You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2007.
Goodbye ‘07, it’s been a fucking awesome year. And hello to ‘08… I’m sure you’ll be cool too.
And now to drink myself stupid into the new year…
I am so glad I’m finally getting started on writing that novel I’m always talking about. I don’t do a lot of fiction writing, so it’s an interesting change from the usual hard news and feature writing that I usually do. Even if it just turns out to be a hobby, I still find it fulfilling. So far I’ve got the character descriptions and a detailed outline of the book down. I know exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it, now I just need to start researching and start writing. The novel takes place in the 60’s and 70’s, so I’ve got a fair amount of research to do, but hopefully I can actually start writing sometime next month.
I had an article published in Vancouver Magazine this month, just a small one but it’s still something. Right now I’m doing an article on conservation in the Queen Charlottes for thetyee.ca, and I’ll have a travel feature published in the Globe & Mail next month, so things are buzzing along. I’m glad that the stuff I’ve been doing lately has been meatier than usual, so I’m pretty happy with the way things are coming along.
Still planning to move to Montreal at the end of February. I’ve been talking to a friend of mine who owns a nightclub on the Plateau to see if I can do a monthly series of events for him, so that will hopefully be my first project once I get over there. I want to take French lessons as well beofre I get there, so that I can at least be somewhat fluent. So we’ll see how that goes.
Anyways, just a quick update…
The movie channel is having a marathon of sorts, playing all of the James Bond movies. So my love of 007 has been reignited. They’ve played all of the films from Dr. No to Live and Let Die, so continuing on the year-end lists theme, here are my top picks for the best of James Bond. I don’t like Roger Moore at all, so you won’t find any of his movies on this list, but here goes…
Coming in at #5 is Thunderball. As the most financially successful Bond film of the series (grossing over $886 million at the box office), this is a pretty fucking good movie. I just felt that it relied too much on the action scenes and special effects, and it didn’t really have too much of the style, wit and glamour of the first two films. Rad villan (Largo) and another super hot Bond Girl (Claudine Auger).
At #4… On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A lot of people don’t like this movie, and feel that George Lazenby was the worst Bond of them all. I don’t. The film has one of the best plots of the series and some of the best action sequences and a great villian (played by Telly Savalas). I honestly do think it’s a brilliant film. And I really think that Lazenby was fantastic as James Bond (far better than Roger Moore), he really should have stayed on for a few more films. His performance reminded me a lot of the first two films.
At #3 and #2, respectively, From Russia with Love and Dr. No. It’s in these two films that the essence of the James Bond charater is revealed. These films are much lighter and more interesting to watch, and I believe that Sean Connery gives his best performances as James Bond. In Dr. No, you have the best of all the Bond girls, Honey Ryder (played by Ursula Andress), who is just about as important to the movie as James Bond is.
And finally at #1… Goldfinger. This is pretty much the perfect Bond movie, and is one of my favourite movies of all time. Awesome villian, hot girls, great plot. I love Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, she definitely comes in as the 2nd best Bond girl, after Ursula. And it’s got the best theme song — Goldfinger sung by Shirley Bassey. Fits the movie perfectly.
Honourable mentions:
Diamonds Are Forever — I like Jill St. John, although I found her to be sleazier than the other Bond girls. She seemed a bit too white trash for me. Plus, another great theme from Shirley Bassey. The plot was too mixed up for this to be in the top 5, but definitely better than You Only Live Twice.
The Spy Who Loved Me — The best of the Roger Moore films, and has a great theme song (Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon).
I haven’t seen the new Casino Royale movie with Daniel Craig, but I’ve heard it’s really good. So I’m guessing it would come in either after Thunderball or after Diamonds are forever.
Just a quick note…
It’s funny how just a couple of days ago I was complaining cause I thought it wasn’t going to snow on Christmas. And now I look out my window and it’s a fucking blizzard. In Vancouver. On Christmas. I don’t think that’s happened in like a decade.
Whoo hoo! Snow day!
Ok, so it’s the end of the year, and at the end of the year I like to make lists. So here’s what I think are the top 25 best songs of ‘07.
25. Wu Tang Clan - The Heart Gently Weeps
24. The Go! Team - Grip Like a Vice
23. Of Montreal - The Past Is a Grotesque Animal
22. Tori Amos - Teenage Hustling
21. Ne-Yo - Because of You
20. Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah - Satan Said Dance
19. Lily Allen - LDN
18. Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!
17. MIA - Bamboo Banga
16. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Down Boy
15. Datarock - Computer Camp Love
14. Rihanna - Umbrella
13. Alicia Keys - No One
12. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
11. Gogol Bordello - Alcohol
10. Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Isis
8. MIA - Boyz
7. CSS - Music Is My Hot Hot Sex
6. Bjork - Earth Intruders
5. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
4. Justice - DANCE
3. Feist - 1234
2. Kanye West - Stronger
1. Amy Winehouse - Rehab
So I’m seriously considering moving to Montreal in the spring. Haven’t told anyone yet. I’m just feeling like my life is getting to be a bit stagnant and overly hectic, so I should switch it up a bit (by moving halfway across the continent? Sure, why not). Plus, I mean come on, Montreal is like the fashion capital of Canada. I would fucking love it there. And the rent over there is like 1/2 the price of what I’m paying here. You can get a fucking room for like $150 bucks over there.
I’m excited about the possibility. I’m not excited about having to pack up my life here and start all over again. Oh well. I guess I can always come home again if it doesn’t work out.
It’s fucking pouring here in Vancouver. And it just snowed a couple of days ago, but by the time that Christmas actually rolls around all the snow probably will have melted cause of the rain. Oh well.
And I still haven’t done any of my Christmas shopping. I should probably do that today. In the rain. And the cold. Fuck.
So, I haven’t written in a while. But, oddly enough, my page views keep going up! So I promise to write a little more often. Well… I don’t “promise”. But, you know, I’ll try. Some of us do have a fucking life you know.
I bought Alicia Keys’ new CD the other day. I’m usually a huge fan of hers, but this one just isn’t that great. Really, the only outstanding song on the disc is ‘No One’… which of course you guys have all probably heard by now. She seems to be experimenting with a few different sounds, but the CD isn’t nearly as innovative as I expected it to be.
I’ve been listening to a lot of older music lately, you know typical 80’s shit. This isn’t really an official Rock Box entry, but I’ll tell ya what I’ve been listening to anyways….
There’s this local band called Sex Attack — they’re a bunch of fake DJ’s that do some really cool mash-ups. So they kind of turned me on to some of the stuff that they’ve been playing. No.1: Sussudio by Phil Collins. An awesome track that I’d completely forgotten about, and I think one of Phil’s best songs. Totally different from all the other shit he put out. No. 2: Two of Hearts by Stacey Q. I’d never heard of this song before, but it’s pretty cool. And apparently it was a big hit back in the day.
So yeah, that’s it for now. Maybe I’ll post again sometime.
Recent Comments