language, tone, conflict and socialization, verbal formulas, boundary-setting and more, one simply can’t find better than the upcoming six-session series from Resolve. The local nonprofit regularly hosts such classes during the non-pandemic times, and its switch to free virtual workshops is a real boon right now—especially since people stuck in lockdown face heightened risk for violence.

Note that space is limited for this particular run of classes, and participants must commit to the entire series. If that’s not doable at this moment, don’t fret—this is likely not the last we’ll hear from Resolve on the matter. (ADV) Resolve: Foundations in Safety: 3 pm Tuesday, Dec. 15. Free. resolvenm.org

EVENT WED/9

Felt That Felt During Covid project gives people a place to let it out Artist and former Guggenheim Museum graphic designer Christine Sullivan has only lived in Santa Fe about a year and a half and still describes herself as a “newcomer.” Of course, this hasn’t stopped her from trying to assimilate, especially during the pandemic, and her new arts project mounted in conjunction with the Santa Fe Public Library should go at least a little way toward proving she’s committed to being a full-fledged community member.

Sullivan’s Felt During Covid transforms her love of working with felt into a cathartic means of self-expression during this terrible low in human history. In a nutshell, the initiative (which is funded through a micro grant from the Santa Fe Department of Arts and Culture) invites artists and everyday people to pick up a free felt supply kit from the main branch of the public library, and then create a piece relating to their COVID-19 experience. Additionally, Sullivan says, the idea is that creators will implement one or more of the Five Santa Fe Promises, a series of tenets adopted by the city at the outset of the pandemic (wear a mask, shop local, etc.).

“It goes back to Catholic grade school banners I made,” Sullivan tells SFR. “I was not near museums, and that was my only

source of art. I’m not a religious person, I’m just really interested in this genre of art called ‘social practice.’”

The idea behind social practice art is to foster dialogue and engagement through community-minded works. Sullivan hopes that by providing the materials, she’ll give Santa Feans something to do, and also a means of getting their feelings about the pandemic out of their heads.

“How we feel starts the conversation,” Sullivan says. “What we do starts the healing.”

Interested parties might wanna know the last day to pick up supplies is Thursday, Dec. 10, and the deadline to turn over the finished work is Saturday, Dec. 12—and that they’re more than welcome to add any other media to their pieces. Simply contact the public library as you would to reserve a book, and the kit’s all yours. Submissions will be shown during Sullivan’s livestream on Dec. 17 from the @feltduringcovid Instagram account. (Alex De Vore)

FELT DURING COVID ART KIT PICKUPS All Day Wednesday, Dec. 9-Thursday, Dec. 10.

Free. santafelibrary.org

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A&C

BY ALEX DE VORE a l e x @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

M

ore than once in my life, a significant other has mentioned how she resents the holidays.

It’s not about disliking Christmas or New Year’s Eve in and of themselves, rather it’s a conditioned societal pressure that it’s somehow a woman’s job to be the keeper of traditions, the keeper of family, the keeper of recipes and food.

There’s that harmful old assumption that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, yet when we look to the world of professional chefs (be they celebrities, locals or some thing in-between), the whole operation becomes a boy’s club. Why, then, when it comes to food in the home, food chains and systems or even just passing down cooking and recipe knowledge, do we look to women like it’s their job?

This is just one of the questions panelists Gina Rae La Cerva, Andi Murphy (Navajo) and Paula Garcia will dig into at the upcoming Food and Feminism in the Present Day virtual panel from the Center for Contemporary Arts (ccasantafe.org), and it’s a doozy.

“We really wanted to bring in voices you might not hear otherwise,” La Cerva, who’ll moderate the panel, tells SFR. “We really wanted to expand the conversation beyond the Farmers Market or the food people you regularly hear from.”

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In June, La Cerva released her first book, Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food, a melange featuring a look at international food connectivity, wild foods, foraging and more. For the upcoming panel, she says, “I’m always trying to uncover the [roles] women play historically in the food system, and women have, traditionally, been the ones to distribute the calories on this planet.”

La Cerva says much of the impetus behind the panel came out of the ideas of preservation and survival relevant in her book. As the pandemic continues, for example, more people find themselves cooking at home. This has revived lost recipes for some new to the cooking game, according to La Cerva, and opened up a whole can of worms for others.

