More Opinions Columnists

• V.B. Price: Preserving our water is greatest challenge the city, state faces
• Jeffry Gardner: End of The Trib is part of the demise of serious journalism
• Katherine Augustine: Time with friends from Japan provides treasured memories

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

I was driving north from Roswell one clear night not long ago, along U.S. 285, with the fam.

We had spent the day ogling all things alien in the city famously associated with the saucer crash of 1947. We were headed home, to Albuquerque, when I had my latest in a long chain of otherworldly New Mexico moments.

Remembering it makes me wonder: What kind of New Mexico do tourism bluenoses think they live in? Some are objecting to creative new TV ads that feature drooling alien office workers, who assert the Land of Enchantment is the "best place in the universe" to visit. People might get the wrong idea, the boosters fret.

Wrong idea? Back to the story: We had passed the modest turnoff to the saucer crash site and were droning through the emptiness, far from any hint of human habitation. So quiet we were - so alert in the stillness. So many stars shone so brightly in the cool, black vastness. The breath deepened at the awesomeness of it all.

There's a feeling one gets in rare circumstances such as this. It is primordial. One might travel for miles, but judging by the celestial evidence, one hasn't moved at all. One cannot resist the insistent stars, which make it plain how open Earth is to the universe - like a small, flat atoll whose beaches are approachable in all directions.

We didn't see any little green men. But we could feel them watching us. Even if the Roswell Incident never had happened, we would have recognized this stark stretch of road as a portal to other worlds, as a window into The Mystery.

I call this a "New Mexico moment," because it is so familiar here, in a way that it is not familiar in most other places.

I've encountered it in the Bisti moonscapes; in driving one winter night by a surreal, moonlit Hernandez, which looked as much like a set from the "Twilight Zone" as it did in Ansel Adams' photo; in the approach to Zuni Pueblo, where one actually can see tall Shalako figures in motion and believe in them, because the setting is so weirdly appropriate.

The word "enchantment" necessarily conjures magic. Weirdness is part of New Mexico's bedrock. So, by the way, is a self-deprecating humor, which reflects how small and unimportant we must see ourselves in such a large, bizarre environment.

Gov. Bill Richardson, in one of many examples, invokes this humor in his presidential campaign TV ads, in which he is shown failing to impress a job interviewer with his qualifications.

So why are some tourism boosters (see An alien concept, Tribune, Nov. 27) upset with M&C Saatchi's award-winning ads? They say the aliens will scare tourists away, look too undignified to appeal to baby boomers and might attract younger folks.

The critics bring to mind the character Lt. Steven Hauk in the movie, "Good Morning, Vietnam." Hauk spent the film fighting efforts by Adrian Cronauer, Army disc jockey during the Vietnam War, to boost soldiers' morale by playing rock 'n' roll and cracking jokes they loved. Hauk saw Cronauer's choices as inappropriate and opted for lamer jokes and tunes from bygone days.

Boomers, weird themselves, always have come here for the weird stuff. Younger folks need to be exposed. The ads are fun and memorable. What's inappropriate?