Being a generalist might be a good thing if you’re, say, a Renaissance man or a contestant on “Jeopardy!” With food, though, I prefer my chefs to focus on one area of expertise. But that doesn’t apply to Pasión Latin Fusion.
After more than a year of death-defying escapes, an environmental rule was repealed on Monday, Feb. 6, with a unanimous vote by a Gov. Susana Martinez-appointed board.
Good literature is a conversation between the author and the characters, or the author and the subject—but the best draws readers into a conversation with themselves. Comprised of literary and thoughtful folk, The Glass Menageries invites you to converse while you sway to inspired dream pop that paints divine mind pictures.
Mad filmmaker Werner Herzog may have conjured up a whole new genre when he directed his 3D art-house documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. That film—combining ancient cave art with eye-popping 3D technology—became an award-winning hit. Now, fellow German auteur Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Until the End of the World) has followed suit, creating a 3D documentary about avant garde dance choreographer Pina Bausch.
Apparently we are not, as a nation, over that whole “found footage” thing. Obviously, after the chart-topping release of the theatrical superhero flick Chronicle and the successful debut of the jungle-clad horror series “The River,” America is still perfectly happy to watch handheld shaky-cam footage of stuff they can’t quite see happening. From The Blair Witch Project to Cloverfield to Apollo 18 to The Devil Inside, Hollywood has worked long and hard to turn “shot-on-video faux documentary” into a genre—mostly because it costs next to nothing to make.
Spells, a low-budget romantic comedy shooting in Santa Fe starting mid-March, is looking for two featured roles. Producers need an “intelligent” female, aged 20 to 30, and a “handsome” male, 20 to 35. Both must be good at comedy. This film is being made under a low-budget SAG contract. Both SAG and non-SAG actors will be considered. The shoot is expected to last two weeks. To sign up for an audition, please submit photos and résumés electronically to daid@cybermesa.com.
Love is a many-splendored thing, and music reflects this complexity. Songs are written about first love, obsessive love, unrequited love, heartbreak and so on. Whether you consider Valentine’s Day a silly Hallmark holiday or a nice annual summit on the true meaning of the L word, here's an eclectic soundtrack that ranges from torch songs to tortured ballads. Raunch, romance and resentment are represented in this sonic valentine.
A trio of snakes suggestively swarming a red, scantily clad cartoon girl calls attention to an interesting lineup at Low Sprits (2823 Second Street NW) on Friday, Feb. 10. Sad Baby Wolf, St. Petersburg, Alan George Ledergerber and DJ Nicolatron provide sounds—the $5 show begins at 9 p.m. (Jessica Cassyle Carr)
All right, sweethearts, here’s the deal. Valentine’s Day is on Tuesday, which means restaurants are booked solid or filling up fast. If you haven’t already made a reservation, you could be gambling with your love life. But there’s no need to panic.
Valentine's Day is the chocolate industry's holiday season. With an eye toward this February's love-fest, the International Labor Rights Forum purchased an advertising slot on a JumboTron outside the Super Bowl's Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on which to broadcast a video called “Hershey's Chocolate, Kissed by Child Labor.”
At Super Bowl XLVI, car companies clearly ran over beer companies. Anheuser-Busch—normally the King of Commercials—fumbled in 2012. The Budweiser brewer tossed off a couple of forgettably nostalgic spots before bottoming out with the introduction of Bud Light Platinum, which ... has a higher credit limit than other beers? I have no idea. Car companies, however, pulled out the stops with a string of notable ads. Hot babes made a good showing, as always, hawking cars, more cars and domain name registration. Dogs also had their day, starring in five spots (six if you count Snoopy in the MetLife commercial). Monkeys, bears and babies, on the other hand, seem to have worn out their welcome. Good riddance to them.
After a successful screening at the state Legislature’s New Mexico Film and Media Day, Brent Morris and David Jean Schweitzer’s Made in New Mexico will be shown at Albuquerque’s KiMo Theatre on Thursday, Feb. 9. The documentary explores the burgeoning film industry in New Mexico and the impact our state’s various tax incentives have had on the business of making movies. In addition to the documentary, there will be several shorts by New Mexico filmmakers. This includes the premiere of Governor’s Cup-winning Director Ramona Emerson’s “Opal,” about an 8-year-old Navajo girl taking on a town bully. A Q & A with filmmakers follows the screenings, which get underway at 7 p.m.
In the fall, 516 ARTS put out a call for New Mexicans to submit pieces that would serve as the face of the gallery's five-year anniversary show. Nearly 300 artists responded with an eclectic range of works. 516 Executive Director Suzanne Sbarge decided to put the judging process in the hands of renowned critic Peter Frank, after they met while Frank was in town on assignment. He operates out of L.A. as associate editor of Fabrik magazine and as a contributor to the Huffington Post. Frank may not be local, but he says he has a soft spot and deep regard for art from the Southwest. He whittled down the pool of entrants to about 80 works, with each artist represented by one piece. It's the largest group show 516 has put on to date, with talent representing more than 30 cities statewide.
In a year that celebrates the closed-mouth, open-eyed history of film by handing a Best Picture nomination to Michel Hazanavicius’ silent masterpiece The Artist, it seems only appropriate that we’d get another film from Finnish writer-director Aki Kaurismäki. Throughout his distinctively oddball indie film career (Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Drifting Clouds, The Match Factory Girl, The Man Without a Past), Kaurismäki has always shown a greater kinship to the silent film technicians of yesteryear than to the media-savvy moviemakers of today. His latest effort, the alternately gritty and whimsical modern fairy tale Le Havre, plays out like a politically minded remake of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid.
The first thing everyone points out about FOX’s new series “Alcatraz”—and I guess I’m doing it, too—is that it’s another mysterious, island-based sci-fi series from producer J.J. Abrams (who gave us a little thing called “Lost”). Unless the guy announces he’s rebooting “Fantasy Island” next, I wouldn’t get too worked up about the man’s creative obsessions, though.
Instituto Cervantes continues its Latin American film series this week at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. On Thursday, Feb. 2, the Bank of America Theatre at the NHCC (1701 Fourth Street SW) will screen the 2005 Ecuadorian film Anytime Soon (Esas No Son Penas). It’s the story of five women from Quito, buddies as teens, who reunite to visit an ailing friend after 15 years. Think The Big Chill, but with fewer hippies and more of an accent. The film screening is free and will be presented with English subtitles. Show gets underway at 7 p.m. Get there early to guarantee a seat.
King’s bastilla has to be one of the craziest things I’ve ever eaten. A specialty at Kasbah, it looked like a flying saucer constructed out of phyllo dough. It was stuffed with a mix of chicken, almonds, cinnamon and eggs, then was dusted with sugar and splashed with rosewater. The flavors took off in so many ways at once I could hardly keep track of them all. I didn’t even know if I liked it, but I kept eating it.
