Gossip Should Have No Friends

[May 17th, 2006] BACK TO THE (DESIGN) FUTURE After a four-year absence from the magazine rack, Portland-based experimental type foundry/hot shit design house Plazm delivers the 28th and largest issue of its internationally recognized counterculture rag Plazm. According to Plazm co-founder Josh Berger , the 144-page tome is slated to be released at the firm's 15th-anniversary blowout party on June 24. Berger let it slip that the mag's cover was designed by the almighty Milton Glaser (best known for his psychedelic Bob Dylan portrait), while its pages will explode with musings from Gus Van Sant , among others.

BLOG ON Portland blog community UrbanHonking (www.urbanhonking.com) has been rolling out some new titles lately, including a critical blog that most recently covered the PDX Film Festival called "Blogging the Shit Out of It." The most intriguing and well-written recent addition is a blog by local filmmaker Matt McCormick , founder and director of Peripheral Produce and the PDX Film Festival, called "Action Items." It's actually good, packed with stories of McCormick's journeys as a filmmaker, a ghost hunter and an urban spelunker.

FOWL PLAY It's tough to imagine anything cuter than 200 downy golden chicks . But when you box the babies up in two cardboard flats and mail them from Pennsylvania to Oregon , the adorable turns stomach-churning. An alert postal carrier delivered the cheeping package to DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital last Friday afternoon when the intended local recipient refused to accept it (freakin' monster). Twenty-nine chicks were dead on arrival . The entire staff at the hospital jumped in, giving the remaining birdies water and warming them with a hair dryer, according to DoveLewis spokeswoman Tiffini Mueller. Six more chicks died at the hospital, despite the efforts at triage. The U.S. Postal Service did not reveal the name of the carrier, the sender or the intended recipient as of press time, but we do know that the remaining chicks were given to two local nurseries, where they'll be sold to farmers or as pets. DoveLewis is able to provide 24-hour emergency care for animals of all types through its stray animal fund. Donations can be made at www.dovelewis.org.

PAN FIN After 32 pixie-dust-sprinkled years, Olympic gymnast-turned-Broadway star Cathy Rigby is retiring from the role of Peter Pan. Rigby's farewell performance as Peter Pan flies into Portland this week, through this Sunday, May 28, and brings to an end another era in a decades-long tradition of women playing a boy who refuses to grow up. No successor has been named to replace Rigby as James M. Barrie's timeless character, but while she's in town, WW would like to suggest she consider our own ex-intern Adrian Chen. With his youthful exuberance and his spritelike personality, there is no one better suited to play Peter Pan. And if for some reason Chen doesn't work out, WW screen editor David Walker would also be a great choice. Yes, he's a bit too well-fed to be hoisted in the harnesses used to make Peter fly across the stage, but his immaturity and inability to act his age makes him a textbook case study in Peter Pan Syndrome.

THE SOUND OF WRONGNESS WW classical-music writer James Bash reports that in his Q&A last week he misspelled the last name of the Portland Opera propmaster ("Sharpest Tool in the Shed," WW, May 10, 2006). It's actually Ian Hewett, dammit.