Alibi V.29 No.33 • Aug 13-19, 2020

Hunger Pains SOS!

COVID-19 response makes US look like a banana republic

By Gwynne Anne Unruh

Food banks are seeing an average increase of 50 percent in the number of people served compared to this time last year. Feeding America's latest food bank survey, based on preliminary data, estimates an additional 17 million people, or around 54 million people (one in six) total, in the United States could become food insecure in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.

What Is Going On At Weekly Alibi?

Let’s catch up on why we’ve changed up the formula

By Dan Pennington

Since 1992 Weekly Alibi has been a staple of Albuquerque. As we were at the start of this year, as a whole, we were unprepared for a global pandemic that would shut down almost all entertainment and outings. It’s safe to say most everyone was in that boat, in one form or another. So what is the number one go-to newspaper for things to do in the city left to do but shift focus?

Youth Organizers Protest Cops in Classrooms

Fight For Our Lives denounces criminalizing students of color

By Robin Babb

Over the weekend a protest to defund the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department led by Fight For Our Lives, a local youth-led organization that campaigns for school safety and racial justice, met at the APS Headquarters and marched through Uptown.

Judicial Fraud Impacts Americans

Is justice possible under “corrupt and malicious” judiciary?

By Lev Tsitrin

Why do politicians fight to fill judicial openings with their buddies? This question may sound naive—but is it?

By Joshua Lee

Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee says police reform will be a focus for the next round of legislation; health orders seem to be paying off, as New Mexico is showing a test positivity rate that is significantly lower than neighboring states; environmental officials have issued an emergency rule requiring employers to promptly report known cases of coronavirus in the workplace.

By Joshua Lee

Funny because growing an arm-penis happens to someone else.

Thoughts on the Mule

A Cocktail Best Approached from the Left

By Clarke Condé

First thing you need to understand about the Moscow Mule is that it was concocted in Los Angeles to sell more vodka and has nothing to do with Moscow, except possibly when your hand is freezing from holding the copper cup.

Super Friends

“Doom Patrol” vs. “The Umbrella Academy”

By Devin D. O’Leary

Both “Doom Patrol” and “The Umbrella Academy” serve up funny, weird, sometimes morose collections of broken heroes trying to save a world that doesn’t want them and struggling to find (occasional) solace in self-made families of larger-than-life misfits.

Stream Time

By Devin D. O'Leary

Shows come and go on the popular streaming services.

Week in Sloth

By Devin D. O’Leary

Highlights from around the dial. Except no one has dials anymore.

Secret Albuquerque: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Field Trip Through Albuquerque

Be a tourist in your hometown

By Clarke Condé

This fall, students and chaperones alike are going to have to seek out their own off-campus enrichment experiences to augment their education. Fortunately, Weekly Alibi has found 10 Albuquerque locations to get students young and old started with the help of local author Ashley Biggers.

Lea Anderson’s yucca sculptures on display 24/7 on Broadway

Lea Anderson’s upcycled yucca

By Clarke Condé

This is clearly a transitional time, but to what remains elusive. Drawing strength and inspiration from the natural world provides some solace, and we see in Lea Anderson’s new work she has done just that.

Happiest Place On Earth?

Woman sues Disney over CBD arrest

By Joshua Lee

A woman is suing The Walt Disney Company after being arrested for CBD at Walt Disney World in Florida. Disney and the police are refusing to speak about the ordeal.

News on the Green

By Joshua Lee

FDA is looking for a contractor to study CBD as it creates regulations around the compound; Canada has agreed to allow four terminal cancer patients to receive psilocybin mushroom therapy.

The Key Lime Caipirinha

A Brazilian cocktail made for August

By Clarke Condé

The Key Lime Caipirinha is a tropical drink perfect for the dog days of August in the Northern Hemisphere. Of Brazilian derivation, it gets its flavor from the key limes and the Brazilian spirit Cachaça which is similar to rum, but made directly from raw sugarcane instead of molasses.

Black Lives Matter

By Dan Pennington

The message could not be more clear: Black Lives Matter. With a peaceful gathering held in downtown Albuquerque this past weekend, the statement that rang truest with the crowd was, “We just want to live.”

