Well, Gift Shop is closing. I think I might be a curse to any small, independently-run business who hires me part-time. Ah well.

The music of this harp-playing elf-woman I went to see play a few nights ago is running through my head. I am not such a fan of the folk music in the Joan Baez tradition. (Three words: Braying Nanny Goat. Sorry, ya'll.) (No, wait. No I'm not.)

But Joanna Newsom, who we went to see on Tuesday night, was something from another planet. A beautiful, beautiful planet at 1/16th-scale of our own, where little people sail around in walnut half-shells and still somehow manage to be fierce rather than precious.

Joanna Newsom is very small. She belts out complex, double-edged lyrics with the tinny ferocity of a tough old mountain woman from centuries ago. It was a very good show.