RIP Sean Connery

 The Bond to rule all James Bonds is no more :( 

Sean Connery died today at 90. He was one of the most iconic figures in cinema starting, as 007, starting with Doctor No in 1962. The image of Bond continued to pursue him all his life, no matter how much he tried to change or avoid it (as early as 1964 Hitchcock cast him in Marnie with uneven results). His last Bond film was You Only Live Twice in 1967 and George Lazenby came for one shot to take his place in On Her Majesty Secret Service. But the world didn't much care for Lazenby (now his film is considered among one of the best of not the best for some), so Connery came back for one more film, Diamonds are Forever, in 1971. Then in 1983 he was Bond again, the star of the unofficial remake of Thunderball, aptly named, Never Say Never Again. He was absolutely my favourite James Bond, the 1st I saw as Bond in Dr. NO, as it happened that I saw the 1st Bond as my first 007 film. 

Sir Connery, grand scotsman, won an Oscar (best supporting) for Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, as the stubborn Irish cop Malone. He was William de Baskerville in The Name of he Rose, played against type in Zardoz (one of my favourite curios which we played at Cinemateca Patria along with The Name...and on his birthday, August 25), The Hill, Robin and Marian (an aging Robin Hood!), The Man Who Would Be King, Murder in the Orient Express, The Wind and the Lion. He was  Indiana Jones father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, one dream made true for Spielberg and George Lucas, and  he was the Russian nuclear submarine captain (with a Scottish accent :) in The Hunt for the Red October ! In the 90's he was great in The Rock and his last film was The League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003, as Allan Quatermain. I loved him as Ramirez, the Spanish mentor of MacLeud in Highlander (1986) and he came back for Highlander 2, and his introduction there was great too (in the theatre where they played Hamlet). There can be only one... Sean Connery ! RIP  :(

Curtis Salgado: The Longer That I Live (SOTD)

 A new video by Curtis Salgado just in: The Longer That I Live.

Witty, Funny, upbeat, life-affirming. And he dances too,...:)

From his upcoming album Damage Control, due early 2021.

Curtis

played for us for the 1st time in Brasov, Romania last November (14.11.2019) at the Rockstadt club and here is that whole concert on our youtube Transilvania Blues channel here !

Well done, Sir ! Can not wait for the new album and hope you will play it soon for us here !

The Hunting Party (1971)

 The Hunting Party (1971) is a curio, in the vein of exploitation and with touches of Italo Western, that violence and cynicism. Read about it for a long time but unseen til now.  I mean, Oliver Reed is the star and Gene Hackman supporting, can you believe it ? Well, in 1971 it was possible, Hackman becoming a big star the next year, with The French Connection and Reed following this after Women in love and Oliver ! Candice Bergen is rich Hackman's wife who Reed the bandit kidnaps ! One of the three films Bergen did in the 70's with Hackman !

Supporting cast with veternas of westerns, and Peckinpah cohorts, L.Q. Jones, G.D. Spradlin, Simon Oakland. One of the two theatrical films of TV director Don Medford (together with the Tibbs vehicle The Organisation-1972).  Slo-mo action a la Peckinpah. Alec Mills was the cameraman and Riz Ortolani made the music, giving the film more flavour of spaghetti, it was also shot in Almeria, Spain. 

3 stars out of 5 / 6 out of 10 !

aka Caza implacable; De jagade; Il giorno dei lunghi fucili; Leise weht der Wind des Todes; Les charognards

Rutger Hauer on the set of Blade Runner

 Those were the days (and mostly nights :) !!!

                                    1981 -Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty) on the set of Blade Runner 

Van Halen Avenue

 New York Subway station, see HERE (via Mishu).

Borat Strikes Back !

Borat 2– officially titled Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

 OCT. 23. Prime. In time for UnTrump the world. Great Succes (i hop) ! 

-filming again in Romania's village of Moroieni took place with adventures in July 2020. With Covid positive Roma extras ! And the famous gun rally sing-a-long mystery

is now solved ¬nuke'm up like in WW2¬, it was a Borat brave and crazy stunt, probably the most risque SBC ever pulled. Fist'em All :)

"While filming my latest Borat film, I showed up as a right-wing singer at a gun-rights rally in Washington State. When organizers finally stormed the stage, I rushed to a nearby get-away vehicle. An angry crowd blocked our way and started pounding on the vehicle with their fists. Under my overalls, I was wearing a bulletproof vest, but it felt inadequate with some people outside toting semiautomatic weapons. When someone ripped open the door to drag me out, I used my entire body weight to pull the door back shut until our vehicle maneuvered free."

Follow Borat's Twitter here !

Yagshimash !!

Remembering Eddie Van Halen

 on twitter here !

A So Cal original from the very beginnings !!!

Sammy Hagar

@sammyhagar

·

23h

Heartbroken and speechless. My love to the family.

DLR: What a Long Great Trip It’s Been..

Steven Tyler

@IamStevenT

·

19h

HE CHANGED THE COURSE OF GUITAR WHAMMY BAR ROCK & RHYME... A GAME CHANGER... AND HIS MELODIC CRAZY WAS OVER THE TOP… WE’LL MISS YOU EDDIE... LOVE FROM ABOVE ST

 “To me, he was like Tesla or Louis Pasteur or Ray Kurzweil. He might not have been working with circuits or engines or whatnot. He was working with musical notes and guitar strings and bridges and amplifiers.” – Kirk Hammett

—Nikki Sixx—

@NikkiSixx

Crushed. So fucking crushed. RIP Eddie Van Halen. You changed our world. You were the Mozart of rock guitar. Travel safe rockstar.

11:05 PM · Oct 6, 2020

RIP Eddie Van Halen

A Different Kind of Truth :( 

....Eddie, who made 1st history with Eruption and then Jamie's Crying, Atomic Punk, Ain't Talking bout Love, Running with the Devil, I'm the One (all on VH's 1st album in 1978)...and then Beat It, Jump, Panama, Hot for Teacher, Dreams, Why Can't This Be Love ?, When It's Love, Right Here Right Now came later...

...well, Edward Lodewjick Van Halen is gone...looong fight with the throat cancer, cancer finally won.  A real GIANT of Rock'n roll, one of  the top musicians of all time, absolutely my FAVED Guitar HERO a true GENIUS and one of the most virtuoso guitarists, hugely influential to say the least, but I never got to see him. Saw the rest of the band, minus Alex, with Chickenfoot in Paris at Olympia. But I still hoped I will see Eddie doing his bit of Eruption or Little Dreamer or Man on Mission on stage...Cathedral...

Hit hard the hurt chord...Goodbye Eddie ! A whole era is gone...RIP...at only 65...

                                                Edward Van Halen (26.01.1955-8.10.2020)
*

TMZ here via Vlad...

great interview with Eddie from 2012 in Esquire here !

and a GREAT 55 min. video masterclass at the Smithsonian in 2015 here and here:

                                                                               ***