Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1998)
4________________ A^Æ H ie CL ac I< amas P rìnt Wednesday, October 14, 1998 Bad acting and plot doesn't scare Disappointing Urban Legend less than legendary ANGIE DASCHEL Staff Writer “Scream 3: Nowhere Near As Good As The Original But We’ll Be Happy to Take Your Money Anyway.” That should have been the title for “Urban Leg-‘ end,” the newest contribution to the horror.genre’s ever-growing list of “Scream” clones. The film’s plot centers around a hooded figure who murders stu dents on a seemingly safe college campus by mimicing.different ur ban legends. One legend that is acted out (poorly) in this film is the rumor that mixing Pop Rocks and soda will make your stomach ex plode. Only, instead of soda, the killer uses drain cleaner. The cast is full of attractive young actors such as Alicia Witt (“Cybil”), Jared Leto (“My So- Called Life”) and Rebecca Gayheart (the Noxzema girl). But even though the stars are cute, the plot is interesting and the death scenes are good and bloody, the bad acting by all the characters, especially Witt, ruins the film. Horror movies have never been Oscar quality material, but if you watch closely, you can al most pinpoint the second that JEREMY STALLWOOD Feature Editor (Freddy Krueger.) A word to all horror movie writers who want to cash in on the success of “Scream”- the rea son that film was such a hit was that it made fun of cheesy teen horror flicks like “Urban Leg Witt has to poke herself in the eye to make the tears flow dur ing an emotional scene. Also, none of these people ever appear to go to class unless it is the course on urban legends taught by creepy Robert Englund end.” Try writing intelligent dia logue or hiring better actors. Teen horror fans aren’t stupid; they don’t care what you did last summer or where you were on Fri day the 13th or Halloween. They just want to be legitimately scared. Averill: writing is like crime -- it doesn't pay Continued from page 1 pattern through his head, creat ing a poem. Poetry, to Grabill, is an inte gration of the external and inter nal. External influences, the five senses, and internal influences, intuition, come together when poetry is written. Averill’s view is that “all art forms penetrate each other.” A poem can play off a painting, a melody can in spire a novel. Where does the inspiration come from for these two ac claimed writers? For Averill, she gives credit to the “freshness of student’s emotions.” Their be ginners’ eagerness keeps her go ing. Her poem, “The Flood,” which is in Beautiful Obstacles (Blue Light Press) was inspired by the misfortune of a student who lost her home to the flood of ’96. A parallel is drawn to an internal flood going on inside this person: “She watched mechanical cur rents of traffic, pushing in oppo site directions, as her father’s angry voice, flooded the black drain holes in the receiver— For get coming home, if you don’t do what I say— and rivers in her crested.” Another great influence in Averill’s life is the natural world. She loves the forest. WkM QuHMUAkip. Jtai. 3tí /Uoanta^i Now Available ! ! ! Student Loans Federally Insured More Advantages of Membership... ATM at Community Center Building No Minimum Balance on Checking No Monthly Fee • No Per Check Charge This is tlO just a Hallmark experience. Joy, anger, love; art is what is true. VISA Debit/Check Card Free 24 hour Computer & Phone Access Free Travelers Checks All Staff & Full-Time Students Are Eligible to Join Oregon City • 656-0671 270 Warner Milne Rd. Authors' Night delves into war Milwaukie • 653-7788 10400 SE Main St. Diane Averill Poetry Instructor One painting in particular by Emily Carr, a Canadian painter, captures the spirit of the forest exceptionally well. To Averill, forests have a spirit, and that spirit inspires. Inspiration for Grabill comes from a variety of sources. Read ing, hearing a jazz player, a lec ture, a play, or even a movie can lead to a poem. Something in side him reacts to art, he says, and in a series of mental adven tures, that idea will lead to some thing, which will lead to some thing else, which will lead to yet something else. The final result will be a poem: a poem inspired by something external, but taken internally and turned into a beau tiful “lyrical experience.” Averill suggests that everyone take a poetry class. Writing po etry, she explains, is another im portant experience of life. Whether life brings anger, joy, love, hate excitement or melan choly, poetry is “not just a Hall mark experience. Art is what is true.” Both Grabill and Averill have a similar technique for working with past material. Grabill has what he calls his “slush” where he trudges through to re-birth what once may not have worked. Averill has her “box.” She lays all her writing out on the floor and re-discovers what she has written. Sometimes a poem will break out from what has been written over a year prior. The final decision for the Or egon Book Award will be an nounced November 10. The aftermath of war has troubled many who have felt the shadow of Hitler, Stalin and the “invisible enemy” of the Cold War. Three Northwest authors will read from and discuss their books about the effects of war as Clackamas sponsors its fall term Authors’ Night on Wednesday, October 21 at 7 p.m. in the Gregory Forum at 7 p.m. The theme for the event, “War and its Fallout,” is free to the pub lic, although a donation of $2 to the Friends of the Library will be accepted. One of the featured authors will be Milena McGraw, a native of Czechoslovakia who lived during Stalin’s rule of Eastern Europe. She is the author of After Dunkirk, the story of an eighteen year old boy in England who joins the Royal Air Force during World War II. McGraw has received national attention for the book, which fo cuses on the war’s impact of the youth’s life. Also featured will be Marilyn Bowering, a Canadian author who wrote The Visible World. The book backtracks through the thirties, for ties, and fifties, detailing the im pact of World War II and the Ko rean War on a group of friends. Bowering is the author of six books of poetry and four novels, and is also a playwright. Finally, Tracy Daugherty will read from her book, What Falls Away. Daugherty is a former Or egon Book Award recipient. What Falls Away tells the story of a fam ily in Nevada whose entire town depends on the Cold War nuclear arms industry. When the Cold War ends, the town must deal with their economic dependencies. Each of these authors has de picted the aftermath of war in di verse ways. From a story of a boy battling in WWII, to the economic impact of a war that once was, Authors’ Night will cover a wide range of effects from the tragedy that is violent conflict. For additional information, con tact Allen Widerburg at 657-6958, ext. 2359. Q ua I íty C ontro L S tríp 80% G rey 80% G rey
