Land of enchantment

10 things worth sharing (inspired by our trip to New Mexico)

Hey y’all,

In case you missed it, on Tuesday I shared a list of my favorite 21st century books with pictures. (No paywall! Have at it.) Thanks to everybody who commented — I have a huge list of graphic novels to check out.

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week, inspired by our family’s recent trip to New Mexico:

1. We loved Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. I’m glad I didn’t read too much about it before we went, because it was a surprise and a delight. It captured all four of our imaginations, so much so that we watched Meow Wolf: Origin Story a few nights later in our hotel room. It’s not an earth-shattering documentary or anything, but it’s an inspiring story with a good soundtrack. There are multiple Meow Wolf locations across the country and two in Texas — “The Real Unreal” near Dallas, and a forthcoming exhibition in Houston. We’re toying with the idea of hitting them all up in the next few years.
   
   

2. I like the idea of having some sort of thing that you do in every city you visit. Grocery shopping is a good one: you discover a lot about a place just by wondering the aisles of the local supermarket. Personally, I love the idea of visiting the local public library wherever you go. Had I made a point of visiting the Santa Fe Public Library at the beginning of our trip, for example, I would’ve walked past a good coffee shop and a bike rental joint, and maybe even gotten some good tips from a local librarian. Next time! (Several of you sent me this lovely piece about how the library can save your life.)
   
   

3. Other highlights of our trip: Driving The Turquoise Trail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and The High Road between Taos to Santa Fe, soaking in the hot springs at Ojo Caliente, driving a pizza up to the Aspen Vista Picnic Site, walking around all day in July and not sweating, strolling the lavender farm at Los Poblanos in Albuquerque, eating Christmas enchiladas at La Choza, and seeing multiple rainbows in one week.
   
   

4. I love the beauty and simplicity of the flag of New Mexico, and found myself drawing the sun symbol a lot, which I found out later was appropriated from the people of the Pueblo of Zia: “The symbol has a sacred meaning to the Zia. Four is a sacred number that symbolizes the Circle of Life: four winds, four seasons, four directions, and four sacred obligations.” (The four obligations — strong body, clear mind, pure spirit, and devotion to the welfare of your people —  reminded me a lot of the 4-H pledge I grew up saying. Everything is connected.)
   
   

5. Pool reading: After seeing Los Alamos and the old buildings of the Ranch School, I picked American Prometheus back up. Oppenheimer had quite the gig in his late 20s: splitting time between teaching in Berkeley and Pasadena, and spending his summers partly in New Mexico and Ann Arbor. What a life!
   
   

6. The soundtrack to our high desert drives: the first two albums of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The boys grew up on Kraftwerk, so I don’t know how we never got into YMO, but better late than never. We love Solid State Survivor the most overall, but that first record slaps too. The boys are nuts about the video for “Rydeen.” I’ve been slowly working my way through YMO’s back catalog and the solo releases from the individual members: I love drummer/singer Yukihiro Takahashi’s Neuromantic (especially “Drip Dry Eyes”), Haruomi Hosono’s Paraiso and Pacific, and the late Ryuichi Sakamoto’s gigantic back catalog of albums and film scores like Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. (Most recently, I watched Opus, his swan song and last concert recorded solo at the piano as a parting gift in 2022. Next month they’re releasing an album of the concert which includes his version of YMO’s song “Tong Poo.”)
   
   

7. This month’s mixtape was inspired by YMO’s fantastic cover of “Firecracker” by Martin Denny. I asked my 11-year-old if he would swap tracks with me and build a playlist together. See if you can figure out whose tracks are whose. (I also made a big 5-hour playlist out of my monthly mixes if you want to listen to them all in one place. Hit shuffle!)
   
   

8. We saw a road runner in an Albuquerque back alley within an hour of landing in ABQ. I’ve loved watching Chuck Jones’ Coyote and Road Runner cartoons with the boys since they were little, but I was blown away by our recent re-watch of “What’s Opera, Doc?” An incredible six minutes of art, much of it thanks to genius designer Maurice Noble. Noble grew up partly in New Mexico, which is where he got the inspiration for many of the backgrounds in the Road Runner cartoons. There’s a beautiful book about his work called The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design. (Jones’ memoir Chuck Amuck is worth reading, too.)
   
   

9. Cloudspotting: The kids loved how low the clouds looked in the desert, how they touched the mountains. I saw a new book when we were out and about called Cloudspotting for Beginners (Maria has a nice look inside) and when we got back home, I saw the book A Cloud a Day sitting on my neighbor’s coffee table. It turns out that they are both by cloud expert Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who just so happens to be a co-founder of my beloved magazine, The Idler. (Now I want to read all his books, including The Cloud Collector's Handbook.)
   
   

10. I am a big believer that travel doesn’t relieve your problems, it throws them into relief. You see your life in a new light and new shadows. The desert light can be good for this. At its peak, it is harsh and unforgiving, but at dusk and dawn it softens, becomes more mysterious. Every trip has its challenges, but I returned home, as I often do, with a sense of perspective and a clarity about what I want to do next. What more could one ask for? (“Go away so you can come back.”)

Thanks to everyone who sent me recommendations for our trip! We had to leave out a lot, as you can tell. I hope you enjoyed the latest issue of this hand-rolled, ad-free, anti-algorithm, completely reader-supported publication. You can help keep it going by becoming a paid subscriber:

If you need some (short) summer reading, the paperback of Steal Like an Artist is still 53% off and only $6.99 on Amazon.

xoxo,

Austin