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PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, March 22, 2012
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Shooting Like a Pro, 1938. Vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, March 12, 2012
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Claire Playing House in the Grasshopper Valley, Montana, 1937. Vernacular photographs of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, March 8, 2012
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Woman and Tire Swing, c. 1900. A vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, March 2, 2012
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Woman with Child, c. 1890. A vernacular photograph of the West from the My-West.com photography collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, February 22, 2012
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Man Looking Skyward, c. 1940. A vernacular photograph from the My-West photography collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, February 14, 2012
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Happy Valentine's Day! |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, February 12, 2012
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“He respects Owl, because you can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right.” - A. A. Milne |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, February 9, 2012
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Meg in Tears, c. 1915. A vernacular photograph of the West. From My-West.com's photograph collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, February 4, 2012
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Who Turned the Lights Out? A vernacular photograph of the West, circa 1910s. From My-West.com's photograph collection. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Elegant Eyesore - The Kolb Legacy
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The brothers settled on the rim of the Grand Canyon at the head of Bright Angel Trail…in a time and landscape where just getting water pure enough to develop prints meant trekking down into the depths of the canyon and back up…often three times per day. Initially they earned a living taking photographs of tourists. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, January 30, 2012
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This vintage photograph of my grandmother is one of the images of which I am most proud. Wearing a flapper dress in the early 1920s, she is sporting a pistol and sitting sidesaddle. She was spirited and even though she lived on a Montana ranch 40 miles from the nearest town, she had style. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, January 25, 2012
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Horse, Buggy and Fence. A vernacular photograph of the West, circa 1890s. From My-West.com's photograph collection. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys & Kiwis - AKA Beauty & The Bodice
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The film is called ‘Good For Nothing’ and will go down as the first western movie ever filmed in New Zealand, which I guess is good for something. It’s been doing the rounds of the film festivals to generally positive reviews and will see limited US release this spring. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Vintage Photo, January 18, 2012
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Cowboy with gun. A vernacular photograph of the West, circa 1920s. From My-West.com's photograph collection. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: When Legend Becomes Fact, Print the Legend
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I know, I know, I’ve said it about ‘Lonesome Dove’ and ‘High Plains Drifter’ and ‘Red River’ and ‘Magnificent Seven’ and both versions of 3:10 to Yuma…hell I probably even said it about ‘Silverado’. But after yet another viewing last night I am now unequivocally stating that ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ truly is the best western movie of them all. |
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Oh my God! This is too good to be true! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, The Rifleman is returning to a home entertainment system (AKA boob tube) near you! CBS is working on a reboot of the original hit that made Chuck Conners a household name in the early 60s ... |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Full Head of Steam - Hell on Wheels Debut
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Despite scathing reviews, Hell on Wheels had one of the strongest debuts ever on AMC, attracting 4.4 million viewers last night. AMC points out that the young adult demographic was particularly strong. Alright, so maybe this isn’t the series that will re-launch the TV western, but it is further proof that the genre is making a comeback. Although… let’s just not mention Cowboys & Aliens. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Fistful of Giggles - The Five Funniest Westerns
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No strangers to controversy, the My-West staff has compiled THE definitive list of funniest westerns ever. Accept no substitutes. We're not talking films with humorous elements. We mean movies that start out with a side order of smiles and finish off 90 minutes later with a full plate of sore ribs. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: One-room Cabins in the West
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Small get-away homes in the West are the perfect answer for a real vacation. TEN things I'd do if if I could spend my vacation in one of these small homes. I'd start by wading in a creek every day; I'd read Swedish detective novels and collect wildflower bouquets for the one table in my one room ... |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Wayne’s World - Lights - Camera - Auction!
