Gossip Should Have No Friends

[February 8th, 2006] DOMO ARIGATO, MR. ROBOTO As if listening to photographer/author Timothy Archibald read from his "picture book" Sex Machines Tuesday night at Powell's Books weren't kinky enough (see cover story, page 20), Allen Stein , the inventor of the world's first Internet-controlled sex machine, promised to amp up the night with a private afterparty in Southeast Portland featuring "live demos " of many of the machines featured in Archibald's book. WW went to press before we could get in on the heavy-metal action, but Scoop did confirm that Archibald was planning to attend. "Keep in mind, I had nothing to do with planning this," laughs the author.

DANCE, DURDEN, DANCE At an '04 book reading, local author Chuck Palahniuk freaked out his audience by hinting that his cult novel Fight Club was being revamped as a cult Broadway musical featuring the music of Trent Reznor. Well, it looks like another group has beaten Chuck to the punch. According to indiaglitz.com, a Bollywood-flavored musical version of Fight Club is set to hit Indian movie theaters Feb. 17. Vikram Chopra's movie depicts "how juvenile youth start a fight club for fun, but end up fighting injustice...to prove they are full of vitality, sporting their strengths and being cohesive. A club that has only one rule—'No Rules.'" All with a Pritam hip-hop beat. Check out the film's trailer at www.twitchfilm.net.

HOW TO FIGHT CHATTINESS At last Friday's sold-out Crystal Ballroom show, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy had to collectively shush the audience of 1,500. It started as a polite request for the crowd to actually listen and escalated to Tweedy pleading for everyone to just "shut the fuck up" (perhaps the crowd was feeling restless due to the overpacked ballroom's horrible sightlines). Tweedy mentioned the PDX noisemakers the next night at his show in Eugene, referring to his frustration with Portland's crowd as a "hissy fit." Maybe the Eugene fans benefited from the McDonald Theatre's auditorium-style layout—or maybe they were just too stoned for obnoxious banter.