Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

…People tag you, you procrastinate for about a month, and then decide to whip up the answers despite the fact that you haven't even formally wrapped up your latest Western-themed week.  Yeah.  That.  (I SHALL wrap up Western Week and draw/notify the giveaway winners before too much longer.  I SHALL.)  Anyway,  Ivy  and  Anna  have both tagged me (hence the spiel about tagging and procrastination)!  Thanks, ladies!  I do so love a good tag :)  Let's dive in. (Also, there'll be a lot of random movie collages that have nothing to do with the answers.  I found a bunch of really pretty collages over the past few months and wanted to share several of them with y'all, being the kind soul that I am :)) ~ Ivy's First Tag (Simple Questions) ~ Rules Pass along the questions Questions 1. What nationality are you? For privacy's sake, I'll just say Caucasian. 2. What's your favourite animal? Hmm…to be around, p...

EDIT 08/2020:  I have excised parts of this review that reference/celebrate Howard Keel's performance as an Indigenous American.  I realize that it is inappropriate for white actors to play BIPOC characters, and I apologize for handling the issue inappropriately in my original viewing & review of the film. "Mine hit the ground first." "Mine was taller." -- Lomax and Taw -- Once upon a time, a lovely blogger called DKoren  reviewed a movie .  (Well.  That is to say.  She's done that lots, but this was a special instance I'm talking about here.)  She sparked my interest right off the bat by observing that it starred John Wayne (in case you didn't know, I have A Rather High Regard for the Duke). Time passed, and lo, the film showed up in my library's DVD collection.  You will be happy to know that I secured said DVD, carried it home, and watched it before any great amount of time had elapsed ;)  And I liked it just as much a...

There are many standby sights you'll usually, if not always, find in a Western of any sort:  Dust.  Rifles.  Stetsons.  Horses.  Boots.  Sweeping plains.  Manipulative villains.  A small number of women.  A (slightly bigger) number of men.  And, ofttimes, a marked emphasis on friendship. Think about it--have you ever seen a Western that didn't feature a strong bromance?  ( Seven Brides for Seven Brothers , for once in the history of the universe, doesn't count.)  In these stories about hardened heroes grappling with adverse elements, sinister bad guys, and unruly quadrupeds, companionship is important, and filmmakers seem to recognize that.   Cowboys have it rough, man.  They spend long days in the saddle, short nights on the ground, and a heck of a lot of mental and emotional energy just trying to be decent human beings in a country that's still in the process of becoming civilized.  Justice, in a...

*takes deep breath*  Oh, boy.  This.  Well, folks, I finally watched the classic Western  High Noon  about a month or two ago.  And…I don't know what I think of it, precisely. Being well aware that this news may not exactly enhance my popularity in the blogosphere, I give you full permission to not read this review :P  But it's not going to be a negative review, understand--it'll just be a mixed and undecided review, that's all.  I just don't want to be that person who "bashes" someone's favorite movie (even though I have no intention of bashing it).  So…yeah.  Read at your own risk and please don't hate me, what ;) I enjoyed High Noon --really, I did.  It's just that it had certain, shall we say, quirks.  The cinematography itself was nearly flawless--the camera angles and use of chiaroscuro combined to create a dramatic, edge-of-your-seat sort of effect--and the acting was wonderful, as you'd expect from such a cas...

"It never occurred to them that their search was stretching out into a great extraordinary feat of endurance; an epic of hope without faith, of fortitude without reward, of stubbornness past all limits of reason.  They simply kept on, doing the next thing, because they always had one more place to go, following out one more forlorn-hope try." You'll be so proud of me, guys.  I finally finished an actual Western book .  I've seen several, but I don't think I'd ever read a Western novel all the way through.  I just haven't picked up that many, and the content I've run into has sort of put a damper on our relationship, as a very wise man in black once put it.  (Well, maybe that Dear America book about the wagon train counts…and then there's A Lantern in Her Hand and Love Comes Softly  and the like...)  Anyway, a week or two ago, I did it--I read a no-doubt-about-it, true Western:   The Searchers  by Alan Le May. I'm accordingly her...

I have good news!   Hamlette  (a masterful authority on the Western genre) and I are both hosting giveaways for this grand and glorious week of fun :) Rosemary is proud of us fairy godmothers.   Hamlette is giving away not one, not two, but FIVE Western television prizes.  Get thee over there posthaste--it's a veritable smorgasbord!  Her giveaway post is  HERE . And now, my turn:  I will be giving away 4 Western movie picture prints 8x10 inches each , 4 "postcards"  (they seem a bit big to be postcards, to me, but they have the regular postcard formatting, so…I guess I'll take them at their word)  featuring various pictures of John Wayne , and 1 Western novel .  (I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality.) Giveaway #1 Top row:  Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, and Paul Newman hanging out on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ; Gary Cooper in Man of the West. Bottom row:  Clin...

Legends of Western Cinema Week has arrived!  The day has dawned!  The quest has begun!  The joy overflows--okay, I'll stop.  Anywho, I'm ever so excited, and I know  Emma  is as well! Before I begin, I'd like to take a moment to celebrate the fact that today is Rosie McCann's birthday!   I've had the privilege of getting to know Rosie over the past year or so, and it's an absolute joy to be friends with her!  She's more or less sort of awesome.  I'm sure a lot of you know her--though she doesn't have a blog (sad face), she's an active and vibrant participant in the blogosphere's happenings :)   Happy Birthday, Rosie!!!   Have a swell day, and don't forget what a gift you are to the world <3 Now, on to the post!  This year, Emma and I are each doing something different for the start of LoWCW, and I decided to make another top ten list, because I think top ten lists are fun ;)  I will be sharing with you all my to...