Friday, April 28, 2006

Yes, more Bond blogging


Back to our favorite topic, and proving once again that the Internet is a bottomless fount of useless information.

From Flickchick, a TV Guide blog, on the Bonds that might have been (Apologies for the length, but it's too good to cut. She's an even bigger Bond geek than I am.):

Sean Connery is the classic example of an actor whose face is indelibly connected with a fictional character, just as Basil Rathbone is the face of Sherlock Holmes. Rathbone, to be sure, looks rather like Sidney Paget's illustrations for Strand magazine, in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared, but Doyle himself apparently complained that when he saw the great detective in his mind's eye, he didn't see the handsome fellow Paget drew. And frankly, Sean Connery looks less like the 007 Ian Fleming described in his books than does Pierce Brosnan, starting with the "longish nose" and the "carelessly brushed," side-parted hair falling over Bond's eyebrow — Connery's hair was already thinning in Dr. No (1962), when he was all of 31 years old. But the fact is, these things are details. What matters is that Connery embodied the essence of Bond-ness, just as Rathbone was Holmesian to the nth degree, and illustrators go back to their features when they're looking to depict these familiar and hugely popular characters.

Now, to the men who might have been James Bond, had the planets aligned themselves differently and the gods been in a more playful mood. Let's start with Roger Moore: Although there's a good deal of controversy about when Moore's name was first bruited about in Bond circles, longtime producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli claimed in his autobiography that Moore was Fleming's own first choice for the role — this despite the fact that Moore was a pretty boy of the first order. But Fleming also said he envisioned the suave David Niven in the role, and Moore was definitely a younger variation on the refined, elegant Niven persona; Fleming is also said to have liked James Mason, Cary Grant and Edward Underdown, a little-known stage-trained actor who'd been making movies since the 1930s. All these actors make sense when you remember that Fleming was a rakish, well-born, athletic, witty connoisseur of the good life from a wealthy family; he'd even worked in intelligence during World War II. Bond was therefore his own boyish fantasy version of himself. It also goes a long way to explaining why Fleming was so unimpressed by Connery, whom he called "unrefined," which I take to mean common as dirt. There was talk about Moore taking over in 1967 when Connery announced that he'd had enough of the role and Moore had been playing sleuthing playboy Simon Templar in The Saint for the better part of seven years. Interestingly, the 23-year-old Timothy Dalton's name apparently came up at the same time, even though he was a raw newcomer with no feature-film credits; he apparently turned down the part. One-timer George Lazenby was cast in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and Connery came back for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), so Moore didn't get to step in until Live and Let Die (1973).

I vividly remember the Brosnan flap: I don't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for successful actors, but I felt bad for him. Once again, Dalton was apparently offered the role of Bond but couldn't take it because he was committed to Brenda Starr (1989) (ouch!). Brosnan as a con man who assumes the role of a suave detective-agency head on TV's Remington Steele put him in the running, especially since the series had just been canceled and he was at liberty. But the wave of publicity that followed his invitation to play Bond persuaded NBC executives to revive Steele; Brosnan's contract required him to stay and Dalton's schedule was freed up, so Dalton became Bond for The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989). The somewhat disappointing U.S. box office of those, combined with internal issues pertaining to ownership of the Bond franchise rights, resulted in a six-year Bond-movie drought. Dalton resigned from the series, and Brosnan, by then free of the Remington Steele yoke, was able to step in for Goldeneye (1995). Although Brosnan was a great Bond, the way things played out was, to my mind, doubly unfortunate. First, I think Dalton was underrated and that if he'd had the chance to make another film, he might have settled into the role in the eyes of fans. Second, if Brosnan had been able to start making Bond films a decade earlier, he wouldn't have aged out of the series so quickly: The difference between beginning to play an action-oriented role when you're in your early forties and when you're in your early fifties is significant.

Beyond those two, who did eventually become Bond after hurdling some significant obstacles, there are all kinds of tantalizing might-have-beens in this saga. Terence Young, who directed Dr. No, liked RADA-trained actor Richard Johnson before Connery became the front-runner; Johnson went on to play U.K. pulp-novel detective Bulldog Drummand in the thrillers Deadlier Than the Male (1966) and Some Girls Do (1969), both widely perceived as Bond knockoffs. Patrick McGoohan, star of the cult U.K. TV series Danger Man (broadcast in the U.S. as Secret Agent), was offered the role of James Bond after Danger Man was canceled at the end of its 1961 season (it was subsequently revived); he passed. There are innumerable stories as to why, including that he found the character reprehensible — John Drake, his Danger Man/Secret Agent character wasn't a womanizer and used violence only as a last resort. In a 1995 interview with the Bond site Her Majesty's Secret Service, McGoohan said it was nothing more than that he wasn't wild for the script and that someone he didn't want to work with had already been hired. One of the most unlikely sounding early possibilities was comedian Sid James, best known for the bawdy, lowbrow Carry On... films. I always assumed it was just a rumor that he'd screen-tested for Bond, but the test turned up on the DVD box set of the U.K. comedy series Bless This House (1971-1976). So there you go.

