Picked up my copy of the new James Bond novel Devil May Care on Wednesday and as I bury myself in it's pages I started ranking my favorite original Bond novels:
The book covers below are from Penguin UK's line of forthcoming reissues of the Ian Fleming hardcover novels:
10. The Spy Who Loved Me
9. Thunderball
8. Live and Let Die
7. Diamonds Are Forever
6. Goldfinger
5. Moonraker
4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Casino Royale
2. You Only Live Twice
1. From Russia With Love
I'm starting to really worry about LOST.
LOST is one of my favorite TV shows, but after tonight's season finale (and last new episode of 2008!) I'm starting to get annoyed. The questions raised to questions answered ratio is plummeting and with 38 episodes shouldn't we, the loyal fans, be getting SOME answers?
OK, so we know the circumstances around the Oceanic 6's homecoming, but we still don't know why the O6 feel it necessary to lie to the world population other than "to keep those we left behind safe." WHAT? The ones left behind are hidden away on an island that can be moved at will. No one knows where there people are in the first place.
OK, so we know why Ben appeared in a Tunisian desert in a parka, with a wounded arm, expelling frosty breath...and we know when he moved the island, he also moved forward in time because when he arrives in Tunisia he sees Sayid on the TV...why does this revelation leave me feeling so meh?
and OK, we know (ish) how Jin died. Although, does anyone really think Jin is dead? Don't you think we can't really be denied another emotional reunion like we got tonight between Desmond and Penny. But we don't know why Michael saw Christian Shephard right before the explosion - but I do assume it has something to do with why Claire saw him shortly after her house was bombed by the mercenaries.
and GREAT, we know Locke is in the coffin, and that apparently he inherited Ben's penchant for aliases...so now we get to mull all summer and fall about how Locke died and how, in some freaky Weekend at Bernie's way, the O6 is going to return him to the island.
I was really hoping my theory about the coffin being filled with a total stranger would prove true when we found out about Jeremy Bentham. My thought was that either Bentham would turn out to be a conspiracy crazed loon bent on proving that the O6 were lying about their story to the press or that Bentham would turn out to be a character with a tie to someone on Flight 815 that never quite believed all but 8 members of the flight died on impact and was determined to prove their loved one was still out there somewhere.
My theory held that it might have been Mike Walton, Ana Lucia's ex-partner, in that coffin. Big Mike was clearly in love with Ana (as evidenced in the season 4 premiere when he was interrogating Hurley.) After that creepy interrogation Mike would be convinced that there was more to Hurley's story and started digging. When he got close to the truth, Ben would dispatch Sayid to kill Mike. No one but Jack would want to go to the funeral because to Kate, Sun, Hurley and Sayid he was nothing but a thorn in their side. Jack would go, because he was hoping Mike would discover what they did, discover all about the island, and be the key to going "baaaack." But alas, I'm just spinning my wheels.
And so now the countdown is on to the series finale. Let's just hope season 5 sheds more light on answering all the dangling questions before my patience wears thin.
Here's a swank recap of all the season 4 flash-forwards in chronological order:
When I first heard the Ting Ting's "That's Not My Name" in late 2007 I knew this pair was going to be special. I can't get enough of this album. It's just fun, peppy, upfeat, feel good music. Barely a ballad anywhere to be found and packed with irreverent lyrics and quirky subject matter, We Started Nothing is the perfect album to listen to as summer begins.
I have a feeling all of these tracks will wind up on this blog sooner or later. I picked "Shut Up and Let Me Go" to post first because of it's prominence on the iTunes commercials. It's not to say that all iTunes songs deserve to be super-hits, but I think this one does.
I suspect the Ting Tings put on a great live show. I'll let you know after I see them at Bowery on June 18th. Tickets still available - join me?
