Postcards from Gravelly Beach

By Dave Thorvald Olson

Personal Journals Society & Culture Arts Literature History Philosophy Places & Travel

What's Postcards from Gravelly Beach about?

Featuring spontaneous readings and erstwhile discourse from selected literary – from Russians to beats to contemporaries – plus usually smattering of original works by host Dave, often with eclectic assortment of music, and always recorded at splendid locale.

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Postcards from Gravelly Beach episodes:

12.10.2022
“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 […]
11.23.2022
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 […]
11.09.2022
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 […]
11.10.2021
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 […]
03.12.2019
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 […]
02.26.2019
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 […]
02.04.2019
What Love Might Be… – Postcard #82
Love in (most) all forms – from self to romance to heartbreak – explored through poems including: mis-quote from (probably not) Jack […]
12.25.2018
Transient Cultural Riffs – Postcard #81
Full of mis-spoken words, forgotten names and other sloppiness comes annotated thoughts (squished through time and space) for shut-ins, drifters […]
11.18.2018
Sensei Larry’s Wisdom – Postcard #80
Upon turning 70 years old, Dave’s dear sensei (since a teenage Utah community college stint), Larry Harper (among various monikers) […]
07.20.2018
A Circumnavigation of Sorts – Postcard #79
Float to Istanbul, Muscat and elsewhere, and check in with Cleopatra, Shakespeare, Francis Drake, Shah of Persia, Adam, Cain, Abel, Lawrence, Ataturk, Czars Nicholas and Alexander, Matt Harding, Russia oligarchs, well-fed stray cats, unidentified shortwave broadcasts, Abraham, Norman, Matt Harding,...
06.09.2018
Disappearing for Invigoration – Postcard #78
Disappearing, invisibility, loneliness, depression, anxiety, being lost, trying to not be found, trying to find white space to invigorate… Sometimes these weave together, other times (perhaps) each remain exclusive. Gord Downie, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski and me all try to...
05.27.2018
Hospital Letters and Flames – Postcard #77
In hospital with sedated Grandpa, Dave reads complete “Letters from Russia” epistolary literature project with frequent interruptions from visitors, nurses and medical apparatus. The letters address issues of class, revolutions, monarchy, war, trade, and love in the context of Napoleon’s...
05.13.2018
Forward Momentum to Florida – Postcard #76
Puffing along a trail recounting leaving cold, miserable London en route to post-hurricane Florida with flashbacks to working in Rheinplatz grade fields, gathering chestnuts to sell for beer and bread money, strange encampments at Oktoberfest, and hitchhiking to Amsterdam with...
05.11.2018
Thunderstorms in the Crash Years – Postcard #75
Amidst a thunderstorm at 4AM on a balcony in Chiang Mai, Dave discusses – with excessive frankness and emotion – various medical conundrums (Fibromyalgia and CFS-ME) and details the physical feelings of “crash mode” as well as the mental strain...
05.06.2018
Listening to Sea – Postcard #74
Ship-to-shore transmissions with shortwave broadcasts from elusive listening posts, soundscapes from slow ships, and freeverse poetry about unanswered communiques, transitory conditions, arbitrary citizenships, invented geography, de-identification, and intentional disappearance. Features music: “Dream World” by Matt Harding from NYOSSS (New York,...
04.30.2018
Eyes Towards Europe – Postcard #73
On a forgotten forest walk, Dave riffs a story about first trip to Europe – starting with trying not to puke over an Amsterdam bridge after a meeting new temporary coffee shop pals – with flashback to Mexican desert trips...
04.16.2018
(Poetic Farewell to) Ole Dead Gramps – Postcard #72
Paying poetic respects to recently deceased Grandpa in a rainforest with Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, Chief Dan George and original works inspired by the globe rambling, oddly charming, big fish – while official funeral happening elsewhere. Originally recorded: May 13, 2006...
02.17.2018
Friendly Dehli Wanders – Postcard #71
First reflecting on Funiculars, Dave then reads works by poet friends from far-flung points including: Sohaib Ahmed recounting escaped love and lights, Adam Burningham examining towns atop streams, Amber Case on a languid roadtrip, and Robert Scales appreciating a sunrise...
02.10.2018
A Return to Nippon – Postcard #70
Returning to Japan for the first time since working as a mushroom farmer in the Tottori-ken mountains decades previous, Dave rambles on about the circumstance – then and now – while wandering near his pal’s goat farm. Riffs include: arriving in...
02.03.2018
