Another sweet little painting seen on my walk here in Portland, Oregon. I could even hear birds singing from the magnificent neighborhood trees while gazing upon it! Oh, I mean, birds bellowing their delightful war chants in this ravaged hellscape or whatever. #PDX

Tiny bits of me turn to dust every time I hear the word “glamping”.

Subtly downgrade a band The Carob Watchband

If you’re in Portland, please make sure to stop by and support my friend’s thoughtfully considered, wonderful new bookshop, Selected Stories Books at 3360 SE Division St. Portland, Oregon Hours: Tues-Sat 11-6 & Sun 12-5. It’s right by Wellspent Market & Lauretta Jean’s! #pdx selectedstoriesbooks.com

Awww, man. Getting the plague made me forget that tonight was the last night of the Desperately Seeking Susan 40th anniversary screenings at Academy Theater. Blurg. I was really looking forward to that.

If a tarot reader had told me that one day I would get the plague and watch endless episodes of The Dick Cavett Show in bed, I woulda told them to get outta town. The episode with sweet barefoot baby Margot Kidder, Gloria Swanson, Janis Joplin, + Dave Meggyesy really is like a fever dream. So great.

I enjoyed the UFO feel of Wet Leg’s show at Revolution Hall. I admit my eyes were closed for 70% of the show. I didn’t want to find out if I’m the kind of person to have a seizure from unrelenting rapid strobes. The view through my eyelids was kaleidoscopic! The teen was over the moon all night #pdx

Hot damn. This is such a beautiful interview with John Malkovich on Bella Freud’s Fashion Neurosis show. The intimacy of Bella’s interviews is so gorgeous and such a relief.

Portland Art Museum loses its director, Brian Ferriso, in December, but just before he heads to Dallas the museum unveils its new Rothko Pavilion, part of a $111 million renovation adding more than 100,000 square feet of space.

Walking the mountain trails with my pal Chickfactor. “Hell” is pretty dreamy and full of smiling faces! #portland #pdx

Nice recent compliments: “You walk too fucking fast! This is a hillll!!” - the teen + “You must’ve hula hooped a lot as a kid or something.” - pilates instructor (I did!)

As someone who genuinely loves a good, nonlinear think about things in life, grief just really takes nonlinear percolating too far. I’d like to speak to its manager.

PDX PSA: Dipping slices of donut peaches into the lovely roasted fig leaves and pine nut gelato from Pinolo is dreamy af.

One minute you’re in your kitchen in Portland and the next you’re between two cornfields in Omgwtf, Wisconsin listening to Always See Your Face by Love blaring from your rental car while you dance it out a bit to stretch your legs before getting back on the highway. Surreal times.

I just love these two dynamic and commanding women so much. I could swim around in this beautiful conversation for days. Less small talk and more this, please.

One minute you’re standing in your kitchen about to make the fancy tuna salad recipe a friend sent you and the next minute you’re standing in another friend’s kitchen thousands of miles away watching him prepare you a different fancy tuna salad. Life is weird and sweet even when it’s a fuckin’ mess.

I saw this lovely little Crater Lake painting attached to a telephone pole while out stretching my legs this morning. #pdx

It was such a dream to see Ernst Lubitsch’s sold out “Trouble in Paradise” at Portland’s @hollywoodtheatre.org’s last night! There’s nothing as fun as the exaggerated winks, fast talk, and bouncing eyebrows of pre-Code innuendo. Plus, the sets + wardrobe were amazing to finally see on a big screen.

PDX PSA: Mis Tacones has the best Agua de Jamaica (hibiscus iced tea) in all of Portland. And their food is vegan and amazing (even to a pescatarian). Also, I love trying salsas and my favorite salsa *so far* in Portland is the Cassera salsa from Mi Burrito. They have great breakfast burritos, too.

It was so wonderful to see Wong Kar-wai’s stunning film “In the Mood for Love” on a big screen again at Cinema 21. In 2001, I would dwell on the beauty of it as a balm during a very tumultuous year that brought a big Seattle earthquake, a life-changing car accident, and 9/11. Thank heavens for art.

1996, two yrs later, in Tacoma with the same friends’ kid as below. This time with her constant companion “Baby Kitty”. Now she lifts me off my feet when she hugs me! Surround your kids with loving misfits & they too could end up with glam “Benita Bizarre meets Breakfast at Tiffany’s” looks.

The ripple effect when a good friend of mine loses their The Late Show with Stephen Colbert job goes beyond the 200 amazing staffers. The loss of just this friend’s role will hurt many, many small businesses in a variety of ways - and that’s just one person. Diabolical and heartbreaking shit.

Man, I really miss seeing the Big Bear Valley eaglets on the FOBBV cameras so much. I hope Sunny and Gizmo are having fun soaring around wherever they are.

This frittata recipe is super versatile and easy. You can slice to store in fridge or freeze slices for later between layers of parchment paper in a freezer bag and thaw in fridge when ready. Nice in a sandwich, with salad, with toast, in burritos, in yer hand, etc. So good with fresh summer herbs!

A dreamy morning in the garden. The heatwave is coming, so I watered + gathered what I could for cheery bouquets. I finally had success with hollyhocks + cool Love-in-a-mist pods this year! Plus, tons of Sun Gold tomatoes, bluebs, and herbs. Excited to roast and pickle lots of veggies tomorrow AM.

