Gossip Should Have No Friends

[November 26th, 2008]

YOU’D BETTER WATCH OUT: Is no neighborhood safe from jolly, boozehound elves? The Portland Cacophony Society announced in a mass email last week that Santacon, its annual Claus-garbed pub crawl, would relocate this year to Hillsboro on Dec. 6, in part to avoid exasperated downtown Portland police, who had promised to crack down on public intoxication. (Another stated goal is to alarm the locals: “The ’burbs…are chock-full of people who only interact with the outside world through television and trolling for pedophiles on AOL.”) The Santa diaspora continued later in the week, as a splinter group called Nopdxanticon pledged a pilgrimage to Kenton.

BIG, BIG LIGHTS: Portland experimental film wizard Matt McCormick enjoyed a shot of national publicity this week as Pitchfork broke the news that his first feature-length movie, Some Days Are Better Than Others, will star two indie-rock demigods: Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein and Shins frontman James Mercer. McCormick has directed music videos for both artists, but he told WW that casting these characters (who bump into each other outside a bouncy castle at a NoPo house party) was a “laborious process.… I knew they were great in front of the camera, but I knew that acting in a movie was much different than being in a music video.”

I BRAKE FOR METAL: More myth-busting for PDX’s bike-friendly rep: In late September, just a few blocks off Northwest Couch Street, Erik Trammell, guitarist for local sludge metal band Black Elk (mentioned in last week’s WW culture story, “Metal 101”), was hit while riding his bike to work. Trammell, who has no recollection of the incident, only remembers seeing headlights and then waking up in an ambulance. Since no witnesses were on the scene, Trammell has some pretty steep medical bills on his plate—and that’s where you come in. On Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6-7, garage-rock haven Slabtown and the Rotture are holding benefit concerts to try to recoup some of Trammell’s bill—with a host of heavy bands (including Akimbo, Rabbits and the countryfied leanings of Prize Country) rocking for a good cause.

SWEATIN’ TO THE OILIES: As recently reported, Portland’s über-ritzy Multnomah Athletic Club has hired Chef Philippe Boulot to run its kitchen. It seems like a good match, given that the James Beard Award-winning chef has been serving French dishes to Portland’s toniest families at the Heathman Hotel for the past 15 years. But we’re also pretty sure Boulot snorts cream and butter in his spare time, so isn’t it calorically defeatist for this blue-blood YMCA to hire him? “We like to offer lots of different kinds of cuisines. He’ll come up with calorie-appropriate menus and some bistro fare,” says the club’s GM Norm Rich. “We hope he brings imagination, creativity and ingenuity...and [the Heathman’s] mac ’n’ cheese.” Boulot will operate all four of the MAC’s restaurants, plus its catering arm, starting mid-January.