Alibi V.22 No.36 • Sept 5-11, 2013

New Mexico News: Late August 2013

By Mike Smith and ¡Brapola!

Inspired by Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines, this feature presents news from New Mexico, briefly, written by author Mike Smith and illustrated by ¡Brapola!

1941—A wood hauler pauses along the Rio Pueblo. An average rural family in this region would use about 20 loads like this for fuel wood and fence posts each year.

Only You Can Stop the Forest Service

We can do better and here’s how

By David Correia

La Jicarita Managing Editor David Correia’s latest essay takes on the Forest Service’s history of paternalism and mismanagement in northern New Mexico.

Odds & Ends

By Devin D. O’Leary

Funny because it happens to someone else.

Burque Adventures in Casa Décor

Fun, beautiful, useful: art for living in the real world

Introducing Stage Whispers, your lowdown on the performance arts. This week, the ladies seize the spotlight.

By Nora Hickey

A novel about the ad woman who invented “A Diamond is Forever” and the lives it changed.

By Suzanne Buck

A novel of the bloody events that followed the arrival of Coronado’s advance expedition as it barreled through the Southwest.

Rafiki’s got your goat, and it’s served on the bone.

African Authenticity

Hakuna matata at the Rafiki Café

By Gail Guengerich

Find African authenticity at the state’s only Kenyan restaurant.

By Ty Bannerman

Revealed! The secret code of the food reviewer.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

Experimental, art house mockumentary could be the future of romantic comedies

By Devin D. O’Leary

“How would you feel?” That’s the question relentlessly and repeatedly asked by Terence Nance’s wonderfully inventive, playfully experimental first feature An Oversimplification of Her Beauty.

By Devin D. O’Leary

NBC’s new ER drama “The Night Shift” is filming in Albuquerque, hopefully filling some of the hole left when AMC’s “Breaking Bad” closed up shop. Producers are currently looking for background extras for upcoming scenes.

Fall into Fall

When’s the premiere?

By Devin D. O’Leary

Idiot Box: A look at all the fall television premiere dates

Week in Sloth

See what you should be wasting your life away on with a spin around the TV dial in “The Week in Sloth”

Four Up

By Samantha Anne Carrillo

ISO stoner/doom, a freewheeling improv fest, classical or trombone? Four Up has you covered.

Cold Wave Prayer

Songs for dreaming of winter

By Samantha Anne Carrillo

If you’re over summer, this cold wave and minimal synth-infused icy playlist may serve as cold comfort.

Sonic Reducer

This week we listened to new and forthcoming releases from Zola Jesus and JG Thirlwell, Diarrhea Planet and Factory Floor. Now with A/V previews!

Beyond Legend

UNM professor searches for truth in his mother’s desert murder

By Nora Hickey

How the legacy of Wyatt Earp and the Old West helped precipitate a shocking death.

Shoo, Fly, Get Off of My Cloud

Nontoxic solutions for Burque’s latest plague

By Richard “Bugman” Fagerlund

Richard “Bugman” Fagerlund gives helpful tips on how to curb your fly problems without calling on toxic pest control.

By Devin D. O’Leary

Funny because it happens to someone else

In the key of XX, a flock of blackbirds, “Jane Says” revolt and alpha Wolfe

By Samantha Anne Carrillo

Whether you’re hankering for songs written by women, hidden talents of Blackbird Buvette staff, a two-day rock fest or a goth-folk chanteuse, Four Up has you covered.

Last Month in Music: July 2013

By Mike Smith

Mike Smith reveals his artistic manifesto and recalls a real-life, honest-to-goodness punk gig.

Sonic Reducer

This week we listened to recent and forthcoming albums from Ebony Bones, The Tumbleweeds and Chelsea Wolfe.

“Oi! Naked birds. Plant yer peepers on ‘em, guv’nor.”

The Look of Love

Winterbottom and Coogan pull back the sheets on one man’s very British empire of smut

By Devin D. O’Leary

In the retro-sleazy biopic The Look of Love, British comedian/actor Steve Coogan and fellow countryman/director Michael Winterbottom reunite for the fourth time following 2002’s 24 Hour Party People, 2005’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story and 2010’s The Trip. The boys have obviously found colorful inspiration in the life of real-life London sex merchant Paul Raymond, but their enthusiasm for the subject doesn’t always translate into compelling drama.

