Out There!
Aug. 4—details
* Railyard Plaza, 1612 Alcaldesa Street
* Free
* 7 p.m. on Friday, August 4
* lensic.360.org or lasantacecilia.com
FOR THE EARS
Fusion for free
La Santa Cecilia, a band named after the patron saint of music, refuses to be pigeonholed.
The Los Angeles-based fusion band will play a free show on Friday, August 4, at the Railyard Plaza, where the group will unleash a genre-bending mélange of sounds, including bossa nova, rhumba, bolero, and tango but also ska, jazz, rock, and soul.
La Santa Cecilia has been nominated for a Grammy Award four times, and its debut album Treinta Días won for Best Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album in 2014. The group was most recently nominated for a Grammy for Best Tropical Latin Album for Quiero Verte Feliz in 2023.
The show is part of Lensic 360's Summer Scene series, and Meow Wolf is the participating sponsor that allows the show to be free to the public.
— Spencer Fordin
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details
* 1-5 p.m. Saturday, August 5
* Sid Cutter Pilot's Pavilion at Balloon Fiesta Park, 4900 Balloon Fiesta Parkway NE, Albuquerque
* Ages 21+
* $3025
IN GOOD TASTE
Cheesy champs
Who makes the best mac and cheese in New Mexico's greater metro area?
Comfort food bragging rights will be on the line at Albuquerque's Mac & Cheese Festival, which will be held at Balloon Fiesta Park on Saturday, August 5.
A group of Albuquerque chefs will vie for the championship — dubbed "The Big Cheese" — and visitors can sample a variety of beverages to wash down their main course.
At a similarly cheesy festival held in Farmington in late June, the Farmington Professional Fire Fighters Association was named the Mac & Cheese Champion of the Four Corners region.
Participating restaurants at the Albuquerque event will include World Famous Laguna Burger, Kamikaze Kitchen, Ohana Hut, Slate Street Billiards, Black Angus Steakhouse, and others. — S.F.
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details
* UU (Unitarian Universalist) Santa Fe, 107 W. Barcelona Road
* 6:30 p.m. Friday, August 4, through Sunday, August 6, and August 11-13
* $20
* caryl@upstartcrowsofsantafe.org, upstartcrowsofsantafe.org
ON STAGE
A delightful dozen
In June, Upstart Crows of Santa Fe staged the famously challenging tragedy King Lear in tribute to a late member of the youth Shakespeare troupe (see "Crow's feat," Pasatiempo, June 2, 2023).
Two months later, the company is producing the anything-but-somber Twelfth Night, a comedy that starts with twins becoming separated.
As with King Lear, the presentation of Twelfth Night will feature alternating casts: Cast Messaline and Cast Illyria. Unlike in that production, both casts in Twelfth Night consist solely of children. Upstart Crows, a company for ages 10 to 18, is aimed at helping actors experience Shakespeare's language and meaning with the help of experienced directors. There are no auditions, and no acting experience is needed.
The Crows are back from Stratford, Ontario, Canada, where they saw King Lear performed at the Stratford Festival in early July, company founder Caryl Farkas says. — Brian Sandford
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details
* 6:30 p.m. Friday, August 4
* San Miguel Chapel, 401 Old Santa Fe Trail
* $20
RANDOM ACT
Tuning the table
In case you forgot from high school, the periodic table contains 118 elements, starting with hydrogen.
Multi-instrumentalist Laurianne Fiorentino and cellist Michael Kott are performing a monthly concert series dedicated to each of the elements; the next one to be "honored" is carbon, in group 14 on the periodic table. They're set to be joined by violinist Gabriel Wheaton.
The Elemental Concert series continues September 1 with francium, October 6 with antimony, November 10 with mercury, and December 1 with curium. — B.S.
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details
* 652 Canyon Road
* Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and until 6 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays
* Free live music plays on the patio 2 to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays
* Tarot with Tiffany readings are a suggested fee of $10 for five cards
* 505-428-0090; ahmyowinegarden.com
DRINK UP
Wine about art
The apricot tree above my small table at Ahmyo Wine Garden was heavy with fruit. I shamelessly picked a ripe apricot, then another, and a third one, ate them and sipped my chilled Vivác Grüner Veltliner.
Nearby, Alex Maryol was playing the blues on his acoustic guitar to a small crowd of my fellow wine sippers. Under a low tree canopy, and away from prying ears, local tarot reader Tiffany Cross was whispering to a client about his spread of cards. A group inside the casita next to my table toasted to something, just as a local woman walked by with her two small children, pointing at the patio's different sculptures.
As she and I exchanged a smile, she says, "I've lived here for 15 years, and I never knew this existed." By "this," she meant this little slice of paradise, tucked at the back of Ahmyo River Gallery on Canyon Road.
To be honest, neither did I.
Lars Andrews, the gallery's manager, ski hippy, and artist, compares Ahmyo Wine Garden to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe's Narnia — a place you dream of, or hope for, but don't know exists.
If you're lucky, you'll meet Andrews right outside the gallery's entrance on Canyon, where he likes to chat with passersby. Linger for a moment, ask him about the wine garden, and watch his face illuminate.
If you're up for it, he'll lead you through the low-ceiling adobe labyrinth of the gallery into a once-forgotten old one-acre orchard. There, you'll find plenty of shade and sunny patches, small trails, carved rocks and bistro tables, sculptures and flowers, hidden nooks, and a casita perfect for book clubs, adopt-a-kitty events, and small weddings — or for just sipping wine with a friend. Plus, you'll also find a game of cornhole and ring toss, and, closer to the gallery, a New Mexico-sourced wine and cider bar that serves food near a kiva fireplace with tables for playing Battleship and card games and doing puzzles.
An ancient acequia also runs through the middle of the group of apple, pear, and apricot trees, and it fills every Monday with water from the Acequia Madre.
"We wanted to preserve the history of Santa Fe," says artist Annette Colby as she joined me at my table by the casita with her husband, Ray Nowicki, and looked at the narrow acequia. I asked them for their vision when they opened the wine garden, and Nowicki says, "There is so much negativity in the world right now. We wanted to create a space for people to come to with their worries and anxieties and leave with a smile."
Colby and Nowicki also welcome dogs of all sizes and shapes on the patio. The owners even set up a free doggy bar outside the gallery, complete with three choices of dog treats and a large water bowl that's perfect for pups on the go and the dozens of regulars who come by on their morning and evening walks.
And if they must have favorites (which Nowicki and Colby don't, but I still forced them to pick), they offer a shoutout to one of their regulars, a fluffy white dog named Zuzu (or Susu).
— Ania Hull/For The New Mexican
