how does Tom Waits relate to the Whites?

OK. So I'm on Amazon today, looking for some of the more obscure Waits stuff that's out there. I get the "Customers who viewed 'this' also viewed..." message, and what pops up? The AMC White Mountains Guide, 28th Edition.

I'm thinking that some of the people doing these searches must be VFTT folks...so this is a post to see if I'm right...and in the interest of keeping it related, I'm thinking that, if Amazon's cookies are accurate, and there really are that many fans in the area, there should be a "Tom Waits tribute" somewhere in the Whites this summer.

So, the basic question is...Is there really that many Waits fans hiking the Whites? If I've totally been tricked by Amazon, I'll go away quietly and just hum these songs to myself while pushing branches out of my way en route to "this or that" summit. .

Jason

Hmm, must be that 6 degrees of separation thing. I've looked for Tom Waits, and I've looked for trail guides for Western states, but not the AMC guide.

ferrisjrf said:

So, the basic question is...Is there really that many Waits fans hiking the Whites? If I've totally been tricked by Amazon, I'll go away quietly and just hum these songs to myself while pushing branches out of my way en route to "this or that" summit. .

Jason

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I am definitely a fan of both the Whites and Waits (but I haven't ordered either from Amazon).

that's be me.....

I used to have "Lookin' for the Heart of Saturday Night" as my ringtone.....I like all his stuff......Nighthawks.....Frank's Wild Years( Straight to the Top could be the VFTT theme song ), all the way through to Bone Machine, and then Alice and Blood Money. One of the coolest things about the TV series Homicide was that they would work Waits songs into the story lines......

I've heard he's big in Japan....

Hmm... I wonder if it takes only one person purchasing two items together to make the connection.


I wonder if Barry White CDs were also viewed along cans of whip cream on Amazon

cbcbd said:

Hmm... I wonder if it takes only one person purchasing two items together to make the connection.

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I actually work on software that does this type of recommendation (not for Amazon but for others) and it takes more then a few item-to-item correlations to make a link like that. There are thresholds before a connection is made.

But there are many other ways to make connections like this, it doesn't say anything concrete about hikers loving Tom Waits. There are other factors that go into recommendations that may simply be artifacts of the algorithm and quirks of the data when dealing with low selling items.

David Metsky said:

I actually work on software that does this type of recommendation (not for Amazon but for others) and it takes more then a few item-to-item correlations to make a link like that. There are thresholds before a connection is made.

But there are many other ways to make connections like this, it doesn't say anything concrete about hikers loving Tom Waits. There are other factors that go into recommendations that may simply be artifacts of the algorithm and quirks of the data when dealing with low selling items.

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I think it would be more significant if you did a search for Tom Waits and it recommended The White Mountain Guide.

The WMG is probably not a huge seller on Amazon. I think people tend to buy it locally through EMS or even The Mountain Wanderer so there may be some chance (statistically insignificant) correlation between someone purchasing the WMG on Amazon who also happened to purchase a bunch of Tom Waits albums. It could be me even. And, while I love Tom Wait's music and have several of his albums and admire him as an artist more so than many others, I wouldn't put his music in the top 100 even of what I listen to.

-Dr. Wu

dr_wu002 said:

And, while I love Tom Wait's music and have several of his albums and admire him as an artist more so than many others, I wouldn't put his music in the top 100 even of what I listen to.

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Bone Machine would be in my top 100 albums but I didn't get it from Amazon.

We're all Rain Dogs, that's why.

I wonder if Tom Waits hikes? I can hear him wheezing through those smoke-choked lungs now! I am also a big Tom Waits fan. This so has nothing to do with hiking.

I don't know about Tom Waits but it has come to my attention that Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yaz/Yazoo, Erasure) is now living in Maine and is a suppsoed to be a hiker.

I am trying to recruit him as we speak for an retro 80's after hike party

There was a boston.com article on this, so not saying anything that isn't public info.

giggy said:

I don't know about Tom Waits but it has come to my attention that Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yaz/Yazoo, Erasure) is now living in Maine and is a suppsoed to be a hiker.

I am trying to recruit him as we speak for an retro 80's after hike party

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"you'll dance to anything by Depeche commode"

a greenie goes to anyone who gets this reference......but be careful....you'll be marking yourself as a product of the 80"s!

I think we've left the realm of Trips & Events.