Bring Out The Award!

Okay, I admit that I've been hoarding a few awards, and it's high time I sent them out into the world again. I'm going to start with the first one I received.

Juliette (who has come back to the blogging world during her holiday break - yay!!) gave me this award when my blog was just a little over a week old. It really encouraged me to know that someone enjoyed the words I typed as I sat huddled over my keyboard. Well, maybe not "huddled", but "glued to the keys" could work.

Who am I going to give this award to? Well, I don't know who else has received it, so I'm just going to give it to anyone I want to!

The first person I want to give this award to is JWalker/Huey of Gingerology! You all know I'm a sucker for a Ginger movie, right? My love for her pales in comparison to Huey's! Not only does he enjoy anything connected with Ginger, he blogs about her! Also, he has all but three of her films/shorts. Congratulations, Huey, and good luck finding the last three!

Meredith, of L.A. La Land: Fame, Fortune And Forensics. Meredith's writing is informed, thoughtful, and riveting. I can't count how many things I've learned about old Hollywood just from reading her blog.

Princess Fire And Music, whose blog, Fire And Music, is something not to be missed! As the name implies, her writing is filled with - well, fire and music! Beautiful, fresh, and interesting.

C.K. Dexter Haven of Hollywood Dreamland. His blog was one of the first old movie blogs I ever read, and it's one of my favorites. I never miss reading one of his posts. Keep up the great work!

^ By the way... did you really sock her?

I Feel Like Partying!

Today is my sister's birthday! Yay!

Love ya, sis!

Currently On My Screen Saver #1

Image courtesy Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans.

How Old Hollywood Has Affected My Life #4

Whenever I hear the word "foil," I also hear a voice (that sounds like Dennis Morgan doing an impression of Ronald Colman) in my head saying, "Foyle, Foyle, oil and toil. Roses are red. Violets are blue..." etc., etc., etc. (I just love doing that - it's my favorite part of The King & I.) What's more, I usually find myself saying it aloud.

Okay, My Fellow Netflix Addicts...

... we all know the agony of having more movies in our queues than we could ever possibly watch. What's more, we can't always remember what films are in that queue! Suppose you're in the mood for a Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, or Gary Cooper flick, but you don't know which ones are in the line-up? (For instance, I had no idea that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was in my queue.) It's a sad place to be. You end up going to Gary Cooper's "page" (or participant page, or whatever it's called... I have no clue), looking at the movies labeled "In Queue," choosing the one you want to see, heading back to your queue, pressing "command f," searching for the title, and bumping it up to the head of your list.

Trust me, this experience isn't as delightful as it sounds. I know. Three days ago I had over 430 DVDs in my queue (most of them from the Golden Age). In two days, I managed to narrow that list down to 15. Much as I would love to say that I have now watched the other 415 (give or take a dozen), this isn't true. Instead, I went through my entire queue and figured out which ones I wanted to see most. The ones that didn't make it to the top 15 are now in a list of movies to add and watch later.

Now, instead of wading through hundreds of titles just to find one that I really want to see immediately, I can just look over a short list and pick one. My goal is to keep the number of DVDs in the queue around 15 from now on.

One thing does concern me, though. This is the first time since I started adding to my queue (that I can remember, at least) that no Ginger Rogers movie has been in the line-up. True, 20 GR films are currently sitting on my shelf (staring at me, too - I haven't watched any of them in roughly 2 days, and that last time I was only half-watching as I churned out words for NaNoWriMo), and Rafter Romance and Twenty Million Sweethearts were recorded just this morning. It's a little weird though.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, I need to mix things up a bit in the story. I'm just over the halfway mark, word-wise, and it's already headed toward a resolution. I think the only thing for me to do right now is to have the diary stolen and Sue kidnapped. By who I'm not sure because the killer is filled with regret. Hm... I'll figure that out later.

Oh, you want me to fill you in on the characters' current situations? Okay, but remember that you asked to hear about this mess.

Sue is dating John, hoping to make Tommy jealous, but it doesn't seem to be working. Incidentally, this was John's idea.

Tommy isn't jealous because John is seeing Sue only to help him. The plan is that John will give her a bit of a scare (nothing serious, mind you), and she'll go running back to Tommy and work things out.

John is falling in love (though he doesn't know it, yet) with his secretary, Pat, who he accidentally married a week ago. Long story.

Pat has been in love with John for years, and she knows that he's seeing Sue (her best friend). She's confused, angry, and handling herself admirably in the face of her trouble. Well... unless we want to remember that she's sobbing hysterically at this very moment. Don't worry, she'll be back to her perky self in no time. She just needs to let it out right now, and once she's gotten over the shock she'll start trying to hold onto her man in earnest.

By the way, Sue doesn't know that Pat and John are married (though it is just in name only). So please don't blame her too much.

And more exciting news! I popped into a bookstore Sunday and found the Grant - Hope Comedy Collection and The Philadelphia Story - both for only $6.97! But wait - it gets better. It was the 2-disc special edition of The Philadelphia Story, and the Comedy Collection contains His Girl Friday, Charade, The Amazing Adventure, My Favorite Brunette, Road To Bali, and the short documentary Road To Hollywood. Oh, this makes me so happy.

I first saw His Girl Friday this spring, when my obsession with old films was really beginning to bloom. I was mostly into musicals and GR movies at the time, with a growing interest in other genres. I loved it immediately, but I never bought it because there were so many different accounts of DVD quality. The sound and picture quality of the version I bought Sunday was more than satisfactory. Funny thing: I had just been looking at His Girl Friday over at Amazon.com on Saturday.

I also love Charade, and you can imagine how thrilled I was to find it on DVD at such a cheap price! I had only seen our VHS version, which has okay picture but crummy sound quality. Oh, it was so nice it watch Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn and understand every word they said!

So let's have a hand for Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby, who have finally found their way into my personal collection! (Roz Russell and Audrey Hepburn had arrived long ago with Roman Holiday, They Met In Bombay, and Forsaking All Others.)