Culture - The Daily Lobo

Culture

El Centro de la Raza commemorates Día de los Muertos

Annya Loya | October 31

El Centro de la Raza at the University of New Mexico went all out for their weeklong Day of the Dead celebrations which began on Friday, Oct. 28 at Mesa Vista Hall. The celebration culminated with the set up of El Centros’ traditional Day of the Dead altar, followed by food and music for all attendees. El Centro de la Raza is a resource center at UNM dedicated to student advocacy, meaningful programs and services, and educating the campus community on the diverse issues that affect Latinx and Hispano students attending or wishing to attend UNM.

Culture

'Hellraiser' (2022) has such sights to show you

Marcela Johnson | October 31

If there’s any time to be a horror fan, it's during October when highly anticipated horror movies dominate theaters. This year saw many well-known horror franchises, such as “Halloween” and “Scream,” continue their legacies on the silver screen. Others, such as “Hellraiser” (2022), released Oct. 7 on Hulu, break expectations and carve out their own spaces within their franchises. The film almost completely abandons the characters from the “Hellraiser” franchise and Clive Barker’s two novels “The Hellbound Heart” and film tie-in “The Scarlet Gospels.” The movie centers on recovering addict Riley McKendry (Odessa A’zion) and her struggle to get her brother back from the forces of hell (the Cenobites).

Culture

Loboscopes: November predictions

Zara Roy | October 31

As the sun glides through the intense sign of Scorpio toward a lunar eclipse on Nov. 8 — the same day the fiery planet Mars goes retrograde — the month of November promises intensity all around. Generally speaking, you may encounter many endings that may leave you feeling stuck in a place of no forward momentum near the beginning of the month. Read on to see what these effects mean for your sign:

Culture

Go in blind to Zach Cregger’s 'Barbarian'

Spenser Willden | October 31

On top of the classic spooky films, Halloween is the perfect season to catch up on this year’s horror innovators; Jordan Peele, Ti West and now, with the release of his sleeper horror hit “Barbarian,” Zach Cregger. “Barbarian,” which became available on HBO Max on Oct. 25, is a film that knows what its audience is thinking and plays with these expectations to make a truly unpredictable, if somewhat unstable, ride. The film starts with an aspiring documentary filmmaker Tess (Georgina Campbell) checking into an AirBNB double booked with a mysterious stranger (Bill Skarsgård). The film reinvents itself (even within genre) from scene to scene; it is best seen with as few expectations as possible.

Culture

UNM artist subverts the sacred and explores queerness through photography

Zara Roy | October 24

On Friday, Oct. 21, University of New Mexico senior Lucien Sebastian completed his first solo exhibition, “Arsenal,” at the John Sommers Gallery. He used the exhibition as a means to find catharsis and come to terms with public and interpersonal responses to his identity as a transgender man. In the exhibition, Sebastian combined photography with a collection of quotes from others in regard to his identity since coming out as transgender and his responses to them. The exhibition ends on a print with the words “never again” etched into it: Sebastian’s personal reckoning and decision to take his identity off the table as a topic of open discussion or debate. The idea for the exhibition’s name came to him after a debate over his identity in which he was criticized for coming into every argument with an “arsenal” behind him.

Culture

Local artist flirts with youth, violence and life in the Southwest through cartoon

Spenser Willden | October 24

The violence of local artist Beedallo’s work is often offset by her charming illustrative style. In her art, adolescents and animals bleed from wounds both seen and unseen: knives, whips, fire and worms. Her work, with its clean primary colors and sharp geometric style, adorns the walls of the Lapis Room art gallery in Old Town, establishing it as part of the contemporary Southwestern movement, yet bold and original of its own. Beedallo grew up surrounded by art with numerous Southwestern-style artisans on her mother’s side. She inherited a love for illustration from her mother, an illustrator herself, who taught her about art from a young age. Her primary interest, though, was cartoons.