Irish-born, New Zealand-raised Sam Neill tested during the Brosnan/Dalton mess; he later got his opportunity to shine in the espionage realm with the starring role in the series Reilly: The Ace of Spies (1983). Both English actor Julian Glover and rugged American actor John Gavin — Janet Leigh's boyfriend in Psycho (1960) — went out for the role after Lazenby; Gavin apparently signed a contract with EON in 1970, but Connery came back for his last hurrah. Ten years later, Glover got a consolation prize in the form of playing For Your Eyes Only (1981) bad guy Ari Kristatos, and shortly after, Cubby Broccoli apparently handed James Brolin (now Mr. Barbra Streisand) a contract to play Bond while Moore was in negotiations to return for Octopussy (1983). Brolin did a screen test opposite Maud Adams while Moore was in negotiations, but Moore re-upped and that was the end of that. Yet another of my favorite "wow, that would have been something different" involves the late David Warbeck, a New Zealand-born, RADA-trained actor who made a bunch of Euro-exploitation movies in the '70s. In the book David Warbeck: The Man and His Movies, Warbeck, who died in 1997, swore he was under contract to EON throughout that entire period as a sort of understudy who could be thrown in to a new Bond film at a moment's notice if Moore walked. An unlikely candidate to outside eyes but, frankly, no more unlikely than Lazenby.


The post has tons of hyperlinks, so click though if you want more. One small non-Bond cavil. Basil who? C'mon. Jeremy Brett was the greatest Sherlock Holmes by a mile. This isn't even debatable. (Well, obviously, it is, just not with me.)

Thanks to Thighs Wide Shut for the link.

Posted by jwb at 7:45 AM  · 7 Comments   

Foie Gras blogging

We're off to Chicago for the weekend. So much for my plans to eat lots of foie gras. The Chicago City Council just banned it. Mayor Daley seems to have to proper perspective on this:

We have children getting killed by gang leaders and dope dealers. We have real issues here in this city. And we’re dealing with foie gras? Let’s get some priorities. Our priorities should be children, the quality of education. It should be seniors. We should worry about the gas price. We should worry about the global economy.


Nicely done. The Gurgling Cod, from whence I learned about all of this silliness, has had some wise things to say about what's really going on here:

Hard to believe the city that works, Hog Butcher to the World, Chicago, has become a hotbed of anti foie gras agitation. A few things seem notable in this contretemps: The movement to ban foie gras seems to have as much to do with the context of the end product as the cruel process, motivated as much by a resentment of the likes of Alain Ducasse and his patrons as it is by a love of geeese. From a utiltarian standpoint of reducing the amount of suffering in the world, banning chicken would seem to do much more good. The life of a Tyson's chicken does not seem appreciably pleasanter than that of a foie gras goose, and there are a lot more of them, but chicken fingers are not the snack of plutocrats....

In general, anti-foie gras sentiment seems to function as part of a moral calculus I am calling the whippet. In real life, ski mountaineering in particular, you attach a whippet to your ski pole as a device that, in theory, will allow you to stop yourself from sliding down a glacier if you fall. In moral issues, the whippet is the opposite of a slippery slope, in that it demarcates the boundary between what is acceptable, and what is not. Defining foie gras as outside the pale of what you are willing to eat reinforces the idea that everything uphill of that point on the slope is ok. In other words, sentiment against foie gras works, perversely, to justify other kinds of animal consumption. I say this as a consumer of all kind of meats, including foie gras, (the latter limited as much by budget and geography as anything else). In sum, from here, it looks like it's about everything but the goose.

Posted by jwb at 6:31 AM  · 0 Comments   

George Allen

The New Republic has a piece in their new issue on Virginia Senator George Allen--who we've commented on before--every conservatives favorite alternative in the presidential sweepstakes to Senator McCain. Anyway, it's a real doozy. If you want to read it--and you really should--click here.

Posted by jwb at 6:08 AM  · 0 Comments   

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Underage drinking

Tom at Fermentations has a smart post up today about the idiocy of liquor companies coming out for big penalties against parents who let their kids have a drink every once in a while. The liquior companies are, of course, just trying to cover their asses; but more fundamentally, they are responding to the basic irrationality of the way we deal with this issue. Tom says,

Is it OK to question the policy that drinking alcohol should be outlawed for anyone under 21 years of age?

Or if you do, are you promoting inappropriate behavior?

