John Popper, lead singer and harmonica whiz of seminal '90s band Blues Traveler, stepped up to the microphones last Wednesday at Cowgirl BBQ and played a few tunes with the local talent (Margaret Burke, John Courage and Josh Wilson). Another reason to get out and about — you just never know who might show up and join in the performance.

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Yes, that is Erica Kane's ex-husband you might be seeing around town. Soap opera character Erica Kane is in real-life Susan Lucci, longtime star of All My Children. Kane's many romances and marriages are one of the highlights of the long-running soap, and one of her recurring relationships is with Jackson Montgomery, played by Walt Willey. He brought his car into a local auto-body shop recently — and it turns out that Willey operates the Santa Fe bed and breakfast, Crystal Mesa Farm.

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The Museum of New Mexico Foundation is all across the U.S.A., starting out the year 2010 with members in all 50 states. The recent addition of member Laurel J. Reuter of Grand Forks, N.D., brings foundation membership to an all-time high of 7,200 member households in New Mexico and nationwide. Reuter is the founding director of the North Dakota Museum of Art and in 2007, curated The Disappeared, an exhibition at SITE Santa Fe.

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Taos actor Julia Roberts is re-teaming with Tom Hanks again. The Charlie Wilson's War duo will be starring in Larry Crowne, about a middle-aged man finding a new career. Hanks will direct. He also wrote the script. She will be a presenter at tonight's Golden Globes, and is also nominated for her performance in Duplicity.

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Denzel Washington's made-in-New-Mexico Book of Eli arrived in theaters this weekend. It's the somber take on a post-apocalyptic world and Washington's mission to save humanity by way of a book — the only surviving copy of the Bible. Also opening this weekend is Jackie Chan's, The Spy Next Door, also made in New Mexico. Up next week, The Legion, which opens Jan. 22.

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Santa Fe's High Country Gardens was the subject of a recent post in the L.A. at Home blog at the Los Angeles Times, focusing on the popular business' 2010 crop of water-wise plants. President David Salman was helping Southern California pick plants — he selected dwarf English lavender, desert holly, pink creeping thyme, pink flamingo muhly grass, agava neomexicana "Sunspot" and black foot daisy and millennium ornamental onion. Spring shipping begins Feb. 15.

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