Author | Lightnews

H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 17h

We, as a society, have learned nothing from surviving a global pandemic

H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 17h

This is why I don’t usually pause working in Flashe or acryla-gouache. With OG gouache, the colors are rewettable: the palette can dry out and I can still use it (no mold or mystery puddles). Though its solubility is also what makes finished paintings in gouache so delicate (and costly to frame).

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 17h

Returning to an in-progress acryla-gouache painting after a few weeks, and I’ve spent most of my day setting the stay-wet palette back in order. Some colors separated and puddled. I have no idea what any of them are anymore, in relation to the painting itself. But: no mold! So that’s good.

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 4d

Portland’s major reason for trying to yoink arts funding (which our artists and small arts orgs desperately need) is to move that money to Parks & Rec, so ensuring funding for this also helps us hold the line for the arts. It’s all related!

Bird Alliance of Oregon @birdallianceoregon.bsky.social · 5d

Show up for Portland’s Parks and wildlife by voting yes on the Portland Parks Levy! Without the Levy Portland Parks & Rec will lose nearly half its budget, forcing closures and eliminating programs. Let’s show how much we love our parks by voting yes! birdallianceoregon.org/take-action/...

YES on 26-260, Portlanders for Parks

Bird Alliance of Oregon urges your YES on 26-260, the Portland Parks Levy which will be in front of Portland Voters this November. The Levy will ensure that the City of Portland is able to maintain an...

birdallianceoregon.org

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 5d

I was just doing that last night. I KNOW I saved some just for this

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Reposted by H L Birdsong

Ursula K. Le Guin @ursulakleguin.com · 6d

Congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me), recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Rakesfall!

Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera, with the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction sticker on the cover

Vajra Chandrasekera, photo by Sanjeewa Weerasinghe. The author sits at a white table, arms resting in front of him, wearing a tan jacket and a white shirt.

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 6d

Wow. I mean, I’m not surprised at the incompetence, nor the schoolyard bully tone, but the level of it is off the charts!

And—just—I’ll never get over thinking Signal is some kind of magical sub-space where normal rules of communication don’t apply

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 9d

Satire, one hopes?

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 13d

…or did you mean when I grumbled about being awake before 8 am?

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 13d

I said “minor” 😤

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 13d

Glad you found joy in my minor suffering

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 14d

Artist’s prerogative 😉

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 14d

My grandma’s house had a wood stove like that—and always a copper kettle on top. As I recall, she used it to get moisture into the dry desert air.

Thanks for provoking my own little trip down memory lane.

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 15d

I feel like this happens to me too. I have to push through until I relax into an, “oh right, it’s like this” feeling.

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 15d

Saw this marvelous rose on a walk yesterday in our quiet Portland neighborhood. The rest of the rose bush was in awful shape—as if it mustered up everything it had to produce this one perfect rose. Maybe the contrast made it stand out all the more.

Perfect rose: deeply golden yellow at the center, shifting to a soft pink at the outside petals. Growing in front of a wall that’s concrete below and red brick above.

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 16d

I mean, turnabout’s fair play

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 16d

It was in that drawer because I used it. Then I swept everything off the desk into that drawer at some point, and promptly forgot about it. The joys of shared spaces! So much room for discovery!

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 19d

Portland’s history of hounding and failing to support R2DToo is so senseless. It’s a model that works, and it benefits all of us collectively.

I think about this every time I walk past the (still!) vacant lot on Burnside they were forced out of a decade ago.

Street Roots @streetroots.bsky.social · 19d

One of Portland’s first micro village shelters, Right 2 Dream Too, was a model for the city-sanctioned village sites existing today. After 14 years of operation, the organization says it can’t afford to continue without more help.
www.streetroots.org/news/2025/10...

Self-governed homeless shelter Right 2 Dream Too facing financial crisis

One of Portland’s first micro village shelters, Right 2 Dream Too was a model for the city-sanctioned village sites existing today. After 14 years of operation, the organization says it can’t afford to continue without more help.

www.streetroots.org

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 20d

Sometimes the worst thing about work-from-home self-employment is not having colleagues to vent to when inevitable frustrations happen.

(I’m being facetious—the total lack of security is the worst thing. I’m just feeling frustrated and wish I had someone to commiserate with me.)

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Reposted by H L Birdsong

Sage Howard @sagehoward.bsky.social · 21d

#bloctober day 5, a couple of tall towers to loom over the fishing shacks this time. Wanna own this drawing? If you donate $25 or more to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, I’ll send you this drawing as a thank-you! pcrf.net to donate, new drawings all month long.

An ink drawing of a rocky island with small shacks and tall stony towers

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 21d

Dear past me, who got paint all over the edge of the jar and just put the lid on anyway: Fuck you.

Lid’s dented, hands hurt, and there are little dried paint chips all over my work surface—and a few, alas, in this (now open!) jar of paint. Probably gonna be picking them out til this jar’s empty

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Reposted by H L Birdsong

Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 22d

The entire AI debate is basically a bunch of tech bros stating, "We're going to steal your work--and even your face and voice" and artists angrily saying, "NO!"

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 23d

Even the cops here find patrolling the building ICE rented to be pretty boring, and our police love escalating everything, “sanctuary city” or not

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 23d

They could clean up the copious amount of crow shit, and that would actually be useful

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H L Birdsong @smidgeonpress.bsky.social · 23d

The history of atomic testing in a nutshell, from Bikini Atoll to the Nevada Proving Grounds

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 23d

#OtD 3 Oct 1952 the UK conducted its first-ever atomic bomb test on the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australia. The government later admitted they gave no thought for the health of Aboriginal people living nearby stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1024...

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