Even among her more progressive partnered friends, for example, the writer learned working from home found couples settling into more traditional (read: less equal) roles when it came to food. What might a realization like that mean for one’s feminism cred? The answer is probably complicated, but if one is a feminist (like, an actual feminist), everything they do is the act of a feminist, right? Perhaps not.

Should be a fun jumping off point.

For Murphy, the food quest began six years ago when she was fresh out of journalism school at New Mexico State University. A job at the Las Cruces SunNews morphed unexpectedly into food criticism, for which, Murphy says, she discovered a preternatural knack. Still, she learned she actually knew very little about her culture’s food and Indigenous food in general. Later, and with an obsession to learn more, Murphy would return home

C

Food and Feminism panel aims to address the weirdly misogynist aspects of food systems and cultures

to Albuquerque for a job with the nationMore and more, that includes Indigenous ally syndicated Native America Calling foods.” radio program, found the award-winning “It all ties into uncovering women’s Toasted Sister Indigenous food podcast roles in the food systems,” La Cerva says. (toastedsisterpodcast.com) and appear “Part of it is women’s labor in general beat speaking engagements whenever ing less valued, but eating every day A possible. can be such a mundane thing, CC Y ES Her goal on the pan- OURT and to actually feed yourel? To re-educate about self day in and out is feminine roles when quite a feat—so it’s like it comes to food, and we really haven’t valto blow the lid off ued how much our the idea of what mothers and wives Indigenous food is and grandmothers and can be. have maintained “I want people to the world through learn about it beyond feeding.” frybread,” she says.

Garcia, meanwhile, Gina Rae La Cerva “Every time people think is the executive direcabout Indigenous food, they tor for the New Mexico automatically think about Navajo Acequia Association. At press tacos, even my family, but that’s not even time, she had yet to respond to a request the tip of the iceberg—it’s the tip of the tip for comment, but La Cerva says she inof the tip.” vited her to the panel in part to point out Murphy says even she’s been guilty how vital the acequia systems have been of not looping in elders on her podcast to New Mexico’s culture and survival— enough (and plans to address CA food-based and otherwise.

C that), but that in most cas- RTESY So then—is there any U es, the matriarchs hold O one answer to how femthe keys and secrets inism interacts with to everything—why the culture of food? not food? To take it Of course not, but even further, why a trio of badass do none of us learn women expressabout Native foods ing perspectives when many of them and lesser-known (beans, corn, squash, elements can tomatoes and potatoes only add to the to name a few) make up conversation.

Andi Murphy most everyone’s diet?

“What is it about “It’s erasure,” Murphy says. women and food where it “It’s erasure in every community, even feels like there’s this inherent conour Native communities. That’s when I nection that we don’t necessarily valreally understand assimilation, how coloue?” La Cerva asks. “We’re starting to nization did a number on our people—but recognize that whatever it is within the now the educational movement is picking feminine that is about growth and nurup steam and the food culture in advancturing and feeding…We’re realizing in ing to a point where everybody wants these tumultuous times it’s so vital and to know where their food comes from. easy to lose.”

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Institutional Changes Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute Executive Director Kierstan Pickens steps down

BY ALEX DE VORE a l e x @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

T

his story is starting to feel a bit like a broken record, but Kierstan Pickens, executive director for the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute, has stepped down after serving in the role since 2014. In recent months, similar shakeups have come to Creative Santa Fe, the Center for Contemporary Arts and SITE Santa Fe, so one almost has to wonder if something weird is going on, or if these nonprofit administrator types know something we don’t.

“It’s not a conspiracy,” Pickens answers with a laugh, “though the timing is weird.”

Like many others leaving their positions, Pickens says the time just feels right—and she’s not starting to worry about what job she’s doing next yet, either.

Instead, she’ll focus on her home garden for at least a month. After that? Only time will tell.

A graduate of the College of Santa Fe (which later became Santa Fe University of Art and Design and, later again, a big ol’ mostly empty property), Pickens is actually an incognito theater nerd who wound up in the nonprofit sector almost by accident. She came to Santa Fe by way of Greeley, Colorado, because “there was just something about how small CSF was, and how self-directed you could be.”

