Academy Award Shorts

Mikaela says:
Sorry if you missed them, folks, but 2/3 of mpyre really loved this year's Academy Award-nominated Animated and Live-Action Shorts, hosted last week at the Guild Theatre.

Maggie came down on the side of the Live-Action; I preferred the Animated, actually, which surprised me.

The highlight of the Live-Action shorts for me was the story of the Mormon kid who gets romantically involved with a woman who he's trying to convert. He falls in love, and when he goes to confront the woman's husband, the kid finds out the couple has been infertile for years, but now she's "miraculously" pregnant, and the husband's ready to accept God. It's both funny and a little heartbreaking and quite well-done on all its levels. A rare and wonderful story.

The Animated shorts had some bleak stories, for sure, but they've stayed with me longer than the Live-Action have. The heartbreaking rat story is one example. The story of the Harlem kid who steals from a shopkeeper who later kills himself is another.

A few years ago, I actually bought the animated winner from that year, Harvey Krumpet. I've watched it a kabillion times, and it's just as good as the first time. I think this year's The Danish Poet will be another such must-have. Maggie and I both loved it.

The Live-Action movie from last year about the old guy whose wife has died who digs them a grave and climbs in, pulls rocks down on top of them, just as his daughter drives up to spend the weekend has haunted me ever since. I think it was "Our Time Is Up." Oofda.

Which is all to say: watch shorts when you can! The Academy Awards may be another year away, but you can catch some short films this summer during the Duke City Shootout. The 48 Hour festival provides an opportunity, too.

There's an art to telling a short story. The difference between a short film and a feature film is the difference between five-page eloquence where everything means something and a 300-page novel where much of the richness comes in all the detail that you don't need but settles around you like a blizzard.

33 hour 24-hour Poetry Jook Joint

Mikaela endorses:
Speaking of what's going on this month, here's something totally cool happening at Outchyonda in Barelas April 13-16, inspired by a similar event from the National Poetry Slam in 2005 (having attended at various hours, I can report that wee morning hours are the best, kinda like Balloon Fiesta craziness of getting up in the dark and leaving your house for something wild):

OUT CH’YONDA Live ARtZ Studio
929 4th St. SW
505-385-5634

La Revolucion Poetica presents:
Anotha 33 Hour Poetry Jook Joint
From Friday, April 13 @ 9p til Sunday, April 16 @ 6am
Sundown to Sunup!!
Admission is $5

Calling All Poets and Lovers of Poetry!!! This loony event was inspired by the 2005 National Poetry Slam here in Albuquerque. We want to continue the tradition this year, expanding it as an annual fundraising event complete with 33 hours of spoken word sanelunacy.

During the continuous 3 hour thematic slots, poets and poet hosts may read/perform spoken word alone or in conjunction with dance, music and the like. Sometimes verbal, sometimes rhythmic and musical, this 33 hour poetry Jook Joint will take you where no poet has gone before.

Poetry groups are encouraged to bum rush a slot, come up with a theme, and perform/read at their own risk.

A few slots are still available: Call Virginia 385-5634.

• April 13/14 9pm -12am Cuba Brigade, DJ Blaktruth 453-3182, 991-4038
• April 14 12am-3am Dr. N-word Ph.N. & Her Illiterate companion, La Revolucion Poetica 243-4325 385-5634 Maria
• April 14 3am-6am Mitch Reyes 514-8019
• April 14 6am-9am
• April 14 9am-12pm
• April 14 12pm-3pm
• April 14 3pm-6pm
• April 14 6pm-9pm Say What??? Saywut505@msn.com
• April 14/15 9pm-12am
• April 15 12am-3am
• April 15 3am-6am

Star time

Another month, another round of PlanetWaves wisdom.

Aries (March 20-April 19)
Is it good to know how smart you are? Probably, at least in your case. The thing is, you may not know. Other factors in your personality may obscure this kind of self-awareness, and you may live walking around the world feeling like a "young soul" whose knowledge is not quite ready for the world, or truly applicable to life. From a cosmic perspective, all your best ideas and brightest awareness are like a show being performed with the curtain closed. You can hear the muffled lines being spoken, you're aware of the stage sets changing, but the main idea may be eluding you. You need to know where to look -- that is, where to direct your experiences this month such that you encounter the golden datastream. If you set out on a mission of some kind that involves intentionally traveling somewhere to learn something, you will very likely step into the flow, fully conscious. But for the full effect, you must initiate the journey.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Acceptance is a precious thing. It is the feeling of the cosmos, of existence itself, opening its arms to us. The feeling of true acceptance involves transcending prior experiences of being too controversial, too intense, too scary -- too anything. We all have our own baggage that we carry regarding these learned experiences of being too something, and with our hands on those suitcases, it's impossible to embrace the world as it embraces us. I suggest you put those suitcases down, and look out at the world around you, listen to what is being said, and reach back when someone reaches to you. There is more to this opening up than you may recognize, as encountering the world in a state of harmony corresponds to encountering your own emotions and creative flow. Your life is indeed changing; developments you could not predict are meeting you like they already know you. Breathe into the journey.


Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
If you feel like you're being confronted, you may want to look again, and check out why you feel this way. Some Virgos are great at this kind of on-the-spot introspection; some are not. But let's just say that your sense of being confronted is coming from within you, not from outside you. What is being presented to you from the outside is actually sensible, if not innovative. If it happens to be shocking, the reason is because of how brilliant it is. And I would reckon that who or whatever is in your face has a lot more in common with you than you may imagine or desire to admit, unless you slow down and ask yourself what you've been asking for, what you've been preparing for, and what is really meaningful to you. You have long passed the time when you can go through your existence living as a concept. Ideas are important, but experience is what you are craving the most, and what life is offering you the most abundantly.