Nobody Does it Better: Daniel Craig kills it in Spectre.

I don’t know what the formula is that keeps me coming back to 007.  The Sean Connery years are definitely period pieces by today’s standards.  Roger Moore as James Bond was cool and campy.  Almost like watching Adam West as Batman.  Timothy Dalton was too hard-edged and unforgiving playing the role and for me personally Pierce Brosnan was perhaps channeling a bit too much Remington Steele for my liking.

The series could have continued down that make-believe path of vaudevillian villains with the mega-lair that Dr Evil would be drooling over.  Then came along Daniel Craig, who essentially rebooted bond, and brought a healthy dose of reality and consequence to the character.  Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace changed the game for Bond and upped the stakes to unto before seen levels.

Then Sam Mendes turned the amps up to 11.  I loved everything about Skyfall, the cinematography was beyond anything that had ever graced the world of 007.  The story line actually meant something, the movies dovetailed together.

Spectre brings everything together, including the sins of the past.  The gritty reality of Craig’s bond hits home in ways that have never been explored and only hinted at in Skyfall.  James Bond was once a boy and that boy has a dark past.

Pictures and documents from James’s childhood are recovered from his boyhood home of Skyfall, things he would rather have left behind.  One burned photo from the movie trailer shows two boys and a man standing together in the snow.  Does James Bond have a brother?  And if so how does he fit into the larger picture of the cabal of lies and the shadowy organization that is behind all of it?

Spectre brings the Daniel Craig story arc into sharp focus and ties the clues together.  Who was ultimately behind the deaths of Dame Judy Dench’s “M”, and his love interest Vesper Lynd for whom he was willing to give up his service to crown and country?

Once again Sam Mendes ups the action to almost hyperactive levels in the opening scenes but with the artistic flair very few directors can match at this level.  This is not a CGI slug fest but a film in which a reported 36 million dollars worth of high performance supercars were destroyed in filming.

The Daniel Craig story arc for James Bond has delivered a character examination of a lifestyle that has consequences.  People die, new relationships form and villains have real world ambitions.  The situations depicted in Spectre are going on in the world today.  Intelligence agencies collect data on the population at large in increasing levels.  Phone calls, video surveillance and data transfers are being monitored in real-time but who ultimately controls that information and to what end?

If you love the world of Ian Flemming’s most potent creation do yourself a favor and go see this movie.

My rating for Spectre is 4.5 out of 5.

Authors Note: If you want to learn the real life inspiration for James Bond 007 please use the links below.

William Stephenson the quiet man that would inspire 007

James Bond, Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler: The Canadian Connection

William Stephenson, Roald Dahl and Ian Flemming: The Birth of James Bond 007

Tom and Joe latest victims of SNTS.

We Winnipeg radio listening folks suffered another huge loss today at the hands of SNTS.  Yes folks that’s right, Shiny New Toy Syndrome has struck again.

Tom, Nesta, Bubba and Joe at the Garage Giveaway we attended last week.

This morning as I arrived at work and enjoyed my morning coffee before my shift I as always perused the local newspapers and found that the morning show at Power 97 had quit en masse in a contract dispute with Corus Radio the parent company of the station.  Tragic as this seemed I took it with a grain of salt, if three reasonable adults choose to better their situation in live and quit over contractual issues more power to them.  In reality it would have little impact on my life as I have been a life long listener of 92.1 CITI FM.  The station that sent Darlene and I to New York and started my blogging hobby.

Things were going well at work until a great co-worker of mine bounded in with i-phone in hand asking me if I had heard the radio news?   Sure I said the Power 97 staff quit.  No, that’s not all he said they are taking over the morning show on CITI.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

In a heartbeat, a morning team that had been in my life for the better part of 20 years was over.  That great morning team, already handicapped by the loss of Kathy Kennedy casually discarded less than a year ago.  The loss of K.K. was tragic enough, but now Tom and Joe are gone too, turfed for a shiny new toy in the form of Wheeler, Philly and Rena.   The friendship, the loss of Joe’s wife Alana to cancer, hearing about Tom’s many children growing up all flushed down the shitter with the promise of  crappy phone gags and toilet humor.

Colour me not impressed.

I guess that’s what executives in flashy suits like though, shiny new things they can brag about to their friends.  Fuck history, fuck on air friendship. We got us a bunch of potty talking radio jocks.