The Show Must Go On

“Muppets Now” on Disney+

By Devin D. O’Leary

Clearly shot in the puppeteers’ own homes and filled with a bit more improvisation than previous iterations, “Muppets Now” is mostly hit and miss. If the writers, producers and performers can find a way to break through the formulaic segments and embrace a bit more of the original show’s manic and anarchic spirit, “Muppets Now” will make for a joyful weekly treat.

Stream Time

By Devin D. O'Leary

Shows come and go on the popular streaming services.

Week in Sloth

By Devin D. O’Leary

Highlights from around the dial. Except no one has dials anymore.

How is UNM Going to Work?

A conversation with the new dean of the College of Fine Arts.

By Clarke Condé

It’s going to be a very different year at the College of Fine Arts at UNM, beginning with a new dean, Harris Smith, and obviously, continuing on with new ways to teach given the global pandemic. We sat down with Smith to talk about his background, his goals for the school and how students are going to be able to learn in this very different environment.

Ally Burke’s Phantom Phases

By Clarke Condé

A relic of a different time valued only by dusty grandmothers, the era of school pictures may have already been behind us without the interference of a global, school-shuttering pandemic. But in the world of Ally Burke, school pictures are reimagined, much like Nirvana reimaged the pep rally.

End of Days

Evangelicals oppose drug laws

By Joshua Lee

The White House’s special spiritual advisor weirdly ripped into presidential hopeful Joe Biden for his anti-cannabis history; Ultra Health recently commissioned an analysis of the COVID-19 medical cannabis boom in New Mexico; a recently passed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act could allow those in the military to use hemp products, including CBD.

The Yellow Brick Road Back to School

Coronavirus, masks and computer screens line the path to Emerald City

By Gwynne Ann Unruh

APS teachers and school staff return to school on Aug. 5 to prepare for online and in-school teaching, and learning in a sanitized and safe setting that includes social distancing and wearing face masks. While safety must be the main consideration, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to school reopening.

Filling Philly’s, where the NMCG bunkered down and prepared for violence

Community Terrorism

New Mexico Civil Guard draws on unarmed protestors

By Dan Pennington

After a Sunday evening gathering against violence toward BIPOC from police, unarmed people were threatened by armed individuals. As things stand now, there is absolutely no evidence that justifies a gun to have been pulled, pointed and potentially discharged. Yet New Mexico Civil Guard is still out there, uninhibited by anything or anyone.

By Joshua Lee

State Auditor says the City Councilor Klarissa Peña spent too much money on a trip; Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters that she’d be willing to accept a role in Biden’s cabinet and as governor has extended a public health order that limits public gatherings through August.

The Importance of Social Media Literacy

Spotting bad actors in social movements

By Robin Babb

People’s lives can be immensely impacted by what is shared on social media, as we’ve seen here very recently when the New Mexico Civil Guard, the local right-wing militia that has deputized themselves as armed peacekeepers, posted the home addresses of two members of The Red Nation last week on their public Facebook page. So how do you tell the difference between a genuine member of a movement and a bad actor looking to phish you?

Welcome Back, Now Get to Work!

Councilors return to tackle helping Burque businesses

By Carolyn Carlson

City Councilors faced down a packed Zoom agenda with no end in sight to the COVID pandemic, and many questions of how to help the city’s struggling businesses and residents were hanging in the virtual air.

The halls of Amy Biehl just feel a little different right now.

What's The Buzz With Charter Schools?

School choice important during the pandemic

By Carolyn Carlson

Have a kid with a passion for foreign languages? How about a flair for the media or digital arts? Maybe a budding flamenco dancer? Or a young Einstein or a novice Marie Curie? Here in New Mexico there are 96 public charter schools that offer unique, top-rated educational opportunities for students with all kinds of passions.

Going Maskless

School will open in-person day one, no masks required

By Dan Pennington

Legacy Church Academy, a private school centered around the namesake church, has announced that it will be doing in-person classes from day one of school reopening, and that it will not be enforcing masks.

It Feels Like Facism

Words of protestor abducted in July hit home for local citizen

By Cathleen Wilder

What does fascism feel like? Deep, deep grief.

I mean, they do a lot more than that to be fair.

Believe you’re exempt from a mask? Think again.

By Dan Pennington

What's the deal with maskholes?

By Joshua Lee

Funny because being called fat on Facebook happens to someone else.

