Many people who grew up in the 1980s still look back fondly on the decade’s cultural moment: big hair and shoulder pads, iconic movies, and a spectrum of music from punk to hard rock that molded a generation. Standing the test of time, the ‘80s rock ‘n’ roll genre is one that still can trigger a memory for anyone who was around for its inception.

In Albuquerque, ‘80s rock ‘n’ roll is still alive and well, thanks to local rock band Tommy Trash & The Alley Cats, who blast out ‘80s nostalgia before enthused crowds. Forming in January of 2017, group leader Tommy “Trash” Vigil first recruited his bandmates to play some old AC/DC hits.

The lineup now includes Tommy Vigil on lead guitar, Eddie Bortot on lead vocals, Kevin White on bass guitar, and Clay Trujillo as their drummer. Both Vigil and Bortot have roots in Gallup, but now call Duke City their home. The band is headed to Gallup March 10, to play during downtown’s ArtsCrawl.

The Sun interviewed vocalist Bortot to find out more about the band, and why the ‘80s have a such a big influence on their sound.

Sun: Hey Eddie, thanks for taking the time out to do this, I really appreciate it.

Bortot: Oh no problem. Glad to do it, Tommy of course you know is under the weather so he told me about it, so glad to do it.

Sun: Cool. Tell me, how did you guys come up with the name?

Bortot: Well, it’s Tommy’s band and he basically recruited everybody in the band. We had all played in different bands before. He invited us one day to jam some old Bon Scott tunes you know from the earlier AC/DC days. We all live in Albuquerque currently but Tommy and I are originally from Gallup, so we already knew each other. He asked what should we call the band; pretty much we all gave our input and we said, “hey it’s your band so why not after you,” and that’s how we came up with the name. We then acquired a gig and started playing in January 2017, and pretty much just playing in New Mexico. Pretty much the “bread and butter” is playing AC/DC songs.

Sun: I’ll be honest with you, now when I first saw you guys on YouTube you guys didn’t look like a rock ‘n’ roll band, if all else perhaps a band that played Santana and music along that genre. Is that the same reaction you get when people hear you the first time?

Bortot: Well, it depends on the venue where we’re playing. We do have a small following. We have a “Blues Brothers” image you know from the movie, and when we do play our ‘80s music they begin to like us even more. We want to keep the ‘80s alive with our music.

Sun: I was blown away that you guys play a lot of cover songs that some bands don’t, like Saxxon, The Cult, and Krokus. I mean you just don’t do the ordinary, but I also noticed you do cuts from bands like, Ratt, Van Halen, Scorpioins, Black Sabbath, Dio, Iron Maiden, and of course AC/DC. You guys are definitely ‘80s metal heads.

Bortot: I don’t know how we got into it, we just started singing them and at first we had a playlist but over the course we started doing other songs. Some of these songs are hard to sing and put a lot of strain on my voice. Tommy and Kevin have been very supportive and told me to not give up, so they kept pushing me. So, 80’s metal is pretty much what we do, a lot of Bon Scott and Brian Johnson songs from earlier AC/DC stuff, we try to do the AC/DC stuff later on in the set because it does put a strain on my voice. But the core is mostly from the ‘80s; we focus on this genre and pretty much stick to it.

But you never know what we are going to play. We have people asking ‘are you going to play this song or that.’ We have over 50 songs. We sometimes may play something different. Just like I said, it depends on the venue.

Sun: That is way cool! I always like to ask this question because each answer is unique and there’s a reason behind it. How did you get into music and who were your biggest influences?

Bortot: My mom is my biggest influence, she would come home and bring these vinyls with the scariest album covers on them [laughing]. She bought me my first KISS albums, I grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and AC/DC. I listened to AC/DC and my mom bought me the albums. I favor Bon Scott over Brian Johnson. I was hooked into the ‘80s metal.

Sun: Have you personally had the privilege of meeting any of these bands that you play?

Bortot: I’ve seen AC/DC twice and recently seen Iron Maiden. I’ve been to a lot of concerts here in Albuquerque, I’ve seen Danzig and different types of genres. It’s awesome to see these types of things. But as for face to face, I haven’t had that chance yet.

Sun: If you weren’t doing this what would be your second dream?

Bortot: I have no idea, when I lived in Gallup I did mixed martial arts, that was kind of my first dream and when this opportunity came I took advantage of it. At first it didn’t almost happen because of a death in my family but luckily the opportunity came again.

Sun: If you had a chance to hang out with one of your favorite musicians, who would it be and why?

Bortot: I would have to say Ace Frehley of KISS, he’s been my childhood hero and I can identify with him more than any of the other members.

Sun: When you told me this earlier I couldn’t believe it but right now you are working in Albuquerque as a principal at Kennedy Middle School. I thought that was so cool to have a heavy metal principal  and I have to give you props for what you’re doing.

Bortot: Thank you, yes I love what I am doing and it’s funny when the kids come up to me and tell me, “Mr. Bortot I saw you on YouTube singing away to AC/DC.” They do freak out when they see me on there. I tell them it’s never too late to follow your dream, to believe in yourself and follow your passion.

