Daily Lobo new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
SUMMER June 22-28, 2015 | Volume 119 | Issue 158
Studios strip stigma from pole fitness By Imani Lambert
Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @dee_sea_
Southwest Pole Dancing owner and director Brynlyn Loomis demonstrates pole fitness at her studio on Thursday afternoon. Loomis has been involved in pole fitness for more than seven years.
Gymnastics on a pole, or pole fitness, is changing the way people think about pole dancing and about exercise. It isn’t stripper training, said Julia S., a junior liberal arts major and pole fitness trainer at FIT Tease. She said she is asked that question often, and dislikes the stigma surrounding the words “pole dancing.” “When you tell someone ‘I pole dance’ or ‘I am a pole dancer,’ they immediately think, ‘oh, what club do you work at?’” she said. “That’s not what it’s about.” Julia said she thinks of it as vertical gymnastics, and coordinates her routines to opera music. People of all sizes and ages are able to do these exercises, she said. “Pole fitness isn’t just if you were born with a slimmer physique and doing gymnastics in high school,” she said. “Those things are helpful, but (with) the way that we have formatted, it is possible for everybody to grow.” Brynlyn Loomis, owner/director of Southwest Pole Dancing, said pole fitness is a full-body workout. Loomis has been practicing pole fitness for more than seven years and trained at New York Pole Dancing in New York.
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Lobo life shines Mewvies purrmote adoption in ABQ Sunport By Skylar Griego
By David Lynch The University of New Mexico recently unveiled its newest branch location: in the main terminal of the Albuquerque International Sunport. Last Monday UNM President Bob Frank and Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry presented the all-new LoboScape, an eyecatching visual representation of UNM for visitors and natives flying into the city. Frank, before a crowd of about
40, called the project a marriage between the arts and sciences, a union that the city prides itself on. He said the University had been looking for a way to accentuate Albuquerque’s college-town status when it came up with LoboScape, an innovative way of relaying that message to visitors. “We looked at other airports around America, and most that you see have just a sign that says, ‘This is home to X College,’” he said. “We wanted something that was much
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Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @dee_sea_
An arriving passenger takes a picture at the unveiling of the UNM LoboScape Monday morning at the Albuquerque International Sunport. The LoboScape is a display that shows the history of UNM and aims to inform visitors of Albuquerque’s college-town affluence.
Grumpy. Nyan. Hamilton. Whether real or animated, the Internet is obsessed with cats. And now Animal Humane New Mexico is bringing frisky feline films to the state with its inaugural Albuquerque Internet Cat Video Festival this Friday and Saturday — just in time for Adopt a Shelter Cat month. Called a collection of “the cattiest films in Albuquerque,” the festival is a fundraiser for homeless animals as well a competition for local filmmakers. Laura Kuechenmeister, the marketing director for Animal Humane, said it is also an event where local cat lovers can celebrate their feline friends. “It’s time for a cat event,” she said. “I love the idea of this event because it’s a really light-hearted way to celebrate the pets in our lives who are family members, but also help the homeless pets through raising funds (and) raising awareness of the fact that we have so many kittens right now.” The festival acts as an awareness event for the annual boom of kittens in shelters during the summer. This year the city shelter is housing around 300 cats, and Animal Humane is housing another 100 cats, she said. Animal Humane received around 20 submissions for the cat video contest. The best eight films will be screened at the festival on Friday, where three winners will then be announced. The rest of the videos will be published on the Animal Humane’s website on Saturday.
Nick Fojud / Daily Lobo / @nfojudo
Pat Murphy, a volunteer at Animal Humane, handles one of the cats in the Cat House. Animal Humane has about 450 volunteers who tend to the animals it houses.
The videos come with a variety of themes, made to entertain and delight the viewers while engaging with a message. One video, “One is Good,” was so effective with its message that it converted filmmaker Joanne Schmidt into a cat lover. As a dog person, Schmidt said she reached out to a friend for help with her video and met the film’s star feline, Angel. “She’s just an incredibly sweet kitty,” Schmidt said. “For most of my life I had dogs as pets, and I didn’t understand how affectionate and approachable and warm and loving a cat would be.” Some filmmakers, like cinematic arts program alum Angel Gil Lopez, took a more tongue-in-cheek approach to their final product.
Lopez’s “A Game of Cat and Mouse,” is a horror movie trailer about life from the eyes of his cat’s toy mice. He said he wanted to make this video to highlight his kitten’s energetic personality and her “kitten quirks” without forcing her to do anything staged. The Albuquerque Internet Cat Video Festival will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday at the South Broadway Cultural Center. Admission is $25 per day and includes a festival T-shirt. Kids 4-12 are $7. Attendees can also participate in the VIP opening reception on Friday for $50. Skylar Griego is the culture editor at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @TDLBooks.