There’s certainly some weird stuff in “classical news of the weird“, a round-up of odd classical music news items of 2008. Composer Richard Thomas is working on an opera about Anna Nicole Smith, saying her story is “very operatic and sad.” Violinist Nicholas Eanet was named the newest member of the Julliard String Quartet and then broke his left wrist while inline skating. And the 639-year-long performance of John Cage’s organ composition “As Slow As Possible” that began in 2001 reached its 6th chord.