There's nothing to do in this town...

This is a phrase you'll undoubtedly hear around Albuquerque, and while this isn't exactly true, it's true enough. Albuquerque is of course either a Native American word meaning: I don't know; What do you want to do? or the name of some Duke from a long time ago. I prefer the former. Great places to go and do something seem to open and close in the blink of an eye, and all we really have to give us any warning is the Alibi.

Since 1992 the Alibi, which has a nice webpage too, has been the only source of information of what's going on to bother with. Sure, the local papers (The Albuquerque Journal and the Albuquerque Tribune) have movie listings, and a local section, but it loses to the Alibi in several regards. First the Alibi is free while newspapers cost money. Second, the Alibi has a complete club calendar. The Journal and the Tribune do not. Third, well...there's really just too many things to list here, so I'll summarize.

The Alibi has: ads for all the upcoming concerts, local news that actually interests people and relates to their lives, editorials from local crazy and some sane people, book reviews, a weird news from around the world feature, a lengthy community calendar for classes and seminars, a separate arts and lit calendar for galleries, readings and poetry events, food reviews, lengthy lists of local restaurants containing price and menu info, a food events calendar with all sorts of weird cooking classes and events, the best movie review section in town, what to watch on TV, a crossword, and the ever strange classified and personal ads. They also run Straight Dope a syndicated column by Cecil Adams, which is usually pretty good, run pub crawls, and have yearly surveys to find the best food, laundromat, cafe, posole, etc...

All in all it's more than you could really ask for in a free paper. Especially after you've seen our two local newspapers. Why do we have two? I don't think anyone really knows. the Trib has better comics, but the Journal is a better paper, that's all I know about it.

Ok, sure they have a few problems. Their music reviews are badly lacking. The crossword is a bit better in the University paper, but really it does pretty well. They capture, fairly well, I think, the local attitude. Here's Devin D. O'Leary's review of The Wedding Date, "They must have had to scrape an inch of dust off the script for this movie. It's pretty much the oldest, tiredest excuse for a romantic comedy you can imagine. Mixing up elements from My Best Friend's Wedding and Picture Perfect, the film has TV's Debra Messing ("Will and Grace") playing an insecure gal who hires a handsome male escort...Why this didn't premiere on Lifetime Network is beyond me." He's got a sarcastic streak, but let's face it most movies suck anyway.

So there it is. The thing I like about Albuquerque this week. The Alibi. An excellent local paper, alas with a miserable music section, helping to answer the question, "I don't know; what do you want to do?" I'll end with my absolute favorite Alibi moment.

They do an annual "Best of Burque" poll, which finds the best businesses in town in a wide variety of categories. Under "Best Deli" one year was the comment that Subway was not a deli, and that, in the future, if anyone were to vote for Subway as the best deli, not only would their vote not be counted, but their entire ballot would be tossed as a matter of principle. You've got to love that.