[Clackamas Print
TO®
Jeff Sorensen
j|| The Clackamas Print
I Question: What do airplanes,
■grandma’s house, math class, bus
I rides, road trips, the Star Wars line
■and detention all have in com-
I mon? There’s only one way to
■survive: hand-held games.
I It seems like the hand-held
■gaming market is picking up
■steam these days, and now that
I the hottest gaming gadgets are
■here, the days of bogarting the
I family TV may be nearing their
■aid.
¡I But gaming on the go wasn’t
I always so easy, and if Sony and
I Nintendo want to make good on
■their new pint-sized platforms, it’s
I important they remember where
■hand-held games came from.
■Maybe I’m getting a bit nostal-
I gic. but here’s a rundown of the
■portable games that helped me
I escape my early years.
I The first game I took on the
■road was my LCD version of
I the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I game. The year was 1992, and
I my parents insisted that it’d be
I tun to drive die family van down
Ito Disneyland to visit Grandma
I and Grandpa. Since it was a two-
I day trip just to get there, I brought
I along my only hand-held device
I at the time. The object of the
■game was to save April O’Neil
land kill the bad ninjas.
I An average game lasted any-
I where from two to five whole
I minutes, and yet it never seemed
Ito get old When driving through
I Northern California farm country
■and the radio stops working, die
I only comfort was in that little
I LCD screen and my eight-pack of
IAA batteries... an eight-pack that
Basted the entire week-long trip.
I Now, I don’t know what hap-
I pened to me in high school, but
■math class started to bore me to
■death. My teachers felt that rep
etition was the only way to learn,
I which means once I developed
I the concept they were trying to
[push on us that week, I still had to
loll most of Tuesday and then the
I rest of the week before we could
I move on to something new.
I If I’d ever owned a Game-
I Boy, I might have been able to
lose myself to Tetris in 1989,
[when Nintendo released it to the
«American masses. My mother,
I unfortunately, felt video games
I were detrimental to my health,
I citing my addiction to my Sega
I Genesis as an example (but I
I could have stopped if I wanted).
I So when I discovered my TI-
83 calculator could port an exact
copy of Tetris firm die old Game
Boy system, I was in heaven.
[Sure, I got Bs and Cs on the tests,
but I could get to level 12 in 20
minutes. That skill that has served
| me better than high school geom-
etiy ever has. Don’t get me wrong
. . . math’s important too, tat so is
my hand-eye coordination, right?
I These days, with an iPod
[and a cell phone in my pock-
let, and my D S or PSP in my
[hands, hours of gaming are at
my disposal anywhere, at any
pime. However, it clearly hasn’t
always been this way, and I
don’t think I’m the only one
who had to fight for my gam
ing fix.
I So I’d like to know what
our readers had to go through
to scratch that familiar itch
In their thumbs back in “the
¡day.” Shoot me your story at
and let me
know what you guys had to do
'to survive the early years.
Arts Entertainment
Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005
7
Café displays local artist’s work
Kimberly Maier
The Clackamas Print
The Everhart House Internet
Café is a place you can view
expensive art, drink a decent cup
of joe and check your e-mail all
in one stop.
Susan Reagel is the local art
ist who is currently showcas
ing at the Everhart. Her work
can be viewed and purchased
at the café, located on Molalla
Avenue in Oregon City. Reagel’s
art consists of small landscape
paintings, with an emphasis on
realism and mood. She majored
in art at Reed College, and grad
uated in 1997.
“The style varies from painting
to painting.” Reagel explained
about her art. “Sometimes it’s
more impressionistic, sometimes
more expressionistic.”
Most of the paintings on exhibit at Everhart are
local Oregon landscapes; many of them are of the
Deschutes River. “The Deschutes River is one of my
favorite places [to paint.] It has a desert landscape
but it also has rivers and rocks and trees.” Reagel
says she’s been painting “as long as [she’s] been
alive.”
If you’re interested in other places to view
Reagel’s work, the artist is also showcasing at
Noah’s Bagels downtown. Bring lots of money if
you’re looking to buy, - the price for a 5/7 painting
can cost up to $800.
Reagel is new to the business side of art. “I actu
ally haven’t shown much until this year. I don’t have
it all down yet,” she disclosed. “Whenever I walk
past a café that I can see has art on the wall, I call
them up.”
There are about 20 of Reagel’s landscape.paint
ings on show at the Everhart Café. It’s an actual
house that has been transformed into a small coffee
hangout thatalso provides its customers with internet
access. The theme is very old fashioned. Big lumpy
couches with Afghans - yes Afghans - draped over
them. Feels just like Grandma’s house!
All Photos By Kimberly Maier Clackamas Print
Paintings by local artist Susan Reigel, who says one of her favorite places
to paint is the Deschutes River.
Comedy Sportz provides
entertaining antics
for entire family
AndyZehrung
The Clackamas Print
Clad in blue and red, the players
at the Comedy Sportz arena gave
an entertaining performance that
was well worth the ticket price.
Games like “Blind Line” and
“Five Objects,” which called on
the audience’s participation, made
the experience both interactive and
fun. The improv-comedy theater is
definitely a great place for repeated
visits.
The game started off by intro
ducing the players, Red Team ver
sus Blue Team, each with a nick
name. This is also when the two
types of fouls were explained.
The “Groaner Foul” is when the
Andy Zehrung Clackamas Print
The “referee” gets involved
in a Comedy Sportz scuffle.
audience can’t help but groan at a
bad joke. The “Brown Bag Foul”
is directed at anyone who says
something profane, as the shows
are family-friendly. Wearing a bag
over the offender’s head kept the
show PG-rated.
They began with games chosen
by the teams, and influenced by the
audience. A game of new choice
had a team engaging in an activity
picked by the audience, and the
referee blew his whistle to give the
team a new line.
Each round ended with a vote.
During the first few rounds you
see red and blue flyswatters flying
into the air, showing support for
the team that made one bust one’s
gut the most. If one doesn’t spend
two dollars on flyswatters, there
is always the audience applause
vote.
During the last three rounds,
both teams played at the same
time. It consisted of freeze-tag or a
“Da-Do-Run-Run Round” with the
audience playing along. In the “Last
Chance” round, reactions really
mattered, as points were awarded
based on whether or not the joke
got laughs or not. This round asked
for the audience to do duck calls at
particularly bad jokes.
To see the performance, one can
call ahead and get advanced tickets
for shows on Friday and Saturday
nights. Tickets are $10 reserved,,
or $12 at the door. However, the
ticket price is $10 with a donated
can of food.
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