Preserving the Wildflower – Postcard #69
What becomes of the seemingly ephemeral creations we leave behind? Especially in the analog-days? Consider these in the context of missing cassette tapes made by a now departed poet/activist/scholar Foster and guitar-ing Mikael, who recorded spontaneous youthful riffs in parent’s...
01.27.2018
Changing Transit Routes – Postcard #68
Changing routes to think about the neighbourhoods – this Postcard is about rolling transit, everyplace and anywhere. Evidence comes in a transit route inspired spoken-word song and a smattering of poems including: odes to drivers, forgotten literary neighbourhoods, angry passengers,...
01.20.2018
Annapurna’s Holy Donkeys – Postcard #67
Amongst Nepal’s western Himalaya mountains comes poems about donkey trains hauling supplies, buffalos giving milk, porters hauling excess for misguided dreamers, monks with timeless chants, sunrise over mighty peaks, prayer wheels alongside trails to evoke the feeling of clambering along...
01.13.2018
Lonely Cold Water Flat – Postcard #66
Life in hotels, wandering alone and often blue and then the death of friends all converge in a series of poems including a song by Mikael Lewis about waiting for love in a Victorian hotel. Then, from the streets of...
01.06.2018
Dad’s Malibu Super Sport – Postcard #65
When I was growing up, Dad often spoke of his Chevy Malibu SS – his favourite car. So, while on his death bed, I asked him to tell the story. He speaks about acquiring the vehicle, the budget, the deal,...
12.29.2017
Leaping Beyond Cynicism – Postcard #64
In tumultuous and confusing times, optimism and activism are the powerful antidotes for cynicism and fear. Two Bills share songs to assist in making this point. First B/William Lenker plays a spontaneous Squatters in Zion from his Steamboat Island woodshop,...
11.11.2017
Remembrance Day with Vasco’s Bones – Postcard #63
From an olden church and (otherwise vacant) cenotaph at Fort Cochin, Kerala, India, Dave O – acknowledging an extended medical and death related hiatus – discusses the local history of colonization by Portuguese explorers, Dutch traders, then British Raj in...
06.10.2010
Poetic Stories about Goalies – Postcard #62
Poet Randall Maggs discusses his book “Night Work” about the troubled soul of legendary hockey goalie Terry Sawchuk plus the nuances of story-telling, conversations with goaltenders, Sawchuk’s Ukrainian heritage and convergence of history and hockey with host Dave Thorvald Olson...
12.31.2009
A Little Bit Better … if not Perfect – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 9/9
In the last narrative from the Clayquot trip in Summer 2006, the water ban is lifted and Uncle Weed discuses the economic costs caused by the shutdown as well as the tensions about tourist based economy and village lifestyle, considers...
12.30.2009
Field Notes on Bevvies, Birds and Bowls – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 8/9
Sometimes all the bits which don’t fit make the tastiest morsels. With this in mind, Uncle Weed dishes up a smorgasbord of leftover spiels, intros, set-ups, and observations from the Clayoquot trip including narrative about camptime beverages, glass pipe cleaning tips, local...
11.26.2009
Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard #61
On Remembrance Day in sunny, brisk Vancouver, Ian Bell (fresh from a CBC appearance “On The Coast“) joins Dave to read from Grandpa Mark’s diaries written in the trenches in WW1 as a young Canadian. From the library steps with...
11.06.2009
Salmon Swimming Free – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 7/9
Visiting again with friend Kevin, Uncle Weed discusses the negative impact salmon fish farms impart on the local aquaculture. Specifically, Atlantic salmon living in pens attract hazardous sea lice, are unable to spawn, are fed with small fish imported from...
10.20.2009
Friends of the Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 6/9
At the headquarters of Friends of Clayoqout Sound advocacy organization, Uncle Weed talks with Kevin Bruce, a concerned citizen newly arrived in Tofino to work as the office coordinator for the FOCS. With the sound of passing cars and buses,...
09.23.2009
Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9
After a few days of frustration and confusion, Uncle Weed sits down on the trail and digs into a variety of essays from Beloved of the Sky by Gary Snyder, Howie Wolk, and Michael Frome plus riffs on painter Emily...
09.23.2009
Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9
After a few days of frustration and confusion, Uncle Weed sits down on the trail and digs into a variety of essays from Beloved of the Sky by Gary Snyder, Howie Wolk, and Michael Frome plus riffs on painter Emily...
09.18.2009
Spieling from Whiskey Dock – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 4/9
