Arts

Never-ending CONSPIRACY!

A second Albuquerque Toynbee Tile

You'll need to stand in the middle of 2nd St. to see this
PLANT
You'll need to stand in the middle of 2nd St. to see this

My good friend Pierre LaFarge rides his Mexican-Italian bicycle through the intersection of Copper and 2nd Street just about everyday, so when he says this Toynbee Tile was not there last week, I am inclined to agree. The message reads:

HOUSE OF HADES

ONE MAN VERSUS

AMERICAN MEDIA

IN SOCIETY '2011

The tag below the tile may indicate that this tile was laid down a couple years after being made (i.e. in 2011):

well its getting kind of late

cut [sic] its been fun!!!

The tile is in the northbound lane of 2nd Street just north of Copper:

Watch out for that bus!
PLANT
Watch out for that bus!

If you haven't seen "Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles," drop what you're doing and watch it -but first, be sure to reread this post about Albuquerque's other Toynbee Tile located at the intersection of Tijeras and 3rd Street.

arts

Someone painted the trees blue

Positively Fourth Street
Wow, look at that.

I really wanted an iced coffee earlier and walked over to the Hyatt to get one. On my way there I noticed the trees were electric blue. My first thought was "won't they die?" Nope. Not unless they're "sensitive" according to this person. Turns out the blue trees are an art project Alibi staff writer Mark Lopez wrote about a couple weeks ago.

It doesn't matter if the paint kills them, they're probably going to be removed anyway. If that makes you sad, this update about a downtown grocery store might cheer you up. I hope the paint is water based so it runs onto the sidewalks and turns the whole Fourth Street Mall electric blue.

Arts

Save Blue Mesa Review

With your knowledge of useless facts

 
 

The Blue Mesa Review, UNM’s literary journal that I happen to be an editor for, has fallen on hard times. Last year, for the first time since Rudolfo Anaya founded it in 1983, the magazine had its university supplied budget entirely eliminated and is now forced to fend for itself in order to survive.

This year’s Blue Mesa Review will be published exclusively online, but even that costs money. In order to gain the funds to do so, and to continue publishing new fiction, non-fiction and poetry in the future, the organization will be holding a fundraiser tonight at Blackbird Buvette. It’s a Geeks Who Drink trivia contest, with prizes and everything, and it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun.

Come on down, have a few beers, reveal to the world just how much you know about the Star Wars universe, and help keep this valuable literary institution alive.

Starts at 7 p.m. Cover is $5. All proceeds go to supporting Blue Mesa Review.

Arts

Home sweet art

1509 Delahunt Brain Road
Leigh Hile
1509 Delahunt Brain Road

Check out the house that Delahunt built for her master’s in fine art. For her final project, the 3D artist decided to ensure her future living quarters so she can continue to pursue her art.

Arts

Beehive Collective swarms Albuquerque today

 
 

A group of political illustrators is coming to talk about process today at Small Engine Gallery at 6 p.m. Read up on the collective’s pollination of the grassroots and then head down there this evening. The talk is free. For more on the event, go to bit.ly/BeeMind. For more on the nonprofit, all-volunteer, art organization, check out beehivecollective.org.

Arts

Freud’s Last Session in Albuquerque tonight and tomorrow

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud

What would happen if Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis sat down to debate? A play put on by the Fusion Theatre Company asks just that. It will be in Albuquerque tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. at the South Broadway Cultural Center (1025 Broadway SE). Then, it moves onto The Lensic Theater in Santa Fe (211 West San Francisco). Alibi theater critic Leigh Hile’s got the scoop.

Buy tickets here or call 766-9412

C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
View in Alibi calendar calendar
Arts

Help Keshet Dance Company get their new home

County Commission meeting today: 4:45 to 7:30pm Vincent E. Griego Chambers at City Hall

The Rat Queen and a Snowflake in Keshet's Nutcracker on the Rocks
The Rat Queen and a Snowflake in Keshet's Nutcracker on the Rocks

Keshet Dance Company is an award-winning, Albuquerque based non-profit whose mission goes beyond simply being a stellar dance company, which it certainly is. Since Shira Greenberg founded it in 1996, Keshet has been a place where dancers with special needs and physical challenges can learn, rehearse, and perform as equals among a diverse group of kids and adults that make up the Keshet community. Inviting homeless children and juveniles wrapped up in the legal system to participate in and create dance pieces has made a difference in countless people's lives. Keshet has outgrown it's current home and is raising money for a new one.

Keshet's quest for new digs has become a saga of biblical proportions, but they're very close to making it happen. Bernalillo County Commissioners will decide tonight whether or not to grant a $150,000 funding request towards the dance company's new home.

Come down and show the Commissioners that Keshet has broad community support. Show up at 4:30 to sign in if you want to speak in front of the Commission. City Hall is at 400 Marquette NW in Downtown Albuquerque, just west Civic Plaza.


Arts

Paper books live!

 
Julia Minamata juliaminamata.com
 

Last week’s art section covered old-school booksellers fighting the good fight in the digital age. The Alibi article written by Robin Brown focuses on local book stores like Bookworks in the North Valley. “Keeping Their Word” shows how our local shops are staying alive in today’s market.

Mexico City can still host a book fair with more than 1 million customers; printed copies of books are not a dead product. When book fairs like this continue to be successful, it is a great sign for the global market for physical books.

At the Zocalo International Book Fair, there were hundreds of publishers exceeding expectations and expanding the market for literature in Central America. The host nation highlighted works from neighboring Guatemalan authors.

In her article, Brown mentions that there are a lot of people in the writing industry that are uncertain about how the market is going to play out over the next few years. Writers are not sure how well their books are going to sell, publishers are freaking out because of the rapidly changing market.

Ten years ago no one could have predicted that tablets as sophisticated as the Kindle would cause sales of physical books to decline. Even with e-books staking their claim in the market, there is no way that real books are going to be forgotten.

Arts

Life in a box

Tyler Shoemake (left) and Stephen Armijo
Scrap Productions
Tyler Shoemake (left) and Stephen Armijo

Tom Stoppard’s existential masterwork Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is in its last weekend at Theatre X (in the basement of UNM’s Center for the Arts). Alibi theater critic Leigh Hile reviewed the ambitious production.

Arts

Feast your eyes

“Sound Colony” is at the Alvarado Farm in Downtown Albuquerque.
“Sound Colony” is at the Alvarado Farm in Downtown Albuquerque.

There’s a TON to see around town right now. This week’s Culture Shock highlights artists who are exploring the human fingerprint on the world.

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