Gossip Should Have No Friends

[October 5th, 2005] PRIVATE EYE Portland photographer Isaac White was recently featured on the smart 'n' sexy literary/photography/erotica website, www.nerve.com . His photo set, titled "Natural Impulses," features artistic photos of a nude female model posing fetchingly at Lower Punchbowl Falls on the Eagle Creek Trail above the Columbia River Gorge. The website ties White's photos in with the "faeries and apparitions" of traditional spirit photography, posing the question: "What's more magnificent, a Pacific Northwest cloud formation, a ghost on a log, or breasts moist with spring water?" Is that a rhetorical question, or are we allowed to answer?

UNPAID MELODY A generous WW reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) has purchased tickets for self-taught piano prodigy Stanley Waters (see "Untapped Waters," WW, Sept. 21, 2005) to hear internationally renowned pianist Horacio Gutiérrez play Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Oregon Symphony on Oct. 22. Word is arrangements are being made for Waters to meet laureate conductor James DePreist after the concert.

PARTY OF ONE Although the Gotham Bldg. Tavern's ballsy dishes are still garnering raves, chef Tommy Habetz is flying solo these days in the North Interstate Avenue restaurant's open kitchen. Naomi Hebberoy, Gotham's co-chef-and ripe co-creator with husband Michael Hebberoy-has taken on a much smaller role as a member of the Tavern's front-of-house staff. Did the restaurant-life pressure cooker threaten to crush Portland's top food couple, or is Naomi simply plotting the empire's next local food conquest? Maybe it's both: "I decided I wanted to work less than 12 hours a day 6 days a week for a change," Naomi told WW. "You will see me soaking up every element of the organization: floor managing at clarklewis and Gotham, cooking an occasional special supper, and spending...more down time with my husband. I needed to go where the whole organization needs me most and drive the ship into the wind-so to speak."