I’m getting a bit old too. The other day I was talking to Chris Casey on facebook and noticed that we’re both big fans of the western series Have Gun Will Travel with Richard Boone playing Paladin, the knight without armor in a savage land. We concluded that we’re two paladinos.
Have to try this system someday.
I gotta say I am really loving it.
I played around with Linux and some Unix variants when I was younger, but in those days they were very primitive in terms of user experience. It was all still very technical back then. But now there are so many different Linux OS choices, for whatever you need really. I’m running Linux Mint and its really sleek, pretty easy to use. There’s still some learning to do on occasional things but its very accessible these days, with lots of software available. That’s one of my favorite things about it- tons of good, free software. And you never have to worry about things like viruses because they are all targeted at Windows users.
Got a new one up, a review of Lou Pecci’s Spaghetti Western Themes for Nylon String Guitar, Vol. 2. It’s a good one. [url]http://fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=reviews/swthemes2[/url]
Also, I haven’t been able to fix the IE9 problems yet, as they are out of my level of expertise. From what I’ve been reading, IE9 is considered a “web designer’s nightmare”. Sometime next year, I’m going to do a bit of an overhaul to the site. It’s best to just view it in Safari, Chrome, or Firefox if you can. Happy holidays, everyone.
A new one, a review of Death Rides a Horse[url]http://fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=reviews/deathrideswg[/url], that’s sure to cause some controversy (to the extent that one can have controversy on something like this). Western Guru’s still new to the genre
This review will send Stanton into raptures! ;D 
Nah, not really. Can’t agree with the review.
I don’t think it has much style (well, except for this one scene with the buried skulls), and it doesn’t look gorgeous for a second. It is just another ordinary (but not tooooo ordinary) Spag revenger. An ok film.
I thought exactly when I saw this rating 5.5 / 10. ;D
It was one of the first non-Leone spags I’d seen. I liked it at the time, I do remember it as one of the better ones. As I was chatting with him, it dawned on me that until one is really familiar with the genre, it’s easy to really find faults in these movies… even the better ones often have somewhat low production values, there’s the “foreign” factor that takes one a while to get used to (at least if one is accustomed to American stylings), and out of the 500 or so, there’s only a handful that really get into the truly great category (at least for me). He is just starting to explore the genre.
I remember when I first put up the site, there were a couple of people over here who were saying stuff like “does he even like the genre?” (I believe that was FFoP contributor Len Liu who mighta said that). When you go from seeing the Dollars Trilogy to “W Django”, it’s not hard to all of a sudden think that you’re combing through a pile of turds just to find the gems. I still love the genre, but it is harder for me to watch as frequently, as I’ve already seen so many of the “good” ones. When I look at the 300 or so I still have, but haven’t seen yet, I know that the likelihood of being impressed is a bit diminished at this point, because I’ve seen most of the greats.
I sent him some Fidani films so he can truly appreciate how bad the genre can be.
I don’t really mind the review, everybody writes reviews in his own style, but this is definitely not my style of writing.
I do not oppose to funny writing - quite on the contrary: I like it - but I don’t like would-be funny writing, I even hate it.
This is the kind of writer who thinks he’s very funny, and isn’t funny at all.
I therefore stopped reading halfway.
My review of the review: I didn’t like the first half, can’t say anything about the second.
The review sort of improves as it go’s along. The best part is where he discuss’s Ennio Morricone’s score; he actually understands what instruments are used and where the inspiration comes from. However, overall, not the type of film criticism that I cherish.
I don’t know. I would never write a review like this if I wanted to be taken seriously. It looks as if the language was borrowed from blaxpoitation cheese-fest Dolomite. :
I’m with you Scherp, I don’t mind the opinion and insights of the reviewer at all, he’s got some interesting things to say about the film, its just that his attempt at fratboy style humor is a little off. I’m far from a great writer myself, but at least my reviews are done with a certain degree of professionalism (including use of my real name).
JD, I do remember saying something like that when you first started the site, what a dick I was lol. I can’t even remember what review it was you wrote that set me off. Your reviews are awesome, I especially like the Fidani ones. JD exhibits perfectly how to inject humor into his reviews, unlike the aformentioned writer, he doesn’t even try to be funny, he just is.
Geez not being able to quote is really pissing me off.
Well, skimmed the review. I have a feeling someone decided to watch porn while he wrote.
Ah… I’m glad you’ve all chimed in on this, folks. I’m going to suggest that he come over and have a look at this…
Ah... I'm glad you've all chimed in on this, folks. I'm going to suggest that he come over and have a look at this....
You finally got what you didn’t have before (not even when I was writing for the site) … response
More of this guy, maybe? Controversion sells.
Nah, I’m not looking at it in terms of trying to get more eyeballs… The eyeballs for the site keep growing. It’s twice as much as last year, even with me not posting as much.
You are sorely missed, brother.
Funny, I just heard back from Nick aka Western Guru… he already has been following our discussion here, took it like a champ.
And I think you’re going to find his next review rather surprising.
JD, I do remember saying something like that when you first started the site, what a dick I was lol. I can't even remember what review it was you wrote that set me off. Your reviews are awesome, I especially like the Fidani ones. JD exhibits perfectly how to inject humor into his reviews, unlike the aformentioned writer, he doesn't even try to be funny, he just is.
Nah, not a dick. Good thing you never saw my original review for “Sabata”. I didn’t even put that one up. Although it’s certainly debatable as to how funny I am, I have to admit that once in a while, I write a review that does make me chuckle out loud.
As I said, I didn’t really know where the bar was set for the genre at that time, having seen so few. I’ve actually thought about going back and redoing some of my older ones. I did that with Face to Face (which I loved the first time I saw it), and having more familiarity with the review, my rewrite is better. Definitely want to do that with Django… I still think Corbucci’s way overrated, but I think I’d have a much different perspective on that film now, understanding its significance and all that.