I am taking a scheduled rest from posting on the A to Z challenge today. I have been posting my monthly stats the first day of the new month, but since yesterday was the first day of the challenge. and I knew I'd have a respite today, I decided to wait until today for the stats post. I posted on my blog 8 times last month. I had posted 9 each in January and February, so my average for the year has been pretty much the same. At this rate I should have 104 posts by the end of the year.
My average posts per month for the past quarter have been 8.63 rounding up to 9. Over the past 18 months I have posted 167 times for an average of 9.28 posts per month. If you take away my most prolific month (April 2022 - 28 posts) and my most abysmal (November 2021 - 1 post) my average goes fown to 8.63 post per month which is nearly identical to my output this quarter.
With my A to Z post yesterday this is the 30th month in a row that I have posted at least once on this blog.
I should be back later today with a second post regarding my last 5 books read since I was up past midnight finishing An Old Fashioned Girl. I have some work to do on the challenge as well today and make sure my next few posts are ready for publication.
Hello and welcome to A Month at the Movies, my contribution to the A to Z challenge for 2023.
This year I am copying from a myriad of other a to z challengers by reprinting the same synopsis about my theme with every letter. You can skip over this part if you want to. I love movies and have decided to share with you a movie each day that I have enjoyed to one degree or another. With each entry, I'll give a brief synopsis of the film, share a positive and negative review from Rotten Tomatoes ( a website, I didn't use much at all until preparing for the challenge), discuss its resiliency (the theme of the A to Z challenge this year), and other tidbits like whether the film may appear in my top 100 film list, which I have been revamping this year. I think that's enough in the way of introduction, considering you'll be reading it (hopefully) 25 more times this month.
Film: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Director: Frank Capra
By Photographer not credited - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/stream/cinemundial28unse#page/156/mode/1up">Cine Mundial, April 1943</a>, Public Domain, Link
Arsenic and Old Lace premiered on September 23rd, 1944. This was exactly 20 years before I premiered. It's a funny story actually, my Dad and my 9 months pregnant Mom were at an Arsenic and Old Lace 20th anniversary party when ... No, Just kidding.
Cary Grant stars in this dark comedy/ screwball comedy that was the first Frank Capra film I ever watched. The basic gist of the film is that Mortimer Brewster (played by Grant) is a theatre critic and avowed bachelor who at the beginning of the film marries the girl next door to his boyhood home in Brooklyn.
"The Fun" begins when Grant discovers his beloved salt of the earth aunts are actually serial murderers and is then also reunited with a few other of his sanity-challenged relatives.
Positive Tomato: It's not mere hyperbole to state that Frank Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace ranks as one of the funniest films ever made.Matt Brunson - Film Frenzy
Negative Tomato: Not one of Capra's best. Grant is too hammy and out of control, and without Boris Karloff as Jonathan Brewster, the joke is lost.Bob Bloom - Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana)
I really enjoyed this movie watching it on T.V. as a kid. In recent viewing, I found it a little long and a little uneven but still enjoyed it and would probably watch it again, especially with folks who have not seen it before.
Resiliency: Mortimer Brewster shows a lot of resiliency throughout the film trying to figure out how to best deal with his family situation since he literally knows where the bodies are buried.
Top 100: I don't think this will make my top 100 list. I'm a Big Frank Capra fan and while it's not one of my favorite Capra films, I do think that maybe it would make its way onto the bottom 100 of my top 200 film list.
Over the past few weeks I've posted about my A to Z Theme reveal for the upcoming A to Z challenge and I've posted a little about blogs that appear on my various blogrolls on my home page. I'd like to combine those today and tell you about blogs I have on my blogrolls that are participating in this year's challenge and tell you about their themes.
One of my favorite blogs is Sue's Trifles. Her theme this year is revisiting her theme from 2013 where she combined alliteration with content to help people learn more about Christ and Christianity. I am really looking forward to her posts this year.
When Sue isn't doing the A to Z challenge she mostly posts book reviews which is why Sue's Trifles can be found in my Writing, Poetry, Publishing, and Book blogs blogroll.
The next blog has recently moved from my Bloggy Blogs (more on that soon) blogroll to my Writing, Poetry, Publishing and Book Blogs blogroll where it fits the category much better. hdhstory.net is using the theme of an adventure at the Kingdom of Selat. I am looking forward to the "tales" that will be found there.
Janet's Smiles is another blog I follow. Her theme this year is the Illuminate SF - Festival of Light. I have Janet's Smiles in my Bloggy Blogs blogroll. A bloggy blog is a blog that kind of sprays to all fields.
I got the inspiration for the title bloggy blogs from a friend of my son when they were in high school together. She and her family attend a local megachurch which doesn't really look like a church at all. I was driving my son and his friends to an outing and we passed a local church that looked like your typical steeple and triangular roof church. She wasn't looking at it at first and then when she saw it, she said "Look! A churchy church."
