THE HONEYMOONERS BLOGATHON – Da Big Finish

We’re sorry if you missed our blogging tribute to one of TV’s legendary sitcoms. But it’s not worth a “homina-homina” — just click on each of the blog titles that are highlighted below to read our bloggers’ takes on them, as we present

As originator of this blogathon, Movie Movie Blog Blog II preferred to take a somewhat “historic” approach, reviewing one episode each from the “Lost Episodes” era, the “Classic 39” period, and the 1970’s TV specials.

Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason, of course) goes out of this world to concoct a creation that will win his lodge’s costume contest, as reported by The Midnite Drive-In in his look at “The Man from Space.”

Wide Screen World shows us that, when it comes to his contempt for Latin music, Ralph shoots from the hip in “Mama Loves Mambo.”

Speaking of music, Caftan Woman shows us how Ed Norton (Art Carney) and Ralph make beautiful music together, in a variety of noteworthy scenes from “The Classic 39.”

And lastly, Movierob shows how timeless Ralph Kramden’s story is, as Cedric the Entertainer works to fill Jackie Gleason’s shoes in the 2005 movie update of the TV series.

Our many thanks to the tireless contributors and eager readers of our nostalgic blogathon. Hope you enjoyed the ride!

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Popeye in YOU GOTTA BE A FOOTBALL HERO (1935) – Spinach-boom-ba!

The following is my entry in The 1st and 10 Blogathon, being co-hosted by Jonathan and Quiggy at, respectively, the blogs Dubism and The Midnite Drive-In. Click on the above banner, and read bloggers’ tributes to some of their favorite TV episodes and movies about football!

Popeye and Olive Oyl attend a football game where Bluto is the game’s star attraction. Bluto instantly wins Olive over (surprise!), to the point that she becomes an instant cheerleader and does an enthusiastic rendition of the title song. (Even if you don’t know the song by name, you’ll recognize it during the opening credits. It was written in 1933 and is one of the most performed football anthems ever.)

Popeye is so chagrined, he goes right out and signs up to play on the rival team (no time to bother performing for scouts!) — but Wimpy’s the coach and is busy nursing some hamburgers, so Popeye has his work cut out for him. (Great running gag: Wimpy keeps running out to an injured Popeye with a bucket of water, but Wimpy’s so distraught at the sight, he drinks the water himself.)

Mostly it’s football spot-gags, rather along the lines of the climactic football game in the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers (1932). As soon as Popeye manages a post-spinach rally, Olive does her quickest Bluto-to-Popeye transformation ever: “Er, I’m changing my mind…Go, Popeye!” Sheesh, college women!

My rating (out of 1 to 4 spinach cans):

AN ALAN SMITHEE BLOGATHON is here!

At last, it’s time for our tribute to the movie director who never existed! The bloggers at An Alan Smithee Blogathon take a look at some of the movies credited to Mr. Smithee (not a real person) when a movie’s actual director decided he or she didn’t want his or her name on it.

Below, click on each individual film title to read the blogger’s entry about it.

Movierob‘s double feature takes a look at two vastly different kinds of existential crises — Western (Richard Widmark in Death of a Gunfighter) and sci-fi (Solar Crisis).

The Midnite Drive-In assures us that we’ll have a bloody good time watching Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh.

Nothing like being a woman (Jodie Foster) whose hit man falls in love with her…especially when he’s Dennis Hopper, the “Alan Smithee” of a movie known variously as Catchfire and Backtrack. Realweegiemidget Reviews gives us the lowdown.

Finally, your faithful correspondent chronicles Eric Idle playing a put-upon movie director who is actually named…well, you know, in An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn.

And believe it or not, that’s it for this blogathon! My thanks to the talented bloggers who took the time to share their opinions with us. Be sure to read their ‘thon entries as well as other great writing at their blogs.

And if you’d like to join our upcoming blogathon, click on the banner below to learn more about The Unemployment Blogathon!

Blogger Recognition Award

I used to love it when fellow bloggers would nominate me for Liebster Awards. It was like getting recognition from your peers, and it allowed me to share a little bit about myself. But after receiving a half-dozen Liebster nominations, it got kind of old. Also, part of the Liebster ritual is that you are to nominate 11 other bloggers for a Liebster and get them to respond. After a while, the process seemed as annoying as chain letters, so I quit participating.

But Quiggy, my good online buddy at the blog The Midnite Drive-In, recently nominated me for something similar — a Blogger Recognition Award. He did it good-naturedly, so I’ll be glad to participate this one time.

Here are the rules that each award nominee is supposed to follow.

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and feature a link to their blog in your award post.

Thanks, Quiggy! The link to his blog is posted above. Check it out, it’s a fun read.

2. Post the award somewhere on your blog.

It’s posted at the very top.

3. Share the reason why you started your blog.

For years, I had been sharing my movie reviews on personal websites that didn’t get many visitors. Then, five years ago, my supervisor at work informed me of a blog she had created in order to promote online products that she liked. She had 1,100 followers, which sounded pretty good to me.

So I created Movie Movie Blog Blog, wherein I posted all of my old reviews and blogged fresh material as well. It got 400-plus followers before I accidentally locked myself out of the blog. So then I created this blog as a “continuation” of the first one. Check out the first blog if you haven’t already. And please encourage others to subscribe to this second blog; I lost an awful lot of followers when I had to “re-start.”

4. Share two pieces of advice that could benefit new bloggers.

First, unless you intend your blog to be specifically political, try to keep politics out of it. I subscribe to a couple of general-topic blogs that often deal with hot-button political issues, and they seem to maintain a good balance. But whenever I try to do that, I get a lot of ranters and trollers in response. These result in arguments that neither side can really win, and it ruins the fun of the blog. Try to stick with your blog’s Topic A as much as possible.

My second piece of advice is: Write first, edit later. You don’t have to press the “Publish” button the moment you’ve finished your first draft. Re-read it carefully once or twice before you commit to it.

And I’m not talking only about pruning the hot-button issues. Take a good look at how your blog actually reads. Does your blog entry have a series of run-on sentences or sentence fragments? Do you have to scroll down in order to completely read a run-on paragraph? Don’t intimidate your reader before he or she even has a chance to savor your writing. Think of your blog as a light conversation between friends.

Beyond that, just have fun with your blog. And delight in the fact that others are taking time out from busy web-surfing to read your work!

5. Nominate a maximum of 15 other bloggers.

Sorry, not gonna do it. See my chain-letter comment above. If you really want to participate in this, nominate yourself and say that I did it. Better that than for me to be presumptuous about the writing time of 15 other people.

6. Tell your nominees about your award post so they can participate.

See my previous comment.

Hope you enjoyed my blathering on about my blog. Thanks again to Quiggy for the nomination. And if you do decide to participate in this, let me know your blog’s name and URL so that I can promote your entry!

THE HOTTER’NELL BLOGATHON – Day 1 Recap

We received some lively entries in our blogathon devoted to movies about summer and heat waves, so let’s do a little dance as we partake in

Click on the names of each individual blog to read their entries.

Wheelchair-bound James Stewart’s nosiness leads him to discover a murder in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the summer fare of choice for A Shroud of Thoughts.

Why does Roy Scheider wish for a bigger boat? The Midnite Drive-In provides the answer in his critique of that thriller with bite, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.

Realweegiemidget Reviews find Vacation not much fun as a continuation of National Lampoon‘s series of Vacation comedies.

And finally, yours truly just isn’t feeling the Body Heat between William Hurt and Kathleen Turner.

We still have two more days to go in our tribute to movie hotness, so keep us bookmarked!