Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2000)
A&E TN e CI ac I íamas P rint _____________________ 7_ WedNEsdAy, J anuary 12, 2000 Tom Wakeling Trio shakes up Sharky's with jazz KARL KATZKE / Clackamas Print What’s really interesting is that Wakeling is not only a top-notch performer, having played in clubs, restaurants, and parties around the world, but he’s also a full-time teacher at Clackamas. Who would believe that someone can find time to grade papers, lead all of the student jazz bands, and work with the athletic department to run the Pep band? On top of that, Wakeling teaches the History of Music sequence, which includes his favorite, “History of Jazz.” Wakeling, like the other mem bers of the Trio, have played mu sic since they were in High School. Versace is a jazz instruc tor at the University of Oregon, and if you ridé the Tri-Met bus 54, on Beaverton-Hillsdale High way, you’ll probably recognize Thomas. “I work another job to make the rent,” said Thomas. The Trio’s been together in its current form for just a couple of years, but the members have been playing together for quite a bit longer than that. “I’ve played for fifteen years with Tom,” said Thomas. “We had a steady trio gig at the Riverplace Hotel for five and a half years with a different piano player. Wakeling regards Jazz as a chal lenge - that’s why he’s chosen to If you like jazz, then you missed play it exclusively. an excellent performance last “The music we played tonight week by one of Clackamas’ is a little far out... a little avant- coolest instructors, and inciden garde. One of the challenges is tally, also one of its’ best musi knowing the melody, and then cians. sliding away from it.” The Tom Wakeling Trio per Versace agrees. formed last Saturday, Jan. 8 at “The performances are a little Sharky’s, 355 N. State Street. different each night.” Even though the crowd for the 8- Wakeling’s favorite place to 11 p.m. performance was small, play is in Europe. Tom Wakeling on Bass, Willie “It’s nice [in America] when the Thomas on Drums, and Gary audiences are involved, but Versace on Piano played two sets sometimes they’re not. We play of some of Portland’s best local because we love to play. If we get jazz. to play for an audience that’s When you check out Tom there to listen, it’s like a bonus... Wakeling's next public perfor European audiences are probably mance, on Saturday, Feb. 12 at Ty the best.” phoon! in the Imperial Hotel on When he’s not performing over Broadway, I’d advise bringing an seas, one of Wakeling’s favorite old friend... maybe someone you places to play is at Sharky’s, in haven’t seen in a while... or, your Lake Oswego. favorite Valentine. It’s easy to let “It’s not smoky,” said the easy sounds of Versace’s pi Wakeling. ano and Wakeling’s bass guide Sharky’s is a family seafood res your conversation, and you’ll taurant right on Highway 43 in never miss the good parts - Lake Oswego that features live mu- Thomas’s drums will call your at sic six nights out of seven. While tention back to the stage just in it is a smidge on the pricey side for time. students, with dinner entrees rang ing from $9 to $30, the food is fresh and expertly prepared. The service is also some of the best I’ve found in the Willamette Valley - and that’s saying a lot. Sharky’s has live mu sic on every day but Sunday, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8- 11 p.m. on Saturdays. According to owner Patty Dallal, Sharky’s live music has gained a bit of a following among college students in the Lake Os wego area. “We get a lot of students from Marylhurst and Lewis and Clark... every once in a while, we’ll get a KARL KATZKE I Clackamas Print Clackamas or Reed student.” [Above] The Tom Wakeling Trio performs under a giant shark Any night the Tom Wakeling at Sharky's in Lake Oswego. [Left] Tom Wakeling, a music Trio’s there, the music’s definitely instructor at Clackamas, lays down a smooth bass line. worth it. KARLKATZKE Business Manager Cruise takes on unlikely role in three-hour Magnolia ANGIE DASCHEL A&E Editor Bursting onto the screen like a blast of fireworks, Magnolia un folds the outrageous, alarming story of a handful of seemingly unrelated Los Angeles dwellers, all teetering on the brink of huge life changes. Unfortunately, in spite of its color, electricity and spark, like any firework, Magno lia fizzles out in the end, leaving the viewer unsatisfied and full of disappointment. Magnolia is the three-hour creation of writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, the same twisted mind who brought Mark Wahlberg and his “13-inch friend” to the big screen in Boogie Nights. The premise is somewhat Pulp Fictiifn-ish in nature: there are about five plots that start out completely sepa rate from one another and end up irreversibly intertwined. This blending of plots and lives is the delight of the movie, as well as the quirkiness of the characters. Tom Cruise stars as Frank Mackey, the painfully arrogant creator of Seduce and Destroy, a program designed solely to help men get into a woman’s pants. This role is about as far away from Maverick as Cruise can get. Mackey is conniving, insincere and downright nasty in all facets of his life, and Cruise plays him surprisingly well. Jason Robards plays Mackey’s absent father Earl Par tridge, who is now dying of can cer. His caretaker Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Boogie Nights} spends most of the movie tracking down Mackey. As Phil stays at home and watches the old man die, Earl’s trophy wife Linda (Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights) rushes around town in a Prozac-induced frenzy, trying to tie up loose ends and come to terms with her feel ings for her husband. On the other end of town, a quiz show featuring an exploited child genius (Jeremy Blackman) and an alcoholic host (Philip Baker Hall) are enveloped in their own sepa rate dramas of cancer and child hood confusion. Meanwhile, bumbling police officer Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly, another Boogie Nights alum) answers a routine disturbance call and falls in love with cocaine-addicted Claudia, (Melora Walters) the daughter of the game show host. Sounds confusing, right? Magnolia plays like a party where you know absolutely no one, yet the stories and drinks and people and problems just keep coming at you, until you fi nally sort it all out and realize how everyone fits together. Once ev erything falls into place, the movie becomes an engrossing ride of talented actors and inter esting plot twists and turns. A standout performance is given by Robards, whose portrayal of the last hours of cancer is so con vincing that anyone who has ac tually been touched by that dis ease will be hit in the face with grief. Even though the beginning and middle of Magnolia are fantastic and show an inno vative style of filmmaking, the ending was a complete let down. Note to filmmakers: if you are going to make a Tom Cruise, left, confronts his dying father three-hour (Jason Robards) in Magnolia. movie (which seems to be a trend in Holly wood these days) take some time and make the ending count. This is the last impres sion that the audience will have of your movie, and if they leave the theater with a look of confusion on their faces and questions swirling around in their heads, that usually is not good for you. William H. Macy (middle) takes his Note to filmgoers: See Mag troubles to a barin Magnolia. nolia, but leave after the first two and a half-hours.