By Devin D. O’Leary

The White Sands International Film Festival[xurl] returns to sunny Las Cruces on Wednesday, Sept. 4, with another four days’ worth of cinematic discoveries. This year’s highlights include: a lifetime achievement award for guest of honor Lou Diamond Phillips, the world premiere of the locally shot comedy Roswell FM and one of those increasingly popular “48-hour film” competitions.

Psycho Cops in Love

“Cracked” on Reelz

By Devin D. O’Leary

Summer is the traditional time when networks, unwilling to waste money broadcasting new shows, turn a hopeful eye to our northern borders. Normally the US is content to ignore Canada. But in summertime American networks are desperate for something other than the third rerun of a “Modern Family” episode. The solution: In addition to being a cheap source of prescription drugs for Michigan’s elderly, Canada is also a fine source for inexpensive television filler.

Week in Sloth

Our weekly look around the TV dial to see what’s worth veging out over

Drifting Toward the Surface

By Mark Lopez

Jacqueline walks the beautiful beaches of the Aegean Sea every day, watching tourists sunbathe, but she also battles constant hunger and a horrific past.

Ambient Pleasures

The delights of Corn Maiden

By Ari LeVaux

The ambient pleasures of the Corn Maiden.

The Spectacular Now

Brutally honest high school romance throws cliché under the bus

By Devin D. O’Leary

Dark, deeply felt teenage dramedy (with a heavy emphasis on the “dram” and only faint dustings of “edy”) stands firm as a brutally honest assessment of childhood’s waning days.

A Tale of Two Probation Offices

Corrections consolidation raises hackles Downtown

By Barron Jones

Barron Jones reports on a developing controversy over the Corrections Department’s plan to centralize services for Albuquerque probationers.

By Mike Smith and ¡Brapola!

Inspired by Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines, this feature presents news from New Mexico, briefly, written by author Mike Smith and illustrated by ¡Brapola!

By Devin D. O’Leary

Funny because it happens to someone else.

Reel World

By Devin D. O’Leary

Bubonicon 45 gets underway this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The long-running sci-fi convention will feature art, gaming, lectures and parties—plenty to keep the Star Wars, “Star Trek” and Game of Thrones-loving fans of Albuquerque busy.

Real Fake

When educational TV lies

By Devin D. O’Leary

The fact that the vast majority of “reality” TV shows feature very little that could be considered “real” shouldn’t come as much of a revelation to viewers. Faking reality is a full-time business in Hollywood.

Week in Sloth: A trip around the TV dial to see what’s worth vegging out over

Pudding on the Ritz

Your Burque bread pudding primer

By Gail Guengerich

A guide to the city’s best bread puddings.

Artful Dishes

The smart design of Hartford Square

By Gail Guengerich

A new EDo restaurant specializes in local ingredients and artful eating.

A Vile Sincerity

Songwriter Kurt Vile talks music, American fiction and fatherhood

By Mark Lopez

Mark Lopez gabbed with Kurt Vile about fame, schnitzel, family and songwriting.

LOL version dos, piano bar swank and punk rock girl

By Samantha Anne Carrillo

ISO twang-and-thrash, surf noir, solo piano or a doc on women in the hardcore and punk movements during the past three decades? Let Ledger Lines mark the way.

Sonic Reducer

This week we listened to new releases from Sonny & the Sunsets, Willis Earl Beal and Emilíana Torrini.

Makers Make Their Mark at the Albuquerque Mini Maker Faire

By Kristi D. Lawrence

More than just an afternoon's amusement, the Albuquerque Mini Maker Faire is a full-on movement.

By Lisa Barrow

From va-va-voom to vermin, Culture Shock highlights the week’s artworld finest.

By Samantha Anne Carrillo

Don't get me wrong: I dig the Handsome Family, but my true fandom rests with author Rennie Sparks. Her lyrics and essays walk the fine line between extemporaneous storytelling and preternatural, elegant deconstruction.

By Jyllian Roach

An alien artifact known as the Ring, an intergalactic weapon of unknown power, lies at the heart of this third book in the “Expanse” series.