You don't hear many people advocating that the drinking age be lowered from 21. It's a no win argument that will lead to being painted as irresponsible and uncaring for the well being of America's youth. But the fact is, a drinking age of 21 is simply ludicrous.


Diageo, a big booze conglomerate, was patting itself on the back (in a press release for its zero-tolerance policies on underage drinking and parents who condone it ("it" being responsible drinking):

I'm not willing to question their commitment to these goals by suggesting that such a PR initiative is just cover for the fact that it's often their products that wind up in the hands of minors. But I am willing to question theirs and others nothing [sic; "notion"?] that a 19 year old person is incapable of drinking responsibly and ought to be prevented by law from doing so....

I'm just dying to know what Diageo thinks of my habit of putting a small taste of wine in front of my 12 year old Boy and letting him taste it as well as try it alongside whatever disaster I've cooked up for the family meal? Would they have "zero tolerance" for this attempt to educate my boy in the complimentary character of wine and food and the way by which one can evaluate a wine?...

It has become a cliche to point out that 18 year old's can die in the service of their country,that they can take on the responsibility of voting for elected officials and that they can stand trial as an adult. Yet somehow, they are deemed incapable of lifting a mug of lager or a glass of wine with responsibility. This cliche ought to be very convincing to anyone, or any large drinks company, that believes respect is something that 18 year old's deserve.

Those of us who keep alcohol in their lives and enjoy it, have a responsibility to introduce this category of drink to young people at an early age precisely because it's the responsible thing to do. Today we are printing "WET PAINT..DON'T TOUCH" on alcohol. And we all know what happens when a sign like that is held up in front of a younger person. Teach them that too much alcohol impairs them. Teach them that alcohol is for drinking, not chugging. Teach them the great traditions that surround the consumption of alcohol. Teach them.


Tom doesn't really focus on this aspect of it, but I've always thought that this irrational paranoia about exposing children to alcohol is one of the reasons that drinking is such a problem on many college campuses (and, I'm sure, in some high schools). This is perhaps one more area where the Europeans have a much more rational approach than we do.

Posted by jwb at 10:44 AM  · 0 Comments   

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Tristan's new work


Our buddy Tristan been working on some really amazing new paintings. (Click here for more.) This one is "New York Hustle." Very cool!

Posted by jwb at 4:03 PM  · 0 Comments   

Idol update


What was that all about? It had to be one of the oddest nights in a long time. Jenn commented that, if she were watching "American Idol" for the first time, she'd probably never watch it again. The performances were pretty mediocre: Paris, Tyler, and Kellie were all pretty bad, though Katherine was much better than the judges let on. Chris, singing a song that I don't really care for, was interesting. Elliott was pretty good, and he looked like a bond trader in an expensive suit. (As Simon sometimes says, I mean that as a complement.) The show itself was a mess--there was a live mic open when Elliott was singing--and the timing was terrible, forcing Seacrest to hurry through the last 40 minutes of the show. And what's up with Paul crying? I think she needs to get back on her meds. Overall, a serious horrorshow.

Anyway, this reminds me that, a couple of months ago, in NYC for Shannon's show, Jenn's friend Jen, Jenn, and I sat in a hotel room in the W Times Square one afternoon and, in lieu of a nap, talked about Idol for an hour and a half. Yes, I agree, a little sad. Nonetheless.... We each made a list of the top 12 in order of elimination. None of us did very good, but here's how we did (top 6 only):

Jen G
6. Paris
5. Katherine
4. Ace
3. Chris
2. Mandisa
1. Taylor

Jenn
6. Paris
5. Mandisa
4. Chris
3. Ace
2. Katherine
1. Taylor

Moi
6. Lisa (my excuse was that I had Lisa in a pool, and had to stick with my girl)
5. Mandisa
4. Taylor
3. Katherine
2. Ace
1. Chris

A few general comments: We all had Mandisa and Ace sticking around for too long, and we failed to see that Kellie would last this long. Jenn and I are, I think, in a little better shape than Jen. Taylor's been pretty lackluster the last few weeks. I still think Chris has a strong chance of winning the whole thing, though I'd be happy if Katherine did as well. That's all for now.

Posted by jwb at 7:30 AM  · 1 Comments   

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Lazenby--Best Bond ever?