While watching fishing boats ply the inlet, Uncle Weed checks in from Ucluelet to describe the cultural and municipal differences between neighboring villages of Tofino and Ucluelet after a thwarted drive towards Kennedy Lake bridge – the scene of the...
09.18.2009
Tofino Dries up – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 3/9
After recalling beach camp-outs, rainy days and salmon feasts, Uncle Weed finds out commercial water usage is banned in Tofino and closing down for the tourist operations for the busy weekend ~ thusly he sets out on the trail from...
09.14.2009
Meditations from the Blockades – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 2/9
Out on a trail, Uncle Weed shares a few lessons learned bearing witness to the blockade lines including thoughts about non-violence and pacifism, importance of respecting others, and the common desire for trees which the ecologists and workers unwittingly share....
09.12.2009
Musings from Clayoquot Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 1/9
Arriving at a campground between the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet, Uncle Weed sets out to explore the west coast’s unique environment and offer discourse on natural resource-based and tourism-based economies starting with recollections from the noted logging protests in...
09.12.2009
Observations about Ecology and Economy – Rainforest Dispatches, Introduction
Introducing a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the...
09.12.2009
Observations about Ecology and Economy – Rainforest Dispatches, Introduction
Introducing a series of explorations and soliloquies from the Clayoquot Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island during a summertime water outage in the midst of a temperate rainforest. While figuring out what happened, Uncle Weed recollects the...
07.18.2009
Forests and Oceans Without End – Postcard #60
From a forested pathway along the open Pacific between Tofino and Ucluelet, DaveO reads poetry from Gary Snyder’s Myths + Texts and Rip Rap plus essays about Wobblies, timber-jacks, logging camp culture, and giant trees from Beloved of the Sky...
04.04.2009
Owl Creek Limnology and Exploration – Postcard #59
Dave O spiels forth about the exploration of rivers and lakes, the impetus for ventures and motivations for trade ~ augmented by autoharp songs by Larry Harper dreaming of floating the Colorado River down Glen Canyon ~ then freeverse –...
03.01.2009
Three Days and Eleven Dollars, Nov. 1991 – Postcard #58
By a campfire on Owl Creek, Dave reads an instructional guide to hitch-hiking about a November trip from South Carolina to Rhode Island with a series of tips including smiling, signs, watches, and going with the flow while Dan Funboy...
02.27.2009
Arizona with Ole Gramps – Postcard #57
While summertime camping alongside Owl Creek and charging the recorder with the rays of the sun, Dave reads a short story written while on the road with ole dead Grandpa called “So the Legends Go” – a portrait of life...
02.15.2009
Hitch a Thousand Miles to See a Friend – Postcard #56
From Halfmoon Bay on Vancouver Island, Dave gives it up for zen poet hero Gary Snyder and recounts beat history from The Old Ways and logging culture from Myths and Texts plus poems about hitchhiking, girls, baths, clearcuts and the...
02.15.2009
Hitch a Thousand Miles to See a Friend – Postcard #56
From Halfmoon Bay on Vancouver Island, Dave gives it up for zen poet hero Gary Snyder and recounts beat history from The Old Ways and logging culture from Myths and Texts plus poems about hitchhiking, girls, baths, clearcuts and the...
08.28.2008
Chronicling Interesting Boulders – Postcard #55
Alongside raging Lynn Creek, Dave remarks about boulders which are indeed interesting as the sign pointed out, then reads a haibun about books and statues on a curly maple shelf, and poems about buying hardware and fruit in Bucerias, mysterious...
07.25.2008
Post-apocalyptic Skunks and Fevers – Postcard #54
From a skunk-scented perch along Mosquito Creek, Dave spiels about feverish dreams in a Mexican clinic, personal archeology, mirages about the Wonder Hotel, and reads verse about late trains, dammed rivers, watching ships, and men in white coats walking past....
07.21.2008
Howling at Land and Sea – Postcards #53
Visiting the Woodshop on Steamboat Island amidst hayfever and national holidays, Dave and Wm. Lenker exchange spontaneous musical freeverse tales of Pennsylvania, Agana Harbour (Guam), Jericho Beach (Vancouver), and Lake Crescent (Washington) while wounded Samson howls along. Weigh anchor for: Howling...
02.13.2008
Taxi Flashbacks Towards Gatwick – Postcard bonus
In a collection of transitory reminiscences, Dave O rolls on from rainy North Van by taxi down venerable Granville St. down the spine of to YVR with indigenous dioramas. Then travels by plane to Gatwick Airport, continuing via train to...

