Jenna and I had another snowy movie night. Our mom suggested that we watch "The Last One," about moonshining legend Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton who passed away last year. The movie was a 60 minute documentary which followed Popcorn and his helper (whose name I missed) in the building and operation of supposedly the last wooden still that Popcorn would ever run. In a nutshell, the movie is recommendable. Most of the footage was filmed on site in the woods by a cold creek, and the movie is all business. Popcorn talks about his family legacy of making liquor while he expertly assembles the rig and runs the batch. Interspersed in that process are old photographs of moonshine history and also old time music. Every time Popcorn appears on the screen, he is smoking a cigarette. He also says, "damn" a lot, and his eyes have a unique appearance. I enjoyed the movie and learned some interesting tidbits about making corn liquor. The most interesting technical feature to me was the "tempering" of the liquor. Some other dude came in at the end and used his fine tuned stills to dilute the alcohol to the proper proof, using a bubble analization technique of which he seemed to place the utmost confidence. I loved that part. All in all, I could have really gone for some more anecdotal action, you know, more tall tales and such, but I can't complain. After all, what's not to appreciate about a man talking about (and only about) exactly what it is he is doing? That's something to be admired in its own right. Perhaps it is better to leave the tall tales to the amateurs...
4 comments:
Dana!!! Oh how I loves me some hillbillies. Do you remember Sean "Jinx" Pace? Well, he's not a hillbilly but his Dad is and I rented his house for years. He was so awesome (& kinda hot). He ran a moonshine still he built himself in our garage. I tasted some peach variety fresh off the top and it just about burned all the hair off my body.
May I recommend for you & Jenna's viewing pleasure "Dancing Outlaw" which is a doc. about Jessco White, the last mountain dancer. It all goes down in Boone County West-By-God-Virginia and it is full of tall tales, all told in the most delightful way by people with thick, thick accents. Jessco is the last mountain dancer and sometimes Elvis impersonator. He & his tribe are more than a hoot & a half. A must see!
I am so excited whenever I see you have a new blog post. It's one of life's best little pleasures. You are a delight!
Dusti, you know, I think I saw that movie- is that the one where they were cutting donuts in the yard? And sometimes he would get real mean?
Anyways, I do remember Sean "Jinx" Pace. He lives in Asheville now and sometimes I run into him at hip river arts district functions. I didn't know his daddy was a hot bootlegger...
I think I would like that one Dane! I like the looks of his beard at least. Reminded me of a guy I bought mistletoe from a few christmas' ago, came all the way "down off the mountain" to peddle it! I gave em' five bucks for a piece, which I hope he went back and spent on some of ol' "Popcorn's" final brews. God bless the south!
Yea, I saw that one. I hope those art forms are not lost with the dying off of the elders. Once the art forms are gone they are gone and only a facsimile can be revived. I saw it happen in S. LA cajun country where I am from. So what about it, Dana, wanna build us a still?
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