Welcome to the slightly delayed April 2023 newsletter from the Spaghetti Western Database, your regular newsletter of what happened last month in the world of European westerns.
How to receive this newsletter automatically: Read instructions here on how to receive this to your inbox or notifications newsletter. Contact us if you have any questions or news/rumors/contributions.
NEW STUFF IN AND AROUND THE SWDB IN APRIL 2023:
WANTED:
- We’re still trying to get in touch with the person who ran the Altervista website SPAGHETTI WESTERN DATABASE if anyone knows, please send us a message.
- We’re also trying to locate our friend from Finland who went by the name of Shobary (with the popular SW website with that title).
Why? We want to rescue and preserve the remnants of these two websites, like we’re currently doing with A Fistful of Pasta (still a work in progress).
New in the forums:
This is just a reminder from last month. We made some changes to this forum, which are kind of exciting:
- Dark mode, which you can toggle in the top right menu bar, and it will also activate automatically if your browser or operating system goes into dark mode. Try it out!
- Movie polls are back! The first post in each movie topic will include a poll so you can rate the movie from 1 to 5 stars. Trust level 1 required, so if you haven’t been very active in the forums yet, now is the time to do so
- The forum now has live chat functionality. This means both private chats, group chats, public chats and an archive of these chats as well. You need to be TL1 or agove to see this. Please have a look at this topic to learn more about the chat.
New around the SWDb:
- Let us know if you want to help with our new master calendar Calendar - The Spaghetti Western Database and company directory Company directory - The Spaghetti Western Database. We still need help to fill those with information, please get in touch!
- We are collecting spaghetti western themed podcast episodes from around the world, please point us to more of them.
- The last few weeks have been particularly active behind the scenes, are we are improving the quality of information in the SWDb, fixing dead links, uploading better pictures, bringing some order to lost information, cleaning up dusty corners of the site and clearing out the cobwebs. There are also some technical glitches to be fixed in the near future. We continue to fix the reliability of home video information in the SWDb in all respects, technical specifications, extras, and so forth but we do need help from you all to make sure that the SWDb offers all the info is out there so please reach out and contribute. The most visible change is of course the rising number of film entries that receive the 3.0 layout, thanks to mostly @Carlos the lonely gunman.
… as always: join the SWDb, help out, it will make it better You don’t have to become a full time editor or official staff member to contribute. Anything from being active in the forum over correcting spelling mistakes to joining entire improvement projects is more than welcome. From all over the world, in all languages, we welcome help!
SWDb 3.0 is here…
The major overhaul of the SWDb is progressing. We are now working on the visual improvements of the SWDb, notably the film pages, with the most popular movies already migrated to a new look and feel. If you’re interested in seeing what we’re doing or if you want to join and help, click here to read about it: SWDb 3.0 (our massive 2022/2023 project)
SWDb Letterboxd
If you’re a Letterboxd user, we hope you’re as excited as we are about the official SWDb Letterboxd HQ account. Click here to learn more about that (long story short: follow us on LB).
Also: all the revised film pages in the SWDb have a direct link to their respective LB entry.
Home video news:
There were some interesting releases in April, including the first of a few new Japan titles from StudioCanal’s license catalog, as well as some 4K material and re-releases in France.
As for May, a few minor changes are still in store, with an additional Japan release we don’t have a cover yet at the time of writing. The stranger movies get their HD upgrade in Germany, as does a title in Explosive Media’s roster. More to come.
So keep checking our calendar, and if you learn of any releases or even rumors, no matter which country, let us know! The big bang was of course the revealing of the upcoming Arrow Video box set. The Ringo movies will get a 4K UHD release in Germany later this year. The Dollars movies get a BluRay re-release in the USA for the non-4K crowd.
Visit the SWDb home video release calendar
Obituaries
Our head of obits, the spaghettiologist @Tom_B had to update the boot hill cemetery with an unfortuante 6 new obituaries over the course of the last four weeks.
Check out “Cemetery with crosses”
Tom appeared on an interesting podcast we recommend:
Reviews:
None in April, please contact us if you want your reviews published. We are especially looking for reviews of movies that have no, or very few, reviews in the SWDb.
Locations
Discussions have started on how to improve location information within the SWDb. If this is your area of interest and/or expertise, please join the discussion as we try to find a workable concept for this, HERE.
Those of you who feel inclined to donate a dollar or euro or two, head here. Payplal has improved the donation experience, check it out.
Also, whenever you shop at Amazon, click on one of the SWDb’s Amazon links first, it doesn’t matter which one. Special thanks for those who donated last month!
The SWDb has also signed up for the Amazon Poland partner program, so if you live there and want to shop, please do use this link.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed this month.
See you next month! And don’t forget to pre-order BLOOD MONEY https://amzn.to/3NxBSnQ (UK), https://amzn.to/44ldifW (USA)
Details: Mátalo!/BluRay - The Spaghetti Western Database