After nine albums of sterling folk/pop/rock, Eleni Mandell had no need to alter her creative methodology. A chance stroll through the history of country music in the cradle of its development gave Mandell the blazingly clear vision to simplify her process on what would become the new Dark Lights Up. Mandell will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. What she will be writing about: “My kids are four-and-a-half years old (twins). We travel with my ex-boyfriend (not their father), who helps out as the ‘nanny.’ They have toured across the USA many times, but now they’re older and have opinions. The tour lasted five weeks, and we had a blast looking for fun things to do. Two places to avoid: Walmart and Cracker Barrel unless you want to listen to your kids hassle you to buy them stuff for hours on end!” Read our recent feature on Mandell.
Mandell: Burlington is a town of about 4,000, but they’ve got better parks and recreation than Los Angeles! We were amazed. The public pool cost about $4 each and included a kid swimming area with miniature water slide. Even better, it had a real water slide for big kids like me. I reluctantly forced myself to ride it and loved it! But even better than that, all the lifeguards are local teens. They make everyone get out of the pool on the hour for 15 minutes so the lifeguards can take a break. At that time, they gather and invite anyone who wants to join them for a line dance. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was such a slice of America in the summer. It made me so happy to see! And when that was finished, the lifeguards took turns showing off their diving skills.
Video after the jump:
