SpyVibe: May 2013

May 30, 2013

DEAL ALERT

Deal Alert: Amazon is currently running a sale on a number of cult classics. You can pick up the first four seasons of Mission Impossible for only $13.99 each, plus great discounts on Wild Wild West, Hogan's Heroes, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-O, Untouchables, Tom Clancy and MI features, and more! Sale ends June 15th. Details here. Screen shots from DVD Beaver here.

Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about our fiendish villains archive, book designdopplegangers, Christopher Lee, Bettie Page, Dashiell Hammett, Miles Davis, WWII spy Krystyna Skarbek, recycled James Bond covers, interview with Fu Manchu author William Maynard, Man From UNCLE manga. new James Bond omnibus, Orson Welles the Shadow, rare Piero Umiliani Kriminal soundtrack, new Beatles Yellow Submarine game, James Bond audio book re-issues, Mid-Century Modern in Peanuts, Ralph Byrd Dick Tracy, my review of SKYFALL and more. Spy Vibe is now on Pinterest! Check out our image archives and follow us here.

Ian Fleming on Spy Vibe: recent posts include Fleming birthday tribute, Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, and our Ian Fleming image archive link here.

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SPY VIBE IMAGE ARCHIVE

As I go through the busy end of another school year as an art teacher, I continue to build Spy Vibe's image archive on Pinterest. Follow these image-clues to the world of mystery, adventure, mod fashion, science fiction, 1960s spies, Ian Fleming, diabolical fiends, pulp heroes, vintage steampunk, rayguns, and more!

Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about our fiendish villains archive, book design dopplegangers, Christopher Lee, Bettie Page, Dashiell Hammett, Miles Davis, WWII spy Krystyna Skarbek, recycled James Bond covers, interview with Fu Manchu author William Maynard, Man From UNCLE manga. new James Bond omnibus, Orson Welles the Shadow, rare Piero Umiliani Kriminal soundtrack, new Beatles Yellow Submarine game, James Bond audio book re-issues, Mid-Century Modern in Peanuts, Ralph Byrd Dick Tracy, my review of SKYFALL and more. Spy Vibe is now on Pinterest! Check out our image archives and follow us here.

May 27, 2013

IAN FLEMING TRIBUTE

Spy Vibe honors Ian Fleming, born in London on May 28th in 1908. Although Fleming is best remembered for his character James Bond, it should never be forgotten that it was his gift of language as a writer that brought 007 to life. Ian Fleming crossed paths with so many interesting people and he himself, a writer who banged out a new novel during his annual vacations in his beloved Goldeneye retreat in Jamaica, endures as my personal hero and source of inspiration. Celebrate Ian Fleming today by picking up one of his novels (available in print and ebook). Or better yet, spend the morning writing, followed by an afternoon of snorkeling around your own private tropical cove. That's how Ian Fleming would have wanted to spend the day.

Here is a teaser from one of the short stories in For Your Eyes Only: "The eyes behind the wide black rubber goggles were cold as flint. In the howling speed-turmoil of a BSA M20 doing seventy, they were the only quiet things in the hurtling flesh and metal. Protected by the glass of the goggles, they stared fixedly ahead from just above the centre of the handlebars, and their dark unwavering focus was that of gun muzzles." (From a View To a Kill)

Ian Fleming on Spy Vibe: some recent posts include Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, Jon Gilbert interview, Double 007 Designs, Bond audio book reissues, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, rare View to a Kill, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, and our Ian Fleming image archive on Pinterst here.

DESIGN DOPPLEGANGERS

The Fleetway Super Library series of comics from the UK sported dynamic cover illustrations that were sometimes based on other book covers and media images. Spy Vibe recently posted images that Fleetway shared with a famous design for a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming (post here). Fleetway's Johnny Nero series used actor Marcello Mastroianni as a model for its character depictions, but they also borrowed from Hollywood for their cover compositions. This famous 1967 Johnny Nero image was actually based on a famous movie still of Humphrey Bogart from the film The Enforcer (1951). My fellow C.O.B.R.A.S. site Permission To Kill has made the plausible suggestion that the Fleetway artist was most likely inspired by the poster art for the 1966 Eurospy film, Upperseven, which probably served as a missing link back to Bogart.

From Spy Vibe's Double 007 Design post: Likewise, we can see J. Oval's portrait in For Your Eyes Only repeated five years later on the cover of The Devil's Secret, a Johnny Nero adventure published in the Fleetway Super Library series in 1967 [Spy Vibe exposed this pairing in our Fleetway Super Library post here]. Have Spy Vibers uncovered similar design doppelgängers? Let us know!

Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about our fiendish villains archive, Bettie Page, WWII spy Krystyna Skarbek, recycled James Bond covers, interview with Fu Manchu author William Maynard, Man From UNCLE manga. new James Bond omnibus, Orson Welles the Shadow, rare Piero Umiliani Kriminal soundtrack, new Beatles Yellow Submarine game, James Bond audio book re-issues, Mid-Century Modern in Peanuts, Ralph Byrd Dick Tracy, my review of SKYFALL and more. Spy Vibe is now on Pinterest! Check out our image archives and follow us here.

Ian Fleming on Spy Vibe: recent posts include Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, and our Ian Fleming image archive link here.

DASHIELL HAMMETT

Happy Birthday to writer Dashiell Hammet. Born on this day in 1894, Hammett is best remembered for his hard-boiled fiction and screenplays. Many enduring characters sprang from his fertile imagination, including Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), The Continental Op (Red Harvest), and Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man series). He also teamed with artist Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) to create the comic strip Secret Agent X9 in 1934. The author's life was loosely depicted in the films Julia (1977) and Hammett (1982).

