Rick Romancito named interim Web editor

Rick Romancito, editor of Tempo, the arts and entertainment section of The Taos News, has been named interim Web editor and will be taking over the reins May 16.

Current Web editor, Melody Romancito (me!) begins work as Media Coordinator for ConnectPress.com beginning May 19.

“I’m confident Rick will be able to uphold the standards we set with the launch of our new site and content management system in October 2007, and exceed them. He’s been editor of Tempo forever, and he certainly was a huge help to me while I was site editor,” is my official statement.

Privately, I’m elated. This is an exciting move for me because I get to have my cake and eat it to. I have an opportunity to move on and expand my career experience with a company that has already made the successful transition from print to the Internet. I also get to have a first-hand look at what’s happening with taosnews.com.

Buena suerte, Rick! I know, like Tempo, you’ll take it places I was not able to.

Also, it’s no secret this is great news for taosnews.com Web master and all-around hero, Ray Seale.

Now, to register a fictitious nickname in the comment blogs so I can raise hell. j/k

Personal reference

When I was going through my Rolodex for references to give my new job (then still potential) I thought of my old friend Tally Richards. I thought of her huge Rolodex as it sat on her desk in her dark and smoky office. She’d say it was a shame to get to her age where so many of the names on the cards were for people who were dead. At one time, I think she went through it and discarded the ones that had passed. I remember it looked reduced, slacked, and no longer its bursting, connected self.

I remembered her as I took out a card for someone who had just died, then, a little later I found the name of someone who had been dead for some time. Tally’s was there, still with the local number. I tried to find her after she’d gone but had no luck. I even left a couple of messages on answering machines in Palm Springs.

But as I took a break and made another cup of coffee – the house quiet for a little longer, I heard another e-mail roll in. It was from Stuart Hardy – one of Tally’s friends – writing to say Tally has passed away.

Giving notice

One of the most delicious feelings in the world is that of giving notice. It’s float-y and exhilarating and splashy as an ocean voyage at the prow of the ship. It’s all wind and spray and forward motion.

But then, there’s the two weeks that follow.

Tally Richards dies

I received an E-mail yesterday from Stuart Hardy.

Melody,

Tally Richards passed away last week in Palm Springs. I found out through my old friend Alan Wells in NYC.

I know you had become friends with Tally and might want to see her memory honored in the Taos News. Tally brought something to all of our lives.

She believed in her principles and was willing to live by them. She contributed her ideas and expertise through her written commentary and her enormous contribution to the arts in opening and maintaining her Contemporary Art Gallery for over 20 years. She was fun and often dangerous to muse with during the after hours. She was not afraid of controversy and liked to “poke her stick” while fact finding her truths. What a great spirit.

Her brother Wade was attending her at her passing.

I continue to stay in touch with Taos through the internet and a few old friends. We all move on with our lives but it never changes the meaningful people and places that have contributed to our characters and have helped to fulfill our destines.

Sincerely,
Stuart Hardy

The Taos News has finally posted something: http://www.taosnews.com/articles/2008/05/06/news/doc4820725a85690039570610.txt

Daily Bread

I took this picture one morning. It came together by accident. I was cooling a loaf of just-baked bread and had put some money on the table for Rick to pick up. the morning sun streamed in. I grabbed my camera.

I was going to do a “Bread Index,” where I priced basic items at all four grocery stores in town, took and average, then averaged those prices to arrive at the index number. It roughly equated what it cost you to walk into any store — even if you were buying just one item.

Where have all the lattes gone?

so sad.

Road crew

Yesterday, I was taking a break while I waited for the Spanish editor to finish putting the finishing touches on the Spanish section, and I came upon a Town of Taos road repair crew filling potholes.

The town truck looked nice – white with a gleaming logo. In the payload was a pile of blue black asphalt and pea-sized chunks of gravel being kept warm and pliable with a small flame thrower (like the kind we use to burn off winter scrub from the acequias in the spring). Steam and gases flowed off the heap of asphalt. Even though the day was a little chilly with the wind, I’m sure it was hot and smelly work.

The crew filled the holes by the shovel-full, then they let the building traffic through. Each car did their part of tampping the hot mix into the holes in the road. They were making good progress on Kit Carson Road.

As I rolled by, I motioned to one of the guys that I wanted to say something. He leaned into my open passenger-side window.

“How many remarks have you gotten about your steaming pile?” I asked, pointing to the back of the truck.

He laughed.

“You’re the first!”

I drove off and the rest of the potholes eventually got filled on that road – at least to the edge of town limits, and the B and C sections of the paper eventually got built.

Femur trumps knee

When Taos Ski Valley announced it was opening to snowboards, the paper decided it was going to blanket the event with multi-media coverage.

It was going to be exciting. Our sports editor was going to be up there the night before, getting pictures of partyers and people camped out waiting for the lifts to open the day before. As it was, I left at 6 a.m. with the web master to get up to the ski valley first thing in the morning.

A 45-minute trip up the mountain and at 7 a.m. we were already getting calls from the publisher, wanting pictures and a story up ASAP. But the sports editor was nowhere to be seen. Lifts opened in an hour and we had nothing up yet, except for the video my husband had shot of a bartender playing taps from the roof of the Saint Bernard.

So, to appease the boss, I decided I go outside and shoot a few pictures of people standing around waiting. I must have squeezed off about 24 or so shots and I was heading back to the Martini Tree, eager to get a slideshow made and uploaded. I stepped across a frozen puddle in the gravel there at the base, and my foot slipped out from under me. I went down on my right knee.

The photo that goes with this story is the shot I squeezed off as I went down.

Hop to, Hop Sing!

I get an email about a typo in a story that posted three days ago. Crisis alert! The verb tense for  “to spend” is incorrect. I wonder if there’s a stop watch on me for this little operation.

Santa Fe mall tank-up

My daughter, Ella turns 13 today. Hard to believe she’s already a teen ager, though I’d bet if you asked she’d say she’s considered herself one for more than a year. She has been tall enough to be one for about four years.

She decided, instead of a party, to take her and a couple of friends to the Santa Fe Place mall so she could tank up on accessories. We also met Saci Matlock down there with her daughter Allie Jo. Ella and Allie have been friends ever since they were a year old.