Gossip Should Have No Friends

[December 20th, 2006] BITCHY MOVE Now you can complain about one more bitch moving up from California. Bitch magazine announced in its most recent newsletter plans to move from the city of the Golden Gate Bridge to the City of Bridges . The popular feminist magazine chose to make its home in our fair city due to the rising prices in the Bay Area. Founding editor Andi Zeisler told Scoop she was excited to join our community. "Portland has a lot of support for small publications," she explained. "It's a great place to be a do-it-yourself publication. Bitch is still looking for an office location but is hoping to make a home on the Eastside by March.

HOLIDAY FROMAGE Sometimes you gotta put a little cheese in someone's Christmas stocking to keep the coal out of your own. That's the case with the folks at Mississippi Studios , who put together a one-track benefit CD for the Henderson House for Battered Women titled I Don't Want Anything for Christmas. It's Portland's version of "We Are the World," complete with one-line solos from everyone from Art Alexakis to Linda Hornbuckle and Laura Gibson in this four minutes of, ahem, X-mas-themed pop-country. Unfortunately, the track is so over-the-top cheesy that we're having a hard time telling if it's serious: It already sounds like the South Park parody it begs for. On the plus side, I Don't Want Anything for Christmas has a proper message (guess what it is). Then again, it still sounds like something you'd hear in the mall. Pick it up at Music Millennium, Mississippi Studios or cdbaby.com. $5.

LAST DAYS On Thursday, Dec. 7, Dead Moon —the greatest underground rock band in Portland history—cancelled their appearance that night at Dante's, and all subsequent shows. As reported on WW's LocalCut.com, there was finally word last Wendesday, Dec. 13, from bandleader Fred Cole, who first rock 'n' rolled his way to Portland in the 1960s: "After 20 years, Dead Moon is retiring ." It's unclear if there was drama on the Moon, but drummer Andy Loomis has been seen alive in Portland, so, that's a good sign. Can a band so addicted to rock that they did van tours at age 50 really give it up so easily? Can a band that told WW last March that it would only end in death really be hanging up their hats? In any case, the Northwest (and the world) will not soon forget the tireless, talented and self-reliant trio.

GIVING TREE Free money! The Regional Arts & Culture Council just announced its 2007 slate of project grants, awarding $376,329 to 38 local artists and 59 organizations including the Autism Society of Oregon ($476 for an arts youth showcase). Other awards include $3,488 to Fear No Music for Hammers and Sticks; $2,663 for the Molalla Community Theater Group to produce Seussical the Musical and $3,743 for media artist Chris Cooley's project What Invariably Goes Left Unsaid, which he describes as "a narrative film about the power struggle that forms between two friends that sleep together." Paging Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.....

WHAT YOU MISSED ON WW's LOCALCUT.COM THIS WEEK Becky Ohlsen reviews the Thermals live in Stockholm, where even the most adoring Swedish fans don't dance. >> Alan Singley and Pants Machine win a West Linn High School battle of the bands and buy a van with the prize money, plus Amy McCullough talks up the band's always eccentric and legally blind frontman. >> Dirtnap signs with Railer, mad scrilla for artists predicted. >> Life on the road with Shredosaurus Rex. >> Plus, MP3s from the SLiP iTS, and more.