http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/rss.php?w=new New Blogs in Tobi Taylor's Journal. en-us Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:39:38 -0600 Tobi Taylor's Journal RSS tobi@tobitaylor.com http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=64 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=64 I recently completed an editing project for an old friend of mine, screenwriter and author Ron Peer, and the book -- The Gift of Love -- is now available. As Ron writes,"This brief, but powerful, book is about how to use a process called THE GIFT OF LOVE, developed by Dr. Jerry DeShazo. It’s about healing our world one person at a time, starting with ourselves.  "The easy-to-follow process detailed in this book is part meditation, part visualization, part breathing process. This book is the user guide to a whole new way of living, a way of experiencing and appreciating life from a whole new perspective. There is nothing you have to buy and no tools are required. You merely have to be willing to take ten minutes out of your day, follow the steps, and 'Agree Today to Be the Gift of Love.'"The book is available as a PDF and in Kindle and Nook formats. For more information, go to www.thegiftoflove.com Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=63 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=63 My short story, "Ford and Chevy," is in the Summer 2011 issue of The Blue Guitar. Tue, 02 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=61 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=61 I just got word yesterday that one of my short stories will appear in the March issue of Menopause Press. And  no, "Norwegian Wood" is not some kind of Fab Four fan fiction; in this case, it's referring to furniture! UPDATE: Here's the link to the story: www.menopausepress.net/?page_id=676 Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=60 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=60 The day after Thanksgiving, last year, I was riding my little mare Rosie in the arena at the front of the property when General Burton (see blog entry "My Neighbor, The Olympian," December 8, 2008, below) came pedaling up to the fence on his bicycle, along with his daughter Judy and son-in-law Don. Rosie marched over to the fence so that her friend the General could rub her face, and we all compared notes on our respective Thanksgiving dinners. Then Judy looked down at Rosie and up at me, and said, "Dad hasn't ridden for years, but he wants to ride a horse."   I had visions of lightning-quick Rosie becoming famous for doing a double-axle and breaking the General's 90-year-old hip -- or worse. There would be headlines about it in the Chronicle of the Horse, the USCTA News, and Dressage Today. Rosie and I would have to change our names and move to an undisclosed location to avoid angry mobs. I shook my head. "I don't think this is the horse for you," I told him. "But my chestnut mare is a retired FEI horse, and I think she'll suit you just fine."   "Great," said Judy. "How's tomorrow morning sound, about 10 a.m.?"   "I'll have her all saddled up," I answered.   I spent the rest of the day cleaning tack and tidying up the General's mount, Brusally Panatela. Retired from showing since 2005, she was a 24-year-old Arabian/Trakehner mare, bred, raised, and started under saddle by my friend and mentor Shelley Groom Trevor. Panatela's sire, Brusally Orzetyn, had been one of a handful of horses in the 1980s in Arizona competing at Prix St. Georges. Her dam, Korona, a Polish Trakehner, was one of the first imported warmbloods in the state. Panatela herself competed successfully to Fourth Level, and could many of the FEI movements -- but in order to compete at that level, she needed to wear a double bridle, and she'd never met a curb/snaffle combination that suited her. That was irrelevant for the General's ride; she would go well enough for him in a snaffle, though she was a little creaky these days. I gave her a dose of Bute to make the upcoming ride easier on her.   The next morning, I fed horses, mucked stalls, and counted the minutes until I could tack up Panatela. As I worked, I remembered the first time I sat on her, in 1989, when she was four years old. I recalled when she was sold to her longtime owner Carla Ferrara, and how delighted I was to buy Panatela from Carla in 2000. Panatela had been ridden by four FEI riders, and now she was going to be ridden by an Olympian. I hoped she'd go well for the General, that he'd enjoy himself and be safe.   A little before the appointed time, the General and his daughter arrived. Camera in hand, my husband Alan came out to join in the fun. The General was attired in vintage riding gear, including a hard hat that I felt sure wouldn't pass the ASTM safety standards, and distressed brown leather boots that fastened on the sides, like half-chaps, and resembled some expensive footwear that Ralph Lauren had offered a few seasons before. And he was smiling more than I'd ever seen him -- this despite not even having mounted Panatela.   