Culture

Culture

Column: Studying abroad bestows many benefits

Sophie Earle | March 5

Studying abroad is expensive and entails some culture shock. However, making the difficult decision to leave my family and friends for a year to live in New Mexico was the best decision I have ever made. While everyone else is back home in rainy England, I get to wake up to the best sunrises in the world, live an American lifestyle and experience every day the vibrant New Mexico culture. I highly encourage anyone to live abroad at one moment in their life.

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Culture

Review: 'Big Hero 6' a surprisingly fresh Disney effort

Graham Gentz | March 5

Disney is one of the six corporations who control 90 percent of American media. Disney owns ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Miramax, Lucasfilm and Marvel Entertainment. The main way this has changed American media is the shaping of the thunderously lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Big Hero 6,” which recently came out on DVD, is probably the most creative use of Disney’s ownership of everything Marvel. “Big Hero 6” was originally a 90s comic series failure. I’m a huge comic book nerd and even I hadn’t heard of it before — it is essentially the artistic dregs of the Marvel’s comic history. But since Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009, this provided an opportunity to deconstruct and reinvent.

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Culture

PBS puts spotlight on childhood literacy

Khadijah Jacobs | March 5

Getting kids to read can be an obstacle, but New Mexico PBS is tackling the challenge through writing workshops. The PBS Kids writing workshops, offered through the month of March, feature an appearance by a local children’s book author and teach the basic elements of creating and organizing a story. Hollie Lovely, PBS early childhood outreach coordinator, said she organizes the workshops to address literacy and reading proficiency in New Mexico.

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Culture

Five and why: What Lobos love to hear

Skylar Griego | March 5

Facing an unusual challenge, choral director Maxine Thévenot said she did not expect it to be so hard to pick her five favorite musicians. “This list is most certainly not an exhaustive one, but I will be taking these to my desert island, when that day comes,” she said.

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Culture

Women slowly gaining in music industry

Skylar Griego | March 3

Slowly, the involvement of women in the music industry – both as artists and executives – are on the rise, yet some argue more needs to be done. The most recent Billboard Power Player list ranked the top 100 executives who have a large influence over the music industry, a list that includes individuals and partners. Out of 127 names, women make up 11 percent of the most influential leaders in the music industry, as opposed to making up 7.9 percent in Billboard’s 2012 list.

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Culture

Sol de la Noche on top in band battle

Fin Martinez | February 27

At ASUNM Student Special Events’ “Fight for Fiestas,” Latin/reggae crossover band Sol de la Noche battled against four other musical acts and came out on top, securing their spot as a headliner at this spring’s Fiestas. Sol de la Noche consists of percussionist Oscar Gamboa, drummer Ryan Rael, bassist Diego Flores, guitarist and vocalist Diego Manrique, and trumpet player Jose Chicas, all of whom are music majors at UNM.

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Culture

'Spin' dance show features diversity

Lauren Marvin and Moriah Carty | February 26

Six choreographers and 32 dancers are bringing a diverse set of flamenco and contemporary pieces to the stage during the annual faculty dance show. Donna Jewell, artistic director for SPIN, said out of the 12 years she has taught dance at UNM, this year’s show is the most diverse. This is in part because of the diversity within the dance department, she said. “The dance program at UNM is very unique because it has a flamenco concentration and a contemporary dance concentration,” Jewell said.

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Culture

Review: Best picture winner flaunts industry's vanity

Graham Gentz | February 26

On Sunday, the 87th Academy Awards rained down their judgment on all moviedom for 2014. The Oscars have long been criticized as being out of touch for everything from the masturbatory glitz to the selection of each actual award. None receive more attention and examination than the politically-driven selection of the highly coveted Best Picture. I was fairly excited to see “Birdman,” which stars Michael Keaton, take the top spot. It seemed surreal and cerebral and looked to be filled with many long takes, but I failed to anticipate the rather shallow message the movie expounded, which explains its political selection by the voters of the Academy Awards.

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Culture

Q&A: 'Voice' singer rolls into town

Lauren Marvin | February 26

Luke Wade’s story is not terribly unique: growing up in a small town, dreaming of a life on the stage and struggling through injuries and setbacks, but the viewers of singing competition “The Voice” seemed to think his singing was unique. After battling his way to the top eight contenders, Wade continues his passion, touring with his band No Civilians. The Daily Lobo asked Wade about his childhood, what he learned from his time during “The Voice” and living on the road.

