Nightlife
and Comedy Picks
The Nightcrawler woke up too early one morning. I got a shot
of Black Label down my gullet to chase the pain away, then
went looking for electronic entertainment to kill sickly daylight.
I know a guy who gets bootleg video copies of flicks before
they come out. He sells them to kids with Boris and Natasha
accents out on 82nd. I banged on his door and woke him up.
He popped in a tape called American Movie. It's about
white-trash kids making a horror flick--a real gas. At one
point, the pasty-faced, mullet-victim main character says
something like, "You can't just drink and dream."
The trailer goon's slogan put me in mind of the gangloads
of would-be scenemakers who sit, slurp and whine. The bar
napkins of the city are lousy with stillborn brainstorms.
But then there's Mieke.
Just back from four years in New York, the Virginia Slim-dragger
born in Eastern Oregon is putting the slick skills she learned
in Playboy's Least Coast publicity department
to work here in Splashtown. With partner Gabriel Menca,
she's pushing Pop!, a four-part series of pink-tinged
monthly mixers at Berbati's. It's plenty ambitious, charging
10 ducats for a night of techno, go-go dancers and high-porn
fashion. Mieke, though, isn't too shy about telling you
it's just the beginning.
"My intention is to open a club," she says with bravada
con brio. "I've worked in New York and Miami, the two biggest
nightclub cities on this continent, and what I want to do
would be more cutting-edge than anything going on there."
She says she wants Portland to have a chance to dress up
and play guest star in its very own American movie of style
and debauchery. Pop! debuted last month on a crappy Wednesday
night, giving a taste of the vision. Berbati's wasn't packed,
but plenty of the curious and damned looked on as Mieke's
hand-selected sexpots bounced around the stage in pink and
plastic.
The girls shook it with pelvically mounted faces of Warner
Bros. cartoon heroes and giant balloon breasts. As the
energy peaked in the last 15 minutes of the hormone showcase,
the DJ beats amped up, the crowd on the floor felt animalistic
and models strutted viciously.
While the first installment--which Mieke says drew around
250 paying customers--didn't necessarily flip the cart,
it did show John and Jane Appleseed a good time. That's
plenty, too, but Mieke says it's just an antipasto before
the minestrone.
"There's a lot of energy here, and it's creative energy,"
she says. "Look at the Dada Ball--3,000 people dressed
up and out for a good time. I want to introduce that as
a way of life here. Y'know, go to any rave and you'll pay
$20 to get into a warehouse with a stereo in it, basically,
and then at least $40 for drugs so you can actually have
a good time. Pop!'s not about that. If the 3,000 pink balloons
we had up last time doesn't give you a feeling of ecstasy,
no drug will. That's what we're after."
This installment of Pop! totes the moniker Bubble Wrap
Attack. Mieke says she haunted the industrial parks
of Hillsboro in search of truckloads of pink bubble wrap.
She found it, so she's going to wrap some models in it and
send them out on the kittywalk to snap and crackle.
It remains to be seen whether this urban socialite's dream
is a glimpse of the future or just one crack off the bat.
But, hell, girls in bubble wrap--I'm sold already. Drink
and dream.
NIGHTLIFE
PICKS
Pop!
Bubble Wrap Attack
Berbati's Pan
231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579
9 pm Wednesday,
Jan. 19. $10
Of flacking for King Hefner's brainbaby, Mieke says:
"When you're dealing with beautiful naked women, it's not
too much of a stretch. When you've been doing it for 45
years, though, it's a bit more of a stretch."
Dogs and Girls Only Night
Berbati's Pan
231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579
9 pm Tuesday, Jan. 17. $1
COMEDY
PICKS
Billy Burr
Stand-up
Harvey's Comedy Club
436 NW 6th Ave., 241-0338
8 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 8 and 10:30 pm Friday;
6:30,
9 and 11:30 pm Saturday, Jan. 12-16. $8-$10.
ComedySportz
Competitive improv
1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888
9 pm Friday, Jan. 14;
7:30 and 9:30 pm Saturday, Jan. 15. Cover
Portland Comedy Competition
Semi-Finals
Jimmy Mak's
300 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542
9 pm Monday, Jan. 17. $3
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Willamette Week | originally
published January 12,
1999
|
