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August-September Progressive/Sustainable Events

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.)

Unitarian Universalist Church, 2000 S. Solano, Roundtable Schedule for August 2010. Roundtables are held from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. in the library.

Aug. 1, Jim Basler: Success = Luck or Learning? Some people say success is largely a matter of luck. Others say you make your own luck. In my life, I have had an extraordinary amount of both good and bad luck. I believe that you have to work hard to be prepared for the opportunities that come, but the opportunities that come your way are a matter of luck. What do you believe? I will share my success stories with you and hope you will also share yours with us.

Aug. 8, Dale Robison: A Short History of Hell. Why do we scoop up books by Stephen King and go off to see movies in which Zombies lurch toward us to strangle us to death? Why did Dante write “The Inferno,” and Michelangelo paint a man who suddenly realizes he’s on his way to earth’s greatest hot spot? And for all Johnny Depp lovers, why was a recent movie he starred in titled “From Hell?” (This presentation will have nothing to do with Afghanistan or summer in Las Cruces.)

Aug. 15, Paul Lawrence & Bonnie Zigler: The Las Cruces GLBTQ Center. Bonnie Zigler and Paul Lawrence will do a program on the new Las Cruces GLBTQ Center, the goals, programs and resources. The Center is in full swing providing people with a youth center, free HIV testing, a library, and finding answers for questions. We have a half dozen different groups meeting at the center already.

Aug. 22, Rich Richins: What Kind of Diversity Do We Want in Our Church? In church surveys and conversations the majority of our members say they would like to see more diversity in our congregation. This isn’t new; we have been saying this for decades. We will take a hard look at the problem and see if we can determine why we have always failed in the past. What kind of differences are acceptable? Are we looking for people that look different but think like us; hopefully, some young people (those under age 50)? Are we willing to accept political differences? We are very heavily Democrats and independents. Most Republicans who “try us out” do not feel comfortable among us and leave even if they share our religious beliefs.

Aug. 29 John Muir III: Tigers and Songbirds. John C. Muir III, M.Ed, is a decorated, disabled Marine Corps combat veteran of the Vietnam War. At the height of the Cold War, he served as a Marine Embassy Guard with the U. S. Department of State in Europe, and lived a significant part of “Cold War” history. A regular presenter at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and most recently at New Mexico State in Leonard Gambrell’s honors class on the history of the Vietnam War, he is a poet, essayist, film-maker and instructor in film at DACC, as well as a retired high school Government and History teacher. He has been active in local, regional.

RECURRING EVENTS

•    EVERY WEDNESDAY from 4-6 p.m. Weekly Peace Vigil near the Federal Building, Church and Griggs, in downtown Las Cruces. Bring signs, water and sunscreen. Exact location may vary due to construction.

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

•    EVERY TUESDAY (ALBUQUERQUE) BE PEACE!  Join our Yang-style tai chi group each Tuesday evening 7-8 pm at the Harwood Art Center at 7th and Mountain Streets downtown Albuquerque.  For more info visit harwoodartcenter.org and click on the “classes” tab, or call 505 792.4519.

•    EVERY 1st and 3rd FRIDAY, 7 p.m. Howling Coyote Coffeehouse, New location: First Christian Church, 1809 El Paseo, directly east and across the street from Las Cruces High. Open mic music and poetry, refreshments. Doors open at 6:30. More information, Bob Burns, 525-9333.

•    EVERY 2nd and 4th FRIDAY NIGHT from 7 pm to 9:30 p.m., Open Mic at Starbuck’s on University. More information, contact Larry Stocker, 496-3638.

•    EVERY SUNDAY (ALMOST), 7 p.m. Open Mic at Starbuck’s on Valley. More information, contact Larry Stocker, 496-3638.

•    EVERY SUNDAY, The Sunday Growers Market takes place every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mountain View Market, in the Idaho Crossings Center Parking Lot, 1300 El Paseo, Las Cruces, N.M

•    FOURTH THURSDAY: Progressive Voter Alliance monthly meetings, Munson Senior Center, 975 S. Mesquite. Next meeting Thursday, Aug. 26. More information, www.pva-nm.org

•    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. 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: http://mesillavalleyfilm.org

CineMatinee August

Aug. 7, Red Rock West (1993, 98 minutes) Red Rock West is a diabolical movie that exists sneakily between a western and a thriller, between a film noir and a black comedy.

This is a movie like Blood Simple, constructed out of passion, murder, revenge and a quirky sense of humor. The plot is incredibly complicated. It is also easy to follow and, eventually, makes perfect sense. This kind of lovingly contrived melodrama requires juicy actors, who can luxuriate in the ironies of a scene, and the movie has them: Nicolas Cage, J. T. Walsh, Dennis Hopper and Lara Flynn Boyle. They must have had a lot of fun with this material.