I moved to Portland 17 years ago today! ♥️ I couldn’t even imagine loving it as much as I do. I got a job the day after I rolled in. Sometimes a place just gets its hooks in you real quick.

Some good ideas from my pal @shilobyrd.bsky.social from her nana who “survived the Great Depression in an uninsulated plywood shack in Montana”. I’ve always wanted to learn to tie fancy knots, so now is a good time. Thank you, Shilo!

My four blueberry bushes are doing so great this year! The blueberries from my “Chandler” bush are enormous and the circumference of quarters and nickels! Real knife and forkers. I think I might make blueberry hand pies to have ready in the freezer to bake.

I played a hodge-podge (a "hotchpotch" in some regions) of records on Portland radio yesterday, subbing at "Electric Avenue" on @xrayfm.bsky.social . The great victory was finding the long version of "Funky Fanfare" that was not on a $100 KPM comp. One can listen here: xray.fm/broadcasts/6...

Portland PSA: They have their amazing tayberry sorbetto at Pinolo Gelato right now! Go soon - it’s so beautiful, but fleeting.

The teen keeps interrupting my whining about how hot it is with her own, louder, whining about how hot it is. I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere, but I would steamroller her… if it wasn’t so hot out. And if she wasn’t bigger and stronger than me.

Rescued some garden rose damsels before the Portland heatwave. Don’t forget to leave out water for the birds and bees, please!

Went to Fantino on Division St. here in Portland for the first time last night. It was great and it was nice to hear so many patrons and staff having conversations in Italian. The focaccia with herb butter, burrata with stone fruit, lemony bucatini, and the NA Spritz were all lovely. It’s cute, too!

Happiness is getting to see “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” on a big screen, discovering that the friend of 24 years who you went with knows every line by heart, and having enough fun folks in your #PDX community to pack the screening in a big theatre on a Tues night. Thanks @hollywoodtheatre.org!

My view while I lounged around the park the other day when it was warmer here in Portland. Every year, I wonder how this place could even be real. Those silly gumdrop trees just do me in. Such a strange little glowing jewel box of a place.

This strawberry lemonade recipe is very simple and delightful! It’s potent, so I think it’s nice to fill your glass w/ 1/2 lemonade and 1/2 fizzy water. I made a double batch and froze half in pint jars. I’ll do the same with lavender lemonade. It’s nice to take to the park for dreamy lollygagging.

I sure do love you, Portland, Oregon! ♥️ That felt good. #nokings #pdx

Eating lunch near & having a little casual small talk with Dustin Hoffman, Linda Lavin, and others during the weeks I’d ride into work w/ my great-grandpa to Broadhurst Theatre while in NYC to visit my family over the years. John Randolph called me “Tootsie” & “Toots”. All nice, hardworking folks!

Mark your calendars Portland! Come out to celebrate Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats — the new book by @audreyjgolden.bsky.social. There will also be a conversation with the author and three stellar local ladies at Powell’s. Yay!

I love it when people who knew her, or even just met her briefly, tell me nice things about my grandmother. She passed away thirty-three years ago and is still getting compliments! That’s how wonderful she was. I miss her every day. They broke the mold with that one.

A lovely new song about Portland by Heavenly. It’s exactly how it feels to live in this wonderful place! Thanks, @heavenlyamelia.bsky.social ♥️

After a sweet, strange series of serendipitous Portland moments, I am getting to watch my dear MN friends’ daughter get a Michael Hurley tattoo from my dear Portland friend’s daughter. Sometimes this little world is A-OK ♥️ Love my current view, too.

I’d never seen Jeanne Dielman before, but now it might be all I think about for a while. So beautiful… everything about it. All those shades of green. Oof. I could drown in it.

Took myself to a double feature tonight. I saw the stunning, restored The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at Academy, then Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted at @hollywoodtheatre.org. Both were amazing, but Swamp Dogg pulled every heartstring AND made me laugh really hard. Go see it. Hope it gets a longer run!

The four tiny baby bunnies are out of the flowerpot nest now and nesting on the ground in my cranesbill geranium patch. The way I found out gave me such a start. I won’t be able to water the geraniums for a while. Mom is tired, but still nearby. Also, baby bunnies are very bossy and all side-eye.

My friends’ daughter just graduated from college and is doing her first road trip here from MN with her boyfriend. So excited for them. I hope they arrive this weekend with pockets full of pressed pennies and stories of balls rolling uphill.

PDX PSA: The strawberry salad at Red Sauce is SO GOOD. It also has a riot of greens, mint, almonds, sheep’s cheese, and sugar snap peas sliced in half in that adorable way where you can see everyone in the little boat.

Made some new pals on my walk. I forgot about how I always lose my sense of direction at this park. Head in clouds when there’s so much to look at in all directions. Up, down, and all around…

I know it isn’t possible that I’m the only person who went to see The Linguini Incident, but it always feels that way. Nobody has ever known what I’m talking about (in itself, not a novelty, tbh) when I’ve mentioned it. Not even in 1991. I still have it on VHS. Oh, well. I just love that silly film.