This year's Pornotopia extended its vision into an art show at the Stove Gallery. Organized by Matie Fricker and Molly Adler, who own the sex shop Self Serve, last weekend's Pornotopia film festival at the Guild Cinema emphasizes using porn as an art form and screening it in public theaters.
The movie "Role Models" is clichéd in its comedic-yet-sincere formula. But the sincerity of the characters and dialogue raises this film above typical Hollywood comedy. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott play Danny Donahue and Wheeler, a duo who drive a truck shaped like a minotaur, campaigning against drugs and promoting an equally bad energy drink, Minotaur.
People want a saint but with a cowboy mouth. Or so Cavale tells Slim in "Cowboy Mouth," a 1971 play written by Sam Shepard and his then-lover, musician Patti Smith. The play, produced by SCRAP Productions and opening today at the Box Performance Space at 1025 Lomas Blvd.
Bag-maker Fernando Webb knows what makes a good bag, and it isn't big leather tassels. "They seem unnecessary - they just look stupid," Webb said. "And I really can't stand the designer labels like Chanel or Louis Vuitton, where it's their print all over the bag.
Recording studios and fencing classes - that's what you'll get at church-turned-performance space 1Kind Studios. Studio manager Adrian Griego and sound engineer Roman Garcia came up with the name long before the studio opened in June at 1016 Coal Ave. S.W.
There are too many damn games coming out this month. It is a constant avalanche of quality gaming that is taxing the budget of even the most financially solvent players. Take, for example, the forthcoming "Mirror's Edge" ($59.99). This game sells itself just through the short demo that was released on Xbox Live and PSN.
Video by Michael Demko Interview by Xochitl Campos Production by: Joseph Trisolini Xochitl Campos
Self-proclaimed rap nerd Slug, of the music group Atmosphere, said going to a hip-hop show is similar to going to church or Alcoholics Anonymous. "In a weird way, when you can get a room full of people to laugh together or throw their hands and wave them around together, that's as close as some of these people get to church," Slug said.
Radio producer Debra West likened the Saturday night show "The Director's Cut" to a Thanksgiving meal. "The movie is the turkey of the radio show. Boobs are the cranberry sauce - we talk about those a lot," she said. "Davenport's 'Pick of the Week' would be the pumpkin pie.
The world has now seen far more of Jason Mewes than necessary. "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" is the least-restrained Kevin Smith movie ever made. If he had made this in 2001, when he had to cut bits out of the relatively tame "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" to avoid an NC-17 rating, there is no way he could have made this movie without removing so much of the plot as to make it incomprehensible.
The 999 Eyes Freak Show will blow your mind without making a mess. It's the first vaudevillian freak show to tour in more than 45 years. Samantha X and accordionist Dylan Blackthorn created 999 Eyes four years ago. Based out of Austin, Texas, their first tour featured more than 30 acts and included a zombie rock opera, a puppet show and people hanging from hooks pierced through their flesh.
UNM theater major and senior Shannon Flynn wonders if he's found his true calling in playwriting, and he said he might stay extra years to study it. He'll showcase his two plays, "The Burglar" and "Slice," at Full Frontal Poetry this fall and at Words Afire in the spring.
Old western nostalgia is making a comeback in the form of musical theater thanks to the performing arts group ArcTisTics. ArcTisTics is made up of actors with developmental disabilities, the only organization of its kind in Taos. "It brings a fresher way of expression, and in the context of theater it is amazing," director Cristina Masoliver said.
Photos by Gabbi Campos, Production by Xochitl Campos & Joseph Trisolini Interviews by Xochitl Campos
An American classic is coming to Albuquerque. "Death of a Salesman," Arthur Miller's Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, opens today at the Cell Theatre at 700 First Street N.W. The play is produced by Fusion Theatre Co. and directed by Jacqueline Reid, Fusion's co-founder.
Q-Staff Theatre is transforming its space into an indoor Halloween carnival Friday. Simultaneous hour-long performances will take place throughout the theater, including a magician, a demonic dance, a bone pile, a dream machine, a scary-story reading and a projected stop-motion animation piece with dancing skeletons bursting forth from hellfire.
Halloween spooks will roam local neighborhoods Friday to remind people to vote early. Members of New Mexico Youth Organized will sponsor the first Trick or Vote to encourage early voting, especially among young voters. "We'll be reminding people to vote early, because the following day is the last day to vote early, and it's the perfect chance to remind them of their polling location in case they can't vote early," said lead volunteer recruiter Cyrus Gould.
Author Tony Hillerman stepped on a land mine in WWII and recuperated in a hospital in France, and he received a Purple Heart for it. "While he was up in the air, he was thinking, 'This is really going to hurt when I hit the ground,'" said Luther Wilson, UNM Press president and Hillerman's friend.
Second Day Red Gallery of Strangers Available now 2.5/5 The sound of Second Day Red is highly original and highly derivative at the same time. It blurs genre lines. At one moment the band sounds like ordinary alternative rock - albeit, whiny alternative rock.
Brett Bakker, editor of local zine Wig Wam Bam, has written about every music show he's seen in the past 10 years. "I think there's an amazing amount of local talent here in a lot of different styles," said Bakker, who writes under the name Captain America.
Solutions by The State News