Sun: That is so way cool! I wish I could chat with more but I know you have a busy schedule. But you guys will be here in Gallup performing in front of Quintana’s Music and Native Indian Jewelry on Saturday, March 10 right?

Bortot: Yes, that’s correct, we’ll be jamming March 10 in front of Quintana’s. We would like to thank Ryan and Rhonda Quintana for bringing us back to Gallup. We love it and always a good time. We are looking forward to play in our hometown and seeing old friends.

For more information on Tommy Trash & The Alley Cats visit Facebook: Tommy Trash & The Alley Cats.

By Dee Velasco

For the Sun

Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 140 minutes

Maybe I’m getting old. Or perhaps I’m just in a grouchy mood this week. Ready Player One is a fantasy film and homage to the 1980s that should have been tailor made for me. It even comes from director Steven Spielberg, the man who made many of the films that helped me foster a love for cinema. Yet in this particular film, the overall effect is a little flat. The movie certainly has its share of entertaining sequences, but it feels like an obvious attempt to curry nostalgia at the expense of delivering a strong message about its subject matter.

Set in a dystopian future, the story follows teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan). His normal life is certainly depressing, living with his aunt in a community of stacked trailers and taking refuge in a massive virtual reality universe known as the OASIS. Taking the online persona of Percival, Wade sets out to solve a mystery. Upon his death, OASIS creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance) set up a series of clues and challenges leading to a trio of hidden keys. Whoever completes the mission will be rewarded beyond their wildest imagination. The hero teams with online friends like Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) to collect the keys, but they find themselves pursued by the IOI corporation and its sinister head Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who wants control of OASIS.

Early sections of the film feature a lot of action and techno-babble within the OASIS as the online avatars are introduced. Of course, many of the background characters have the appearance of pop culture characters from movies, television and video games. Beyond simply recognizing them (they are often accompanied with exposition from the leads about who they are), there isn’t much more to the experience for audiences. The heroic avatars like Percival aren’t photorealistic, which also initially takes one out of the experience.

Of course, after all of the set-up, things do improve and there are a couple of enjoyable sequences. This director is a master of shooting action and the later scenes are very well handled. The movie’s best moment involves a trip inside the Overlook Hotel from the 1980 film, The Shining, as the heroes enter the establishment to hunt down a key. Clearly, Spielberg is feeding on his own nostalgia for the Kubrick film and his enthusiasm here is infectious. The bit isn’t scary at all, but features impressive visual trickery and humor as the leads experience some of the film’s iconic moments first-hand. And the climax is appropriately epic as factions come to battle at the site of the final key.

However, for this reviewer the online sequences don’t feel as exciting as they should. We are always well aware as viewers that we’re watching avatars in a video game and as such it doesn’t seem as life-threatening if their fake personas are wiped out. The story does attempt to add some real world drama in the second half of the feature as Sorrento sets out to hurt the real life players. These bits do play better, but in general many scenes lack a much needed element of danger.

And the movie itself doesn’t seem to want to say a whole lot about the potential issues at hand. The world is in a shabby state and the OASIS is an escape, but these kids don’t have much on their minds besides preserving their online personas. And the screenplay doesn’t want to deal directly with these themes. There’s a lot that could be addressed here about escapism, addiction and its effects on the world, but the movie is more interested in trotting out pop culture references.

Indeed, there are a couple of awkward comments like, “Reality is real,” but that’s as overtly philosophic as things get. There’s a moment late in the movie where a character has the option of wiping out the entire online universe... and no one in the room even considers it for a moment. After all is said and done, the solution is presented in an upbeat manner, even though it hardly seems like an improvement. Some might perceive this as commentary and I may be misreading it, but I honestly don’t think the intent was to critique the actions and decisions of its heroic characters.

So in the end, this reviewer found the movie technically impressive and enjoyed some fun bits and pieces here and there. Yet, the effect of Ready Player One is a bit hollow and ultimately less than the sum of its parts. Like watching a friend play a video game for two and a half hours, the overall experience just isn’t as enthralling as hoped for.

Visit: CinemaStance.com

By Glenn Kay
For the Sun

GMCS staff participate in safety training before school starts

When parents send their children off to school, they expect things to run smoothly during the day and for nothing bad to happen. But if something does happen, schools need to be prepared and know what to do, no matter the situation, whether it’s a fire, flood, tornado, or even an active shooter.

That’s where the iloveyouguys Foundation steps in.

The iloveyouguys Foundation was started by Ellen Stoddard-Keyes and her husband Michael Keyes after their daughter Emily died in a school shooting at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado. Emily was 16 years old, and the last two texts she sent on her brand-new cell phone were to her parents. They both said, “ I love you guys.”

In an interview with the Sun, Stoddard-Keyes explained that she wanted to start the foundation after she questioned the safety practices of her childrens’ school. She said she was asking questions before the shooting even happened.

