At the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas, the exhibition The Last Chief, the First Statesman (2025-28) summarizes this duality of Quanah Parker’s life, how he negotiated between the Indigenous world and the encroach of American settler colonization.

"We shed people, even mountains."

"With little ceremony and even less exposition, Martel will drop us into a buzzing, teeming hive of activity, cultivating a feverish, miasmal disorientation. The opening moments of her début feature, “La Ciénaga” (2001), unfolded as a discordant symphony of visual and aural fragments."

“I work with [the cinematographer] Fred Elmes, who worked with both Cassavetes and [David] Lynch, and I feel beautifully connected to both directors through Fred. I’m not a surrealist like David, nor am I quite as visceral as Cassavetes, but I’m a humanist romantic, as John was.”

When you're framing houses 40 hours a week, it's easy to think about it all night, whether you want to or not. thecarpentryway.blog/2009/10/the-...

Here’s a gift link to an inspiring article about someone who makes the world a better place. I hope that it helps lift your spirits, even a little, after this fucking horrible day: How Did Black Music Take Over the World? Let Melvin Gibbs Explain. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/a...

Readymade Remix, San Antonio Museum of Art www.samuseum.org/artwork/exhi...

"In Vetruvian proportions his head would probably poke out right about Kanopolis, Kansas, but for now it’s just the right thumb, held high like the Liberty torch. I opted not to check it out, but I’m told the tower’s top floor features a bar that has a gigantic window in the shape of a thumbnail."

"evocation of a haunted countryside"

"For Five Bridges, I imagined an Irishman, illegal in San Francisco, realising the danger if he stayed. A year after it was published, elements of the story came true."

"'There’s the distant horizon; there’s what’s at your feet. There’s no middle ground, from a classical perspective… you can kind of see too far and take in too much,' says Chris Taylor, architect and Director of the Land Arts of the American West program at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock."

"When Penn won the Oscar for best actor in 2004 for his role in “Mystic River,” he took to the stage and said, 'If there’s one thing actors know, other than that there weren’t any W.M.D.s, it’s that there’s no such thing as best in acting.'"

"Anderson’s visual imagination, however active, is disciplined by a stern aesthetic that becomes almost moral in its insistence."

The fantastic and rational aspects inherent in each artist’s work is revealed to feel drawn out of the other, the rational in one revealing the capricious in the other, scheme of story placed next to molecular schematic, in some kind of monoclonal conversation in which the extra cells are pals.

Land Arts of The American West, 2026 www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWQ-...

Recalling something learned as a child—the proportions of 7 5 5 7 5 5 7 for assigning vertices to aid in the creation of a grid from which all manner of shapes, notably the hexagon, prominent in Islamic geometry, may be derived. It is a grid with a haiku for a mother and a palindrome for a father.

For four months, beginning in the summer of 2024, the Chicago-based artist Bethany Collins woke up every day before dawn, brewed coffee and sat down at her dining table to copy out Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” (1851) with a nib pen. Writing in midnight blue acidic ink on onionskin paper.

With Tongue in Both Cheeks Trump's foreign policy seems to be based on a literalist interpretation of Randy Newman's 1972 song Political Science. He doesn't hear it as satire, but as a compendium of good ideas. Trump has even said these exact words: "let's see what happens."

"Two Bears wanted to bring energy sovereignty to his community and other tribal nations. He started the nonprofit Indigenized Energy in 2017. 'I do this because of energy and energy sovereignty as well, but it creates a sense of hope for our tribal nations,' he said."

Distance in Miles from The Kennedy Center to The Gulf of Mexico, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 30, Hills Snyder, 2026

Sala Diaz, San Antonio, TX, still going strong. This December will be 31 years.

"That’s the beauty of the writing process. It’s almost like something arises out of me that’s a little smarter, a little more fair, a little more curious, and hovers over the desk for a while. Then the theory is the book urges that spirit out of the reader as well, and the two things merge. "

"Samuel Johnson’s pre-1776 comment that 'patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel' has long lingered in my mind as a question. It has always seemed there was more wisdom in his comment than can be contained in the simple explanation that it was an indictment of false patriotism, mere display."

that fool on the hill didn’t live there before he’s living there still a stain marks his door his castle beset all blind will and threat a hollow tribune don’t follow his tune go go go go to the well I said well well well go to the well

Tina Deschenie and Michael Thompson poetry reading at kind of a small array, Magdalena, NM

Spoiler Alert: Ari Aster and Eddington letterboxd.com/hillssnyder/...

Once Upon A Time in Magdalena Stephonik, a New York-based Production Designer, rolled into Magdalena with a crew of 20, and set to work on a new Ross Brothers film. Stephonik’s work includes Prince of Broadway, The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and Bleeding Love. glasstire.com/author/hills...

Somewhere A Village Is Missing Its Idiot Film Festival List compiled 2003, view them in this order: A Face in The Crowd (Elia Kazan) Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker) Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese) Being There (Hal Ashby) letterboxd.com/hillssnyder/...

The Ross Brothers have been shooting a film in Magdalena. One scene featured four local riders that were inspiring to watch during several retakes. This piece brought them to mind. Stay tuned for a Glasstire interview with Production Designer, Stephonik. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

As much as I love Tarantino films, I had never made it to see Jackie Brown. Poking around found this brilliant piece by Joseph Giovannini: "an exercise in stark realism, a pared-down film that intentionally avoids looking art-directed." www.nytimes.com/1997/12/28/s...

Please enjoy reading recent writing about these artists: Kim Arthun, Michael Bisbee, Nina Elder, Jeffrey Gibson, Patrick Kikut, Nima Nabavi, Judy Richardson, Dario Robleto, Rachel Rose, Masha Sha, James Surls, Bryan Wheeler, Jeff Wheeler, Cedra Wood. southwestcontemporary.com/authors/hill...

“So little thought has been given to what will happen if we give human beings an entertainment device they can fit in their pocket, one that connects them instantly to every truth and every lie ever conceived?, we have, as a society, been caught unprepared.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Last Saturday millions turned out to protest Trump. A few thousand showed up for his "parade." 230 protested his mendacity and corruption in Socorro, New Mexico (including several from Magdalena). Protest has been growing, this last one covering all four corners of the main intersection in Socorro.

Twice as nice because I'm reading it twice.