Gossip should have no friends

[August 6th, 2008]

BIG BABY: PDX’s CD Baby , one of the largest sellers of independent music on the Web, was purchased last week by the company behind New Jersey-based CD and DVD manufacturer Disc Makers . “I decided to hand over CD Baby to someone that’s going to make it better than ever for you,” wrote CD Baby founder, Derek Sivers, in an email to artists on Tuesday, noting that he’s moving on to create a new music “promotion” and “networking” project. A source at the company says Disc Makers President Tony van Veen addressed employees Monday, and assured workers that his parent company, Audio & Video Labs Inc., intended to keep the CD Baby staff of 100 people intact and keep the company in Portland . CD Baby, which sells CDs directly from musicians without distributors, has thrived in spite of a national trend of slumping CD sales, and van Veen told employees that he thought the company could do even better by utilizing a little self-promotion and setting goals in each department.

ORAL TRANSMISSION: Anyone walking along North Mississippi Street last Saturday, Aug. 2, was greeted by a free story-exchange booth . Set up in front of a vacant lot at the corner of North Failing Street, the booth had a simple premise: You tell a story, then you get told a story. Booth operators Sarah Royal and Lindsay Ragsdale got the idea from Berkeley zine Cometbus, whose creator, Aaron Elliott, set up a similar table in the Bay Area several years ago. Tales swapped at Saturday’s booth included college foursomes, helicopter rescue dogs and hit ’70s songs stolen by Linda Ronstadt. Royal—a zinester herself—says she plans to repeat the experiment: “When I’ve got free time, I’m gonna be out there.”

ON THE KIDWALK: After whipping up outfits of their very own creation, more than 40 young’uns enrolled in Portland’s Fashion Design Camp—ages 8 to 16—paraded their wearable art projects for parents and friends at a fashion show finale last Friday night at the Melody Ballroom. Unlike previous incarnations, this year’s show also included grown-up designs from local fashion superstars like Elizabeth Dye, Kate Towers and Holly Stalder, modeled on the catwalk by adult models. After tending to blisters on kiddie feet that rarely, if ever, have seen a high heel and asking a couple of volunteers to keep their swear words to a minimum, the whole show went off without a hitch—even if it did start 45 minutes late. Oh, well—that’s fashion.

FIGHTIN’ WORDS: There were errors in Scoop’s July 23, 2008, mention of a new Lloyd Center shop devoted to mixed martial arts products. The franchise name is Ultimate Fight Outlet and WW should have clarified that the large UFO kiosk at Clackamas Town Center has not closed. Also, although Chris Oliver and Kevin Finn own the Lloyd Center outpost of UFO, the franchise is owned by Dwayne Spivey and Todd Spencer. Spivey says they are opening another franchise location in Salem’s Lancaster Mall on Friday, Aug. 8. WW regrets the errors.