OH JOY! I can hardly wait, talk radio here I come.

Comfortably Furious

Ok.  Buckle up this is going to be a bumpy bumpy ride. I am off on a rant here, and you can be sure that is full of furious anger and righteous thunder.

Last night as I settled in to watch the evening news I was alerted that two of my family had been cut away from my morning routine.   Frank Andrews and Kathy “KK” Kennedy had been let go from my go to radio station.

For what reason, of course the radio talking heads were not at liberty to say.  Cost cutting, discipline reasons, conspiring with Alien Resources yet unknown to man?

Give me something give me a reason, I tuned in as a matter of course dutifully on my way to work this morning. Tom and Joe had nothing to say, the banter remained the same.  I do not blame them.

They are tried and true professionals. But when it comes to Kallously Kanning KK Please.  She’s just as much a legend as the boys. Hell she’s Miss Bingo Winnipeg.  She is the one who uttered EFF YOU CANCER on air.

The publicity and honor to sell  a metric ton of T-Shirts in honor of Joe’s late wife was in part hers.  I know this for a fact because I think that as a family we have bought a great deal of those shirts personally.  I have distributed them from the far end of Ontario to the end reach of Alberta.

If not for her  a great deal of money would not have been raised in Alanna’s name.

Now I am not a crusader, business is business. But if your going to can a person as iconic as Kennedy then at least give her a farewell.

These are not people we have taken into our hearts easily, we gradually accept them into our homes, our cars and then our hearts.

To Winnipeggers they are family.

Mr Rogers you and your company would be foolish to mess with a Winnipeg family.

I await your reply.

Robert Ogden

Authors Note: If you are with me COMMENT.  Even if it is a YES, or Hell YES.  Numbers mean one thing but adding your voice means something else entirely.

Winnipeg a big city with a huge heart

Well I was going to baffle you all with a April Fools day post today but circumstances this week have turned my attention to something else entirely.

This week two things happened in Winnipeg, we lost one of our own to cancer and we came together and rallied as a community should.  On Monday you could practically hear the city gasp as life slipped away from Alanna Hogue Aiello.  Now I will say from the start that I did not personally know her but to say that I was not acquainted with her would also not be correct.

Confusing I know, but in Winnipeg everyone knows everyone else somehow.  Yes, it’s a city.  But it’s got a small town attitude, when you need something done, you don’t look in the yellow pages, cause your friends know a guy, or you know a guy.  Like neighbourhoods back when we were kids, people are tight here.  When someone gets married the call goes out.  People will start asking, when is their social?  I can’t wait for the silent auctions!  I hope I win!  ( Manitoba socials are large parties held in community halls where family and extended groups of friends spend large amounts of money on raffles and dance drunkenly to Mony Mony while eating cubed cheese with rye bread.)

Alana worked for many years in the local television business, and was married very happily to her husband Joe Aiello, local morning disc jockey on 92 Citi fm.   Together through thick and thin they never turned away anyone in need.  If you had a charity or an event that needed promotion you could be sure that they would support the cause in any way that they could.  Such was the love that they shared with Winnipeg.

When Alanna lost her long battle with against cancer this week, as I mentioned you could almost hear the city gasp. In unison we all cried out “Oh No”.   She had been sick for many years but she fought bravely and with great dignity.

It was then that the crew at 92 Citi picked up the torch and the rest of Winnipeg followed.  Wednesday morning at 8 am they started a radio-thon that lasted a day and a half.  In Jerry Lewis style they defied sleep and hunger to get the word out to the city and the world, and we answered.

Eff U Cancer in memory of Alanna

For a minimum donation of 50 dollars you could dedicate a song to the memory of Alanna.  The list grew and grew and grew.  Kathy Kennedy, news anchor read a touching poem, in sadness and anger proclaiming “Eff U Cancer!”  Thus a  t-shirt was born, from her grief and rage against this heartless killer.  Like the song requests, the shirts were printed en masse and sold out, not once or twice but again and again and yet again.  Still the stores are stocked and the shirts vanish within minutes.

Winnipeg the little city that cried, and raged against this horrible monster managed to raise close to $120,000 dollars.  Fifty dollar donations were taken by the handful, citizens stepped up with memories of their loved ones and donated by the thousands.  Pay cheques and musical instruments were gifted.  People such as I bought “Eff U T-Shirts” in bulk.