Operation Legend in Albuquerque

Trump deploys feds against wishes of city officials

By Robin Babb

Sheriff Manual Gonzalez III was welcomed to the White House to speak with President Trump about a supposed surge of violent crime in Albuquerque and other US cities, and the possibility of deploying federal agents to those cities in response. Later, Attorney General William P. Barr confirmed this possibility when he announced the launch of Operation Legend.

Future Imperfect

“Brave New World” on Peacock

By Devin D. O’Leary

“Brave New World” feels less like a farsighted glimpse into a future world of wonder and more like an unoriginal, corporate groupthink-produced sci-fi soap that uses successful contemporaries like “Westworld” as a photocopied blueprint.

Stream Time

By Devin D. O'Leary

Shows come and go on the popular streaming services.

Week in Sloth

By Devin D. O’Leary

Highlights from around the dial. Except no one has dials anymore.

SDWTD and Jurmainson Geographic III: Insect Proclist

Sonic Reducer

By Clarke Condé

We review new releases by Slow Dance with the Dead and Jurmainson.

What We Wear When We Protest

Ellen Lesperance on sweaters

By Clarke Condé

Ellen Lesperance is a painter interested in the sweaters worn by the protesting women during the 19 years of an all-women anti-nuclear protest outside the gates of the Royal Airforce base Greenham Common in England throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Weekly Alibi sat down with Lesperance to talk about protests, knitting and the strength of sweaters.

The tinker of Tinkertown

By Clarke Condé

Time was one of the crazier places you could go in New Mexico was the Tinkertown Museum. There you would find an amorphous structure and grounds that displayed a genuine fear of blank spaces and the unbounded creative output of its creator, Ross Ward. Sadly, Ward died in 2002 but the new book The Tinker of Tinkertown: The Life and Art of Ross Ward is a tribute to his work and a creative life well lived.

That’s Quite a Pickle!

Preserve your veggies for future feasts

By Xanthe Miller

If the monsoons have sent your garden into overdrive in the last few weeks, you're likely looking for a way to deal with the bounty once your crisper drawers fill up. One quick option is to pickle something!

The watermelon cocktail completes the summer.

Steady yourself for unrelenting Summer

By Clarke Condé

Is it even possible to have summer without watermelon?

Workers Are Not Expendable

The New Mexico Restaurant Association needs to know

By Andrea J. Serrano

A few weeks ago, the New Mexico Restaurant Association (NMRA) hosted a virtual protest urging restaurants across the state to post pictures of their employees outside of their establishments with signs that read “Let Us Serve.” This action came after Governor Lujan Grisham announced reimposing the ban on indoor dining at eateries and breweries.

letters

A reader writes about readers writing.

Suicide Deaths by Race/Ethnicity and Sex in New Mexico

Turning Away from the Ledge

Battling suicide in New Mexico

By Gwynne Anne Unruh

For the past 50 years, Arora Crisis Center has supported those in crisis to face and understand their demons rather than trying to escape them through suicide. Their certified volunteer crisis hotline specialists provide compassionate, non-judgmental help for anyone in need of emotional support. Agora volunteers won't tell you how to solve your problem, but they will help you figure out what options you might have.

By Joshua Lee

PED Secretary told reporters that the department is working on a plan to reopen schools and get kids back into the classroom; the New Mexico Restaurant Association is continuing to battle health orders that ban indoor dining; the federal Bureau of Land Management has been surrendering land in New Mexico and Arizona to the US Army for use in the construction of a border wall.

A Discussion on Honesty and Reporting

COVID-19 testing exposes gaps in reporting and response

By Dan Pennington

With a COVID-19 reporting system so comprehensive, where could anything go wrong?

By Joshua Lee

Funny because being a post hostage happens to someone else.

Just Say No

Dems fail to support cannabis legalization

By Joshua Lee

Joe Biden is turning the Democratic Party into “Republican-lite"; a CBD company is recalling dozens of hemp products after notified of lead contamination; two cannabis producers, a cannabis manufacturer, a testing laboratory and a cannabis patient filed petitions against the New Mexico Department of Health’s new set of rules.

CBD Can Help Cannabis Addiction

By Joshua Lee

A study found that CBD could be an effective treatment for cannabis dependency; another study has reportedly found a correlation between regular cannabis use among women and increased sexual gratification.