RICK TAKES A ROAD TRIP

FRIDAY~ SEPTEMBER 25TH~DAY 3~ 8AM

i am politely awaken by robin @ the front desk @ 7am, "good morning rick, your bath is ready". what a dream come true. i slip on the spa's white robe and sleepwalk downstairs to my private bath...... an outdoor/ private stone hot-tub with natural mineral water from the hot springs... what a treat!
this is the way life should be, not all this $$ stress and fucking tea baggers, and credit card gougers of everyday, modern american life..
after me bath, i have a lovely breakfast of blue corn granola & yogurt. tea and an english muffin. i hit the road. good-bye TorC, perhaps i will see you for new years.

i get into ALBQ, NM, around 11am. i got my times and dates mixed up so was approx. one day late for the GO ALBQ DOWNTOWN ART FAIR. i finally find a place to park and find RAYMOND SANDOVAL @ his booth, wearing dia de los muertos inspired jeans and a mirrored, (as in disco ball) belt & buckle. quel fantastic! it's so nice to see raymond. he has the soul and spirit of an organic artist. very rare these days.

his booth has an amazing collection of his crafts from the last few years. some of the pieces i will include in THE THIN VEIL exhibition on october 17th. raymond will come to LA for the opening so i encourage everyone to come into antebellum and meet him.

raymond's BF tim comes by around 4ish.. he is bipolar, but the sweetest bipolar i have ever meet. . around 6ish i realize there is no way i can make up the mountain to jemez springs, @ night as tired as i am. tim offers to escort me up the mountain via route 66. beautiful drive, besides the fact that locals like to drive 2 miles an hour on a no-passing 2 lane road! we finally get to raymond's beauty of a home, (which he built by his own two little hands) and chill out with a cuppa tea, many of tim's conspiracy books and his doll of a cat named OLIVE. i burn a copy of the CLUB FUCK! playlist for tim and he is thrilled. he knows all the songs, despite the fact that he was 5 years old when club fuck opened. we chat the night away...we surprisingly have allot in common. perhaps i am bipolar as well?!

poor raymond drags in around 11pm... what a long day. he says some shrill woman was complaining about the morphine xmas wreath i have on display @ raymond's booth. the shrill woman said, "that is just tacky and bad taste." i won't credit the artist here on the antebellum blogspot. you know who you are you creative devil-dog!

RICK TAKES A ROAD TRIP

DAY 2~SEPTEMBER 24th~4:22pm
i left silver city this morning after a splendid bagel & cream cheese courtesy of the palace hotel.
walking around the city, i went into an eclectic antique shop with allot of hand-made items. the owner started up some idle chit-chat.. i liked some hair ornaments and thought the would be something my neighbor flavie would like. then i saw a table with t-shirts, buttons & hats for sale with the logo- tea party, tea baggers and t- is for too much taxation as in the anti-obama movement. i high-tailed it outta this town.. not coming back until the revolution, thank you very much. i hope this city goes down in flames.

drove on the scenic route highway 152-what a beauty! how come all the beautiful spots are inhabited with ugly people?
went pass the strip mines.. wow.. the land is stripped of mountain tops, now plunging ravines into nowhere.
complete rape of the land.

as i'm driving thru the most beautiful forest, i'm listening to karen carpenter singing her 70s version of solitaire. so haunting.... as karen belts out her last note- "without a love the game is always the same. he's playing solitaire". then- just around the bin i come upon a deer! as in doe- a deer-a female deer- right next to me! i can reach out and touch her. i immediately call her cecil, (named after cecil hilliard from 3rd grade class. no one liked her because she threw up during a field trip and the stigma stayed with her throughout grammar school, well into jr. high) "hello cecil," i say, you're so cute." cecil the deer just stays there and acknowledges my presence.. she is not afraid. we smile @ each other, check out each other for awhile, then part ways.

i get into TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NM, just after 2pm. Tor C is named after the 1970s game show hosted by bob barker. apparently they had a contest in the mid-70s, to see what town in america would change it's name to truth or consequences. in exchange they would receive winabegos, washers & dryers, lawnmowers, all the things they give away on those game shows.
well this town originally called HOT SPRINGS, NM took them up on their offer and renamed themselves- TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NEW MEXICO!

i'd heard about this small spa town, (population 7000) for many years, first by the great writer and art critic edweard lucie-smith, (he wrote the foreword to my book- 13 years of bondage) about 15 years ago. he lives in london, but claims to travel to TorC every year during xmas. but why??

then my dear friend- the late, great steven lowe, (former owner of the beat motel in desert hot springs, and owner of original john lautner motel) told me he and his estranged sister co-owned a church in TorC! the plot thickens.
so for many years i was drying to find out what brought these eccentric types to a town in the middle of nowhere. on new years eve- 2009, i booked a room @ the sierra grande lodge and had an absolutely wonderful time.

so, here i am 8 months later back in TorC, @ the sierra grande! the room is fantastic, the bed- four poster walnut! everything is relaxing.. i will have a mineral bath in one hour. i must say however after 2 visits to TorC, i still don't understand the attraction to this pit!

RICK TAKES A ROAD TRIP

DAY ONE- SEPTEMBER 23RD
i left LA this morning @ 5am... i drove ALL day.. covered allot of territory- breakfast @ grandma's in banning, CA. i purposely wore my white indian sari & white pants, (my yoga outfit) i thought i would give the bible-thumpers a little fear. i'm sure they think i'm muslim. every time i stop for gas @ those generic all-in-one mini malls. i get stares. people are overly polite to me to over compensate for their discomfort. it feels good.

Arizona- stopped @ stout's cider mill in willcox... a great little place where they grow their own apples and make apple pies!.
i had a slice of dutch apple with tea for teatime. the owner- ron- is fascinated with me. because of my white outfit he thinks i work for a hospital. he's so enamored he undercharges me.
i travel across CA- AZ & NM all in one day..it was amazing. it was cathartic.

it is now 8pm and i am in silver city, NM, (founded in 1870!) i love things 100 years and older.

my grandfather was a miner here. actually he was a young boy and worked as a translator for the mexican workers- none who spoke english. he'd lived in NM since he was 2 years old, so he was the rare bilingual. back then mexicans, indians & asians were forbidden to work in the mines underground. the powers that be didn't want them to stake any claim on the precious metals. that was only reserved for caucasians.
my grandfather met my grandmother here around 1918. they had 2 children here. both died soon after birth.

i had dinner @ a cute little mexican restaurant on main street. as i waited for my food, these two, very fat -"good ol boys chatted about how obama was ruining america, how illegals were getting compensated for not having abortions, how everyone, (non-whites) were ripping off america. BUT these guys feel safe because they have their guns... they were listing all the firearm they have. as i listened to them i thought about my grandfather who worked here about 100 years ago, how he slaved for pennies so these stupid men could sit here in a mexican restaurant and trash other cultures.. i thought to myself, your guns will not keep you safe.. you will succumb to your own gluttony~ you whales disguised as men.

i took my dinner to go. i am staying @ the palace hotel, built in 1882! i am alone.

THE THIN VEIL

the veil between worlds is the thinnest around a;; hallows eve
antebellum gallery presents~ THE THIN VEIL. opens october 17th