CHRISTOPHER LEE

Happy 91st Birthday to Christopher Lee! Lee has played most of the greatest villains and monsters in cinema, including Fu Manchu, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, Saruman, and one of my fave 007 baddies, the assassin Francisco Scaramanga(who had great taste in secret lairs, by the way!) in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974). Celebrate his birthday with some of his cool performances on Netflix: The Wicker Man (1973), Horror of Dracula (1958), Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Gormenghast (2000), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969), and The Avengers TV episodes Never Say Die (season 5 disc 4) and The Interrogators (season 6 disc 5). You can also sit with Lee and hear about his career in The Many Faces of Christopher Lee (1996). Amazingly, Lee's co-star in many Hammer Horror productions Peter Cushing was born one day earlier on May 26! Check out their spooky history together at the Hammer Films.

May 26, 2013

MILES DAVIS

It is the nature of the artist to stay a few steps ahead of popular imagination and to push for change, but it's a rare individual who can continually reinvent themselves and predict the course of culture over a long career. David Bowie and Miles Davis immediately come to mind. Miles Davis was born on this day in 1926 and his birthday inspires a brief spotlight on his fifty years as a major trendsetter in music and fashion. From the Bebop era of the mid-1940s, through Hard-bop, cool and orchestrations in the 1950s, to his meteoric rise toward Hendrix-inspired Jazz-Rock Fusion in the late-1960s and beyond, Miles Davis could easily serve as a guide to the history of Jazz and popular music during the last half of the Twentieth Century.

Although classic albums like Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, and Bitches Brew are often celebrated, I return most often to his haunting soundtrack for Louis Malle's 1958 film noir, Elevator to the Gallows. Miles Davis worked with a small group of French musicians to improvise a score around Malle's simple tale about two criminal lovers whose murder plot is interrupted when the man gets stuck in an elevator while fleeing the scene of the crime. Davis' mournful sound calls out as the audience watches the lovely Jeanne Moreau pace the night waiting for her accomplice to return. It has been described as the loneliest trumpet ever recorded and its vibe perfectly captures the way the film rests historically between classic noir and the modernism of the French New Wave. The film was remastered by the Criterion Collection in 2006 and includes a short feature about Mile Davis.

Celebrate Miles Davis today with these favorites: Films- Elevator to the Gallows, The Miles Davis Story, Books- We Want Miles Davis: Miles Davis vs Jazz, Albums- Round About Midnight, Porgy and Bess, Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Tribute to Jack Johnson, Live at the Plugged Nickel, Birth of Cool, Elevator to the Gallows/Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. Miles Davis below with his Ferrari 275 GTB photographedin 1969 by Baron Wolman.

May 25, 2013

BETTIE PAGE

Spicy Saturday: Spy Vibe has paid tribute in the past to Hugh Hefner, the boy cartoonist who grew up to be a celebrated champion of sex and sophisticated leisure in the 1950s. There were many people in that era who bucked against the post-war suburban ideal and today we spotlight Bettie Page, Queen of the Pin-Ups. Page became a cult hero by modeling for cheesecake, pin-up, and bondage photographs in the 1950s. She appeared in images for under-the-counter portfolio projects as well as high-profile gigs for Playboy and others. She became the center of a Senate Committee investigation that attacked publishers and artists for challenging the strict sexual climate of the times. Page later became a cultural icon of the sexual revolution and appeared as a character in comics, pop art, films, and on merchandise. She passed away at the age of 85 in 2008.

"I don't know what they mean by an icon. I never thought of myself as being that. It seems strange to me. I was just modeling, thinking of as many different poses as possible. I made more money modeling than being a secretary. I had a lot of free time. You could go back to work after an absence of a few months. I couldn't do that as a secretary." More info at her site here. Spy Vibe also recommends the 2005 bio-pic, The Notorious Bettie Page.

Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about our fiendish villains archive, WWII spy Krystyna Skarbek, recycled James Bond covers, interview with Fu Manchu author William Maynard, Man From UNCLE manga. new James Bond omnibus, Orson Welles the Shadow, rare Piero Umiliani Kriminal soundtrack, new Beatles Yellow Submarine game, James Bond audio book re-issues, Mid-Century Modern in Peanuts, Ralph Byrd Dick Tracy, my review of SKYFALL and more. Spy Vibe is now on Pinterest! Check out our image archives and follow us here.

May 23, 2013

HITCHCOCK EVENTS

San Francisco loves Alfred Hitchcock. The master of suspense made some of his most memorable work in the Bay Area, on films like Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, and The Birds, and San Francisco seems to repay the director with frequent tributes and special events. I recommend that Spy Vibers get out their calendars, because there are two programs coming up that you won't want to miss. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival will be screening "The Hitchcock 9" in June, nine films from his silent era lovingly remastered by the British Film Institute. The movies include Blackmail, Champagne, Downhill, The Ring, The Manxman, The Farmer's Wife, Early Virtue, The Pleasure Garden, and The Lodger. Each will screen with live music at the beautiful Castro Theater. Dates are June 14th-16th. More info here.

Looking further out, Davies Symphony Hall has announced some of their upcoming big-screen movie events with live music. I once saw a Looney Tunes marathon with the SF Symphony playing live- unforgettable! These events at Davies sell out quickly, so get tickets early. Upcoming titles of interest are The Matrix with the SF Symphony on July 27, followed by Hitchcock's Psycho with the SF Orchestra on Oct 30, and The Lodger with live organ on Oct 31. A great way to celebrate Halloween! More info here.