1. Great DJRilo Kiley - Silver Lining
click here to be taken to the song
Rilo Kiley got a lot of flack in my circle of friends for putting out a CD like Under the Blacklight, but the more I thought about it, the more I think we were wrong. Since the release of More Adventurous I have been in love with Jenny Lewis’s mix of indie rock and alt. country and the dainty, cute, deeply longing tone in her voice. I went back and researched the band’s first two albums, and loved each of them equally. When UTB was released I was excited for new material, but worried that since the album had been recorded as the first in a deal with Warner Brothers, that it was going to be glossy, overproduced major label crap.
…and I was half right.
The album is definitely an overproduced mess - but the heart and soul of what made Rilo
Kiley my favorite indie band in the land was still there. Jenny’s ability to write quirky, almost childlike lyrics that deal with real adult situations, Blake’s sexy, brooding guitar, and the band’s ability to write music that makes you want to smile and sometimes cry at the same time is still front and center.
I stand by my belief that if this had been released on Barsuk or Saddle Creek it would sound more “indie” or more “rilo” but ultimately they were trying to get their music out to a larger audience and took their tunes to a major…so what? As long as they don’t make another song like “Moneymaker” they’re still alright by me.
Watch the video (and look for Blake's cute ass sitting on top of Jenny's piano...awww)
if you are Rilo Kiley (whoa!) or their people and you want the track taken down, just let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige.
These United States - First Sight
click here to be taken to the song
I have no idea how I first found out Washington, DC’s These United States, but I have been slightly obsessed with them ever since. The quick singing, yet easy to understand lyrics of “First Sight” will definitely be on every mix I make all summer long. Jesse Elliott is a talented songwriter, who crafts each song more like a story that you want to listen to over and over to make sure you’re not missing a single inflection along the way. I am clearly not the only one to have fallen for Elliott as he recuited over 30 area musicians to help him record the album from which “First Sight” is the title track, A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden. I missed their last NYC show, and they’re spending June in the United Kingdom, including playing sets at the Glastonbury Festival (WISH i was going!) but I’ll be waiting right here for them to return.
Check the lyrics for “First Sight” - no chorus (i LIVE FOR a great hook) and yet I’m addicited to every word:
“With her mouth making movements to introduce thoughts, I sat. Deafened by trust on the sofa across, quietly calculating the logistics of lust – of when unspoken things could then happen between us. And once all those were done, and we’d got through to love, we would shoot from the hip, reacting off of the cuff. Splitting up at the fork when the going got rough, with a plan for a point to rejoin on the road further.
Up our windows thin, where the ice carved its flowers, I would hold her, and let the wind beat back those hours. And then swaying in subway trains, clutching her dress, dependent on her balance. The walls were useless. While it’s alright to hold tight, please don’t try to hold on; because it’s a home run we hit, love, as it’s going. And gone. But then the world turned so fast it was astoundingly still.
And it must have been that moment made of midnight on the hill, right when the cataracts-ed alley cat spat back at the moon, thrown out into the nighttime. Nine lifetimes too soon, we had come such a ways and knew just what he meant.
There’s a picture of the three of us at the gate to the Garden of Eden.
You can get home, but you can’t get in; locks are like longing, an ever-changing thing. And keys are just clouds made of metal and spark. We knew exactly who we were, and yet couldn’t say quite who we still are. I saw it all happening in one grand epic sweep. From that first sight, we wouldn’t get to sleep for a week. Generations would follow the course that we’d charted.
From the sofa across, I couldn’t wait to get started.” First Sight
if you are These United States (whoa!) or their people and you want the track taken down, just let me know and I'll be happy to oblige.
I am going to write about a lot of TV shows on here…that’s a given - ask anyone that knows me, but I’m start with Samantha Who? I have loved Christina Applegate since Married…With Children but I have to say, I think this is the best roll she’s ever played. For those who haven’t seen it (lame) its the story of a woman, Sam, who wakes up from a coma and has no recollection of her life before the accident that put her there. During the episode new Samantha quests to better herself and erase people’s recollections of her as “bad Sam.” “Bad Sam” is a freakin’ riot and sometimes I wish there was more of her.
Jean Smart plays Sam’s mother and is fantastically cast as the mother who is trying to use her daughter’s attempt at rehabilitation to guilt her daughter into spending more time with her.
