phil: nice post in linking to the folkstreams documentary. i’ve actually seen that before, while studying a ‘music in the multi-cultural u.s.’ course.

Kaukonen is actually half Finnish, although his website – http://www.jormakaukonen.com – shows him to look one hundred percent.

But his mother was of Russian Jewish stock and he’s embraced that a lot more in recent years, as this recent post on his site attests.

Yesterday a rare choice was made. I did not even turn on the computer once. Holy cow! Was I sick or something? I guess it had a lot to do with the New Year, *5767* which came in yesterday along with the first day of Fall, so I’ll take this moment to wish all a peaceful and fulfilling new year in which your dreams come true. This weekend has afforded me some serene moments. These are rare in such troubled times so they are muchly appreciated.

Oh barf. Can we have another Renny and Geena gala?

But they already made one with John Wayne playing Törni. Surely it would make a great movie, if they also covered his life before Vietnam, but I guess Törni’s brief adventure with waffen-SS would probably be too much for the American audiences.

Of course, the Hollywood version would begin with a scene of a ship approaching New York and Lauri jumping off and swimming to the shore. If I remember, he spent his first years as an illegal immigrant.