SOUNDTRACK: JOLIE HOLLAND-Tiny Desk Concert #210 (April 23, 2012).
I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars. But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.
Jolie Holland was the singer of The Be Good Tanyas, a band I know of but am not familiar with. Since that band disbanded, she has released six solo albums. She sings a kind of dusky folk music. Her voice isn’t gravelly, but it is somewhat gritty—with a kind of nonchalant slurring of words that is strangely enticing.
She plays three songs here. “Tender Mirror” is a smooth song that is amusingly ended right on cue by Bob Boilen’s telephone ringing (which he says hasn’t rung in years).
“The Devil’s Sake” is a but more raucous with louder guitar strumming. Although I’m far more impressed by her whistling, which sounds pretty spectacular all throughout the middle of the song.
She says that the guitar she is playing is her hardest guitar to play. Bob asks if it’s an old friend. She says it’s an old neighbor. She got it at a garage sale and when she takes it in to be worked on, the people at the guitar store laugh at it.
The final song, “First Sign of Spring” is a piano song but she’s going to play it on the guitar (and you’d never know it was a piano song).
Bob loves Jolie Holland. I found her enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d pursue anything else by her.
[READ: December 8, 2016] “Treading”
Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar. Which is what exactly? Well…
The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas. This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.
I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived (a few days late for advent, but that was my fault for ordering so late) I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.
I really enjoyed this story because even though it was kind of funny, it was sad underneath. It was a short slice of life scene with all of the “story” implied. It has a simple construct–a one-sided conversation–and it really shows one man’s insecurity.
The story concerns Georgie, an overweight man in his early 30s. He answers the door and his unanswered dialogue begins.
He welcomes the person into his house, saying he doesn’t have to remove his shoes. But he takes that back immediately saying that there are new hardwood floors. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 