We’d like to squash any hopes that there will be gourd puns associated with this photo of Kierstan Pickens.

After college, theater tech degree in hand, Pickens landed a volunteer job with the CCA. “I wore a lot of hats there, and the theater background fed into the job really directly, because there’s a lot about theater work that’s really collaborative,” she tells SFR. “I loved the technical aspects; the lighting, electricity, climbing on ladders.”

The CCA opened up other networking opportunities, as did her partner’s job at Goldleaf Framemakers back in the day when some of the founders of the arts collective High Mayhem Emerging Arts worked day jobs slapping frames on art and spent their nights dismantling the idea of what art, music and performance could be. Pickens immediately fell in love with High Mayhem and took her volunteering talents to the group’s early forays into mini-fests and touring band shows.

Of these experiences, Pickens says, a love for nonprofit work began to emerge.

She’d phase from the CCA to the Lensic Performing Arts Center, where she’d further deepen her understanding of the administrative side of nonprofit work. By then it was too late for theater, and work-

ing in the world of organizations that help people had its hooks in Pickens. But how does one go from lighting plays to running one of the most well-respected and innovative food- and agriculture-based organizations in the country?

“I have a deep and abiding passion for local food,” Pickens says plainly. “I feel like local agriculture is the solution to a lot of bigger issues, so when the opportunity came to get involved with the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, I did.”

Pickens’ grandfather was a farmer, and her life in New Mexico bolstered an already deep appreciation for the craft.

Agriculture at large as well as food chains and systems play such a large role on national and local levels that Pickens wanted to have input into how such concepts impact the people. Enter her work with the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute.

The institute is a sister organization which exists separately from the weekly operation of the market and is dedicated solely to providing assistance via resources, funding, educational opportunities and policy work. Perhaps the jewel in Pickens’ crown, the Institute’s Double Up Food Bucks program works with vendors

FOOD

to literally double SNAP benefits with market vendors for people working with government assistance. And though the program started small in 2014, providing roughly $94,000 in benefits, Pickens says that the USDA took note of the program and has helped to subsidize it—that assistance led to growth of nearly $200,000 in 2019.

“In some ways,” Pickens says, however, “I would say a measure of success would be if we saw numbers diminishing.”

For now, though, it’s working, and that’s especially vital in a time of pandemic. As for whether COVID-19 played a role in Pickens’ decision to step down, she says it didn’t.

“It felt like a really good time personally to move on, and also for the organization to get some fresh ideas coming in,” she explains. “We had to cut programs this year—we couldn’t have food demos, we couldn’t have field trips, we cut down to the absolute essentials—and I’d be lying to say that nonprofit work is easy. It requires a great deal of passion and perseverance and stubbornness and…maybe at times a little bit of blind faith. I’m ready for a little bit of a break.”

For the time being, former Big Brothers Big Sisters Mountain Region CEO Andrea Fisher Maril will step into an interim executive director role. Maril tells SFR that she and the institute’s board have chosen to evaluate needs and plan strategies for seven months before beginning the search for Pickens’ replacement.

“You can’t do the search until you know what you’re searching for,” she tells SFR. “[Pickens] had been in there a long time and did fantastic work, and the board realizes it’s time for a deep dive into what comes next—what the programming should be, what the staffing should be, where they need to reach out for funds, what the board needs to look like. I’ll know better in a few months, and it probably won’t be me—it’s too important an organization for it to be me if i’m not the right person.”

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MOVIES

RATINGS

Chick Fight Review

BEST MOVIE EVER

10

That’s a funny way to spell Karate Kid

9

BY ALEX DE VORE a l e x @ s f r e p o r t e r. c o m

8

Hidden deep within layers of ideas lifted wholesale from other, better movies, Chick Fight finds a sort of worthwhile message about how we take on fear. But it’s work to find that.

First you’ve got to navigate your way through stale jokes about queer dads, aging, substance abuse and competitive assholes. And even though one wonders how Malin Akerman (Children’s Hospital) keeps appearing in movies (mystery solved: she’s a producer on this thing) or who Alec Baldwin pissed off to have to appear in this thing, or why, when the filmmakers had access to the hilarious Fortune Feimster and Dulcé Sloan, they only use them sparingly. One thing’s for sure, though—you’ll probably forget you ever saw this movie.

