My favorite things New Mexico

If I haven’t done one of these in a while, it is because the processes which rule my life keep sending me back to the same states.  Here is a new one, since my last visit predates blogging at MR:

1. Entrepreneur: Jeff Bezos, for $75 a year you can step into a new universe.  This will go down as one of the most significant innovations of our time.  Furthermore, Microsoft was founded in New Mexico and spent its first four years there.

2. Painter: Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Georgia O’Keefe are all strong contenders, though they do not hail from the state but rather moved there to work.

3. Museum: Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe.  You can take this place as a stand-in for all the superb New Mexico visual arts of old, such as the santos and retablos.

4. Music: James Tenney, most of all his Postal Pieces.

5. Movie, set in: It is hard to think of anything other than Them!, though I suspect there are better candidates.  Contact is a good movie.

What else?  Cormac McCarthy I have never warmed to, and anyway he moved there later in life.  Don’t they have a bunch of astronauts?  Is there any popular music from this state not including John Denver?  You’ll get a separate report on the food.

The bottom line: It’s a state I’m fond of, and it has contributions in surprising areas.