Alibi V.27 No.16 • April 19-25, 2018

Conjuring Wonder

Paper engineer Matt Shlian brings new work to Tamarind's Wonder Cabinet

By Maggie Grimason

We interview Matt Shlian about his work and the convergence of arts and sciences.

A big thanks to Showcase participants and attendees

Winners and nominees—23 of them— rocked over a thousand attendees at five venues on March 24, 2018. It was a blast and we’ll see you at next year’s shindig. Here for posterity (and your browsing pleasure) are the winners and runners-up.

Brave New World Vulture

Beauty the Turkey Vulture does work to make her species proud

By Maggie Grimason

Hawks Aloft is a local nonprofit that deals in conservation of birds of prey.

Healthy Plants, Healthy Kids

Water conservation project at Barelas school

By Robin Babb

The students in the Dolores Gonzales Gardening Club will be going home with not only some fresh fruits and vegetables from their beds, but also with some plants they can continue to nurture at home, learning to be stewards for nature.

An Immigrant Friendly Town

Plus all sorts of other interesting city business

By Carolyn Carlson

Immigrant tears and fears topped the agenda and made for a very interesting Albuquerque City Council meeting.

To The Future Governor

This year’s essential truths, revealed

By August March

The outcome of the governor’s race in N.M. will give direction to our culture’s movement, but it's going to take some work to embrace progress.

By Joshua Lee

Bernalillo County's District Attorney is calling for expanded limits on existing gun laws; a judge has ruled that state Sen. Joseph Cervantes qualifies to run for the Democratic nomination in the state's Gubernatorial race; a bill expanding a national child abduction alert service's coverage to include tribal lands was signed into law by President Donald Trump last week.

By Joshua Lee

Funny because speeding tickets given to parked cars happen to someone else.

Letters

The readers write about Trump's tax records and one of last week's articles.

One Divine Hammer

Chatting with Kelley Deal

By August March

August March speaks with Kelley Deal of The Breeders about how things have changed since 25 years ago.

Incremental Freedom

Cannabis decriminalized in ABQ

By Joshua Lee

A measure to decriminalize the possession of an ounce or less of cannabis passed by a hair, though four City Councilors still felt it's a good idea to lock people in a cage for using a substance that doesn't harm anybody.

Final Portrait

Artistic biopic revels in surface details

By Devin D. O’Leary

Final Portrait is a microcosmic chamber drama, an old-fashioned two-hander in which two characters meet, interact and part company. It rarely dips below the surface, but—like a great many works of art—it’s a fascinating surface, nonetheless.

By Devin D. O'Leary

This week, see La Novia or Beyond the Border: The Story of Ettore Castiglioni; go to a talk about production assistants.

Back From the Dead

“Fear the Walking Dead” on AMC

By Devin D. O’Leary

Reset, restaffed and injected with a long-overdue sense of humor, “Fear the Walking Dead” now feels like a dusty undead Western and it might actually be the jolt of zesty ranch flavor this show’s bland mix of rotting corpses and bad decisions has been needing.

Week in Sloth

Highlights from around the dial. Except no one has dials anymore.

Death and Coffee

Adobe Theater's Black Coffee satisfies the craving for traditional noir

By Maggie Grimason

Adobe Theater's Black Coffee creates the appropriate mood, renders its characters nicely and doles out clues artfully.

By Maggie Grimason

See Her Dirty Dishes, connect with the Center for Cartoon Studies, learn about bullet journals go to a talk with Jane Lackey.

Gary Tietjen’s Story: Western New Mexican Food

An Alibi reader shares his family’s story

By Robin Babb

Gary Tietjen tells what people ate long ago in western New Mexico.

Food Waste (and How Not to Waste It)

Tips on reducing and reusing the stuff you’d normally throw out

By Robin Babb

If you cook at home at all, you likely throw away a lot of food waste. But there’s plenty of clever ways you can reuse scraps to keep them out of the landfill and save yourself a few bucks in the process.

The bartender making mezcal cocktails at pop-ups around town

By Robin Babb

We speak with David Hernández Vega about his cocktail project, Limpia.

Dancing in the Streets

New Mexico Salsa Congress offers a wide variety of dance experience to the city

By Maggie Grimason

In response to the salsa scene stagnating, the New Mexico Salsa Congress formed to expose, educate and instruct New Mexicans in Latin dance.

With A Gun

How non-normative behavior still shapes America

By Winston Spencer

It doesn't take Sigmund Freud to see that if 78% of the population doesn't keep guns at home for protection, then those who do deviate from the norm.

And Without a Gun

Violence continues to plague Burque

By August March

Jeff Hartzer believes the president has set the example for people to lose impulse control and respect for one another.

By Joshua Lee

School districts across the state are struggling to interpret legislation that increases teachers' salaries; a state congressional candidate allegedly failed to disclose large real estate contracts with state agencies over the last five years, possibly violating state law.

By Joshua Lee

Funny because a hotel room seagull swarm happens to someone else.

Letters

The readers write about prop guns and Trump's secret records.

Back to Burgundy

Siblings resolve family strife over a glass of wine in a French dramedy that goes down easy, evaporates quickly

By Devin D. O’Leary

Back to Burgundy may not be complex, but the bottle is awfully pretty. Just don’t go into it expecting something other than perfectly palatable table wine.

By Devin D. O'Leary

See Black Materials Experiments in Cinema, Holocaust survivor shorts or a documentary about the Pajarito Mesa community.

That Sinking Feeling

“The Terror” on AMC

By Devin D. O’Leary

“The Terror” is a judicious balance of white-knuckle survival horror and classic historical drama.