Akerman is Anna, a down-on-her-luck 40-something whose car gets repossessed, whose business is burned down from a weed-smoking accident sans insurance and whose father (Kevin Nash) is dabbling with a little late-in-life sexuality-spectrum surfing, which is sadly played for laughs. Oh, also, her mom died recently. Anna’s

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 WORST MOVIE EVER

CROCK OF GOLD: A FEW ROUNDS WITH SHANE MACGOWAN

9

+ MANDATORY MUSIC HISTORY; - BUILDS STEAM SLOWLY; JOHNNY DEPP

You’ll find musicians of a certain era often share the same battlecry: “Punk rock saved my life!” And you’ll find that even when they don’t necessarily delve into the purer forms of the genre themselves, its tenets—community, political outrage, freedom and so on—work their way into the music somehow.

That’s at least the story for The Pogues and their illustrious leader/notorious drinker Shane MacGowan.

In Crock of Gold, from Glastonbury director Julien Temple, we get the whole story, and I mean whole story on MacGowan, from his earliest days on a farm upon the Emerald Isle itself to his teenage move to London during a time of major IRA upheaval and eventual quest to both preserve and evolve traditional Irish music.

It’d be easy to laugh off MacGowan for those who don’t know—the man loves a drink, is famously missing all kinds of teeth and seems to struggle with simple speech— but as Temple digs deeper into where the man was during the rise of punk, how he merged patriotic Irish pride with his love affair with the then-burgeoning 1970s punk

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4 + FIGHT SCENES;

ONE PRETTY OK JOKE - TIRED IDEAS; NO ACTOR SEEMS PUMPED TO BE THERE

drowning, basically, when her buddy Charleen (Sloan, a cop for some reason) introduces her to an underground women’s fight club. The wisdom goes something like: If you face your fear of having the shit beaten out of you, everything else in life seems less terrifying.

Of course, Anna’s no good at fighting, so she enlists the help of former trainer-turnedalcoholic (Baldwin) about whom endless rummy jokes are made. Yikes. But he Miyagis her into fighting shape to take on the big, bad Olivia (Bella Thorne), a fight club newcomer who thinks things should be more competitive than therapeutic.

Surprise! Anna gets good at punching through a montage, falls hard for the fight club doctor (Entourage douchebag Kevin Connolly), learns some things about herself along the way and

explosion and what that means for music even today, we learn Irish sounds had been in danger of disappearing altogether outside of the tiny pubs and communal rooms and the niche listeners (with respect to The Chieftains).

Instead, Pogues bandmates like Spider Stacy and James Fearnley brought the tin whistle and accordion to the punk world.

MacGowan’s lyrics wound up like a sort of dark and shockingly open form of political poetry (though he says in the film that he hates to be described as a poet as it makes him feel like the music didn’t matter as much to anyone). Whether or not most folks know it, in fact, The Pogues impacted modern, punk and mainstream music in a way that might not have made them household names to most, but catapulted them into the pantheon of music scholars, punk hooligans and the keepers of cool culture.

Temple does wonders at showcasing MacGowan’s contributions to music without shying away from his issues with drugs, booze, anger and family. Animated sequences add enjoyable weirdness and an extra layer of artistry. It’s sad, though, that producer and longtime MacGowan confidant Johnny Depp felt the need to insert himself in the movie for whatever reason, but it is fun to see Shane stick it to him about the Pirates movie franchise. Depp notwith-

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avails herself of one of the more awkwardly implemented deus ex machina moments of all time just as we started to think all was lost. Uggggggh!

Even some kickass fight scenes can’t ultimately save a middling-at-best movie. Really, too, it feels like they had most of a movie and settled on an ending the day before filming it. Anna wins (sorry for the spoiler, but what did you expect?)! She was the Mighty Duck all along! Or Daniel LaRusso? She was a Bad News Bear? Or wait…maybe she got her groove back?

Hard to say, but you know the old axiom: If you put it on Amazon for $6, they will come.

CHICK FIGHT Directed by Paul Leyden With Akerman, Sloan, Feimster, Thorne and Baldwin Amazon, R, 97 min.

standing, Crock of Gold ought to wow the Pogues fans, win a few new fans and maybe even earn MacGowan a little more respect outside the UK. He deserves it and more.