Sam’s got two best friends Andrea (pronounced Ahn-dree-ah) from her old life and Dina, from her childhood. Dina the fantastically neurotic and insecure friend is played by Melissa McCarthy and Andrea, the boozy, selfish and a little slutty friend played is by Jennifer Esposito.
The comedic timing between these 4 ladies is impeccable. It’s currently in repeats on Tuesday nights at 9 on ABC. The second season will premiere on the fall on Mondays at 9:30.
I also want to give special props to AMC’s 60’s advertising drama Mad Men. This show was easily my favorite show from 2007. It was the definition of “appointment viewing” for me last summer. Jon Hamm, who plays advertising exec Don Draper, won the Golden Globe for Best Actor this past January and is a shoe-in for an Emmy nomination.
John Slattery plays the typical misogynistic 60s man to the hilt. He cheats on his wife with his secretary, smokes too much, drinks all day at work and chases any skit he’s near. Come to think of it, most of the men on the show do - its the norm. With Vincent Kartheiser’s snivelly suck-up Pete Campbell, that streak of stepping out on the missus catches up to him in the season finale and sets up what is bound to a be a pivotal plot point in season 2.
The three ladies on the show, Elizabeth Moss (Peggy), January Jones (Betty) and Christina Hendricks (Joan) are all vastly different characters - Peggy’s the shy, naive secretary who discovers along the way that since she’s never going to be the va-va-va-voom vamp Joan is, she’s got to leave her mark in the office another way and actually becomes the first woman to (sort of) infiltrate the boy’s club of Sterling-Cooper Advertising. Joan is the “mother hen” secretary at S-C whose been sleeping with the boss, but who is also deeply insecure after being kept as a mistress for so long . She plays the roll with such subtle sadness one minute and such sexual magnetism the next that, for me, she became a scene stealer every time she graced the screen. January Jones is a superstar in the making as Don’s wife Betty who feels the sting of being a neglected wife and mother. Don never comes home, sleeps around, snaps at her for being insecure and even forces her to see a shrink because he thinks something is wrong with her for being so sensitive when she just wants to spend time with her husband. She wears the mask of perfect housewife, but often voices her displeasure to other housewives, but rarely to Don, except in a few rare cases when she just can’t take it anymore and speaks out of turn. She always winds up apologizing even when she’s 100% correct! She’s gorgeous to watch, always impeccably dressed (which comes from her past as a model,) and plays the roll with just a touch of entitlement and snobbery.
The show should be replaying on AMC but, sadly it is not. Season 1 will be out on DVD (and on my book shelf) on July 1st. Look at the swank packaging:
Sam Sparro - Black & Gold
click here to be taken to the song
I have been listening to this song pretty much non stop all weekend. It just makes me want to dance and gets me excited that Summer is here. Sam's an Aussie by birth but has split time between the UK and the US. His self titled debut album is out now in the UK where this song peaked at #2 on the charts. He's a funky mix of electro & soul. I hear Seal, Maxwell, Marc Broussard. Check out his MySpace to hear more: www.myspace.com/samsparro
and he's openly gay and rapidly shooting towards the top of my fantasy top 10. Fuckin' look at that...
if you are Sam Sparro (whoa!) or his people and you want the track taken down, just let me know and I'll be happy to oblige.
With the shocking retirement of Justine Henin just a few weeks before what was to be her potential 4th championship in a row, the field is now wide open for the ladies crown. Here are my thoughts on the ladies final 4.
dinara SAFINA.
I expect big things from Dinara in '08. I've had my eye on her for a while as she has climbed the rankings and I think this is her year. Last week she won her first teir I event, and in the process beat Elena Dementieva, Serena Williams and became the answer to a trivia question by being the last player to beat Justine Henin.
I should mention that Safina's advancing to the semis takes our Maria Sharapova, the new number 1 ranked player. Sharapova only needs the French to seal her career grand slam, but clay is not a good surface for Maria and I think she'll fall a little short.
svetlana KUZNETSOVA.