In Slate, Dan Oko advances the--to me, at least--counterintuitive thesis that George Lazenby was the best Bond ever. Read the article. The argument isn't has crazy a it sounds. Here's a taste:

While it's not fair to call the Connery movies a corruption of Fleming's novels—in fact, with Connery's early success, the author even acknowledged the actor by giving Bond a Scottish birthright—the films, like the stories, had started to grow increasingly cartoonish by the time of Fleming's death in 1964 (several years before Lazenby's arrival.) With a new actor on deck for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the first-time director Peter Hunt took a chance to re-establish Bond as the brutish agent described in Fleming's early novels. The director also slowed the action down enough to allow this characterization to take hold. While Connery remains the prohibitive favorite for many fans, it took just this one movie for Lazenby to make the character his own. He turns away from the sly, self-conscious wit that made his predecessor a box-office draw and allows the wear and stress of being a secret agent to show through. Plus, given Lazenby's training as a martial artist, his fight scenes remain a high point for the franchise.

To the great pleasure of Ian Fleming readers, the film likewise hews closely to the 1963 novel. The audience is treated to Bond's professional doubts (he threatens to resign, and ultimately is forced to team up with villainous Draco to defeat Blofeld), and we witness Bond falling in love and getting married—for the first, and I imagine, the last time. OHMSS closes with Lazenby cradling the corpse of his bride, and the look of resignation on his face shows an emotional unraveling that the other fellows who played the role never came close to touching.

Posted by jwb at 2:56 PM  · 1 Comments   

Friday, April 21, 2006

Henry Rollins Show

Note to self: start tivoing The Henry Rollins Show on IFC. He had (among others) Frank Black and Ben Folds on in the first week. (Click though for some videos.)

In other music news:

Morrissey on the possibility of the Smiths getting back together: "I would rather eat my own testicles than re-form the Smiths, and that’s saying something for a vegetarian." (Via Golden Fiddle.)

Posted by jwb at 10:59 AM  · 1 Comments   

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Le Chiffre


Marty, your wish is my command (whatever that means). Via I Watch Stuff!, here's a pic of the villain, Le Chiffre (played by Mads Mikkelsen), from the new Bond movie, Casino Royale. Very scary! As the guy at iwatchstuff says, "Wisely, the filmmakers have gone with the deadly look of nerdy haircut meets steak knife accident." (He has a rather vulgar suggestion for how to make him even more scary, but it would be inappropriate for us to repeat that sort of thing on a dignified website such as this one. (The source is here.)

Posted by jwb at 3:57 PM  · 0 Comments   

Monday, April 17, 2006

And we're back


Just got back from a week in Amsterdam and Brussels. Aside from a case of food poisoning than began on the last night on Amsterdam, it was a very enjoyable trip.

A brief note to thank Marty for his magnanimous response to my undoubtedly overly surly post on Mark Steyn--"Canada's Biggest Asshole." I must have been in a bad mood that day.

That's all for now. Please enjoy the pic from Amsterdam, a city so cute that I can hardly stand it.

Posted by jwb at 9:30 AM  · 0 Comments   

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Odds and Ends

I don't really have the time or energy this week to do any long-form ranting about any of our favorite topics. These'll have to do:

1. Doesn't the Religious Right have better things to do--you know, like fighting godless communism and abortion--than picking fights with wine snobs. If you really believe that teenagers will order wine over the Internet, you are either a lobbyist for the wine distributors or you have never met an actual teenager. STOP IT NOW!!! (This involves a controversy in Florida, but nicely encapsulate things that are going on all over the country. This editorial from a local paper nicely captures what is really going on--hardball interest group politics.) (Via Fermentations.)

2. Tom Delay: The media is insulting our intelligence once again. This has nothing to do with his reelection campaign having gotten so "nasty." (This is the guy known as "The Hammer," after all.) It has far more to do with the fact that his lawyers have told him that he better start paying more attention to his defense in several criminal matters if he doesn't want to spend the next several decades in federal prison. Also, Delay is making a big deal about how modest his lifestyle is. Don't believe a word of it. (Click here for more.)

3. Andy Card: Word on the street is that he's pondering running for governor of our fair state. Good luck, piss boy. This article from The New Republic shows that he was basically Dubya's punching bag. He will surely go down in history as one of the least consequential WH Chief of Staffs ever. I love the "cheeseburger story"--which nicely demonstrates both what a pussy Card is and Bush's strange need to humiliate those who work for him.

4. American Idol: I'm a little bored with Idol. Not quite sure why. I had Lisa in our AI pool. Early on, I thought she was going to be really strong, but once they got to the top 12, she never really did anything to stand out. I think she's probably fortunate that she made it this far. Our friend Wulf has said that she thinks it's a year for the guys, and that seems right to me. Chris is the most interesting person left--with Tyler in a close second--though I agree with Simon that he needs to show some more flexibility in the next few weeks. (The Creed song was a poor choice.) In other Idol news, Kelly Pickler is oddly alluring in her cheesy prom dress here. More distressingly, Katherine McPhee may be a Scientologist. (Both stories from Tyler Durden.)

Posted by jwb at 11:07 AM  · 2 Comments