Did the movie's theme song play in your mind when you read the first line?
It should have because it's one of the most recalled tracks from movies.
Ennio Morricone had collaborated with Sergio Leone on several films. He came up with the title's opening to capture the coyote's high-pitched wail and then blended it into a track that goes in unpredictable directions.
In most themes, there is a set of opening bars that set the trend for the rest of the tune. But this one breaks the mould.
Even if you knew nothing about music, you would still be captivated by the way it plays out.
The album was on the top of charts for more than a year and it defined the genre of the 'Spaghetti Western' because it was films made about cowboys by Italians.
Here's some interesting trivia about the genre from Wikipedia:
The majority of the films in the Spaghetti Western genre were actually international co-productions between Italy and Spain, and sometimes France, West Germany, Britain, Portugal, Greece, Israel, Yugoslavia, or the United States. Over six hundred European Westerns were made between 1960 and 1978.
These movies were originally released in Italian or with Italian dubbing, but as most of the films featured multilingual casts and sound was post-synched, most "western all 'italiana" do not have an official dominant language.
But this theme music defined the genre.
And built a brand that has endured for decades
Digital is lousy at preserving history.
No one mourns the passing of the 1.4 MB floppy disk.
It stored a small amount of data and was quite complex to use.
But it contained a good slice of early software explorations - and all of that has disappeared.
Papyrus scrolls from over 5000 years ago still survive.
And here we are, just a few decades into the digital and internet revolution and the early phase is a dim memory.
In massive data centers, magnetic tape, not optical disks are the preferred storage option because they have a life of around 30 years.
So, in a hundred years from now, everything we're using today will probably be extinct.
Flash was the first to bring 2D animation and film into mainstream digital.
And Apple imperiously shut the door on it. When it dismissed Flash from its platform, all the other tech companies followed suit - and so did the later versions of browsers.
A recent article in CNBC mentions how the internet archive can no longer play the news around 9/11 that was stored in Flash. Practically none of the modern browsers allow Flash, even with a plug-in.
Granted, there may have been security issues. But it was one of the building blocks - and that is no longer accessible.
We're too busy with our latest shiny obsessions to notice.
And somewhere in the future, even the glass slabs we use 24/7 now may become a distant memory.
Truckers are today's Marlboro men
It's a hard life and someone's got to do it.
Truckers have it tough. They can be away from home for weeks.
Their steeds have 8-12 wheels, not legs.
Even with power steering and GPS, it's a life that grates and grinds along the unending rides.
Truck De India, A Hitchhiker's Guide to Hindustan is a great read.
The young author snags rides along with several truckers and gets to know them up close.
They are surprisingly open about the twists and turns that define their existence.
And generous to a city slicker whose entire life has been completely different from their own.
He just talks to them as they drive across highways, forests, ghat sections, naxal territories and corrupt officials.
There's an informal information exchange between drivers relying on each other to navigate certain stretches, apart from the instruments.
But it seems to be the same story across the world. In developed countries, the trucks are swankier and better equipped.
The long and lonely drives, however, don't change. And it's one of those professions with two completely different headlines.
How autonomous vehicles will dispense with the need for drivers.
The other headline - a perennial shortage of qualified drivers.
In India, there are thousands of drivers getting trained to drive in countries like Japan and Canada.
It's a job the locals don't want. And it provides immigrants a foothold into another life.
But it isn't easy. There's a reason the West was called wild!
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