Gossip Should Have No Friends

[September 17th, 2008]

THAT’S A BITCH: Bitch, the worthy national magazine devoted to a “feminist response to pop culture” that relocated to Portland from San Francisco last year, is hurting. Bottom line: The publication needs to raise $40,000 by Oct. 15 to print its next issue or it might go buh-bye. “It’s true that [Bitch is] in some serious dire straits,” Bitch Publisher Debbie Rasmussen told WW after we spotted a call for donations on bitchmagazine.org. “I’m hopeful that we’ll pull through, but just not sure in what form—print gets harder and harder, you know...especially for independent, noncommercial voices.” Ouch. Visit bitchmagazine.org if you wanna ante up and help a real girly mag stay afloat.

ATLANTA MONTHLY? Portland Monthly has hired a new editor with top-flight credentials. Atlanta magazine confirmed that Paige Williams, until now Atlanta’s deputy editor and winner of a 2008 National Magazine Award for feature writing, will take the top spot at Portland Monthly. That job has been empty since January, when editor Ted Katauskas stepped down....

STAR SIGHTINGS: Your commute last Friday might have just been a bit more taxing due to a certain hillbilly rapper’s demands. Seems Kid Rock didn’t want to wait in traffic before he took the stage at Columbia Meadows Rockfest. He demanded (and got) a police escort from PDX all the way to St. Helens. That same day, in downtown PDX, it took the owner of Ray’s Ragtime, Ray Tillotson, a half hour before he realized a vintage television star was pawing through the racks of his vintage clothing store. Emily Hudson, an L.A. musician, has shopped Ray’s for years now, but this time she dropped by with her mom, Cindy Williams, a.k.a. perky Shirley Wilhelmina Feeney of Laverne & Shirley. “I tried to send a bowling-pin lamp to her through her daughter once,” says Tillotson. “But it wouldn’t fit in her suitcase.”

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS: It’s true, everybody who lives in Brooklyn eventually ends up in Portland—a rule that extends to really cool clothing stores. Brooklyn Industries is taking over the space that was supposed to be the new Nau store on Northwest 23rd Avenue at Johnson Street. Building on its too-cool-for-school T-shirts and bags, Brooklyn Industries’ water tower skyline logo is now as iconic in Williamsburg as Nike is in Beaverton. Although BKI has nine other stores throughout the country, this will be its first West Coast location and its first free-standing boutique. Why Portland? “We love the artistic energy and youth culture,” says Lexy Funk, Brooklyn Industries co-founder and CEO. The store is scheduled to open sometime this winter.

CORRECTION: WW incorrectly reported in “Two-Drink Minimum” on Aug. 27, 2008, that Calendula closed in 2004 because of a strike. No strike occurred because Calendula owner Craig Rosebraugh had already terminated those employees who told him they were going on strike. WW regrets the error.