What's Postcards from Gravelly Beach about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Postcards from Gravelly Beach episodes:

“Personal Archeology” – Postcard #88 (+ via audio &/or video)

Nepal Stupa Choruses – Postcard #87

Indulge Me, Logistically – Postcard #86

Lost the Plot (Finding Home) – Postcard #85

Simon, Stolen, Shame – Postcard #84

Upon the Varley Trail – Postcard #83

What Love Might Be… – Postcard #82

Transient Cultural Riffs – Postcard #81

Sensei Larry’s Wisdom – Postcard #80

A Circumnavigation of Sorts – Postcard #79

Disappearing for Invigoration – Postcard #78

Hospital Letters and Flames – Postcard #77

Forward Momentum to Florida – Postcard #76

Thunderstorms in the Crash Years – Postcard #75

Listening to Sea – Postcard #74

Eyes Towards Europe – Postcard #73

(Poetic Farewell to) Ole Dead Gramps – Postcard #72

Friendly Dehli Wanders – Postcard #71

A Return to Nippon – Postcard #70

Preserving the Wildflower – Postcard #69

Changing Transit Routes – Postcard #68

Annapurna’s Holy Donkeys – Postcard #67

Lonely Cold Water Flat – Postcard #66

Dad’s Malibu Super Sport – Postcard #65

Leaping Beyond Cynicism – Postcard #64

Remembrance Day with Vasco’s Bones – Postcard #63

Poetic Stories about Goalies – Postcard #62

A Little Bit Better … if not Perfect – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 9/9

Field Notes on Bevvies, Birds and Bowls – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 8/9

Vimy Ridge Diaries on Remembrance Day – Postcard #61

Salmon Swimming Free – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 7/9

Friends of the Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 6/9

Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9

Conservation and Clearcuts – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 5/9

Spieling from Whiskey Dock – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 4/9

Tofino Dries up – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 3/9

Meditations from the Blockades – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 2/9

Musings from Clayoquot Sound – Rainforest Dispatches, chapter 1/9

Observations about Ecology and Economy – Rainforest Dispatches, Introduction

Observations about Ecology and Economy – Rainforest Dispatches, Introduction

Forests and Oceans Without End – Postcard #60

Owl Creek Limnology and Exploration – Postcard #59

Three Days and Eleven Dollars, Nov. 1991 – Postcard #58

Arizona with Ole Gramps – Postcard #57

Hitch a Thousand Miles to See a Friend – Postcard #56

Hitch a Thousand Miles to See a Friend – Postcard #56

Chronicling Interesting Boulders – Postcard #55

Post-apocalyptic Skunks and Fevers – Postcard #54

Howling at Land and Sea – Postcards #53

Taxi Flashbacks Towards Gatwick – Postcard bonus