And we interview guest of honor Monte Hellman

The second annual Albuquerque Film Festival is about to open the floodgates, letting loose five days’ worth of films, panels, workshops and parties. Throughout the weekend, there will be feature films, both local (Rod McCall’s coming-of-age drama Becoming Eduardo, Andrew Lauer’s kiddie fantasy Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer) and national (the Iraq War drama The Dry Land starring America Ferrera, the low-budget indie dramedy Fanny, Annie & Danny).

The Answer Is 42

The 42nd annual Bubonicon science-fiction and fantasy convention will take place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Albuquerque Grand Airport Hotel. This year’s guest of honor is writer Peter David. David is best known for his work at Marvel Comics (where he helped revive “The Incredible Hulk” in the ’80s). He also penned a few movies for Charles Band back in the Full Moon glory days. Trancers 4: Jack of Swords, Trancers 5: Sudden Deth, Oblivion and Oblivion 2: Backlash are all his work. They’re kind of crummy and kind of fun, and Oblivion does actually predate Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” as a sci-fi Western—so be sure and ask him about that. In other film-related events, the convention will screen the 2005 version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (this being Bubonicon 42) beginning at 9 p.m. on Saturday. There will also be a late-night screening of the locally shot horror thriller Fugue State at 11 p.m. If you don’t have a day pass to Bubonicon (available online at bubonicon.com) you can get into the movie screenings for $3. Bubonicon

Food Network vs. Cooking Channel

Today, many cable networks seem to be chafing at their self-imposed genres and trying to “expand their programming” (read: “add a bunch of cheap reality shows”) beyond what would appear to be dictated by their very name. (Syfy, for example. Or the Game Show Network.) Remember when G4, the video game channel, actually had programming dedicated to video games? Good luck finding any of that these days.

Week in Sloth

The Week in Sloth