UNM Student Prepares for Officer Candidate School

UNM Fans Get Ready for Lobo Basketball Season

Photo by William Aranda 

            With basketball season just around the corner, fans throughout the Albuquerque community, along with University of New Mexico students, wanted to come out to Lobo Howl to support both the women’s and men’s basketball teams. Lobo Howl is an event held at The Pit every year before basketball season and is somewhat of a pep rally for the community. The Pit is packed with fans of all ages buying merchandise, taking pictures, and getting ready to watch both teams scrimmage. The night got started with the men’s team signing autographs in the lobby while the women’s team got ready to play. In the meantime, the student section was filled with excitement and Lobo spirit as they waited to see the 2012-2013 season teams take the court.

            “I’m more than excited for basketball season. My favorite part is definitely getting to The Pit early and waiting in line to get in for a game. It’s a lot of fun,” said UNM sophomore Kyle Spielbusch.

            “Coming in and the atmosphere, being around all the fans, and the energy this arena has is contagious and I absolutely love it,” said Brian Fennema, a recent UNM graduate, when asked about his favorite thing about Lobo Basketball season at The Pit.

            “I’m a Lobo and I love the energy you get being at the Pit. You don’t even have to know much about basketball, it’s that everyone loves it so much, you just feel it,” said junior Michaela Laverty.

            Lobo fans have always taken pride in their spirit at various athletic events.

Photo by William Aranda 

            “I’m in my fourth year and we’ve been through a lot and it’s been awesome to see all of the Lobos, win or lose, how each year we’ve still kept that Lobo pride, Lobo nation. This year, it’s finally going in the greatest way but it doesn’t make a difference, we love them just the same either way,” said senior Kylie Jacobsen about why she loves being a Lobo.

Students weren’t the only ones excited about the upcoming season. There were season ticket holders and families at The Pit that have been coming to Lobo basketball games for years.

            “We’ve been coming to Lobo games at the Pit for about ten years now,” said Shannon Guitierrez, who went to Lobo Howl with her husband and son. “They’ve done so good and they get better and better every year. All of our kids are big Lobo fans!”

            Shortly after the night got started, the women’s team took to the court to play a scrimmage game. They even surprised everyone with a choreographed dance routine that included “Thriller”.  The players then went to the lobby to sign autographs for fans.

Some of the players transferred from other schools to play for the Lobos and they are very excited about this season.

 Photo by William Aranda 

            “It’s a new season, a new school, everybody’s pumped, as you can when we were out there…” said Ebony Walker, a junior post for the Lobo women’s basketball team.

            “Coming in from Texas Tech, being a Lobo means everything to me, being back in my hometown. We had a good crowd today and great fans, I love it,” added Walker, who is originally from Albuquerque.
            At around 8:00 p.m., the men’s basketball team, a community favorite, came out onto the court to play a scrimmage game. Shortly after that, they entertained the fans with their annual dunk contest, where the players jump over their teammates and try to get a slam-dunk.

            After the men had an exciting dunk contest, fans were rushing down to the court trying to get a picture with a player before they went back to the locker room.

            Lobo Howl is definitely a favorite event for fans throughout the community, as well as the UNM community. It brings everyone together and gets them excited to come out and support the Lobos at every game.

            The next scheduled women’s basketball game is on November 15 against Texas Tech University at 7 p.m. at The Pit. The next scheduled men’s basketball game is on November 12 against Davidson with an 11:59 p.m. tipoff at The Pit. This game is a part of ESPN’s Midnight Madness and will be televised.  

UNM Lobo Howl 2012 Highlights 

Photography by William Aranda

Video by Marcus Jaramillo

Broadcast script by Jamilla Wilcox 

Article by Veronica Deeds

University of New Mexico Student Gets Serious About His Military Future

Jeff Han, 20, is in preparation for Officer Candidacy School to become a US Marine Corp Officer.

In this image, Jeff Han prepares his Marine Corp ROTC dress for the next morning of class and meetings. He wears this specific uniform once a week. Han wakes up at 5:00AM for his ROTC mornings. Because of this, Han irons, decorates, and hangs his uniform the night before. He is very particular about his nametag and other decorations being straight and in order, sometimes taking him up to five full minutes of just making sure everything is straight. Han takes his work as an ROTC member and aspiring Marine Corp Officer very seriously.

This photo was originally taken around 11:00 PM. Han was already very tired from workouts that day, so he kept the lighting in his bedroom to a minimum. I wanted to keep that same intimacy that was there originally, so I adjusted the tones and levels a bit to create more shadows and dim lighting. Usually, when people see military members, even ROTC members, they always see them either in civilian clothes or uniform. You rarely see images of them preparing their uniform to be the decorated one we’re used to seeing so this gives you a glimpse into the preparation it takes. 

Young Student Wants Nothing More than to Play Piano for Fun.

Community musicians are in every town playing for us, even when we don’t notice them. They can be a struggling local artist trying to make it big, or they can just be someone who plays for the pure joy of playing, with no intention of being noticed or catching a big break. That is what Alex Deeds enjoys doing the most. Deeds is a 22 year old college student who has played piano for fifteen years. Then, while he was in high school, he played the piano at a local Starbucks twice a week for two years.

            Like any other child who begins learning an instrument, Deeds didn’t like it very much. “I was forced to play for 30 minutes a day and had hour long lessons once a week. I hated it,” said Deeds.

            Over time, of course, he realized how good he was and that he really did have a passion for this. He explains that he began liking it around 9 years old, when he realized he was talented. “It’s calming for me and it gives me a way to express myself. When I’m waiting on my family to go somewhere, I play the piano or when I’m bored and don’t feel like doing homework, I play the piano.”            

