Phenix City?

When i was a teenager, impelled by the highwater mark of the third wave ska revival in the mid 1990s to rediscover (a problematic term) the sounds of Jamaica's first pop music, one of my favorite such "first wave" (an anachronism, obvsioulsy) tunes was The Skatalites' "Phenix City." I always thought the song was a reference to Phoenix, Arizona, a city with which i have a slightly troubled past which is obliquely referenced way back here. But if i'd been from Georgia or Alabama instead of Pennsylvania and NYC, or if i'd ever been stationed at Fort Benning. perhaps i would have known that the song, a Roland(o) Alphonso instrumental whose only lyrics are the repetition of the title after each refrain of the main melodic figure, actually references Phenix City, Alabama, a notorious den of iniquity just across the river from the aforementioned fort, which General Patton once threatened to raze with tanks. I'm not familiar enough with Alphonso's life to know if he ever went there - though i did get to see him play four times before he died. But that the Skatalites would name a tune after the Sin City of the southeast rather than a not-yet of of a not yet booming not yet sunbelt makes things way more interesting.

Rewatched season four of the wire. Perhaps the best single season of episodic television ever. Incredibly moving and powerful, and deeply keen. Plus, Donut is the best source of cheap jokes and sight gags since Ziggy's duck.