If you’ve already transmigrated to the spirit plane, artist (and occasional Alibi contributor) Billy McCall’s Less Clothes, More Fun! video installation might not be for you. Its focus is, after all, these bags of meat we call home. Sliced into segments and remixed for the pleasure of jarring juxtaposition, the human body—any body—is here offered up as both aesthetically pleasing and inherently, seductively weird. Get to the Tannex (1417 Fourth Street SW) by 8pm on Saturday, June 28, because legendary ABQ nudity proponent Don Schrader is the first scheduled reader in the evening’s risqué zine reading.Arrive at the exhibit in style by joining the Less Clothes More Fun Bicycle Ride, a sex- and body-positive cycling journey that starts at the UNM Duck Pond around 7pm and ends at the Tannex. Note that organizers encourage riders to “allude to being nude” in lieu of necessarily baring all. In other words, ride at your own risk—dangly bits, lady nipples and other shocking proofs that we are not born with clothes on could get you in physical or legal trouble if not properly attended to. Search “Less Clothes More Fun” on Facebook for more info on both events.
Culture Shock: Hold Still Hold Still
The nutty, painful and hilarious rhythms of family take center stage in Painting Churches, opening at the Adobe Theater (9813 Fourth Street NW) on Friday, June 27. In this finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Mags Church (Michelle Boehler) wants to paint a portrait of her restless parents Fanny (Becky Mayo) and Gardner (Ray Orley). Now in their golden years, but declining and forced to sell their house, the elder Churches clash with their sometimes thoughtless daughter as they try to pack and sit for their portrait. The show, directed by veteran helmsman Brian Hansen, continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm through July 13. Tix run $12 to $15; see adobetheater.org or call 898-9222 on weekdays for more info.
Culture Shock: What Rhymes With Sedition? What Rhymes With Sedition?
Hard to believe it’s been more than a decade since Rio Rancho High School teacher Bill Nevins was summarily axed for a student’s antiwar poem. The 2003 fallout, which coincided with a violent police crackdown on peaceful Iraq War protestors, was chronicled in the award-winning documentary Committing Poetry in Times of War. Nevins and other poets, including Mary Oishi, Manuel Gonzales, Ronnie Garduno and Justin Romine, commemorate the events surrounding their battle for free speech, justice and government accountability (sound familiar?) with a reading at Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande NW) on Wednesday, July 2, at 7pm.