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Culture

Staged stunts by Black Student Union discuss racism

Lauren Marvin | February 25

Often times social norms prevent discussions about controversial issues, but one UNM student organization is pulling back the veil and talking about racism through social experiments. The Black Student Union staged experimentsmodeled after popular TV show “What Would You Do?” by creating a scenario where actors of different genders and races argued in a public place about race.

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Culture

Five & Why: What Lobos love with Monica Daniels

Skylar Griego | February 25

One of the great things about movies is the memories tied with them. Viewers are never too old to go back and reminisce about a favorite childhood movie. Monica Daniels is a freshman in psychology, and she said she enjoys keeping in touch with her inner child – which is why her five favorite movies are children’s movies. Daniels said all of these movies have taught her to be as nice as possible, because people never know what’s going to happen.

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Culture

Food column: Garbanzos made easy

Steve “Mo” Fye | February 25

When it was suggested I write a column on healthy food alternatives for hardworking students, I had one word: garbanzos. Actually, it is more than one word, since this legume is also known as ceci, cece, chickpea, chana, Egyptian pea, gram or Bengal gram.

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Culture

Startup weekend promote business for teens

Moriah Carty | February 24

Like-minded teen entrepreneurs set out this weekend to break into an economy that is dominated by adults at FatPipe ABQ. Teen Start-up Weekend is Albuquerque’s rendition of the adult-oriented Start-up Weekend, an event geared towards flushing out business plans and solving problemsIn that entrepreneurial spirit, a teen started the event.

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Culture

Sin Fronteras Film Festival spotlights Latin America

Mateo Rocha | February 24

Protests, artistic traditions and shrilling violence all exposed the diverse and profound social realities of Latin America in this year’s 2015 Sin Fronteras Film Festival. The Student Organization for Latin American Studies organized the free event, which included nine films that came from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil and California.

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Culture

U.K., America more similar than differences

February 24

While I tend to focus on the comical differences between the United States and the United Kingdom, there are also many interesting similarities. Most have considered the U.K. to be a significantly smaller version of the U.S. The U.S. and the U.K. share the same movies, music, TV shows, shops and above all else, language. Are we not simply two countries divided by an ocean?

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Culture

Five & Why: What Lobos love with Candice Smart.

Skylar Griego | February 19

These days it seems as if all we hear about are the awful things going on around us. For those who want to get away from all of it, fantasy books are a great escape. Candice Smart, freshman in the University College, said her favorite books are fictional tales, many of which have had a very real impact on her life.

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Culture

Review: Nic Cage makes another once-a-decade masterpiece

Graham Gentz | February 19

It’s a contentious stance, but I like Nic Cage. He’s an easy man to disregard. Sure, the bottom 85 percent of his filmography is earth-shatteringly bad. But every 10 years or so, he makes a really good movie. And if you blink, you’d miss films like “Adaptation,” “Raising Arizona,” “Matchstick Men,” “Bringing Out the Dead,” “Lord of War” or “The Weather Man.” Go watch them and see what I mean. You won’t be disappointed.

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Culture

UNM's sexual assault reporting pathways a confusing process

Lauren Marvin | February 19

Two weeks ago my editor sent me on a mission: Investigate how the sexual assault reporting system works at UNM. After interviews and constant follow-up phone calls, I can say for certain that the folks at Pilgrim and Associates Law Offices had it right when in their report they said UNM’s sexual assault reporting system was confusing. The scope, depth and possibilities when reporting a sexual assault are endless, so for the sake of this investigation, I focused only on sexual assault as a policy violation and stayed away from questions about criminal cases for now.

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Culture

Dance, music celebrated at UNM's holiday celebration

Moriah Carty | February 17

The Bangladeshi community celebrated a culturally defining holiday on Saturday with quite a bit of color this year. The Bangladeshi Student Association of UNM observed International Mother Language Day, but this time added dancing and fashion to better capture the essence of their culture. The holiday celebrates Bengali, Bangladesh’s official language, said Shaikh Ahmad, BSAUNM’s program director of publication.

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Culture

Put a little love in the world

Skylar Griego | February 12

This week, Kyle Stepp, a junior organizational communication major, delivered baskets filled with toys, gifts and arts and crafts to the UNM Children’s Hospital. Stepp said he was diagnosed with stage-four osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in high school. He was given a 10 percent chance of living. In his three years receiving treatment from the UNM Children’s Hospital, he went through 98 chemotherapies and nine surgeries. “Sometimes we forget that right across the street there are 62,000 kids a year fighting for their lives. The least we can do is take the time to brighten up those kids’ days and show them Lobo love,” Stepp said. “A lot of these kids just want friends.”