(ADV)

Violet Crown Virtual Cinema, NR, 124 min.

ANYTHING FOR JACKSON

8

+ FRESH; MCCARTHY AND RICHINGS - SOMETIMES FEELS SILLY WHEN WE’RE LOOKING FOR SCARES

Ummm…Canadian directors are making some of the coolest horror movies lately.

If you don’t believe us, just check out last year’s Blood Quantum, a fun-yet-terrifying zombie thriller wherein Indigenous people face hordes of white undead in the Great White North.

This year’s stellar Canadian horror entry, Anything for Jackson, comes to us on the Shudder streaming service from director Justin G. Dyck. He’s mainly worked in television movies so far, and it’s a glorious updating of the possession trope mixed with a sort of deconstruction of privilege, suburbia and family.

We join couple Henry and Audrey Walsh (Julian Richings and Sheila McCarthy) in the aftermath of their grandson Jackson’s death.

The couple never got over the car accident

that took the kid, so what to do in a situation like that? Make use of a thousand-year-old book of Satanist spells, of course. Audrey manages to claim dominion over life and death, and the couple hatches a plan to kidnap (and, weirdly, care for) a young pregnant woman (Konstantina Mantelos) in the hopes of transferring Jackson’s soul into that of her soon-to-be-born child.

Still with us? Good. Because it shouldn’t be so fun to observe what most film writers are calling a reverse exorcism, but it is.

McCarthy in particular sings in the role of Audrey. She exudes a motherly calmness and kindness that feels all the more horrifying given her mission, and Riching’s counterpoint role as her husband feels natural but bizarre. From the start, the pair’s adorable old-folks thing winds up being one of the more unsettling aspects of Dyck’s opus.

Anything for Jackson ultimately proves a worthy addition to new school horror alongside recent highlights such as It Follows and The Cured, though while those films seemed to take their sweet time trying to creep us out, Dyck and company hit us where we live immediately, making us question what grief might lead to, and whether our own families are as put-together as we hope. You haven’t seen anything like this, but you need to. (ADV)

Shudder, NR, 97 min.

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50 “Battlefield Earth” author Hubbard 52 Director Van Sant 1 “Breaking Bad” sidekick 55 ANSWER TO THE QUESTION 6 Written test format 61 Closest to the ground, stature-wise 11 Some mainframe computers 62 Otherworldly 15 Follow, as an impulse 63 Mgr.’s helper 16 Pleas 64 Creator of Yertle the Turtle 18 QUESTION, PART 1 65 Laundry cycle 20 Cry bitterly 21 Blows away DOWN 22 ___ St. Soul (U.K. R&B/ 1 Movie score with a famous soul group) two-note motif 23 Controversial ride-sharing app 2 Bounce back 25 Fall back, as a tide 3 Aimless attempt 26 ASPCA part 4 Imbiber 29 QUESTION, PART 2 5 Grind to a halt 34 “Forrest Gump” actor Gary 6 Milne’s mopey donkey 35 “The Man Who Mistook His 7 Flaky precipitation Wife for ___” (1985 best-seller) 8 Comedians Gilliam and 36 “Laugh-In” comedian Johnson Goldsmith, for two 37 Like many indie films 9 Rainbow shape 38 “Buon giorno,” in Brisbane 10 “While that might be true ...”

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26 Wall, for one 27 Playful aquatic animals 28 Dated term for college students 29 Site for reflection?

30 Prompt 31 Corvair investigator Ralph 32 “They went ___-way” 33 Actress Lauren of 2020’s “The Wrong Missy” 34 Louis Armstrong’s nickname 38 Unidentifiable cafeteria food 39 Did some karaoke 41 Repercussions 42 “Ghost Town” actress Tea 44 Irritate 45 Fastening bars shaped like letters 49 Louisiana, to Louis 50 In ___ of (replacing) 51 Monica Geller’s brother 52 Jack-o’-lantern look 53 College team from Salt Lake City 54 “Auld Lang ___” 55 “Don’t text and drive” ad, for short 56 Acuity measures that don’t really matter 57 Questionable, in “Among Us,” slangily 58 Hustle, quaintly 59 High-jump hurdle 60 Peyton’s sibling

