Personal achievement varies from person to person. If you’re at UNM for four years, you’ll wind up doing a lot of things to entertain yourself, and some will be more meaningful than others. Here are a few things every Lobo should do before graduation. Call it a UNM bucket list:
Going to college can be rough. It’s time-consuming, brain-wracking and just all-around stressful. But the degree at the end of your time there is totally worth it. For those working toward that degree at UNM, here are some resources to help get to that light at the end of the tunnel.
Attending UNM can often mean hard work, late-night studying and other sacrifices. All of that hard work, however, is balanced by the many perks of being a Lobo. Here are 10 of them, most of which are located within walking distance of UNM’s main campus:
There is no shortage of research on the positive effects of relaxation. Now one business lets customers find their happy place via floating. Enlighten Others specializes in holistic healing. Located a half mile southeast of the University, on Bryn Mawr Drive, the local business features hot yoga, massage therapy — and float tanks. Business owner Kenneth Pintor said he liked the idea of offering float tanks for relaxation because they create a distraction-free environment that facilitates a state of restfulness.
New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment for its culture and artwork. Recently, Young Women United has joined together with various female artists to create a historically focused mural. Isabel Fernandez de Williams, mural organizer and contributing artist, has created multiple murals before in Las Cruces. This time the focus will be on women in New Mexican history. “In Albuquerque, all sorts of murals are up, but they are missing the female part — no murals representing female culture,” she said.
Country boys and girls, grab your finest cowboy hat and a box of tissues and get ready to dive into the show. This is going to be a deep one. On Tuesday, the country band known as the Honeycutters will perform at Low Spirits Bar & Stage to show off music from their April release, “Me Oh My.” To give a preview of the material for their upcoming performance, this critic had the chance to listen to “Me Oh My” in its entirety.
Summertime is when many students choose to take a well-deserved break from courses and relax. For those who have not been able to see all New Mexico has to offer, though, the 2015 Summer Getaway Adventures is an opportunity for students to discover the Land of Enchantment. Jim Todd, recreational services director at UNM’s Johnson Center, said the Getaway Adventures program is a great way for students to engage in outdoor activities. The schedule varies from year to year, but this year’s excursion includes rock climbing, fiestas, cultural feasts and art festivals, he said. Laura Montoya, coordinator for Getaway Adventures, said that in the 26 years she has worked at Johnson Center, the program has grown to the point that it is always busy.
With ears still ringing from Independence Day fireworks, musicians everywhere are ready to jump from the national celebration to a local one: the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque. The MSA concert and conference series is an event at which the next generation of mariachi musicians may not only perform, but also learn from historians, professors and renowned musicians within the genre via lectures and workshops offered over the course of four days. To add a new element to the 25th anniversary of MSA’s conference and concert series, the UNM Alumni Association and Lobo Living Room have partnered with MSA to add an educational element to the festival in the form of music education workshops and a lecture from a mariachi historian.
Envision not eating, drinking, smoking or having sex from sunrise until sundown every day for a month. For people who observe Ramadan, doing so is an annual event. Serene Akkad, a junior International Affairs major and event coordinator for the Muslim Student Association, said the fast during Ramadan is intended to help cleanse the soul and body, to help practitioners get closer to God, and to return them to their roots. “It teaches us to always be thankful,” she said.
Color-filled photography books have been a staple for aspiring photographers to find inspiration and motivation through their lenses for ages, though the introduction of Internet-based photography libraries such as Flikr and Instagram have started to diminish the need for photography books.
There were a lot of exciting announcements at this year’s E3. Many video games were officially announced, and now fans are left to wait in anticipation as the creators give life to their newest releases. Here are the top five most exciting announcements from the conference.
Summer months are often the ones children look forward to the most. However, with public schools on break, children of working professionals and college students might find themselves stuck inside the house with nothing to do. To cure that boredom, UNM Recreational Services at Johnson Center is offering the Recreational Activities Day Camp program. Lisa Romero, a coordinator for recreational services, said the RAD Camp program began almost 20 years ago and, at the time, lasted for only a couple of weeks. Increased demand over the years has caused the program expand to cover nine weeks and support up to 30 children.
After having appeared in more than 200 films, actor Christopher Lee died on June 7 at the age of 93. Lee, often cast as a villain, recently and famously portrayed the evil wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” film series. Saruman was the perfect opportunity for Lee, a longtime “Lord of the Rings” fan himself, to play a villain with some dignity and eloquence — two elements that Lee personally considered to be lacking in other villain roles such as that of Count Dracula, who Lee played for British production company Hammer. The role of Count Dracula was defining in the first half of Lee’s career: the actor played Count Dracula in seven different Hammer productions, as well as in several off-brand films, most notably Jess Franco’s “Dracula.” The films range in quality, with “The Horror of Dracula” being the best overall; but one thing that stayed consistent was Lee’s performance and dedication to the role of the titular count.
Imagine finding yourself locked inside an unfamiliar room. You’ve been told you only have an hour to find a way out, and once your hour is up ... you lose the game, and another team will enter to attempt their escape. Husband-and-wife team Darren and Carrie Guido have taken the popular “escape the room” internet games and brought them to life in Albuquerque.
Gymnastics on a pole, or pole fitness, is changing the way people think about pole dancing and about exercise. It isn’t stripper training, said Julia S., a junior liberal arts major and pole fitness trainer at FIT Tease. She said she is asked that question often, and dislikes the stigma surrounding the words “pole dancing.” “When you tell someone ‘I pole dance’ or ‘I am a pole dancer,’ they immediately think, ‘oh, what club do you work at?’” she said. “That’s not what it’s about.”
Grumpy. Nyan. Hamilton. Whether real or animated, the Internet is obsessed with cats.
By Kevin Haaf Some say music and movies can make a society. That the shape of a culture is crafted and reflected by the celebrities who set trends. Joe Ragland III, a senior psychology major, said his five favorite artists and celebrities are all feminists.
Ike Reilly’s seventh album offers many things for fans to look forward to: raspy vocals, upbeat rhythms, occasional guitar solos and a few misspelled titles. The indie rock “Born on Fire” is a record five years in the making, but it sounds more like country rock meets campfire sing-along with instruments. A truly great record is able to capture the hearts of listeners regardless of whether they are die-hard fans of a particular genre. Unfortunately for Reilly, his release falls short of that: this album can expect to be bypassed by those of the heavier rock n’ roll community.
What’s your name? This is the question the University’s LGBTQ Resource Center is addressing with their latest goal, the preferred name initiative. The initiative is to allow transgender students to use preferred names, rather than legal names, in the academic setting, including on students’ Lobo IDs.
Despite the large numbers that attend pride parades, the history behind them doesn’t seem to be well-understood by the general populace. Curtison Badonie, a senior biology major, said ‘pride’ means having acceptance of who an individual is, no matter what. Pride focuses on LGBTQ community representation through art and other forms of expression, regardless of how society treats them. Badonie said he learned more about activists who were underrepresented than prominent figures such as Harvey Milk.
Solutions by The State News