Red Rock West was directed by John Dahl, who co-wrote it with his brother, Rick. It’s the kind of movie made by people who love movies, have had some good times at them, and want to celebrate the very texture of old genres like the western and the film noir. In a sense, we’ve been in Red Rock many times before: It’s a town where plots lie in wait for unsuspecting visitors, where hatred runs deep, where love is never enough of a motive for doing anything when cash is available.

Aug. 14, Redskin (1929, 82 minutes, SILENT, but in original color, made in N.M.) In the silent era, the American West was still unknown territory. New Mexico had only been a state for 17 years when Paramount sent a crew to Acoma Pueblo outside Albuquerque to film Redskin.

The scenario and story were by Elizabeth Pickett, who clearly had a sophisticated understanding of First Nations peoples for her time. This film deals with issues that still have contemporary resonance. Jim Chee, the hero of Tony Hillerman’s Navajo detective novels, grapples with similar tradition vs. modernity issues as Redskin’s hero, Wing Foot.

Richard Dix plays a Navajo abducted to a government boarding school as a child, but his partial assimilation into white society leaves him neither Indian nor white, just “Redskin.” The abuses of these schools, where children were beaten for speaking their own language and forced to deny their traditions still provoke anger among their former students. Dix had already starred in The Vanishing American (1925), a more melodramatic and racist view of Native American life. Redskin was an honest effort, ahead of its time, to present the complex web of prejudices between and among Indians and non-Indians. The film was photographed partially in a “ravishing” early Technicolor process. but only the scenes of Native American life, for the Indians are the heroes.

The Pueblo tribe had allowed Pickett to make some documentary films in 1925, and Redskin pays careful attention to authentic detail. The breathtaking two-color Technicolor cinematography evokes the dramatic landscape of Ansel Adams’ photographs, with locations at Acoma Pueblo, White Sands and Gallup, New Mexico, and Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.

Aug. 21, One Man’s Hero (1998, 120 minutes, rated R) “One man’s hero is another man’s traitor.” So says U.S. Army Sergeant John Riley (Tom Berenger) prophetically at the beginning of One Man’s Hero. National righteousness tends to be rather self-serving.
If you’ve grown up with only a 20th-century sense of history you may have an impression of the United States as having ceaselessly fought for freedom in the face of tyranny. Many Vietnamese people would differ. So would the other occupants of the North American continent in the 19th century. To them, the U.S.A. was an opportunistic, expansionist nation, and anyone who stood in the way was in trouble, be they Canadian, Native American, or Mexican.

One’s Man’s Hero is the true story of John Riley and the San Patricio Regiment. It takes place on the battlefields of the Mexican-American war. Half of the soldiers in the U.S. army in the 1840s were Irish, having fled famine in their homeland for the promise of American citizenship. As Catholics in a Protestant army, sharing the same religion as the enemy, they were held in suspicion.

John Riley revolts against his bigoted and brutal superior officer and flees along with a group of fellow Irishmen. Intending to find a free port and return to Ireland, they instead fall into the hands of a local rebel leader, Cortina (Joaquim De Almeida). When the Americans invade Mexico the Irish deserters choose to organize into a regiment in the Mexican army, the San Patricios – San Patricio being St. Patrick in Spanish. The stateless Irishmen debate their loyalties but fight professionally and bravely for the only country offering them refuge and fair treatment. In any event, the only option they have is to fight and win, or die in the attempt.

One Man’s Hero provides an interesting perspective on historical events that many viewers may be unaware of. It is fair to the bad guys but is quite unequivocal in asserting that Mexico was victimized by a more powerful nation with less than noble intentions.

Aug. 28, The Spanish Room (2010, 107 minutes, made in NM; filmmaker Chris Roybal is our guest) The Spanish Room is a feature-length documentary about Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, based out of the National Institute of Flamenco in downtown Albuquerque, NM. The film focuses primarily on the extensive time and effort that goes into producing one of Yjastros’ amazing shows, while also focusing on the many dedicated local people who give so much of their lives to improve their communities through flamenco.

Cinematinee September

Sept. 4, The Red Machine (2009, 85 minutes, not rated). Special Event, regular evening prices will be in effect as we welcome co-directors, co-producers and co-screenwriters of the film, Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm. This event will include a special encore screening of their wonderful short film, Gandhi at the Bat. This wry and delightful comedy takes place in Washington, DC, 1935. Full of crackling dialogue, eye-catching visuals, careful notation of period detail and unpredictable twists, The Red Machine is a charming throwback to the great espionage capers of the 1930s.

