Top Spaghetti Western Stars

 

01. Clint Eastwood (Alive)
02. Richard Harrison (Alive)
03. Franco Nero (Alive)
04. Gianni Garko (Alive)
05. Terence Hill (Alive)
06. Robert Woods (Alive) 
07. Lee Van Cleef
08. Eli Wallach
09. Tomas Milian

10. Giuliano Gemma
11. Peter Lee Lawrence
12. Anthony Steffen

13. Klaus Kinski

14. Bud Spencer

15. Mark Damon

16. Thomas Berger

17. Hunt Powers

18. Fernando Sancho

19. George Hilton

20. Gian Maria Valonte

21. Tony Anthony

22. Lou Castel

23. George Eastman

24. Donald O’Brien

25. Frank Wolff

Summer ‘26 SW Viewing List

Blaine and I watched some Spaghetti Westerns this summer. I watched a couple by myself* as well.

1. Django (6/25/26)

2. Minnesota Clay* (6/26/26) (Good movie.)

3. The Mercenary (6/29/26)

4. If You Meet Sartana… ()

5. God Forgives, I Don’t ()

6. Face To Face ()

7. Bullet For The General ()

Bike injury report (June 2026)

So the other day (on 6/22/2026 @ around 1:30) I was riding along minding my own business at Fox Park trailhead, coming back at about the 4 mile mark when suddenly my bike seat just fell off with me on it (!). Yeah, one second I’m riding along, just as happy as can be, the next second, I’m tumbling backwards onto the ground. That wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it was that the jagged seat post did a number on my right inner thigh. So the problem was that I was about 3.5 miles from my car. With a very sore and damaged leg. I briefly thought about calling Izzy to come pick me up (she was off that day). But I just determined to sack it up and ride out. I wedged my seat onto the seat post and limped back. Somehow. It was a rough go. But I made it. There are many blessings here. I was going 12 mph, not 22. There was no one else around. I wasn’t riding on the street, in traffic. No head injury. No broken bones. No gashes. Thank you God.

I have photos, and here they are!

This is the seat post. Minus the seat.

Close up of the post. Broken. Jagged.

As you can see, the metal just broke.

Now what follows are some photos of my leg about 1 hour after the incident.

My owie!

Ouch!

Ow!

It wasn’t cut. It was almost cut. The damage was all subdermal.

Couple days later. Things were healing.

Still healing.

6/25/26. It’s still pretty darn sore.

After 10 days it’s starting to look pretty good. It is still quite sore in the area though. But it’s healing up (7/1/26)

As of today (7/7/26) there is still tenderness (discomfort) and swelling present in the area. Photos below are from today. 15 days after the injury.

Top Spaghetti Westerns List (new 2026)

 

01. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
02. For A Few Dollars More
03. Fistful of Dollars
04. Once Upon A Time In The West
05. Django
06. Death Rides A Horse / Day of Anger (tied)
07. The Mercenary / Compañeros (tied)

08. Face To Face / Bullet For The General (tied)

09. The Forgotten Pistolero
10. If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death 

11. The Great Silence

12. The Big Gundown / Run Man Run (tied)

13. Blindman / God Forgives, I Don’t (tied)
14. The Return Of Ringo
15. All 3 Sabata movies (all tied)
16. The Grand Duel / Duck, You Sucker! (tied)
17. My Name Is Nobody
18. Both Trinity Movies (tied)
19. And God Said To Cain / Banditos (tied)
20. Keoma / A Pistol For Ringo (tied)

I know I sort of cheated putting multiple movies in this list. But I really can’t decide. So I doubled up some of them. This list actually is comprised of 31 movies. All great flicks!

King Tut's Tomb

 

I've always been pretty fascinated with ancient Egyptian history. It is a very interesting field that deals with tombs, rocks, hieroglyphics, sand, pyramids, pharaohs, and mummies.

One of these Pharoahs, which in ancient Egypt meant a "king/god person", was King Tuhantamun. Which literally translates to: King Tut.

