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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2004)
Doak Creek BY MELISSA BEARNS CHRIS COLLINS AT GRAND TARGHEE Native Plant Nursery Fall is a great time to plant. Native Containerized Plants, Trees, Shrubs, Ground Covers & Wildflowers 484-9206 By Appt. 83331 JACKSON MARLOW RD. • EUGENE GREG EPSTEIN Daniel’s Adrenaline Powered Restaurant MEXICAN-AMERICAN CUISINE Films to get you hyped for the season. • Excellent Customer Service • Tequila, Margaritas & Cocktails • Freshly Made Foods • Homemade Tortillas & Cakes P DINNER SPECIALS STARTING AT $4.95 ull out the rock boards and get hik- ing. Winter is here, ushered in yet again by a new crop of movies so in- tense you’ll leave the theater with your heart pounding, ready to launch off a cliff. With weeks to go before the lifts roll, two new movies showing in town this week will leave you on your knees praying, no … begging, for snow. Start your weekend early Thursday night at The McDonald Theatre with Yearbook, the new one from Matchstick Productions. Then Saturday check out YEARBOOK Teton Gravity (MATCHSTICK) Research’s newest, Thur., 6 pm Soul Purpose. Every The McDonald year these two produc- $5 tion companies push the limits further, going bigger, higher, steeper and deeper and this year they bring out the big guns. Shane McConkey, who many credit with inventing the sport of skiBASE jumping takes it to a whole new, gut-wrenching level in Yearbook. In May 2004 McConkey teamed up with 23-year-old pro skier JT Holmes and Matchstick Productions and went looking for the biggest, scariest close- out lines they could find. The trip ended with a jump off the Eiger in Switzerland, a moun- tain that has claimed numerous lives in mountaineering accidents. Under clear blue skies McConkey throws a double front flip off the Eiger. If the term “sick” originated from people watching something that made them feel all icky on the inside, then the term applies here. The film features pro skiers Seth Morrison, Shane McConkey, Mike Wilson, Mark Abma, Ingrid Backstrom, JT Holmes, Sarah Burke, and Chris Davenport to name a few. They get medieval on your ass with enough huge drops, narrow lines and waist- deep snow get the adrenaline flowing faster than Eugene’s winter rain. But not all “action” films are created equal and when it comes to drawing the row- diest crowds and bombing the craziest lines, TGR’s flims and their athletes are in a class by themselves. Their newest, Soul Purpose, is no exception, and plays Saturday, 8pm at WOW Hall. With sections shot in Bulgaria, Stowe, VT, Russia, Jackson Hole, and Corvara, Italy, they traipse across the globe and come back with enough footage to keep you barely breathing for an hour. Erik Roner pulls off a seriously scary skiBASE jump sequence when he launches off a 3,000-foot cliff, gets part of his chute stuck under his arm and swings around in a sharp 180, missing the massive rock wall by inches. Soul Purpose seamlessly moves between sections with skiers and boarders, men and women, park and backcountry. And that’s the way it should be. No patronizing nods to Victoria Jealouse and SOUL PURPOSE Meg Oster, two female (TGR) forces to be reckoned Sat., 7 pm with. No little blurbs WOW Hall on how skiers and $5 boarders are getting along great these days. No. Soul Purpose is all about the rush, the adrenaline, the insanely steep, narrow and deep lines and the huge, huge air. One ele- ment of the film that’s particularly cool is that the athletes narrate much of it, often reading from diaries and journals they kept while filming. Another section that sets Soul Purpose apart is the avalanche sequence shot in Mica Creek, B.C. They start small. Jonny Law sets off a small slide right as he drops a 45-foot cliff but emerges grinning. Then another one. And then the big one. The music drops out and all you hear is growling howl of thousands of cubic feet of snow and the panic in the voices of the crew as they look for the skier. If there is one criticism of Soul Purpose, it would be that this footage makes it looks like everyone just walks away from an avalanche unscathed. Anyone who’s ever desperately followed the faint beeping of a transceiver with just minutes to save the life of a friend knows that’s not true. Snowboard legend Jeremy Jones easily has the best line in the film after dangling from the helicopter in a harness to get to an otherwise inaccessible chute. The film has a sweet section with Victoria Jealouse, hands down the best female freeride snowboarder out there. Soul Purpose features Bend local Sage Cattabriga-Alosa as well as Micah Black, Chris Collins, Candide Thovex, Jamie Pierre, Tanner Hall, Jeremy Nobis and others. By the time the credits roll and you catch your breath, you’ll be aching for those first turns. Let it snow. ew 541-686-9888 685 E. Broadway S UN -T HURS 11 AM -9 PM F RI -S AT 11 AM -10 PM NOV. 25 OPEN 6PM (IN HONOR OF THANKSGIVING) WE HAVE A SPECIAL TREAT! STUFFING WRESTLING COME JOIN US FOR THE FUN! 2165 W. 11TH AVENUE ❤ EUGENE ❤ 683-6021 Monday - Friday 12-2 Saturday & Sunday 2-2 www.hotbody.com Connecting Eugene with six trains and seven thruway buses, Amtrak ® connects Eugene to the Pacific Northwest and the rest of America. For reservations visit www.amtrak.com or call 1-800-USA-RAIL Amtrak is a registered service mark of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. NOVEMBER 18, 2004 31
