Gossip Should Have No Friends

[November 2nd, 2005] TITS UP Gallery 500 (420 SW Washington St., Suite 500), the perennially hoppin' art space owned and operated by charismatic arts impresario Justin Oswald , will close its doors Dec. 1. Oswald is vague about his reasons for the impending closure, but with characteristic bravado reassured gallery supporters in a recent letter: "I am committed to this city and will remain a prominent figure within the art world." One future venture Oswald will confirm is his forthcoming website, www.titsandbling.com (launching in mid-December), which will hawk ghetto-fabulous jewelry and fancifully colored lucite breast molds. Of the latter, Oswald says, "They look great on a grand piano."

SHRINKING VIOLENCE Portland online pop wonder Geoff Byrd took a break from his current tour with Hall and Oates to inform WW that a song inspired by this li'l ol' paper is on the ballot to be considered as a nominee for a Grammy . It seems that while Byrd was encouraging his fans to send hate-filled letters to our music editor, Mark Baumgarten, because of a less-than-sunny comic strip we ran about his debut album, Candy Shell (see WW, Jan. 26, 2005), he was also penning a song called "Shrinking Violets." The song—a metaphor-filled, pseudo-rant against selling out, we think—can be heard at www.geoffbyrd.com. Personally, we thought the letter WW received last winter from a Byrd fan warning Baumgarten to look out for speeding trucks while crossing the street was much more compelling.

PRINCE CHARMER Word is, the party was far from over following last Saturday night's black-tie ball for the opening of the Portland Art Museum's latest mega-blockbuster, Hesse—A Princely German Collection. At least not for Crown Prince Donatus, a.k.a. "Don," and his entourage. The son of His Royal Highness Moritz, Landgraf of Hesse, whose priceless family treasures inhabit PAM's halls through March 2006, loosened his tie with a few cocktails at Bluehour, kicked up his well-appointed heels at Embers (the Old Town queer bar known as much for its drag queens as for its disco dance floor) and called it a night with a late bite around 5 am at Montage.