John Holton who is a member of the A to Z team hosts a blog called TheSound of One Hand Typing. He can also be found on my Bloggy Blogs blogroll. His theme this year is really jazzy. It makes my heart jingle and my mouth ajar in contemplation. He is going to juxtapose the letter j in each of the 26 words he's choosing for the challenge. Well, that's what he said, hopefully, he didn't perjure himself.
The 5th and (so far) final of my blogroll blogs participating in the challenge this year is Wolf of Words. This is the 4th time the wolf is using the theme of fan fiction. I am especially looking forward to the Scooby Doo/Dr. Who Mash-up.
On this Day March 12th, 1951 fellow baby boomer and my favorite singer Randy Stonehill was born in California. He turns 71 today and to celebrate I will link 71 of my favorite songs (and yes, I have that many) of his here on this very happy birthday post. Many of these songs can be found on Spotify. All of these songs are available for purchase at Bandcamp. Note: Songs are listed from the album they originally appeared. The song is not always being played from that album.
1. Never Can Repay - Born Twice
2. Faithful - Until We Have Wings
3. Get Me Out of Hollywood- Get me Out of Hollywood
4. Starlings - Return To Paradise
5. Christmas Song For All Year 'Round - Welcome To Paradise
6. I Love You - Born Twice
7. Norman's Kitchen - Born Twice
8. Bad Fruit -The Sky Is Falling
9. Still Small Voice - Celebrate This Heartbeat
10. Christine - Between The Glory And The Flame
11. Can Hell Burn Hot Enough - Until We Have Wings
12. Light Of The World - Equator
13. First Prayer - Welcome To Paradise
14. Keep Me Runnin' - Welcome To Paradise
15. Stop The World - Celebrate This Heartbeat
16. Sunday's Child - Mystery Highway
17. Love Beyond Reason - Love Beyond Reason
18. Ramada Inn (Live) - Until We Have Wings
19. Everything But Love - Stonehill
20. Didn't It Rain - Until We Have Wings
21. One True Love - The Sky Is Falling
22. Until Your Love Broke Through- Love Beyond Reason
23. Celebrate This Heartbeat - Celebrate This Heartbeat
24. The Hope of Glory - The Wild Frontier
25. Modern Myth - Celebrate This Heartbeat
26. Can't Buy A Miracle - Can't Buy A Miracle
27. Leonard Has A Toaster - Lost Art Of Listening
28. Glory And The Flame - Between The Glory And The Flame
29. Stand Like Steel - Return To Paradise
30. Hand of God - Thirst
31. Barbie Nation - Wonderama
32. Old Clothes - Until We Have Wings
33. Charlie The Weatherman - Stories
34. Try Havin' Some Faith - Spirit Walk
35. Turning Thirty - Equator
36. Lazarus Heart - Lazarus Heart
37. This Old Face - Lost Art Of Listening
38. Baby Hates Clowns - Thirst
39. Strong Hand Of Love - Welcome To Paradise
40. Curious - Uncle Stonehill's Hat
41. Die Young - Between The Glory And The Flame
42. Who Will Save The Children - Celebrate This Heartbeat
43. We Were All So Young - Edge Of The World
44. King Of Hearts
45. That's The Way It Goes (Live) - Edge Of The World
46. Shut De Do (Live) - Equator
47. Jesus - Breath Of God
48. Big Ideas (In The Shrinking World) 49. The Gods Of Men - Love Beyond Reason
50. Broken Places - Spirit Walk
51. Hymn - Love Beyond Reason
52. Billy Frank - The Lost Art Of Listening
53. Venezuela - The Sky Is Falling
54. What Do You Want From Life? - The Wild Frontier
55.Brighter Day - Can't Buy A Miracle
56. Get Together - The Wild Frontier
57. Ready To Go - Welcome To Paradise
58. Sing In Portugese - Wonderama
59.In Jesus Name - Lazarus Heart
60.Last Time I Saw Eden - Spirit Walk
61. Everything You Know (Is Incorrect) - Thirst
62.I've Got News For You (Paradise Sky Version) Welcome To Paradise -
63. Awfully Loud World - Can't Buy A Miracle
64.When I Look To The Mountains - Celebrate This Heartbeat
65.Mercy In The Shadow Land - Lost Art Of Listening
66. Backwards On Her Bike - Mystery Highway
67.Cosmetic Fixation - Equator
68.A Promise Made Is A Promise Kept - Lazarus Heart
69. The Keeper Of The Bear - Thirst
70. I Don't Ever Want To Live Without You - Return To Paradise
71. Finish Well - Spirit Walk
Happy Birthday Randy! I encourage anyone who spends time listening to these songs to buy some or all of them on Bandy Camp and give Randy a gift for the wonderful music he's been giving to us for a half-century.
