Nightlife
Picks
As thoughts turn pink and fleshy across the Metropolis, the
Nightcrawler sees sad irony everywhere. While chocolatiers,
purveyors of greeting cards naughty and nice, lace
panty peddlers and assorted merchants of the vino make good
on St. Valentine's commercial cupidity, one facet of the city's
love industry finds itself under siege from the Bluenosed
Upright Citizens' Coalition for Utter Decency.
Your Uncle Max speaks, of course, of the current jihad
by local politicos to crack down on the Splashtown sex
trade by forcing the working girls of the lingerie
modeling and escort service business to mess
with red tape instead of red lights. (There's now talk of
icing some forms of erotic dance, too--where will
the madness end?)
Nightcrawler finds the spectacle of politicians
interfering with prostitutes rich with paradox--which
group, on balance, does dirtier deeds for dirt cheap? Fortunately,
PDXXX has a chance to fight back against the perfidy of
the Puritans, before they try to lock up the booze and close
the theaters on Sundays. The Portland Area Privacy Alliance,
a volunteer army of civ-lib types, strippers, rockers, ladies
from the trade and their loyal clients, is preparing a lawsuit
against the City That Peeps.
PAPA (wonderfully Hemingwayesque, n'est-ce pas?)
argues that the city's rules violate a few different amendments
of that inconvenient whatsit, the Constitution. You
too can engage in the struggle this Sunday at Berbati's--and
all you have to do is watch women dance in historical skivvies.
The 20th Century Underwear Revue, a benefit event
to help PAPA pay its legal tab, features the dancing talents
of such locally celebrated burlesque-istas as Viva Las
Vegas, Gina Velour and Stella GoLightly. In all,
10 girls will represent the decades of the much-mourned
ex-century; one will model the unmentionables of the rocketeering
Future.
"I work as a stripper," says organizer Lucy Fur, who
contributes to the Portland-published digest Danzine.
"When anyone in the industry is threatened, we tend to come
together to help. That's what sparked my interest.
"In Portland, we have an awesome industry, with lots of
alternative-culture people working and a lot of support
for what we do. Bars are open to the idea, in part because
they're very supportive and in part because they know these
shows tend to do very well. Everyone likes to see girls
and hear music."
Huzzah to that, sister.
If you can't spare Sunday night (Max understands--church
meetings and all that), you can still declare your independence
from City Hall's Ministry of Love by defiantly pursuing
lusty entertainment. Specifically, screenwriter/impresario
Creighton Vero presents the Lust-o-Rama St. Valentine's
Cabaret Saturday night at Dante's, a new Old
Town colony of the Cobalt Lounge crew's empire.
The new Inferno-themed bras opens with randy poetry
by Walt Curtis, Gothic burlesque (your guess=mine),
a run through the Pander Bros.' eros-infused vid
Suck It and See, an appearance by the ubiquitous
Viva Las and the mind-melding alien jazz of Mexi-masked
weirdniks Seantos y Arachna. DJs, go-go chix and
various other crudités complete the sauce.
Now the only question is: Why didn't Max's mom and dad
name him something as cool as "Creighton Vero"?
LUST-O-RAMA ST. VALENTINE'S CABARET
with Seantos y Arachna, Walt Curtis, Eva Lake et
al.
Dante's
Southwest 3rd Avenue and Burnside Street, 417-1747
9 pm Saturday, Feb. 12. $6
20TH-CENTURY UNDERWEAR REVUE
with DJ Kitty Diggins and Papillon
Berbati's Pan
231 SW Ankeny St., 248-45799 pm Sunday, Feb. 13
$5-$7
EVENTS
LA HORA LOCA (I.E., HAPPY HOUR)
with flamenco fusion by Toshi Onizuka and Amir Sofi
Fernando's Hideaway
824 SW 1st Ave., 248-4709
4:30-7 pm Tuesdays-Fridays
POP! PART THREE
"Bubbles"
Berbati's Pan
231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579
9 pm Wednesday, Feb. 16. $10
COMEDY
KEVIN JORDAN AND DAN GABRIEL
Harvey's Comedy Club
436 NW 6th Ave., 241-0338
8 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 8 and 10:30 pm Friday;
6:30, 9 and 11:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 9-13. $8-$10.
DUMPED AND DIVORCED
Starring J.P. Linde and Art Krug.
It's a Beautiful Pizza
3341 SE Belmont St., 940-7405
8:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 10-12. $10 advance,
$12 at the door.
COMEDYSPORTZ
Mega-popular laff combat!
1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888
9 pm Friday, 7:30 and 9:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 11-12. $10.
SINGLES ONLY!
Open-mic
Jimmy Mak's
300 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542
9 pm Monday, Feb. 14. $3.
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Willamette Week | originally
published February 9,
2000
|
