Howdy Fellow Reprobates,
Life on The Mesa Marquesa continues, with the help of Online Cults such as thee...

In the middle of Spring Snowstorms and Wild Winds... neccessary to blow the hard seeds out of their pods and drive them into the hard desert ground, for late May flowering... I entertained two Sets of Decadents from New York and Austin.

Michael Madison and David Duncan landed at the Hotel Santa Fe, run by Picuris Pueblo Indians...
we visited Mesa Marquesa, got a guided tour of archives at the Millicent Rogers Museum, and much more. Madgely wants to tell her own tale here and post photos...

We enjoyed the pleasures of Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs (getting muddy)... vegan cuisine at Cafe Pasquale on Easter Sunday (Pasquale indeed), of solar electricity (yes it really works), of Edge o' Cliff vertigo, orangina moments, and a full 180 degree rainbow at Ghost Ranch.

On their last day, we met up at the Hell Hotel in Madrid with Brian Damage and Tad, and Tads' adorable Dad Mike. After weathering Hurricane Katrina a mere 6 months after defecting from the Lower East Side, the guys went to Arkansas, then Austin, endured black mold attacks, and are now thinking of New Mexico... I hope they build!

Speakng of the joys of construction, I just found out my 5-acres-per-one-house restriction has expired. (Yeah! so I'll be putting up a 33-story luxury condo~!!! oh yeah.) I need more room since I won't throw out my enormous wardrobe and keep on buying books. Plus I have to start the leopard farm.

Next posting a perfect photo moment as Pearl and Beauregarde showed off their excellent climbing skills for Madgely.

Love, S'tan

This message has been edited. Last edited by: S'tan,

Gorgeous!

I saw Mr. & Mr. Madison last night @ Anna Nicole's house.
I said, "Was I kidding about S'tanley's back porch?"
"No, you weren't kidding".

40 story drop to oblivion.

Looking down, looking up... they also flipped out on the megawatt stars.

The first time I came out here and saw the Milky Way I screamed.
I thought something was wrong with the sky.

Oh S'tanly, I just sat down to add my little bit and ...remember when you hosted my birthday party a few years ago and we set up a very tribal-sounding Siouxsie & the Banshees b-side to play on a continuous loop at the door? It's called Sunless, and it's very New Mex, instrumental and all percussion. Well, it just came on as I began to type and it's the perfect soundtrack to remembrances of our visit, as you've already captured above. I must say I felt kind of witchy out there. I always have such a terrible sense of direction no matter where I am, but in New Mexico it was as if I just knew the way. It was odd. Trite as it sounds, I felt a real connection to the land there.

Maybe that explains how, when we were hiking around the mesa, and I was marveling at all of the incredible rocks underfoot, I had just asked S'tan if anyone ever found any crystals among them, and not five minutes after her answer 'no - never,' there appeared on the ground before me a chunk of quartz with three gorgeous pristine crystals growing up out of it.

I had my reservations about S'tan making a full-time move to The West, at first. But now I see that it's perfect for her. The first word I thought of on seeing the limitless horizon was extreme. It's an exceedingly extreme place, in its isolation, in its light, its wind, its primevalness, its horizontality. It's sort of the anti-New York and its artificial verticality. We had never seen such an incredible play of light, as the sun and clouds caused a constant change in the landscape. The same view looked different with each glance.

S'tan's home and surrounding cliffs were the real highlights of the trip, but we also fell in love with the canyons along the Rio Grande on our drive to Taos. And Taos of course has its own magic, though we didn't hear the "Taos Hum"-the unexplained low sound that many people there claim can be heard if you really listen. The prevailing theory is that it's a sound caused by the grinding of the tectonic plates that gave New Mexico much of its breathtaking beauty. We had a tour of the Millicent Rogers Museum there, which was full of native pots, jewelry, tools, and icons. My favorite piece there was a Spanish death cart c. 1900 (see below picture), which had been used in Day of the Dead celebrations. The museum's director told us that a black scarf was meant to adorn her head, but they would come in each morning to find it on the floor. So eventually someone replaced it with a piece of gold lace, which the driver seems to prefer -- it stays on! The superstitious director also showed us a cabinet of spooky kachina dolls. She claimed they dance around at night!

A very magikal trip. We'll be back to do it all again S'tan: the arsenic & iron baths, the milky way, the perfect rainbow.

How's this for an amateur photo stitch of that perfect rainbow:

the death cart

views from S'tan's 'back yard'

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Our S'tan, Marchesa of the Mesa, at the Mable Dodge House in Taos

S'tan u look great!!

What an AMAZING place it looks ...well... unreal I think the word is!

Had to post a closeup of our friend in the death cart, resplendent in her gold lace

and here's Madge of the Mesa, with David, climbing to the sky

I climbed up there too!
It's fantastic.
Gave my wife a heart attack.

Yay Madgely... thanks for the compliment Anna!
my hair went burgundy...
that Death Cart Lady is also someone who wanders around at night... Picking up the wandering souls of people who had their keys taken away at last call.

Empress sat in the back the house shivering while Daddy danced all over the cliffs. From the distance, it looks like one is walking along on a vertical surface! An old Carlos Casteneda hoo-doo trick: "How is that witch-doctor WALKING ON AIR?"

Happy Summer Solstice Sisters
Daytime it's already grilling, in the 90s, with cicadas' electrical sparkle in the air... Cats like to munch the crunchy bugs... Now it's night-time, the crickets take over from the cicadas, a more feminine drone in the cold night...

Happy Daddy's Day too!
Planned as usual to bury Daddy's ashes but then just could not. I think he likes it on the altar with his giant-size Bud... not admixed with the cliffs (volcanic ash)... I spent the afternon working on the Daddy novel, typing out this demented bio he wrote ofor himself at age 57.
"For no apparent reason, Bob Sellers was born on December 3, 1925..."

Daddy might want Binky to Come Home... Binky's been in the cat hospital for 2 days with a very mysterious bacterial infection. His little brain aflame with a high temp. I get to bring him home I hope tomorrow.

Please send beams to Binky!

Sending big beams of healing love to Binky.

Love to the ailing baby Binky, and to you S'tan..

I had such a bad feeling about this vet... I got Binky out after 48 hours and $700.
You won't believe this...
I was cleaning up Binky and saw, underneath some gucky stuff I thought was KY or something...
a GASH the size of a nickle on his back... !
obviously an OLD WOUND, maybe made by the beak of a owl? or barbed wire?
that the bloodie vets hadn't seen in FORTY-EIGHT HOURS of 'treatment." Coming up with every kind of exotic explanation.
MEANWHILE he had a WOUND that was INFECTED end of story.
I just called them and screamed....

Binky is lying on his side purring as I tend to his wound with golden seal
and am closing it up with my fingers and gauze.
... I mean a flap of skin went back, I could see his fat and tissue!!

HORRORS!
But thank you to the powers that be that I decided this AM to be my own/Binky's curandera!

Thank you for the beams, it helped, it helped.

Many beams to further Binky's recovery. In addition to the Golden Seal, if the rotten vet left you with antibiotics, keep giving them because cat-skin in an extremely unusual organ and prone to abscesses from wounds. It should not be sutured and kept bandaged to keep his tongue away... I have also heard that the same neomycin and triple antibiotic ointment that we use is also good for them. Change the bandage daily too.

And do keep him indoors till it's all healed!