• Lou Reed passed away on October 27 at age 71 from complications stemming from his May liver transplant. Read Dave Segal's excellent tribute to Reed's legacy here.

• In related news, a Stranger staffer knows someone who dug a piece of gum out of the trash that he saw Lou Reed chew and throw away in the '70s. The man kept it preserved it in a specimen jar in his bedroom all these years, but took it out on Monday to chew it in commemoration.

• Seattle musician Ian Hill and his wife, Allison, are making progress of sorts in their quest to purchase the Comet, which has been shuttered since October 5. "We now know that Lost Lake is one of the other prospective buyers," Hill says. "Word on the street is that they want to acquire the space and expand Lost Lake, essentially doing away with the Comet... When I spoke to Stacy [Krantz], she said the building owner [Charlie Chao] wants to keep the Comet what it is. They said they don't want 'another Bellevue yuppie bar.'" Lost Lake co-owner Jason Lajeunesse says, "We've made it no further than general inquiries. We share a landlord, and it's important to us and the neighborhood that the right tenant goes in next door. As of now, Lost Lake has made no offers on the space."

• Last Sunday, America's worst pop star, Chris Brown, was arrested and charged with felony assault after an altercation with a man in Washington, DC. The next day, the charges were reduced to simple misdemeanor assault, and he was released without bail. Nevertheless, with Brown still on probation for his 2009 assault on Rihanna, these new troubles will likely result in a new jail sentence, which Brown will likely blame on "the haters."

• Spotted in Ballard this weekend: two beardo dudes busking in the rain, dressed as a bearstronaut (an actual bear astronaut, not the New England dance-pop band) and a kid in teddy-bear PJs. Simultaneously: A parade of costumed children followed a high-school marching band through the farmers' market. Duh.

• Estonian vocalist/producer Maria Minerva played a magical, mushroomy set of dubby dance music Sunday night at Chop Suey before a meager crowd of around 25. She finished with an a cappella version of Andrea True Connection's porntastic "More, More, More." In a better, more psychedelic world, Minerva would be as popular as Lorde.

• At a birthday party on Saturday, everyone stood with hands on hearts as an intoxicated man dressed as a flasher sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," which ggnzla karaoke had on hand for some reason.