Gossip should have no friends

[March 12th, 2008]

»SPUD BUD: In the running for one of the all-time greatest, “of COURSE Portland needs this” ideas, local musician Mike McKinnon is opening a Belgian frietkot (a.k.a. french-fries shack) at Southeast 12th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard in the cart pod next to Tiny’s Coffee. Potato Champion , as McKinnon has christened his venture, will sell piping hot cones of fries with homemade ketchup, mayo, satay sauce and other dippers to late-night grease cravers (6 pm-3 am Friday and Saturday and 6 pm-1 am Sunday-Thursday). He’ll also serve poutine —the Canadian version of fries, with cheese curds ’n’ gravy. “The cart [idea’s] been in the back of my head ever since my first trip to Europe in the summer of 2000,” says McKinnon, a drummer whose band, Reporter , toured with the Thermals (see below) last fall. “I always made fries in the oven or on the stove top at home. Once I started working on this project I picked up a deep fryer and started playing around.” Hungry? You’ll have to wait a few more weeks, McKinnon’s tentative opening date is late March or early April.

»YOU PEOPLE WILL WATCH ANYTHING: In defiance of reason and good taste, Don Horn’s Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera has been so popular Horn has added two more performances: Friday, March 14, at 8 pm, and Saturday, March 15, at 7 pm. Have you no sense of decency?

»DRUM ROLLED: Another year, another drummer down. No, not in the deathly Spinal Tap tradition—but PDX pop-punk trio the Thermals is once again, a duo . On Saturday lead singer/guitar-slinger Hutch Harris posted a MySpace blog entry announcing the departure of drummer Lorin Coleman (original Thermals drummer Jordan Hudson split in 2005). “The split has been totally amicable,” Harris wrote. Coleman simply wants to explore other musical endeavors, including drumming for Andy Combs and the Moth . Harris and bassist Kathy Foster will split drum duties when they hit the studio to record their new record, and while Harris insists “we are not actually auditioning drummers yet,” don’t let that stop you from busting out your dad’s video camera and showing the Thermals how rad you look hitting those mini-pads in Rock Band.

»fly right: Gravity got you down? Well, here’s your chance to defy it. For a few splendid seconds this summer, you can hang in midair…before your homemade helicopter goes splash. That’s right, after a three-year absence, Red Bull is bringing its legendary Flugtag event back to Portland on Saturday, Aug. 2, at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. For those who’ve never flugged or tagged, the event is a tournament for from-scratch flying machines, judged on creativity, showmanship and distance of flight. Approximately 40,000 people attended the PDX event in 2004, and expectations for this year are almost double that. So how did Portland land the coveted contest—which is only held in a handful cities—twice in four years? According to Heidi Jahraus at Red Bull, “We like to spread the love around the country, but Portland was so psyched last time we were here, we just had to come back.” Visit redbullflugtagusa.com/Portland2008 to apply for the competition. The deadline is May 10.