The tomb of King Tut, was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, who apparently spent several years digging around the Valley of the Kings thinking, “There has GOT to be one more rich dead guy left around here somewhere.” And against all odds, there was. 

This was a major archaeological discovery because most Egyptian tombs had already been looted centuries earlier by grave robbers, corrupt officials, souvenir hunters, and probably somebody’s cousin named “Neferuthumose the Sketchy” or whatever. But King Tut’s tomb survived pretty much intact because it was buried under debris and hidden so well that for over 3,000 years nobody noticed there was an entire pharaoh underneath what looked like a dirt parking lot. 

Ironically, Tutankhamun himself was not considered a particularly important pharaoh. He ruled briefly, died young, and spent much of his reign basically trying to clean up the theological yard sale left behind by his father, Akhenaten, who had attempted to replace Egypt’s entire religion with what was essentially sun worship. Not like people heading to the beach. No, he believed, the disc of the sun was an actual god. (Not surprisingly it did not catch on.) 

Anyway, because Tut died unexpectedly at around age 18 or 19, the Egyptians apparently had to rush his burial. His tomb was smaller than those of other pharaohs and stuffed floor-to-ceiling with over 5,000 objects including gold coffins, jewelry, chariots, statues, furniture, clothing, ceremonial items, and enough decorative material to make a Las Vegas casino manager whisper, “Maybe we could tone it down a little.” 

The most famous item was Tut’s golden funerary mask, which became one of the best-known artifacts in history and also permanently established the ancient Egyptian principle that if you are going to be dead for 3,000 years, you should at least accessorize properly. 

Then came the “Curse of the Pharaohs,” which started after Carter’s financial backer, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, died shortly after the tomb was opened. This caused newspapers worldwide to lose their minds and suggest that ancient Egyptian spirits were murdering people from beyond the grave. It also gave rise to several Mummy movie franchises which has made a lot of money in Hollywood. In reality, the curse mostly resulted in what today would be called “very aggressive media marketing.” 

Meanwhile Carter and his team spent YEARS cataloging everything because ancient Egyptians apparently believed that when you die you will need all the same things you needed in life, including furniture, sandals, board games, walking sticks, snacks, tiny boats, jewelry, ceremonial daggers, and approximately sixteen metric tons of golden trinkets. Archaeologists opened boxes only to discover more boxes inside, which is proof that even in 1323 BC people already understood the core principle of Amazon-style shipping.

Today most of the treasures are housed in museums in Egypt, while Tut himself remains in the tomb, where millions of tourists shuffle past every year whispering things like, “Wow,” and, “I can’t believe this survived,” and, “Honey, we do NOT need another plastic sphinx from the gift shop.”

The Servant Girl Annihilator Case (1880's)

 

Back in the 1880s, the city of Austin, Texas was trying really hard to become a respectable modern city. It had politicians, railroads, restaurants, fancy hotels... and apparently a homicidal maniac roaming around at night killing innocent people like some kind of Satanic side quest (unlocked by accident). Yeah, nothing puts a damper on your gentrification efforts like a serial killer roaming loose in town.

This psycho became known as the “Servant Girl Annihilator,” which is a snappy name that sounds less like a serial killer and more like the title of an obscure heavy metal album from 1987. Whoever (or whatever) it was, it murdered at least eight people between 1884 and 1885, mostly servant women who were attacked in their sleep with axes, knives, iron rods, or whatever else happened to be lying around that could be repurposed into an instrument of destruction. 

Austin authorities responded to this situation with the efficiency and competence you would expect from 1880s law enforcement, meaning they arrested approximately half the town. At one point more than 400 men were rounded up, which was essentially the police strategy of “The killer must be a male.” narrowing it down further... a human male.

Not surprisingly, the murders terrified the city. Citizens formed armed patrols. People locked themselves indoors at night. Newspapers lost their minds. Witness descriptions were, shall we say, not very helpful, unless your goal was to make every person on Earth a potential suspect simultaneously. The suspect was variously described as white, black, mixed-race, disguised, barefoot, wearing women’s clothing, wearing a slouch hat, accompanied by accomplices, or possibly a shapeshifting wizard capable of turning invisible because apparently neighborhood dogs never barked.

