Our Gossip Will Go On And On...

  1. CONFORMING TO STEREOTYPE: As if musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard weren’t enough to attract the business of a certain sort of gay white man, Portland Center Stage is encouraging patrons (men especially) of the Oct. 8 performance to come dressed as Norma Desmond. Anyone in Desmond duds will get a free drink ticket, the code word “drag” earns a $5 discount for the night’s tickets at pcs.org and, best of all, the performance will be preceded by a Norma pageant at 7 pm. The best faded beauty of the silver screen, as judged by a panel of drag queens and Byron Beck, will win a pair of season tickets. Lovely, dahling.
  2. SPARKLY INFERNO: Team Edward and Team Jacob, prepare your angry Twittering thumbs. Baron Von Goolo and his ghouls at Portland’s annual haunted house complex FrightTown do not appreciate your sparkly, longing laments, six-packs or aversions to cannibalism. In an effort to take back all that is unholy about the undead, Von Goolo is taking a cue from hatemonger extraordinaire Terry Jones and hosting a book-burning of StephenieMeyer’s wankfest, the Twilight Saga. “After that clown in Florida was talking about burning the Quran, I was thinking, ‘There’s gotta be something really worth burning,’” said the Baron, a.k.a. Dave Helfrey. The Baron and a legion of vampires donning classic costumes will converge on the commons outside Memorial Coliseum at 8:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 16, for the biggest supernatural torching this side of the Salem witch trials. “It’s just not horror. This brooding, emo, Tiger Beat sparkle thing deserves to be burned, ” said Von Goolo with, naturally, a sinister chuckle.
  1. BLOG, THE FINAL FRONTIER: Local science fiction fan Petréa Mitchell is asking for a sponsorship of $180,000 to $210,000 to fund her goal to video-blog one science fiction gathering a week for a year. She’s already compiled a sample reel, which features long clips of a sci fi panel and a tour of the books, T-shirts, fanzines and fliers found at a typical convention. Amid the mundanity there are some gems—a man with intense sideburns discussing the colonization of the moon, a Klingon hotel-room party and a full one-minute clip featuring an elaborate balloon hat. With pro equipment and editing, it could be the next King of Kong. Until then, it’s an endearing portrait of sci-fi fandom by a spectacled woman with high ambitions. To help her out, visit conproj.livejournal.com.
  2. GIRL POWER: Carrie Brownstein is a busy lady. Sometime between filming episodes of the original comedy series, Portlandia, with Fred Armisen, Brownstein decided to pick up the guitar for the first time since her band Sleater-Kinney broke up in 2006, teaming up with former S-K drummer Janet Weiss, Helium guitarist/singer Mary Timony, and the Minders bassist Rebecca Cole as Wild Flag. The new band plays the Doug Fir on Saturday, Nov. 13, and will release a debut album on Merge records in 2011.

WWeek 2015

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