9 Things I Love About New Mexico ... and one, not so much

August 4, 2008 --

I have just returned from another trip, this time to attend my High School Reunion in Pampa, Texas (allow me a shout-out to my peeps: We're the Class that's really great!).

But first I spent 3 glorious days in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and from the moment I crossed the State line, I knew it would be an 'awesome' trip...for the following reasons (I threw in one movie reference at the very end to keep this post legit):

# 9. 75 mile-per-hour Speed Limit -- gotta love that.

# 8. Those cool yellow license plates (the new ones are even better: they've added a burnt orange balloon!)

# 7. Coyotes (the furry, 4-legged ones, not the ones smuggling immigrants over the border). One crossed my path while I was searching for a gas station off the highway.

# 6. Two Margaritas in high-altitude Santa Fe are the equivalent of 3-1/2 margaritas at sea level! (that made those $8.75 'Silver Coin' margaritas at The Shed taste even better!)

# 5. At the Santa Fe Opera, even the coffee is good (and cheaper than water!) [More about this experience later.]

# 4. Sharing a breakfast table on my B&B's patio with a cute blonde Aussie named Amanda. [Note to self: plan upcoming post entitled "10 Things I Love About Australia" #1: Naomi Watts.]

# 3. Chatting with the Brooklyn-born owner of an upscale Italian restaurant a block from my B&B. How upscale? It bills itself as a "fragrance-free restaurant" -- you are literally denied admittance if you are wearing perfume or cologne! That, and the $16./glass of Montepulciano make it 'upscale' in my book. It was here where I also met and chatted with....

# 2. ... a real live Opera Star! You might not have heard of Gwynne Howell, a 70-year old Welsh bass-baritone, but he has been on the stage for decades, and I first heard him in Houston in the production of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd (I saw a different production of Billy Budd in Santa Fe). He and his wife could not have been nicer when I interrupted their dessert to gush. (The waiter tipped me off, but I had to figure out which character he played). He was doing Figaro in Santa Fe. It makes me wish I could have gone out more and run into the Number One Thing I Love About NM.....

# 1. Deborah Domanski's bare midriff! (She would necessarily be attached to it if I ran into it).

Like me, you may never have heard of this young mezzo soprano, but when she made her first appearance in last Friday's production of Handel's rarely-performed Radamisto at the SF Opera, I knew my vacation -- and the fourth-row seat I bought two weeks before -- had been well worth it. I can best describe her as the opera world's version of Mary-Louise Parker. The outlandish, Turkish-inspired costumes in this production not only accentuated her lithe waist, it made it a featured performer! [A rare pleasure in opera, if you're familiar with the average weight of opera singers.]

Now that Anna Netrebko went and got herself pregnant, Deborah D. possesses, hands down, the finest waist in all of Opera!!

But don't take my word for it: read what this dude had to say about her: “The lovely mezzo-soprano Deborah Domanski (replacing Christine Rice, who withdrew from the production because of illness) sings the courageous Zenobia with luscious sound and lyrical refinement.” – Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

If you still think I'm exaggerating, check out these photos:

And the one thing I didn't like so much about NM ...

I knew checking into the Silver Saddle Motel for my last night in town -- across the street from Santa Fe's only strip club (the prosaically-named 'Cheeks') -- was going to be an adventure, but the lobby had a signed picture from Clint Eastwood (circa Spaghetti Western Clint) so how bad could it be? What I did not expect was my 3am wake-up call to be the sound of breaking glass and some woman shouting every Spanish curse word I know (and some I probably don't) at her male companion (john?) who threw her out of his room. All I could do was pray the sound wasn't coming from my rental car parked outside. The next morning I surveyed the damage: every window on this poor guy's Pontiac Grand Prix was completely smashed-in, and it was parked two spots away from mine!

Yikes.

I'll leave you with a more pleasant memory:

Now do you understand why I love opera??