“I had said, ‘You have these big binders of all these safety things, and when you have a sub come or when something happens, how are teachers expected to look through this binder when they’re amped up a little bit? So putting all these complex responses in a binder did not seem like a good idea,” Stoddard-Keyes explained. “So after the incident my husband and I talked through it and found a couple of programs around the country that were doing the action-based responses rather than trying to figure out each hazard and your responses.”

The foundation provides standard response protocol and standard reunification method training for schools. These trainings teach school staff what to do in an emergency, and how to smoothly reunite parents with their children.

How a school district responds to a crisis, no matter what it is, is very important. The iloveyouguys foundation uses five key strategies in their standard response protocol: hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, and shelter. Stoddard-Keyes noted that at least one of these tools can and should be used in an emergency.

“If they practice the four actions and something unexpected happens, they’re going to find that one of those actions is going to be a good response to whatever that event is,” Stoddard-Keyes said. “Even if what unforeseen and unplanned for, because guess what, those happen.”

Besides the standard response protocol, Stoddard-Keyes also stressed the importance of an easy reunification process.

“It’s important because when a reunification is not planned and done correctly, it really increases the level of trauma; even in a non-traumatic situation it can make it traumatic, because as soon as the school day is interrupted, parents get concerned,” Stoddard-Keyes explained. “Especially in the big incidents where it effects the whole community, a well-done reunification is the beginning of the healing process.”

The iloveyouguys Foundation came to the Gallup-McKinley County Schools district for a two-day training session July 27 and 28, with the second day including a full scenario walk-through where the staff was broken up into three groups: parents, students, and the reunification team.

Each staff member got a chance to see the training through each role.

Lincoln Elementary Principal Kelley Fitzmaurice attended the training for a second time this year. He said he was grateful for the opportunity.

“It’s an extremely valuable program, and I’m glad that principals did have the opportunity to attend again this year because obviously school safety is something that is super important and kind of at the forefront of everybody’s mind,” Fitzmaurice said. “The program that the iloveyouguys Foundation has put together makes everything very very clear cut and easy to commhnicate. … It’s something that we can share with our families and students in a very easy to understand way.”

By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor

Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 111 minutes

The original Pacific Rim arrived as a modern take on Japanese monster movies, placing humans in giant robots called Jaegers and forcing them to combat an invasion of enormous Kaiju creatures from an inter-dimensional portal. It may not have been to everyone’s taste, but this reviewer enjoyed the eccentric imagination and visual inventiveness of filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) run wild across the screen. This week sees the release of Pacific Rim: Uprising, a follow-up that features different people behind the camera, as well as a mostly new team onscreen.

Set 10 years after the previous installment, the inter-dimensional portal that allowed the monsters entry has been closed. Many Jaegers have been decommissioned and the planet has begun to rebuild. The story follows Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), son of one of the deceased heroes from the previous installment, who is roped into training a new group of young recruits; most notably, a young girl named Amara Namani (Cailee Spaeny) who appears to be better equipped at building robots than most of the military experts on hand. As the pair comes to grips with their new positions, the Shao Corporation arrives, promoting their new drone robots, which they claim will protect the planet far more efficiently. Soon a new threat arrives, forcing the green recruits to suit up.

While the rating, PG-13, may be the same as the first movie, this installment seems concocted to appeal primarily to kids. The overall themes of discordant persons finding a way to become a team and work together are still present, but these characters are far less developed and are presented in a blunt and obvious manner. It doesn’t help that the protagonists are primarily teenagers this time out. As viewers, we all know that the exaggerated events are outrageous, but adding youngsters as the heroes makes the onscreen events seem all the more preposterous.

The first two thirds of the film deal primarily with the Jaegers clanking and beating on each other. In fact, the big alien monsters and the grand, sinister plot doesn’t even come to fruition until the very final act. The largely CGI action scenes themselves are reasonably well handled, but there’s nothing onscreen that tops the original. And since the characters aren’t as well drawn or interesting, the battles themselves don’t appear nearly as tense or thrilling.

Boyega comes off best and tries to add a bit of levity to some of the stiff and awkward exposition. The screenplay reunites the bickering scientists played by Charlie Day and Burn Gorman. They also attempt to liven things up (although one of them is directed to go far too over-the-top with the performance). Still, the movie takes its sweet time getting into gear and instead focuses on its corporate espionage subplot. The dialogue is particularly clunky as the youngsters either butt heads or attempt to explain the technology and plot details.

Overall, there’s a general tameness to the proceedings. This sequel feels like it was constructed by a group of studio heads attempting to evolve the franchise into something accessible to a wider variety of viewers. Sadly, the approach instead results in a bland final product. In fact, at times this reviewer couldn’t help but feel like he was watching an elaborate episode of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The original film’s weird eccentricities actually helped it stand out, but Pacific Rim: Uprising ultimately comes across as an ordinary and unnecessary follow-up.

Visit: CinemaStance.com

By Glenn Kay

For the Sun