Opinion

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

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. 

LETTER: UNM must lead the way in addressing climate crisis

The climate crisis will not be solved unless we make changes – personal, social, economic and political. We know that if we continue to burn fossil fuels temperatures will rise to unacceptable levels within our lifetimes. Indeed, New Mexico is already in a megadrought, and forests are disappearing due to wildfire, drought and beetle infestation. So far this year, we have received less than half of the normal precipitation.

LETTER: Dr. Dennis Jackson of the SHC turns 80

Dr. Dennis Jackson, otherwise known as Den, worked at the University of New Mexico Student Health Center for 40 years. That being the case, he’s somewhat of a legend around Albuquerque; many have visited him for medical advice and know his characteristic look from seeing him on and around campus. Den was born on May 6, 1941 and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. He has five brothers, as he’ll sing-songily tell you the order: Biff, Den, Steve, Robert and Randy. His father, Frank, was also a physician (as was his father before him), and his mother Kathleen a nutritionist. They met at Bellevue in New York City while studying in their respective fields. He can recall historic moments growing up, like the civil rights marches in Montgomery with Martin Luther King Jr. and play dates at his friend’s house whose nanny was Rosa Parks. Den attended Vanderbilt University for medical school then eventually made his way west to find more progressive culture after a lifetime of witnessing much racism in the south.

REVIEW: ‘Mortal Kombat’ delivers a much anticipated reboot

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.

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PLAYLIST: Cannabisseur's Delight

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!

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

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. 

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OPINION: Top 5 photo books in UNM’s fine art library

There’s nothing quite as remarkable as holding a photo book in your hands; the feel of the gloss on the pages, the rich tones in each image and the knowledge that each photo was chosen carefully and arranged intentionally by the artist for the limited number of pages available to them.  In the digital age of photography, it seems we’ve become accustomed to online portfolios and Instagram profiles. While on-screen displays have their place in the photographic landscape, nothing on a computer can truly compare to holding an artist’s finished work in your hands. Luckily for students at the University of New Mexico, the Fine Arts and Design Library has a large collection of these masterpieces available to be checked out at this very moment. As a photographer who has drawn an enormous amount of inspiration from photo books, I’ve compiled a list of some of the most awe-inspiring books the library has to offer.

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LETTER: UNM grad workers pushed to their limit while undergrads suffer

Two years after faculty unionization, UNM has yet to bargain a fair contract and has stalled recognition for the graduate union. UNM says that we are primarily students, not workers. However, many of us teach courses that tenured faculty teach at other institutions, often the same course-load per semester. If the school saves money this way, our loss of irreplaceable faculty and grad workers every year detracts from the overhead. Faulty attrition in the midst of hiring freezes adds more labor for grad workers, simultaneously undermining our studies. Many Ph.D students have been forced to change research paths multiple times as faculty leave.

LETTER: Oregon State University has a grad worker union, and UNM should too

I am writing from Oregon State University, where our 1,800 graduate researchers and teaching assistants collectively formed a union 20 years ago. Our union, Coalition of Graduate Employees, has tirelessly fought for our basic living conditions year after year against an administration dead set on paying us as little as possible and with little accountability. Through hard work we now have incredible healthcare, protections for international students and LGBTQ+ workers, tuition remission and a livable wage. It has taken us 20 years to get to where we are now but it really changes lives. Graduate employees are parents, family members and loved ones, and we deserve to be treated fairly. Although administrations fight us, we continue to push forth, and will always show up for our peers.

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LETTER: New ASUNM president and vice president address student body

Lobos, Thank you so much for selecting us to serve as your next President and Vice President of ASUNM!  We cannot wait to get started and hope that you can be a big part in our plans for next year. We are elected by you, to serve you, so with that comes a responsibility that we are both ready for. We look forward to open dialogue and the exchanging of ideas that will better the University of New Mexico for every single student.

OPINION: Golden Globes fail to avoid controversy — again

In a year unlike any other for film and television, filmmakers, actors and crew members nevertheless persisted to get their work out in time to contend for the 2021 Golden Globes. No one was sure what the award ceremonies would look like, but now they know: sketchy comedy, Zoom acceptance speeches and predictable controversy. The Globes aired the evening of Feb. 28, and hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler — tuning in from opposite ends of the country — made short work of addressing the most pressing controversy. Both women called out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which constitutes the voting body for the Golden Globes, for having zero representation of Black journalists within its 87 members.