Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

Sally Silverscreen from 18 Cinema Lane has nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award!  Always a treat — thank you, Sally! Like most awards, this one comes with a few rules: 1. Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog. 2. Thank the person who nominated you. 3. Provide a link to your nominator’s blog. 4. Answer your nominator’s questions. 5. Nominate up to 11 bloggers. 6. Ask your nominees 11 questions. 7. Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts. Those noted, let's proceed to Sally's questions and my answers. ⸻ 1. You’re about to introduce someone to a film genre. Which movie will you choose as the respective introduction? Funny you should ask; I just thought about this subject the other day.  I was re-watching Belle (2013) on a flight home and was impressed once again by just how fantastic of a period drama it is.  It really does have everything:  stunning cinematography, sumptuous costumes you could eat up with a spo...

*peeks timidly around the corner* Hello, there. Who's this sneaking back to very belatedly wrap up a party that ended several days ago? Couldn't be me, certainly . . . Yes, folks, I must admit that the end of this year's Legends of Western Cinema Week rather got away from me.  Several real-life engagements commandeered my attention in rather unavoidable ways; c'est la vie.   Still and yet, I enjoyed this year's party and look forward to (hopefully?) sharing more posts in next year's.  Thank you to everyone who joined in the fun last week; be sure to check out everyone's contributions (linked below); and we'll see you next time. *waves*

Before we begin, a few notes: #1.  I purposefully decided to go with "heroes" instead of "cowboys" for the title of this post, because not all of these characters fit the "cowboy" job description.   #2.  I also decided to limit myself to one character per given show, hence why Print and Heck from Broken Trail or Vin from The Magnificent Seven don't make appearances. #3.  As usual, I'm none too confident in all of my picks for this list, nor in all of their rankings.  I knew of about six or seven characters who deserved the title "favorite," no question, but the well started to run a bit dry after that.  In other words, to be ruthlessly frank, I was rather scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to rounding out this list.  It's a stretch to call the first few characters in this post "favorites," but one does what one must for the sake of continuity. 😜 Now to it . . .  ⸻ #10.  Billy Hyatt The War Wagon (1967) "Won...

Another Legends of Western Cinema Week has come around the mountain, y'all!  Today marks the beginning of a rollicking summer tradition hosted by Heidi , Rachel , and myself, during which we celebrate all things Western.  We invite you to join in the fun by contributing your own Western-themed posts over the next several days:  reviews, lists, analyses, games, etc. — you name it!   As always, we're starting things off with a fresh set of tag questions — or, in this case, tag prompts.  Following last year's lead, we're providing you all with a list of adjectives to fit to the Western of your choice.  Want to see what I mean?  Read on for my own answers. 2024 Tag Prompts Cozy Gritty Serious Comedic Romantic Lively  Unpredictable Hopeful Joyful Adventurous My Tag Answers Cozy Does it get any cozier than the outrageous Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)?  Not in a conversation about Westerns, at any rate.  Romanticized pioneer lifes...

Look what the cat dragged in:  another Legends of Western Cinema Week! My pals, Heidi (of Along the Brandywine ) and Rachel (of  Hamlette's Soliloquy ), and I are teaming up yet again to bring you this year's rip-roaring, boot-stomping week of Western fun.  Won't you join us?  We'll be celebrating and analyzing our favorite Westerns (or our not-so-favorite Westerns; the key is to keep any criticism essentially productive/constructive and to generally embrace the positive spirit of the event), and I promise you that it's a grand old time. 2024's event will run from July 22 through July 26.  As always, there will be tag questions for everyone to answer if they are so inclined.  (And comment answers are just as valid as post answers, for those of you who want to participate but don't have blogs!)   Beyond the tag, we'll have to see what comes to fruition by the time next month rolls around, but generally speaking, participants can expect to find revi...

Oh, friend, forget not, when you fain would note in me a beauty that was never mine, how first you knew me in a book I wrote, how first you loved me for a written line. - Edna St. Vincent Millay - I'm finally joining the Top Ten Tuesday link-up hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl !  I needed something short 'n' sweet for this month's post, and this fit the bill nicely.  Today's TTT prompt is "Authors I'd Love a New Book From," with freedom to interpret that definition however you choose.  I've decided to restrict my candidates to deceased authors (RIP).  I haven't read every work by every author on my list, but I still feel confident that I'd be interested in reading more from them even if I had. In no particular order, then, here they are:  ten authors who I (selfishly & with shocking entitlement) wish had written just a little bit more before they passed away. ⸻ ❧ C.S. Lewis My boy was fairly prolific, it must be acknowledged, but to par...

Hey, hi, hey!  While rereading this book for the first time in ages this past month, I thought again about how cool an updated cast could be for a new film adaptation.   Dream casting a book always feels a little artificial to me since I tend to see characters in my head only as vague outlines; my mental images of them definitely aren't clear or detailed.  (Not usually, at any rate.)  Still, artificiality notwithstanding, creating dream casts is a process I quite enjoy, when I have enough ideas for them, and I wanted to make one for this long-time favorite.   Several secondary characters are missing from this cast — for example, for the life of me, I can't decide on a good candidate for Slannen — but I think I've got the major players covered as well as a couple of random "cameo"-type characters.  I've also included snippets from the book that contribute to my ideas of each character's physical appearance.   ⸻ Ella Jenna Ortega "You were...