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

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.

April 26, 2021 Comics

April 28, 2021 Comics

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. 

Albuquerque theaters barely surviving difficult season

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.

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.

Prolific LA photographer returns to roots at UNM photo department

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. 

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.

UNM LEAF calls for climate action at Earth Day Rally

“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.

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

“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. 

April 21, 2021 Comic

Grad student union holds digital rally to kick off Week of Union Action

On Monday, the United Graduate Workers of UNM held a digital rally to kick off “Rally for Recognition: A Week of Union Action” to pressure the University of New Mexico to recognize graduate students’ rights to unionize. The union aims “to resolve long-standing issues over compensation, benefits, and job security and to improve education and research conditions.” The organization is currently in hearings with the New Mexico Public Employees Labor Relations Board to win recognition as a union. According to the union website, UNM administration argues that grad students cannot be considered employees and thus are not protected under the Public Employee Bargaining Act. 

ABQ protesters gather in wake of nationwide police killings

On Saturday night, close to 80 people gathered at the spot where Claude Trevino was fatally shot by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) in February to protest against police brutality. This protest was called in light of the recent fatal shootings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo by police. Both of these killings sparked mass protesting in both Brooklyn Center, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois. The event was hosted by Millions for Prisoners, Albuquerque Save the Kids from incarceration and ABQ Mutual Aid. The first speaker, a community member who went by Arianna, began the night by calling for a moment of silence to honor the victims of police brutality.

Following cannabis legalization, inmates await expungement

Within recent years, adult use of recreational marijuana has been legalized in 16 states, and the use of medical marijuana has been legalized in 19 states. Despite the sweeping shift of the drug’s legal status, some states have not expunged the records of people who have been convicted of marijuana charges. Racial disparity plays a big role in arrests for marijuana. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Black people in New Mexico are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. Within Bernalillo County alone, a Black person was almost twice as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession in 2018. This is compared to the nationwide average where Black people are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people, the highest disparity from 2010 - 2018. According to Bernadine Hernandez, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico and a member of both the Prison Divest New Mexico Coalition and the Fronteristxs Collective, private prisons thrive within New Mexico. Inmates, including people with marijuana charges, are most likely to be held at a private prison.

Cannabis and Communication classes offered at UNM

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.

Medical Cannabis Research Fund leads cannabis studies at UNM

The team of researchers with the Medical Cannabis Research Fund (MCRF) at the University of New Mexico have continued their grassroots effort despite federal pushback, lack of funding and the coronavirus pandemic. The team is made up of a variety of professors from different departments and backgrounds at UNM. Jacob Vigil, a professor of psychology, is the group’s director and started it alongside Sarah Stith, an assistant professor of economics and an investigator for the MCRF. Research has proven difficult due to the federal restrictions, making it harder to publish findings, Vigil and Stith said. Additionally, physical research has currently been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the team is still doing online research and remote assessments.

Derek Chauvin convicted of murder, manslaughter

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on the neck of George Floyd during his fatal arrest last year, was convicted of all charges, including second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on April 20 and faces up to 40 years in prison, according to the Star Tribune. The trial, one of the highest profile in recent history and Minnesota's first televised criminal case, began in March and stretched weeks into April. Jurors debated for more than 10 hours over the span of two days before reaching a verdict. Following the verdict, Judge Peter A. Cahill said that sentencing would be announced in eight weeks. The prosecution, made up of a rotating team of assistant attorneys general and outside lawyers, sought to emphasize the widely-seen bystander video of Floyd’s death in their case against Chauvin.

April 19, 2021 Comics

April 14, 2021 Comics