Culture

REVIEW: Cate Blanchett is ‘Tár’-iffic in ‘Tár’

John Scott | October 24

It wouldn’t be a true awards season without talking about the latest film starring Cate Blanchett. In the case of 2022, this happens to be writer-director Todd Field’s “Tár.” After receiving a strong critical reaction at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year, “Tár” finally saw release here in Albuquerque on Friday, Oct. 21, allowing us non-Venice attending folk to dig in to the masterpiece that Field has crafted. This is a film best approached with as little information as possible, so I will keep my summary extremely broad: it centers on world-renowned composer Lydia Tár (Blanchett) who slowly becomes embroiled in controversy during final preparations for a career-setting performance. This summary is extraordinarily reductive, but part of what made “Tár” most striking is how shocking it is, due in large part to how little I knew about it going in.

Culture

Ask the Editors: Hair-raising horror recommendations

John Scott , Zara Roy , Thomas Bulger and Spenser Willden | October 24

With the end of October comes the celebration of Halloween and, along with it, an endless amount of books, movies and games to select from for your spooky pleasure. Here, four Daily Lobo editors have compiled a list of some of their favorite terrifying titles sure to keep you up at night.

Culture

REVIEW: Taylor Swift’s “Midnights (3am Edition)” is a gorgeous compilation of nighttime thoughts

Elizabeth Secor | October 23

At midnight on Oct. 21, Taylor Swift released her new 13-song album entitled “Midnights.” Shortly after, a “special very chaotic surprise,” as Swift called it, of seven more songs — titled the “3 am Tracks” — were then unsurprisingly released at 3 A.M. Together, the two come to form ‘Midnights: 3am Edition,” a collection of 20 new songs that are a truly spectacular set of stories representing those nights when thoughts leave you staring at the ceiling. Anyone looking for the “old Taylor” will find artifacts of her old albums throughout this new one, but “Midnights” truly represents how Swift has grown as an artist and a person.

Culture

5 and why: 5 ways to get festive for the fall season

Zara Roy | October 21

When I say “autumn,” what comes to mind? Pumpkins? Candy? Yellow leaves crunching beneath you? For those pining for seasonal festivities, University of New Mexico nursing freshman Tina Nisoli has shared her five favorite ways to get into the fall spirit. Watching Holiday-Themed Movies What better way to absorb yourself into the autumnal ambience than watching a film that evokes the tone. Nisoli personally suggests sitting down to watch your favorite fall film — although she is partial to Tim Burton. “You could also do horror movies, but I feel like moreso, I like the “Nightmare Before Christmas” — anything Tim Burton,” Nisoli said.

Culture

UNM student captures queer identity with picture-perfect poeticism

Zara Roy | October 17

Andrew Michael Joseph, a senior at the University of New Mexico, is heading into his final year in the studio art program, leaving behind a photographic legacy of exploration and celebration of queer identity in the UNM arts and honors programs. In his work, Joseph is interested in exploring his identity as a transgender man. His most recent exhibition, “Proximity to Divinity,” investigated the idea of the cisgender male as the “divine,” and the inability to achieve this ideal. He also explored the beauty that comes from not being cisgender and having to “make your own body and make your own being.”

Culture

A view into Old Town art galleries

Annya Loya | October 17

Established in 1706, Old Town is the city of Albuquerque’s first neighborhood. Throughout its history, Old Town has provided the city with iconic art, architecture and cuisine. One of the things that makes it unique in Albuquerque history is the vast number of art galleries. From the weird to the wonderful, Old Town is packed with art of diverse perspectives and drives.

Culture

Muralists craft through community and culture

Zara Roy | October 17

For local muralists, art can serve as a powerful medium for bringing strength back to the people in times of great division and disenfranchisement. With this knowledge, mural artists here in New Mexico have created a means of revitalizing community strength through collaborative art. “What we’re really trying to do is show that art really isn’t the enemy. It’s a tool that some people can use to gentrify a community, but we choose to use it as a tool to collaborate with the community and to be a reflection of the beauty of the beauty that is already there. So, it’s not place-making, it’s place-keeping,” Vanessa Alvarado, lead artist at Apprenticeships for Leaders in Mosaic Arts, said.

