Thursday 24/3/2016 - Typewriter Articles, Happy Birthday Miss Rider & Mr Bond, The Training Continues & This Week's Wristwatches.

Apologies if this typecast page is a little hard to read. I was aiming for atmosphere.

I had the copyrighting pencil at the ready, but I didn't need it. I did need that cup of coffee, though. Along with one cube of sugar. 

And dig that anodised aluminium ashtray, hepcats. My folks got it from their local jeweller, back in the day.

Ursula Andress (right) as Honeychile Rider in Dr No, 1962. In the film, she strides out of the surf singing a song (Underneath the Mango Tree) to herself. She's holding some sea-shells, which she plans to take back to Kingston and sell to collectors. This is how she makes her meagre living. 

In Fleming's book, Rider emerges from the water naked, wearing nothing but a dive knife strapped around her waist. That's all she wears when she's diving for shells. 

She is described as having a body like Botticelli's Venus, but her appearance is marred by the fact that she has a slightly twisted nose that was once broken and later improperly set by an incompetent surgeon. For James Bond, who sees her come out of the water, this only adds to her allure. 

I have to say that the more I watch this film, the better Andress' performance becomes, despite the fact that her voice was dubbed after filming to remove her Swiss accent.

Here are those typewriter articles that I mentioned, courtesy of GQ Magazine. Please don't sue, gang. I had every issue between 1989 and 2012, AND I'm a current digital subscriber. Still prefer the paper version, though, 'cos I'm old-school that way;

Siff. E, 1989, 'Loving Manual Labor', GQ Magazine (U.S. edition), June, pp. 43, 45

And now, a word from our sponsor (taken from the flip-side of one of the article pages);

The Hamilton Ventura was also strapped to the wrists of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men In Black (Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997). I've thought about snagging one myself over the years, since it's such a classic design. From memory, it's still part of Hamilton's catalogue. 

And here's the other article;

Schulian, J. 1991, 'Type Cast', GQ Magazine (U.S. edition), December, pp. 80, 84

I'm a big believer in attribution, wherever possible. Aside from citing their original sources and authors, I've also inserted my details into these articles in an effort to show how they ended up on the web. I'm still bugged about having found some typewriter instructions of mine on some other websites without mention of the fact that they were my scans. 

Sunday's wristwatch, the hand-wound Camy Club-Star on Speidel expanding band;

It was Timothy Dalton's 70th Birthday on Monday (21st);

This here is the teaser poster for his first outing as Bond, The Living Daylights (Dir: John Glen 1987). I snagged a copy back then because I couldn't wait to see this film. With Roger Moore retiring from the role, I was longing for a fresh take on OO7 and Mr Dalton didn't disappoint. The film itself still had some fairly lightweight moments in it, but TD's spin on Bond brought the character quite a few degrees closer to both Fleming's original template and Sean Connery's portrayal of the 1960s.

This teaser poster showed a harder-edged Bond than what we had seen throughout the '70s and most of the '80s and Dalton brought back some much-needed steel to the character. His RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) theatre training didn't hurt, either. I've always held him in my Top Three Bond Actors and it's a shame that he didn't get the opportunity to do one or two more.

Anyway, he's been starring in Penny Dreadful, a macabre TV series set in late 1800s London, alongside Bond Girl Eva Green and Josh Hartnett, and I have to say that Season One of this show was wonderful. Definitely worth seeing. And so, Happy 70th, Mr D!

I still had the Club-Star on my wrist on Tuesday...

...which turned out to be a pretty busy day at work. I'm loving this watch on the Speidel Twist-O-Flex bracelet, by the way. Although, if you have hairy wrists (I don't say 'hirsute'), you might find that these kinds of bracelets will tug on the hair to an eye-watering level.

Wednesday, switched over to the Omega Seamaster AquaTerra;

This morning (or was it last night?), I put on the Omega Speedmaster Professional. We've done a little furniture moving and my wife was able to display some of her glassware collection that she's picked up over the years. Now, if we can just stop the cat from leaping up onto the cabinet where they're displayed.

I know I've said this a few times in the past, but I've been thinking about my watch collection lately and have come to the realisation that there are some watches I have that I know I won't wear much- if at all- in future. Tastes change, after all. 



The Tissot Visodate is a great watch, but I've found that, whenever I wear it, I began to wish I'd worn one of my vintage pieces instead.
Not only that, but I've really arrived at the opinion that, on my 6.5 inch wrist,  40mm in diameter is too large for a watch of this type. If only it had been around 2mm smaller. It would have been understated enough for me to keep. I'm only reluctant to sell it because the review I wrote of this watch back in October 2010 has had over 450,000 page-views. It's practically famous!
I think I'll spend a little more time deciding before I make any decisions.

I hope you all have a safe, relaxing, and happy time over the next few days, no matter what your faith or beliefs. This week's atrocities in Belgium should be a reminder to us all of what matters in our lives and in this world, and once again, my thoughts are with the people of Europe who have endured yet another blow to their sense of peace, calm and safety.
Terrorists in this modern age play by no set of rules, if ever there were any. I think it might be time to play the game their way. Level the playing field a little.
Not exactly a warm and fuzzy Easter message, but there you go.
It's not really a warm and fuzzy world anymore, is it?

Thanks for reading, and have a good one.