This American Life ate my lunch money!

This American Life has again touched on our lives here in DeptEx land. Our old hometown of Schenectady, NY is featured in the October 15, 2002 episode (Thank to Ian Lynam for the tip!). What it Takes to Tromp Through the Desert. Al Jurczynski is the mayor of Schenectady, NY. For the past year, he’s embarked on a strange recruitment campaign, to convince Guyanese immigrants living in Queens, NY, to move upstate, to Schenectady. He walks through the streets of New York City with a megaphone, inviting people to sign up for semi-monthly charter bus tours of his city, which he provides free of charge. Producer Wendy Dorr spends a day on the tour bus, to see how the mayor serves as middleman between Guyanese-American families in the Bronx and Queens, and his economically troubled, white-ethnic town upstate. (19 minutes)

Listen online to Ian Lynam’s (of Migraine/Sap/Super Black Black, etc. – See the SHOP pages) moody tune “Greyhound Theme in E-Minor,” on the recent Road Trip episode of This American Life, backing up our old friend Dishwasher Pete in his tales of riding the big dog with the little head. Where ya been, Pete? UPDATE – turns out that this is a repeat from 1998! Well, it was still new to us!