There are a lot of talented young players in Svet's quarter, but she's a total badass and a former finalist, so I'm giving her the edge here over her young competition. Upset minded fans should be careful of Agnes Szavay tho.
jelena JANKOVIC.
I'm not 100% sold that Janka can win the title, but I do think she'll roll fairly easily to the semifinals (barring a potential heartbreaker elite 8 match with Venus.) She's tenacious and will win a major at some point in the next two years. But I think she's still a tournament or three away from hoisting the trophy.
ana IVANOVIC.
Before I planned to break these predictions down by quarter I had both Ivanovic and Serena Williams as real threats, but, it looks like these two ladies are going to collide in the quarterfinals. If so, I expect a killer match-up, but I'm going out on a limb and calling the win for Ana. I've got so much love for this girl - she's got two grand slam finals under her belt already (including going down to Justine here last year.) She's cool and calm and should be able to press Serena. She's far from the shoe-in that Justine would have been, but she's my pick to go all the way!
I'm a huge tennis fan, so I'm excited that we've entered Grand Slam season. The 2008 French Open is underway and here's my take:
MEN'S DRAW
rafael NADAL.
I don't see anyone other than Rafa winning this tournament this year. Clay is his surface and he's money at big events. This championship is his until he packs it in.
roger FEDERER.
Rodge doesnt quite seem to be having his normal ironman, banner type season. I'd love to see him complete his career slam and take this year's French since the pressure of him getting a calendar slam is gone (he lost this year's Aussie to Novak Djokovic) but I just don't see it happening this year. He's looked a little tried, been a little hurt and will have to take out Rafa to do it and right now Rafa is too good.
novak DJOKOVIC.
The French is always exciting because it's the key slam that determines if a player can score the calendar grand slam. For that to happen in '08 Djokovic will have to keep the momentum going and win his first french. I'd consider him a strong challenger, but I'd put him in third position to Rafa and Rodge.
I'd be pretty surprised to see any of these three men missing from the final four, but who'll round out the semis? It would have to be someone from #4 seed Nikolay Davydenko's portion of the draw. The Russian is always a contender, but i'm going with...
david FERRER.
He'll have to get through Tommy Robredo to get there, but clay is a good surface for him and he's got a decent draw. In the days before the Nadal dominance solid, but unproven Spanish and Argentine players were always the guys to watch and so, I still enjoy watching them play on the clay. Ferrer gets my vote over Robredo because he just beat Tommy in Barcelona and Tommy doesnt have a tournament win in 2008.
Enter Sebastian Faulks.
Devil May Care picks up in 1967 two years after Fleming’s last Bond novel, The Man With the Golden Gun ends. I’ve been looking forward to this for some time now. I was especially excited to find out that Faulks would be writing this book in the style of Ian Fleming. To me, that meant a return to much colder, darker spy stories and staying away from cheesy fantasy stories and hokey dialogue that was made popular thanks to the movie adaptations of the original books.
I’m afraid I may have been wrong…
In an excerpt from Devil May Care published in Saturday’s London Times I was disappointed to read what I consider to be some sub-par passages from the book. There is an exchange between Bond and his housekeeper May, a flirtatious moment between Bond and Moneypenny, and a run-of-the-mill briefing between Bond and M. None of it feels fresh and none of it feels Fleming. I worry that Faulks is basing his novelization of Fleming’s characters on how they are often portrayed in the movies and not how Iam Fleming himself would have written them.
In an interview with the Times, Faulks explains that he wrote the book in Fleming’s style - more like a newspaper man. Both Fleming and Faulks worked in newspaper so it likely wasn’t a stretch. Faulks wrote this tale in Fleming’s style with “no semicolons, few adverbs, few adjectives, short sentences, a lot of verbs, a lot of concrete nouns.” Great. So it should read like a Fleming book but the themes and plot are going to fall short? I’m nervous. I had/have such high hopes for this book…I can only hope the excerpt the Times ran was meant to entice fans of the movie franchise to buy the book - and doesn’t stand as a true indicator of how the majority of the book will read.
I’ll let you know next week after I’ve read it.