Eff U Cancer T-Shirt

It may just be a drop in the bucket and life will go on, but for two days the city, my city, gave back to someone who had given all of us so much.  We remembered our own losses, I toasted the remembrance of my brother, Brent struck down by cancer.  I rejoice in my daughter’s ongoing victory over her leukemia.

We all stopped, we all cared, and we all gave.

Today Alanna’s life was celebrated in a service, I was not there but I know people who were.  That’s just the way Winnipeg is.

Authors note: Donations are still being accepted in Alanna’s name through 92 Citi fm.  “Eff U” shirts are still on sale at all Winnipeg Marks locations for only 20 dollars.  100% of  donations go to Cancer Care Manitoba.

420

I may be going out on a limb here but I am guessing that to many of you 420 is just a number.  Here in Manitoba, as in many other parts of the world, that number takes on a larger significance.  Pronounced ” Four Twenty” it is slang the world over for Marijuana.  The term comes from the supposed police code for a marijuana arrest.  This however is incorrect according to various sources including the Urban Dictionary, 420 may have started out as a code word between a bunch of Californian high school students that liked to get high.

In any case, the term has become the clarion call of pot smokers everywhere to light up.  Today’s date also figures into the term, April 20 or 04-20 in Canada is the day that Marijuana activists and casual users alike gather on the lawns of our houses of government to protest the continued criminalization of marijuana use.

Here in Winnipeg the scene on the legislative grounds was as always a festive event.  This year a few thousand people gathered, some brightly dressed, some carrying signs, all smoking dope.

420 at Manitoba Legislature

I can hear some of you scratching your heads as you read this, thinking but Bob. Where are the police?  How can this happen?  All of these people breaking the law, and on public grounds no less!   Well let me assure you that this year as every year the police are indeed there.

But as this youtube video taken at last year’s 420 celebration clearly shows the event is a peaceful one and because of that the cops stay clear of the huge clouds of billowing smoke and make sure that the only thing attacked on this day are Hot dog’s and Ice Cream bars!

I know that I do jest a little on the topic but suffice it to say that the police and public (in general), view this event as a non-issue.  Will there be members of the population screaming for the head of the Chief of Police tomorrow?  Undoubtedly, but Canadians are by in large a very tolerant open people.  If the kids and the hippies want to smoke dope one day of the year and get their little protest out-of-the-way the vast majority of the public are willing to turn a blind eye.

Marijuana use in general actually hardly even gets a response from most people here anymore.  Harder drugs have moved into town, crack cocaine and crystal meth.   Now those hard drugs get a reaction from police and citizens groups alike.

In fact 420 has become somewhat of a joke, with radio stations playing a dope smokers play list and creating characters who tie into the day’s theme.  Local radio station 92.1 citi fm, features the traffic chopper antics of “Tyrone“.

The battle is more than just symbolic though to many Canadians looking to change the laws in Canada and The United States.  Marc Emery Canada’s “Prince of Pot” is scheduled to be extradited to the U.S. to serve a 5 year sentence for selling marijuana seeds via mail order to United States citizens.

His “crime” of selling seeds is perfectly legal here in Canada as the seeds are not considered usable drugs.  In fact his business, was granted a government GST number and was paying tax monies to the Canadian Government on sales of the marijuana seed sales.

Regardless the Canadian Government has seen to it that he be sent for incarceration in a foreign country for doing something that is perfectly legal here.  Needless to say Emery is not going down without a fight, and all avenues are being explored before his May 10, 2010 date with American Justice.   His web page explains the battle to keep him from American Hands.

So people everywhere pot smoker or straight arrow, let’s all at least embrace the spirit of 420 today.  May we all be mellow in each our own way.

Peace.

Related articles

• Marc Emery – Cannabis activist – Origins of 4/20 as a Day of Celebration & Protests (projectbrainsaver.wordpress.com)
• Marc Emery – Cannabis activist – Origins of 4/20 as a Day of Celebration & Protests (punpht.wordpress.com)
• Marijuana demonstrations planned across Canada Friday (vancouversun.com)
• Legalizing marijuana and 420 Day (diversityscholar4.wordpress.com)
• Marc Emery: Origins of 4/20 as a Day of Celebration & Protests (huffingtonpost.com)
• ‘Prince of Pot’ adversary favours legalizing marijuana (theglobeandmail.com)