August-September Calendar

August 3, 2008

ANNOUNCMENTS. (To get your announcement in our events calendar, e-mail information by the 15th of the month before publication to grassrootspress@gmail.com Priority will be given to events with a progressive or social justice theme or arts, music and cultural happenings that resonate with a sustainable lifestyle.)

Enchanted Gardens August Schedule:

Aug. 9 — Plant Fall Vegetable Garden. Discover the joys of a fall/winter vegetable garden filled with greens and other winter vegetables. Learn how to prepare the soil and
select seeds and plants for the fall vegetable garden. This class will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9.

Aug. 23 — Prepare for Spring. In the southwest, it is best to plant many trees, shrubs and perennials in the fall and winter. To learn more about which plants can be planted during the fall and how to plant, attend the “Get a Head Start on Spring” class at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23.

Aug. 30 — Design a Potager Garden. Potager is the French term to describe a kitchen garden filled with herbs and vegetables placed conveniently near the kitchen. The class begins at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30.

For more information or to reserve a space in any of these classes at Enchanted Gardens, 270 Avenida de Mesilla, call 575-524-1886 or e-mail gardens@zianet.com.

• EVERY WEDNESDAY from 4-6 p.m. Weekly Peace Vigil at the Federal Building, Church and Griggs, in downtown Las Cruces. Bring signs, water and sunscreen.

• EVERY MONDAY from 5-6 p.m., Peace Vigil at Veteran’s Park, under the rotunda. For information visit http://clearmindzen.org

• EVERY SUNDAY, 10 am – 2pm Sunday Growers’ Market at Mountain View Market: Fresh, local food, live music and great community! Market will continue every Sunday until November with local growers providing fresh-picked and fresh-tasting locally-grown foods! Meet on the south side of the parking lot; look for the big shade tents! 1300 El Paseo, The Idaho Crossings Center. Call for more details: 575-523-0436.

• SECOND TUESDAYS, The Doña Ana County chapter of the Progressive Democrats of America meets the second Tuesday of every month at 139 N. Downtown Mall in Las Cruces from 7:00 to 8:30 pm to discuss a current political issue. The discussions are led by two or three local people with in-depth knowledge of the subject being discussed. The schedule is: August 12 — immigration; Sept. 9 — Health Care in N.M.; Oct. 14 — Criminal Justice or Injustice in N.M. Everyone is welcome; bring a friend. For information call 575 523-5297.

• EVERY SATURDAY, CineMatinee. Each and every Saturday afternoon, a quality-talking picture (with an occasional silent one) will be screened at the Fountain Theatre in Mesilla, 2469 Calle de Guadalupe, one block south of the plaza. The general theme of this ongoing series is life in the West, which could mean the ‘new’ West, the old West, the historical West, or anything in between. At least one film a month for this series will have a ‘New Mexico Connection,’ drawing from the vast pool of movies made in the state or perhaps featuring a star/story from New Mexico talent. All screenings begin at 1.30 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Admission is $4, or $1 for Mesilla Valley Film Society members. For more information, please call 524-8287 or 522-0286 or visit our web site: www.fountaintheatre.org

Aug. 2 — Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (2007, 70 minutes, made in N.M.) A short distance from Taos, on a patch of earth about 15 miles square, live approximately 400 people; all “off the grid,” and, to a man, woman and child, united by the belief that life is best lived outside the mainstream. Though without electricity, running water, or even stable incomes, these people live harmoniously, always with a sense that true meaning comes from cooperation, friendship and the freedom to be left alone. At least that’s the romantic side of the coin. In truth, and as one resident admits at one point, though with a sense of pride rather than shame, this isolated neighborhood is “the world’s largest outdoor insane asylum,” and rather than renegades, heroes, and unbridled individualists, we have drunks, drug addicts, gun nuts, paranoid survivalists, and, most frequently, mentally ill veterans suffering from extreme cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. An interesting look at the ultimate form of “freedom,” Off the Grid was co-directed and produced by Randy Stullberg, a former AmeriCorps volunteer at Las Cruces Alma d’ Arte Charter School.

Aug. 9 — Tortilla Soup (2001, PG-13, 102 minutes) This delightful Latino-flavored film, directed by Maria Ripoll with a screenplay by Tom Musca, Ramón Menéndez, and Vera Blasi, was inspired by Ang Lee’s 1994 film Eat Drink Man Woman. Tortilla Soup is a pleasant familial drama spiced with lively salsa music, the foods of acclaimed chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, and a keen appreciation for the surprising twists and turns of romantic love.
Aug. 16 — The Lives of Angels (2008, 45 minutes, made in N.M.) Divine intervention brings together an unlikely couple, a self doubting “loser” and a lovable woman who reads books in bars. It requires the work of guardian angels as well as a bartender and a best friend to get these two to fulfill their destiny: to get together. The Devil is not happy… Invited guest is filmmaker Stephen Rubin of Santa Fe.
Also screening is 100 MPG (2006, 40 minutes, locally made by CMI at NMSU) 100 MPG is the story of a young man who, in the 1970s, invented and patented a 100 MPG (miles per gallon) fuel system for automobiles and his efforts to market the system. The story was suggested by real events that took place in El Paso, Las Cruces and Deming. The young man’s life became a series of mishaps after media coverage of the invention, and he later died under mysterious circumstances. 100 MPG has been used by the Creative Media Institute at NMSU to help recruit students to the new film school, and was made under the direction of invited guest, Mark Medoff.
Aug. 23 – A Cottage on Dartmoor (1930, 77 minutes, silent, UK) Released the year England entered the sound age with Hitchcock’s Blackmail, the silent film A Cottage on Dartmoor displays a wealth of sophisticated visual idiom. Director Anthony Asquith, works here with imagery freewheeling enough to accommodate experiments both in composition (as in an early shot where a character dashes from background to foreground until he steps on a puddle and splashes the lens) and editing (a gabby man is casually intercut with a clucking hen). It’s typical of the film’s inventiveness that the flashback that makes up the bulk of the narrative is precipitated by the first intertitle. The film is an engaging glimpse into a largely ignored period that may still hold many surprises. Where else, after all, can you find an impending crime punctuated with footage from a cricket match?