Culture

Art-chitecture: the art of the building

John Scott | October 17

Picture yourself in a classroom: four rectangular, cream-colored walls, each about 30 feet from each other. At the front of the classroom is a chalkboard: directly to the right, a small window. In front of the chalkboard is the professor’s desk, adorned with computer and projector controls; rows of desks fill the rest of the space. The bare walls direct your eyes toward the window and your mind toward what’s outside of it. Right now, though, the sunshine beaming down and refracting through the window casts an undiscovered beauty atop the entire scene; suddenly, the cream-colored walls become canvases, their corners and intersections transforming to reveal a hidden sculpture. You pause and ask yourself: is this mundane, everyday classroom art?

Culture

Fall 2022 Daily Lobo photo contest winners

Daily Lobo | October 17

On Sep. 27, the Daily Lobo asked students at the University of New Mexico to submit their best photos for a chance to be featured on the cover of our Art and Photo issue, published this past Monday, Oct. 17. Here, the three winners provide a brief statement on their photographs and the stories behind them.

Culture

OPINION: Films need to put more effort into cinematography

Spenser Willden | October 17

The principal concern of the filmmaker is image. Story, character, even sound are all secondary to the creation of compelling images. Think of the shower scene in “Psycho,” Gene Kelly and the lamppost in “Singing in the Rain.” With their composition, these iconic images, both within and outside their original contexts, provide sensations beyond sight to the audience — touch, smell, taste, even intrigue; a sixth sense of danger and imbalance or joy and virility. Now, think of an iconic shot from the past few years in film, particularly blockbusters: those we’re leaving behind to later generations. Our cultural footprint. Think of a shot as divorced from the context of plot as well, just what’s in the frame. Finding anything interesting? Likely not.

Culture

5 and Why: 5 places to take photographs in and around Albuquerque

Elizabeth Secor | October 17

The city of Albuquerque and its surrounding area provides ample opportunity for both professional and amateur photographers to photograph places that are both beautiful and unique. Isaac Martinez, a film student at The University of New Mexico and practicing photographer for the last four years, spoke to the Daily Lobo about his favorite spots to take photographs with some common and uncommon spots.

Culture

UNM playwright explores memory, love and loss in debut work

Zara Roy | October 11

At this year’s Linnell Festival of New Plays at the University of New Mexico, graduate student Julia Storch debuted her first staged play, “Smokebox.” The play explores the vulnerability of humans in all their imperfect perfection. “Smokebox” is about a queer couple who meet again many years after their high school relationship ended — one of them has a form of dementia, and memories and present-day become mixed within the play. The complications of the central relationship are what appealed to Rhiannon Frazier, director of the “Smokebox” inaugural staging.

Culture

UNM memoirist imitates life through art

Spenser Willden | October 11

University of New Mexico student Meg Vlaun is no stranger to hard work; a writer and mother of two with a job tutoring at Central New Mexico Community College and two master's degrees and aspirations for a third in tow, she possesses that rare quality which separates a good writer from the greats — drive and determination. Vlaun splits her time between her numerous commitments, including a new volunteer position as an editor on “Limina: UNM Nonfiction Review.” Through determination, she’s thrived across the board in her work.

Culture

REVIEW: ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ will make you witch for a better movie

Sierra Martinez | October 10

As you make your way through October, you may find yourself seeking out movies and Halloween specials from your favorite TV shows to get you in the mood for spooky season. An all-time favorite of Halloween lovers is the 1993 film “Hocus Pocus.” While for many years this film has been a Halloween staple with a conclusive and relatively satisfying ending, it, like many other classic films, has fallen victim to the dreaded sequel. On Sept. 30, “Hocus Pocus 2” was released on Disney+, and many fans flocked to the streaming service to see the Sanderson sisters resurrected once again. Unfortunately, the film does not live up to its predecessor, and it’s difficult to imagine it becoming nearly as popular.