Features

I hope you spent some time yesterday taking in the 2013 Inauguration.
The politics of the day don’t matter when you have a chance to witness history in the making — especially if you can share it with youth.
I viewed the event from a different perspective, taking in all the SPARKS or passions that were represented on a grand stage.
As a speech communications major, I like to watch for the speeches, the pomp and circumstance and I love a good military march from the Marine Corps Band, also known as The President’s Own.
We had the representation of music from instrumental to James Taylor, Kelly Clarkson and Beyoncé. How wonderful for every age to be able to relate.
There was also the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and the solo of Alicia Olatula, during the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Think of the possibility that elementary-aged kids can see what can become of their passions. I understand that it is even available on iTunes.
There was fashion and hairstyle discussion throughout the day and I’m sure that will continue for the days ahead.
Poetry from Richard Blanco was part of the program and Blanco even used it to pay tribute to his mother’s work, to provide him the moment. How neat to see so much art and culture throughout the morning.

Learn about how archaeologists study ancient sites in the wake of forest fires, from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday at Pajarito Environmental Education Center. Dr. Anastasia Steffen will give a hands-on introduction to archaeological obsidian analyses and an overview of current projects underway at the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
The large forest fires of the last few decades have burned much of the eastern Jemez Mountains, including about one-third of the Valles Caldera. Culminating with the recent Las Conchas Fire, this spate of wildfires burned hundreds of archaeological sites, including more than 80 percent of the prehistoric obsidian quarries.
In this talk, Steffen will consider the methods archaeologists can use to understand how past peoples made tools, when they were making them, how past forest fires may have affected the archaeological sites, how the soil deposits at these sites have changed over the centuries, and ways that the volcanic glass was transported and traded across the continent.
Steffen is cultural resources coordinator at the Valles Caldera National Preserve and adjunct faculty in the Anthropology Department at the University of New Mexico. She has worked in the Jemez Mountains since 1990 and has led archaeological inventory and research at the preserve since 2001.

Kathleen Veenstra is probably most well known for her many years of work with the Los Alamos Public Schools as a counselor, but fewer people are probably familiar with her as an artist. 

Veenstra is a ceramicist/potter and also a fine artist, painting landscapes and portraits. When asked about how she was able to develop to a professional level in all three areas, Veenstra explained that her first love was art and the career as a counselor evolved somewhat circuitously from there.

Veenstra remembers painting as a child, encouraged by her father, a frustrated painter. She was proficient as a portrait painter by the time she entered college and had her first formal training. There, she discovered that the combination of feeling and light, which shape landscape paintings fulfilled her artistic desires. She went on to receive a master’s degree in studio art. 

The following restaurant inspection reports were provided by the New Mexico Environment Department.

Española

Burger King, Riverside Dr.
Date inspected: Jan. 4
Violations: Two moderate-risk violations, one for poor personal hygiene — hand sink was removed from food prep area. Need to re-install in original food preparation area to make it convenient for employees to wash hands. Notify NMED when completed, within 30 days. One for animals/vermin/openings — back door has gap at bottom and side. Potential to allow insects and vermin access to facility. Need to seal.
Status of establishment: Approved, no follow-up required.

El Espresso, 1451 Calle Hermanas Dominicas
Date inspected: Jan. 3, closing
Status of establishment: Closed

Ahh, it is that time of year again, time for my annual germ column.
No, I didn’t go back to find what I wrote last year, but usually around this time, I attempt to write something about germs.
For those of you that haven’t gotten your flu shot yet, please do so, as we still have a long way to go. I hear many people say, “well I never get a flu shot and I have never gotten the flu.” My answer to that is, your fortune is due to the 97 percent of people around you that probably do get it — and that is why you are healthy.
If I had the time to investigate it, I would research the number of shots given out in our community through various resources. Blue Cross Blue Shield providing flu shots at our local Smith’s grocery was such a great resource to the community.
While I’m pretty sure that we still don’t have a local public health nurse, probably going on the third or fourth month, I’m sure arrangements can be made with them.
I used to babysit for a doctor and she said she picked me because she knew I would spray the handle of the grocery store cart with Lysol before putting my baby in it. You only have to see a baby suck on that one time to actually feel your skin crawl. My advice — unless you really have to take them to the store — don’t do it!

The Los Alamos Animal Shelter, 226 East Road, 662-8179, has a great selection of onsite adoptable pets waiting for their forever home. Others are currently off-campus in loving foster homes.
Be sure to visit the Friends of the Shelter website, lafos.org, where you can get more information about volunteering, adopting and donating. Also check out the Petfinder page for pictures and to learn more about all of the adoptable pets, petfinder.com/shelters/friendsoftheshelter.html.
This would be a wonderful time to consider giving a home to one of the animals in the shelter.
All adoptable pets are spayed or neutered, have their shots and are micro chipped.

Learn about restoration work in the Jemez Mountains from 7-8 p.m. Jan. 17 at Pajarito Environmental Education Center. 

Anne Bradley, Forest Conservation program manager for The Nature Conservancy, will give a talk about the Conservancy’s current projects in the area, which include the Conservation Canines.

The Nature Conservancy has recently partnered with several organizations to provide information about climate change and tools to aid in forest conservation and restoration. 

One of the collaborations is the study of the Jemez Mountains Salamander, which includes a partnership with the “Conservation Canines” from the University of Washington.  

New Mexico native Jeremy Denk will be the featured artist as the Los Alamos Concert Association continues its 2012-2013 season with a performance at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Duane Smith Auditorium.  

Denk has appeared as soloist with many major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and London. 

He regularly gives recitals in New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia and around the United States. Denk is known for his music writing, which has appeared in the New Yorker, the front page of the New York Times Book Review, Newsweek and on the NPR Music website. 

Richard Swenson and David Trujillo are Los Alamos neighbors, friends and fellow sculptors of forms. Rabbits, prancing stylized horses, plunging and cavorting wild hogs, giraffes, whales, sinuous dragons, armadillos, porcupines — not to mention humans — are melded and welded from all manner of scrap metal. 

The duo will show their work in “Metal Menagerie: Scrap Metal Sculpture by Richard Swenson and David Trujillo,” at Mesa Public Library. The show opens with a reception from 5:30-7 p.m. Jan. 16.

“Do you know what this is?” Swenson asked, smiling and pointing to a solid chunk of machined metal that happens to be a giraffe’s shoulder. “A piece from a tool to yoke oxen together!”