WOW… here it is 2AM wee hours of opening night and I cannot sleep.  Really, the last time this happened was opening morning of my favorite show and I got even less sleep for obvious reasons.. chief among them being I had to be up SUPER early to be on television promoting that show.  Plus, I had a good excuse then … I was used to being up at those crazy hours since I worked 3rd shift at the time.

Now, as Diamonds are Forever is nearing the end, maybe I will be able to just lay back and close my eyes… oops there is a yawn… maybe sleep is on the way.  Better to crash now than on stage tonight, eh?  But it’s so much fun to feel this rush.  Theatre is MY anti-drug.  And there goes the Bomb Surprise between the legs of Mr. Wynt and over the side of the cruise ship he goes.   And James Bond will return in Live and Let Die and I will sign off and let the adrenaline rush wear off.

Since it seems that I have some fans from the James Bond site I frequent from time to time,  let us see if I can drag a few into the open (unless they are hiding in the shadows for just the right moment to strike).  After the release of the Casino Royale film in 2006 (the first published novel by Ian Fleming and the 21st OFFICIAL Bond movie) I have sought the remaining 11 novels and short story collections.  It took me a few years to track down any.  Apparently, Fleming’s centennial (1908-2008) prompted a reissue of the novels.  I have been faithfully reading the books in order and am now just starting Dr. No (the 6th novel and the first movie released way back in 1962).  Starting with the second book, Live and Let Die, the first few novels bore little to no resemblance to the movies aside from character names and settings which to me was at times good and bad.  For instance, Diamonds are Forever features Bond trailing bumbling diamond smuggling gangsters which to me was not at all entertaining… It was almost painful reading.  Diamonds had the characters of Tiffany Case (can anyone tell me the significance of the name?) and the villainous henchmen, Misters Wynt and Kidd (a very odd sort and if you have read the novel or seen the movie you know why) but little else to hold me interest.

Instead of the evil SPECTRE organization as seen in the Connery classics, 007 battles enemies from the actual Soviet group known as SMERSH (an acronym for Smert Shpionam or “death to spies”).  My favorite novel thus far,From Russia with Love, is most like the movie of the same name.  Perhaps this is because the novel was high on President John F. Kennedy’s favorite novels list.  However, the ending to the novel is not quite the same as the movie.  The book ends after Bond got the boot from evil, ugly woman Rosa Klebb.  I felt sorry for the readers who were left in the balance not knowing if the British super spy lived or died.  I thought my edition was missing a chapter.  How rude to leave the hero like that.  Short, fun, quick-paced reads.

I know there are differences in editions, so in a further attempt to flesh out other potential commenters, I am reading the paperback Penguin editions.

Sunday morning while in the car with my brothers children (aged 12, 9, and 3), the song “Live and Let Die” came on the radio. I asked the three where the song by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his group Wings originated. The THREE-YEAR OLD quickly answered “Shrek the 3rd.” I was utterly amazed and had totally forgotten. I informed them that I am as old as the song itself to which my precocious 12 year old nephew chimed, “How do you know? Are you sure?” Roger Moore made his debut as 007, James Bond in the film Live and Let Die in 1973. I could not state the exact date of the movie’s release (I was either in diapers or still waiting to be introduced to the world myself).

The Bond film is interesting for various reasons. Like so many others in the series, LALD reflected the world around it at the time of its release. Images of the occult are used throughout much of this James Bond feature. Tarot reading, virginal sacrifices, and supernatural characters (like Baron Samedi) are on display as 007 tracks a mysterious heroin-dealer from the Caribbean to New Orleans. Jane Seymour made her major film debut as Solitaire who (as one may guess) is the fortune-telling mystic that reads tarot cards to see into the future until the suave, debonair secret agent uses a bit of his own magic.

So… like many items of popular culture, a song that was around thirty odd years ago has had a re-emergence of sorts. Funny how a three-year-old can make that clear. Once again, I am humbled… the movie Live and Let Die was released a mere 13 days prior to my birth. I wonder if my parents saw it in the theatre.

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