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ABQ Science Fiction Society perseveres through thick and thin

Megan Gleason | May 5

The Albuquerque Science Fiction Society (ASFS) is a literary-oriented club focused on all things sci-fi as well as other related genres like fantasy, horror and more. Like most other organizations, the ASFS has been virtual for the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic but continues to persevere in its 55th year in operation. The group has been meeting monthly on Zoom with events like movie viewings and author visits, co-executive secretary Craig Chrissinger said. The society also puts out a newsletter five times a year with awards, events, books reviews and more.

Culture

Only Native-owned comic book store in the world resides in ABQ

Hannah John | May 5

Lee Francis IV, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, is the owner of Red Planet Books and Comics, the only Native American owned comic shop in the world. Francis opened Red Planet Books and Comics in June 2017. The store is located near 10th Street and Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “The shop’s first titles were used books by Native authors that came from Francis’ own collection,” Red Planet’s website says. “Now he sells children’s books (quickly bought out whenever the Librarians of Color are in town for a conference) and, of course, comics.”

Culture

OPINION: Disappointing end of the ‘Star Wars’ Skywalker saga has fans wondering what’s next

Emma Trevino | May 2

“Star Wars” has transformed from a three-part film series that began in 1977 with an eponymous first movie to a mammoth franchise spanning several generations. While there is much debate over which film or set of films is best, the one sure thing is that “Star Wars” is a defining icon of the 20th and 21st century. As an avid fan of more than a decade and a dedicated viewer of most things Star Wars, I have to say that over the course of the last five or so years, my excitement and general interest in the films has steadily declined. Unfortunately, the awe I felt watching the first three “Star Wars” films has yet to be rivaled.

Culture

UNM hosts virtual 'Star Wars' Day on May 4

Megan Gleason | May 2

Star Wars Day, a decade-long tradition at the University of New Mexico, continues with virtual events to celebrate this year’s “May the Fourth be with you.” On May 4, there will be two main activities: a craft session with stormtroopers and a free movie available to stream all day. Free craft kits have been available for students to pick up prior to the event, and kits picked up on select days had special Star Wars cookies included. The last opportunity for students to get a craft kit will be on May 4 in the Student Union Building. Printable coloring pages are also available online.

Culture

REVIEW: “Crying in H Mart:” Finding who you are through what you eat

Alex McCausland | April 29

For musician Michelle Zauner, the death of her mother is her life’s most critical moment, both breaking her from the inside out and propelling her into the most successful period in her career. In the memoir “Crying in H Mart,” Zauner details her experiences with loss, Korean American identity and how food connects the two. Zauner has years of experience with artistic expression through her music under the alias Japanese Breakfast, and her newcomer status in the world of writing makes this book all the more impressive. Despite this, Zauner makes it look easy, carrying the story of her life with poignant, witty and skillful prose from start to finish.

Culture

REVIEW: Stowaway: A meddling contemplation of a complex moral dilemma

John Scott | April 29

This review contains spoilers. If you were stranded on a desert island with three other people with only enough resources for three of you to survive until help arrived, what would you do? This is the question that “Stowaway” seeks to solve. The twist is that instead of an island, you’re in space and instead of discussing all possible options, the filmmakers restrict you to one scenario but throw in a few twists and turns as a treat. The film opens with the crew taking off on a mission to Mars. We hear the different intercoms from mission control and the crew performing final checks and confirmations before they finally embark on a two year journey to the red planet.

Culture

OPINION: A year as bizarre as 2020 deserves an Oscars ceremony to match

Shelby Kleinhans | April 29

What started out as a promising night turned into what can only be called a disaster of epic proportions — and #OscarsSoWhite wasn’t even trending. The 93rd Academy Awards aired over two months later than usual due to complications caused by the pandemic, resulting in the three-hour-long show falling on the evening of April 25. However, the logistical changes weren’t what made the evening an infamous affair. The most egregious oversight was certainly the handling of the nomination of late actor Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in August 2020 after battling colon cancer for the previous four years.

