I've come awful close

With Corbett doing an admirable job with the songs (and photos!) this week, I can't get my normal bloggy fix. Hence this post! Last week some of you might have read that Porter Wagoner died. You don't need me to tell you what a legend he was. But his (frankly) weird persona always interested me, as did his Nudie suits. With his passing a few people posted songs from his album he released this summer, an album he called his best work. I have to say it's pretty engaging, and I might have to pass a selection on here.

Amy and I put Porter and Dolly on one of our favorite Christmas CDs, "One More Round, Bartender, It's Christmas!" I was sad to read that another guy we featured on that mix, Hank Thompson, is struggling with cancer. To be honest, I was surprised to find out he was still around. I've got a whole lot of Hank Thompson and His Brazos Valley Boys, it's all top notch musicianship and always with a good sense of humor. Just last week I tracked down his Wednesday Night Waltz for a project I'm kinda working on. Best wishes to him and his family.

Next, this American Gangster movie, I didn't realize was a biopic. I think it grew out of this interesting article on Frank Lucas from 2000. One of the many anecdotes in the article has to do with his (possible) connection to a hit on an Italian lawyer who owed Lucas money. Gino E. Gallina, "then a Pelham Manor mouthpiece for 'top drug dealers and organized-crime figures,' was rubbed out 'mob style . . . as many passersby looked on in horror.'" I only bring this up because that hit happened thirty years yesterday, and it happened at Varick and Carmine, down the block from where Windy now lives and exactly where we watched the United match Saturday morning. Well it was interesting to me!

Finally, when Stu got back from the Iceland Airwaves, he was telling me about this traditional Iceland dinner he went to with Valgeir and the guys from Grizzly Bear. He said that one of the girls there told this too-absurd-to-be-true story about a discovery some friends of hers made in the woods while tripping on acid. And here is that story!

Late Update: Hank Thompson has died. RIP.