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Thank you so much @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 for a whopper of a post. It's so true how amazing it is that all 6 Bond actors are still with us to this day. It's so important to be grateful for that, and Christmas is the best time of all to reflect on the positive aspects in life. Thank you for this beautiful reminder.
@BondJasonBond006, you can put me down for the 15th if it's still available.
Free dates available.
:) 27th to 31st
Calendar days chosen by members:
December 1st: @BondJasonBond006
December 2nd: @ToTheRight
December 3rd: @Thunderfinger
December 4th: @4EverBonded
December 5th: @PropertyOfALady
December 6th: @TR007
December 7th: @ggl007
December 8th: @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
December 9th: @Major_Boothroyd
December 10th: @Murdock
December 11th: @4EverBonded
December 12th: @jake24
December 13th: @fire_and_ice
December 14th: @Shark_0f_Largo
December 15th: @Some_Kind_Of_Hero
December 16th: @Major_Boothroyd
December 17th: @ggl007
December 18th: @Gustav_Graves
December 19th: @Dragonpol
December 20th: @PropertyOfALady
December 21st: @Shark_0f_Largo
December 22nd: @CraigMooreOHMSS
December 23rd: @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
December 24th: @BondJasonBond006
December 25th: @TR007
December 26th: @BeatlesSansEarmuffs
December 27th:
December 28th:
December 29th: @MajorDSmythe
December 30th:
New Year's Eve:
On to @Major_Boothroyd!
The ninth day of the Bond advent calendar and allow me some self-indulgence with this post my fellow double-00s because the 9th of December happens to my birthday. Today I'm 42 years old and if you're like me you measure years in Bond films. Similar to the Chinese Zodiac - anyone born from 1962 onwards gets a Bond film they are born in (or close to...maybe you're born in 1970? So you can choose - are you an OHMSS baby or a DAF baby?) And for those older - you could go by Fleming books titles?
Well - I'm The Year of The Man With The Golden Gun.
1983: As an eighties kid I was basically like the kids from Stranger Things - raised on Star Wars, Indiana Jones, adventure books & TV shows and Dungeons and Dragons. At this time I was vaguely aware of Bond....but it didn't mean anything to me.
1985: Two years later and A View To A Kill was in my consciousness for three reasons -
1.) Grace Jones on the publicity (Pull Up To The Bumper was huge as was Slave to the Rhythm and then she did that slow talk on Arcadia's only hit song 'Election Day' - the splinter band of Duran Duran - just after they had done A View To A Kill.)
2.) The ZX Spectrum 48k game by Domark - A View To A Kill. Which is pretty incoherent and obviously cheap and nasty by today's standards...but my brother had a pull out poster from a computer magazine called 'Crash'. He had it on his wall and it was the classic golden gate bridge movie poster cover. That always fascinated me - especially the physics of Bond in a tuxedo standing on the golden gate bridge with Stacey in heels next to him - I was always worried they'd slip off. Here is the gameplay plus intro for the game...(this on the Commodre 64 system)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OIWwTpi-x4U
3.) The Duran Duran title song and accompanying video. All filmed around the Eiffel Tower with Bond sequences intercut. There was almost no bigger band on the planet around 83-85. And in many ways this was their apex.
So I was aware of Bond - but I didn't know the context or history of it. It always seemed more adult to me. He was wearing a tuxedo macking on ladies - where as my heroes wielded lightsabers and bull whips.
In 1987 that changed...
Here I was a twelve year old sitting at home one evening watching TV and 'Happy Anniversary 007' appeared. The moment I watched the opening titles accompanied by Bill Conti's track 'Submarine' I was entranced. All these films, all these moments I had never seen or even knew existed. Roger Moore presented the show and presented me with snapshots of gadgets, car chases and one-liners. It was tantalising - showing Bond put into a coffin in a montage and being put into a cremation chamber - but not showing how he escaped. A red head woman had Bond tied to a chair and was threatening to cut his skin off then a second later Bond was in bed and a woman who he had just been kissing pressed a button and he was sprung backwards and men raced in shooting the wall to pieces. How did he get out of these situations? I had to know.
The last three minutes of the show were dedicated to the 'new' 007 - Timothy Dalton smashed through a brick wall in a jeep, punching a villain, activated his parachute and rushed into the air from out the back of the vehicle seconds before it exploded. As I was catching my breath he landed on a boat, back flipped off the awning and was saying his name before being propositioned by a woman. That was mesmerizing and i was never to be the same again. I couldn't wait to see the film and devour everything I could about Bond.
In my small town, in my small country in 1987 you couldn't get Bond films on VHS. So the key to my cinematic obsession - considering the absence of their physical availability was one book - a book that was my bible...Sally Hibbin's 'The Official James Bond 007 Movie Book'
It went through every Bond film from 62-87. The Connery years popped out - especially his first four adventures. They looked classy, romantic, exotic and edgy. I could already tell which Bond films I liked the look of. Being 'authorised', the book does not cast a critical eye over the series. Some wording is euphemistic however such as moonraker being described as 'being in step with its times'. It also makes the formula clear - each film has its categories of plot, Bond girl, gadgets, the victim, the villains.But it was the wonderful colour photos and vivid descriptions that captured my imagination.