Sept. 11, Salt of the Earth (1954, 94 minutes, made in N.M.) Included in the prestigious National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, Salt of the Earth represents a milestone in the history of American movies. It was produced, written, and directed by filmmakers who were still blacklisted when the film was made in 1953, during the anticommunist witch-hunts that plagued Hollywood (and the entire country) at the height of the McCarthy era.
While the filmmakers faced misguided suspicion of promoting anti-American sentiments, the film was financed in part by the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, which strongly supported this powerful social-realist drama about a strike by Mexican American zinc miners in New Mexico.

Featuring a prominent role for blacklisted actor Will Geer (later famous as Grandpa on TV’s The Waltons), the story intensifies when the strikers are forced to stop picketing and their wives take up the cause. Focusing on one struggling couple to illustrate its themes of individual dignity and human rights, the film was released in only 13 theaters nationwide in 1954, receiving a majority of highly positive reviews. Still, Salt of the Earth was surrounded by controversy before, during, and after its production, and it was widely misinterpreted as a call for social revolution. It remained largely unseen in America until the 1960s, but this boldly independent film has since been duly recognized for its artistic and social importance.

Sept. 18, New Mexico Filmmakers Showcase (2010, approx 3 hours) FREE ADMISSION!  In which we present our annual screening of the films that won the N.M. Filmmaker’s Showcase earlier this year, compliments of the State of New Mexico Film Office. For the first time, two of the winning titles have a local connection:

Red Mesa by Ilana Lapid (Las Cruces),TRT 17 min. Caught between her affection for her grandfather and her secret love with an undocumented worker, Lynn must decide which borders she is willing to cross. Set on a cattle ranch on the U.S./Mexico border, Red Mesa is an exploration of love, loyalty and coming of age through the struggle with difficult choices.  (Ms. Lapid is our invited guest.)

Genetic Chile by Chris Dudley (Albuquerque), TRT 56 min. A look at genetically modified foods through the lens of New Mexico’s iconic chile pepper. Under a state grant, New Mexico State University is developing a genetically engineered pepper. Dudley is an invited guest.

Sept. 25, The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo  (2005, 90 minutes, not rated). In conjunction with the Branigan Cultural Center, we are pleased to screen this intimate and detailed documentary portrait of one of Mexico’s most famous women artists. And as a bonus, you will get the chance to meet and greet the winner of the BCC’s Frida lookalike contest!
“I hope the exit is joyful and hope never to return.” Said to be Kahlo’s last words.
An artist whose life was as bold and startling as her work, Frida Kahlo battled physical infirmity and a male-dominated art establishment to become one of the most acclaimed and influential painters of her generation. Kahlo also had a passionate interest in politics, with her leftist views informed by the Mexican Revolution; she was an outspoken advocate of Communism and a powerful symbol of the progressive movement throughout her life.

OTHER EVENTS

• Aug. 7-8, Sale of Handmade Goods by Cooperative Women. La Cooperativa de la Frontera of Palomas and Columbus, a cooperative to empower women and their families to learn new skills and earn a living, is holding a sale of women’s handmade products. Presentations about Palomas and Columbus, featuring Palomas Hunger Project, Chad Stinnard; Cooperative Artisanry Coordinator, Janet Shepard; Desert Exposure Borderlines Columnist, Marjorie Lilly; Columbus cooperative mentor weaver, Hosanna Eilert; Palomas Mayor, Maria Lopez. Mexican music. Event will be held at Air Coffee of Bayard, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Come and support your border neighbors; more information, janetsh@homernet.net phone 575 313-9685.

• Aug. 15, Chili Cookoff at Mountain View Market Co-op. Chili is served at 1 p.m! Fresh local food, fresh local music, fresh local chili. Chili must be cooked on-site with your own power (Solar, propane, etc.), recipe must be provided. Call Mo at 523-0436 or email mountainviewgrowers@gmail.com for more info.

• Aug. 15, Mead-making Workshop at Mountain View Market Co-op, 11 a.m. with Andy Stevenson,  herbalist of from The Ground Up.  $15 or $13 for co-op members will cover all supplies and your share of the unfinished mead to take home!

You will learn: a. How to prepare a yeast starter for mead. b. How to cure the honey and how to carefully monitor temperature. c. How to age and “rack” the mead. Students will meet three weeks later (Sept. 5) to rack mead and take home for aging.

• Aug. 21, Co-op Rocks Monthly Concert Series, 5-10 p.m. at Mikey’s Place, 3100 Harrelson St. Featuring Yo Eme Jazz Trio, Poi Show with Border Burners (Fire Dancing). Free. Sponsored by Mountain View Market Co-op.

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