Thursday, June 17, IW3 Arts@Entertainment _
Spielberg revives dinosaurs
in Jurassic Park adventure
“Jurassic Park”
By Anne Steyer
Staff Reporter
Move over Barney, "Jurassic Park”
(The Lincoln, Edge wood) has arrived
and these dinosaurs would rather eat
kids than cuddle up to them.
Based on the best-selling novel by
Michael Crichton, the movie is brought
to life by director Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg had some help from long
time collaborator George Lucas and
his special effects wizards at Indus
trial Light and Magic.
Between them, they’ve cooked up
some amazingly realistic dinosaurs,
among them a hungry Tyrannosaurus
Rex, a sickly triceratops and some
nasty, calculating velociraptors.
I ne dinosaurs breathe, snort, howl,
move, run, and yes, eat humans — at
least the carnivorous ones do. Of
course, that’s only after they get loose
from their pens and run amok in Juras
sic Park, a man-made ecological
amusement-style park off the coast of
Costa Rica.
Leading the cast is Sam Neill as
paleontologist/dinosaur expert Alan
Grant and Laura Dem as paleobotanist
Ellie Saltier, Grant’s colleague and
girlfriend.
Both Grant and Sattler are sum
moned by developer John Hammond
(Richard Attenborough) to evaluate
his new entertainment project. The
scientists know little of Hammond’s
venture until they arrive at the island
and enter Jurassic Park, greeted by the
bleating of lowering brachiosaurs.
Hammond’s miracle is courtesy of
genetic engineering — his research
ers cloned the creatures from dino
DNA found in the blood retrieved
from mosquitos preserved in amber,
or what was once tree sap.
Once inside the park, Grant and
Saltier embark on an electric car tour
of the entire park, accompanied by
fellow evaluator mathematician Ian
Malcolm (a perfectly cast Jeff
Goldblum) and Hammond’s grandkids
Tim (Joseph Mazello) and Lex
(Adriana Richards).
While touring the park, the com
puter is sabotaged by a greedy em
ployee, the security breaks down and
all hell breaks loose. At this point the
film really gets thrilling.The T-Rex
breaks through his constraints and
goes on a rampage. The evil
velociraptors get together and hunt,
and the humans try to stay out of the
dinosaurs way and stay alive. In a
nutshell, the new interaction between
Jurassic Age creatures and human
kind is not altogether successful.
Every moment the dinosaurs are
on screen they consume all attention.
That’s not to say the acting isn’t solid
— it is — but “Jurassic Park” lacks
any real story and the science is mostly
techno-babble. The film also strips
down Crichton’s novel to its barest
skeleton, taking away the story’s punch
and losing some of the most thrilling
elements in the process.
The ending is typical feel-good
Spielberg, and therefore a little disap
pointing, not to mention ambiguous.
But even without a strong plotline, the
terrific special effects make “Jurassic
Park” an amazing amusement ride.
High energy blues trio to hit Zoo Bar
By Jill O’Brien *
Staff Reporter
Jimmy Thackery, the 40-year-old
guitar wizard of headbanger blues,
aired his dirty laundry during a recent
interview.
He was in the process of washing
his clothes, he said, when he called
from a Florida motel.
On June 23, promoting his release,
“Empty Arms Motel, Thackery,
along with bassist Wayne Burdette
and drummer Mark Stulso, will hit the
Zoo Bar to play for the summer crowd.
“Wayne calls it hot-rod blues —
revved up blues,” Thackery said. “A
lot people when they hear the word
blues, think of a low, sleepy groove.
We’re more high energy.’
The “high energy” trio, Jimmy
Thackery and the Rivers,is a con
densed version of The Assassins, a
six-man orchestra, he said.
“I like the way a trio moves
around,” he said. “When you come up
with a plan you only have to tell
someone twice because there’s only
two guys.”
For 14 years, guitarist Thackery
played frontman for the Nighthawks,
based in Washington D.C. Tired of
traveling 300 days a year, Thackery
said he left the group to form the
Assassins. But his fans weren’t happy.
“I got hate mail because I was
-44
You take a little bit of
this guy and this guy
and roll it all together
to get your own. You
borrow a style and
pretend you made It
up yourself.
— Thackery
•-ff
taking a more supportive role and
people couldn’t swallow it," he said.
*T was not the 100 mph guitar hero
people had come to enjoy.
“It just wigged me right out. Ripped
me right apart and I had to go, ‘Well,
that’s the way it goes.”’
When the Assassins smacked into
an impenetrable wall of finance,
Thackery said he took the advice of
the rhythm section and slimmed down
to a three-man band.
“Unfortunately, the rhythm sec
tion couldn’t play blues,” he said.
“They couldn’t play simple enough,
so one by one I replaced those guys."
He started from scratch, he said,
even writing new songs to fit the
three-piece Band.
Although Thackery has a knack
for songwriling, he really shines on
stage, where he belts out rough-edged
bluesy vocals and demonstrates his
guitar mastery. Yet, audience-friendl y
Thackery said he perceives himself as
introverted on stage.
“1 find myself all loo often stand
ing in one spot, close my eyes and
drift off and then have to say, ‘Come
on, get with it’,” he said. “My feeling
is if people are paying money to see
something, you give them 110 per
cent, and I’m constantly striving for
the 10 over the 100.”
When hedoes get with it, Thackery
plays a guitar at breakneck speed
behind his back. Sometimes, during a
performance, he uses an empty beer
bottle for a slide. And if fans are
lucky, they’ll see him play with his
teeth.
Thackery said he has never cut his
lip while he was playing. .
“No,” he said, “but I catch hell
from my mother who spent $9,000 on
braces for me.”
Thackery said he adopted his stage
style from a combination of musi
cians.
“You take a little bit of this guy and
this guy and roll it all together to get
your own,” he said, “You borrow a
style and pretend you made it up
yourself.”
Thackery said in spite of his love
for playing, guitars give him fits.
,rI hate allof them," he said.
If that’s true, Thackery gets re
venge on his ’64 StratandhisLesPaul
when he plays live.
Thackery said he no longer has an
official fan club. With all the changes
taking place in his band, he instead
decided to compile a mailing list for
fans requesting info on Thackery and
the Drivers.
“We did have a mailing list,” he
said, “with 700to 800 names on it. We
were pretty proud of it, but then some
one stole it in Columbus, Ohio.
“So if all you out there are receiv
ing junk mail, it’s because of me. I’m
sorry.”
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Sam Neil (Dr. Alan Grant) and Ariana Richards (Lex) face a
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
....
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