This book was given to me just three weeks before I finally saw The Living Daylights - on what became a custom my sister and I biked down to our local cinema on New Year's Day. She was only eight years old at the time and I had just turned thirteen. Watching the film was one of only a couple of transformative experiences of my life in the cinema (the other significant one was watching The Empire Strikes Back at age six and being completely transported to the point where I thought it was real) but The Living Daylights was the beginning of seeing every Bond film at the cinema.
So here I sit on December 9th - reminiscing to 29 years ago to the day - when I got my hands on The Official James Bond 007 Movie Book. A book I read literally over a hundred times. Going back and forth on it. I wrote an English assignment the next year on James Bond and used the book as a basis of my research. There are much better books on Bond - Benson's and even steve jay Ruben's which I discovered in 1989 helped illuminate the master spy's world - but there is something magical about Hibbin's book that transports me to that time and wonderment I felt as I went from 12 to 13 - from child to teenager - from neophyte to acolyte of Bond.
(The TLD trailer for old time's sake - I pretty much watch this every year around my birthday as a treat!)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IXAVKJTIM1E
Your memories are reallly similar to mine, but just some miles away... The 25th Anniversary was something really great. I asked myself if the 50th has been as big and important to some kids everywhere... Frankly, I doubt it.
@ggl007 - yes! When I read your post I thought the same thing. Very similar to my experience - great to think of someone going through a similar discovery as me all those years ago! I always loved the exotic and cool atmosphere of the 60s bonds - it looked so stylish even to an eighties kid like me. And while you may be right - there may not be the same response in 2012 - I like to think that there were 12 year old kids swept up in the 50th anniversary and went back and discovered all the films. The first twenty five years delivered 15 films the second 25 yielded only eight.
@BondJasonBond006 - I'm proud of my third nipple! Were you born in a circus too? Father the ringmaster and mother a snake charmer?
@Thunderfinger - I don't feel a day over 94! Speaking of which...will we ever see a birthday in a Bond film. Not sure if we have (other than moneypenny saying hers was last week in SP)
Have loved the advent surprises on here...looking forward to the next gift from @Murdock !
I put you in the list above, thank you for participating.
@Major_Boothroyd I hope I'm not to late, happy Birthday to you! Wonderful contribution your post!
:)) :)) :))
I'm more of the Bruce Lee-kind (well, sort of) ;) :D
Okay I guess it's time for a little backstory on myself and how I came into Bond fandom. It was around Christmas of 1997 when I was first introduced to James Bond via the GoldenEye 64 video game. Not long after My dad rented GoldenEye the film for us to watch together. I was 6 years old at the time and my mind was not expecting the masterpiece I was about to watch. As most of you may know, most Bond VHS tapes from the 90's came with this trailer advertising the entire series. And boy did it whet my appetite.
Then after seeing trailers for the movies Wild Bill with Jeff Bridges, Richard the III with Sir Ian McKellen, Get Shorty with John Travolta and Kingpin with Woody Harrelson I was soon about to feast my eyes on the Bond film that has been my #1 since seeing it. The first thing that obviously resonated with me was the gunbarrel sequence. The game had one but I didn't really know what it meant but seeing it in the film blew my mind. I didn't know Games and movies shared similarities already I was getting nostalgic and giddy. Eric Serra's music for the Gunbarrel set the tone. I loved it. I've never heard electronic music like that before and those high pitched electronic sound effects just sounded so cool to me. (Decades later I would learn that it was a remixed sample taken from Goldfinger's gunbarrel music.) As I was watching the movie I was a little disappointed the first part of the Dam from the game wasn't shown nor guard towers on the dam itself weren't there. That's before I realized that games based on movies wouldn't be 100% accurate. But it didn't bother me. I was enjoying the film. The entire PTS was so enjoyable and fun. It was great seeing the characters in the film rather than as the rather blocky 3D models that represent them in the game. I've seen movies in the past but I was just so blown away by it. A movie has never effected me like GoldenEye did. It was a wonderful experience. Little did I know there were so many more Bond movies to watch. Though I didn't get around to seeing many of the rest of them until quite a few years down the road.
GoldenEye the film really sparked my love of Bond and also my love of film music. It wasn't until around 2008 that I learned the film scores were available to own. I soon got them one by one starting with GoldenEye and was so happy to listen to my favorite Bond music again by itself. Outside of watching the films I spend a lot of my time listening to the music of Bond. It's my second favorite aspect of Bond. As a child it was sometime difficult to follow the plot of Bond films so I wouldn't always pay attention to the story but the music really grabbed my attention. It would usually be so epic and grand. It wasn't until around 2003 or 2004 when I saw OHMSS for the first time and heard the theme for it that my ears were blown away with an awesome Bond tune. John Barry, David Arnold and some of the other Bond composers we've had over the years and the music they've composed really brought joy and wonder to me. The music of Bond heavily inspires me creatively. I'm so familiar with and knowledgeable of Bond Music that if I randomly heard it somewhere outside of a Bond film I could instantly point out and tell you the track name and film or game it came from.
