We went to Santa Fe to see the Lowriders exhibit at the New Mexico History Museum. First, we had lunch at the Plaza Cafe. The plaza was crowded with folks setting up for a big pancake festival scheduled for the fourth. We had to wait 20 minutes for a table, but we took turns walking around, looking into shops and watching the activity in the square.
I still want to go to a real outdoor lowrider car show this summer, but this exhibit was a good introduction.
After the lowrider exhibit, we visited the Palace of the Governors. The history of New Mexico is interesting, particularly when you are from the East coast, and think of American history as having started with the Pilgrims.
One thing I love about going to Santa Fe is that there is always something going on besides the destination I had in mind. We wandered through a show by the Santa Fe Artists Society, stopping to browse and talk to various artists.
Then on the way back to the car, we came across this concert by The Wild Marimbas! Of course, I wanted to know why they appeared to have 9 keys between "octaves." They were clearly not using chromatic tuning, and some of the keys had one or two dots on them for reference. I could hear that they were playing I, IV, V, and vi chords, so I knew they were in diatonic tuning, but why the extra key? I speculated that they had one accidental (F#, if they were tuned in C), and looking it up when I got home, that was in fact the case. Their songs were extended patterns with 3 against 2 African-style rhythms and the trap player to hold it together. It was fascinating.
It was a beautiful day in Santa Fe!
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