We’ve had our share of A-listers waltz through our doors, but we just about peed ourselves when we spotted our favorite hit mistress, Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer and the original bad girl of rock, Ronnie Spector, scoping out the purse selection!

As accessible and unaffected as we could have hoped and expected, the former lead singer of the Ronettes—whose solo career has spanned four decades—gave us a lengthy and gracious chatting-up and we about lost it when she paid us a subsequent surprise visit next time she and her husband Jonathan swung through town (she lives in CT these days, and comes up to Vermont to vacation, bringing a little New-York-cool wherever she goes). It was a love-fest for sure.

Since some of her first recordings (made when she was only in her late teens and early 20s) are considered rock ‘n’ roll masterpieces, Ronnie is her own toughest act to follow, but her most recent full-length album, Last of the Rock Stars (2009)—which includes a sensational duet with the late Joey Ramone and killer collaborations with Kieth Richards, and the Ravonettes, absolutely slays. Give it a listen (and while you’re at it, her autobiography Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, is a white-hot page-turner). We got to see her live recently and we can unequivocally say, at 68 (!), Ronnie still rocks. Hard.

We can’t help but give a shout to our pal Suzannah Wainhouse, who recently scored a bitchin’ write up in the NY Times Sunday Styles section for her hand made jewelry designs, which recently launched at Barney’s.

Suzannah was a local gal and a Boomerang shopper since she was about 14, apprenticed with local jewelry designer Robert Borter here in Brattleboro, and soon after made her move to the city, where she’s showing no signs of slowing down. Congrats Suzannah, you made our Sunday morning!

From the NY Times:

The free-spirited jewelry designer and artist Suzannah Wainhouse makes sense of the world through her hands, linking the visual with the tactile. “So much of what we see comes from a machine-made place,” says Wainhouse, who is known for her intricately handcrafted metalwork, worn by the likes of Erin Wasson and Heidi Klum. “I think the world really needs and wants to see things that are made by hand.”

The designer’s second collection of brass and silver bracelets, available exclusively at Barneys in late June, was influenced by her background as an artist. Wainhouse approaches both jewelry making and painting with a sense of raw abandon, using her hands as tools to mold and carve crude bracelets and to fluidly sculpture thick impastos on her paintings. “I identify and respond to a very untrained and primitive eye,” she says, pointing to recurring symbols, like arrowheads and ancient elliptical shapes, that appear organically in her recent work. “My hands were just vibrating, going back and forth from working in the paint to working with the metal.” Indeed, the rough-hewn creviced brass wristbands are more akin to mystical power objects than mere decorative ornaments. The molten chiseled chain-link bracelets could easily serve as talismans for a modern urban warrior. “Anything can become an artifact,” says Wainhouse, who believes that her pieces will withstand the test of time. Head to Barneys to hunt for your own amulet.

Our buddy Ben Sander (aka homemaking guru Brini Maxwell) has a wonderful blog called “The Obscurity Factor: The Best Films You Never Saw!” and it should be your ready-made movie checklist. He just reviewed one of Matt’s faves: Lady in a Cage. Check it out!

More about The Obscurity Factor:

Every year there are tens of thousands of productions completed and released commercially. This has been going on for over 100 years. Each year there are a handful of them that become touchstones, remembered classics lovingly handed down from generation to generation. These aren’t those productions. Featured here on this blog are the forgotten step children of the entertainment industry, films and television shows that started out with the best of intentions, and though no fault of their own (well… sometimes) they’ve been forgotten and left to languish on the dusty shelves of history.

We don’t just love Adivasi because the lovely and charming Elissa Bahnti (Adivasi matriarch) and her two delightful daughters are three of Boomerang’s oldest VIP customers. And we don’t just love Adivasi because it always smells good in there (they sell their own incense), or just because they ethically manufacture and import their own line of goods, or because their own house-blend Chai is like tasty rocket fuel, or because Alyssa’s husband Shram designs their singular selection of jewelry. But those are all really good reasons. We love it for the same simple reason everyone else does: it’s a beautiful shop filled with beautiful things imported from India, right in the heart of downtown Brattleboro.

