25 April 2025

Reporting in 1979: "We're nearly out of Bond"

We're Nearly Out of Bond!

With Moonraker, the latest James Bond movie, due for release next year film producers will soon have to look beyond the books of author Ian Fleming for further adventures of 007.

Fleming, an old Etonian and newspaper-man who died in 1964, produced 12 Bond novels and two books of JB short stories, beginning with Casino Royale.

The movie industry began its Bond run in 1962 with Doctor No and with Moonraker had used all of Fleming's material except for the short story collections, Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only.

No doubt there will be no shortage of screen writers ready to dream up new dangerous assignments for Bond, perhaps expanding the Fleming short stories into full-scale epics. But will they be the same?

On past performances and estimated total of 1000 million admissions to Bond pictures world-wide Moonraker is likely to be one of the major box-office attractions of 1979.

Cameras began turning in Paris on August 14 and the five-month shooting schedule is to be completed next month.

In addition to France, sets for Moonraker include the canals of Venice, the jungles of Central America, Rio de Janeiro, the falls of Brazil and (created in Britain's Pinewood Studios) an outer space set.

For Roger Moore who, incidentally, will be appearing on TV next year in his Saint guise, Moonraker will be his fourth 007 stint, following his successes in Live and Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun and, last year, The Spy Who Loved Me.

In keeping with Fleming tradition Moore, and Sean Connery before him, have had a different playmate for each movie. The line-up has included Ursula Andress (in Doctor No), Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore in Goldfinger), Diana Rigg, Jill St John, Britt Ekland and most recently, Barbara Bach as Major Anya Amasova.

Theatre-goers have an opportunity to size up Moonraker co-star Lois Chiles. The Texas-born actress, who once modelled for Elle magazine covers, is appearing as Linnet in the Agatha Christie story Death on the Nile. Previously she appeared in The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby and Coma.

No other book character has made a greater impact on the motion picture business than James Bond, but there is no mystery about it.

Fleming, who had an honest commercial approach to the 007 books, once wrote: "The target of my books lies somewhere between the solar plexus and the upper thigh. "I write for warm-blooded heterosexuals in railway trains, aeroplanes and beds."

- 'Talking pictures with John Berry', NZ Truth, 9 January 1979, p.24

[To date there have been 14 Bond movies since Moonraker]

17 April 2025

Japan meets the West

While Japanese experimented with bustles, bonnets, and beef, on the other side of the world, Westerners were discovering a new and enchanting culture. In 1858, after Japan opened to trade with the West, Japanese goods suddenly became widely available. Poverty-stricken samurai sold their heirlooms, often at reduced prices, and swords, helmets, armor, kimonos, and exquisite porcelain found their way into the curio shops of the West.

Everyone was intrigued and charmed by the delicacy, precision, and beauty of Japanese art and artifacts. Trendsetting women wore kimonos, fashionable people collected woodblock prints, and filled their homes with screens, fans, lacquerware, blue-and-white porcelain, vases, curved swords, netsuke, and artifacts inspired by Japanese art. Audiences flocked to see Japan-inspired plays and operas, from The Geisha with Marie Tempest to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly, which opened in March 1900 and inspired Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Japonisme, as the craze was dubbed, swept the West, inspiring artists, architects, and interior designers and spawning Art Nouveau. In 1856, the artist Félix Bracquemond discovered a collection of manga engravings by Hokusai in Paris (manga simply means "whimsical drawing," the same term used for manga comics today) and soon a generation of Western artists were collecting, being inspired by, and sometimes copying Japanese woodblock prints. In 1876, Monet painted his wife Camille in an extraordinary Japanese kimono. Van Gogh had six hundred woodblock prints and wrote that he yearned to visit Japan or at least learn to see with Japanese eyes.

- Lesley Downer, The Shortest History of Japan, New York, 2024, P.163-4

See also:
Japan: Affordable Tokyo studio living, 15 January 2021
Japan: Hutt Japan festival, 19 November 2017
Japan: Ueno Park Tokyo, 14 January 2009

Maybe I love you 'cos I'm thick & you make me feel clever

Thursday music corner: Amelia & The Housewives are a Brighton band formed in May 2024, offering sunny female-fronted indie pop. Maybe is their debut single, released on 11 April 2025. They played Dust in Brighton yesterday, and on 29 April will be playing Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes in London along with Scattered Ashes and Camber.

Amelia & The Housewives - Maybe (2025)


See also:
Music: Amelia & The Housewives - Pantomime (2024, via Soundcloud)
Music: The Courettes - Shake! (2024)
Music: The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me (2006)

06 April 2025

"I've never yet had a failure"

Edmonds "Sure to Rise" Baking Powder advertisement, Dominion, 6 April 1925 - via PapersPast


03 April 2025

I've got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome

Thursday music corner: MJ Lenderman, who played Wellington's Meow Nui on Monday night, is a 26-year-old North Carolina alt-rock / alt-country artist with a penchant for numerous collaborations. He has been a member of indie rock outfit Wednesday and played and recorded with fellow artists Waxahatchee, Indigo De Souza and This Is Lorelei. He has released five solo albums, five EPs and six singles.

Wristwatch is Lenderman's most recent single, and features on his current album Manning Fireworks. This performance is from the Jimmy Fallon show in September 2024.

MJ Lenderman - Wristwatch (live, 2024)


See also:
Music: MJ Lenderman - She's Leaving You (live, 2024)
Music: MJ Lenderman - Joker Lips (live, 2025)
Music: Neil Young - Lotta Love (1978) - as covered by MJL on Monday night