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MIND BODY SPIRIT ACUPUNCTURE Rob Brezsny

Week of December 9th

ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to Taoist scholar Chad Hansen, “Western philosophers have endlessly analyzed and dissected a cluster of terms thought to be central to our thinking,” such as truth, beauty, reason, knowledge, belief, mind, and goodness. But he reports that they’ve never turned their attention to a central concept of Chinese philosophy: the Tao, which might be defined as the natural, unpredictable flow of life’s ever-changing rhythms. I think that you Aries people, more than any other sign of the zodiac, have the greatest potential to cultivate an intuitive sense of how to align yourselves vigorously with the Tao. And you’re in prime time to do just that.

with a ten-page analysis that advised a different ending, among other suggestions. Hemingway wasn’t pleased. “Kiss my ass,” he wrote back to Fitzgerald. I suggest a different approach for you, Libra. In my view, now is a good time to solicit feedback and mirroring from trusted allies. What do they think and how do they feel about the current state of your life and work?

If they do respond, take at least some of it to heart.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Mistletoe is a parasite that grows on trees, weakening them. On the other hand, it has been a sacred plant in European tradition.

People once thought it conferred magical protection.

It was called “all-heal” and regarded as a medicine that could cure numerous illnesses. Even today, it’s TAURUS (April 20-May 20): What’s the cause of used in Europe as a remedy for colon cancer. And of the rumbling at the core of your soul? How do we explain the smoke and steam that are rising from the course mistletoe is also an icon meant to encourage lower depths? From what I can discern, the fire down kissing. After studying your astrological potentials, I’m proposing that mistletoe serve as one of your symbolbelow and the water down below are interacting to ic power objects in the coming months. Why? produce an almost supernatural state of volatile yet numinous grace. This is a good thing! You may soon Because I suspect that you will regularly deal with potencies and energies that could potentially be either begin having visions of eerie loveliness and earthproblematic or regenerative. You’ll have to be alert to shaking peace. The clarity that will eventually ensure that they express primarily as healing agents. emerge may at first seem dark, but if you maintain your poise it will bloom like a thousand moons.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I’m envisioning a GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author and student Raquel scene in which you’re sitting on a chair at a kitchen table.

Isabelle de Alderete writes wittily about her paradoxi- At the center of the table is a white vase holding 18 longstemmed red roses. The rest of the table’s surface is cal desires and contradictory qualities. In accordance filled with piles of money, which you have just unloaded with current astrological omens, I encourage you to from five mysterious suitcases you found at your front ruminate about your own. For inspiration, read her tesdoor. All of that cash is yours, having been given to you timony: “I want to be untouchably beautiful but I also no-strings-attached by an anonymous donor. You’re in don’t want to care about how I look. I want to be at the joyful shock as you contemplate the implications of this top of my class but I also just want to do as best as I miraculous gift. Your imagination floods with fantasies can without driving myself to the edge. I want to be a about how different your life can become. Now, mystery that’s open to everybody. A romantic that Sagittarius, I invite you to dream up at least three further never falls in love. Both the bird and the cat.” wonderfully positive fantasies involving good financial luck. That’s the medicine you need right now.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): What would it take for you to muster just a bit more courage so as to CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Boisterous Capricorn change what needs to be changed? How could you novelist Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) once made the summon the extra excitement and willpower neces- following New Year’s Eve Toast: “To all the devils, lusts, sary to finally make progress on a dilemma that has passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, stumped you? I’m happy to inform you that cosmic enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with rhythms will soon be shifting in such a way as to which I do battle—may they never give me peace.” Right make these breakthroughs more possible. For best now I suspect you may be tempted to make a similar results, shed any tendencies you might have to feel toast. As crazy-making as your current challenges are, sorry for yourself or to believe you’re powerless. they are entertaining and growth-inducing. You may LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Novelist Tom Robbins says you have the power to change how you perceive the world. You can change reality—and how reality responds to you—by the way you look at it and interpret it. This counsel is especially useful for you right now, Leo. You have an unparalleled opportunity to reconfigure the way you apprehend things, and thereby transform the world you live in. So I suggest you set your intention. Vow that for the next two weeks, every experience will bring you a fresh invitation to find out something you didn’t know before.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected in 2019. During his campaign, the Virgo-born politician arranged to be photographed while wearing the saffron robes of a Hindu priest and meditating in an austere Himalayan cave. Why did he do it? To appeal to religious voters.

