Sunday, 16th
Monkey at the Airport

I couldn't believe how well behaved Opice was while waiting for his flight.

First he quietly sat in a chair. Then he patiently observed the plane. Then he wanted his picture taken sitting like a big boy. Then he insisted on a window foto; then he wanted them to hurry up and board the plane; then he got up and went to the window again; then back in his chair then windowthenchairthenwindowchairwindow...

Monday, 17th
Window or Aisle?

Neither! Monkey always books the middle seat. That way he's sure to get the seat he wants and he can better get to know the people he climbs over to look out the window or roam the aisles.

Everything was fine until we started hitting turbulence between Phoenix (PHX) and Albuquerque (ABQ). Note how the camera was shaken.

Click here to see Opice's white knuckle response. (53k animated gif)

Tuesday, 18th
Mark Sublette
Medicine Man Gallery
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Monkey's first stop is the lead gallery on Canyon Road where he says he meets a large, black invisible pooka as well as his host, Michael (also invisible).

I don't see no pooka, do you? But Monkey & Harvey say they can.

Wednesday, 19th
Monkey registers for free invitations to Canyon Road events, especially the monthly artistic pub-crawls.

As always, amidst beauty / art / and priceless antiquities, it's the least likely item which catches Monkey's eye. In this case a sculpture perhaps related to the alleged rabbit in front of the gallery. Opice extends a caring hand to befriend the barbed-wire rabbit, "Ouch!"

Thursday, 20th

Hopi & Pueblo pots, Navajo rugs, even an original Georgia O'Keeffe painting can't hold Monkey's interest for long. He sits, sulking on a $2,500 antique Spanish walnut bench circa 1800.

"It's way old, so can I carve my initials in it?" he asks.

Friday, 21st

Michael suggests, rather than further 'distressing' the antique bench Opice should go outside and watch the Native American artist work on her pots. [Wink wink.]

Monkey sat down in front of the Puebloan woman and became enthralled with her skill. Later he told us a long story about how she uses a stone to polish the clay before firing it.

You know, Opice's not the plushest plush monkey to come down the pike. So where'd he learn so much about indigenous ceramics?

Saturday, 22nd

Ring the Cowhead Bell strength tester,
arcade game, or objet d'art?

Michael's gallery sells fine art. Across the street from Medicine Man Gallery is a new place selling "fine art," too. Monkey considers the meaning of the phrase in light of the other gallery's entryway sculpture:
Do they mean [art] from finds?
Sorta found, lost, and refined?
Doesn't fine also mean small? This thing's sure not small.
Maybe it's art that comes with a fine attached?

Opice asks what those people mean by fine art cuz it doesn't seem to mean what Michael's fine means.

Michael takes a moment to adjust his glasses, carefully considering his responce. "One simply does not shop there," he warns.

<==click the cownival game to Ring the Bell