OUR PICKS FOR THE WEEK
If you thought the January resolution to diet and lose weight is going well, give up now. Food and drink are some of the top attractions this weekend in Santa Fe. Start with Heritage Productions’ Santa Fe Foodie Classic, which kicks off with a 7 Deadly Sins Dinner at the Eldorado tonight, a Grand Tasting at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center on Saturday and a chef face-off Sunday at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. Get all the details at www. santafefoodieclassic.com.
Winterbrew is coming to the Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion 5-9 p.m. today with samples of suds to swallow from 18 New Mexico breweries. Tickets are $25, available from www.holdmyticket.com — if there are any left. This is a popular event.
And, my favorite — after all, it’s free — Axle Contemporary will be handing out free slices of birthday cake noon-4 p.m. Sunday at the New Mexico Museum of Art to celebrate Art’s Birthday. No, not some guy named Art, but the grand aesthetic Art, which some guy in France decided in 1963 to mark with a birthday on Jan. 17, which just happened to be his own. Call it ego mixed with a sense of humor.
RURAL ROOTS: Iris Dement has a twang that can soar from mournful to joyous in the songs she writes and sings in styles that touch on folk, church hymns, gospel and backwoods roots, covering ground from family history to Russian poets. Trackless Woods, her sixth studio album, was sparked by her encounter with the works of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. See what resulted when Dement takes the stage 7:30 p.m. today at the James A. Little Theater, 1060 Cerrillos Road. Tickets are $35-$49, available from www. brownpapertickets.com.
WINTER’S TALE: Get a start on Santa Fe’s Season of Shakespeare when the Upstart Crows, a troupe of youth actors, presents “The Winter’s Tale” at 7 p.m. Thursday, stretching through that weekend. The group doesn’t cut any corners — this will be a performance of the uncut, everyword-intact play written by the Bard. The show will be performed at the Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta, with a $5 entry fee. Some call it a comedy, some a romance, but rest assured that the play is full of the usual misunderstandings, jealousies, messages in dreams and disguises that we expect from the playwright.