Worth another shot… in August

 

And another new thing from CommanderBond.net (May flowers? August corn!). ‘Worth another shot’ from now on is going to wrap up the past month, with everything that didn’t make it on the main page but should have. Or did make it and merits another shot. What it says, actually. We do as yet not know where exactly this is going to take us. For the time being it will be a couple of links, revisits, thoughts and notes, nothing too pretentious. Could be in some months it’s going to centre upon a particular theme or event. But I promise it won’t stoop to publishing anybody’s shopping list. Well, Bond’s perhaps, but that’s another story.

 

Oh, and of course it’s entirely a subjective opinion piece. Meaning whoever is doing it is speaking entirely for himself. You may have your own shot.

 

So what was it this August that kept our minds busy, what was – nearly – forgotten, and what should perhaps better have been?

 

Well, actually August has been a pretty busy month in the Bond-sphere. In the aftermath of the ‘Skyfall’ trailers hitting screens – once more in a European and an American version, for mysterious reasons – at the end of July the news situation did not slow down that much. Amongst other things Sky announced ‘Sky Movies 007 HD‘, a channel dedicated to the entire Bond film catalogue of MGM. Well, one might argue an entire channel dedicated to just ‘Skyfall’ would have been fitting for Sky, but perhaps a bit excessive. Rest assured, they will show the whole series.

 

Furthermore ‘Skyfall’ character posters have been released (perhaps a bit too close to a MARVEL superhero title), Activision announced two more missions for their  ‘007 Legends’ game, a new ‘Skyfall’ video blog looked behind the shooting in London. And Bond took the stage at the Camden Fringe Festival, in a dress but not in drag.

 

August was also the month we lost Marvin Hamlish.

 

What else? Well, since our first note here on the main page SFX Magazine was continuing its own ‘Skyfall’ countdown with its series of – splendid – Bond film reviews. This should definitely not go unnoticed by any fan of the films. By now they have arrived at ‘The Living Daylights‘ and have covered the series with some of the most entertaining  and spot-on reviews it ever got.

 

Which is perhaps not what one would immediately accuse the ‘Now Playing Podcasts‘ of. The mark here seems to be the one safe spot where a hit is the least likely. Anyway, at times still fun.

 

Another fun thing that – nearly – went below the radar here are the couple of interviews Anders Frejdh’s FROM SWEDEN WITH LOVE put up recently. He talked to Lynn-Holly Johnson, Andreas Wisniewski and Christopher Wood. Highly recommended.

 

Which brings us to our own activities. And there have been some. The Finer Details series was revived to feature original content by CBn-crew and guest contributors; at least monthly and on a regular basis. This month The Finer Details featured two articles dealing with the literary Bond. Luke Freeman is taking a closer look at the first appearances of Bond in the continuations of Gardner and Benson. And Brian McKaig investigates the connection between John Gardner’s ‘SeaFire’ and Britain’s coast defence during WWII. More material of this nature – more articles, reviews, opinion pieces – is on its way.

 

The anniversary of course also has its impact on CBn’s own people. Matthew Harkin edited his own series of 23 Bond trailers. And the result is nothing less but splendid. Warmly recommended.

 

And CBn’s Jacques Stewart (aka Jim) started his own series of Bond reviews – mysteriously titled ‘The 007th Minute’, for whatever reason – with a focus on the seventh minute of each film. Simple, time-saving and effective. The seventh minute of ‘Dr No‘ and ‘From Russia With Love‘ are already up, and you will be astounded how much information you can glean from a single minute of exposed celluloid.

 

And finally we decided to see off the last month with this here column.

‘Worth another shot’ will return… in September