Saturday, June 4, 2011

A Shroud of Thoughts' 7th Anniversary

It was seven years ago today that I first began writing A Shroud of Thoughts. In the mid-Naughts, before the days of social networking sites, blogging had become a bit of a fad. I had a girlfriend who had multiple blogs and so I decided to start my own. In those early days I was not quite sure what I wanted A Shroud of Thoughts to be. There were pop culture oriented posts from the very beginning, but there were also personal posts as well. After several months, noticing that I wrote primarily about pop culture anyway, I did away with the personal posts and devoted A Shroud of Thoughts to pop culture in all its forms.

For those of you wondering where the blog gets its title, it is taken from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage canto iii stanza 113, quoted below:

I have not loved the world, nor the world me;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bow'd
To its idolatries a patient knee,
Nor coin'd my cheek to smiles, nor cried aloud
In worship of an echo; in the crowd
They could not deem me one of such; I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could,
Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued.

Over the years A Shroud of Thoughts has evolved. In the early days posts tended to brief, but they soon grew. Eventually I would start writing series of articles that could (and have) last as long as a week. Another big change is that in the early days there were nearly no pictures featured in the blog. Fortunately Blogger made it easier to incorporate pictures into blogs. Even more recently the advent of YouTube and other video sharing sites made it possible for me to actually include video on A Shroud of Thoughts.

I must say that in many ways I am disappointed in this past year of A Shroud of Thoughts. First, it seems as if more often than not I was eulogising some celebrity who has died. While this is hardly my fault (if it was up to me many of them would live forever), eulogising celebrities does prevent me from writing happier, in depth posts on pop culture. Another problem is that I have written less this year than in the past few years. This was largely due to my job (which I no longer have--our office was made redundant), which was fairly busy much of this year. This prevented me from getting much writing done.

As I have done ever since A Shroud of Thoughts' first anniversary, I am including links to what I consider my best posts for the past year, from 5 June 2010 to today. I generally list them in chronological order, but this year I decided to list my three favourite posts first and then the rest. So here are my three favourite posts for the past year:

An Interview with Actress Scarlett O'Neil 01/04/2011

The Avengers Turns 50 07/01/2011

Happy 100th Birthday, Vincent Price 27/05/2011

And here are the rest!

Kids' Afternoon Programming on American Television Part One 11/06/2010

Kids' Afternoon Programming on American Television Part Two 12/06/2011

Kids' Afternoon Programming on American Television Part Three 13/06/2010

Television Series Backdoor Pilots 28/06/2010

In Defence of "The Star Spangled Banner" 04/07/2010

Homosexuality and Hollywood 09/07/2010

1961: The Year Anime Arrived in America 25/07/2010

The Knack...and How to Get It 01/08/2010

The CBS Late Movie 13/08/2010

British Rock Musicals of the Sixties 21/08/2010

Defining Reality Television 02/09/2010

In Honour of John Lennon's 70th Birthday 09/10/2010 This one is historic as the first blog post I signed my given name to!

Lights Out 26/10/2010

The Horror Movies of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford 30/10/2010

Little Red Riding Hood 14/11/2010

Miscast: How Some Classic Films Could Have Been Very Different 21/11/2010

Jimmy the Raven: Frank Capra's Avian Star 11/12/2010

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) 23/12/2010

Facebook Blows It Again with Their New Profile 13/01/2011

In Defence of Remakes 06/03/2011

St. Patrick's Day Movies 17/03/2011

When Stars Go Bad 22/03/2011

Sir Dirk Bogarde's 90th Birthday 28/03/2011

The 10th Anniversary of Joey Ramone's Death 15/04/2011

Every Movie is NOT Like Funny Girl 21/04/2011

Marilyn Monroe Turns 85 01/06/2011

5 comments:

KC said...

Congratulations! I don't know anyone who has blogged as long as you. That's a great accomplishment to have kept it going for so many years.

Rosele said...

I've been following your blog for some time and I love it!
Congratulations for the Anniversary!!!

Mythical Monkey said...

Seven years -- that's amazing. Congratulations!

Raquel Stecher said...

Congrats on 7 great years! I didn't know where the name of your blog came from and that you had had a girlfriend who had multiple blogs (she sounds like me!).

I think my favorite post of 2010 was the Jimmy the Raven one! :-) here's to more years of blogging, more time to write non-eulogies and more interviews with hot actresses.

Terence Towles Canote said...

Thanks everyone for their congratulations!