Friday Roundup: Greetings from Twin Lakes
Bing says, "Keep Idaho green." Photo courtesy of ForestHistory.org
A living wage in rural Idaho: Good news isn't regularly hollering out of rural Idaho. Drought, forest fires, the recent appearance of meth, and the increasingly difficult trials of the American farmer have become common refrains. I am honored to be working for a company working to change that tune. The Idaho Statesman, Seattle Times, and even ThinkProgress picked up the story but the biggest takeaway is Truckstop.com raising its company minimum wage to $15-an-hour, affecting over 110 employees. It's progressive, it's good for business, and it's happening in New Plymouth, Idaho.
Wait, wasn't "Wild Horses" always an acoustic song?: Currently working my way through the A.V. Club's yearly "Best Albums of ___ So Far" column, which includes new and reissued work from the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sufjan Stevens, and the Stones.
Greetings from Twin Lakes: On the tail end of Siggy and my annual pilgrimage to Twin Lakes for the 4th of July with her family, my family rented a cabin on "Lower Twin" the following week, with a very random, very tenuous connection to a recording icon. The story begins with Bing Crosby frequently singing at a pavilion on Twin Lakes back in the thirties and forties. Most evenings, after setting down the mic, he'd bunk at one of the cabins across the lake but, we're told, on foul-weather nights, he'd stay with friends at this, "The Crosby Cabin." And though the current owners are quick to point out they aren't personally related to Bing (the last name being purely coincidental), and eager to show photos revealing how much the cabin has changed from then to now...they also mention that the metal bed up in the loft is the one piece of furniture leftover from the previous cabin. So even though Mr. White Christmas may never have gone waltzing in a dream in that old bed, I might just take a nap in it just the same.
Mojitos and modern lit on a Monday: Join me, Matthew RK Haynes, Christian Winn, Radio Boise, and the wonderful folks at The Modern this coming Monday, July 13th for the most recent iteration of Campfire Stories. There'll be cocktails, food, and storytelling over the light of a fire.