Meanwhile, the city’s wealthy leadership initially treated the murders with the urgency of a DMV employee clocking into work. Most early victims were black servant women, so officials basically reacted with: “What a terrible tragedy. Now, about those paving contracts.” Public panic only truly detonated after two white women were murdered on Christmas Eve 1885, at which point everybody suddenly realized that serial murder was, in fact, a bad thing.

The killings themselves were unbelievably brutal. Victims were attacked in bed, dragged outside, mutilated, and posed in bizarre ways. In several cases, sharp objects were shoved into the victims’ ears, which is the kind of detail that makes modern true crime podcasters sit upright and say things like, “There were serial killers in the old west?” 

Naturally, because humanity cannot resist turning horror into fan fiction, people later wondered whether the Servant Girl Annihilator might actually have also been Jack the Ripper. This theory was based largely on the scientific principle of “Hey, both guys killed people.” Serious researchers reject the connection as poppycock because the methods were wildly different, but that has not stopped generations of amateur detectives from squinting at maps and yelling, “The timelines kind of sort of overlap!” on internet forums.

One suspect that rose to the top of the list was a young cook named Nathan Elgin, who reportedly lived near the crime scenes, had a violent history, and was missing a toe that may have matched footprints found near the murders. Conveniently, he was later shot dead by police while allegedly attacking another woman, which in old-timey America apparently qualified as a background check. Coincidentally, or maybe not, the crimes stopped after that. 

To this day, the murders remain officially unsolved. Austin’s first famous serial killer continues to hover over Texas history like a ghostly reminder that before the city became known for tacos, tech startups, and pale scraggly, flip-flop wearing men named Bryson (playing "hip" ukulele music), it was briefly victimized by a horrifying reality TV style slasher nobody asked for.

Musical Genres I Prefer (and why)

 

There are many musical genres I appreciate and/or LOVE. 

In this post I am going to list them in order of importance (to me). I will also explain to you WHY I like it.

#01. Rock. (+Southern Rock, +Americana, +Indie Rock, +Alternative Rock, +Punk, +Blues Rock) I was immediately drawn to rock from a young age because my brothers would play their music for me. The Beatles, Eagles, Pink Floyd, Joe Cocker (John), Neil Diamond (Randy), T-Rex, etc. I was exposed to all types. Later in high school I was drawn to Heartland Rock (Springsteen, Mellencamp, Petty, Seger), AOR (Journey, Foreigner, Survivor), and Southern Rock (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, etc.). I was drawn to Hard Rock through a particular 8-Track tape called "Ridin' High" by Moxy. I was drawn in to Southern Rock through ZZ Top (thanks MTV) which led me to Lynyrd Skynyrd and then to Molly Hatchett and Blackfoot. I was drawn to AOR though Journey. Steve Forrester played Journey for me, and I was hooked. I found Heartland Rock, and singer-songwriter stuff (Springsteen, Mellencamp) through MTV (Thanks MTV). That led me to Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Tom Waits, etc. Americana is basically Steve Earle who I saw on MTV (thanks MTV). MTV had a HUGE influence on my musical taste early on. This led me to The Bottle Rockets, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, etc. I heard about a type of rock called "Lo-Fi" so I looked it up in a book. The book suggested Guided By Voices was the archetypical lo-fi rock band. I saw them on HBO Reverb in 2001. Something clicked in me. I became and fan that night, and I still am to this day. 25 years now. Bruce  Springsteen has always been my favorite, though he has become a laughing stock nowadays because of his stupid woke political views. Sad. Nevertheless, his 1975-1985 period is great! Also, my dad had some rock related stuff in his massive record collection. I found old Buddy Holly records (which I REALLY got into as a child), and Tony Joe White, and Johnny Cash... Elvis... There was a lot of stuff.