Culture

Albuquerque theaters barely surviving difficult season

Megan Gleason | April 27

Local theaters in Albuquerque continue to scrape by as closure remains constant due to state safety mandates. Along with the continuous loss of employees, many local theaters are now relying on virtual operations and new sources of funding to prevent a permanent shutdown. New Mexico is currently operating under a county-by-county tiered color-coding system that’s dependent on the amount of cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as designated by the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH). The levels are red, yellow, green and turquoise, each with varying levels of restrictions. Theaters, which are considered a large entertainment venue, may reopen with public audiences at a 25% capacity when counties hit the green level. Bernalillo county is currently at the yellow level, which only allows theaters to operate without a physical audience at a 25% maximum capacity in order to record or broadcast, according to the NMDOH. Because of this, local theaters in Albuquerque, such as the Guild Cinema and the Albuquerque Little Theatre (ALT), have turned to online streaming as a solution.

Culture

Prolific LA photographer returns to roots at UNM photo department

Liberty Stalnaker | April 27

Mark McKnight is an artist and assistant professor of photography at the University of New Mexico. Working primarily in black-and-white analog photography, the works showcased on McKnight’s portfolio website variously depict jagged desert landscapes, nude figures, sex acts and cloud-spotted skies. “Landscape, body, transcendence, or even the spiritual, the erotic, my identity — I’m brown, Nuevomexicano, but also mixed-race, so I have a complicated relationship to identity — if I had to sum it up with one word, it would be the subjective,” McKnight said, describing the concepts his photography portrays. “As a being in the world, I can only speak for myself. My work is a reflection of my subjectivity, which is, I think, what it is for everyone,” McKnight said.

Culture

REVIEW: ‘Mortal Kombat’ delivers a much anticipated reboot

Jesus Mata | April 26

This review contains spoilers Fans of the video game franchise have been eager to have someone take another chance on making a live action film since the release of the original in 1995. The wait is now over as “Mortal Kombat” (2021) is now available in the U.S on HBO Max and in theaters as of April 23. The film serves as an origin story, setting up character arcs for Hanzo Hasashi (aka Scorpion), Bi-Han (aka Sub-Zero) in the 1600’s, Jax and a newly added character to the franchise, Cole Young, a descendent of Hasashi.

Culture

UNM LEAF calls for climate action at Earth Day Rally

Avery Rogers | April 26

“Divest from polluters, invest in the future,” protesters chanted on April 22 at an Earth Day rally and march at the University of New Mexico. The event was hosted by the campus organization UNM Leaders for Environmental Action and Foresight (LEAF). UNM LEAF is a group of UNM students and staff dedicated to addressing climate change and potential actions to take to lessen humanity’s impact on the natural world, according to the organization’s website. The event started on Johnson Field, where signs were given out and opening statements were made by UNM LEAF’s Director of Operations Kineo Memmer and Director of Student Outreach Sofia Jenkins-Nieto. The crowd then split into smaller groups to comply with social distancing and began to march their way further into campus.

Culture

'There must be other names for the river:' A sonic call to action

John Scott | April 23

“There Must Be Other Names for the River” greets visitors of the virtual exhibit with this sentence: “The river is the reason we can live in this part of the arid high desert. It’s why there are animals and plants, villages and cities. And it’s drying up.” The exhibition consists of a “22 minute sound performance,” with recordings of six different singers, each embodying streamflow data, numerical data collected to analyze the flow of the Rio Grande, collected from the 1970s to now and into “possible futures.” The audience is given the choice to listen to these recordings simultaneously or individually. The tracks consist only of the one singer interpreting the streamflow data using their voice as well as different audio effects, like distortion or reverb.

Culture

Cannabis and Communication classes offered at UNM

Megan Gleason | April 20

Since spring 2019, associate professor Tamar Ginossar has taught two “Cannabis and Communication” courses focused on stigma and discourse surrounding the recently-legalized drug. “For the 200 level (course), the goal is to apply communication concepts and learn about the field of communication through the topic of cannabis, which is a topic that is very meaningful and very interesting to a lot of students,” Ginossar said. The upper-level companion course, CJ 393, will be available as a class this summer over Zoom, but Ginossar said she’s hoping they can transition back to an in-person environment in the future. According to Ginossar, this class is more in-depth than the introductory course and has a specific focus on research.

