I’m on the N train heading to Manhattan from Bay Ridge and there’s a fat Mexican baby in a dull red stroller. She is screaming her heart out. I’m trying to read an article in <i>New York</i> magazine recommended to me by a co-worker, but I don’t think I’ll make it to the end. I’ve read enough about addiction to know how ugly it can be; I don’t want to live through it again.

I’ve told you a bit about my favorite cassette label, Al Bjornaa’s <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/why_cassettes/">Scotch Tapes</a>, out of Batchawana Bay, Ontario, Canada. In <a href="http://www.imposemagazine.com/features/scotch-tapes-label-sampler">this Impose article</a>, Al goes into more detail, explaining how he built the label, and revealing some of his big plans for the remainder of the year, which include 60-70 new tapes, 4-5 vinyl releases, approximately 20 lathe cuts, a dozen zines, a couple of 8-tracks, and a monster summer compilation. (You can also download a Scotch sampler.)

A trend of sorts has taken hold the past few years: albums (in most cases, multi-disc boxed sets) capturing not just the highlights of a jazz concert but the whole concert—or a whole week’s worth of concerts, the entire run of a gig at a nightclub—every note of it.

Underwood, the new vinyl-only record label, which takes its name from the typewriter invented by Frank Wagner in 1896, was founded by writer Nathan Dunne. Dunne’s goal is to publish short stories on vinyl records. Underwood urges us to slow down, focus, listen, and enjoy.

Good news for jazz and vinyl lovers: The world’s greatest record store (at least in New Jersey), <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/708awsi/index.html">the Princeton Record Exchange</a>, just received a collection of over 2000 carefully maintained jazz titles, and they are now on sale, most priced between $1 and $4.99.