Gossip Should Have No Friends

[June 3rd, 2009]

• SWING TOWN: Portlanders are a buncha freaks—in a good way—and Ron Jeremy noticed. WW has confirmed that as his first “brick-and-mortar” biz venture, the porno legend will open a swingers club, Ron Jeremy’s Club Sesso, in downtown PDX in mid-June. According to managing partner (and former Ace of Hearts co-owner) Paul Smith, our town’s acceptance of sexual diversity convinced Jeremy the Rose City was the perfect locale for Club Sesso. Smith and Jeremy hope to lure single and coupled swingers (21+) to the upscale, members-only nightclub in the space once home to Fernando’s Hideaway at 824 SW 1st Ave.

• EDIE MALFUNCTION: Rose Riordan, associate artistic director at Portland Center Stage, was spotted at the opening of the company’s production of Grey Gardens Friday sporting a headscarf fashioned from a blouse —an homage to the curious fashion sense of Edith Bouvier Beale, the subject of the play. “A bunch of people were supposed to do it,” Riordan told WW, “but I’m the only one. I’m going to kill them.”

• NOT-SO-SECRET ADMIRERS: You know who really likes local electro-pop duo YACHT ? Kanye West. (Or, the dude who gets paid to run Kanye West’s blog.) Last week, team Kanye posted an MP3 of the PDX duo’s summer jam “Psychic City,” the first single from YACHT’s new record See Mystery Lights. YACHT’s Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans’ Facebook reaction? “Holy shit, Kanye just posted a thing about ‘Psychic City.’ What the fuck!? Amazing!” Considering Kanye West says he doesn’t read, he probably never saw it. See Mystery Lights is out July 28 on DFA. Lil Wayne, when you posting the second single?

• DINNER DATE: Wanna have dinner with the mayor? You gotta be a college kid (insert tasteless Breedlove joke here). Writer and current UO Publication Studio head Matthew Stadler has brought creative types, from Gore Vidal to Adrian Orange, together for his Back Room series of “presentations/symposia/bacchanals” since 2005, but his June 9 event at Old Town’s White Stag building has a twist. This “Budget Back Room” with Mayor Sam Adams only costs $10 and was only open to 25 students from PSU and the University of Oregon’s Portland outpost at the Stag building. According to Stadler, the young ones are slated to talk to the politico about “policy and real politics around urban planning” while supping family-style on chicken and grilled veggie salad cooked up by Clyde Common’s Nate Tilden.

BOOM!: Gov. Ted Kulongoski meets Brendan Fraser during the shooting of The Untitled Crowley Project on June 1 at OHSU. Seconds after this photo was taken, the universe exploded. IMAGE: Heather Zinger, courtesy of OHSU