Casino Royale: Get Your Anti-Spy On!

Casino Royale:  The original James Bond action feature…NOT!  This super spy-spoof was not only what you wouldn’t expect from the James Bond series, but went entirely against everything you would expect from such a film.  When you think of spy films, you wouldn’t generally include cast members David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, and Ursula Andress; although Andress is in Dr. No.  The film begins with a conversation between David Niven (James Bond) and his former employer M.  As it turns out, the only way to bring James Bond out of retirement and back into employment to rescue the failing spy industry is to blow up his home!  James Bond comes back into the employ of the British Secret Service, and his first task is to run amuck creating new spies whom all have his name and bear his same anti-spy facade; no smoking, drinking, or even sex!  The film centers around the many Bonds attempting to defeat LeChiffre, and ultimately digresses to bad guy Dr. Noah (a reference to Bond villain Dr. No), who turns out to be James Bond’s nephew Jimmy Bond (played by Woody Allen).  The end leaves you confused…wait i can’t even remember what happened!  But seriously, watch the movie, you will not be disappointed with this excellent parody of 60′s spy phenomena, as it relates to James Bond and beyond.

Amy Winehouse Lives on In Lioness: Hidden Treasures

Released in the aftermath of Amy Winehouse’s death this past year, Lioness: Hidden Treasures lives up to its name.  The album is a combination of upbeat hip hop beats and low-down soulful grooves.  The album is what we would expect from Amy, a classic sounding soul voice that can be combined with new styles, a bit of the new and the old.  It is well worth hearing, and you won’t find it difficult to listen to if you have read at least this far into the review, so hah.

Some particular songs that you might want to focus on when you are listening to the album are Valerie, and The Girl from Ipanema.  
It is not that these songs are anything particularly special, after all Valerie is one of her most remembered songs, and the second has been recorded many times before by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz.  Yet for those reasons they are the most important to pay close attention to and listen to over and over.  Her most soulful and popular hits are; if you believe that certain songs form the basis of a new genre or the foundations of a future one, crucial in forming what we and future generations of music listeners will hear.  It would be especially worth listening to on vinyl if you can find the means to do so.

Agent 077 strikes!

Today i watched a film from the agent 077 series of spy flicks titled From the Orient With Fury.  This was the second in a series of Italian James Bond knock-offs and it certainly did not disappoint, that is if Bond-ish cheesiness is your measure of a sucessful spy film.  Ken Clark portrays the role of agent 077 with naivete, constantly managing to get caught by the bad guys and yet always avoiding death miraculously.  At least 3 women that i can remember of fall into Dick Malloy’s (agent 077) hands throughout the film, though he finds it difficulty to be alone with them for any significant amount of time without being interrupted by the enemy.  It is a fast paced film, and Malloy comes prepared for every situation with special gadgets which are not limited to: mini belt camera, morse code suspenders, camera recorder, and a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air equipped with machine guns.  Much of the film takes place in Istanbul and Paris, and a number of beautiful camera angles attempt to capture the cityscapes of both locations.  In case you were wondering what agent Malloy’s task in the film was, it is to stop the bad guys from forcing a professor to build his deadly ray gun.  I would recommend the film to anybody who is a spy film buff or is just becoming interested, because it is never to early to start appreciating the diversity of films equipping themselves with gadgets in the wake of the 60′s spy phenomena.

Today’s find adds even more to the archives…

So i found this copy of Mark Ronson and the Business Intl’s Record Collection in-store after being indecisive about purchasing it online for a significant period of time.  The LP was released in 2010 and this copy is the first issue.  One of my favorite things about it is the song titled The Bike Song.  It reminds me and i hope you too, of the great benefit and excitement that biking brings to young or even mature life.  I feel like it embraces the spirit of our generation, especially here in the United States, and perhaps resounds more with the baby boomer generation in the sense that it is a call to those who will never grow old.  Record Collection, which was a collaboration between Simon LeBon (thus the Duran Duran sounding voice) and Mark Ronson also brings to mind other epic songs, as it praises the beauty of record collecting as a hobby for any generation.  After all, what would music archives be without a record collection?

 

David Bowie: Heroes

I found this Bowie goodness after foolishly failing to capitalize on several opportunities to purchase a copy.  Nevertheless it was worth the wait and  I can honestly say that this album piqued my interest because it is one of the albums produced with Brian Eno, who was instrumental in so many unique sounds of the 70′s and beyond.

This particular copy is the second issue of the album, which was originally released in 1977.  Heroes, The title song, was also in a recent film titled “Moulin Rouge” although it was sung by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.  Despite the critical acclaim of Heroes, the album is worth listening to as a whole for how it transitions from rock and roll to space-age wanderings and then back again.  I would not compare it to any of Bowie’s previous albums, as that would be a fallacy in itself since his music and messages never fit under one category.

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Christopher Fox