Hello again. I hope all is well with you. Here’s a look back at June 2007 in the Cameron/Utt household.
A NOTE ABOUT THE WEATHER
Since July 1st of 2006, LA has received only three inches of rain, the lowest recorded amount in 130 years. The annual rainfall for the area is normally 15 inches so the vegetation is very dry. Since March, we’ve had two fires in Griffith Park, one on Catalina Island and one last week at Lake Tahoe that burned 3,100 hundred acres/nearly five square miles. 250 homes were destroyed in Tahoe because an illegal campfire got out of hand. I’m sure that blaze won’t be the last one this summer.
OCEAN’S 13 HANDPRINT CEREMONY
The first event of the month took place Tuesday, June 5th, at the world-famous Chinese Theater. Daryl and our friend Diana braved the crowds to see a once-in-a lifetime handprint ceremony starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
It started at 11:30am but Daryl was there at 6:30am so that he would get a seat in the first row of the bleachers. Besides some rude people trying to barge into the stands at the last minute, it was a terrific event.
Johnny Grant, the longtime honorary Mayor of Hollywood emceed and George Clooney cemented his wiseguy status by joking that they had all worn larger size shoes for the occasion.
Diana joked about now that she’s seen Brad Pitt in person, she may just move back to New York. We’d prefer it if she stayed here in LA. Who else is Daryl going to get to attend this stuff! Handprint photos are posted at popsugar.com
FINDING NEMO PRESS EVENT
That weekend, Daryl was back at Disneyland to help launch the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. His team was at the press event to highlight the Pirates of the Caribbean video games available from Disney Interactive Studios. I saw quite a bit of the XBOX360 version and was impressed by the realism of the graphics and the way Jack Sparrow staggered through the game.
We got to ride the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage with our friends Ryan and Frankie. The person before Daryl had coughed, sneezed, slobbered or smeared their greasy hair all over the porthole—just like the city bus!—but luckily he was able to change seats.
I don’t normally think of myself as “tall,” but the viewing windows in the sub seemed uncomfortably low. About halfway through, I was wondering if they could rename the attraction Finding Back Pain or Disney’s Hunchback: The Ride.
All of that aside, the younger passengers were enthralled with the bubbles and the life aquatic of Nemo and friends. WDI did a great job updating the attraction. You can see and hear what I mean on the fan site Real Disney. They’ve posted video of the entire sub experience here. It certainly beats waiting with those summer crowds.
For me, the big hit of the event was seeing so many of our friends from Walt Disney World. I got to catch up with Tom Biz, Mary Haupt and Debby LeBlanc and many more between all the activities.
OJAI LAVENDER FESTIVAL
To my sister Karen and me, Ojai has always been the mythical hometown of the Six_Million_Dollar_Man and the Bionic_Woman. Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers grew up there and became high school sweethearts long before he totaled the aircraft and she had her skydiving accident.
It turns out that Ojai (pronounced “OH-high”) is a real town located about an hour and a half north of us. With a population just over 8,000, locals refer to it as “The Village of Ojai.” Except for the gas station and the grocery store, there is a moratorium on “chain or formula stores” within the village limits. A developer tried to open a Subway franchise in June but the residents protested. Some other small-town features:
- The post office is the tallest building.
- The Ojai Playhouse cinema has only one screen. Nightly show times are fixed at 7:30 and the weekend-only matinees at are always at 2:00.
- The old train tracks have been converted to a 16-mile bike trail.
We were in town for the 4th_Annual_Ojai_Lavender_Festival which was a small affair centered in the community park. We walked around the booths selling crafts, organic foods, dog sweaters and tchotchkes. One booth had rescued owls with clever names like “Barnie.” (That still cracks me up.) We tried some tasty lavender sugar cookies and picked up some lavender honey. After a salad at a nearby café, we drove out through the picturesque Ojai Valley and stopped at a pick-your-own lavender field.
There is a lot more about the region and some pictures at Discover_Ojai. It’s a quaint, relaxed town with many farms and lots of natural beauty. I’m sure we will be back.
THE POLICE/DODGER STADIUM
The following weekend Daryl and our friend Shawn were at Dodger Stadium to see The Police in concert. They were seated just past the first base line and thoroughly enjoyed the show. They skipped the opening act unintentionally because it took an hour getting INTO the parking lot, but the concert was completely worth it.
Of course, it really is still about Sting. His voice sounded great on the opening song Message in a Bottle. The concert didn’t disappoint. Some of the highlights for Daryl were: Wrapped Around Your Finger, Walking on the Moon, King of Pain and Every Breath You Take.
Daryl mentioned that he felt a little like he was making up for lost time as a teenager in North Carolina. The Police were one of those bands that he always wanted to see, but never had an opportunity. Now if only Tears for Fears would tour again…
“007 IN 2007”
Earlier this year, Starz Action channel was airing two James Bond films every Sunday beginning at midnight. Having only seen Goldeneye and last year’s Casino Royale in the theater, and a few more on TV, this was the perfect opportunity to catch up on the franchise. It was going great until I realized that Starz wasn’t running any of the Pierce Brosnan installments except for Tomorrow Never Dies. Luckily our friend Shawn loaned me his copies of The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day this month. Now, I’ve seen all 21 of the official Bond films and Sean Connery’s unsanctioned return in 1983’s Never Say Never Again. Thank you, Shawn!
FACTOID: James Bond has been played by actors born in Scotland, Australia, England, Wales, and Ireland.
