He/she would be what and why?Wait, wait, don’t tell me. Something hot and spicy—green chile chicken enchiladas, perhaps, or, in far fewer cases, a tostada compuesta . (Furrows brow, scratches head, takes bite of sexy menudo, puzzles over six years of Albuquerque the Magazine asking "hot singles" to compare an imagined ideal lover to our regional foodstuffs. Sighs.) These folks are not screwing around here, are they? In the time since our local lifestyle glossy printed its first Hot Singles of Albuquerque issue back in 2004, it stands to reason the monthly might have come across a more compelling October topic (or simply grow out of playing matchmaker). Yet, year after single and lonely year, the staff attempts to make autumn love connections, claiming annually that Albuquerque’s dating scene is hotter than ever. Maybe that’s true if your thermostat is set to "tribal tattoo," “fade” and “souped-up Honda CRVs.”That said, while last year’s issue was the worst I’d seen, this year’s is the best yet. Let’s start with design: In the place of 2008’s faux urban decay and neon food graffiti cartoons, designers cleaned it up with sometimes questionably executed, but overall classy, black-and-white photography. Secondly, in addition to the regular content wherein about 40 hot singles participate in a Q&A teeming with unintentional hilarity, this year the magazine delved into its archives, uncovering tales of hot singles past. The first follow-up deals with hot singles in love, while the second deals with hot singles that are, um, still hot singles (hiya, Dan Mayfield). All told, this is a record-breaking 52 pages of wonderfully entertaining, unfettered humanity: singles … ready to mingle.It’s difficult to understand the minds from which this fluff is born. For five years I’ve made fun of the hot singles issue for its dubious writing, amateur design and all-around absurdity. But now the time has come to admit that I looove it. The Hot Singles issue is one of the many campy, ephemeral media items found in our culture that hold a so-bad-it’s-good status, wherein the creators imagine their work to be a stroke of brilliance. And so it is—in its own special way. Good for you, Albuquerque (the Magazine). Keep up the good work. Seriously, don’t stop asking people to make cheese-dripping New Mexican food metaphors every year, please!
The Fifth-Annual Hot Singles Thin Line!
If Your Date Were A New Mexican Dish ...
2 min read
