Gossip Should Have No Friends

[January 11th, 2006] AFTER MIDNIGHT "The show goes on" took on a whole new meaning following the New Year's Eve performance of Pink Martini and Little Jimmy Scott . Instead of scooting back to his Ohio home on Jan. 1 as scheduled, the legendary balladeer stuck around for a few days working with Thomas Lauderdale on such jazz standards as "Nature Boy" and "Tea for Two" at the Southeast Portland recording studio Kung Fu Bakery . Last week the pair staked out the RingSide , where members of Pink Martini chowed down with the songbirds at a dinner party held in the honor of Scott and his wife Jean.

SECOND DRAFT After eyeballing Monday's New York Times, which reported that the gifted young trannie truckstop hooker cum literary enigma known as "JT Leroy " was a figment of another author's—possibly two other authors'—imagination, Scoop got to wondering what else the "author" might have fibbed about. The bio page on JT's website (jtleroy.com/bio.html) states, "JT wrote the original script...of Gus Van Sant's Elephant...." We asked local director Van Sant whether Leroy really did write what "he" said "he" did. Here's Gus' equally enigmatic response: "yes, but he wrote an original script, called Tommy Gun, and Elephant wasn't based on it, there were some characters that had similar experiences...otherwise it was another script entirely." Hmmm. Interesting.

L.A. STORY Last week, Scoop let it slip that the yet-to-be-opened restaurant Sergeant Recruiter , the newest project from Cobras & Matadors co-owner Steve Arroyo , may have already gone AWOL. According to Arroyo's ex-partner in Cobras, chef Micah Camden , this Sergeant has indeed another base of operations. Arroyo ditched the P-town location for a new L.A. spot, while Camden said sayonara to Cobras at the first of the year in order to open his own sushi and sake spot called Yakuza (yes, a.k.a. the Japanese mafia) in Northeast Portland next March or April. "Expect the pretty plates of 750ml," he says, "crossed with old reruns of Iron Chef and Kill Bill."

^WEB-ONLY SCOOP!

BERBATI'S CANNED Berbati's Pan underwent a seismic shift last week when owner Ted Papaioannou decided to eliminate the booking and promoting arm of the venerable downtown club, essentially turning the 500-capacity club into a rental space. "Too much funds were being taken from the bar and restaurant and being put into the music venue," Papaioannou told WW. In an attempt to stop the loss, Papaioannou unexpectedly laid off Chantelle Hylton, the Portland scene fixture who has been booking the club and overseeing show promotion for the last two and a half years. Now shows at the club will be put on by outside entities like Thrasher Presents and Monqui Presents, the same promoters that already plan the bulk of the other big shows in town. Papaioannou claims the club will remain a part of the Berbati's establishment for the foreseeable future.

OVER & OUT After almost three years of dragging their asses all over town, Drag Kings Portland, better known as DKPDX, has decided to call it quits. Dedicated to feminist politics and trouncing all sorts of isms (sexism, racism, classism and sizeism) according to one of its founders, Christa Orth, the members that make up one of Portland's most progressive, pansexual drag performance troupes will now pursue other "artistic endeavors." That is, once they finish their farewell show, "The Final Frontier," at Feb. 18 at Holocene.