Eating with Bob and Suzette: September 12, 2014 Santa Fe for Erin Currier Opening and Dinner at Lan’s Restaurant

For lunch I went with Shahin, who just returned from Baghdad, to Costco, where we each ate Polish Dogs.

We had an interesting conversation about the present situation in the Middle East. I learned three things from our conversation. It would take years of study to comprehend the complexities of the various relationships of cultural, political and religious affiliations in the Middle East, if ever, by one who has not grown up in that environment. Second, just for starters, there are 26 sects of Shia Islam that do not agree among themselves on all things (my thought, so how do you begin to unify a nation out of that level of dis-affection and distrust. My comment was, “You mean there are 26 different forms of Sharia law? went unanswered), which brought me to the third and most telling realization, one does not ever disparage or criticize the controlling leaders and government in public, even in the middle of a Costco dining area in the U.S., when one’s family is still living in Iran. In retrospect I found the discussion a very good short course on current political realities in the Middle East and very sobering, to say the least. It made me think that our cultural bias in the U.S. that expects the U.S. government to solve any problem anywhere, by the use of U.S. force if necessary, is ridiculous.

Our short conversation also made me realize the wisdom of one of President Obama’s recent short curt statements, regarding the situation, “We can only assist the Iraqis to unify their country if the people of Iraq want it unified.” Perhaps that may happen now that the central government of Iraq is hopefully more egalitarian and will include Sunnis in it and Sunni Iraqis are confronted by the alternative, not of a free Sunni dominated region, but living under ISIL control. That choice may force Iraqis to realign their allegiances from sectarian and tribal to national, but I doubt that can happen as quickly as our American teleological mind set would wish. Perhaps this newest adventure of the U.S. in meddling in the Middle East will sign up all Americans for a short course in Middle East politics, religion and culture in the very near future. At the very least it will probably once and for all destroy our cherished American cultural belief that America’s formula for dealing with foreign policy problems of throwing a little money and American military power at a problem is the tonic that works in all cases, which may be a good thing. Perhaps we will begin to deal with others as they see themselves rather than as we see them.

When I arrived home, Suzette had arrived and we packed up to go to Santa Fe. We first stopped at the Furniture Consignment store on Candelaria near I-25, where Suzette bought three nice small Danish modern teakwood side tables and a lovely cherry wood chest of drawers to furnish a room for a new client.

At around 3:00 we left for Santa Fe and arrived around 4:00. We first went to New Concept Gallery and picked up the Tim Prythero Dairy Queen piece.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Dairy Queen piece:

Ken Saville figure next to Dairy Queen

The old electric power box was the most compelling clue at its identity as the 15th St. Dairy Queen

Note the Dairy Queen clock, menu and coke machine in the hyper-realistic interior

We drove up Canyon Road to the Red Dot Gallery to see its opening and then drove to Blue Rain Gallery on Lincoln, near the Plaza to see the Erin Currier show, “From Taos to Laos”. Erin’s show is the best and largest show of hers I have seen. A large body of new works inspired by her recent trip to South East Asia; including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Borneo. The palates are rich with color and there are lots of pieces of paper ephemera collected along the way. For example when Suzette asked her if she had gone to any orangutan reserves in Borneo, Erin pointed to the piece we were standing by and showed us the entrance ticket for Borneo’s largest Orangutan preserve embedded in the middle of the piece. Erin has long deeply red hair, nearly the exact color of an orangutan, and Suzette commented, “The orangutans must have loved you.” And Erin answered, “Yes, one came up and sat as close to me as you are, looking at me”. I think that level of Erin’s immediate personal experiences and interaction and fascination with the lives of the person’s lives that populate her paintings as well as the evidence of her experiences is what attracts folks to her work. The show also included a display case of Erin’s sketches and detailed journals, which showed her process of capturing and creating her art. So her art is really a big scrapbook of her thoughts and experiences that she shares with the world.

We then went to Lan’s for dinner. Suzette ordered an eggplant dish. Amy ordered Grilled Salmon and I ordered Pad Thai. Suzette and Amy each ordered saki from Lan’s extensive list of sakes. Suzette’s was served hot and Amy’s Red Dot and I ordered a hot Vietnamese coffee. I had faded at around 3:45 driving into Santa Fe and needed a pick up and the jolt of caffeine and sugar from the condensed milk did it. Suzette did not like the way the Ichiban eggplants were cut into large chunks, but their flavor was good. Amy enjoyed her salmon and I enjoyed Lan's distinctly Vietnamese take on Pad Thai. If you really want to try great Pad Thai I suggest Thai Vegan, either in Santa Fe or Albuquerque. The one great unifying feature of all of Lan’s constructed dishes is the addition of fried garlic, usually in thinly sliced rounds. I will try to add fried garlic and shallot to my oriental dishes. I have already begun to sauté thin sliced rings of garlic with onions, potatoes and mushrooms as an accompaniment to beef steaks.