Happy, happy birthday…on this your special day…

Yes, another year has passed and today the Shreve family is celebrating the natal anniversary of its matriarch, who turns (inaudible mumble) today. So I present this picture of “Mumsy”—along with her favorite granddaughter—to commemorate this event. Happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

Atta way to go

4 inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame By CHRIS TALBOTT AP Entertainment Writer Ferlin Husky usually gets a lot calls in the spring from friends telling him this has to be the year he'll be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. "Every year I've heard that — for the last 15 or…

Notable passings

I titled my previous post “At Death’s door,” which sounds a bit alarmist, I know—but then that got to me to thinking that if that really were the case, I probably would have greeted these people who have recently left us along the way: Singer-guitarist Dale Hawkins scored a top 30 hit in 1957 with Susie…

At Death’s door

“It looks like you’re getting some color back in your cheeks…if ‘grey’ can be considered a color…” – Mrs. Ivan’s mother, last week I thought I’d tried to get something up on the blog today before it starts becoming known as “Lame Cartoons That For Some Odd Reason Make Me Laugh.” (Andrew Leal once asked me what…

“Because he lived and wrote and acted here, this land will always be a saner place to live. That fact is his true monument.” – Herman Wouk

This is the first post in what will eventually be three entries (knock wood) in the For the Love of Film Blogathon being hosted from February 14 to February 21 by Farran Smith Nehme of Self-Styled Siren and Marilyn Ferdinand of Ferdy on Films. The blogathon seeks to remind both bloggers and their readers on the importance of film preservation, and…

The Half-Assed Gourmand #8: Gumby’s Pizza edition

It hasn’t been a very productive work week here at Rancho Yesteryear. My particular area of Athens lost power on Wednesday morning, and when it finally came back on I had to deal with restoring the juice in my own domicile because the outage ended up tripping a few circuit breakers…not to mention dealing with a…

Someone’s due for a big surprise

Barrie Maxwell has a new Classic Coming Attractions piece up at The Digital Bits (thanks to Laurafor the heads-up) and begins his article with a nice little observation on the state of classic movies on DVD: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… If you're a classic enthusiast, it will depend on your viewpoint on…

Monday morning quarterbacking

First off, this is not going to be a post about the Super Bowl. With all due respect to football fans out there, it’s just not a big thing here around Rancho Yesteryear. All I can do is offer congratulations to the victors (Saints) and condolences to the non-victors (Colts). (Particularly my blogging colleague James Briggs Stratton “Doghouse” Riley,…

Let the Festival commence!

Back in January, I mentioned that the University of Georgia was still planning on hosting their classic film festival—with TCM’s own Robert Osborne—in March, despite that the Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ had been touting another classic film festival with Bobby Osbo also scheduled for this year, only in April. In plugging this news, I forgot to mention that…

R.I.P. Ian Carmichael and Francis Reid

With the East Side/West Side essay over and up on the blog, I have regained my footing and will once again attempt to keep writing something on a regular basis. Sadly, this post starts out with the mention of the passing of two notable celebrities. From Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine (who, in turn, credits that foine broth of a…