Oregon Daily Emerald
PULSE
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Ryan Nyburg
Budget rack
Eugene's
rockers
superior
to most
Most people don't seem to realize this,
but Eugene has a pretty good music scene.
By nature, I'm land of a shut-in, so I don't
see a lot of the local concerts, but I have a
nice gig on the local campus radio station
that allows me to sift through all the cool
local demos, singles, EPs and LPs that
pour in. With this as a background, 1
thought I'd use this column to go over
some of the best local music.
• The Courtesy Clerks: This is the
whoop-ass hard rock outfit that caught my
eye when I first got into Eugene. Ihey play
cool, funny metal numbers with lots of
bravado and panache: "Saving Rock &
Roll, one mullet at a time," their press re
leases state. They have a couple of full
length albums out, at least one of which is
available for sale at House of Records.
With songs like "Rock and Roll Records"
and "Jimmy Sold His Soul," the Clerks is
one of my favorite local bands.
• The Danged: Further proof that the
1950s were the best decade for rock 'n'
roll. The Danged play a cool mix of rocka
billy and hard rock that will make any
body with any semblance of soul want to
shake their groove thing. Any band that
covers both Chuck Berry and Primus is
fine by me.
• Bloody Castles Ragtime Band: Blues,
ragtime, country and a style reminiscent of
Tom Waits all combine to make a cool lit
tle old-time outfit. Plus they utilize a mu
sical saw. Very nice.
• Hello Lobster: Funny, bizarre and nice
to dance to. They write songs with titles
like "Jerry Likes NASCAR" and "Missile
Command." They don't take themselves
too seriously and, best of all, make fun of
Creed. Great fun.
• The Sawyer Family: How perfect is this
band for someone who loves horror
movies? They play a vicious form of rocka
billy and sing about vampires, zombies,
devils and murderers. Their name is even a
reference to "The Texas Chainsaw Mas
sacre." And to top it off, the guitar work is
superb. They also have a full length album
available at House of Records.
• The Big Venus: Pure rock 'n' roll just
like they made it back in the day. This is
one of the few locals I've actually both
ered to go see live, if that tells you any
thing. They had one big local hit, "Rock
& Roll Resurrection," a song of such
garage rock brilliance as to deserve a
place on a "Nuggets" compilation. 1
hope they're working up some new ma
terial for the future.
• The Rock & Roll Soldiers: I've seen
these boys live as well, and thank the
Lord for that. The music is so energetic
and powerful that I'm sure they could
build a giant fan base just using live per
formances, and their limited output of
recorded work is hardly able to contain
the music. So damn cool. Along with the
Turn to Nyburg, page 6
EXQUISITE EXHIBITS
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I
!| University
1 students
Laurie Watts
1 (left) and
I Grant
Williams
discuss
drawings by
Clint Brown
during a class
visit to the
Jacobs
Gallery.
Jessica Waters
Emerald
STATE OF THE ART
Eugene’s art scene is alive and well, with
galleries showcasing local and international
work alike throughout summer months
By Ryan Nyburg
Freelance Reporter
While there might be more intense enter
tainment experiences, a quiet art gallery can
still offer a great deal of pleasure. 1 lere are a
few of the showings going on around town
for the artistically inclined to enjoy during the
waning days of summer.
The Jacobs Gallery is holding an exhibit of
drawings by Clint Brown entitled "Figurative
Humanist." The charcoal drawings use the
human figure to express personal or social
concerns. The exhibit incorporates three dif
ferent series created by Brown during the past
decade, including "The Plague Drawings," a
response to the AIDS epidemic. The Brown
exhibit will run through Sept. 6.
Jacobs will also host the Mayor's Art Show,
which will run Sept. 18 to Oct. 23. I’he exhib
it will feature artwork by Lane County artists
and will accept entries on Sept. 8 front 11 a.m.
to 6 p.nt. The Jacobs Gallery sits below the
1 lult Center for the Performing Arts.
The White Lotus Gallery, which specializes
in 20th century Asian art and currently boasts
one of the largest collections of contemporary
Chinese prints in the United States, is show
ing works from its standing collection. While
the gallery has a large collection of prints, its
emphasis is on originals. The White Lotus
Gallery is located at 767 Willamette St.
Lor those looking for art that could never
be described as fine, there is the Museum of
Unfine Art & Record Store. Run by Shawn Me
diadast, the museum has featured more than
a hundred local artists since its January 2002
opening. Ihe gallery is displaying works by lo
cal artist Melissa Emerson, including paint
ings, photos and even figurines made from
utensils. The museum is located at 537
Willamette St., across from the post office.