But later it was revealed that the “cave” was in a cozy retreat center that provides regular meals, electricity, phone service, and attentive attendants. It will be crucial for you to shun this type of fakery in 2021, Virgo. Your success will depend on you being as authentic, genuine, and honest as you can possibly be. Now is an excellent time to set your intention and start getting yourself in that pure frame of mind.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When author Ernest Hemingway was working on the manuscript for his novel A Farewell to Arms, he asked his colleague F. Scott Fitzgerald to offer critique. Fitzgerald obliged

even have become a bit addicted to them. But in the interests of your long-term sanity, I will ask you to cut back on your “enjoyment” of all this uproar. Please consider a retreat into an intense self-nurturing phase.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the French city of Strasbourg, there’s a wine cellar built in the year 1395.

Among its treasures is a barrel filled with 450 liters of wine that was originally produced in 1472. According to legend, this ancient beverage has been tasted on just three occasions. The last time was to celebrate the French army’s liberation of Strasbourg from German occupation in 1944. If I had the power, I would propose serving it to you Aquarians in honor of your tribe’s heroic efforts to survive—and even thrive—during the ordeals of 2020. I’m predicting that life in 2021 will have more grace and progress because of how you have dealt with this year’s challenges.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): There are too many authorities, experts, know-it-alls, and arrogant ideologues trying to tell us all what to do and how to do it.

Fortunately, the cosmic rhythms are now aligned in such a way as to help you free yourself from those despots and bullies. Here’s more good news: Cosmic rhythms are also aligned to free you from the nagging voice in your own head that harass you with fearful fantasies and threaten you with punishment if you aren’t perfect.

Homework: What’s the one thing you don’t have that would help you make the biggest improvement in your life? FreeWillAstrology.com

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone © CO P Y R I G H T 2 0 2 0 R O B B R E Z S N Y at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

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LEGAL NOTICE TO CREDITORS/ NAME CHANGE STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE IN THE FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF RILEY MALONEY KELLEY, Deceased.

No. D-101-PB-2020-00242 NOTICE TO CREDITORS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed Personal Representative of this estate. All persons having claims against this estate are required to present their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of this notice or the claims will be forever barred.

Claims must be presented either to the undersigned Personal Representative in care of Karen Aubrey, Esq., Aubrey Law Firm, LLC, Post Office Box 8435, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-8435, or filed with the First Judicial District Court, Santa Fe County Judicial Complex, Post Office Box 2268, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2268.

Dated: Nov. 24, 2020. /s/ JOAN D. KELLEY AUBREY LAW FIRM, LLC By: /s/ KAREN AUBREY P.O. Box 8435 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-8435 (505) 982-4287; (505) 986-8349 ka@karenaubreylaw.com Attorney for Personal Representative

FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF SANTA FE STATE OF NEW MEXICO No. D-101-PB-2020-00245 IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF MILTON ARLEN ASHER, Deceased.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed Personal Representative of this estate. All persons having claims against this estate are required to present their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of this Notice if this Notice is given by publication as provided in Subsection A of Section 45-3-801 NMSA 1978 or within sixty (60) days after the mailing or delivery of this Notice for creditors who are given actual notice as provided by Subsection B of Section 45-3-801 NMSA 1978, whichever is later, or the claims will be forever barred.

Claims must be presented either to the undersigned Personal Representative at 320 Osuna Rd NE, Ste G-4, Albuquerque, NM 87107, or filed with the Santa Fe County District Court.

DATED: December 3, 2020.

Kelly Asher, Personal Representative of the Estate of Milton Arlen Asher, deceased 9210 Cherokee Road NE Albuquerque NM 87111 (505) 414-6463 KENNETH C. LEACH & ASSOCIATES, P.C. By /s/ Sara M. Bonnell Attorney for Kelly Asher, Personal Representative of the Estate of Milton Arlen Asher, deceased 320 Osuna Rd NE, Ste. G4 Albuquerque NM 87107 (505) 883-2702

STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN A. BAILEY, Deceased.