Their stock turns over fast and you never know what’s coming in the next container. Vintage Bollywood movie posters? Antique furniture? Ayurvedic soaps? Vintage sequined saris?  Yes, and more, lots more, and it never stops. From artwork to clothing to architectural elements to vintage tin toys to who knows what else, at one point or another, if was produced in India, it’s sat on a shelf or hung on a rack or occupied a spot on the wall somewhere in Adivasi. And they make our downtown a whole lot more colorful.  And seriously, you’ve got to grab a bag of their Chai (they ship!).  Just don’t blame us if you become an addict.

[Here’s the thing: Being a downtown draw and longtime community fixture, we get a whole hellova lotta people asking us for recommendations of all kinds, every day, from locals, newcomers, and travelers alike. We get the obvious (a good place to eat, a nice B&B, cool bar, used bookstore, live music venue, antique shop, swimming hole, et al), to the not-so-obvious (a massage therapist, roofer, dentist, real estate broker), and, in this regard, Boomerang has always served a Welcome Center of sorts. And we love it, it’s a privilege for us to turn people onto other great stuff in and around Brattleboro. So we’ve added the “In And Around Brattleboro” category to the Boomerang blog, so that Brattleboro shopping, Brattleboro restaurants, and a whole bunch of other Brattleboro miscellaneous whatnot that we know and love as tried and true gets it’s rave even before someone enters the store. So there you have it.]

Join us tonight at Headroom Stages in Brattleboro for the CD release party of “Two Foot Jumpin’”: it’s the debut cd of our new favorite Western swing band (and longtime Boomerang shoppers) Housetop. If you’re in the market for some bitchin’ four-part harmonies and some toe-tappin’ musicality (or just to see how tiny Erica wrangles that stand-up bass), you’ve got to be there. You won’t be sorry. Plus they’re all really cute too.

Dig the sounds of our old pal Kari French; bon vivant, L.A. Weekly cover girl, and featured style maven in Matt’s book PAD, as she spins an eclectic mix of ’60s go-go tunes on her weekly show K.A.O.S. A-Go-Go on Luxuria Music internet radio. She’s on every Friday night from 7-9, and it’s the next best thing to hanging out with her.

There’s not a whole lot we can say about this album that hasn’t already been said, but we just had to squeal a bit over  Wanda Jackson—The First Lady of Rockabilly—and her new CD “The Party Ain’t Over” which has been getting a LOT of airplay in Boomerang lately. If you don’t know Wanda’s early classics, she’s definitely worth investigating, and this new collection of covers (released in January and produced by Jack White) is as good as anything she’s done in 60 years. She even does Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good.”  Pure gold, every  track.

We saw our first show at the new performance space, “Headroom Stages”  It was so GREAT!!!  The space is beautiful, and the performance was the most fun we’ve had in a long time! “Miss Tess and her Bon Ton Band” were fantastic fun! Miss Tess was a vintage delight on her fabulous two tone guitar, her stand-up bass player had lightening fast fingers and was ADORABLE!  The drummer was grinning ear to ear the entire performance— as was the entire audience—and the keyboardist was wonderful. Everyone was hopping and moving in their seats yearning to be bopping around. She is honky-tonk, bluesy, jazzy chanteuse dreamy fun! She also plugged Boomerang a few times onstage, as she had bought her entire stage outfit at the store that day. She was a sheer delight. If you can catch her live, run and buy tickets and take all your friends!  If she isn’t in your neck of the woods, buy her cd’s and dance your buttocks off. 

She’s the toast of Tokyo, the sweetheart of the silent movie set, and the darling of the old-time dance halls; hot swing, French ballads, early jazz, obscure novelty tunes, arcane Vitaphone numbers…no one does it better. Boomerang loves Janet Klein, and we’re honored to call her our friend. Give this ukulele lady a looksee, check out her bitchin’ website, and most of all take some time to explore her music. She doesn’t disappoint!

Want to feel like a total loser? Just take a look at what our (aforementioned) pal and bOING bOING co-creator Mark Frauenfelder is up to. Author, illustrator, magazine editor, webmeister, fine artist, musician, dad, and novice chicken farmer; Mark’s got more irons in the fire than anyone we’ve ever known, and his talent, drive, and all-round even keel never cease to inspire us.

View his paintings, read his articles, and catch up on who knows what else on his blog. And be sure to check out his wonderful new book, Made By Hand.