FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Reviewing what we already know -the second U.S trailer for Skyfall http://www.sonypictures.com/previews/movies/skyfall/clips/5074/ "Some men are coming to kill us. We're going to kill them first." Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes, opens in U.K. cinemas October 26th and in U.S. theaters November 9th, and as everyone has known for months because it's the worst-kept 'secret' of the year, Adele will besinging the new title song. As I've mentioned in my previous posts about this film, Skyfall isthe first 007 film to be only filmed inIMAX.
jamesbond007 video: Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe on their roles in new 007 film, Skyfall. Uploaded September 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/diFTdVBYISg M: "Think on your sins."
jamesbond007 video: Skyfall director Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig talk about the role of the London locations to show the essential Britishness of James Bond by showing real but iconic places he would frequent, but from unusal and perhaps even menacing perspectives. Uploaded August 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/dl218z68iC4
jamesbond007 video: On the set in Turkey for the shooting of the opening sequences of the film that sets up the premise. Uploaded September 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/sYEpEseJl9U
See the studio stage here, including a 360 view, at:
amc video: Talked About Scenes - Episode 513 of Mad Men: Are You Alone? June 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/FH9iSl04rZo
Ending the Season 5 finale of "Mad Men" with Nancy Sinatra singing "You Only Live Twice" was sheer genius!; #YOLT
You know why that's so if you know about Don Draper's true identity.
Title sequence of "You Only Live Twice" with Nancy Sinatra singing title song. http://youtu.be/hcIl_6amBvU The iconic song was composed by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse.
Earlier in the episode in what is now 1967, Don Draper goes to a Manhattan movie theater to see a matinee performance of the the new 007 spoof, "Casino Royale," starring Peter Sellers, David Niven Orson Welles, Ursula Andress andWoody Allen. On an island of millions, whom do you think Don finds already sitting there in the theater by her lonesome as the film's score is playing, when she ought to be in her office at her new job at another advertising agency working on the women's cigarette account she was just assigned? Yes, none other than Don DraperprotégéPeggy Olson.
Casino Royale (1967) - opening credits. Music composed by Burt Bachrach, performed by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. http://youtu.be/SSEmKXzpQMQ
That film is also known for the Oscar Best Song-nominee, The Look of Love byBurt Bachrach and Hal David, sung by Dusty Springfield in the film.
It lost to Talk to the Animals from Doctor Dolittle, which was composed by -wait for it- You Only Live Twice co-composer Leslie Bricusse
The first teaser trailer for the new James Bond film, Skyfall, was released today to set the mood for the millions of eager 007 fans around the world. May 21, 2012.http://youtu.be/xJ4dAY3DW4c
"Some men are coming to kill us. We're going to kill them first."
Skyfall, the first 007 film to be only filmed inIMAX, opens in the U.K. on October 26th and in the U.S. on November 9th, the first Friday after the election. Directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris. And yes, once upon a time, the amazing Rachel Weisz dated Mendes for three years before breaking-up in 2002; she's now married to Craig since last year's surprise wedding.
Over 284,000 people have already seen this teaser within the first 12 hours it's been online...
SVT video: Freddie Wadling - You Only Live Twice (Live Go'Kväll 2011) December 14, 2011. http://youtu.be/LN_ISU_wMQY
You Only Live Twice -Sometimes when you least expect it, from the most unlikely of sources, comes something to smile about: Freddie Wadling with Fläskkvartetten on SVT's Go'kväll and Skavlan.
At 46:35 below, the title song from the 1967 James Bond/007 film "You Only Live Twice," by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, originally sung by Nancy Sinatra, here with vocals by Freddie Wadling and music by Fläskkvartetten
SVT video: Skavlan, Episode 13 of 13, Christmas Special
As always, watch for the ingenious camera dissolve from the blood on the mattress to the red that forms the red disk that represents the rising sun on the Japanese flag, Hinomaru.
Definitely among the three best opening-credit sequences of any Bond film, along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me.
Alyona & Co. - Whether "From Russia with Love" or "From Russia with Lust," the world's fascination with Russian women shows no end in sight
Almost 50 years after the worldwide release of "From Russia with Love," the second of the James Bond films -and one of my two personal favorites- despite all the 007 films that have come and gone and become part of our everyday experience and pop culture, despite all the beautiful actresses who've played their parts to the hilt to advance the narrative of the world's favorite espionage agent, the number-one-rated all-time "Bond woman" among James Bond fans remains the first Russian femme fatale, Tatiana Romanova.
