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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1997)
The Clackamas Print Wednesday, January 15,1997 A&E : Crichton takes off iwith his newest novel ikis reveals alter Cindy Hines Kurfman Copy Editor History Instructor Joe Uris prefers to keep his performance life separate from his teaching career, but posters along Hawthorne ad vertising his appearance at Cafe Lena’s last Saturday were hard to miss: next to the words “JOE URIS” was a photo of his “friend from the S&M community” seduc tively posed in a scanty black leather costume and holding a whip. Actually, only the first part of the evening could be described as a performance. The rest of his two one-hour sets were uncannily similar to his history lectures, ex cept with the addition of a “Wheel o’ Topics.” The Oregonian also advertised the event, describing Uris as an “aging” radical who promised to do everything except disrobe. However, most of the evening consisted of an audience- initiated monologue. Uris, wearing a red tie, dark shirt and light blue jacket, began his first set in the small, but packed Cafe Lena’s by portraying a Bible-thumping, southern preacher. He was not satisfied until he had the audience of about 50 people shouting “Hallelujah.” Then he performed the only strip ping of the evening: he removed the tie and jacket and continued the rest of the night as his regular, rumpled self. The southern accent was harder for him to remove. The next event was the “Wheel o’ Topics.” The audience wrote topics they wanted Uris to talk about on scraps of paper Asia and the carrier is unwilling to set up ah interview. As Singleton digs deeper she • During a time when we are M constantly bombarded stories of finds company officials misdirect • airplane crashes — TWA flight ing investigators. A major sale of • 800 being the most covered — re- planes of the same make is under • nowned Author Michael negotiation and no one seems to want the truth behind the accident. • Crichton brings us Airframe. • Airframe, out in haidcover, The discouragement peeks as • gives the leader ins ght into the Singleton is chased through a han • world of aeronaut es When* gar by a strange man intent on vio • flight TPA 545 encounters “se- lence. ; In the tradition of Rising Sun , vere turbulence” in flight, killing • three passengers and injuring and Disclosure, Airframe is a solid • others, Casey Singleton deads a mystery that you can not put Photo by Cindy Hines Kurfman • team of investigators in search down until you finish. Crichton As his daughter Elisa assists, History Instructor Joe Uris • of the real cause of the accident. continuesito give us an insight amuses the crowd at Cafe Lena’s with his off-beat humor. • Singleton, the newly ap- into the politics of big business • pointed vice-president of Qual- wKile providing an interesting and metaphor. ” ' He said students to which were then collected and • ity Control for the maker of the captiWiing story. day want to “get in and get out.” placed around the wheel by Uris’ As with Disclosure this book • airplane, becomes suspicious The poster tie-in was the sub daughter, Elisa. • that more is involved than is ap- is based on real events. Many Elisa, 25, portraying a volup ject of fetishes. Uris talked about • parent when a strange car begins facts offered in the book are con tuous Vanna White in a short, watching from across the street, • following her and watching her tradictory to how the news media along with his family, the raid on tight, low-cut purple satin evening • house. When she finds the com- represents accidents in the air. dress, spun the wheel. When the the X-Rated Cafe, a place infa • pany has hired guards to “pro- However, Crichton makes the story arrow stopped spinning, Joe mous for inviting people from the • tect” her from disgruntled union so real the reader is able to con audience to bare bottoms for spoke on the topic it pointed to. a members, her fears and suspi- sider the other side of the “story” spanking with a stalk of celery or The first selection was not seen by watchers of network • cions increase. transsexualism, which Uris con a feather. Uris suggested that , The investigation is stone television coverage. fused with tranvestism. Next was Douglas Squirrel, owner of the es Like Disclosure this book • walled from the start by parts tablishment, be nominated as the menopause. • manufacturers and the owner of seems to be written with the big next mayor of Portland. “I’m against it,” said Uris, • the plane, an Asian corporation screen in mind. Crichton fans and Uris ended the night