…with painting by Tim Noonan
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Two Cats
…with painting by Tim Noonan
Transit Talk?
I think we need to give our City Councillors more work.
Councillor and TTC head Adam Giambrone will be getting his own talk show. I’m not making this up. He’s going to ride around on a street car, taking calls, comments and complaints. Viewers can tune in Thursday at 8:00 on CP24. I recently read that Giambrone was considering a run for the Mayor’s job in 2010. I had dismissed this out of hand, recalling all the bright yellow “Giambrone don’t narrow Lansdowne” signs speckling his Ward when he supported the wacky idea to narrow that street to make it less useful for traffic and parking. However, it looks like Mr. Giambrone is taking steps to broaden his public appeal.
Getting on TV is not a bad idea for a politician. After all, lots of people believe all kinds of ideas when they are presented on the box. John Tory is trying a similar tact with his afternoon radio talk show on Newstalk 1010. Will it make him more electable? It’s hard to say, but if he does a good job as a radio host, I think it’s a vote getter…but then Tory hasn’t declared to this point.
So far, we haven’t seen a “successor” to Mayor Miller from the left appear to challenge for the Mayor’s job. Is it going to be Giambrone? I don’t think a transit talk show will be enough to catapult him into that gig.
More Car Songs
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road – Lucinda Williams. This song keeps on giving.
Mercury Blues – David Lindley
Dead Man’s Curve – Jan & Dean
Racing in the Street – Springsteen. This link is to a live version by Townes van Zandt. Townes’ version floors me. There’s some interview bits before the song, but it’s all good.
The Car Song – Woody Guthrie. Yeah.
Crazy about an Automobile – Ry Cooder.
Slick Crown Vic – John Hammond
One Piece at a Time – Johnny Cash
Cadillac Walk – Mink DeVille – Watch for Paul James on guitar.
Mabellene – Chuck Berry. Wow!
Songs about cars
Here in the dying days of the American Empire, we don’t hear much celebration of the automobile anymore, but back in the days of rock ‘n roll, the car was a theme songwriters rarely tired of. Here are some tunes about cars that I really love.
The tune many consider to be the first rock ‘n roll song was about a car, a Rocket 88. Here’s the James Cotton Band showing how it’s done. Man, that was one hot band, wasn’t it?
Then there was soul man Wilson Pickett and Mustang Sally. I love those choreographed horns!
How about The Beach Boys – Little Deuce Coup? I’m not braggin’ babe so don’t put me down.
All my friends know the low rider
The low rider is a little higher
Low rider drives a little slower
Low rider is a real goer
Low rider knows every street yeah! This means War.
Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.
I’m a rollin stone all alone and lost….Lost Highway.
Of course you can’t always be driving. The Passenger.
Let’s not forget Willie Nelson: On the Road Again.
While we’re in Texas, let’s head on down to Lamesa and hear Don Walser: Hot Rod Mercury.
I’ll finish my list with Chuck Berry, No Particular Place to Go, but it doesn’t end here.
Your mission: add to the list. Let’s see how many songs about cars we can come up with.
Stove pictures
I promised a while ago that I would post pictures of our finally installed wood stove. Here they are:
The art work is a piece I made back in 2004 called Shield. This was part of a series of three of these constructions. You can see them all here. I was fortunate enough to sell Sheild 3. We hang the other two here at Anchovy World Headquarters. I had some vague plans to follow these up with a second series, but I instead I went back to painting.
Look ma, four hands
Guitar enthusiasts in the crowd will enjoy this amazing video featuring two musicians playing one guitar at the same time. I found this over at The Presurfer, always an excellent source for the oddities of the universe.
Happy Hallowe’en
Tuffy P and Jacques get in the spirit of Hallowe’en. Memphis was participating too, but wanted to lick all the kids. Har!
Walking with Memphis
This morning, Memphis had a play date with two other dogs, a Doby named Dita and a Boston named Roscoe. Of course they played with other dogs too.
Little Rosco checks out Dita
Dog-o-rama
Memphis meets another Landseer
We met up at Jack Darling park. It was great to see another Landseer Newf there. Usually the conversation goes like this:
Is he part Newf?
She. She’s all Newf.
Oh, I’ve never seen a Black and White one. I thought they were all black.
No. The black and white ones are called Landseers.
Oh. I thought they were all black. She must eat a lot eh?
Yes. She eats quite a bit.
I thought it was part St. Bernard.
No. Just Newf.
The Albatross
East Texas Red was in town last night, so we went down the road to The Albatross for dinner. I’ve passed the place a squillion times without ever going in, but I had heard it was a popular neighbourhood joint with a friendly atmosphere and good food, including a selection of Polish food. It’s located on the south side of Lakeshore Blvd in the area still sometimes known as “New Toronto”.
I’ve been shedding some pounds lately, and doing pretty good with that, so eating out has been a rarity, but it’s not every day East Texas Red swings into town on the Wabash Cannonball so an exception was in order.
The Albatross has a warm pub atmosphere, with a bar, a couple large booths and a few smaller tables. The whole place is fully decorated for Hallowe’en right now. The menu is a mix of pub food and Polish entrees, and as well they have dinner specials. I had one of the specials, meat loaf with roast potatoes and vegetables. It was the biggest dinner I’ve had in a couple weeks and was very tasty. Prices were moderate. The waitress was friendly. I’ll be back.
By the way, do you know the story of the Wabash Cannonball? The way I heard it, it’s a hobo song about a train built by Paul Bunyan’s brother Cal S. Bunyon. Cal built the biggest and fastest train ever seen in America. It was 1000 coaches long, and so fast that one day it hit a little bump and took off into the sky, and right on into outer space, where it still orbits the earth. It’s said that hobos, the traveling nation, all know the sound of the whistle from the Wabash Cannonball. When they hear that whistle, they know it’s time to board the big train that will take them to a better place (The Big Rock Candy Mountain)
Los Tigres song banned
The Mexican band, Los Tigres del Nortes have been playing narcocorridos for years – ballads about drug lords and their battles with the authorities. The band was to play at a major awards show until one of their tunes was banned. The band pulled out of the show.
The band considers themselves to be realists, not apologists. Here’s a quote from the same article I linked to above:
Let me just say that here at Anchovy World Headquarters, we don’t much appreciate censorship. Good for the band for pulling out of the show.
Thanks to East Texas Red for pointing me to this story.
27th Street 