The Premio Dardos Seal of Approval (FINALIZED)

Imagine my surprise when, after doing this thing for little more than three months, I was nominated by The Vicar of VHS, proprietor of the Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies blog, for the Premio Dardos award. What did I do to deserve this? Perhaps the following may explain:

The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.

The Rules are: 1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog. 2) Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

For some reason I hear Groucho Marx's voice saying something about clubs and memberships in my head, but I'll ignore him. It really is a sort of stupefying honor to be recognized for my humble work, and I owe it to the five bloggers to whom I'll extend the honor to show the award the proper respect. They are:

IGLOO OF THE UNCANNY. The Igloo Keeper is a dedicated reviewer of horror cinema from the golden age to the present day, and is having increasingly fun developing his frosty persona with an appropriately non-linear diary. He has interesting things to say about everything from Universal and Hammer to last year's horrors, or thereabouts.

MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS. Someone should put the Rev. Fred Phantom on television. He goes the extra mile to create "live" reviews that combine his spoken commentary with witty collections of clips, covering everything from Italian to Blax-ploitation. This is a guy that can turn a review of Luigi Cozzi's Contamination into a satire of Starbucks. He reminds me of the horror hosts of yore in a way -- a good way. Drop by and tell him this freak says hello.

POPCORN AND STICKY FLOORS. Jiangtou, Jesse and Michael are great purveyors of primary source materials from the wild world of cinema, from Polish movie posters to prime exploitation trailers. Theirs is a constantly stimulating audiovisual blast from the exploitative past. See if you agree with them that Bruka, Queen of Evil has the greatest trailer of all time. It has plenty of competition on their blog.

WOPSPLOITATION. Don't let the title deceive you. Beedubelhue covers quite a lot of territory in the wild world of cinema, with an emphasis on exploitation that ranges from kung-fu movies to Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre. To an extent, he reminds me of me, so if you agree with me that there's often a lot of value in exploitation cinema, Wopsploitation is a valuable reference to what's out there.

Finally, after considerable consideration, I'm giving the last one to HOUSE OF SELF-INDULGENCE, where Yum-Yum spotlights the glamorous schlock of the 70s and 80s, with special attention more recently to the glories of Crown International Pictures. It's an attractive blog to look at with a pleasing balance of text and screen captures, and always amusing to read.

I Want You to enjoy all these great movie blogs!