Darwin Award Candidates, Deming NM & Points (Far) East.

Yeah. Looks like a good place to hike when inclement weather is approaching, and you're wearing shorts and T-Shirts. Maybe you'd go up on "Lover's Leap", huh?. Then use your cell phone when you're completely out of your element and experience. Duh.

Cabinetlandia.

Yesterday, I posted about the Cabinet National Library, discovered while geocaching. Since then, I've done a lot of reading and discovered there's much more to this astonishing little half-acre in the middle of nowhere in Southern New Mexico. I decided it deserved another post.

While the library was built by members of Rebar, the rest of the features of the half acre plot, were created by editorial staff of a magazine called Cabinet, which curiously has nothing to do with cabinets, but art!

Their story can be found here. Be sure to read about the rebuilding of the library after the ravages of the great flood of 2005, and definitely don't miss the photos at the bottom of the page of the celebratory "Prom Night", when the reconstruction was completed. Also beware: "plumber butt" image exists.

The more I dig, the more impressed I become with both the artists from the East Coast who created Cabinetlandia, and those from the West, who built the Library. What can you find?

Scanners! Dan's Hot Ride in the Mid Sixties.

The car, by the way, is a 1963 Chevrolet Impala, black, with a 327 cu. in. V8, and 4 barrel carb.

Scanners! Another Semi-Dressed Human.

The year is 1969. The place is a tropical paradise, many thousands of miles away. I'm still trying to figure out where I misplaced that body.

Scanners! Under-age Hotness.

Yeah, that's somebody's mama at 15. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out by now; besides, I have it on good authority, this model is old enough now. How could I not fall for that... ever?

I've been burning up the scanner of late, so watch this space for more images from 45 years ago.

Art Is Where You Find It.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email notification about a new geocache in the area. It was out beyond the interstate in a forgotten "subdivision" called Sunshine Valley Ranchettes.* The name of the cache was "Dry Well Cache", and sure enough.. there was a dry well there. The cache was pretty easy to find, but I was more interested in this cryptic note at the end of the cache description: "Be sure to check out the "Library" 1/3 mile to the East". Trust me.. there is nothing out there but dust and mesquite, so I had no idea what this was referring to. Being only a third mile away, I was about to find out. I assumed it was some joke, and was probably a pile of old "mens' magazines" someone had dumped out there.

I was totally unprepared for what I found:

A library!

These are the kind of things that make you go "WTF?"

Looking about, I found that someone... or probably several "someones" had put a lot of work into the landscaping and design of this... installation. Because that's what this is- an art installation. I found the clue in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet.

(Below the drawer with every issue of Cabinet Magazine.. the top drawer contained the card catalog).

Not only is there the Library, but a horse shoe pit, (with horse shoes), a cemetary, and even a "Biodegradable Toilet"!

But who put it here? And when? Being the desert, things remain pretty much unchanged from season to season. I would have to wait till I got home to get the story.

Which is what I did. Googling "rebargroup.org", I came face to face (after navigating a few pages), with the very installation I had just been exploring! You'll have to admit, that's quite a story!

So, who is REBAR Group?

"REBAR is an interdisciplinary studio operating at the intersection of art, design and activism."

Be sure to check out their website to see some of the many installations they've done all over the country. Very clever. Very entertaining. The story of the building of the Cabinetlandia National Library (with pictures!) can be found here. I wonder how many people, other than me, and a handful of geocachers, have seen this place? Somehow, I think that's not important to the artists.

*This part of New Mexico was peopled by schemers and dreamers who, decades ago, laid out dozens of subdivisions in anticipation of the housing boom that never happened. If you look at a detailed Google map of Luna County, NM, you'll see the roads, hundreds, maybe thousands, of them. In reality, they don't exist, which is why, if you're going to visit us: don't trust your GPS for directions!

Fanny. A Fine Staghound.

Fanny. Past co-winner of the Golden Hare TCC Hunt (now the Holiday Run), and one AK shy of a TCC title. Participant in epic 5 minute jackrabbit race that Dutch Salmon called one of the 5 best courses he's ever seen. Drama queen. Tone deaf "singer". Official "Dashboard Dog" of the Hare-Brained Express. Trophy winner at the Loomis races. We'll miss her.