My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2025 the theme is a random assemblage of things that are on my mind--or that just pop into my mind. Whatever! Let's just say I'll be "Tossing It Out" for your entertainment or however it is you perceive these things.
Showing posts with label Theme from an Imaginary Western. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theme from an Imaginary Western. Show all posts
My horse needs some feed, my gun needs some bullets, and maybe I need a shot of whiskey or somethin' or other. Think I'll hole up in town for a while. This old world is looking crazy. Everyone looks like a bandit and stealin' seems to be the norm of late...
Battle of the Bands Results
My previous Battle was a western showdown between David Crosby and the group Mountain with their takes on the cowboy movie genre. This was a tight race until Mountain took the lead in the final stretch. Though I do like David Crosby's song a lot, especially the extended jam sessions, I've always thought the song was a bit weak from the standpoint of lyrics. But it's a good song. Still, my preference goes with Jack Bruce's "Theme from an Imaginary Western". Always loved the majestic sound of Mountain. Their music lives up the group's name.
Final Vote Tally
David Crosby 7 votes
Mountain 10 votes
What Next?
I'm likely going to be lying low in the next few weeks. Christmas season usually seems to be kind of slow in the blogging world anyway, though things have been slowing down as it is. Like some of you, I think I need a rest and recharge as far as blogging goes. Probably I will show up with an Insecure Writer's Support Group post in January, but I won't even guarantee that.
Of course, as always in my cantankerous blogging ways, I could pop in any time with some kind of rant or revelation or whatever might illuminate a light bulb in my brain. If that happens, then that's what happens.
Just tossed this post together quickly so I could toss it out to you...
The Insecure Writer's Support Group
Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh'sInsecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog.
December 2 question - Are there months or times of the year that you are more productive with your writing than other months, and why?
Presently this question is rather moot for me since I haven't been doing much writing other than my blog posts. Same as last year and the year before.
Thinking to past times of my life, my writing times were circumstantial. For several years running, in the span after Christmas and before New Year's Eve, I would write an epic poem about the previous year of my life. Spring time of some years seemed to inspire certain fluxes of writing.
The influence of certain environmental factors usually prods me to take up the pen--or these days get on my computer. Maybe it's a period of writing inspired by rain, not so much since I've been in California, but years ago when I lived in Tennessee.
Or like when I was still in high school. For some reason I started watching westerns on television. In the sixties my selection was extremely limited and yet there seemed to be a number of westerns that I watched. I found these western movies very compelling and apparently something kicked in my writing mind.
My imagination fueled I started writing not westerns, but stories and songs that somehow were inspired by western movies. I could have watched those shows at any time of the year I suppose and it would have been what I was doing and not where I was in time or even place.
And like I said, the question is moot for me. I'm retired and I'm in California. I should be writing more but I'm not. It could be any time of year for me I suppose.
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bandsisthe blogging event started byFar Away Seriesand now hosted byStMcC Presents Battle of the Bands. This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month. My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months. The premise is simple: Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it. Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.
Western Movies
This Battle is between two different artists performing two different songs with a western movie theme. Please take a listen to discern your favorite of the two.
David Crosby "Cowboy Movie" (1971)
Mountain "Theme from an Imaginary Western" (1970)
Time to Vote! You've witnessed the showdown so now you be the judge. The boys are waiting for your answer. You've got til sundown, but why not vote now? Which version do you prefer? Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind. You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.
What more can I say? And I might not say that much on that post other than who won. I feel like I'm in a waiting room with Marley's Ghosts of Christmases. Actually, this year has been like going through a series of waiting rooms and I've been waiting so long that I've forgotten what I'm supposed to be waiting on.
Hopalong Cassidy was all the rage when I was born. He'd been all the rage as a cowboy hero for years and smart marketing had Hoppy's licensed products all over the place. The Hopalong Cassidy television show was on the air from the time I was an infant until I was about four or five years old. Even then I thought he was a rather peculiar cowboy star, but adults seemed to think kids should like him so I guess we did--kind of.
Cowboy and Indian movies had been around since the earliest days of film-making. My father had grown up with them. They were still quite popular in the 50s, but science fiction and war movies were starting to become more ensconced in the cinematic hearts of young American boys. I preferred the uncertain threats suggested by the sci-fi genre, but I still loved a good Western.
Some of my favorite toys included the plastic little men that usually came in the form of soldiers or cowboys and Indians. The army men were always a drab green color. They often came with nifty green colored accessories like guns, artillery, and vehicles. For some strange reason the bags of cowboys and Indians were brightly multicolored red, yellow, blue, and other colors. Oddly the horses were in the more natural colors of white, black, and brown. I could never figure out why those little men had to be so colorful, but that's they way it was and we just had to accept it.
The little figures came in assorted poses that represented cliches that met the expectations that we had developed after watching countless Western films. The Indians always included the archer on one knee poised with an arrow in a drawn bow, the wild running brave with tomahawk in the air, the warrior with knife ready for attack, and the noble chief holding a lance. Most of the tiny faces looked fierce and intimidating. The cowboys' faces were stern and stoic. They usually stood in various stances of gun readiness. Both groups had riders that could be mounted on horseback. It was a cast of characters that was perfect for directing my own cowboy and Indian spectacle.
Sometimes my little men clashed in battle. I simulated gunfire and ricocheted bullets with weird little kid mouth sounds. Tiny bodies fell from furniture that stood in for high cliffs and buildings. Riders tumbled from horses. Figures fought in hand to hand combat as I deftly maneuvered the little bodies to create blows with arms that were locked into permanent poses. My imaginary Westerns had some violence, but they often had something that most kids' play did not have--circus.
Circus and show business were an integral part of my life when I was growing up. If there had been toy sets that consisted of miniature jugglers, clowns, and acrobats I would have probably had those, but since there were not I had army men and cowboys and Indians. Army men did not seem to fit well into the circus, but I could easily create my own tiny circus with a Wild West Show theme.
My miniature show had trained horses from the Western toy sets and some other animals from a safari set that I had acquired somewhere along the way. The circus owner and the hero of my playtime movie stories was a little man dressed in safari clothes. His greatest distinctions were that he was made out of black plastic (I had never seen a little man made of black plastic) and he had a missing arm. It looked almost as though the arm had been chewed off, but I had no recollection of how he lost the arm. Then again I don't even remember where the man came from.
There was something rugged and heroic about the little black man with the missing arm. I imagined that he had been a famous lion tamer who had lost his arm to one of the big cats. Even with one arm missing he was tough and commanded respect. No one dared to go up against the lion tamer turned circus owner. He did not see a missing arm so much as a handicap as much as a minor inconvenience.
One of the Western sets had included a cowgirl so she became the love interest of the one armed circus owner. There was only one cowgirl in my toy collection so she was naturally the sweetheart of the only hero. My hero had a few sidekicks and pals, but most of the cowboys and Indians were just movie extras on the imaginary set of my imaginary Western.
I no longer remember the stories. They lasted from day to day over a time span now forgotten. The men, the animals, and the set pieces have long vanished to unknown places and reside only vaguely in my memory now clouded by the passing of the decades. Only dust lingers from the parade of circus wagons that have long disappeared over a distant horizon toward a soft sepia sunset.
**************** Do you have any special playtime memories or toys that were especially significant to you? Did you put stories to your playtime and did they continue from day to day? How have the imaginary stories of your childhood play affected you to this day?
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And now a "Theme from an Imaginary Western":
