Abstraction in Action—This week, Artspace 116 opens an exhibit of abstract paintings by Lilly Fenichel. Fenichel moved from Vienna to Britain during World War II and then migrated to California in the early '40s. A key figure in the abstract expressionist movement in San Francisco, Fenichel now lives in New Mexico where she continues to create art. A reception for her exhibit will be held this Friday, March 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Artspace 116 is located at 116 Central SW. For details, go to www.artspace116.org or call 245-4200.

Tina Larkin

The Box Performance Space opens shop near Downtown

Like most faux-adobe structures in Albuquerque, The Box looks just like a box. For years, the building housed a video rental store. If not for a simple twist of fate, it would have become a boxing gym. Last month, Doug Montoya and Kristin Berg met the landlord by accident and convinced him to let them transform the space into Albuquerque's newest theater.

It is now apparent that the Bush administration has started two wars in Iraq. The first one, which involved the take-down of Saddam Hussein’s government, was over even faster than Washington predicted.

Nearly four years into the Iraq War, the mistakes that tipped the U.S. presence from occupation to quagmire stand out amid the rhetoric. But what kind of bubble could have spawned such wrong-headed decisions? Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran gives a detailed answer with his examination of the plush, walled-off palace grounds at the heart of Baghdad where the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) set about rewriting Iraq’s laws with very little grasp of the society they had imbedded themselves within.