Your Weekly Vaccination Of Gossip.

By WW Editorial Staff
  1. IT’S A GOOD THING: Get yer blond, bobbed wig, sensible work shirt and crème brûlée torch at the ready. North Interstate Avenue’s Krakow Cafe Pub is celebrating Halloween in the best way Scoop’s heard of this year: With a Martha Stewart look-alike contest. Mark Kirchmeier, who owns the Polish-themed cafe, says they chose Martha because she’s “America’s most prominent individual of Eastern European descent.” Look-alikes are welcome to swing by during the weeklong contest (noon Saturday, Oct. 31, to midnight Saturday, Nov. 7) to vie for the chance to win free breakfast, lunch or dinner. According to Kirchmeier, winners will be selected “based on their similarity in appearance, comportment and knowledge of Martha Stewart’s contributions to American culture. ” Now, what do we have to do to get ’em to mount a mustache-happy Lech Walesa look-alike contest next year?
  2. THREE SIDES TO THE STORY: After a month of debate, message-board banter, fan suggestions and a discussion of what the term “sellout” really means, local electro-pop quartet Starfucker has officially changed its name to PYRAMID (all-caps intentional). Starfucker will play its last show and all-ages dance party on Halloween at the Wonder Ballroom before it embarks on a new, cuss-free career. PYRAMID is heading to Europe for the first time in November, where it will release a special 7-inch single of “Medicine.” Maybe Daft Punk will even lend the band its giant glowing pyramid for future performances.
  1. TOAST & PHO UPDATE: Last week we informed you of the impending opening of Toast & Pho, a restaurant about which we knew nothing but the awesome name.We have now spoken with Tan Nguyen, who is opening the restaurant at 103 NW 21st Ave. with his wife, Tammy. He says they will indeed serve both a full American breakfast menu and Vietnamese classics, including a breakfast pho. The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner by the end of next week.
  2. SKETCHY PRIZE: Portland cartoonist Josh Shalek has made it to the final round of vetting in a daily-comic-strip contest launched by Amazon.com and Universal Press Syndicate. Shalek will find out Wednesday, Oct. 28, whether his comic will be selected as one of 10 finalists to be showcased on Amazon.com, where voters will decide the winner. The top vote-getter will receive a $5,000 advance on a book featuring their daily comic strip and have their work syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which picks two to four new comics each year for syndication out of a submissions pile of about 5,000, according to Shalek. His previously unpublished strip is titled Tortilla Flat and features a brother and sister living with their grandmother in Arizona. Shalek’s other work can be found at joshshalek.com.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.