Here Comes Santa Fe

The morning of our day in Santa Fe began in the most unlikely of ways: we actually slept in. For hours! But we still fit plenty in once we got rolling. We started with breakfast at Cafe Catron, where we sampled a New Mexico staple: a burrito (breakfast, in this case) served "Christmas style" (smothered in both red and green chile). Pretty tasty. Locals may now jump in and name five other places they think serve a better breakfast burrito.

We decided to grab some coffee to walk around with, and the name of one spot in particular demanded our attention: CrashMurderBusiness. I was wondering what had inspired such a bizarre name, until the sign at the door made it all clear -- it was a play on fun-sounding "mass nouns," which extended to the menu and the "Race of Roadrunners" I ordered as my beverage. (It tasted like a chocolate bonbon with chili powder. Perhaps you sense a theme of New Mexico.)

We wandered the Railyard Artisan Market for a bit, partly for "nothing in particular" but particular for something very particular. From our trip to New Orleans a few years ago, our one lingering regret is that we didn't buy a pair of paintings that really caught our eye. Since then, on any trip that takes us near the possibility of picking up some art, we take a look. Nothing spoke to us in the same way this time -- not even with the added ease of driving it back home. But we'll always have Julia Street in New Orleans... and, until we find something, a nice reason to appreciate some local artists when we travel.

Art was also the theme of the next stop, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. This multi-room gallery is dedicated to the famous artist who ultimately made New Mexico her home, and is filled with many of her paintings as well as the work of a few contemporaries, and one room of modern artists creating in response to her work.

Next, we walked the area around Santa Fe Plaza, a shopping district with a wide range of stores. We spent a few hours, first grabbing drinks at a pub called Desert Dogs (where we caught a bit of the World Cup final, including the eclectic halftime show), and ultimately picking up some clothes. I finally was able to find a hat I think works pretty well for me. (But sorry, I don't have a decent picture of me wearing it yet. Perhaps that'll come on some future trip.)

In the afternoon, we took a short trip out of the city to Nambé Falls. You wouldn't expect to find a 120-foot waterfall less than an hour outside Santa Fe, but there it is -- and with only a modest 1/4 mile hike to reach it from the trailhead. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared enough to also take the 1/4 mile hike through water to reach the base... but if you're going to be in the area and are interested, I'll throw that out there for you: take shoes you can take in the water.

By dinner time, we were back in Santa Fe and continuing the Mexican food theme: this time at a place called Tres Colores, where I took a shot at Mole Enchiladas (not a normal order for me by any stretch). It wasn't quite my thing, but I was glad for the vacation change of pace. And from what I gather, it was really good mole sauce, as evidenced by a conversation at a nearby patio table between a patron raving about it and one of the restaurant owners proudly explaining it was a family recipe.

We finished the evening with a pair of stops for after dinner drinks. First was Santa Fe Spirits, a distillery where we picked up a bottle of whiskey to tap into later for trip memories; then finally Nuckoll's Brewery, a place with a large balcony overlooking the depot where the train we'd ridden the night before pulled in after another sunset trip.

We talked about a possible morning detour to Bandelier National Monument the next day... but pretty much already knew we weren't going to do that. In the morning, we tried one more breakfast burrito stop (Tortilla Flats this time), that one more stop pretty much ending my desire to have Mexican food for the next week or two. (Nothing against that place. When in Rome... stuff your face with the local cuisine. That's pretty much how that saying goes, right?) Anyway, after a satisfying few days that we'd found very relaxing, we decided against another hike before immediately jumping in the car for a six-hour drive home.

It was a lovely little getaway to get the batteries charged ahead of Gen Con. (I know this blog has become rather intermittent anyway, but don't expect any posts for most of next week.) Colorado's neighbor to the south is a nice place to visit.

New Mexico, New Outlook

Next week is Gen Con, billed as "the best four days in gaming," but for me and many others is also a "big week at the office." To help reset and mentally prepare, my husband and I took a long weekend to road trip down to New Mexico -- which, blessedly, was actually 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the Denver area right now.

After sleeping in the best we could (how better to start a long weekend), we set out on the drive. We stopped for lunch at Brues Alehouse along the waterfront in Pueblo, but from there it was south on down to Albuquerque. Our late start and a late afternoon delay meant there wasn't much time for activity that first evening. Still, we had the first of many Mexican meals at High Noon. Well... this meal was a bit "opt in," actually, as they're also known for their steaks. But I quite enjoyed my shrimp enchiladas.