Aug. 30 — City Slickers (1991, 112 minutes, rated PG-13, made in N.M.) This is the rowdiest western jokefest since Blazing Saddles. Billy Crystal stars as Mitch Robbins, a Manhattan radio-ad salesman with a wife two kids and a 10-ton midlife crisis brought on by his 40th birthday. Besides offering an opportunity for male bonding, the vacation teaches these urban neurotics how to ride, rope, shoot and herd cattle. Director Ron Underwood keeps things moving at a swift gallop. And Oscar-winning cinematographer Dean Semler (Dances With Wolves) — shooting in Colorado and New Mexico — provides an expansive beauty rare in this kind of nonsense.

Sept. 6 — Seducing Doctor Lewis (2003, 108 minutes, not rated, but PG would fit, in French with English subtitles). Seducing Doctor Lewis takes place in a grizzled fishing village in Quebec. Its characters may speak French, but the film, the first feature directed by Jean-François Pouliot, would fit comfortably in a British comic tradition that stretches from films like The Full Monty to Death at a Funeral. The movie finds humor in small-town idiosyncrasies, and also in economic hardship. Seducing Doctor Lewis is a warm, funny film, whose sweet sentiments are genial and unchallenging, and its jokes are low-key and gentle.

Sept 13 – N.M. Filmmakers Showcase (FREE admission!) Approximately 2 hrs. This afternoon’s matinee will be hosted and sponsored by the New Mexico Film Office, and will feature screening of the winners of the 2008 edition of the New Mexico Filmmakers Showcase competition, which was held this past summer in Albuquerque. All filmmakers are our invited guests, and those in attendance will partake in a question and answer session regarding their work.

Sept. 20 — Chooch (2004, 80 minutes, rated R, partially shot in the Las Cruces area) Chooch is the first feature film by Las Cruces resident (and our guest) Rajeev Nirmalakhandan, who is currently an instructor at NMSU’s Creative Media Institute.

Sept. 27 — The Cats of Mirikitani (2007, 74 minutes, with special guest, filmmaker Linda Hattendorf). “Make art not war” is Jimmy Mirikitani’s motto. The now-88-year-old artist was born in Sacramento, Calif., raised in Hiroshima, Japan, traveled the U.S. and even cooked for artist Jackson Pollock. But by 2001, Mirikitani was homeless, living on the streets of New York City. As tourists and shoppers hurried past, Mirikitani sat alone on a windy corner in New York’s SoHo, drawing pictures of whimsical cats, bleak internment camps and the angry red flames of the atomic bomb. When local filmmaker Linda Hattendorf stopped to ask about his art, a friendship—detailed in The Cats of Mirikitani—began that changed both their lives. Blending beauty and humor with tragedy and loss, The Cats of Mirikitani is an intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing power of art…and cats.

• Fridays, Aug. 1 and 15, Sept. 5 and 19, 7 p.m. Howling Coyote Coffeehouse, Mastery in Life Center, 575 N. Main, first and third Fridays open mic music and poetry, refreshments. Doors open at 6:30. More information, Bob Burns, 525-9333.

• Thursday, Aug. 28 and Sept. 25, 7 p.m. Progressive Voter Alliance monthly meeting, Munson Senior Center, 975 S. Mesquite. More information, www.pva-nm.org.

• Sunday, Aug. 3, 7 pm. The Mesilla Valley Jazz and Blues Society presents Chris Sanders and Bob Hull at 7 p.m.. Sanders, vocals and piano, and Hull, guitar, will perform jazz originals and interpretations of jazz standards. Their performance will be held at the Mastery and Life Center, 575 N. Main St. in the Downtown Mall. Ticket prices are $8 general admission, $5 for members, $1 for students. For information, call 525-9333.

• Wednesay, Aug. 20, 7 pm. Aplomado Falcon. Angel Montoya of the Peregrine Fund will describe the efforts to increase the population of the endangered Aplomado Falcon. This talk is part of the regular monthly meeting of the Mesilla Valley Audubon Society held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 20. The group meets in the Hallmark Building at the Village at Northrise, 2882 N. Roadrunner Parkway. For more information, call 382-2080 or e-mail GriffinBio@gmail.com

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