It was interesting how the character and the films changed with the times. Bond was a playboy in the early days, vaguely monogamous in the late 80’s, a more responsible playboy in the 90’s and a gritty everyman in 2006. Cold war politics played a part in most of the films, including 1963’s From Russia With Love. 1973’s Live and Let Die seems to have been influenced by the blaxploitation films of the era. The popularity of the King Tut exhibit shows up in the Egyptian Pyramids sequences of 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. The end credits of that movie announce For Your Eyes Only as the next release but after the success of Star Wars, the producers greenlit Moonraker instead.
Roger Moore added snowboarding to 007’s stunt repertoire in 1986’s View to a Kill and in 1988’s The Living Daylights, poor Timothy Dalton delivers the “Bond, James Bond” line into a cordless phone with a two-foot antenna. Pierce Brosnan’s boat chase down the Thames in 1999’s The World is Not Enough makes ample use of the still-under-construction Millennium Dome for its backdrop.
There are several websites devoted to James Bond but the most complete and updated seems to be the MI6_Home_Page with information on books, films, music, and merchandise. For some more fun, there’s Matt’s_Top_Ten_Bond_Films and Entertainment_Weekly’s_Top_Ten_Bond_Girls.
FACTOID: Christopher Lee played the title character in The Man with the Golden Gun making him the only person to appear in three of the most successful movie franchises. He also played Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I wonder if he’s planning on joining Indiana Jones 4 and Harry Potter 6?
JAMES BOND—THE SONGS
Back in 1983, my buddy Jim Plick got an LP with all the Bond songs performed by the original artists. It was the first time I had heard Tom Jones’ loungy, over the top “Thunderball,” Nancy Sinatra’s lite-pop “You Only Live Twice” and John Barry’s driving, brassy score to 1968’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Since then, performers like Tina Turner, Chris Cornell, a-ha, Sheryl Crow and Madonna, have joined the Bond catalog. Did you know that
- Duran Duran’s “View to A Kill” is the only Bond song to reach Number 1.
- 1981’s For Your Eyes Only marks the only time the song’s performer—in this case Sheena Easton—appears in the opening credits.
- Shirley Bassey is the only person to sing more than one Bond song: Two of the best, 1964’s “Goldfinger” and 1971’s “Diamonds Are Forever;” and one of the worst,“Moonraker.”
- Patti LaBelle performed “If You Asked Me To” over the closing credits of 1989’s License to Kill three years before Celine Dion made the song a hit.
- Rita Coolidge’s “All Time High” from 1983’s Octopussy was the first Bond song without the title of the movie in its lyrics. I wonder why?
THE JAMES BOND THEME or I WAS BORN WITH THIS UNLUCKY SNEEZE
A successful writer of London stage musicals, Monty Norman agreed to score the first film, 1962’s Dr. No, because he and his wife got a free month-long stay in Jamaica. The trip yielded calypso-tinged compositions like “Jump Up Jamaica” and the now-iconic “Underneath the Mango Tree” whose popularity may be due in part to its accompanying visual of Ursula Andress in a bikini.
After returning to London, the producers still wanted a signature theme for 007 so Norman looked through his earlier compositions and found “Bad Sign, Good Sign.” He had written it for an unproduced musical about the East Indian community in Trinidad called A House for Mr Biswas. The opening lyric is “I was born with this unlucky sneeze…” He and composer John Barry re-orchestrated it into “The James Bond Theme.”
You can listen to the original arrangement, lyrics and all, of “Bad Sign, Good Sign” by clicking on Monty_Norman’s_album_”Completing_the_Circle” On the right side of the screen is the “Click Here to Listen” link. Go to “Bad Sign Good Sign” and click on the low/hi speakers. The recognizable guitar riff played on the sitar paired with the immortal words “I was born with this unlucky sneeze…” might leave you shaken, not stirred.
Even though every film since Dr. No officially lists Monty Norman with writing “The James Bond Theme” there has been some dispute over the true identity of the composer. One theory says John Barry actually wrote the theme but since he was hired as an arranger, Monty contractually had to be credited. Another insists that Norman stole the theme from another composer. Three court cases have been tried with Monty Norman winning each time.
THE REAL JAMES BOND
Patrick Dalzel-Job, the real-life spy who was the inspiration for James Bond, published his life story From_Arctic_Snow_to_Dust_of_Normandy before he died at the age of 90. Here is his 2003 BBC obituary
VISITORS
We got to see two other Disney friends this month. While Kristi Koester was out here on assignment she and Daryl spent a day sightseeing. Kristi got to know her way around LA a lot faster than I did. A week later Lisa Becket joined us for an afternoon of sightseeing and the four of us toured the Hollywood Hills.
It was great seeing them both again and catching up as we drove to famous sights like Kathy Griffin’s house from My Life on the D-List, where Chance and Pom-Pom came out to bark at us. We had a delicious, casual dinner at Home in Los_Feliz, which was fitting since we all use to live down the street from each other.
We spent the last day of the month in Pasadena hanging out at the home of Ashika and Gaurav. It was a fun group, as always, and I ate way too many samosas. So tasty!
CELEBRTY SIGHTINGS
While walking on the Disney Lot, I saw Colin Farrell taking a break outside of one of the Foley stage. He was working on Pride and Glory. While at Walt Disney Animation Studios, I saw director John Landis and talked a few times to composer Randy Newman. I saw Denise Richards and baby shopping in World of Disney. Daryl saw Colby Smulders, (a.k.a. Robin Sparkles on CBS’ How I Met Your Mother) at the Nemo Event.
NEXT MONTH
July Fourth, Daryl’s birthday, Jersey Boys and another concert.
Until then,
James & Daryl
