GBFD: Leon Bridges, Porpo Dorpo, & Ants on Fire
Get ready for some Good, Bad, Funny, and Dumb things
Hey everyone! If you’re thinking about signing up for the T&E Club, this will be your last email reminder before I start sending out the first paid emails next week. So make sure you don’t miss the first Trial & Expert, which promises to be a great one!
Now, let’s get into the first Good, Bad, Funny, Dumb!
Good - Leon Bridges
I’ve been fascinated with Fort Worth’s Leon Bridges since he first shot to fame back in 2015. I remember putting “Coming Home” on the playlist for our rehearsal dinner before his first album was even out. I even reached out to his publicist to try and secure an interview with him. I was desperate to strike before he was too famous for a nobody like me. Miraculously she responded and even gave me passes to see him open for Lord Huron at the Southside Ballroom in Dallas. It was awesome. He came out in a full tuxedo. He made sure he was introduced as “Columbia Record’s Leon Bridges.” He was shy, somewhat uncomfortable, and safe. But his voice was beautiful. There was an incredible innocence about his performance. It was as if he walked on stage and said “Here’s this gift I have, I hope you like it.” And we did.
About a year later I saw Leon perform to a large auditorium full of dedicated fans singing every word. Gone was the tuxedo. Gone was the shyness. Gone was the doubt. In its place was exuberance, joy, and mischief (he covered “Pony” and then apologized to his mom in the crowd). It was just as stunning but in a completely different way. His metamorphosis from shy kid with a gift to a superstar in full command of his talents didn’t take long.
But it did take a toll.
Casey Gerald wrote a breathtaking cover story for Texas Monthly on Leon. Most profiles you read of Leon stay at a certain surface level because he doesn’t tend to open up, but Gerald was able to get to depths that others haven’t. Maybe it’s because Gerald is on the same plane of talent as Leon or maybe it’s because the timing was just right for Leon to finally spill all of the things he’s been keeping inside.
Kismet or talent or both, the result is the best magazine profile I’ve read in years. Check it out here. It’s very long and if you’re more inclined to read something long on physical paper go buy a copy of Texas Monthly. You’ll also inadvertently be supporting me.
I never got that interview with Leon. He got too big, too fast and was moved on from the publicist I was working with. Now I’m not sure if I’d even want it. There’s nothing I could do to top Gerald’s work. In the past I’d be bothered by that. Jealousy or feelings of indadequacy would overtake me. In fact, I may not have even read the profile to begin with. Now, I am mature enough in my career and confident enough in my talents to recognize, appreciate, and learn from greatness when I see it.
Bad - Olympic Scheduling
I love the Olympics. Everything about them is exciting. The coming together of every nation, the weird and wonderful sports we get to learn about and immediately become experts in, the triumphs and heartbreaks, the fact that we only see this every four years…It’s all so great.
But I hate that in these constantly connected modern times, there’s no way to avoid finding out about results from events that happened while you were asleep. If you plan to watch a big event like gymnastics in prime time like a normal person, you already know the results unless you’re a hermit (or my wife).
It’s kind of ruining the experience. Couple that with the fact that I can never tell when anything is actually going to be on any NBC network and every night is just me flipping between channels trying to find a live event, it’s defeating. Swimming has mostly been live which is cool.
Still, I’ll try to enjoy them as much as I can because we were robbed of them last year so I shouldn’t be complaining that we actually get them this year. The only thing I will get up to watch live is the 100M men’s sprint final, which is Sunday at 7:50 AM.
Nothing compares to it. Just pure, unadulterated athleticism. Every person ever born in history could watch, understand, and enjoy it. The fastest human beings on earth. And it’s all over in less than 10 seconds.
Here I am waxing poetic during the “Bad” section.
Funny - Porpo Dorpo
Apparently in the video game MLB The Show you can choose from a range of home run trots for your player, including some ridiculous ones. Famous Twitterer @boring_as_heck created the most insane character named Porpo Dorpo and showed off his amazing trot. I have thought about this every day for over a week and laughed out loud.
Dumb - Ants on Fire
You don’t realize how truly vindictive you are until you have a child.
Maybe this should be in the Good category because it was awesome but in hindsight it was also very dumb. My son was playing in the yard last week and sat in a fire ant pile and in the two seconds it took for us to pick him up and take all the ants off of him he was bit about 30 times on his hand. He ended up being fine and handled it better than I would have.
After he went to sleep I kept thinking about the ants. We had an exterminator coming back the next day to take care of all of them, but I wanted to send a message. So I grabbed some rubbing alcohol and a lighter.
Ant hills actually burn better than you think.
It burned for a long time and the flames were shooting through the tunnels and coming out in different places. It actually burned so long that I was worried about leaving it alone. So I got the water hose and sent the rest of the ants who weren’t burned to a crisp to their watery grave.
This was dumb, but I also have no regrets.
If you' enjoyed this GBFD remember that this is the only free one I’ll be sending. From now on they’ll go to T&E Club members only so please sign up here!