What’s the Buzz About?

Bee expert Olivia Messinger Carril spreads the good word

Though we all can—and should—celebrate the gift of honey from the bees in our lives, those cute little critters are so much more than that sweet and medicinal fix. There is, in fact, tons to learn about bees here in New Mexico, which is home to roughly 1,000 different species.

If bees are your thing, or you’re just looking to make ‘em so, take note of Olivia Carril. She’s a nationally recognized wild bee expert who, in 2015, co-authored The Bees in Your Backyard: A Field Guide to North America’s Bees with her longtime professional partner Joseph S. Wilson—and she comes to the Vista Grande Public Library in Eldorado this week to tell the tale.

Carril became infatuated with the process of pollination at a young age, when she would observe bees in their natural habitat, she tells SFR.

“Watching bees is ecology happening right in front of your eyes,” she notes, adding that even then she knew studying bees would become her life’s work.

Her pursuit of bee knowledge even resulted in a PhD from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she focused on the role of floral scent in attracting our winged insect friends.

“Bees can be picky eaters,” she explains, “just like us.”

And it doesn’t end at the book. Carril and Wilson’s website beesinyourbackyard.com performs double duty, both as an informational repository and as a jumping off point for their mission to raise awareness around the importance of bees to countless ecological systems. Carril’s upcoming What’s The Buzz? Searching for Wild Bees in Your Backyard event should help would-be bee lovers transition from the theoretical to the practical in their own neighborhoods while answering questions about the role bees play in the existence of life on Earth. Also? She’s bringing wine and cheese and all proceeds benefit the library.

“When you think of the word ‘bee,’” Carill tells SFR, “the image of the honeybee is what comes to mind, but that sells short the entire world of bees and just how much there is to know and learn.” (Adam Ferguson)

What’s the Buzz? Searching for Wild Bees in Your Backyard: 6:30 pm Monday, March 11. $40. Vista Grande Public Library, 14 Avenida Torreon, Eldorado, (505) 466-7323

Outside Bones

Following the announcement that the Santa Fe Playhouse would adopt a new model featuring a trio of artistic directors rather than one, the oldest continually operating theater west of the Mississippi is kicking off a doozy of a season. This week, in addition to the show OR,, you can catch Born With Teeth, directed by new artistic director Antonio Miniño. In the show, writers Kit Marlowe and Will Shakespeare contend with a totalitarian regime while trying to collaborate on a new play cycle. Throw in a dash of romance and a bit of paranoia, and there’s no telling when or how the powder keg might go off. Poetry ain’t easy, folks. (Alex De Vore)

Born With Teeth: 7:30 pm Thursday, March 7 and Saturday, March 9; 2 pm Sunday March 10. $3-$60. Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E De Vargas St., (505) 988-4262

Caught Red-Handed

Cheers to Santa Fe boutique hotel/café/bar The Mystic, where local-grown music label and promotions outfit Mama Mañana Records has been presiding over a series of live shows for the past many months—and where the trend, hopefully, will continue. This week’s offering? A performance from Albuquerque’s Red Light Cameras, a blissful pop-rock powerhouse with tinges of psych and garage punk pushing through behind singer Amanda Machon’s gritty yet pitch-perfect vocal work. This is head-bobbing rock; catchy, yet not irritatingly so. Good luck not humming the tunes forever afterward if you pop by the show. You’ll have lots of other opportunities to hit The Mystic in the future, but this one will slap, for sure. ABQ bluesy rock act Big Girls opens. (ADV)

Red Light Cameras with Big Girls: 8 pm Saturday, March 9. Free. The Mystic, 2810 Cerrillos Road, (505) 471-7663

Kiss Me, Benedeadly

If you like your country with a certain edge and darkness—the kind that creeps up from the shadows of the long desert night or is born from the loneliness of the Southwest—y’all oughta meet Austin, Texas troubadour Betty Benedeadly. She’s a one-woman twang machine with a penchant for rolling rhythms and foot-stompin’ beats. Think reverb a-plenty and a banjo pluck or two; a mournful pedal steel guitar somewhere in the background punctuating the stark beauty and sadness of our region. La Reina at the El Rey Court certainly seems to have found its niche. Wait a second…did Cerrillos Road hotels quietly become some of the best places for live music? Sure seems like they did. (ADV)

Betty Benedeadly: 7 pm Sunday, March 10. Free. La Reina @El Rey Court, 1862 Cerrillos Road, (505) 982-1931