I had two Talking Heads albums and I played them both, one after the other, all day yesterday, Remain In Light, Stop Making Sense, over and over again in front of the fire, with David Foster Wallace and homemade gingersnaps, and eventually we ran out of logs and were feeding it nothing but kindling, smaller and smaller twigs in some kind of desperation, and when the fire finally burned down I went to sleep.
Tequila was good, a sip of her margarita was bad, a sip of vodka tonic was good, PBR was mediocre, and I could sound like a seasoned drinker, but I'm not; so, drunk and exhausted on the living room carpet she scratched me behind the ears like a cat and asked "So did you love it?"--it meaning Portland, and how could I not?
It is a city burdened with bursts of flowering trees, banjo music, coffee, all in that flattering foggy light that comes just before or after or during a rain. A city for bicycles, and magnolia blossoms, and slices of pink-frosted cake, and small-press novels set entirely in Helvetica. They cal if after all the city of roses, and maybe I love it because of that, or because of the weather, or because I was sitting in a cafe when he began to sing "Poke out your eyes/And move to Portland/Kill your wife/And move to Portland/Burn down your home/And move to Portland/Come on everybody!/We're movin' to Portland!"
I don't know if I like him so much because he smoked opium for four days straight, or because he has to deliberate for a long time before asking me the color of my eyes, or because he dips his sugar cube into his coffee with such reverence, or because he laughs so beautifully when I say I want to break his best friend's nose, or because I've been in love with his best friend for what feels like decades.
It's raining a little bit, and I've been reading Billy Childish, Sam Shepherd, David Foster Wallace, reading David Foster Wallace while listening to the Talking Heads, Remain In Light, Stop Making Sense, and I'm reading Sam Shepherd because he told me to, and I'm never quite so spaciously lonely as when I know he's coming home.
Posted by Anonymous on April 26, 2009 1:10 PM