Stephen Colbert has won some totally meaningless award. But if it makes him happy, I won’t knock it.
Month: March 2007
More James Bond Music
Posting the Goldfinger theme put me in a James Bond mood. On the audio player is the classic James Bond theme by Monty Norman (disputed by John Barry), taken from the same LP mentioned previously. For me this just edges out Henry Mancini’s famous theme for Peter Gunn.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/JamesBond.mp3]
The most adult and, I think, best James Bond movie is From Russia With Love. Some of the credit for that goes to the presence of the stunning Daniela Bianchi, who was only 20 when the movie was filmed.
Bianchi’s English wasn’t the best, so her voice was dubbed by the English stage actress Barbara Jefford. But no matter. Over 30 years before that, Hitchcock had Joan Barry dub the voice of German actress Anny Ondra, for Blackmail, the first talkie in England.
The From Russia With Love theme song was sung by Matt Monro. A couple of years later they probably would have given this track to Andy Williams to record.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/FromRussia.mp3]When the movie Thunderball was being released, the Aston-Martin DB5 that had been been introduced in Goldfinger made an appearance at the Caldor in Norwalk CT. Caldor, a defunct discount chain store, was headquartered in Norwalk. I’m not much of a car person, but that is one beautiful piece of machinery, and I made my father take me back for a second viewing.
Here’s another often-heard Bond piece of music. It’s called simply “007”.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/007.mp3]Robinson Crusoe on Mars – 4
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/RCOM4.flv 400 175]
Here is the last half-hour of Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Director Byron Haskin can be heard at the end saying, “My God! A voice from Mars!”
An Inconvenient Truth
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAR07/AlGore.flv 425 240]
Does Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth live up to the hype? Well, y’know, now that I’ve seen it I don’t think the buzz can be called hype.
I’ll put it this way. Nothing I heard four years ago from the Bush administration about the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was convincing, let alone compelling. Not a single word of any of it rang true.
But everything in “An Inconvenient Truth” is compelling. There are a few moments when the story is about Al Gore, but they always lead back to the topic of global warming.
Frankly, I was doubtful that Al Gore, the stuffed shirt, could come across as personable and persuasive as I had been told he is in An Inconvenient Truth. But he pulls it off masterfully, and George Bush looks positively pitiful by comparison.
Cousin Brucie on WABC Saturday Night Oldies
Tonight I happened to catch a few minutes of the legendary disk jockey Bruce Morrow on WABC’s Saturday Night Oldies with Mark Simone. Cousin Brucie talks about meeting the Beatles.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/CousinBrucie.mp3]
If you haven’t checked out my tribute to New York radio in the 60’s, click here. The picture above of Bruce Morrow interviewing the Beatles in 1965 is amusing, because the boys appeared bored and disinterested. Maybe they were stoned. Or perhaps they’d had their fill of New York DJ’s. Murray “The K” Kaufman had leveraged his contact with The Beatles during their first visit to shamelessly further his own career.
Another Harley Rider
OK, I admit it. The real reason I posted “Jesus Rides a Harley” was that I needed an antidote to seeing Ghost Rider last weekend with my son Eric and my old friend Morris. Is it as bad as Ang Lee’s Hulk movie? Probably not, but it sure isn’t much better.