Sweet Tooth/Cryin' Shame/Happy Valentines day

So last night as my friend Suz and I were singing loudly with the crowd to the song "Sweet Tooth" at the Dave Rawlings Machine show, I thought about what a good valentines day it is after all.
It's pretty easy to get sentimental, grossly nostalgic, bitter, or just depressed because of a Hallmark holiday, but if you can just get over that part (tongue in cheek) and let yourself wear red and pink tights, eat chocolate, get purple lips, and think about the good shit, it's actually a pretty great little day. I'm feeling the whiskey from last night's rollicking, but luckily my sweet ma sent me some chocolates and fancy soaps (thanks ma!).
Here are some pictures from my Valentines week that make me feel pretty sweet...
Happy Valentines Day! love, hb

Zach and Eliza and I made valentines using potato stamps, googly eyes, glitter, and Tinkerbell stickers.

At my favorite coffee shop, a beautiful dog stylishly waits by a hydrant for his owner to get his coffee.




Eliza and Pete finally
meet and become fast friends....

The Dave Rawlings Machine at the Roseland Theater!

Me+Suz+whisky+trimet=good time valentines.

And the stinkiest valentine of all is Pete, my sweet old man.

you should, well, read this poem. a few times.

The Possibilities (Beckian Fritz Goldberg)

After a wife’s death a man may talk
to his horse with a great tenderness
as if, just this morning, he had tried on
her pink slipper. And if he has no horse
he may crack his window a little
wider when it lightly rains to confirm
the roofs and trees are made
of paper. If there is no rain
he may make himself a meal at midnight,
sweet artichokes and Danish cheese,
a glass of red wine. If there is
no red, then white. He may suck the knife
clean with his tongue. Later

lying awake he may hear the wild lung
of a motorcycle far off on a far road.
If there is no motorcycle, a dog
trying for any syllable in any known
language. Something falling suddenly in
the closet, according to some law.

Nearness in the dark is a kind of beauty
though it is only a lampshade, a shoulder
of the walnut chair. If there is no chair,
then a shelf. A shelf of books with the devil’s
violet fedora tossed on top. Or something
exotic from the sea, manta ray

like the pulse in the ball of his foot.
A man may walk ten steps behind
his life. It may be sorrow of fear.
He may see her back like two doves rushing
up where a boy has flung a handful
of pebbles. If no pebbles, leaves
where a masked prowler hunches, his belt of
lockpicks, his bag of velvet like the one
from which memory snatches. These are

the possibilities, the immaculate
like miracles which are nothing
in themselves, but in this world a sign
of angels, ghosts, supernatural beings
who watch us. Who listen. Who sometimes
helplessly let us stumble on
their pyramids, their crude observatories
or let us, generation after
generation, speak to the broken horse
of the human heart.

sunny times.

It's been so beautiful here...
Last week week we got mini cupcakes from Saint Cupcake and sat in the park to feast.


Pete enjoys most of his days on the warm carpet in the sun.

If you look closely, you will see little horsies on the curbs in Portland.

chopping a new niche.

About a week and a half ago I returned from a wintery and near perfect trip back to Minnesota to play a show and see some friends. It felt good to see familiar faces and bars and frostbitten fingertips, and the kids show I played for Rock the cradle ended up being a blast. A kid even passed out in the front row on his dad's coat during the last couple of songs. Some very small girls were dancing wildly behind me while I was singing. It was great. I also recorded a Vic Chesnutt song called "Gepetto" (from his record "Little") for an upcoming benefit album. My friend Ethan Sutton from Spaghetti Western String Co. played on it, and we're really happy with the outcome! Going back to my old homestead used to be more difficult, especially in terms of leaving it to return to my new city. But now it feels good both landing and flying away. I seem to gain a bit more perspective on what exactly it is I'm doing here and with my life and what I'm learning and experiencing in general, and this in itself is quite rewarding. Fortunately I am feeling like I have hit a stride in my new life here both with work and creativity, and this is a sacred thing which I am thankful for every day. Of course, that goes without saying that I miss my friends back in the midwest, but I am enjoying the process of meeting and befriending new people as well.
I don't have much to say other than I often have the feeling similar to that of leaving a good friend's house after a great meal- full, and more than just the literal sense of the word- content with the figures which have scribbled my fate and simple sense of existence right now. I know this is a waning feeling, which is part of what makes it so unique and delicate. I've been reading good books, writing every day, running every day, listening to a lot of music, and hanging out with good people. I also really like my job as a nanny, and though it is testing at times, I even like that part of it, too. The other day it was in the 50's and sunny here, so I dusted off my trusty bike and went for a ride. Above is a picture of a really awesome tree in Laurelhurst park. Here's me in my fancy ass helmet taking my own picture. This is a project that Eliza did on her own last night using glue, paper clips and small rubber bands. She was quite proud of herself, and I think it's pretty fetching.

Here are my recent and or current musings:
*books
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (GREAT read)
just started Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey

*musique
"Wake Up" by the Walkmen (from Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone)
Philip Glass solo piano (Metamorphosis 1-5 rule)
"untitled fantastic" by Slum Village (from a recently received mix cd that's awesome!)
"Imagine" album John Lennon Plastic Ono Band
"After the Goldrush" Neil Young

*etc.
making pizza from scratch
the Avalon nickle arcade (skee ball, anyone?)
salty chocolate

thanks for reading this stuff.
xo, hb(mt st helens and mt hood from the airplane)