Oliver Stone once told us that gay anti-communists killed JFK and that Jim Morrison was more than a cretin with a beard. Now he takes on President Bush with "W.," half of which is a boozy, half-cocked oedipal drama and the rest of which is an episode of "The West Wing" written by an eighth grader.
Saturday brings a West African song and dance performance to the Outpost Performance Space. Assane Kouyate, a West African dance teacher who will perform in the show, said the group is trying to bring people together to have a good time and enjoy traditional dance.
The San Francisco band Leopold and his Fiction sounds like the White Stripes meets Bob Dylan. Lead singer and songwriter Daniel James has a gravelly speaking voice, which sounds clearer when he sings but adds depth to his onstage vocals. "I smoked for a really long time like seven years ago," he said.
Ayren Valer moves her two-titled piece "Death: The Great Illusion" and "Reincarnation: the Kaleidoscopey Adventure." Skulls made of sugar displayed at the OFFCenter Community Arts Project on Tuesday. OFFCenter's Dia de los Muertos art show includes a black, triangle-shaped painting, a Mexican shrine filled with sugar skulls and two collages mounted on a vertical rack covered with black leaves and ravens.
Gypsy jazz music dates back to the swing days of the '30s and '40s and in some cases as far back as the impressionist art period. And the late French guitarist Django Reinhardt was the first to fuse Eastern European sounds with American jazz. "Although gypsy jazz isn't heard by everybody, there is now a revival for this unique style of music," said Archtop Eddy, a guitarist for Mango fan Django, a band scheduled to play at Albuquerque's DjangoFest The festival runs from Thursday to Sunday at venues throughout the city.
Photography student Scott Preston transferred to UNM from Louisville, Ky., where he worked at a fly-fishing store. He strives to live a fulfilling life free of obsession with material goods. He works with black-and-white film, and he's pretty good at taking night photographs.
A carousel atop a fluffy, pink canoe is commonplace for artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre, who created the "Meso-Americhanics" exhibit at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. "The title is actually a mash-up of words," said Richard Garcia, admissions clerk at the center.
Nintendo needs to reach back into the innovation bag and try again. The company announced the third revision to the Nintendo DS line last week, with nothing spectacular to show for it. The DSi - as Nintendo in its infinite wisdom deigned to call it - is almost exactly like the current DS Lite.
Ani DiFranco Red Letter Year Available Now 2/5 I guess if the self-obsessed Ani DiFranco got over her issues, she'd have nothing left to sing about, and that is why her songs never evolve. Her new album, Red Letter Year, adds pretty musical flairs and nuances and all those little things any genius can whip up in the recording studio.
"Betty's Summer Vacation" is not about a relaxing stay at the beach. The Theatre X play contains very little leisure time at the ocean. Instead, it features dismemberment, blood and body parts in a refrigerator. Death, sexual harassment, incest, abuse, violence and rape are themes throughout the show.
The Endorphin Power Company, a transitional housing program and community center, helps people ease back into society from a life of substance abuse. Director Ruby Lathon said there are 18 units for people to live in, as well as a gym. EPC stresses fellowship, education, community service and fitness, she said.
The revolution may not be televised, but at least you can watch the third installment of the presidential debates Wednesday. "It's an important time, and the whole world is paying attention to what we do during this election, to kind of see if we are going along the same course that we have been, or we are going to try and start changing our course," said Leon Howard, a UNM law student who will host a debate watch party at the SUB Ballroom from 6 to 9 p.
There's a 13-foot inflated sitting man with a hamburger for a head at the Albuquerque Museum. "That one's titled 'The Mayor Rests,'" said Ramona Zamir-Gonzalez, senior assistant at the Albuquerque Museum. "It's attached to this pump that puts air into it, but it kind of sighs and breathes and groans.
The New Mexico Black Expo will be an open house for New Mexicans who want to learn more about the Albuquerque black community. The expo will be held Friday at the State Fairgrounds from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday at Civic Plaza from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The South Austin Jug Band made its latest album, Strange Invitation, at the Hotel Chelsea. "It was better than my wildest dreams," singer and guitarist James Hyland said. "I was scared we'd go up there and end up sitting in a room looking at each other. It's hard not to be inspired there.
Michael L. Weinstein said he didn't know what he was getting himself into when he founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation in 2006. Now the Albuquerque native and his family endure death threats from religious fundamentalists, he said. Weinstein was on campus Monday for a showing of "Constantine's Sword," a documentary about evangelism in the armed forces.
Technically-inclined UNM linguistics student and artist Chris Clavio fixed a bunch of Columbia University's sound equipment for fun two summers ago. Now he is looking to change the world with his T-shirt company called Azoova, while living it up playing tuba in the UNM marching band.
For those who have yet to register to vote, today is your last day, even if it means simply filling out a change-of-address form. In preparation for Election Day, actress Eva Longoria of the show "Desperate Housewives" and actor Adam Rodriguez of "CSI: Miami" have been driving around the country, rallying people to register and to vote for Sen.
Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst isn't the strangest onscreen matchup of all time, but it has to be in the top 10. For the most part, the matchup works in "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People." They share an onscreen chemistry that isn't the norm in modern cinema but has more in common with the great romantic comedies of the '50s and '60s.
UNM student Jonathan Grimes hung his first art show of abstract paintings at Winning Coffee Co. last week. They resemble square, green and gold kaleidoscopic jewels - an impressive and well-executed series for someone with no art training. "It's kind of a regurgitation of very primal things I don't know how to communicate in any other way except for painting," Grimes said.
Solutions by The State News
