The Realm: Now With Improved Navigation!
Rick Retro’s Realm, The Realm Report #6: Better ways to “Get Around” and a little more.
Get Around, Round, Round, I Get Around…
(A Timely Way to Introduce Some “Behind the Scenes” News)
I was sorry to hear about the recent passing of Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. They preceded me in this world by a couple of decades, but I share a Southern California upbringing, and they have been one of my top favorite bands since I first discovered their music. Their sound is unique and Brian was the primary creative genius behind their original success. It’s always sad when the world loses someone like that, who will never create something for us to enjoy again, but this one touches me more deeply, because The Beach Boys have been such a favorite of mine.
How does that relate to the news I have for you today? Not well. 😉I might do music reviews some day way in the future, but I’m focusing on movies right now and television and books will probably be featured here before music. So the illustration, sub-heading and first paragraph here are just intended as a little tribute to The Beach Boys and a segue to introduce a recent update to Rick Retro’s Realm.
And that recent update is this: I’ve fixed some plumbing in the Realm. There were a lot of inactive “⬅️Previous (all sections) | Next (all sections) ➡️” links at the bottom of posts. Now most of them work. A few still don’t, because before Substack I was posting reviews to a small text group of family and friends, and not all of those posts have been uploaded to Substack yet. So in between posts that aren’t here yet, the posts with the regular “Previous/Next” links inactive, will have active links below that look like this:
⬅️Previous Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded.
Or like this:
Next Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded ➡️
What this means to you, is that now every Rick Retro post that is here, whether originally posted to the text group or originally posted here on Substack, exists in an unbroken chain. You can start at the beginning and follow the “Next” links all the way to this post, and beyond once I’ve posted more. Or you can follow the “Previous” links back to the beginning from here if you wish. (Each section of The Realm has its own “Previous” and “Next” links conveniently supplied by Substack if you are only interested in a specific section, but my added links include everything posted.)
And for the majority of you who weren’t a subscriber when I began, here’s a link to my very first text group post. The minority of you who are like me and feel compelled to begin at the beginning might even want to visit this link! 😁
Here’s my first Substack post, for anyone who wants to skip the text group posts, especially right now when many of them still have not been reformatted and uploaded.
In other site-navigation “Behind the Scenes” news, I am making most internal site links more visible by linking them not only in the text, but also by adding a more visible link the paragraph where the original link is included. The double linking should make it easier to get around as well as add visual appeal to the posts. (You can see examples in the two previous paragraphs here.) These added links can be extra helpful to those reading in the Substack app where text links are underlined instead of in color, and easy to miss. The enhanced post-paragraph links don’t show up quite as well in the app as they do in your browser, but that’s a topic I will address more later. I haven’t yet applied the double linking to all previous posts, but it doesn’t take long and should be complete soon.
New Old Review Posted!
Yes, the rumors are true. Retro Review #18, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” (1966), from the old text group was finally uploaded and upgraded onto Rick Retro’s Realm on Substack for the first time. That leaves 25 old reviews still to bring over, plus a few Retro Rankings. So you can expect more emails for reviews of Christmas movies here in the summer of 2025! 🤣🎅
More Behind the Scenes
Also behind the scenes, along with connecting plumbing and improving links, I’ve had to make schedule changes. Once again, too much outside activity has triggered a bit of chronic disease sick time and affected the schedule for Project #3, Dark Whimsy Favorites. The odds of finishing the project in 200 days are getting really slim, and one more big delay might end my chances completely, but I’m still hopeful I can finish on schedule by August 28! By the way, I just added the grades given to already reviewed films on the itinerary post, to help see how the project is going. Take a new look at the updated schedule and the grades given to my favorite Dark Whimsy films reviewed so far, in the link that follows this sentence:
The tricky part is that I’m trying to do more stuff than merely completing this project, since I’m still building out other parts of the site. So I’m trading off time considerations, but I hope to focus mainly on completing this schedule and then take it from there. If all goes well my review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) will post tomorrow!
Subscriber Count!
I lost a subscriber, but since then I’ve gained three. That means the count is now 37, up two from last issue, when it was 35. I’m not really surprised to lose a subscriber now and then, especially because I’m not where I want to be yet with my website quality and subscriber support. There is still more planning, building and systematizing for me to do before I focus on community growth. That makes me all the more grateful to those of you who are already here, sticking by me, even if you just see some potential. I hope I am entertaining and informing, and that I can continually improve the experience for you. I want Rick Retro’s Realm to be a fun place to hang out! Feel free to comment or message me directly if you have suggestions, complaints, or just want to chat about movies and TV, books, baseball, Christianity, politics or anything else that interests you! My interests are not unlimited, but they are at least rather broad, and I am interested in you, my subscribers, so I think I would enjoy hearing about any topic that excites you. 😁
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Thanks for your support.
Keep the comments coming!
Last updated 2025-06-26