Ink Lake

Helping Rescue A Treasure

Norton Records’ warehouse is in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Nuff said.

So along with a bunch of other folks, I came down to help them get stuff salvaged and sorted ‘post-Sandy.

 

Run by Miriam Linna and her husband Billy, Norton puts out music that, not to put too fine a point on it, gives me pretty much non-stop joy in sub 3-minute bursts.

 

 

You can hear more stuff like this on WFMU’s Fools’ Paradise, (and it’s host, Rex, was there helping, too). Not for nothing, but Tom Hanks is a fan.

They are still in need of assistance. If you’re in the Brooklyn area, and want to help, contact me for more info.

Needless to say, if you also (or only) want to help storm efforts in other ways, do that. 

Dig His Mood

On WFMU this past weekend, Michael Shelley concluded his two-part interview with song-maker extraordinaire, Nick Lowe.

Shelley knows Nick Lowe, the way Phil Schaap knows about Louis Armstrong – i.e., he knows more about Lowe’s career than Lowe does.

Most known for Cruel To Be Kind”, and a millionaire since his song “(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding”, appeared on the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, Lowe talks about his career, his craft, Rockpile (sniff), and Shelley even has Lowe rate his own albums — and Lowe (who comes across quite modest and self-deprecating), never gives much more than a 75, and scores a few in the 50s.

A fantastic interview, full of insights into a man who had a hand in the birth of punk, New Wave, (artist and producer at Stiff Records), was related to Johnny Cash (via his marriage to Carlene Carter), and wrote a very toe-tapping song about the true story of an aging silent-movie star whose corpse was eaten by her dog (“Marie Prevost”).

The Vanishing

Listen to this.

LISTEN TO THIS!

NPR calls them “driveway moments”. Those bits on the radio that are so good, that after you pull into the driveway, you don’t get out, but rather, sit in the car until the story is over.

The House On Loon Lake, is as Ira Glass says, a “real-life Hardy Boys story, or an episode of Scooby-Doo.”

• Listen to 30-second promo (stream)
• Listen to full episode (stream)
• I’ve also uploaded the MP3 , so you can listen on a ‘pod’ device

Prologue

Host Ira Glass explains that our show's a little different this week. It consists of one long story, lasting the entire hour, about a young boy, an abandoned house, and the mysterious family who once lived there but seemed to disappear without a trace.

Act One

Adam Beckman tells the first part of his story, about how, back in the 1970s, he and his friends broke into an abandoned house in the small town of Freedom, New Hampshire. The home turned out to be a perfect time capsule, containing the furniture, letters and personal effects of an entire family ... abandoned for decades. It seemed like the family just vanished one day, leaving salt and pepper shakers on the table, notes on the bedroom mirror, and a wallet with money still inside. Adam and his friends read the letters, saving some as clues, and never forgot.

I heard this episode of This American Life, when I was in SLC, and sat in a parking lot until it was finished. It was cold out, so I’d restart the car every 15 minutes or so, to get the heater going.