Or, rather, the faux Russian, since actress Daniela Bianchiwas actually Italian.
No matter!
She was Russian in the film!
We love us our Russian femme fatales!
Above, an amateur remakeof the trailer for "From Russia With Love" and one of the better ones you'll find on YouTube, too.
Before there was a Tatiana Romanova to distract MI6's James Bond from the task at hand of preventing the Russians from getting their hands on high-tech gadgets, there were other Russian femme fatales of one sort or another, some stoic and others smoldering.
There was director Ernst Lubitsch's 1939 romantic comedy "Ninotchka" starring Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo -"Garbo laughs" was part of the film's famous marketing campaign.Garbo's the stoic visiting Russian official who meets dignified schemer Douglas in Paris and whose personality evolves as she comes to spend time with him.
Moral of the story, as always, is that 'Opposites attract.'
Eventually.
Ninotchka - 1939 (Original trailer)
Ninotschka - Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo's characters meet for the first time and it's far from instant attraction, as she makes clear her disdain for the West.
Then there was smoldering Russian streetcar driver Theodore (Hedy Lamarr) slightly skewing newspaperman Clark Gable's view of Russia in King Vidor's film "Madame X" a year later in 1940. Her he likes, Russia, not so much.
Irina Rodnina, the female Russian pairs figure skater who, along with partner Aleksandr Zaitsev, were the most dominant pair in the world, and the template for future generations of a certain refined Russian figure skating style that was pure magic and radiance on the ice.
Above, a screen grab I did of Alyona Wednesday night on her show, talking about the U.S. economy with a guest.
I didn't know that amazing fact until THIS summer!
It's actually hard for me to look at her the same way knowing that information.
This is the fourth post of mine that has mentioned RT'sAlyona Minkovski, and my last post on her in April was one of the five most-popular posts since the blog was born in early 2007:
1. APRIL 22, 2011
Beguiling Alyona Minkovski zeroes-in on TIME's "100" list and fillets some particularly dubious celebs we're supposed to admire -but DON'T!
To close this Russian-centric tangent, I've got the Russian-language version video of Belarus-born Norwegian singer/violinist extraordinaire and 2009 Eurovision Song winner Alexander Rybak's "Europe's Skies," one of the handful of go-to catchy songs I've been singing and humming -a lot- in the car this year when stuck in traffic.
I prefer the English-language version because I've heard it so many times, but this one is okay, too.
Александр Рыбак - Небеса Европы (Русская версия)
Alexander Rybak - "Europe's Skies" (Russian version)
Fascinating Channel 4 News video with reporter Jonathan Rugman on the evolving history of MI6, the British Special Intelligence Services, including an interview with former MI6 "C" Sir John Scarlett. For the first time since its creation in the run-up to the First World War, Britain's secret intelligence service has allowed its secrets to be unveiled in an official history covering its first 40 years. Jonathan Rugman reports. This segment is ten minutes and 23 seconds.
Here's one of those many posts in Blogger Draft I was talking about earlier today that were just lingering on life-support, a fascinating report from late September that came on the heels of some very troubling news for MI6, with the death of an employee under very mysterious circumstances.
Here's the story from three weeks ago on the historic public appearance on TV by currentMI6 "C" Sir John Sawers, the first public speech by a sitting Chief.
Sir John Sawers: profile of MI6 chiefDescribed as a "smooth operator" and likened to Pierce Brosnan's portrayal of James Bond Sir John Sawers took up the post of head of MI6, known as "C", in November 2009.By Laura Roberts 10:22AM BST 28 Oct 2010
If you don't recognize the tune at the beginning of this next video, being hummed by an animated early 1940's John Bull, followed by his trusty bull dog, it's the same one that's instantly recognizable by anyone of a certain age who ever listened to BBC Radio'sWorld Service.
In my case, that was for years via my Radio Shack short-wave radio while studying at Indiana University in Bloomington, from 1979-'83, especially on weekend mornings, and more recently, digitally from Washington, D.C., Arlington County, VA and South Florida.
My recollection is that the tune was played after the time chirp and the intonation, "This is London," just before the news broadcasts began.
British WW2 Public Information Films - Collection Three, Part 1 of 3.
I previously mentioned it a few years ago on my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, soon to be revamped, but since many of you readers never saw that in the first place, I'll just mention here by way of circumstance that my family -and certain of my friend's relatives- have worked for U.S. intelligence agencies or in intelligence operations since George Washington was a Continental general fighting the British.
Here's a video tidbit that dovetails with the above stories.
