Mark Mordue sheds light on the return of the cowboy into mainstream culture. He suggests its being promoted through new culturally influencing mediums, like movies. He uses recent movies, like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 3:10 to Yuma and No Country for Old Men as examples.

Three films now do not constitute a movement. Reviving a seemingly dead genre takes a lot more heat than that. But it’s possible to see renewed vigor behind the Western when you also take into account the critically lauded HBO television series, Deadwood (2004-06) - a prosaically brutal take on how the chaos of a gold mining town is civilized — and Brokeback Mountain (2005), author E. Annie Proulx and director Ang Lee’s gay re-visioning of a cowboy romance up in them ‘thar’ hills.

More interestingly is the stereotype that goes with being a cowboy. For example, there’s an element of danger and ruggedness that many people think of when they envision a cowboy. With what Mordue calls a “movement,” it’s no wonder why men’s western wear is coming back into fashion. Although it’s difficult to for urbanites to live a true cowboy lifestyle, many men are able to express their inward cowboy by wearing high end Western wear, like the clothes Cacties makes. John Murfee of Avondale Partners is an excellent example — he sports one of Cacties’ wide assortment of Western neckties.

3G Buckles, which stands for “Glamour, Glitz and Gals,” may not sound manly, but it’s sure to make a cowgirl momma happy if she were to receive a custom belt buckle from her cowboy. 3G stocks vintage buckles, buckles with freshwater pearls and even an animal friendly line of buckles. The Red Bird buckle is one of their best buckles, sure to please any cowgirl.

In the spirit of Mother’s Day, Cacties is pleased to award 3G as a Cowboy Friendly website. We dare say, getting your momma or little lady custom belt buckle certainly puts you in line for some fine threads from the Cacties western clothing store. After all, Father’s Day is just around the corner.

Here are “the Best of the Best of the Western movie” genre. Renowned movie director Sergio Leone comes in with an impressive four movies in this top 10 movies list created by Listverse:

Top Ten Western Movies

1. The Searchers 1956, John Ford
2. Rio Bravo 1959, Howard Hawks
3. A Fistful of Dollars 1964, Sergio Leone
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969, George Roy Hill
5. For a Few Dollars More 1965, Sergio Leone
6. High Noon 1952, Fred Zinnemann
7. Unforgiven 1992, Clint Eastwood
8. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948, John Huston
9. Once Upon a Time in the West 1968, Sergio Leone
10. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly 1966, Sergio Leone

What do you think of the titles included in this top ten list? What movies were overlooked and should be included? Which westerns would make your top 10 movies of all time? Let us know by emailing us at mycacties@gmail.com.

Democratic and Republican presidents alike have drawn on our collective cowboy legacy (imaginary?/culture?) as they lead the free world from our Nation’s capital in Washington DC. The Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles is currently hosting a fascinating exhibit on the personal and political use of the cowboy mythology from our nation’s highest political office.The LA Times illuminates:

Highlights include the iconic, such as LBJ’s much-photographed Stetson hat; the sentimental — drawings inspired by the film “High Noon,” which Bill Clinton made as a child; the metaphorical — the intricately carved Saddle of Independence dedicated to 9/11, which was a gift from the Black Hills Stock Show Foundation to George W. Bush; and the curious — Calvin Coolidge’s electric exercise horse (which resembled a mechanical bull). “The rumor is he rode it in the White House in his underwear and a cowboy hat,” says Garron Maloney, the assistant curator for Ranch Life and the New West who organized the show with lead curator B. Byron Price, director of the University of Oklahoma’s Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West, and Jeffrey Richardson, the current Autry-University of Nevada Las Vegas fellow. Maloney says the exhibition, five years in the making, and upcoming book by Price constitute the first scholarly work on the subject.

Photos from the exhibit are available at the Los Angeles Times

Check out the online version of the Cowboys and Presidents exhibit at the Gene Autry Museum.

GAC TV Highlights

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Steve Wariner, the late Hank Williams and “Ring Of Fire” songwriter Merle Kilgore were inducted into the Music City Walk of Fame yesterday in a ceremony that practically lobbed history from across the street.

The event took place at Hall of Fame Park, literally a stone’s throw from the Country Music Hall of Fame, where Hank is enshrined in a rotunda that bears the inscription “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” Steve’s mentor, Chet Atkins, is likewise a Hall of Famer and “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” was the title of a series of Dirt Band albums in which the group recorded with such Hall of Famers as Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Maybelle Carter, Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson and Merle Travis.

The connection between the Hall and the Walk of Fame was not lost on the honorees. “It’s full ‘Circle,’ pardon the pun,” Dirt Band member Jeff Hanna winked prior to the event.

America’s West is one of the most comprehensive online presentations of Western history and development. Its main contents include:

• Archaeology
• Cowboys
• Critters
• Emigration
• Events
• Expansion
• Films
• “Indians”
• Mining
• Outlaws
• Pioneers
• Places
• Research
• Trading Post
• Transportation

Their Cowboys page includes a plethora of online resources, including information on upcoming rodeos, a calendar of cowboy festivals and cowboy poetry! America’s West is frequently updated and is an amazing resource for those interested in the development and history of the West.

Cacties is proud to make America’s West the first Cowboy Friendly site!

Do you love the Western lifestyle? Do you sleep with your spurs tied around your ankles and make more room for your hat at the table than your little lady? Do you prefer the early morning smell of cow dung over the smell of urban dust? Well, if you do, and you run a blog or western-themed website, you may be eligible to get the exclusive Cowboy Friendly badge from Cacties.

Only the finest website with true cowboy grit and knowhow gets the privilege of brandishing one of our Cowboy Friendly badges. If you see any of the badges below on your journey through the wild Web, you can be assured that you’ll have safe passage through their site. If you would like to have your website considered for the Cowboy Friendly badge, shoot us an email at mycacties@gmail.com, telling us why you think your site should be bestowed with this great honor.

Cowboy Friendly Badges and Code

<a href="http://mycacties.com/"><img src="http://mycacties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/boot.png" alt="Cowboy Friendly Badge" /></a>

<a href="http://mycacties.com/"><img src="http://mycacties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/wood.png" alt="Cowboy Friendly Badge" /></a>

<a href="http://mycacties.com/"><img src="http://mycacties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/tinybadge.gif" alt="Cowboy Friendly Badge" /></a>

<a href="http://mycacties.com/"><img src="http://mycacties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/sticker2.png" alt="Cowboy Friendly Badge" /></a>

<a href="http://mycacties.com/"><img src="http://mycacties.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/sticker.png" alt="Cowboy Friendly Badge" /></a>

Once you put the best western neckties, western apparel, and accessories for high-class individuals into an online western clothing store, people want to know who you are and what you have to say. Well, that’s what we’re setting out to do.

The Cacties blog will gather up all of the cowboys that are traveling along this great blogosphere and showcase their latest doings. We may even give a shout out to those we find wearing Cacties western wear in the wild. Dare I say it, if we find a Flickr image that’s been tagged with cacties, we’d be down right stupid not to show it on this here blog.

If you have an idea for the Cacties blog, drop us a line at mycacties@gmail.com.