After dinner, we enjoyed drinks at a bar along a stretch of what was once the historic Route 66 -- though that factoid was not the reason we picked it. A few years ago, we were briefly caught up in the whirlwind of a Netflix reality show called Drink Masters. A dozen different bartenders competed over several episodes in a cocktail making competition. We found it engaging, despite having the same central shortcoming that all the foodie reality shows have: you can’t taste anything being judged. But one of the show's contestants, Kate Gerwin, opened up this bar in Albuquerque. And while maybe you couldn't taste exactly what was made on the show, you could sample what she makes when not under time pressure and forced into bizarre restrictions.

You could also get a thrown martini -- not shaken, not stirred -- something I hadn't even heard of before this. Had to order one. Thrown, it turns out, is what you imagine a mad scientist doing to mix a concoction, showily pouring it back and forth between two containers. Martinis aren't my thing, so I certainly can't tell you if it makes a difference. But it's certainly a fun presentational thing for a bar to do.

The next morning, we stopped at Golden Crown Panderia to grab some empanadas on our way out of town. (The place has a 24/7 vending machine for pastries out front... but being there during business hours, we didn't need to use it.) Then it was west on I-40 for a stretch until we reached the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. We'd heard about the place from a friend, and decided we had to check it out for ourselves. Over a roughly 1.5 mile hike, you climb to the edge of a volcano crater, and along the path where flowing lava cut a trench several thousands of years ago.

Then a bit later on, you head down nearly 100 steps where you feel the temperature drop about 5 degrees with every 10 steps. At the bottom, you reach a cave where the temperature never rises about 31 degrees Fahrenheit, where dripping water has collected over the ages into a sheet of algae-covered ice. Like I mentioned earlier, New Mexico isn't as hot as Denver right now... yet it was still wild to descend from a warm summer morning into a frigid cave in barely a minute.

It's a fair drive out to the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano (but worth it), and we were actually headed to Santa Fe for the evening. Still, we had time for a few stops, including La Cumbre Brewing Company. Some of you may recall the craft brewery map I picked up about a decade ago, where I mark places we've visited with pins. The craft beer industry has been going through quite the contraction since the map was new, and many of the places it shows don't exist anymore. But the possible quest to put a "gold pin" in every state continues with this stop (which had a great Mexican-style beer made with blue corn).

Our evening concluded with a "sunset serenade" excursion on the Sky Railway. Operating on a section of railroad track dating back to the earliest days of rail in the area, this tourist train takes you out to a picturesque spot in the desert to watch a truly beautiful sunset. The "serenade" part was a local Albuquerque musician who set up in the car and performed on his guitar on the two-hour round-trip journey.

Our long weekend still had one more full day ahead, which I'll recount later this week. 

Enterprise Flashback: Divergence

When last we left Enterprise, the ship was locked at warp speed and careening toward destruction. Time to resolve that cliffhanger with "Divergence."

Trip returns from Columbia to avert a catastrophe aboard Enterprise, putting both ships in the line of fire on the hunt to rescue Phlox. Trip is forced to confront his unresolved feelings for T'Pol, and Reed is forced to come clean with Captain Archer about the secretive organization sending him covert orders. Meanwhile, Phlox is driven to ever more extreme measures to cure a Klingon contagion.

Star Trek was making two-part episodes since the original series, but the fact that Enterprise had served up so many three-part episodes in season four makes this return to two-part form actually feel like a breaking of convention. Where the three-part format had allowed for unexpected twists in a story (such as introducing the Aenar) there's really no room here but to catch all the many balls already being juggled from part one. I'd say it does catch them all, even if the performance doesn't end with any grand flourish.

I'm still gobsmacked that the writers decided to explain the changing appearance of Klingons on-screen. You could certainly argue that this exactly the kind of subtext that should never be made text. (Will someone now have to retcon everything to explain the third look for Klingons introduced in Star Trek: Discovery?) But having made the decision to do so, they do mine the story for good drama. It's interesting to see Phlox's particular sense of medical ethics (already not entirely that of humans) clash with the Klingons he's forced to work with. For long time Trekkers, it's perhaps even more interesting to probe the mind of a Klingon bioengineer: what even makes him tick? (An intriguing back story of guilt.)