I led Panatela up to the mounting block, telling her under my breath how important it was to "be a good girl today, an don't get anybody hurt."  Alan stood on Panatela's off side, pressing down on the stirrup, and Judy helped her father get aboard. It took him a minute to get organized, and then we all stepped back to watch.   Panatela has some arthritis in her hocks, and at the walk, her left hind leg takes a shorter step than her right. I was curious to see how many strides it would take the General to get her striding close to evenly behind. Answer: two strides -- and then, not only were her strides evenly matched, they became longer. As the minutes went by, the 90-year-old rider and his 24-year-old mount were showing us the training scale in action: rhythm, suppleness, connection, impulsion, straightness, and collection.   Alan and I looked at each other, across the span of the arena; over the years, we've gone to some pretty high-level dressage shows, including the World Cup. He's not an aficionado or a zealot, like his wife, but I could tell that he knew he was seeing something out of the ordinary. The General's position and technique were straight out of a textbook, and his suppleness surprised me. Like the horsemen at the Spanish Riding School, he looked like he was doing nothing -- and yet, paradoxically, his body was doing innumerable subtle, minute corrections with each stride that Panatela took. Soon he asked her for some slow sitting trot. When that was going well, he used his dressage whip just slightly to transition to a more stately, cadenced trot, known as a passage.  Because passage is relatively difficult, especially for an older horse with hock issues, he halted her after a few minutes, and patted her neck. Then he said to his daughter, "Okay, I'm done. And I didn't fall off!" We helped him dismount, he fed Panatela a piece of carrot, and then I led her back to the barn.   General Burton had simply asked to ride a horse again, but in so doing, he gave those of us who were present -- including, if not especially, Panatela -- an enormous gift: an expression of artistry, kindness, and joy. Often, when I am in my barn cleaning stalls, I'll see him, now age 91, riding his bike down the street. When he gets to our driveway, he slows down to see if there are horses in the arena (there usually are.) Then he rides over to the fence, and they soon come up to greet him, this man who loves all horses. Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=59 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=59 The Winter 2010 issue, just out, includes 35 articles, each profiling a contemporary artist (or a creative team). The selected artists hail from disparate geographical areas, work in a wide variety of media, and range in age from 68 to 33. It was a challenging issue to bring together, from a production perspective, but the effort certainly paid off in page after page of astounding creative output. As one of our authors commented, "These are artists whose work never ceases to impress." The artists are: Tony Abeyta, Marcus Amerman, Arthur Amiotte, Annie Antone, D. Y. Begay, Shonto Begay, Gail Bird, Mike Bird-Romero, David Bradley, Kathleen Carlo-Kendall, Robert Davidson, Anita Fields, Joyce Growing Thunder Fogarty, Bob Haozous, Ben Harjo, Thomas "Red Owl" Haukaas, Nathan Jackson, Vanessa Paukeigope Jennings, Yazzie Johnson, Brian Jungen, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, George Longfish, Nora Naranjo-Morse, Shelley Niro, Jamie Okuma, Barbara Teller Ornelas, Virgil Ortiz, Norbert Peshlakai, Susan Point, Ramona Sakiestewa, Preston Singletary, Susie Silook, Roxanne Swentzell, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Lonnie Vigil, and Denise Wallace.   Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=58 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=58 In 1995, I was invited to participate in a YMCA writing masterclass taught by novelist and short story writer Melissa Pritchard (Late Bloomer, The Disappearing Ingenue), who is also on the creative writing faculty at Arizona State University. That twelve-week course remains the best writing class I ever took, not only because of Melissa's extraordinary abilities as an instructor, but also because of the commitment and talent of the students, including Stella Pope Duarte (author of If I Die in Juarez), Laraine Herring (author of Monsoons, The Writing Warrior) Laura Deming (Cimarron Review, Descant, etc.), Carolyn Allport (Santa Monica Review), and other good writers.    Speaking of Laraine, I remember really liking her work, and as we became better acquainted over those three months in class, we learned that we shared more than a love of literature and writing -- we'd even dated the same man (also a writer, whom I'll call R), albeit several years apart. She then did me a kindness that I have never forgotten: she facilitated a meeting, over dinner, of the three of us, even though R and I had had quite a bad breakup about ten years earlier. Thanks to Laraine, R and I made peace and stayed in touch -- in fact,  in 2007, R's wife was the officiant at my wedding to Alan Ferg.    