99 episodes
Postcards from Gravelly Beach Dave Thorvald Olson
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- Arts
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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Spoken word literature featuring counter-culture literary stalwarts – from the Russians to the Beats – read by host Dave Thorvald Olson – along with original freeverse poetry, fiction and expository writing, with occasional rambling discourse and conversation, often with eclectic field music, always recorded spontaneously at some splendid locale.
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“Personal Archeology” – Postcard #88 (+ via audio &/or video)
Riffs about the glory of journals, diaries, notebooks full of musings and importance of turning off inner-critic and not overthinking while savoring the process of transcription, curation and further creative wonderment from Kura barn in provincial Japan. With evidence with my own process. Plus sorta re-cap how far I got about Circumnavigation poetry book project, … Continue reading “Personal Archeology” – Postcard #88 (+ via audio &/or video) →
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Nepal Stupa Choruses – Postcard #87
Washing dishes and busted spectacles lead to rowing a lake in Nepal figuring out deity, enlightenment, peace and power with choruses fresh from diaries – plus Royal hospitals, poetic devices and question mark eyebrows. Your turn Buddha, your turn. Don’t climb the mountain: Nepal Stupa Choruses – Postcard #87(39MB, 21:02, 256kbps mp3, stereo)
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Indulge Me, Logistically – Postcard #86
Let’s not lose each other amidst the table cloth being pulled out from under glasses and dishes. Meaning: some technical jibber-jabber about claiming feeds sparks a history of these sporadic, occasional (yet somehow charming, right?) literary dispatches from hand-written XML to various blogs and feeds and meanderings. Plus, about me! My name is Dave Olson … Continue reading Indulge Me, Logistically – Postcard #86 →
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Lost the Plot (Finding Home) – Postcard #85
Thinking about “going home in October” or even more, going far away from home via freeverse poetry, read directly from scribbled travel scrapbooks and backed by trains from Moncton to Sri Lanka and tuk tuks from Kerala and Thailand, by a weary fella in an olden barn in provincial Japan. Fondly home. Be Lost at … Continue reading Lost the Plot (Finding Home) – Postcard #85 →
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Simon, Stolen, Shame – Postcard #84
A heart-wrenching poem about an abducted boy called Simon – who lived nearby, was my age and sorta looked like me – in Surrey, BC 1982 – by the “Beast of BC” Clifford Robert Olson (NO relation). Recorded and contributed to Dark Poutine Canadian True Crime podcast – shared here for posterity etc. RIP Simon and the … Continue reading Simon, Stolen, Shame – Postcard #84 →
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Upon the Varley Trail – Postcard #83
Along his namesake trail on banks of Lynn Creek comes story of Group of 7 bohemian painter Frederick Varley’s 10 wild years in Vancouver teaching and founding art schools, developing new aesthetics and shacking up in an $8 mountain home with mistress. Bring your own brushes: Upon the Varley Trail – Postcard #83 (30MB, 20:50, mp3, … Continue reading Upon the Varley Trail – Postcard #83 →
Customer Reviews
Linking the brilliant and what's right in front of our collective noses...
In Postcards, Mr. Olsen shares his stream-of-consciousness mindset, bridging gaps between hockey and music, between present rapports and sacred histories of a far-flung nations, and betwixt cathartic loss and the joy of glimpsing hope in ravines both figurative and real.
With each cast of the pod, Dave shares travel experiences, poetry, wit, pithy observations on nature, relationships, generational interactions, and basic good-times how-to no matter where you find yourself.
It's joy in a small space, hope from a good man with a world view, music for your heart; you won't help but hit subscribe and binge listen after you try just one wafer-thin episode of Postcards from Gravelly Beach. I've been eagerly waiting for Dave's return since his last installment, and I hope his next will be the beginning of a new run of brilliant narratives and aural delight.
Sweet Literary Smack
Dave O has an extraordinary ability to put together an eclectic mix of literary goodness. Thinking and feeling. Logic and lust. Sober and... well... decidedly not. I've been a long time subscriber and have yet to be disappointed with a single episode. Addictive, mellow and satisfying.
Travel companion
For those of you who love to travel and enjoy the company of good literature, Postcards from Gravelly Beach is an essential companion. On many an occasion, because of work, I find myself alone in a new city exploring the sights and sounds. Like a good travel companion, Dave has been with me on many a long walk with just the right thing to say. A sliver of appropriate introspection here, a recital of inspiring poetry there, his selections always hit the mark and leave the indelible impressions of other travels on my mind. I have to admit I have stumbled upon a few bummers, but to hear him read To You with the winds of the Columbia behind him, I can’t wait to find him on a gravely beach one day and thank him.