In talking about part one, I appreciated the writers' belated effort to rehabilitate the character of Malcolm Reed by making him a secret operative for Section 31. I still generally think that's true... though the only real way to resolve that story in a part two is to have Reed gain the upper hand on his superiors. That's hard to square with the hapless character we've known for three-and-a-half seasons. For Deep Space Nine fans in particular, it's hard to downgrade from the "always three moves ahead" machinations of the operative Sloan to the sad ineptitude of this Harris guy. He gets bested by Reed, double-crossed by the Klingons, and generally comes off like the guy who almost let Section 31 end on his watch.

I still find the "will they / won't they" story line for Trip and T'Pol to be the least compelling aspect of the narrative. But fortunately, it isn't given much time here. Instead, Trip stays aboard Enterprise "temporarily" at the end of the episode, kicking the can down the road.

That leaves plenty of time -- mostly at the beginning and end of the episode -- for the sorts of action sequences that are core to Star Trek: Enterprise. The wild "Speed"-like premise that the Enterprise can't slow down does kick things off with a wild sequence of Trip spacewalking his way between the ships. The CG isn't always great, but the thrills still generally land. And the climactic rescue of Phlox is a fun 3-on-2 fight between Starfleet and Klingons.

Other observations:

• When Phlox beams a virus aboard the Klingon ship to threaten them by withholding the cure... how did he get through the Klingon shields? 

• There's fun makeup at the end of the episode, between Archer's subtle Klingon ridges and Antaak's transformation into a classic-style "human-looking Klingon."

Part twos on Star Trek are rarely as good as part ones, and "Divergence" is no exception. Still, it's hardly a letdown, and does a pretty good job of resolving all its story threads. I give it a B.

Sheep Thrills

Between Kenneth Branagh donning the Poirot mustache and Daniel Craig solving crimes in the Knives Out movies, you might say that the whodunit is having a bit of a resurgence at the movies. That might have opened the door wide enough for something as unusual as The Sheep Detectives to slip in.

Shepherd George Hardy reads murder mysteries to his flock every night. When he turns up dead, the sheep try to apply all they've learned from books to solve the case. But they'll have to overcome their inherent limitations as, well... sheep. And they'll have to find a way to share what they know with the town's only police officer.

As strange as that description may sound, it only grows more strange as you drill down. Based on a novel by Leonie Swann, this film's script was written by Craig Mazin -- most known for his work on Chernobyl and The Last of Us. Mazin tried for almost a decade to get the movie made, failing perhaps because of how diametrically opposed in tone it was from his most successful work, or maybe because the cyclical genre infatuation of Hollywood hadn't circled back around to mysteries yet.

Eventually, though, he paired up with animation director Kyle Balda (who did numerous films for Illumination), and the movie became a reality -- with one hell of a cast. Appearing on screen, there's Hugh Jackson as the shepherd, Nicholas Braun as the hapless cop, Emma Thompson as a quirky lawyer, and numerous other recognizable faces to round out the pool of suspects.

The voice cast for the titular sheep detectives is even more stacked -- including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, and Brett Goldstein. Looking at that list, you might pick up that it's a group of actors who have shined both in comedy and drama. And that's kind of the special sauce that makes the movie work. The Sheep Detectives rarely lets you forget how deeply silly the premise is -- but at the same time, it's an absolutely played-straight murder mystery. And in its most successful moments, it gets surprisingly sentimental.

I can't claim that the movie perfectly runs the gauntlet of all these tones. Indeed, I'm not sure that Craig Mazin and Kyle Balda are actually the best writer/director pairing; I get the impression that Mazin was going for a deeply earnest movie that just happens to star sheep, while Balda may have been going for something a zany Minions movie that just happens to be live action. But there is an effective core to it all (perhaps coming from the original novel), that's definitely elevated by the actors. 

The Sheep Detectives surely won't end up being one of the best movies I see this year, but it certainly felt like a sweet and enjoyable dessert I'm glad I sampled. I give it a B.

Make a Constitution Roll

Many news headlines yesterday triumphantly reported the Supreme Court ruling in the case "Trump v. Barbara," upholding the law that people born in the United States are to be treated as U.S. citizens. In the rush to report this as a "loss for Trump" or a "win for the rule of law," most headlines completely overlook a chilling reality -- this actually was a close decision, and should not have been.