 
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John Wayne’s Personal Property is on the auction block and here is my personal wish-list:
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PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Ten Tips for the Hayfield: The Race Against Summer, Part 2
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It’s one of my favorite sayings and comes from football legend Johnny Unitas: “It’s what you learn AFTER you know it all that counts.” For us kids, a lot of that learning took place in the hayfield. Good judgment comes from having lots of bad judgment. And I had that in spades: |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: The Race Against Summer - Haying Season
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Stacking was by far the worst chore, a summer sentence of sweat and swirling hay dust and the sense of constantly climbing up out of quicksand. The one reward at season’s end was a slightly heavier paycheck and a body that was way beyond buff. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Shadows in the West, Part II
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PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Shadows
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My earliest memory of shadows is from a time when I was three or four-years-old lying on my grandmother’s couch for an afternoon nap. I would watch the shadows of the Aspen leaves skipping and playing across the living room walls. Even at that age I appreciated the ambiguity; they were small good-natured shadows, but they were shadows. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys and Tomatoes
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It’s sitting on a 75% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes…no word yet on box office numbers but we can be reasonably sure Cowboys and Aliens is a smash! A sampling of reviews – …”When the wonderfully grumpy, still Indy-fit Harrison Ford socks Daniel Craig on the jaw and Craig hits back even harder, it feels like a baton is being passed.” |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys and Aliens – From Start to Finish
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OK, humor me. Just one more post after this and then it’s off to C&A Rehab. Cowboys and Aliens is a project that exists on the broad shoulders of its title alone. Think of the titles that will plant butts in movie seats on opening night no matter how good or bad the subject matter is:
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MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys & Aliens Countdown
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This is the shot that has tongues wagging all across the blogosphere… There’s some old fashioned smolder in that look and it belongs to up and comer Olivia Wilde. Director John Favreau knew he had gold when he got that shot… |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Django Unchained - QT Cooks Up Some Spaghetti
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If all goes well, Kevin Costner will soon be back in the saddle and up on the big screen and that is good news because both he and the western genre are making a making a big time comeback. Hopefully Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti western will do for Costner’s career what “Cowboys and Aliens” is about to do for Harrison Ford, namely, catapult him back to the top of his game. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Arnie - Back in the Saddle Again
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The Terminator – The Governator – The Philanderer – call him what you like, Arnold Schwarzenegger will reportedly begin filming this fall on a western tentatively named, “The Last Stand.” Sources describe it as “an old-fashioned western specifically designed for a 63-year old broken-down guy with a moral decision.” |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Visual Patterns in the West - We're Seeing Double
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Once you start to look for patterns in your environment you’ll see them everywhere: pencils in a cup on the desk, books slanting on a shelf, glasses lined up in the cupboard. Don’t think about it too much, though—it could drive you crazy. In the sparse regions of the West, even larger patterns emerge in the landscape. ... Here are some images we thought you'd like. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Over the Rim Part Two – Wide Open Outer Spaces
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As I mentioned in my last Cowboys and Aliens post, there is nothing new under the sun no matter which solar system you wander into. So happens that Sci-Fi Westerns have a long and illustrious history… |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys & Aliens – 100 Yards Over the Rim
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Hot Damn! Cowboys & Aliens is just one month away! The anticipation only grows as we inch towards opening night. I’m a kid again, counting down to Christmas! I haven’t been this excited since I found the Lone Ranger PJs in my parents’ closet with the ‘For Bennett – From Santa’ tag on it. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: We Open With Clotheslines
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My-West posted "We Open with Clotheslines" as our inaugural post last January. Since then, readers have sent us a number of great images of clotheslines and we thought it was time to share them. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: The Mighty James Arness has Passed Away
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For 20 years, from 1955 - ’75, Marshall Dillon kept the peace in Dodge City in one of the longest running and most popular series’ in the history of television. His character, perhaps more than any other, embodied the taciturn, heroic lawman of western mystique. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Gambit – More Coen Brothers Magic
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Wow. Nice pair of…boots. In case you hadn’t noticed, that’s Cameron Diaz, turning heads in Heathrow courtesy a Tough Country tank, a pair of Daisy Dukes and little else. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: How to Avoid Speeding Tickets - For Dummies
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It’s happened to anyone who’s spent time driving around the west. A speed trap, the flashing lights, wail of sirens, the slow walk up to your car window. The embarrassment, the chagrin, the lecture. The experience is emblazoned in our minds like an old trauma, so that any little indicator that it may be about to happen yanks our foot from the gas pedal. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Maureen O'Hara - Mrs. Duke
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She is the mainspring of my lifelong love of redheads. At the very start of Quiet Man, when she looks out across that emerald field, all curls and fire and statuesque beauty – and we watch her fall instantly and incurably in love at her very first sighting of Sean Thornton as played by John Wayne. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys & Aliens Countdown – Just 99 Days
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It’s here! The new trailer! Two minutes and 45 seconds worth of testosterone pumping, hormonal pounding, prime time, kick-butt, John Favreau-induced genius. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Most Obscure TV Westerns - #1 – Alias Butch & Sundance
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Of course you may remember it as Alias Smith & Jones but its two loveable outlaws were obviously based on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The movie was a smash in 1969 and Alias S&J debuted a little over one year later as a mid-season replacement on ABC. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Meek’s Cutoff – Turn Right up Ahead – No, your Other Right!
