{"id":7247,"date":"2015-11-07T00:53:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T00:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=7247"},"modified":"2015-11-07T21:44:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T21:44:15","slug":"the-awesomeness-that-is-bond-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/the-awesomeness-that-is-bond-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The Awesomeness that is Bond Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

For about the past 30 years\u2014or ever since I got my dri\u00adver\u2019s license\u2014my best friend Jason Scott and I have attend\u00aded the open\u00ading of the new James Bond movie togeth\u00ader.<\/p>\n

This has entailed our play\u00ading hooky many times\u2014from school, jobs, girl\u00adfriends and wives.<\/p>\n

Wel\u00adcome to the awe\u00adsome\u00adness that is Bond Day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"121fb2400775426f114569115461fb7d\"Of course, like the Olympic games in wartime, there have been a few years when we\u2019ve been unable to cel\u00ade\u00adbrate Bond Day togeth\u00ader, and on those occa\u00adsions I\u2019ve gone to the open\u00ading alone or with anoth\u00ader friend.<\/p>\n

(In 1989\u2014a dark time for us Bond fans\u2014I went to the open\u00ading of Licence to Kill<\/em> with friend Paul Mey\u00ader, and our train broke down in the South Bronx. I explained to the con\u00adduc\u00adtor that we were try\u00ading to get to the new Bond film and, unbe\u00adliev\u00adable as it might sound, he opened the doors for us. We jumped off the train, crossed the tracks and end\u00aded up run\u00adning through the South Bronx\u2014I in a pink Oxford shirt and a faux Rolex dan\u00adgling from my wrist\u2014to find a sub\u00adway, while Bronx kids eyed us men\u00adac\u00ading\u00adly from doorsteps. The movie on that Bond Day was hor\u00adri\u00adble, but the day itself was mem\u00ado\u00adrable.)<\/p>\n

Today, Fri\u00adday, Novem\u00adber 6, 2015, was anoth\u00ader great Bond Day. But the cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion actu\u00adal\u00adly began yes\u00adter\u00adday, on Bond Day Eve\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Bond

Bond Day Eve starts out with shoot\u00ading at the range with my friend Bob Hanaburgh. Here I\u2019m shoot\u00ading Dako\u00adta\u2019s gun\u2014a Sig Sauer P226\u2014incidentally the same gun Bond uses in part of SPECTRE.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"As

As an homage to the golf scene in GOLDFINGER, I cap off Bond Day Eve with a round of golf.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"BOND

BOND DAY. In the ear\u00adly morn\u00ading, I get in some writ\u00ading on my own hero, Dako\u00adta Stevens.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I

I spend a few min\u00adutes re-read\u00ading the pas\u00adsage from the nov\u00adel GOLDFINGER that made me want to become a writer in the first place:<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBond motored com\u00adfort\u00adably along the Loire in the ear\u00adly sum\u00admer sun\u00adshine. This was one of his favourite cor\u00adners of the world. In May, with the fruit trees burn\u00ading white and the soft wide rivers still big with the win\u00adter rains, the val\u00adley was green and young and dressed for love\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"In

In cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Bond Day, I head out to pick up Jason by dri\u00adving on the left side of the road. (Just kid\u00adding. This pho\u00adto was tak\u00aden by Alexas when I was dri\u00adving us through Scot\u00adland in Sept. 2013.)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Jay

Jay and I enjoy a big break\u00adfast.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"It

It would\u00adn\u2019t be Bond Day with\u00adout some fast dri\u00adving. Jason for\u00adgot the tick\u00adets, so I had to put the ham\u00admer down to make it to the the\u00adater.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"We

We arrive at the palace (the\u00adater).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Entering

Enter\u00ading the movie, a movie I\u2019ve wait\u00aded two years to see.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, how was SPECTRE<\/em>? Mar\u00advelous. It is the best Daniel Craig Bond film since Casi\u00adno Royale<\/em>, and in some respects it\u2019s supe\u00adri\u00ador. Just as I pre\u00addict\u00aded, Christoph Waltz gives the most lay\u00adered and cap\u00adti\u00advat\u00ading por\u00adtray\u00adal of a Bond vil\u00adlain that I\u2019ve ever seen. The loca\u00adtions are var\u00adied and unique. The cin\u00ade\u00admatog\u00adra\u00adphy is exquis\u00adite. And a fight scene in the movie\u2014in my con\u00adsid\u00adered opinion\u2014is the best in the Bond canon:<\/p>\n

TOP 5 BOND FIGHT SCENES: 1. Daniel Craig vs. Mr. Hinx (on a train) in SPECTRE<\/em>; 2. Sean Con\u00adnery vs. Red Grant (also on a train) in From Rus\u00adsia with Love<\/em>; 3. Sean Con\u00adnery vs. Colonel Jacques Bou\u00advar (dressed as a woman) in Thun\u00adder\u00adball<\/em>; 4. Sean Con\u00adnery vs. the assas\u00adsin in the teas\u00ader of Goldfin\u00adger<\/em>; <\/em>5. Daniel Craig vs. the machete-wield\u00ading African thugs in Casi\u00adno Royale.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot more I could say about SPECTRE<\/em> and how great it is, but I don\u2019t want to ruin the movie for you. I\u2019m going to see it again next week.<\/p>\n

And now I look for\u00adward to Bond Day 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For about the past 30 years\u2014or ever since I got my dri\u00adver\u2019s license\u2014my best friend Jason Scott and I have attend\u00aded the open\u00ading of the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,47,4,29,7,48,46,13,233],"tags":[234,239,238,94,237,235,155,236],"class_list":["post-7247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-driving-in-the-uk-travel","category-england","category-favebooks","category-film-tv","category-personal","category-scotland","category-united-kingdom","category-writers","category-writing-life","tag-bond","tag-bond-day","tag-bond-movies","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-ian-fleming","tag-james-bond","tag-orcutt","tag-spectre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7247"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7283,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7247\/revisions\/7283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}