Gossip Should Have No Friends

[December 10th, 2008]

A ROSE IS A ROSE: As the in-house band booking manager for the Doug Fir Lounge —which opened for show-going biz in early 2005—Alicia Rose has had an immeasurable impact on Portland’s nightlife (see “Fir Frenzy,” WW, March 30, 2005). But Rose confirmed with WW that she will leave the venue at the end of December. Put away those handkerchiefs: She has enlisted to help reinvent Jim Brunberg’s Mississippi Studios, which closed for a massive expansion and renovation project in June and is tentatively scheduled to reopen in March. No word yet on how the Fir plans to fill Rose’s shoes.

HOLE RACE: CBS’s top-rated The Amazing Race—a travelogue of attractive, dim couples badgering tourists, failing to read maps, and sprinting absent purpose—landed in darkest Portlandia for Sunday’s season finale. Amidst a mad rush downtown, we were pleased to see Voodoo Doughnut appear as the series’ penultimate destination, with the tip-off clue: “The magic’s in the hole.” Producers secretly approached Voodoo’s Tres Shannon last spring to demand assurances the landmark hipster bakery would delay opening its Northeast Sandy Boulevard location until filming was completed and imposed a confidentiality agreement with seven-figure penalties for any disclosure. Rumors of 2009’s Survivor: Gresham remain unconfirmed.

TIP-TOP TOE: Good news for the The Red Shoes set: Northwest Professional Dance Project has just received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Portland-based program matches young dancers from across the U.S. with choreographers who create new work for the dancers to perform at NWPDP’s annual summer intensive. The NEA money will be used to create works for ‘09, including new ballets from former Oregon Ballet Theatre artistic director James Canfield and NWPDP artistic director Sarah Slipper.

BLACK FRIDAY, SUNDAY, monday…: It’s been a rough week for local radio. First came reports that Nicolle Camarata is no longer part of KRSK 105.1-FM’s Nelson & Terry Show. Then, Monday, Rick Emerson sorrowfully announced on air at 970-AM “The Talker” that longtime news reporter Tim Riley had been laid off by CBS radio. What’s more, KUFO 101-FM is replacing its drive-time staple The Marconi Show with The Cort and Fatboy Show with no word on where Marconi might end up. Former WW-er Byron Beck broke news of all the airwave carnage and has been following the story on byronbeckwindow.ning.com.

WELCOME TO MIAMI: Sunny, sexy South Beach was crawlin’ with Portland artists and gallery owners last week during the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair Dec. 2-7. Sales dipped this year (thanks anemic economy!), but that didn’t stop drizzle-shriveled Portlanders from enjoying the sunshine—or parties. For WW visual arts critic Richard Speer’s complete dispatch from Miami Beach, see WWire.