with a spinning off into the right-to-die • who wishes to avoid taking the new readers alike should enjoy this discussion on hysteria and Sa issue. • blame for the accident. The book. Many of the topics had to do tanic Ritual Abuse, the only topic * plane’s crew suddenly returns to Grade:A with sex, death and/or leftist phi he requested not be reported in losophy. Uris’ own theme was The Print. People interested in hearing that “the powerful get to [take ad vantage] of the powerless” in our Uris can listen to KBOO’s Talk Radio program on Wednesday society. Even with unrelated topics from 7 to 9 p.m. Or sign up for his such as “community college stu U.S. History class next term — his dents in the 90s,” Uris managed lectures are as entertaining as his Designed by Jon Roberts performance at Cafe Lena’s. to tie in what he called a “sexual * Brendon Neal • • Sports Editor mrcst untcMn rokat uou. have ieiVtned.- Star Vfars returns in January Jon Roberts A&E Editor Many people have come up to me and asked me what I think will be. the biggest event of 1997. I tell them there is only one thing that will make this year a year to remember for the entertainment industry and that is the rerelease of “Star Wars.” Those same people would ask if that event would be the many sequels coming out this summer? Well, no. Even though I like the ideas of “Speed 2,” “Lost World,” “Aliens 4,” “Batman & Robin” and many other sequels too numerous to mention here, “Star Wars” is the event of the year. Is the biggest event of this year the many new albums from bands that seriously rock like U2, VanHalen, or Aerosmith? No. The biggest event of this coming year is the rerelease of the Ameri can cult classic “Star Wars.” In case you have been in locked away in a cave in the middle of North Dakota, the news of “Star Wars’” rerelease in theaters is old news. But what about the many new scenes and redone special ef fects? Do you know the redone version of “Star Wars” is cool? It is rad that it will be followed three weeks later by “The Empire Strikes Back” and then two weeks later by “The Return of the Jedi.” All three parts of the trilogy have been digitally remastered for cleaner pictures and digitally-en hanced soundtracks. Of the three movies, “Star Wars” has the most new scenes added, with almost 10 minutes of new scenes. George Lucas was never happy with most of the spe cial effects in “Star Wars” due to the lack of funds. (“Star Wars’” Star Wars returns to theaters In exactly 16 days. wart Star-Wars is tm & copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. 1997. budget was only $15 million.) Several of the many new scenes clean up the plot. One of the most talked about shots is the scene where Han Solo confronts Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine in hanger 94. This scene was shot way back in 1975 with a British ac tor standing in for Jabba, who was supposed to be matted in later. But, due to lack of funds, the scene was dropped from the final film. Now the scene returns with Jabba being a CGI (computer-gen erated image), just like the dinos from “Jurassic Park,” the T-1000 from “Terminator 2” and the frol icking tornados from “Twister.” In fact, all the new scenes and com puter effects have been done by the San Fransico based wizards at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic), the same people who handled the original “Star Wars” effects and the effects for many other movies like “Terminator 2,” “Jurassic Park,” “Lost World,” “Twister”, and “Mission: Impossible.” Lucas was not happy with his ground-breaking dogfights during the climax of the first movie, so he had ILM clean up the shots to make the scenes more clearer. One of the many shots reworked was the scene with the Rebel squad ron approaching the Deathstar. Lucas always wanted the starships fly past the camera and wanted more ships, not just the handful that attacked the Deathstar in the original. Neither of these effects were affordable, or the special effects were not ad vanced enough to do these shots. The whole dogfight was re shot and made clearer (see insert at right for an example of some redone shots). Well, now that you know a little about the new version of “Star Wars,” perhaps you will join me on Jan. 31 to see another page in American history unfold. Above: The new CGI scene o f the X-wings streaking toward the Death Star, Right: The original stop/go- motion scene. Above: The New CGI Jabba the Hutt scene from Star Wars, Below: The originalpre-CGI scene filmed in 1975 (notice the grainy appearance of the original scenes, this will be cleaned up in the remastered scenes).