Not only did GoldenEye get me into Bond movies, Bond/Film music in general but it got me fascinated with the Gadgets he used. In the GoldenEye game, I loved using the Laser Watch and Remote Mine gadgets. There are so many Bond gadgets that I love and would love to own. And as it just so happens, I own a few Bond replicas and my favorite of all from GoldenEye. The remote mines.
I've always had a fascination with props used in film. My earliest memory of wanting a prop of some kind was the Shrink Ray from the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids. To me that was one of the coolest devices I saw in a movie. Well as I got older and started collecting various odds and ends, I ended up building my own! It can project a spot on the moon. Or at closer range make you an inch tall. :))
Back to GoldenEye and Bond props. I found out that the remote mines used in the film were made from modifying PC computer joystick. At first I thought it was a joke but It's true. They were made from Joysticks.
As Bond said after he figured out Alec's plan."Ingenious" I thought to myself. So I searched for some on Ebay and bought me a couple then when they arrived I went to work. My finished mines in the picture above will forever be special to me since it was the last project my father and I worked on before he passed away. He's the one who got me into Bond. GoldenEye is not only my favorite Bond film but it was also my dad's. Pierce was also his favorite Bond. We watched every Bond film in the theaters from The World is Not Enough to Skyfall and it's been a wonderful tradition for us. Bond was the biggest common interest we Both shared and I will forever cherish that. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will be posting more things later throughout the day but I wanted to get things started. :)
By the way, I love all the ads with scenes from Bond films.
Congratulations for your prop work: they look really amazing.
I know he went to see OP and NSNA with me but I can hardly remember anything except Octopussy herself :) who made quite an impression.
With AVTAK it was only Duran Duran and the title sequence I was really interested in.
In 1987 my father chose the movies I was allowed to see, he chose wisely and let me see Lethal Weapon, The Living Daylights, Dirty Dancing.
TLD had the most important effect on me. I wanted to be Daltonbond. I knew I would parachute one day, I would say things like "better make that two", I would drink Martini, drive fancy cars, have a blonde beside me idolising me, being a superspy.
While I didn't get to be a spy, I did make it to para-scout, the thing I'm most proud of in my life.
Lethal Weapon had but one effect on me. My body showed me that I was attracted to Mel, it was like a fever.
Dirty Dancing had the effect that I began researching 50's and 60's music, I loved the songs of DD so much I went to see the film 17 times over a 1 1/2 year period, that was the duration of the film being shown at cinemas!!
And it was my father who told me that he believed in me and that he knew that I would realise my dreams and do great things as an army man.
He also had this one most important talk with me after Lethal Weapon. That I had to listen to my heart, that I can love anybody, no matter which sex, skin colour or nationality or age. That he would always be there for me if I had questions or were unsure about things.
And he bought me tons of records from the 50's and 60's.
I miss my father. It hurts, especially this year, because I need his guidance. Like many of you I lost him relatively early, in 1998, to the most cruel form of Leukemia which made him a shadow of himself within weeks and carried him off.
Christmas is a time for remembrance and reflection. It hurts but I sure will think of him, my brother and my sister. I will remember the good times and how important they were in my life. It will make me sad but happy at the same time, knowing my father and especially my brother helped me to become the person I am.
I will look at my 6 1/2 year old daughter and see once again how alike she is in character to my little brother. The older she gets, the more evident it becomes. And I couldn't be happier about it, because my brother was an angel, the kindest person with the purest heart, always knowing what is best for others and what has to be done or said.
*********
@Murdock
Thank you for your post. I love those hand-made props and you are so gifted being able to do such things. And hey, they look like the real thing! Great, great work.
Thankfully this year is also special because I finally tracked down Thunderball on Special Edition DVD so now I have all of those.
It's amazing just how much Bond has really shaped my life and given me my enjoyment of a lot of things.
This year I was able to find a really great PPK replica. I had a BB gun and Airsoft version though there was something off about both of them. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but once I got my Denix non firing replica It felt right. It's a great replica and of course the day I got it I already went to work on it. I took a hammer and knocked the orange barrel plug out of it from the inside and made a silencer for it out of a piece of table leg left over from my shrink ray project. Using a little bit of duct tape I wrapped it around the screw that fit perfectly down the barrel and it holds snugly. It's the simple projects I love the most and now I have the definitive PPK replica. If I have any home intruders I'll gladly tell them to "SIT DOWN!" Craig style. :))
Lastly in the prop department I have my very own Spectre ring. It's a Chinese knockoff I got for $1.27 but oh so worth it. Unfortunately they only sold it to size 12 ring size. I'm a 14 yet when I finally got it in the mail it fit perfectly. Not too tight and not too loose. Hinx must have dealt with the seller. It's a great little ring and one of my new favorite Bond props. Once I've gathered the right parts I plan on making a Moonraker laser replica out of a Toy Uzi I had as a kid. That's going to be a fun project.
For me Bond is like a gift that keeps on giving. It's been a thrill. He's brought out my creative side so with that, Here I am channeling my inner Brosnan. ;)