Week in Sloth

Highlights from around the dial. Except no one has dials anymore.

‘Rocky Mountain High’

Avoiding bad puns in Colorado

By Joshua Lee

Josh Lee drives north to where people say yes to state revenue and discovers Tropicanna, a new level of flower.

Take the Cure

Concerts are good for what ails ye!

By August March

Even in the pallid realm of gothdom, joy is possible. In a world where love hurts, music provides a purity of form that leads away from the edge to a pulsating center. And that’s that’s just the goths; every other subculture has probably come to the same conclusion.

By August March

We review new releases by Soft Parts, NuGen Radio and 12roots.

Beyond Ink and Whiskey

Leslie Jamison's newest work is full of feeling and analysis that leads the way to truth

By Maggie Grimason

The heart of Leslie Jamison's The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath is the grip of alcohol, its reputation as the literary choice of romantic self-destruction. It's not so much the substance itself so much as “the surplus of mystical properties” that people assign to it.

Gina Beavers examines the way we look at, and present, the world and ourselves

Artist Gina Beavers renders social media as high art

By Maggie Grimason

In recent years, Gina Beavers has explored imagery culled from the internet and rendered in realistic acrylic paint, providing us with a different eye on ourselves and the ways in which we express ourselves, even in the most casual forums.

Reyna Banteah of Ts’uyya Farm

New South Valley farmer uses traditional Zuni growing methods

By Robin Babb

Reyna Banteah is farming on her own for the first time at Ts’uyya Farm, having completed the Grow the Growers internship and moving on to business incubation.

“Ugly Delicious”

David Chang challenges “authenticity” in new Netflix series

By Robin Babb

In “Ugly Delicious,” David Chang and a rotating cast of friends and expert guests travel around the world to examine the origins and modern permutations of different kinds of foods. Chang wants to know what makes a dish authentic and, more importantly, why we should care.

Reasons to Shop the Downtown Growers’ Market

By Robin Babb

The first Downtown Growers’ Market of the year is this Saturday, 8am to noon on April 14. If you’re not already a farmers’ market convert, here are some reasons why you should be.

One Vote Over the Line

Council moves to decriminalize la grifa

By Carolyn Carlson

A move to decriminalize cannabis in the city, zoning code issues, autism awareness and safer school crossings dominated the April 2 meeting of the Albuquerque City Council.

Code Talker Thomas H. Begay, Senator Martin Heinrich, Benjamin Nagurski and Navajo Nation President Russell Begay

The Hero’s Journey

Heinrich instrumental in code talker’s recognition

By August March

When the tide of fascism rose to unbearable levels Adolph Nagurski went out to meet it, using his own culture as a weapon, though having been denied that culture by the large apparatus of the federal government.

By Joshua Lee

New Mexico Environment Department fines LANL over hazardous waste storage; records of Governor Martinez's audit-exempt expenses obtained; Latifah Phillips fired from job as state's assistant secretary for Native American education.

By Joshua Lee

Funny because getting a perk for living in a funny-named place happens to someone else.

Letters

The readers write about voting to change gun policy.

Isle of Dogs

Meticulously animated feature is a fantastic(al) journey

By Devin D. O’Leary

Akira Kurosawa’s scruffy aesthetic is undoubtedly what’s fueling Isle of Dogs’ creative engines. Feel free to discuss at length—over third wave, cold-brewed coffee, perhaps—whether Wes Anderson’s miniaturization of Japanese culture asks audiences to laugh with or at the stereotypes.

By Devin D. O'Leary

NMFF presents “The Business of Film” seminar. Or go see The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo, Zydeco Breakfast or Big Trouble in Little China.

Tidbits from around the dial

By Devin D. O’Leary

Catch-22, The Purge and Gormenghast all to get TV adaptations.

Week in Sloth

Highlights from around the dial. Except no one has dials anymore.

Health Department Improves Applications

Process easier, shorter

By Joshua Lee

Medical cannabis application form improved; Rohrabacher–Farr amendment remains in federal budget; prohibition may increase crime (really?!?).

No Sleep Till Provo

DECON conjures his dream

By August March

We speak with DECON, a creator of the latest of the greatest in musical currents, a booming, blithely beatific thing called EDM.

We review new releases by OTISDACEY, WURM and Nohue Blue.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

The Book of Mormon brings big questions and clever tunes to Popejoy

By Maggie Grimason

The Book of Mormon's sardonic dark hymns and absurd bits never cease to delight, but unexpectedly for many, the show doesn't approach the story with malice.

Artist nicholas jacobsen finds stillness in his artistic practice of being a rock

New Geology

Artist nicholas b jacobsen shows us what we can learn from the natural world around us

By Maggie Grimason

What does being a rock look like to you? To artist nicholas b jacobsen the practice of being a rock is the practice of approaching a new understanding of yourself in stillness, and the world outside in all its busy-ness and all of its tranquility, too.

By Maggie Grimason

This week: a calligraphy exhibition, The 49th Best Sketch Show, In Clear Light and the Earth, Wind and Fiber! Spring Show.

A Simple Quality and Charm That’s Hard To Beat

Roma Bakery and Deli will become your local go-to

By Hosho McCreesh

Breakfast or lunch, you’ll be tempted (and rightly so) by the delightful daily array of baked treats at Roma Bakery and Deli.

Soilutions Completes the Food Cycle

Local composting co. recycles restaurant food waste

By Robin Babb

One of the small ways you can reduce your waste and your carbon footprint is to compost your food waste.