We were walking through SE, talking quietly and watching big steely gray thunderheads move over downtown. "That'd be a great house for it," he said, pointing at a big, yellow Victorian on the corner. "For what?" "You don't know? Real World: Portland—it's coming next year!" I can't confirm this, and it may be a total shitwagon of gossip, but since then I've heard the same thing from dozens of people. Get those protest signs ready, friends.

More talk this week on the recent AP story calling Portland thee city for "indie musicians," based upon national awareness of bands like the Shins, Menomena, and the Decemberists. Discussion blazed all week in the PDX Pop! newsgroup, promoting one poster to call the whole situation "weak sauce."

No matter if Portland becomes whatever or what have you, it's hard to ignore that we've got some good shit coming down the pike. The new Ohmega Watts record, The Find, is incredible, like Curtis Mayfield as done by J5. (My copy is the "Clean: No Cussing" version.) Iron and Wine and Calexico are going superband this Friday at Roseland. And because we need hella warning to dial in our perfect Halloween week (come on, think bigger than one measly night) here's a good one: Liberty Hall's crazy rock indulgence bash with members of Fireballs of Freedom, Team Dresch, and others dressing up as Wipers, Misfits, the Gits, and MC5 cover bands. That happens October 28.

Comedian Todd Barry, who's done everything from Aqua Teen Hunger Force to Chapelle's Show and the great existential epic Pootie Tang, will join Love as Laughter next Thursday, October 27, at Berbati's. Says Barry, "The only other time I played Portland, [at Holocene] the audience consisted of the band that opened for me. And maybe not even the whole band. I have to think this show's going to be better."

Finally, on the brutal, skull-crushing gossip front, which four-piece, coed indierock band recently gave each other A WEAPONS GRADE DOSE OF CRABS after a drunken party in Hawthorne? (Best emailed guess gets a limited-edition It's Who You Know STICKER!) And you thought that shit only happened in the '70s. Your parents dropping their keys in a fishbowl, then smoking reefer and wife-swapping ain't got nothin' on Portland's seedy underbelly!

Gossip, rumors, news, whatevs: adam@portlandmercury.com