in which this is just a little note about joanna
joanna newsom at BAM two fridays ago. the concert was in two halves: incredibly invention renditions of her older songs (an appalachian "writ" blew my mind) were preceded by an hour with the brooklyn philharmonic - mostly strings and horns - playing an orchestrated version of "ys"...sitting there with her web of strings (that huge instrument!) in front of the jerking unisoned bows of the violinists, she looked like a beautiful shiny-backed insect coaxing a legion of singing grasshoppers closer and closer with her music.