Four of nine Justices ruled (in dissent) that the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution doesn't actually say what it says. It's not a complicated sentence full of legalese. It says:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 

Actually, most of the Constitution is pretty clear in this way, if you've ever made the time to read it. But admittedly, some of it is less so. And with all of that in mind, I'm here to recommend a book -- The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader. (Yes, for some reason, the cover title doesn't exactly match the listed title.)

This book was written by Melissa Murray, law professor and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny. And the book is like getting the chance to sit in on one of her classes. Actually, it's better than that, because the book is very much crafted for the layperson... which, as Murray enthusiastically presents, is exactly who that founding document was intended for.

After a brief introduction, the book presents the Constitution in whole... but then the titular "Guide" begins. Murray goes through the document article by article, amendment by amendment, sometimes even clause by clause, explaining exactly what's going on. At each step, she discusses the history: what was going on at the time that sparked this particular element of the Constitution, and how it was debated at the time. She then walks you through key Supreme Court rulings since, and how they shifted, crystallized, or redefined the meaning over time. In instances where a provision in the document is the subject of modern debate, she details the positions in that debate.

On the podcast Strict Scrutiny, Melissa Murray is a progressive voice whom I happen to agree with a great deal. But on this occasion, I actually appreciate even more that she has set aside any ideological stance (no matter how moral I may find it). This book is methodically even at every turn; it's not dispassionate by any means, very much reflecting the concerns of the Constitution's framers over the decades. But it is a book I think you could give to your "crazy relative on the other side of the aisle" without triggering any alarm bells about propaganda.

If you read this book for yourself, you will come away with a better understanding of the U.S. Constitution -- even if you actually have read the document for yourself (as so many politicians claim to have done, sometimes by pulling out the prop version they carry in their pocket). The Constitution is, most famously, a document of, for, and by the People. But for it to fully fulfill that promise, the People have to know what it says.

Melissa Murray has done her part to help with that. The book may be called The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader -- but another descriptor that might have gone in there is "essential." I give the book an A, and an enthusiastic recommendation.

(Maybe a few clowns on the Supreme Court should pick up a copy.) 

Less Than Super, But Good Enough

This weekend, I went to go see the new movie Supergirl -- bracing for, what most of the advance buzz had warned me -- was going to be a disastrously bad experience. The low expectations likely improved the experience.

This movie follows the interstellar adventures of Kara Zor-El, on an extended binge-drinking holiday from Earth to dull the powerful feelings stirring inside her. She can no longer escape responsibility when a young orphan seeks her help on a sole-destroying quest for vengeance... just as she also has 72 hours to save her dog. Now she has two lives to save.

There are some fair criticisms you could level against this movie. It's almost aggressively unoriginal. That it follows the all-but-mandated "refuse the call / answer the call" story structure for superhero stories is barely worth commenting on. That its action scenes and character beats come from the bag of tropes is perhaps a bit more disappointing -- particularly if you're a fan of The Avengers, Executive Decision, the Mad Max franchise, or any other place you've scene this stuff before. I personally was hoping a story beyond "John Wick meets Guardians of the Galaxy," and definitely didn't get it.

But the thing is, none of these homages (or rip-offs, depending on your own level of charity) is done badly here. There's a wide gulf between actively bad and "just not inspiring and new." To me, Supergirl lands (a flashy, three-point superhero landing) pretty squarely in the latter camp. It's fun, it's brash, it gets the job the done.

And in a few performances, the movie does rise above being just paint-by-numbers. Jason Momoa (in KISS makeup) sure is fun in the scenery-chewing role of Lobo. In his cameo moments, David Corenswet is still giving the most earnest performance as Superman since Christopher Reeve. And Milly Alcock really does carry this movie capably on her shoulders in the title role. She very much makes the movie.

That this "not great, but not bad" movie seemed to receive such vitriol in advance? The kind excuse would be that everyone has forgotten too quickly just how bad most DC movies were until recently. The less kind (more likely?) excuse is that this is a loud dude-bro reaction to a superhero movie starring a woman. (Especially sad, when she's basically the best thing about it.)

I give Supergirl a B-. This is pretty much what I expect if I decide to go check out a summer blockbuster in a movie theater these days. I hope it will be better than this. But if all I get is basically this? That was pretty much the contract.

Enterprise Flashback: Affliction

The fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise was made up mostly of multi-episode story arcs that leveraged the series' prequel nature by delving into the vast "canon" of the franchise. Creatively, it was a successful pivot for the show... so the writers took on the highest "degree of difficulty" yet in the two-parter beginning with "Affliction."

