Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 53

1 Friday, November 7, 1997 venue E3 111 III I I The weekend's here and variety is the name of the game. for just about any taste. Here's a little something MP' Bf OlMGSS hosts the annual Hong Kong Film Festival. "Snake in the Eagle's (1 978) features Jackie Chan ina vintage kung fu comedy thatchanged the face of martial arts movies. It includes 15 different fight scenes.

Jet Li returns in "Once Upon A Time in China and America." Li, as Wong Fei-Hung, ventures to the American West to find a cousin in need of protection. He suffers amnesia after an attack and is adopted by a family of Native Americans. Director John Woo, an influence on Quentin Tarantino and a number of other filmmakers in this country, has always said his favorite film is "Bullet in the Head," an intensely personal work set in Vietnam in 1967. "God of Cookery" mixes the culinary arts with the martial arts for comedic results. The festival runs Tuesday through Saturday.

Call il A vv. 4x J. l- i DOUG WOLENS' "WEED" depicts the goings-on at the eighth annual Cannabis cup in Amsterdam. Documentary Weed' takes lighthearted look at marijuana subculture of '90s iHilHi Researcher takes Air Force to task UFO researcherauthor Stanton Friedman is one of the grand old men in the field, and whether you agree with him or not, his talks are always entertaining and informative. Friedman's research in the 70s was one of the main reasons the case of the alleged crash of an alien ship at Roswell came to light.

"Flying Saucers Are Real" is the topic of his lecture at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Radisson, 1-40 and Carlisle NE. He'll challenge the Air Force to come clean on the Roswell cover-up. Tickets are $1 0 at the door. He'll also make an appearance at the UFO Lab in Old Town this week, where his books and videos are for sale.

Call 247-8535. Songwriter sings from experience Singersongwriter Randy Granger has plenty of reasons to support Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He was nearly killed in an automobile accident by a drunken truck driver. He has had to deal with drunks during his stage shows. He has seen the damage done by alcohol and drugs during stints working at substance abuse treatment centers.

Fortunately, none of that has stopped his musical career. He'll appear Saturday at 7 p.m. at the University of New Mexico Continuing Education center in a benefit concert for MADD, His press material describes his music as "personal songs of love, life and loss (that) draw upon jazz and modern-rock styles." Tickets for the show are 1 0 in advance, 1 2 at the door. Cal I 268-1242. Action, humor fill big-name films We've certainly had our fill of living legends come through Albuquerque the last few weeks Johnny Cash, Prince, the Rolling Stones to name a few.

The Southwest Film Center a UNM is importing a few rrjorp on celluloid next week when it Rolling Stones massive concert stage. Nope, it's simply a celebration of one of this state's many natural wonders, in this case, the return of thousands of migratory birds, including snow geese, sandhill cranes and whooping cranes to the Bosque del Apache National Wildljfe Refuge, near Socorro. From Thursday through Monday, you can not only photograph birds to your heart's delight, but partake of about 90 activities centered around the event. There will be slide presentations, lectures, a fashion show and plenty of kids activities. For information contact the Socorro Chamber of Commerce at 505-835-0424.

Comedy centers on nutty women The play "Lovey Shoots the Winter Birds" is not going to conjure up Henrik Ibsen any time soon. This daffy black comedy, set in the Sweet Jesus Recreational Park in Florida, centers on three nutty, dysfunctional women who must contend with huckster preachers, alcoholic husbands, dead-end jobs and brain tumors. It's playwright Lisa Railback's New Mexico debut and is presented by the UNM Department of Theatre and Dance. It runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Experimental Theatre. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.

and Tickets are $6 general admission, with discounts for seniors, children and UNM students, staff and faculty. mm Program features plenty of events Well, it's no Jerry Lewis telethon, but Saturday's benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy' Association should be a blast. It will feature food, dancing, a live band, a contest for the best '50s outfit and an auction. Money raised goes for the local chapter of MDA to buy or repair medical equipment and sponsor the annual MDA summer camp in Socorro. Tickets are $40 per couple, $25 per person at the all starts at 7:30 p.m.

at the Albuquerque Convention. Center "Weed" and "Pressure Drop" WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday; 1 1 :30 p.m. Nov. 14 and 15 WHERE: Plan (formerly the Center for Contemporary Arts,) 1 050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe HOW MUCH: $6 adults, $4 for members, seniors and students.

Concerts showcase Robert Mirabal With a whole new generation of Native American musicians melding traditional music with modern rock, the novelty has begun to wear off. Now it's a simple question of talent, and Taos Pueblo's Robert Mirabal overflows with it. Mirabal's self-titled latest effort has received rave reviews from the music press for his seamless mix of Native drumming and chanting with rock stylings. Mirabal transcends the kind of politically correct, academic take on world beat music so typical these days, to produce a gutsy, spiritual, powerful and yes rockin' album full of hope, love, promise, grief and sadness. Mirabal performs tonight at the Institute for American Indian Arts, time to be announced.

Saturday at 8 p.m., he'll play El Rey in a benefit for KUNM radio. Tickets for the show at El Rey are $16.75 through Ticketmaster. Sorry, nobody under 21 Socorro puts on the dog for cranes The Festival of the. Cranes sounds suspiciously like it has something to do with the equipment required to set up the By Anthony Della flora JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Any similarity between an Amsterdam "coffeehouse" and a Starbucks is purely coincidental. Likewise, Doug Wolens' new film "Weed" bears almost no resemblance to the classic "Reefer Madness," except in its subject matter marijuana.

Where "Reefer Madness" was an overwrought, lurid warning to youth about the dangers of marijuana smoking, "Weed" is a laid-back, often amusing look at the subculture of "bud freaks" and hemp advocates in the '90s. Wolens shot the documentary in many of Amsterdam's hundreds of coffee shops, where pot and hashish, not caffeine, are the drugs of choice among patrons who buy it over the counter. He focused his lens on a large contingent of Americans attending the eighth annual Cannabis Cup and Hemp Expo in 1995. "I went with the idea of shooting a film about how pot breaks down social barriers," said Wolens in a recent telephone interview. "When my wife and I were there the year before, I saw this guy from New York, probably really, really gay guy sitting at a table with this guy from Oklahoma, probably really, really straight Normally, these two guys would not be sitting together talking, but for the fact that they were in Amsterdam at the pot event" Wolen's admits i bje did not get the; vU thoughtfuf commentary he was looking for from the coffeehouse habitues.

"They were all really candid, but they weren't deep," Wolens said, however, that after he returned to the United States and began editing his film, he realized that he had more than he thought "Weed" has played at several film festivals here and abroad. Wolens said he resisted taking cheap shots at the subjects of his film. "It would have been so easy to make my film just mocking these people, because most of the footage that I didn't use, they were really stupid, really stoned and saying dumb things, things that didn't make sense. I could have had a great time and everyone would have been in the aisles laughing," Wolens explained. "But thafs not what I'm about" he said.

"As a documentarian, I tried to just show it and elicit the information i for you to decided-.