Samuel's Blog

Samuel’s Musicians Of The Week

This week’s award goes to Woody Guthrie, and I’ve chosen a song to feature which I think is fairly representative of many songs of that era, as it has meaningful lyrics which perform a social commentary of sorts. The feature song is “Worried Man Blues”.

I went across the river, I laid down to sleep
went across the river, I laid down to sleep
When I woke up, had shackles on my feet

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

Twenty one links of chain around my leg
Twenty one links of chain around my leg
And on each link, the initials of my name

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

I asked that judge what’s gonna be my fine
Asked that judge what’s gonna be my fine
Twenty one years on the Rocky Mountain Line

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

A train pulled out, twenty-one coaches long
Train pulled out, twenty-one coaches long
And the woman I love, on that train and gone

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

Twenty-one years, to pay my awful crime
Twenty-one years, to pay my awful crime
Twenty-one years, and I still got ninety-nine

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
Takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long

Samuel

2 comments January 28th, 2007 at 07:10pm

Australian Open tennis results and tips

Congratulations to Serena Williams who defeated Maria Sharapova in straight sets, 6-1 6-2, to become the 2007 Womens Champion. I haven’t paid a huge amount of attention to the Australian Open, mainly because tennis isn’t one of my more favoured sports, and as such I really wasn’t in a position to tip a winner.

I can say, however, that I have seen enough of the mens competition to make a tip. As I said to John Kerr this morning at about 5:25, Fernando Gonzalez will defeat Roger Federer in the fourth set. It won’t be a whitewash, but I think Gonzalez will come out of the blocks a bit too fast for Federer. That being said, if the game gets to the fifth set, then Gonzalez will run out of steam, will become frustrated, and Federer will win.

Update 10:36pm: Wrong on both counts! Roger Federer defeated Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets 7-6 6-4 6-4, to take out his third Australian Open Title. John Kerr was right, my predictions were bold…Sir Humphrey Appleby would probably have called them “courageous”. End Update

Also, while I’m here, congratulations must go to Boys champion Brydan Klein, who defeated Jonathan Eysseric of France 6-2 4-6 6-1. He is the first Australian to win the title in thirteen years, and the first junior player to ever win tournament on Rod Laver Arena.

Congratulations also to girls champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (not surprisingly from Russia), who defeated Madison Brengle of the U.S. in straight sets, with tiebreakers in each set, 7-6 (6) 7-6 (3).

Samuel

2 comments January 28th, 2007 at 12:24pm

Samuel’s Blog Weekly Poll: The Petrol Industry

Time for another Samuel’s Blog Weekly Poll.

Feel free to discuss the poll subject in the comments below. You need to be a registered member of Samuel’s Blog to comment, but anyone can vote. The system will attempt to prevent you from voting more than once, and whilst it might not always be able to do that, I request that you only vote once.

Disclaimer: This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you’re using these numbers to do anything important, you’re insane. That being said, I do try to keep the results fair and accurate, and I try to prevent abuse by unscrupulous voters, but I can’t make any guarantees.

Now for the results from last week’s poll.

There were also a few legitimate votes for the answer “13 and under”, which was removed from the poll after repeated abuse. I suspect that the majority of votes for “14” were from the “13 and under” abuser(s), however the results were certainly quite interesting none the less, it would appear that the general concensus is for older (and theoretically more mature) drivers, although opinion is clearly divided on exactly what age that should be.

For a list of all previous results, see the Weekly Poll Results page.

Samuel

2 comments January 28th, 2007 at 12:10am