And Then There Were Three…Liebsters

Unlike Hollywood, blogger awards season is year-round, and lo and behold, I’ve won my third Liebster, courtesy of the lovely Gill at Realweegiemidget Reviews. Thank you so much, Gill! It’s always nice to be appreciated and to pass it on.

If anyone is unitiated as to the responsibilities of accepting a Liebster Award, the recipient’s duties are as follows:

1. Thank the nominator in your award post.
2. Place the award logo somewhere on your blog.
3. You must state up to 11 facts about yourself.
4. Complete the questions that your nominator provided.
5. Nominate as many bloggers as you’d like (11 is the maximum).
6. Ask your nominees a series of questions (11 is the maximum).

As you can tell, I can already check off Items One and Two, and now it’s time for Item Three. This part of the Liebster always makes me think of that one line from The Philadelphia Story:

Anyway, here we go…

1. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Cake, Dolly Parton, Tracy Chapman, Owl City, and KT Tunstall. Amazon Music is a gold mine.
2. I have never seen The Godfather, although I feel like I have because it’s quoted so much.
3. One cooking skill I have not yet been able to master is making caramel. I really want to, though, because I want to try making candy domes like Julia Child, but I’m always afraid I’m going to burn the sugar. Oh well, I guess I’ll keep trying.
4. In the last few years I have discovered I’m no longer a fan of waterslides. I guess it’s an age thing. The wave pool is more my speed.
5. I once met a Klingon in Vegas. He showed me how Klingons shake hands and took my baffled face in stride.
6. My current read is Anna Karenina, which is wonderful, although I’m starting to wonder when the title character is going to show up. I’m on Chapter Ten.
7. One of the first movies I ever saw in a theater was The Fox and the Hound. It was back when Disney used to do Saturday double features for kids. I also got to see Song of the South that way.
8. The most interesting restaurant I ever ate at was The Palm, at their original location on Second Avenue in New York City. This place was long and narrow with an odd layout, so there’s a good chance it was a favorite of the Mafia, but I could be wrong. Still, old buildings in Manhattan can be strange. When my mom and I went to the ladies’ room, we had to go down a couple of hallways and a tiny staircase to an itty-bitty restroom with black and white floor tiles. Finding our way back was fun. Even more fun was that the waiter recited the menu and didn’t tell us the prices. My dad just about passed out after the bill came.
9. Only once in my life have I ever been able to get something out of a claw machine: A little stuffed pink dog which my son, who was three at the time, promptly hugged and named Sniffy. We still have him. He’s very loved.
10. My current guilty pleasure is Dawson’s Creek. Yeah, go ahead and make faces because we all know teenagers don’t talk like that. The show wasn’t always consistently good (Season Six was horrid) and had a gray moral yardstick sometimes, but it’s not without its charms. For one thing, no one texts or uses smartphones. If the characters want to talk, they call or find each other around town. That’s pretty novel nowadays.
11. My favorite kind of burger is mushroom Swiss, with or without French onions.

And now on to Item Four, Gill’s questions:

1. Who would you most like to meet from the world of film? Audrey Hepburn, but I would have also loved to have met Gregory Peck. From nowadays, though, I would say Johnny Depp. That guy is iconic. I feel bad for him over the whole Amber Heard thing.

2. If you could go behind the scenes on a movie or TV Show which one would it be? The original MacGyver. It would be fun to see what secret ingredients they left out of Mac’s chemstry concoctions.

3. What’s your favourite genre? As long as there’s a good story and great dialogue, I like pretty much anything except slasher films.

4. Who do you think deserves an Oscar nomination who hasn’t had one yet? Emily Blunt, because it seems like everyone but the AMPAS has nominated her for something.

5. You are the only survivor on earth with one superhero, who is it? Why? Batman. All those gadgets would come in handy. Not the George Clooney Batman, though. Adam West, Christian Bale or Michael Keaton would be ideal.

6. What’s your feelings about remakes or reboots? Heh. Soapbox time. Remakes have always been part of Hollywood and moviemaking, but it’s practically their primary output nowadays. The problem is that many filmmakers sanitize or disrespect canon material because they want to cash in on name recognition (Looking at you, Noelle Stevenson). Oh, and if anyone from Hollywood ever reads this, “gritty and dark” don’t make up for shoddy storytelling, and gender-flipping is a rake best left unstepped upon. Also, shame on Quibi for remaking The Princess Bride. Even if it is a spoof, it’s still tacky. We warned you, Hollywood. We. Warned. You.

(OK, I’ll step off my soapbox now, but this is a topic I would like to revisit in more detail someday.)

7. What’s your fave all time find on those streaming packages? One of my favorite finds is Samurai Gourmet on Netflix. It’s about a retired gentleman who goes on food adventures at the behest of his samurai alter ego, and it’s adorable.

8. Who would you most like to see in more movies and in what genre? Joshua Jackson. He’s got a great, dry comic delivery that would really enhance good witty dialogue.

9. Favourite cake? with cream or ice cream? I like anything with chocolate, but my mom makes a lemon cake that’s my absolute favorite. I’m kind of “meh” about ice cream with cake, although I’ll take the ice cream on its own. Preferably chocolate or cookie dough.

10. What’s your favourite Hollywood era? The studio era, especially the World War Two period. It’s fascinating to see what people were watching during such a momentous time in history. The war was worked into everything that hit the screen in some way, even if it was just a soldier walking down a street or a Red Cross poster on the wall of a set.

11. If you could go back in time and warn a star about something that happens to them in the future, who would it be and what would you tell them? I’d go back to the late thirties and warn Judy Garland not to take Benzedrine or Seconal. I’d also ask L.B. Mayer to let the poor girl eat something besides chicken soup.

Next is Item Five: Nominating more bloggers. Since I just did a Sunshine Award there may be some overlap, but you can never have too many warm fuzzies, right?

• Sally from 18 Cinema Lane
• The Classic Movie Muse
• Up On the Shelf
• Lea from Silent-ology
• Crystal from In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood
• Quiggy from The Midnite Drive-In
• Steve from MovieMovie BlogBlog II
• Erica from Poppity Talks Classic Film
• Ruth from Silver Screenings
• Ginny from The Wonderful World of Cinema
• Andrew and Michael from Maniacs and Monsters

Last but not least, Item Six, also known as those all-important questions:

1. Would you rather star in films or work behind the scenes?
2. What’s the best movie you’ve seen so far this year? The worst?
3. Where would you most like to go when things fully open up again?
4. Do you think your blog or blogging style has changed since you started? How?
5. What’s a skill you don’t have but wish you did?
6. How much did you write before you became a blogger, and was it something that you enjoyed?
7. What’s one thing you wish current movies had more of? Less of?
8. Is there a character or film that you think actually deserves a remake or reboot?
9. Now that we’re at the height of summer (unless you live Down Under, of course), what’s your cold beverage of choice?
10. You’ve been granted the ability to teleport into any video game or mobile app. Where are you going to go?
11. You’re standing in front of the replicator on the Starship Enterprise. What do you ask for first?

Congrats to my wonderful nominees, and thanks again to Gill for my latest Liebster! You all rock!

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Got a new review headed your way on Thursday. Thanks for reading, and hope to see you then…