            His sophomore year of high school, Deeds had a friend, Phillip Jones*, who worked at a local Starbucks. They were interested in hiring a pianist or guitar player to play for patrons and Deeds offered. He said he wasn’t a local artist or anything, but rather he just enjoyed playing. Jones then signed him up.

            “I was called back to play again and eventually it turned into a regular thing. I would see patrons that would return and say hi to me and eventually, people were going just to sit there and listen. It wasn’t anything big deal, it was just a ton of fun,” said Deeds.

            “In high school, we knew Alex was a talented piano player but we were all in the music program so it wasn’t something that really stuck out to me about him, until he offered to play at Starbucks. Then I saw that he would really get into the music and was extremely passionate about just playing for fun, nothing more,” says Jones.

            At the moment, Deeds is finishing up his senior year at the University of New Mexico, earning a degree in Media Arts, with a concentration in film. He hopes to get a career as a film director. However, the thought of scoring music for film has definitely crossed his mind. “Aside from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and pretty much all 50s-60s music, I love movie soundtracks. A couple favorites are Yann Tierson, who’s a film composer. He composed for the film Amelie. Another one is Michael Nyman, who did the soundtrack for The Piano.” Deeds says that he would consider a career in movie scoring, however only for small independent films. He doesn’t believe he would be able to carry a big blockbuster movie soundtrack, which many of his friends and family would disagree with. “I’ve only tried composing music for a film once and I was ten years old making my own movie in my house. It was cute,” says Deeds.

            Deeds views playing the piano as a hobby and a passion at the same time. Although he may not pursue a career in it, he is perfectly content playing for anyone that wants to hear him and just “having fun with it.”

Alex Deeds playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  

Experiencing the Magic of the Movies, Deaf or Hearing.

Sub communities exist within any city. One that a lot of Albuquerque, New Mexico citizens are not fully aware of is the large and growing Deaf community. The Deaf throughout the city get together for different social events, such as Deaf Night Out (DNO) at different restaurants, camping trips, and on occasion, trips to the movies. Trips to the movies can be problematic, considering not every theater in Albuquerque offers the same accommodations. 

Accommodations for the Deaf have advanced over time. The community is still striving to integrate these accommodations with more mainstream markets, and movie theaters are a large area that they want to see improvements in.

American Sign Language professor at the University of New Mexico, Bonnie Rudy was born completely deaf. She has lived her whole life adjusting to new advances in technology to accommodate the Deaf. “Deaf accommodations now and in the past are very different,” Rudy explains. “There were no captions around until I was about 30.” Closed captioning came around for television shows long before they did in movie theaters. Rudy recalls the first show she watched with captions was “Three’s Company”. “It united the Deaf and the Hearing. We could all laugh together instead of me having to use my imagination for what was going on.” In 1990, President Bush Sr. signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. It stated that all television shows had to have a closed caption option. Around 1994, the movie theaters followed, but with only one movie, once a month offering captions.  Rudy said, “That’s the way it was for years.” 

The CaptiView captioning devices that sit in the viewer's cup holder.

Today, different theaters offer different styles of accommodations for the Deaf. Rudy only goes to the movies every once in a while, but when she does, she wants it to be a great experience, just like anybody else would. Sometimes, she attends Century Rio 24 in Albuquerque. The devices that Century Rio 24 offers are portable screens, called CaptiView, that display captions. They sit right in the cup holder. The disadvantage to these devices is that they make it difficult for the viewer to focus on the screen because they are always looking down to read. “You always have to look up and down, up and down, and you can’t always concentrate,” Rudy says. Melissa Bolin, and employee at Cinemark 8, and Robin from Century 14 Downtown explained that their theaters also offer CaptiView. Due to the disadvantage of these devices, Rudy, and many other people in the Deaf community, enjoy going to Cottonwood Mall United Artists theater because they have provided movie viewings with closed captions right on the screen. “In the past, the booking department would select a movie and play it once a week with closed captions”, said Dominic, the manager at the Cottonwood Mall Theater. However, three weeks prior to the interview, Sony released a pair of glasses to select Regal Cinemas that allow for captions to be projected on the inside of the lens. These are so new, in fact, that Bonnie wasn’t even aware of them. The glasses are rather high-tech and really do work well. The only disadvantage is that whenever you move, the captions move wherever you go, whether you are looking at the screen or at the floor. Then again, that is a minor issue compared to the great advancement that they are. These glasses will allow for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired to select any movie, at any time, any day of the week and be able to watch them with captions, and among other Hearing people. They will be released nationwide mainly to Regal Cinemas first in the next couple of months. 

Century 14 Downtown Movie Theater
in Albuquerque, NM offers CaptiView captioning devices,
headphones for the hearing impaired, & cochlear implant transmitters.

 The advancements that movie theaters are making for the Deaf are improving over time. Along with the CaptiView devices, the Century 14 Downtown theater offers cochlear transmitters that transmit the sound to someone’s cochlear implant. Also, with the glasses being released nationwide, it can be assumed that the Deaf will start enjoying their trips to the movies even more. These advances mean a great deal to the Deaf world and will hopefully be just the beginning of new accommodations in order to make it easier for the Deaf to go out into the world and experience things without having to worry. At the end of the interview, when asked what she hopes to see in the future for the Deaf world, Rudy says, “I hope that all theaters offer closed captions for us. Like I said, it unites our world with the Hearing world.”