My Facebook Map From Last Year

Last year at this time, I started Grad School with a class called Social Networks and the Web.

The main assignment for class, was rendering a map of my Facebook friends via a program called Gephi.

I worked on it for several weeks and when I finally got it to the point that I liked it, I decided it was worthy of a post.

When you look at this graph, the first thing you see is how very large the yellow area is.

Those are all my Steely Dan friends, on the lower left side. Since I was drawn into the Facebook world by 2 Steely Dan friends, this is not really a surprise to me.

The other large groups are as follows.

The Unit fans are over on the lower right side. The top, is college friends on the far left, high school friends on the mid left and family sort of center. Oh, the final group on the top right is is my son's friends...including my "Other" sons. :-)

I thought it came out particularly beautiful. Sort of like a Spirograph.

This semester is my final one. After it is over, I will have earned a Graduate Certificate in Integrated Media and Social Networks. I can't believe how fast it is going.

4 months to go.

Reeling In The Years - Le Bar Bat 2001

The 13th Anniversary for this event is coming up on March 19th.

2001 was the year that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the induction ceremony was at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC). In the spirit of celebration, we fans decided to have a Dan Fest.

We came from miles around and congregated at a club called Le Bar Bat. The biggest Steely Dan fan, was the booker for the club and one of the people he got, was Elliot Randell (who plays that cool lead guitar on Reelin' In The Years. Another big name he booked that same night, was bassist, Chuck Rainey. You can hear Chuck on most of the Royal Scam album and (of course) their masterpiece, Aja. One of the things they did that night was play Reelin', so that Elliott could do his famous guitar solo. They brought up Dan fan, Amelia Ray, to sing and she did quite a nice job with the song. Chuck...was Chuck. Laying down that always perfect bass line.

I truly enjoyed that evening and the second night, when The Steely Damned (a band from San Diego) played for over 4 hours, into the wee hours of the morning. My Husband and I got to see how to deal with The City that never sleeps...we were going home on the train, just as the first commuters were making they way into New York, to begin their work day. It was an unforgettable Dan Fest and THIS video, which recently surfaced on Youtube, brought it all back.

Check it out and Enjoy.

They Stabbed It With Their Steely Knives

Since the day I learned about this, I have always liked the fact that Steely Dan was referenced in the Eagles most famous song, Hotel California.

As a matter of fact, a fan made CD from a Steely Dan Fan page in the early part of the 2000's, Under the Banyan Trees, was called Steely Knives. You can sort of catch the spirit of the CD from this page, with (probably broken links) to mp3 copies of the songs...but I digress.

Here, via screen captures, is part of the story from one of the principals, Glenn Frey. (If you have trouble reading them, click on the photos).

Happy 66th Birthday Donald!

Well, it's still his birthday...barely. I didn't think to post the news over here, because I put it up on my angel blog, as usual.

My Mistake.

Donald Jay Fagen, was born in Passaic New Jersey, 66 years ago today.

As people who read this blog know, he is the frontman to super group, Steely Dan. He also tours with Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs, as a piece of the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue. He is now also a published author, with Eminent Hipsters.

He is an all around talented performer and he has made it to another Birthday.

We, his fans, are happy he did so and hope he continues to make music, far into the future.

Happy Birthday Donald!