All of this is by way of saying that Laraine will be at Antigone Books, in Tucson, on Friday, September 17, 2010 at 7 p.m. Antigone's website notes that: "Laraine Herring will discuss three key elements that can help writers remain in the direct experience required to write authentic prose and poetry.  She will explore these and other insights from her new book on writing and will also share her fascinating new novel, Ghost Swamp Blues.  Come with questions, struggles of your own on your writing journey, and a willingness to share in the process of the journey." Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=56 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=56 At the recent Arizona Historic Preservation Partnership Conference, in Flagstaff, Alan Ferg was honored with the 2010 Professional Archaeologist Award by the Governor's Archaeology Advisory Commission. In Ferg's award nomination, his colleague Al Dart wrote that "Alan Ferg is well known to many southwestern professional and avocational archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians for his outstanding knowledge and research on prehistoric and historical cultures of the American Southwest, and for his willingness to share his unparalleled knowledge and experiences... I first met Alan when he and I were hired for the Arizona State Museum’s Salt-Gila Aqueduct archaeological data recovery project of the early 1980s. I quickly learned that he was an invaluable font of information about southwestern prehistoric artifacts and rock art, and about historical Apachean, Pai, and Mormon material culture, and that he is intense in his efforts to research and publish on these topics. Just one outstanding example of Alan’s research intensity and thoroughness is his early 1980s studies of 'Hohokam T-shaped stones,' which led archaeologist Dr. David Phillips to name these curious artifacts 'fergoliths' in Alan’s honor. "Perusal of Alan Ferg’s curriculum vitae shows that his archaeological and curatorial experience dates back at least to the early 1970s, and that as of early 2010 he has published 116 scholarly and popular articles and books on topics including Apachean/Pai archaeology and history, the history of playing cards, Mormon archaeology and history, prehistoric archaeology, and miscellaneous topics. However, well over half of Alan’s 116 CV-listed writings are products of his own personal research and his willingness to share his knowledge. Among these are the books Western Apache Material Culture: the Goodwin and Guenther Collections (editor, 1987, University of Arizona Press) and Playing Cards of the Apaches: A Study in Cultural Adaptation (2006, with Virginia Wayland and Harold Wayland, Screenfold Press)." Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=55 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=55 Archaeology Southwest, Vol. 23, No. 4, looks at the history of Arizona's Casa Grande Ruins, its designation as the country's first archaeological preserve, and the proposed expansion of the Casa Grande National Monument, which would encompass many more archaeological sites in need of protection. I contributed two articles to this issue: "The Nation's First Federally Protected Site," which reveals that Benjamin Harrison, known as "the White House iceberg," was a preservationist perhaps in spite of himself, and "The Perils of Pageantry at Casa Grande Ruins," where I tell how Superintendent Pinkley's bright idea for bringing visitors to the ruins went awry. Not long after the issue's publication, Dr. Bill Doelle, President and CEO of the Center for Desert Archaeology and the guest editor for this issue, went to Washington to testify in Congress in support of the expansion of the Casa Grande National Monument. He said, in part, The monument plays a unique federal role in the National Park System: it is the only unit that preserves and interprets Hohokam culture for public education and enjoyment. This purpose has brought 70,000 visitors to the Coolidge-Florence area each year. The Monument is the leading driver for tourism-related economic development in the Coolidge-Florence area. Efforts to protect the few remaining significant examples of Hohokam material culture off of tribal lands are essential if we are to preserve a portion of cultural legacy of this remarkable civilization as well as bolster economic development through heritage tourism. HR 5110, introduced by Representative Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ), is currently in committee.   Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=54 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=54 The Winter 2009 issue of Journal of Arizona History features my article "'A Landmark in Scottsdale -- A Hallmark in the Arabian World': Ed Tweed, Brusally Ranch, and the Development of Arabian Horse Breeding in Arizona. Readers will learn about Tweed's role in the founding of the Arabian Horse Association of Arizona and the Scottsdale All-Arabian Horse Show, as well as his ever-evolving breeding program and its influence on today's Arabian horses. It also includes photographs of the stallions Skorage, Czester, Faraon, Orzel, Zbrucz, and Brusally Gwiazdor.This article is adapted from the first chapter in my book-in-progress on Tweed. If you would like a copy, please contact the Arizona Historical Society at www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org or 520.628.5774. Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=53 http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=53 The tiny border town of Naco, Arizona, made the news a few years ago because a historic cemetery there was going to be destroyed in advance of construction of an RV park. I was doing research on Naco for an issue of Archaeology Southwest when I happened upon a list of the people interred at the cemetery that had been compiled by historian Robert Silas Griffin (www.mycochise.com/cemnaco.php). To my surprise, one of the names matched that of my maternal great-great-grandmother, Trinidad Lopez, about whom little is known. Our family lore has it that, as a young woman in Tucson, Trinidad bore three children by John Rhodes, a cattleman from Texas who fell in with the brothers Ed and John Tewksbury, two of the major players in Arizona’s Pleasant Valley War. This feud, also known as the Graham–Tewksbury War, lasted about a decade and was responsible for the deaths of between 30 and 50 men. In 1888, a year after members of the Graham faction killed John Tewksbury, Rhodes married Tewksbury’s widow and within a short time relocated his and Trinidad’s children from Tucson to Pleasant Valley. In 1892, Rhodes and Ed Tewksbury ambushed Tom Graham (the last of the Graham men) in Tempe, near the still-standing Niels Peterson House, at the intersection of Southern Avenue and Priest Drive. Rhodes was quickly arrested and put on trial. While in the courtroom, Rhodes was nearly killed when his victim’s widow attempted to shoot him. Rhodes was acquitted, and after that he seems to have become a more-or-less model citizen: he signed up at age fifty-six as an Arizona Ranger, and in 1907, he became the Pinal County Livestock inspector. There is little direct evidence for the course of Trinidad’s life after Rhodes took their children to Pleasant Valley. But when I discovered her name among those at the Naco Cemetery, and then was able to obtain a copy of her death certificate (http://genealogy.az.gov/), various pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. From the 1864 census (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cenfiles/az/1864/jd1/dist1-pt04.txt), I had already placed her year of birth sometime around 1854–1856, and she appears to have grown up with a younger brother or cousin named Rafael Lopez. Interestingly, years later, when Rhodes was on trial, a Rafael Lopez corroborated Rhodes’s claim that he was nowhere near Graham’s property at the time the latter was killed. The Trinidad Lopez buried at the Naco cemetery died in 1920 at age 65, indicating that she was born in 1855. On her death certificate, she is listed as a "widow," but her parents’ last name is the same as hers. Although it is conceivable that she had married a man with the same surname (and Lopez is an admittedly common name), it is also possible that the use of the term "widow" was a way of getting around the fact that she had three children out of wedlock. Family tradition suggests that Trinidad was not born in Tucson, but instead somewhere in Sonora. Both the census data and her death certificate bear this out. Even though it is unclear what Trinidad was doing in Naco around the time of her death, we do know that she had various relatives in southern Arizona, including a cousin or uncle, Jose Lopez, who homesteaded a ranch in the San Pedro valley, her brother or cousin Rafael Lopez, a sister or cousin Josefa Lopez, as well as Trinidad’s children — Clara, who married Frank Acton and lived on the Acton Ranch near Mammoth, Juan Francisco (Frank), who was killed during construction of the copper mill at Hayden in 1911, and William (Billy) Rhodes, who worked on the Carlink Ranch, near Redington. It is ironic that it took the potential destruction of the Naco Cemetery to bring so much attention to the individuals who have been interred there for so many years. Thanks to the residents of Cochise County and other interested parties, Trinidad Lopez and the other people at the cemetery can continue to rest in peace —que en paz descanse. [A different version of this essay appeared in Archaeology Southwest in 2006.] Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600