Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What is Albuquerque like in February?

This is topic What is Albuquerque like in February? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-14-2008, 01:17 AM:

No Bugs Bunny jokes, please!

I'm going there for a conference next month, and wondered if anyone had any 'must see', 'stay clear' or general local knowledge tips to look out for. One thing I was quite surprised at was that on the city's Wikipedia page, I can expect high temperatures of 13 and lows of -2, which is about the same as England. I was expecting something a bit more tropical! I'm probably only going to have around half a day at the end for sightseeing - all suggestions appreciated!

Posted by Dwayne Benallie (Member # 4443) on 01-14-2008, 02:13 AM:

I lived there for almost 8 years it's cold, it snows but in the end of the day it melts. Traffic is heavy because of the constant upgrades to the freeways, people are nice and friendly. It's a big city with a small town feel. Just stay out of the "War Zone" after dark, i lived in that area for 4 months and never went back. The tramway to top of the mountain is a good trip, there is a restaurant up there. I took my wife, at that time girl friend, and propose to her there when the sun was setting. (yes i know very cliche). It is considered the Land of Enchantment, now i live in Tempe, AZ. it's more tropical here then there. I miss looking at the mountain in the morning, while i drank my coffee. Not very fond of the grey/brown smog that surrounds the mountains here.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 01-14-2008, 02:45 AM:

ABQ is 5300' above sea level (about the same as Denver) hence the cool winter temps.

I second the cable tram ride to the top of Sandia Peak. The view is definitely worth it.

Love the food there too. The first question you get in almost any restaurant is, "red or green?".

I had planned to do my graduate studies at UNM after visiting there. Never followed through on that though - got detoured back to SoCal and another aerospace job shortly after that visit. Still plan to retire to the northwest part of NM someday.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-14-2008, 04:26 PM:

Ta for the tip; Sandia Peak it is if time allows. I'll try and dodge the war zone, too!

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-14-2008, 07:13 PM:

If you end up downtown, make sure you see the El Rey and KiMo Theatres.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 01-14-2008, 07:24 PM:

I had to drive a Uhaul one time through Alberquere (I give up on the spelling sorry), and they had the worst drivers I've ever dealt with. Doesn't really help you much though, sorry.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-15-2008, 12:15 AM:

Definately don't miss the ride up the Sandia Peak tramway... I believe it has or had the longest single free span cable in the world...certainly in the USA!

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-13-2008, 04:50 PM:

Well, I made it! I spent the weekend in Los Angeles, partly because it actually worked out at nearly £300 cheaper to book a Teesside-LAX ticket on KLM/NW followed by a return LAX-Albuquerque on Southwest than it did a through MME-ABQ ticket, and partly to have a meeting with a colleague I'm co-editing a book with at the Academy Film Archive (turned out to be a very good idea: we got more done in two hours face-to-face than would be possible in two weeks of emailing). On Sunday Paul Rayton very kindly gave me a tour of the Egyptian Theatre and a demo of The Iron Horse in 2k digital. It looked completely fantastic, and, much as it pains me to say it, this is obviously the way exhibition is going. After the meeting on Monday, I flew on to Albuquerque yesterday. Changing planes in Las Vegas I noticed a couple of Allegiant Air planes taxi-ing about, and so if Paul was at the controls of one of them, sorry to have missed you! The next couple of days are going to be completely taken up with the conference, but I'm hoping to rent a car and do a day's sightseeing on Saturday, before heading home to England overnight on Sunday-Monday.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-13-2008, 07:17 PM:

Have a good time, Leo!

Did you see THE "Iron Horse" (silent)?

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-15-2008, 09:10 AM:

Only about 15 minutes of it. Fox has done a new 2k digital transfer and commissioned a new score. It unlocks a level of detail I haven't seen in any film print before (you can actually read the text of the bill as Abraham Lincoln signs it!); hope I'll get a chance to see the complete film.

Edit (and sorry to wander off-topic): just noticed that the header of this message is saying 3.10pm local time, even though it's actually 8.10am here. Does this function take its time from the internal clock of the PC being used to make the post, or does my user profile indicate that I'm on British time? I didn't bother resetting my laptop's locale when I came over: tried that once before and it buggered up all sorts of other things. Windows doesn't seem to have a facility to deal with the computer's owner moving temporarily to another time zone (odd, given that a large proportion of the American population must move between time zones quite regularly, even if most of Europe does not).

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 02-15-2008, 09:29 AM:

quote:
No Bugs Bunny jokes, please!

Why? What's up doc? [Wink]

Actually, I made the Bugs Bunny joke in the other thread so and it was missed so...

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-17-2008, 02:48 PM:

Well, here I am at LAX en route home (an A340 with Air Tahiti on the side has just taxi-ed past the window and I'm awfully tempted to try and jump on it, though they wouldn't thank me at work for not showing up on Tuesday). The conference only left me with one afternoon free in the end, and because I stupidly left my international driving permit at home, renting a car and heading out to Sandia Peak was ruled out. So I took a walk from the hotel (on Tijeras and 4th) to the end of Tijeras, and then along Central to the Old Town (Central looked like it could be the war zone, but if so I guess I was recognised as a neutral non-combatant). The Rattlesnake Museum was fun (the tarantula actually looked quite cute and furry, though I'm sure I wouldn't be saying that if it wasn't safely incarcerated in a glass tank), and then I walked back along Mountain, stopping at the National Atomic Museum along the way. Their star exhibit was a Cold War ICBM split into sections: I particularly liked an etching on the side which read 'Safety first! Ensure lug is secure before winching'. After all, if you're about to unleash nuclear armageddon, 'Safety first' isn't what immediately springs to mind. The scriptwriters of Dr. Strangelove could have had fun with that, though that sort of detail was probably classified at the time the film was made. They also had a nice exhibition of medical atomic quackery, including a shoe shop x-ray machine, which were apparently commonplace until the '70s. You put your feet in the bottom and could see an x-ray image of the skeleton of your foot inside the shoes you were thinking about buying, to see how well they fitted.

I also got to shoot my first rolls of Kodachrome 64 in ages: there just isn't enough natural light in England at this time of year to use any! Watch this space for pics, although they might take a while. Because K64 is sold process paid in Europe, I have to take them back with me to England, then post them to Dwayne's Photo in Kansas. Those rolls will be making a total of four transatlantic trips between my buying them and getting the slides back.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 02-18-2008, 03:59 AM:

quote:
Changing planes in Las Vegas I noticed a couple of Allegiant Air planes taxi-ing about, and so if Paul was at the controls of one of them, sorry to have missed you!

Oh well, I wasn't on the ramp at all that Wednesday, though I was in my office on the east side of the cargo ramp from 9:30pm on that night. Was called in a night early to cover the daily planning for my new boss while he is buried in induction paperwork for our newest airplane N403NV, coming up from Mexico shortly to become our 36th tail.

For any of you passing through LAS, give me a call or email early enough and perhaps we can meet up somewhere in the terminal.