Well, having just moved to a new home, it’s always nice to receive a housewarming gift. That’s precisely what I got when fellow blogger le0pard13 over at It Rains…You Get Wet presented me with my new site’s first award. Recognition from other bloggers, as anyone who indulges in this pastime will tell you, is most welcome. And since this guy has offered lots of support and encouragement over the years, I want to say a big thank you. Of course, these things come with conditions, and this one is especially tough as it demands some self-analysis – something I’m not sure I’m so good at. The conditions are as follows:

1. Tell everyone something that no one else knows about.
2. Link to one of my posts that I personally think best fits the following categories:
   1. Most Beautiful Piece
   2. Most Helpful Piece
   3. Most Popular Piece
   4. Most Controversial Piece
   5. Most Surprisingly Successful Piece
   6. Most Underrated Piece
   7. Most Pride-worthy Piece
3. Pass this award on to seven other bloggers.

1. Okay, one of my earliest ambitions was to be an actor. There. I said it. I don’t know if this has influenced my lifelong love for movies or vice versa, but there’s probably some connection on some level. I did some amateur stuff when I was very young, and was told I had promise, but my teens came along and somehow it all got pushed off to the side. Maybe that was all for the best – I work in education now, and that pretty much involves putting on a one man show throughout the working day anyway!

2. Now for the tough part!

i. My Most Beautiful Piece – Jeez! I don’t know, I’m going to say The Big Country just because I feel I covered every aspect of the movie I set out to, and as well as I think I could.

ii. My Most Helpful Piece – Ok, this is maybe a bit of a cheat but I’m going to say The Last Hard Men. I wrote this way back when my blog was in its infancy and I had yet to find my feet. It’s short and far from the best thing I’ve written, but it drew some attention to my blog and was helpful to me as it gave me some much-needed confidence.

iii. My Most Popular Piece – Easy, Tombstone. For one reason or another, it drew more hits than any post.

iv. My Most Controversial Piece – I don’t think I’ve written anything that’s especially controversial. However, I’m going to nominate Odd Man Out, the logic being that anything deals with the Northern Ireland conflict is probably controversial in someone’s eyes somewhere.

v. My Most Surprisingly Successful Piece – The Law and Jake Wade. I didn’t expect much but this post drew more comment than any other.

vi. My Most Underrated Piece – The Long Memory.

vii. My Most Pride-worthy Piece – Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. A difficult film to do justice to, but I gave it my best shot.

3. And my seven nominations are:

100 Films in a Year

50 Westerns from the 50s

The Grim Cellar

Tipping My Fedora

Speakeasy

Twenty Four Frames

Cinema Station

So, that’s my lot. The only thing that remains is to wish everyone a happy and healthy year in 2012.