New Mexico Mercury

Provincial Matters, 7-28-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

The most important book of the 20th century

Well, we could argue over a couple of other non-fiction books, but Silent Spring is somewhere at the top.

The sedge is wither’d from the lake,

And no birds sing.

John Keats’ couplet starts this book of revelation by Rachel Carson, published in 1962; my 1994 edition has an introduction written by Vice President Al Gore. The VP says it’s a humbling experience to write about this book, because the book is undeniable proof that the power of an idea can be far greater than the power of politicians...

Provincial Matters, 7-21-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Insight New Mexico - Mimi Stewart

V.B. Price talks with Rep. Mimi Stewart about the education reforms enacted by the Susana Martinez administration. Rep. Stewart is a former teacher with 30 years of experience and who currently chairs the Education Committee in the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Lucy Lippard’s Mind: A Review of “Undermining”

The inimitable Lucy Lippard’s latest work offers a critical examination of land use in the West and the wheels of politics and art that affect it.

A love letter to New Mexico

Dear New Mexico,

No one writes letters anymore.  No one ever writes to states.  They should.  I’m writing to you because I’ve just driven through your land, beneath your open sky, for ten days.  Now that I’m back in Colorado, my belly is too empty.  I miss you.

I miss you, and I’ve never taken the time to tell you how I love you.

The first time I met you, in 1998, I was twenty.  I’d traveled all the way to Las Cruces because I’d fallen in love with a boy who was from there.  He said he wanted to show me the desert...

Provincial Matters, 7-14-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Fracking Fights Loom Large in Mexico

Mexico is emerging as the next big battleground in conflicts over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the method of extracting natural gas is commonly known.

While Mexican lawmakers consider regulatory legislation to put into practice the 2013 energy reform that opened up their county’s oil and gas reserves to private investors,  anti-fracking forces are mobilizing for a moratorium or an outright ban of the controversial practice from the Mexican Congress...

Insight New Mexico - Arturo Sandoval

V.B. Price talks with Arturo Sandoval, President and founder of the Center for Southwest Culture, about the sustainability of the organization and its many community projects.

Thirsty Locals and Their Declining Wells

As the aquifer gets increasingly strained, in New Mexico and beyond, Mike Agar explores the concept of aquifer recharge and storage.