The determination Vince McMahon has to get Roman Reigns over with the crowd is just amazing. No matter how much the WWE fans reject Reigns, it just seems to give McMahon more motivation to try to prove that Reigns is indeed what the fans want. If Monday’s Raw was any indication, Reigns isn’t anywhere close to being the company’s top baby face.
A selection of local bands will battle it out for victory at the annual Fight for Fiestas on Tuesday night in the SUB Ballroom for the honor of playing live at Fiestas in April. The battle features bands spanning multiple genres such as rock, hip-hop, metal, electronic dance music, jazz and more. Fight for Fiestas is organized by ASUNM, specifically by Student Special Events and spearheaded by SSE Cultural Director Tatiana Solis. “In preparation for our big music festival, we have a battle of the bands, Fight For Fiestas, where UNM students who play music can audition to compete," she said. “In this competition, the crowd, along with the SSE directors, votes for who they think is the best. The winner gets a slot in playing during Fiestas.”
Amid a personal struggle between health issues and realizing his own creative vision, artist Aaron Trumm has worked relentlessly over the past 25 years to see his musical ideas come to life. Beginning in the early ‘90s, Trumm studied at UNM under the guidance of music department faculty member Manny Rettinger. At UNM, Trumm worked at Rettinger’s UBIK Studio as a production assistant, and with KNME as an in-house audio engineer. In his free time Trumm would fix up UNM’s basement studio, known then as the “elephant boneyard,” and record his first two solo albums.
The path to WrestleMania 32 is clear, but what will actually happen at the biggest show of the year isn’t. With about six weeks until WWE holds the biggest WrestleMania ever, there is still plenty of mystery of what the card will look like. In years past, most of the matches had been built up to some degree. However, thanks to a rash of injuries up and down the roster the card is still fluid.
Busy students who also work on campus don’t always have time to get through a book during the semester, so many of them enjoy watching movies instead. Marissa Archuleta, a sophomore communications and journalism and criminology double major who works in the Student Activities Center, said she enjoys using that time to watch ‘80s chick flicks, or other “girly movies.”
It's almost a farce in itself, getting settled in to watch "Deadpool" as trailers for upcoming superhero flicks like "Batman v Superman" and "Captain America: Civil War" play, when we feel like we've seen those particular movies a dozen times already. Rest assured, Deadpool is the freshest Marvel entry since "Guardians of the Galaxy," combining the best elements of successful superhero films, with the creative freedom of an R rating and a passion to bring the spirit of Deadpool to the screen. The result is a thoroughly entertaining film that, while it grasps its title character’s unique nature by the horns, doesn’t go overboard with it.
Originating from Albuquerque's indie music scene three years ago, local electronic-rock outfit Ugly Robot are taking venues by storm and exhibiting to listeners a unique take on multiple genres. From behind the curtain, audio engineer and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Broyles meticulously arranges sound for both his band and local artists, as well as for various events around UNM. Broyles works under the student body government as the executive director of Student Special Events. The SSE organizes a variety of affairs around UNM, ranging from the annual Fiestas event held on Johnson Field to more high-profile concerts, such as Jack White's performance at Popejoy Hall in February 2015.
The KNOWHERE Concert focuses on UNM students performing new choreography in flamenco and contemporary dance that sets to inspire audiences in the performing arts and build confidence and professionalism in dancers. KNOWHERE allows students to engage and support their fellow Lobos in the dance department.
The UNM Ronald E. McNair and Research Opportunity Program has helped students with financial need and students who are part of underrepresented groups find opportunities in doctoral studies for years. Now, they are opening applications for an program online. The McNair and ROP Program was installed in 2,000 to help students transition from undergraduate to graduate studies. The program provides students with research opportunities from various mentors. By giving the students resources such as mentors, advisers and support from their peers, the program’s goal is to establish students in various graduate programs around the nation, allowing them to pursue their career. “The program works to narrow achievement gaps for people who don’t have a level playing field,” Sr. Student Program Advisor Kyle Farris said. “It is specifically to help underrepresented people have opportunities in continuing on to these levels of education.”
Everyone’s a Lobo, or at least used to be. Members of alternative rock band Great States are proof of “once a Lobo, always a Lobo,” since all members are UNM alumni and said they’re still fond of their time here. In 2010, a series of coincidences (like random roommate assignments) brought keyboardist Sean Leston, front man Morgan Ching, bassist Eric Jecklin and drummer Ryan Rael together.
While many people will be spending Saturday preparing for Valentine’s Day, music students all over New Mexico will be playing their hearts out in Keller Hall. Saturday marks the 24th anniversary of the Jackie McGehee Young Artists’ Competition For Piano and Strings.
There won’t be any more “Yes!” chants in a WWE ring.
Early on in Hail, Caesar!, the latest effort from Joel and Ethan Coen, Josh Brolin’s character Eddie Mannix describes the work being put into the titular film-within-a-film as passionate. “It’s never been told with this kind of distinction and panache,” he says. That’s how it goes with Hail, Caesar!, part period-centric mystery, part love letter to not just classic Hollywood, but Hollywood of any era. Eddie Mannix is in charge of keeping order at Capital Pictures Studios, and that’s easier said than done, what with his task of having to deal with incompetent actors, unsatisfied directors and vulture-like journalists. He has even more to juggle when A-list movie star and leading man of his film, Baird Whitlock, goes missing.
A local wrestling company overcame the odds to make a return to the ring on Saturday. John Gruen, a former UNM student, started Destiny Wrestling Organization with several of his friends in 2006. He said they all loved wrestling and decided to work together to take a chance. “We wanted to bring it back to the glory days when the Civic Center was still around and Rocky Romero, Terry Funk and Dory Funk used to come down from Amarillo and wrestle,” Gruen said.
Less than two years ago, Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E were all toiling away in the midcard for WWE. None of them had any direction and each were seen as wrestlers who would never come close to sniffing the main event scene. It’s hard to believe how much has changed since the trio teamed up to become of WWE’s hottest attractions in The New Day late in 2014. The New Day has become one of WWE’s go to teams in the past year.
Aerial “A.J.” Liese is a UNM alum who recently published a powerful memoir, “Three Promises For Jane: A True Story of Madness and Redemption.” Liese returned to UNM Wednesday morning to sign copies of her book and discuss the elements of the novel and her experience writing it.
For Parade of Lights the purpose of music is to engage others through their unique rock/electric sound and lyrics in order to relate and inspire others to be empowered to enjoy life. Parade of Lights is a band from the Los Angeles region that is currently on tour across the United States. The band comprises lead vocal and guitarist Ryan Daly, Anthony Improgo on the drums, Michelle Ashley on vocals and keyboard, and Randy Schulte on base.
Everyone at UNM reads, but the reasons for doing so vary. Students read textbooks because it’s required and instructors read because they do a lot of research. Daniel Wolne, the associate director of the religious studies program, refers to this unavoidable reading as “professional reading.” Its counterpart, reading for personal enjoyment, consists of the non-work related books people enjoy in their spare time.
For many people, the joy of books is a simple one. Typically, they serve as a quiet form of entertainment that stimulates the mind by allowing readers to experience the story in their heads. They are nothing more than “movies for the mind” to many.
Room is a painful film to watch, an experience provided very deliberately by director Lenny Abrahamson. One gets the sense that it should get easier to endure as it progresses, only to realize by the time the credits roll that an all-around happy ending to this kind of story would be the stuff of fantasy.
Solutions by The State News
