Here's the damnedest coincidence: Yesterday, Spin featured as its Artist of the Day selection a band out of Austin called Ola Podrida, which is really none other than soundtrack composer David Wingo -- the same guy who does the music for the films of former Dallasite David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls, George Washington, Snow Angels). As Spin reports, Wingo and Green grew up together and have been "best friends ever since seeing The Karate Kid together in third grade." On Tuesday, Ola Podrida released its self-titled debut; here you'll find a selection of songs worth listening to with your ears.
Well, I also seem to recall that our pal Chris Cantalini once pointed out that Ola Podrida was, in fact, so named for Olla Podrida, the creaky arts-and-craft mall off Forest Lane and North Central Expressway, where my grandmother took me every other weekend to buy...um...string or sticks or something? Well, guess what: It's back. And far, far away...
Last night I accidentally came across a March 26 story from The Columbus Dispatch in which it says Jim Coker, a former executive with Trammell Crow and the very same man who started Olla Podrida early 1970s, was looking rebuild the joint in suburban Ohio in the very near future. And complete with "artisans, craftsmen and collectors."
"It's a fun place to visit, and it's a fun place for the artists," says Coker, who still lives here. "Sculptors like to talk to painters and painters to woodcarvers. It's the kind of atmosphere that feeds on itself."
Road trip down Amnesia Lane, anyone? I'll drive. --Robert Wilonsky