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Meek’s Cutoff takes us back to the Oregon Trail, circa 1845, with three families following a mountain guide who knows a shortcut through the desert. It’s the setup for a burgeoning battle of the sexes ... |
MOVIE REVIEWS: The Most Obscure TV Westerns #2 - We've Lost a Train
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‘Laredo’ debuted on NBC in 1965, documenting the adventures of three fun loving, bar brawling Texas Rangers and a feisty Saloon girl with a heart of gold. These days Laredo is described as a spinoff of the Virginian. But actually, NBC made use of a trick of the time, using a popular, established TV series to introduce new fare…a bit like cross breeding ... |
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MOVIE REVIEWS: Cowboys and Aliens - 120 Days and Counting
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Following hot on the heels of True Grit comes a summer blockbuster with all the trappings of a classic western, and just may rescue Harrison Ford’s career. This movie will get plenty of my money based on the title alone. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Obscure Westerns #3 Young Maverick - Call the Spinoff Doctor!
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Of all the Western TV shows, perhaps none has created more ill fated, forgettable spinoffs and re-makes than the purely awesome Maverick. Producers tried to capitalize on that loveable con man, Bret Maverick. But alas, there was only one James Garner…a man and a character that made women swoon; men chuckle and applaud in equal measure; and in its heyday, regularly outperformed the legendary Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen shows. |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: It Takes a Mighty Big Sky to Frame Masterpieces Like These
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Excerpt from Sunset at Bear Camp "Touched by a light that hath no name, |
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She cast a GIANT shadow… Elizabeth Taylor was 23-years old and already a Hollywood Legend when she made Giant in 1955, a blockbuster that cemented her metamorphosis from child and teen actress to bona fide Diva. Stunning, strong-willed and yet somehow so vulnerable… |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Strings Attached
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Wind-dried clothes take on the personality of the environment; absorbing foremost the aroma of sage, ozone and sunshine - but hints of yarrow, willow branches, Indian paint brush, wild lupine, mint and pine trees are infused in the clothes as well. Clothes flapping in the Western breeze are like prayer flags signaling your arrival home. APRONS hanging on a clothes line bring up a whole new set of memories, many of them explored in an exhibition hosted by The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. 10 Reasons Why My Grandmother Wore an Apron: |
MOVIE REVIEWS: The Five Most Obscure TV Westerns – # 4 - Dirty Sally
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Frankly I was about half scared what would pop up as I typed ‘Dirty Sally’ into the old search engine. Dirty Sally has the distinction of being the only Gunsmoke spin-off, but it also had a (mercifully) short run of just 15 episodes. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: The Five Most Obscure TV Westerns - The Good “Yuma” Man
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I came up with the idea for obscure westerns while doing research on a completely unrelated topic – funny how the term “redhead” plays a prominent role in most of my Internet searches - and amazingly, I stumbled across a western TV show that I hadn’t thought of in years. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: A My-West Valentine - Liz Tames a Giant
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About one minute into this clip the immortal Elizabeth Taylor delivers a supple and scorching line that would make any red-blooded Texas male instantly forget the Alamo. |
MOVIE REVIEWS: Wild West Berlin: True Grit Opens the Berlin Film Festival
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My nose is still bleeding but I was there, along with about a thousand of my closest friends, as True Grit took a bow in its international premier. They liked it. Not just for the Coen Brothers’ idiosyncrasies; |
PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Pony Tales
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My-West is still in its infancy and already we're generating controversy. Since I wrote at length (the emotional scars obviously haven't yet healed - click here for the sordid details) about Nicky, the antisocial Shetland Pony we had as kids, relatives and readers have been writing, calling, tweeting, texting and facebook posting that they had no problems with their ponies and sending pictures to prove it. Add to our humiliation and the growing list by emailing me at info@my-west.com, or by uploading your photos to the My-West Photography Challenge Pool on Flickr. Be sure to check Seinfeld's pony opinions in the post - and as always, thanks until better paid. |
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10 Outstanding Westerns of the New Millennium The movies on this list surely will rank among the classics of the genre and are proof positive that westerns continue to attract both audiences and A-list actors and directors: |