Gossip should have no friends

[April 25th, 2007] TIME-BASED WHAAA? Portland Institute for Contemporary Art announced a killer lineup for this year's Time-Based Art Festival at last Saturday's $150-a-ticket TADA fundraiser—including a massive choral piece by Rinde Eckert , an interactive Canadian performance called Haircuts by Children , in which participants get their hair cut by, um, children, and GATZ, a six-hour verbatim reading of The Great Gatsby by the staff of a small office. So, Gus Van Sant knows what's hitting town in September—great! Luckily for the rest of us, PICA's holding a free public reception tonight at the Wieden & Kennedy building (224 NW 13th Ave., 5:30 pm, free) where TBA artistic director Mark Russell will give us little people the lowdown on TBA:07. Did we mention it's free?

REAGANOMICAL RIDE Local filmmaker Crispin Rosenkranz has a thing for Ronald Reagan. "I always had this funny Reagan fascination; wondered what it was like to be Reagan ." That quest for morning in America led Rosenkranz to do Reagan impersonations for KBOO, and made him dress up in Gipper-style ranch duds for the Friday's Clinton Street Theater premiere of The Tripper , David Arquette 's movie about a Reagan obsessive who kills hippies. Arquette, in town for the opening, must have been impressed by Crispin's getup: he named Rosenkranz "The Ultimate Tripper" and rewarded him with the 1968 van used in the movie. No hippies will be harmed in this exchange: Rosenkranz plans to convert the van to biodiesel. "This is the thrill of a lifetime," he told WW on Monday.

ALLAH MY SONS Allen Nause, Artists Repertory Theatre's roving artistic director, hopped a plane for Israel on Saturday morning. Nause is headed for the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem, where he'll direct the National Theater of Palestine's production of All My Sons. In Arabic. It will be the National Theater's first production of a play by America's preeminent Jewish playwright, Arthur Miller—or for that matter, by any American. The production presents some interesting questions: Should they include the onstage kiss? Will frustration with the American Dream pan out in Arabic? Does being blacklisted exempt Miller from inclusion in the vast Zionist conspiracy?

SPOTTED IPod, shmipod. Forgoing all newfangled gadgets in favor of keeping it real, City Commish Randy Leonard took a little time out on a lazy Sunday to peruse the used CD racks at the West Burnside Everyday Music. After checking out selections from the Cowboy Junkies and the now-dead godfather of soul, James Brown, Leonard grabbed at least one copy of an oldie but goodie by John Cougar Mellencamp.