Besides discontinuing personal posts there have been other changes to the blog over the years. At one time I reviewed more recent movies and TV shows with some regularity. I never made a conscious decision to stop doing so, but being more interested in popular culture from the past, reviews of more recent films and TV show just sort of fell by the wayside. It also seems as if I am writing more eulogies for actors, musicians, and other pop culture figures who have died than I did when I started the blog. This is simply because the actors from the Golden Age of Film and the Golden Age of Television, as well as the musicians from the Fifties and Sixties are now much older and dying at an accelerated rate. I must confess I hate writing eulogies (let's face it, for me to do so someone has to have died), but I feel an obligation to do so as a means of honouring those who have had an impact on my life with regards to popular culture.
For those of you wondering about the title of the blog, A Shroud of Thoughts is taken from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage canto iii stanza 113. I won't quote it here as I have so often, but suffice it to say that in the mid-Naughts titles with the word "thoughts" or some synonym thereof were fashionable for blogs. I eventually thought of retitling the blog to something more fitting, but by that time the blog already had a following. I was afraid it would confuse people!
Here I must stress that A Shroud of Thoughts is far from the only blog that has been around for a while, as there are many others still around that date from the early to mid-Naughts. Immortal Ephemera is even older than this blog, dating to 2002. Inner Toob is about a month and a half older, launching in April 2004. Both The Stop Button and Laura's Miscellaneous Musings date to 2005. The Rap Sheet dates to 2006. While blogs older than a decade are rare, they aren't exactly as rare as one might think! By the way, I strongly recommend that you visit all of these fine blogs (they've lasted so long for a reason).
Every year I post what I feel are the best posts from the past year. Here then are the best posts from June 2016 to June 2017:
"Happy 100th Brithday, Olivia de Havilland!" July 1 2016
"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)" July 8 2016
"The Valley of Gwangi" July 10 2016
"Hammer Films' The Brides of Dracula (1960)" August 6 2016
"Cartoons Never Were Just for Kids: Why Sausage Party is Nothing New" August 14 2016
"An American Werewolf in London Turns 35" August 21 2016
"The 25th Anniversary of the World Wide Web" August 23 2016
"The 5th Anniversary of TCM Party" September 3 2016
"The 50th Anniversary of Star Trek" September 8 2016
"The 50th Anniversary of The Monkees" September 12 2016
"The Centenary of Margaret Lockwood's Birth" September 15 2016
"He Never Slowed Down: Cesar Romero" September 26 2016
"The Maltese Falcon Turns 75" October 3 2016
"The 60th Anniversary of Playhouse 90" October 4 2016
"The 75th Anniversary of Wonder Woman" October 25 2016
"A Brief History of Trick or Treating" October 29 2016
"Haunted Houses" October 30 2016
"50 Years Ago Today NBC Went All Colour" November 7 2016
"Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)" November 12 2016
"Three Classic Sitcoms Killed by Marriage" November 21 2016
"Agnes Moorehead's Radio Career" December 3 2016
The Week of Christmas (includes "The 50th Anniversary of How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Chrismas Variety Specials on American Television", "The 70th Anniversary of It's a Wonderful Life, and The 200th Anniversary of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King")
"The 75th Anniversary of Archie" January 13 2017
"Why There Should Be a Movie or TV Show About Bass Reeves" February 4 2017
"Before Rock 'n' Roll There Was Cab Calloway" February 11 2017
"Matt Baker: African American Comic Book Artist" Feberuary 20 2017
"Theresa Harris: Much More Than a Maid" February 28 2017
"Remembering Robert Osborne: A Collection of Tributes" March 19 2017
"Maverick: 'Gun Shy'" March 25 2017
"Jack Lemmon in The Apartment" April 1 2017
"General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove" April 28 2017
"Children of Paradise/Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)" May 13 2017
"Star Wars: A Somewhat Personal Remembrance" May 25 2017
"It Was 50 Years Ago Today Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Was Released" July 1 2017
"While blogs older than a decade are rare, they aren't exactly as rare as one might think!" It seems to me that a decade doesn't feel as long a period as time as it used to.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your accomplishment, and for the quality of your work. I look forward to many more years of excellent reading.