No. D-101-PB-2020-00247 NOTICE TO CREDITORS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned has been appointed Personal Representative of this estate. All persons having claims against this estate are required to present their claims within four months after the date of the first publication of this notice or the claims will be forever barred.

Claims must be presented either to the undersigned personal representative in care of Karen Aubrey, Esq., Aubrey Law Firm, LLC, Post Office Box 8435, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-8435, or filed with the First Judicial District Court, Santa Fe County Judicial Complex, Post Office Box 2268, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2268.

Dated: November 24, 2020. /s/ TRACY B. BRIGHTMAN LAW OFFICE OF KAREN AUBREY By: /s/ KAREN AUBREY P.O. Box 8435 Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-8435 (505) 982-4287; facsimile (505) 986-8349 ka@karenaubreylaw.com

Adopt Me please!

Santa Fe Animal Shelter 100 Caja Del Rio Road, Santa Fe, NM 87507

505-983-4309

sfhumanesociety.org MEET MORTY a sweet 2-year-old domestic shorthaired male kitty who currently weighs about 10 pounds.

Morty came to us looking for a home for the holidays. During his time at the shelter, Morty has shown to be a bit shy when meeting new humans — but once he gets to know you he will show you his lovely personality, especially when he is offered some treats! Morty loves to sit in his enclosure and watch the world go by.

If you would like to meet Morty, please call Adoption at 505-983-4309 extension 1610.

MEET RUPERT, a very handsome pup who currently weighs about 60 pounds. He came to the shelter as a stray and was heartworm positive, so we treated him in early October and he is recovering. Rupert is about four years old, which is a great age for him to be a couch potato with his new family. He is a smart dog and loves people, cuddles time, and even knows a few tricks! He loves KONG treats and is good on leash walks.

If you would like to meet Rupert, please call Adoption at 505-9834309 extension 1610.

CHIMNEY SWEEPING

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Call Casey’s for an honest assessment and a fair price.

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505-989-5775

The Shelter’s adoption hours during the pandemic are from 11 am to 5 pm daily and is by appointment only. Please call 505-983-4309 to schedule an appointment.

For updated COVID-19 shelter policies, visit SFHumaneSociety.org Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Mookie and the Road Gang

CONSTRUCTION & CONTRACTORS

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Get your FREE custom quote to OWN a SOLAR ENERGY power system: - SAVE MONEY AND ENVIRONMENT - ADD INSTANT HOME EQUITY - $0 DOWN at 2.99% - U.S. MADE - HOMEOWNER WITH GOOD CREDIT? Call Eric (575) 779-7958; esalcido@ionsolar.com

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HANDYPERSON

Safety, Value, Professionalism.

We have grown to become the largest, best trained, best equipped, top rated chimney service company in New Mexico. We sell, service, inspect, restore, and troubleshoot fireplaces, wood stoves and chimneys.

Free check-up of your fire extinguishers, smoke and CO alarms, and dryer vents with every chimney cleaning.

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Call Bailey’s today 505-988-2771

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Discounts available to seniors, veterans, handicap.

Texts welcome or call and leave a message at 670-8827 Call back within 6 hrs guaranteed. www.handymannm.com

ADVERTISE IT HERE IN THE SERVICE DIRECTORY! ROBYN@ SFREPORTER.COM

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

These and other animals are available for adoption from the Santa Fe Animal Shelter at 100 Caja del Rio Road.

SPONSORED BY

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ART THE CHIMNEY SWEEP 17 years serving Northern New Mexico.

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We will beat any price!

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WOMEN'S MOON GROUP: In this group, we will work with the cycles of the moon to attune to our own internal process and rhythms. The group will utilize intention, ritual, art, meditation, and other creative processes within the context of a safe, supportive container.

Group meets every Monday (Moon-day) from 5:30-7 pm from 1/04 to 2/08 via Zoom. $10/session, sliding scale. Co-facilitated by student therapists Laura and Heidi. To register call Tierra Nueva Counseling Center: 505-471-8575.

ADVERTISE AN EVENT, WORKSHOP OR LECTURE HERE IN THE COMMUNITY ANNOUCMENTS CALL 988.5541 TO PLACE YOUR AD TODAY! SFREPORTER.COM

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