#02. Country. (+Alt Country, +Texas Country) My father turned me on to country from the time I was a wee lad. Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Buck Owens (Thanks Hee-Haw), and Hank Williams. Heard "Country Boy Can Survive" on the radio and was drawn to Hank Jr. Heard "Devil Went Down To Georgia" on the radio and got into Charlie Daniels. That led me to bands like The Marshall Tucker band and the Outlaws, which connected back up with Southern Rock. Jason and the Scorchers was in there too. My dad had all kinds of country records in his massive record collection. I explored these with great vigor.

#03. Blues. Discovered it after getting into ZZ Top. Realized that ZZ Top is hugely influenced by traditional blues (like John Lee Hooker). After I saw the movie "Crossroads" in 1986, I got into the Delta blues, BIG TIME. This led me to Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters (and many others). I explored the Chess record label. Through the Blues Brothers movie (which came out in 1980) I discovered Stax/Volt, Mussel Shoals, etc. In the later 80's and early 90's, this led me into Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Booker T & The MG's, etc. My dad had a Son House record in his collection. I dug on that after seeing that "Crossroads" movie. Later discovered Skip James, and Johnny Shines (me and Dad even saw him live, amazingly), and other blues legends. Found out about the Alligator Record label in about 1990 or so, and my blues love affair hit high gear! Hound-Dog Taylor... 'nuff said.

#04. Folk. I got into folk (and folk-rock) by getting into Bob Dylan. Also Springsteen's Nebraska album really launched me toward folk as well. I really got into that stripped-down three-chords-and-the-truth ethos. My dad had lots of folk records in his expansive and wide-ranging collection. Johnny Cash represented this too. I also found a guy named John Gorka who I liked a lot. He kind of lost steam... but his first half-dozen albums or so are brilliant.

#05. Reggae. I heard Bob Marley on TV and was hooked. This led me to artists like Peter Tosh (limited), and Jimmy Cliff (VERY limited). There was also a minor Springsteen component too. He had some slight reggae dabbling (most notably "Trapped"). Which caught my attention. But it was mostly a Bob Marley thing. I like early ska, and Rocksteady (precursor's to Reggae). Some of that sounds really cool.

#06. Jazz. In my youth, I never really got into Jazz per se. But I really liked some of it (Vince Guaraldi... Peanuts... Jazz). Later I kind of warmed up to it more thanks to Tom Waits' earlier stuff. To this day, I like the white shirt and tie, horn-rim glasses era of Jazz. Like the 60's era. There was also a samba/jazz guitarist named Bola Sete whose album I was exposed to thanks to my Dad's EXTREMELY eclectic record collection. I thought it sounded pretty cool. Turns out he worked with Vince Guaraldi so you see how this stuff begins to inter-connect.

#07. Classical. When I saw the movie "Amadeus" around 1985 or so, I really got into Classical music hard core. I came to a realization that these dudes were the "rock stars" of their day. I found it incredible that they found a way to preserve their music even without recording devices. They "wrote" music down on Paper. Like you and I write words. That's fascinating to me. Some of the earliest stuff preserved like this is from 1724. Mind boggling! By the way, as a kid I found Beethoven records in my Dad's records. I REALLY got into it. As a kid! He had a lot of classical stuff and opera in his records. Some opera is very mo

All of the different music I was exposed to as a youth and as I grew up went a long way toward making me the musical person I am today. When I was 12 or so, I started trying to play the guitar. 

To this day I write music constantly. But my personal music making is for another day and another post.

You will notice one main genre that is not present here. Rap/Hip-Hop. I think Rap/Hip-Hop could be good. I have appreciated SOME (very limited) rap/hip-hop in the past. So yeah, it has potential. But as a musical form it runs contrary to music in general, in my opinion. There is limited to zero instrumentation. It is devoid of melody and tune (mostly). I often say it is "music" for people who don't understand music. Most importantly though, the lyrics promote vile hedonism, narcissism, anti-authoritarian behavior, anti-Law, anti-traditional family values, and greed. There is also a strong element of racism, divisiveness, and promotion of thuggery. Who needs it!!! No thanks!