Cafe Paradiso, located at 115 W. Broadway,
is showing works by late local artist Raymond
Raymond. The cafe rotates its art monthly.
The University offers options for art pa
trons, too. The Adell McMillan Gallery is ex
hibiting a collection of photo collages by
Mary Daniel 1 lobson entitled "Mapping the
1 luman Body." Ihe exhibit will mn until Sept.
1. After Sept. 3 the gallery will be showing
works by Mike Van and Frank Gosar. Ihat ex
hibit will run through Sept. 24.
The Aperture Photo Gallery is showing
works by Jade Bunker, a show that will run
though Aug. 30 and will be followed by an ex
hibit of works by Jon Myskens, which will mn
Turn to Art, page 6
'SPUN' explores subterranean druq world
By Steven Neuman
Freelance Reporter
A trip unto itself, "SPUN" is a movie
that makes "A Clockwork Orange"
look like Saturday morning cartoons.
This dawns on the audience
sometime after the main character
leaves a girl handcuffed to his bed
— naked, gagged and blindfolded
with duct tape
Movie
review
listening to
a skipping
CD, and inad
vertently
keeps her
there for at least a day. Add that to
graphic nudity, sex, explicit drug
use, physical violence and you have
"SPUN."
The film follows college dropout
and all-around loser Ross (Jason
Schwartzman), who, in exchange for
speed, contracts himself and his
beat-up Volvo into the service of a
motel room methamphetamine
manufacturer known only as "The
Cook" (Mickey Rourke). Along the
way, "SPUN" introduces the audi
ence to an ensemble cast of scummy
meth users and dealers whose stories
eventually intertwine with horrifying
predictability. As the movie progress
es, Ross falls in love with The Cook's
girlfriend, Nikki (Brittany Murphy),
and the whole world goes to hell.
The characters are replete with the
obligatory rotten teeth, pasty com
plexions and bowel issues one should
expect in a drug flick about speed
(Mena Suvari makes a memorable ap
pearance as a junkie struggling on a
toilet with the constipating effects of
meth), but most characters fail to por
tray any real depth.
The collapse of character develop
ment is lifted by some brilliant acting
by Rourke, who plays The Cook as a
cross between General Patton and
good-old-boy white trash; John
Leguizamo, who portrays the inade
quate dealer Spider Mike with a kind
of dark comedic streak; and Schwartz
man, who captures the denial and
softness of his character while still
making Ross' mean streak plausible.
Although some characters lack
depth, the blame rests on a weak
script and equally inadequate narra
tive that introduces too many char
acters without designating much im
portance to any of them. This trend
of seemingly involuntary and extra
neous action and dialogue is fos
tered by director Jonas Ackerlund's
willingness to overwhelm the audi
ence with cuts and editing. The style
was obviously meant to convey the
sensory overload of taking speed —
the problem is that all the self-con
scious technique gets old very fast.
Ackerlund has been known for his
innovative music videos, like Prodi
gy's controversial "Smack My Bitch
Up," and I was looking forward to
seeing him explore a longer format —
making the jump from the small
screen to the big like Spike Jonze (Be
ing John Malkovich, Adaptation) —
but somehow Ackerlund missed the
boat. In this case the frantic editing
that Ackerlund often employs, with
breathtaking results in a three minute
video clip, detracts from the scant plot
of SPUN, and becomes tiresome after
the third time he shows an actor's
pupils contracting.
Ackerlund does his best to salvage
a sloppy story line, and some of the
best scenes utilize classic visual hu
mor, like the mock-cop show that
Ackerlund develops into a sort of
slapstick "Starsky and 1 lutch."
Furthermore, the grime and real
ity of the setting of the movie
seems a little too realistic. Take out
the sunshine and the palm trees,
and you have something that bears
a good resemblance to parts of Eu
gene and Springfield, which is not
surprised considering the connec
tion between "SPUN" and our own
fair hamlet of Eugene.
Although both screenwriters,
Will De Los Santos and Creighton
Vero, are from the area, the movie
was not shot in Eugene, as was pre
viously rumored. Rather, it was cre
ated in various seedy locations in
downtown Los Angeles and the San
Fernando Valley.
In 1996, Vero, a graduate of the Uni
versity, was working on a documentary
about Eugene methamphetamine
Turn to SPUN, page 6