Kennel cough has infected a number of local dogs. Memphis picked it up and now Ellie Mae too. Both of them are on anti-biotics, as the problem is bacterial. They should be OK in a few days.
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Almost there…
I guess the eyes of the world have been on the rescue of those miners in Chile. What an amazing story. As I write this 23 of the men are out and the operation is continuing. Hopefully the rescue will continue successfully until all those miners are safely on the surface. How many other mines are still operating in Chile and elsewhere where workers endure hazardous conditions. I hope this situation will lead to safer working conditions.
Tonight, I’m going to take a break from train songs and feature a couple mining songs instead.
Here are the Country Gentlemen covering the Merle Travis tune, Dark as a Dungeon…
And here is Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
Train Song of the Day
Starlight on the Rails
Here is Rosalie Sorrels covering Starlight on the Rails, which was written by her pal, the late Utah Phillips. Wow, I love this one. I’ve known this song for many years, but this interpretation of it is simply stunning.
“Dreams are few and far between but memories seldom fail” Here’s one more Utah Phillips train song, Queen of the Rails, and it’s another beauty. This one is performed by Brad Sondahl
The Social Network
We all like rags to riches stories, but this film is more of a socially empty but brilliant student at an exclusive American University to riches story. I couldn’t help but be fascinated at the way the Zuckerberg character nailed a structure which could attract so many users and so many users so fast. Also really interesting is his understanding that the old model of using advertising to “monetize” the idea was the wrong way to go.
Zuckerberg is portrayed in a very unflattering light, as a character who posesses a tag-team of lovable characteristics – he’s both uncaring and cruel. And along the way he gets mentored by Sean Parker, played very well by Justin Timberlake, a character who is basically a selfish and self-indulgent jerk. And yet we’re riveted to the whole business because of the monsterous success of the venture.
Facebook users have one attribute and that is that they are the judges of what the Zuckerberg character calls cool. Several times in the film, it is suggested that Facebook is cool and Zuckerberg doesn’t want to lose that. Otherwise, users are just that quantity that need to be manipulated or influenced.
What the movie fails to provide is much context for the nature of Zuckerberg’s character. When we meet him he already has poor social skills, he’s rude and unfeeling and petulant and ambitious. I wonder what his family life was like? Perhaps the point is you need to be unfeeling to break down the social experience of college and translate it into a structure that enables users to make social connections through a computer network without having to actually have any face to face social interaction.
To put my own comments in context, I should disclose that I am not a Facebook user, so while I recognize the curious attractiveness of this social network, I have not experienced it first hand. I suppose that is odd for someone who has been a blogger for a number of years, but I simply haven’t been interested. I don’t use Twitter either and, while I’m in full disclosure mode, I don’t own a personal cell phone either. My alter ego does have a presence on Linked In, with connections mostly to people I know through my day job.
The Social Network is a good film, largely because of the story, and it’s supported by some very good performances. I noted that on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 97% critics approval rating, very high indeed. I don’t think it’s a great film though. On the 5 fish Anchovy Rating Scale, I give this one a solid 3 salties.
Bagels
Happy Thanksgiving
For those down in America thinking wtf is he going on about, Canadian Thanksgiving happens in October. It’s kind of like American Thanksgiving, but hold the Pilgims, hold the college football.
Solomon Burke RIP
Soul singer Solomon Burke has died at 70. I think Mr. Burke was a great singer and performer. His music gets a lot of play here at Anchovy World Headquarters.
Train Song of the Day
East Texas Red
Today I’m featuring another Woody Guthrie tune. This is the story of a railroad bull name of East Texas Red, who was the meanest bull around. This story has a moral, and that is that if you’re nasty to your fellow man, you’re going to get your come-uppance down the road. This one goes out to my pal East Texas Red, who’s not a mean guy at all.
Trains and the traveling nation. Here’s another train song that falls into the hobo tune category. It’s about the train that takes the traveling man to the other side, the land of milk and honey, the Big Rock Candy Mountain. I really like this unusual bluesy take on the song by Jerry Reed (on Porter Wagoner’s TV show…gotta love Porter’s outfits).
Top of the Morning
Usually Tuffy P takes the dogs for an early morning walk and I take them in the evening to the dog park, and finally, we go for what we call our “pack walk” just before bed. This week I volunteered to handle a couple of the morning walks.
You see the neighbourhood much differently at 5:30 in the morning. There are not many humans out and about. Cat’s, as Ewan MacColl sang, are prowling on their beats. Occasionally a family of raccoons crosses the street. This morning we met a lone dog. Memphis saw him or smelled him or sensed him first, and bristled. The dog was across the street. At first I thought it was a coyote but no, it was too chunky for a coyote. I thought about making friends, but the energy I was getting from Memphis said this one wasn’t going to be our friend. He followed us from a distance past the parkette and disappeared once we passed the old apartments behind the arena.
A light goes on in a house up ahead. Someone getting up, getting ready for work, or maybe getting ready for a dog walk. Where’s that leash? I hear a car racing down Lakeshore as we approach, and walk past an empty store front. There are quite a few empty stores heading west along the south side of the street. At the same time, some new businesses are trying their luck. There are some new condos going up down the road. Maybe that will be good for business.
This early the street is mostly quiet, except for a couple cars at the Tim’s drive-thru, and one Harley parked by the bench. A lone woman stands at the street car stop. The dogs know the route. We turn here, down Twenty-seventh.
Train Song of the Day
Danville Girl
Here’s Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston
And Ramblin’ Jack
27th Street 