The Klingons have been experimenting with genetic engineering, using samples of human Augment DNA... with disastrous consequences. Desperate to undo the damage, Klingon agents abduct Phlox to force his assistance. Enterprise sets out to locate and rescue their doctor. Yet it appears that Malcolm Reed may be secretly working against them for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, Trip tries to fit in at his new assignment aboard the starship Columbia.

I think you'd have to be the most "well, actually..." of Star Trek fans to have ever cared why Klingons went from looking like shoe-polish-faced humans in spandex and disco pants (on the original series) to turtle-ridged, armor-clad warriors (in the movies and beyond). The movies simply had more time and money to throw at the aliens, and The Next Generation (and the shows that followed) were passed the baton. The closest we'd ever get to an "in-universe" explanation for the change was a curt joke from Worf in the middle of a comedic episode.

Right?

Wrong! Manny Coto and Michael Sussman decided to devote a two-part episode to explaining the difference. And the explanation -- that Klingons once toyed with genetic engineering, using human DNA -- kinda works! It even goes a long way to explaining why Klingons hated humans for so long, while subtly reinforcing one Klingon commander's assertion that humans and Klingons aren't really so different. We get all of this, the most dangerous looking targ yet seen on Star Trek, Klingon characters played by actors John Schuck and James Avery, fun references to deep cut history like the Hur'q (established in Deep Space Nine), and a fantastic action sequence about an assault team boarding Enterprise. Really... hats off all around.

But we're just getting started! In this same two-part episode, the writers undertake the task of "fixing" the show's indisputably worst character, Malcolm Reed. Unlike Hoshi Sato and Travis Mayweather, who are generally just underused, Reed has been actively bad almost every time he's given something to do in an episode -- bad at his job, ranging from socially awkward at best to creepy at worst, whiny and self-centered. Now we find out, he's actually an undercover secret agent! And once you get over the initial shock of wondering what value a covert organization would find in Malcolm Reed, it kind of starts to make sense. Hell, it might even explain some of Reed's buffoonery over the years. Was this part of maintaining his cover? Were some of his stupid mistakes actually deliberate orders from his shadowy organization?

In a bit of catnip for Deep Space Nine fans like me, the secret organization is revealed to be Section 31. Well... it's never stated outright, which is good. That avoids turning this into a Marvel Cinematic Universe style demand to "do the required viewing" before being able to understand the story here. This is just a winking nod for those who know, that feels like it should be pretty seamless for those who don't. It's certainly a better showing for Section 31 than poor Michelle Yeoh was given.

I'd call all of that more than enough for a super-compelling two-part episode of Star Trek. Unfortunately, the episode doesn't stop there. It also has to reckon with the ongoing story coming out of the last episode, that Trip has changed assignments and is now aboard the Columbia. As I commented on that episode, I've reached the end of my interest in the "Jim and Pam on The Office"-like tribulations between T'Pol and Trip. I felt impatient in each of this episode's repetitive Trip scenes. (T'Pol: "Are you leaving because of me?" Trip's new captain: "Why did you leave?" T'Pol in some mindmeld/dreamscape: "I thought you were leaving.") I feel like the most interesting thing this subplot has to offer is a return cameo appearance by Seth MacFarlane -- who gets quite a few more lines here.

It all builds to the most explicit cliffhanger Enterprise has served up in a while, a Speed-like contrivance of a catastrophe in which the Enterprise must maintain high warp or it will explode. Will Keanu Reeves show up to save the day? Probably not... but tune in next week just in case!

Other observations:

• This isn't really a "Hoshi" episode, but she nonetheless has some good moments in the story. First, she does her best to put up a fight when she and Phlox are attacked in the beginning. Then she "goes under hypnosis" (mindmeld style) with T'Pol to retrieve her memories of the event. In the aftermath of that mindmeld, she even pokes up in the Trip/T'Pol story for a moment.

• The redress of the Enterprise bridge to serve as the Columbia bridge is kinda fun. It doesn't really make sense to put these weird columns right where people need to walk (what, are they load-bearing?) but you can instantly tell you're on a different ship.

• I think my picture at the top of this post actually comes from "part two" of this two-parter. But it felt appropriately representative. 

The high-school-romance-drama of Trip/T'Pol detracts for me, but I otherwise find this a really strong episode that does "prequel" right. I give "Affliction" a B+.