Nanlandia Goes LIVE this Saturday!
All my siblings are intelligent, but my youngest brother Jon was the one who, when he was six and I was 14, taught me to play chess and then beat me at every successive game we ever played thereafter, and we played often. I liked the game, I just couldn’t beat six year-old Jon who, twenty years later went on to begin a successful career at a company that was just starting out when he joined their team, something called, “Microsoft.”
I hear they’ve done well.
Last week I wrote this email, wondering what dogs talk about to each other, speculating that the old dogs entertain the young pups with stories of the good old days before leash laws, and then, later in the email I said that we only needed $50,453 to buy Elmer’s Store back, and if 56,453 people would donate $100 each, we’d be able to do it.
The next morning I got an email from my brother, the one who recently retired from his thirty-five year career at Microsoft. He wrote:
“Random thoughts and observations brought on by your thoughts:
1. Since the average lifespan of a dog is around 15years with a max of about 20, I don't think there are any dogs in uban/suburban USA that actually remember a time before leash laws... (even our childhood Weimaraner, “Lonesome” got picked up by the dog catcher once)
2. $56,453.00 divided by 56,453 people is only $1 each, not $100
3. The interview with Saltzman sounds interesting... I'll check it out.
Yeah, whatever. I never could do math. . . .
Some good news is that, at least enough of y’all were struck enough by my arithmetical skills to donate enough to where we are now down to needing only about $30,000 to buy it! So if you were waiting to find out if we were serious, we were! And we are! And we only have a couple of weeks left! So it is NOT TOO LATE for you, too, to send in your $100 – or $1000, or 10,000 dollars! (Jon, how many people would have to send in $2323.50 by April 24th for us to reach our goal?)
If you’d like to do that, please mail us a check to
Elmer’s Revitalization Fund
PO Box 334
Ashfield, MA 01330
Or you can go to ElmersCommunity.org/Donate and do it there!
For y’all who live in New Orleans,
This coming up Saturday we are doing a special LIVE version of “Welcome to Nanlandia” over at the Frenchman Art and Books at the corner of Frenchman and Charters! And it’s French Quarter Fest this weekend, too, so you’ll be out and about! We’re starting early; our first interview will be at 9:00 with Peter Roy, who used to own Whole Food COMPANY (that which later gave rise to Whole Foods Market) and we’ll tell some good stories, including the one where Peter quite inadvertently created and sent me down the path of my entire life! How does one have that much influence on someone else, especially when they have no intention in the world of doing so? That’s a great story! Come on down and hear it live at 9:00 on Saturday!
At 11:00 we’ll interview writer Chris Clarkson, author of That Summer Night on Frenchman Street, and hear his take on the dualities of New Orleans and what it was about this adopted city of his that sent him down the path to becoming who he wanted to be in life.
And then, in a third interview we’ll be talking with Russell Rocke, former owner of the Toulouse Theatre way back in the day when I first came to town, and worked for him there as the house manager of the Toulouse – back before I met Peter Roy. But that whole experience was life changing, as well! James Booker was the house pianist at the Toulouse, and a big part of Russell’s job in life was Keeping James Booker at the Piano and Out of Jail. True story. Ellis Anderson, editor of the French Quarter Journal (and my friend since we were in the 7th grade together) wrote quite entertainingly about James’ life at the Toulouse: James Booker at the Toulouse — French Quarter Journal last February. That Ellis and I were lucky enough to be a part of that history astounds me to this day.
Russell and I will re-live those days in what I know will be a fun and fascinating conversation as part of our day-long visit in Nanlandia this Saturday. (I’m not yet sure what time his interview will be; every time I call Russell he’s in the middle of a parade or something else, but as soon as I nail it down I’ll let you know.)
If you’re in town, come listen to the show live! If you’re someplace else, you can hear it at Nanlandia.com, just like you lived there (because you do!)
Our guest this week is a young woman I know named Murph, and we’ll just call her Murph for reasons that will become more evident in our conversation, as we jump back into what it means to be a young person in today’s world that is so very different from the world we older folks grew up in. We, who are so smart, (‘cause we are!) would have an impossible time in the world they live in, I think, and that’s one reason I find these conversations with the young’uns so interesting. It’s easy to criticize; it’s harder to traipse through and keep one’s head about them.
Tune in this week at www.Nanlandia.com, or whereever you get your podcasts for my conversation with Murph, and how it all came to be.
And then, see you live on Saturday beginning at 9am at Frenchman Art and Books!
