Gossip Should Have No Friends

[July 25th, 2007]

BYE BYE FREE TIME Carye Bye can now add cult-following to her list of accomplishments. She's just stockpiled a weapon of mass petiteness at Hidden Portland (hiddenportland.com), a new website devoted to small, obscure museums and collections around PDX including just about every possible area of a hoarder's interest from, say, Dumbo to velvet. Its inception should come as little surprise to anyone in the bike community as Bye leads regular rides to such museums (see Outdoors, page 102) and is, herself, the curator of the Bathtub Art Museum —an online museum (bathtubmuseum.org) dedicated to, you guessed it, art inspired by way of the tub. Throw in the fact that she still runs Red Bat Press (redbatpress.com) and designs its collection of cute stationary (like "bunny in a bath"), and it seems like it's high time for Jack to move on—we now have the Jill of all trades.

HI RISE THAI The 16-story Civic condominiums , in that massive behemoth on 19th Avenue and West Burnside Street, were some of the fastest selling condos of Portland's recent building boom, and Scoop's just found out that the prime ground-floor retail space will house at least one new restaurant . Described as a high-end Thai eatery, Ayara will begin building out its courtyard-fronted space in the next few weeks. We also hear that other tenants will include a grocery store and possibly a brewpub. (In Portland? Who'da thunk?)

CULTURE CRASH As Travel + Leisure 's recent story about Portland rightly states, PDX has many sides. Why, then, is the national media so fascinated by those darkest? In the August '07 issue of the mag, writer Tom Austin , who was a fly on the wall in some of P-town's seediest dives for several months, chronicles the best of Portland stereotypes , portraying us as restless villagers teetering between divinity and debauchery with as much proclivity for tattooed naked dancers and swingers clubs as progressive politics, green building and light rail. (Did we say those were just stereotypes?) Anyway, our perceived vices must be all the rage in Gotham because rumor has it one NYC-based T + L editor was so compelled by Austin's story (in which he also rightly referred to Portland as a "perverse and obstinate place" and "a little pocket of Sweden in the States") that he's in town retracing Austin's steps for his own personal pleasure. What will come of that?

RADIO DAZE More changes on the radio dial. Last Friday girly sidekick "Teri Ann" of 105.1-The Buzz's Nelson & Terry Show (not to be confused with, er, "Terry" of the Nelson & Terry Show) was let go. Rumor has it that Teri Ann has been pitching a local radio version of The View (shudder), which might end up airing on Movin' 107.5. Her successor on the N&T Show for now is Nicolle Camarata, a regular contributor to Fox 12's Better TV show (and occasional WW contributor).