Ear to the ground

“Isn’t he some kind of a cowboy singer?”
– A Durango woman after hearing that Tour de France winner Cadel Evans was taking part in the current U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge

Conan the New Mexican
The glitz may be softening a bit in Albuquerque. Hollywood has pulled the plug on three productions based in the nearby Duke City in recent weeks, including the television shows, “Breaking Bad” and “In Plain Sight.” But don’t count New Mexico out of the silver screen yet. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be roaming the Land of Enchantment in coming months as he forgets his marital woes and focuses on a “comeback film.”

In recent years, New Mexico has parlayed generous tax credits and state-of-the-art production facilities into Hollywood productions that range from “Cowboys and Aliens” to “Kung Fu Panda II.”

“For whatever reason New Mexico has been a favorite place to shoot location stuff,” said Wayne Rauschenberger chief operating officer for Albuquerque Studios. “The studio just complemented that apparent desire to come here, and now filmmakers can do interior shooting in stages instead of empty warehouses.”

However, the Land of Enchantment got three strikes of bad news last week. Two popular TV shows currently filmed in Albuquerque, “Breaking Bad” and “In Plain Sight,” announced they would stop filming after this season. In addition, Disney unsaddled its “Lone Ranger” remake, which it had planned on filming at Albuquerque Studios and all over the state.

However, the Terminator plans on bringing big life back to the New Mexico film industry later this year. Labeled as Schwarzenegger’s “comeback film,” production begins on “The Last Stand” in October in the town of Belen. The film will tell the story of a border town sheriff (played by Arnold) who stands in the way of convicts making a run for the border in a stolen sports car worth $5 million. The film is Schwarzenegger’s first major movie role since 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”

The Trinidad temblor
Colorado was not ready to rumble when a magnitude 5.3 earthquake shook the southern part of the state on Monday. Though the temblor did little to rattle La Plata County, it originated 260 miles to the east near Trinidad and was the largest quake reported in the state since 1967.  

Chief among the losses was thousands of dollars in beer and alcohol at Ringo’s Super Trading Post in the small town of Segundo, according to a report in the Denver Post. The region’s older residents were most shook up by continued aftershocks.

Las Animas County Sheriff Jim Casias told the Post, “As I had one lady tell me, ‘Sheriff, maybe the world’s coming to an end.’ All I mentioned to her is that someday it will.”