I just got word from her SF gallerist that Rose B. Simpson one of my favorite Pueblo artists from New Mexico has a commission that will be on display next year at Madison Square Park in New York City. Meanwhile her almost-relative Cricket Tiger is at Stanford.

Cricket is the daughter of Diego Romero the Cochiti potter and artist — who went to high school at Berkeley High; Diego was married for a while to the artist Roxanne Swentzell , Rose’s mother. Cricket also has cousins in Palo Alto who have a French name; we all had Indian food — masala and al that, recently.

So Cricket and Rose are like sisters or formerly steps. And Cricket is a dancer, speaking of steps. And I know that Cricket’s half-brother is Santiago Romero who went to Dartmouth and is definitely like family to Rose. Her sort of uncle Mateo Romero was a freshman at Dartmouth my senior year, plus he and Dan Bern (member of the tribe) and I hung out in Nambe recently.

I tried to hire Rose Simpson to lead a rock band produced by Jody Naranjo called Pueblo Girls but she was too busy, likes hip hop more that rock and didn’t want…I will stop right there. Rare for me.

Rose is also the creator of a famous artwork built around a Chevy El Camino – and I am the son and grandson of Chevy Dealers — so I’m related too. I can relate. Maria. That’s the name of her car.

Or as Queen would say: I’m in love with my car, got a feel for my auto-mo-bile.

I think my parents had met Roxanne when they bought a bronze depiction of two humans crawling out of a pot which represents the Earth. When they died, I inquired about buying an urn from her.
Cricket’s father has relatives who worked in Hollywood, both in the crafts or in front of the camera; he seemed to have some interesting insights into the history of Hollywood versus the history of his people.

ps as a promoter guy who feels NM, I think Rose should come do a live show here and have Cricket start a dance group of Stanford students for that event; her band was Chocolate Helicopters — “stay up late to hear the rain” I think she said — which reminds me of Chocolate Heads at Stanford with Aleta Hayes. I think Dartmouth should give Rose B. Simpson an honorary doctorate. Doctor of all around rad. Amandla! Aweytu! sister. And Cricket we hope the world is your oyster too, Or whatever the local version of that expression is.