Gossip Should Have No Friends

[February 28th, 2007] TBA MAKES HAY Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) is still six months away from its fifth annual TBA Festival (running Sept. 6-16, 2007), but some recent grants and insider gab have Scoop already counting down the minutes to this year's fest. PICA announced last week it had received $225,000 in new grant awards for TBA '07, from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Collins Foundation. And Scoop has it on good authority that the fest's '07 theme is "American Voices ," and may include a commission by pioneering music-theater composer Rinde Eckert .

HOLY PLATINUM PERCOLATORS! As reported last Thursday on wweek.com, caffeine addicts should brace themselves for the next big player in their morning ritual. The Seattle-made Clover coffee maker is a sexy, robotic-lookin' machine that brews coffee by the cup. Only about 100 of these $11,000 coffee makers exist, and Stumptown's new Ace Hotel location has four of them—more than any other coffee shop on the planet. Being mechanical, supposedly the Clover is exacting and reliable enough to attain a level of consistency that, say, your trustry French press lacks. Stumptown likes the machines because they allow the local coffee roaster to showcase the bean varieties founder Duane Sorenson searches the world over for. The company has used the Clover at its Belmont Annex location for more than a year, and says it will have at least one Clover machine at its new Capitol Hill location in Seattle, which is slated to open in May. By the way, a small coffee at the Ace Hotel location fetches $1.50 ($1 at other Stumptown locations).

AID FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE Although he passed away in 2003, local indie troubadour Elliott Smith is still helpin' Portlanders get through the day. We recently got word that a portion of the sales from Smith's upcoming rarities and B-sides album, New Moon, will benefit the Portland social-service agency Outside In, a nonprofit that helps homeless youth and low-income adults find work and housing. "Elliott was vocal about helping abused kids, and those are largely the population that Outside In serves," said a representative of the Smith family on sweetadeline.net, a fan-maintained website for the late Portland songwriter. The album, set for a May 8 release on the Kill Rock Stars label, was largely mixed and remastered by Jackpot! Studios owner and longtime Smith collaborator Larry Crane and also features album art from Portland artist Mike King.

WHAT YOU MISSED THIS WEEK ON WW's LOCALCUT.COM Benefits abound as Consumption reunited for last weekend's Three-Day Stump Aid >> Infringement Records closes up shop and throws a show in anticipation of its move to the more lucrative Web. >> Meanwhile, LKN wants to get paid and Lifesavas' new album and faux soundtrack, Gutterfly, looks super-funky. Both Jake Shimabukuro and Grizzly Bear astounded audiences at recent live shows. And hip hip for Yip Yip—they win Band Name of the Week! Plus, sweet MP3s from Work Out, DJ Wicked, Swim Swam Swum, Panther and Main Sequence.