Culture

PLAYLIST: Cannabisseur's Delight

Joseph McKee , Liam Debonis , Alex McCausland , Megan Gleason and John Scott | April 19

The recent legalization of recreational cannabis is cause for celebration, and to commemorate the event and the upcoming 4/20 holiday, the Daily Lobo editors assembled their favorite songs with especially chill vibes. Listen to the playlist on Spotify here!

Culture

Local 4/20 art show kicks off the holiday weekend with a bong

Shelby Kleinhans | April 19

Situated between a barber shop and a tattoo parlor, the exterior of Rebel Prints off 3rd street in downtown Albuquerque appears unassuming at first glance. But if you walked in on the afternoon of April 16, you would’ve been treated to a wide array of artwork and apparel in a particular shade of green. This wasn’t your average art pop-up; it was the “Roll into Spring Cannabis Inspired Art Show” hosted by Rebel Prints from 4:20 to 7:10 p.m. The description of the event posted on Facebook stated, “Here we go Yo! Let's Roll into Spring with a fresh look on going Green. Live Art! Chill Vibes! Masks Required.” Iconic leaves, reddened eyes and lighters were plentiful among the artwork adorning the walls of the studios crafted by 13 local artists. Screen-printed t-shirts made by Karl Bautista, the owner of Rebel Prints, would satisfy any cannabis enthusiast’s needs. A vendor market out back hosted an additional eight artists selling their goods.

Culture

REVIEW: ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’: an ode to Taylor Swift’s (and our) adolescence

Rebecca Hobart | April 16

Prince once famously said, “If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.” 23 years after his 1996 Rolling Stones interview, Taylor Swift announced her intent to re-record her entire catalog. On April 9, Taylor Swift released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” the newly re-recorded older and wiser sister of her sophomore studio album, “Fearless,” which was released in 2008. Although “Fearless” was a massive success — raking in her first No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 10 million copies and earning a Grammy Award for Album of the Year — it was owned by Big Machine Records, her former label.

Culture

UNM CAMPerinos hosts 9th annual Farmworker Awareness Week

Rebecca Hobart | April 12

The ninth annual Farmworker Awareness Week (FAW) kicked off virtually on March 28, with each day addressing a new facet of farmworker history and the impacts of the pandemic. UNM CAMPerinos used this week to honor the essential contributions of farmworkers’ and highlight the injustices they face. CAMPerinos serves students with migrant and seasonal farmworker backgrounds and other students at UNM by providing mentorship, community engagement opportunities and support. Farmworker Awareness Week was hosted on Facebook for the second consecutive year due to the ban on in-person gatherings. The online event consisted of a series of social media posts which featured infographics, student farmworker testimonials and information on historical figures in the farmworker rights movement.

Culture

New Mexico COVID-19 Association club spearheads pandemic student volunteer work

Megan Gleason | April 12

As the pandemic rages on, students at the University of New Mexico have banded together to form the New Mexico COVID-19 Association, a volunteer club focused on helping those directly impacted by the pandemic. Cameron Moezzi, the president of the club, said that volunteers mainly assist at vaccination sites and COVID-19 hotels and deliver vaccination supplies. “Every day there’s vaccines being given — thousands being given in New Mexico — and every time that I (volunteer), I notice that we lack help,” Moezzi said.

Culture

REVIEW: 'Godzilla vs. Kong' delivers ultimate CGI battle royale and little else

Shelby Kleinhans | April 7

This review contains spoilers. Eager fans of the fourth MonsterVerse installment can finally quench their anticipation now that “Godzilla vs. Kong” is available on HBO Max and theaters as of March 31. Streaming numbers haven’t been released yet, but the performance at the box office has been absolutely astounding. The opening day domestic box office figure of $9.6 million made for “the best opening day total of the coronavirus era,” according to Variety.

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Culture

UNM archives boast vast collection of photography

Megan Gleason | April 6

Photography students at the University of New Mexico have access to a wide array of resources, including collections from the Fine Arts & Design Library (FADL), the UNM Art Museum (UNMAM) and the Center for Southwest Research (CSWR). The FADL covers a wide range of academic topics in photography research, all of which can be browsed online or in-person during limited hours. Students can also schedule Zoom sessions with Beene for help with research or resources, according to librarian Stephanie Beene.