Scoop: Gossip Eats Sashimi and Lays the Smackdown.

TIMONER
  1. PICTURING PICKATHON: Director Ondi Timoner—the documentarian best known for Dig!, her award-winning 2004 film chronicling the contentious relationship between rival rock bands the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Portland’s Dandy Warhols—returned to Portland last weekend, training her cameras on the annual Pickathon festival. She filmed the roots-music gathering for an upcoming segment on A Total Disruption, her Web channel dedicated to producing documentaries on “innovators and entrepreneurs who are using technology to transform our lives.” On her blog, Timoner refers to Pickathon as an “indie eco-tech festival” founded by “tech wizards” who are “innovating balance [by] unplugging, collaborating and building in the physical world.” According to her Twitter page, Timoner filmed performances by Andrew Bird, Tift Merritt and Vieux Farka Touré, and also used Pendarvis Farm to shoot a video for the Pixies, featuring a cameo from actor-musician Shakey Graves and a giant tiger statue. 
  1. INDIAN SOUTH: As first reported on wweek.com, David Machado’s Indian-inflected Vindalho restaurant ended its eight-year run on Sunday, Aug. 4. Jae Kim, owner of Wild Wasabe and O’Sushi, has filed for a liquor license, telling WW he plans to turn the space into a sushi and “Asian tapas” spot called Ahi. Wild Wasabe’s Northwest Thurman Street location made the news in 2010, when a Volvo drove into its dining room, injuring two. In 2012, Machado sold Lauro Kitchen (WW’s 2004 Restaurant of the Year) to Duane Sorenson. That space now houses Ava Gene’s restaurant. Machado still runs Nel Centro, a Mediterranean restaurant in the Hotel Modera.
  1. A RIVER OF PHOENIXES: Two bars rose from the ashes Friday, Aug. 2—one quite literally. After a fire last year that forced it to close, Northeast Alberta dive bar the Nest held a pre-opening party for its new location at 2715 SE Belmont St., in the old Duke’s Landing space. The bar resurrected its porch mural from the old Alberta location, and also replicated that location’s uneven procession of ’70s-era bar lamps. Slabtown dive Joe’s Cellar was back in business Aug. 3 and is, aside from some new Imperial pint glasses and new carpeting, almost entirely unchanged. Popcorn at the bar remains free.
  1. SO LONG, DUTCH: A former star of Portland’s pro wrestling scene—a once-thriving industry and precursor to today’s cable wrestling giants—is gone. “Dutch Savage” died Aug. 3, after a recent stroke. He was 78. Born Frank Lionel Stewart in Scranton, Pa., in 1935, Savage began wrestling in 1962. He settled in the Pacific Northwest by 1966 and was a mainstay in the pro wrestling scene throughout the ’70s, performing at places like the Portland Sports Arena (now the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church Family Life Center). After retiring in 1981, he created and hosted Dutch’s Corner, a Christian ministry on Portland public-access television. At the time of his death, he was living in rural Clark County. “I have some fond memories of watching Portland wrestling when I was a kid,” said a commenter on social news site Reddit. “I will miss those days, and Dutch Savage was a part of that.”

WWeek 2015

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