Well, it was a warm summer day and I said “the heck with it; I am going to hike the outer loop of the Forest Park Nature Center even if it hurts.
And hurt it did; the loop took 1:23 though I’d say I spent at least 10 minutes total time on stretching breaks; the glute downright hurt after 15 minutes. Good thing I am getting professional attention.
I’d say this was a 1:10-1:15 effort on most days but…well, it is what it is. I’ve been through a couple of years like this: 2006-2007 and again 2010-2011 and eventually, things got better. And given that I am older, it will take longer.
Then I did pull ups (50 or 55..missed a set of 5), push ups: 3 sets of 10 “hands on the ground” and 2 sets of 40 with hands on the bar.
Curls, rotator cuff and I did 10 x 95, 10 x 115 bench press (special bar; probably less range of motion.
Today: slept in a bit to have more energy for my math thinking this afternoon.
I did the exercise bike 37:50 for 12.45 “fake miles” (20 km) then swam 1800 yards:
100 side, 100 breast, 100 free then 200 of kick/swim (fins), 200 of side/breast 3 x 100 kick drills (fins) 4 x 50 free on 1:15, 300 of kick drills (fins), 4 x 50 free on 1:15, 100 of breast/fly kick (fins). 50’s ranged from 52 to 57.
Weight: 205. Ugh…better cut down.
As far as the workout: I’ve mellowed. I am not training for anything, so I went to the Rplex with the idea of doing whatever was open and whatever my body would allow me to do. Note: I felt some piriformis sting after the bike. Some slight shoulder ache after the swim.
Mellowing: I rewarched Octopussy. I hated it when I first saw it as I tried to take it too seriously. Now…I just enjoyed ..even the intentional humor (Bond telling the tiger to “stay”, doing a Tarzan yell between trees while swinging, the models beating up the henchmen toward the end, etc.
“I saw a striking Twitter discussion among professors of constitutional law, a course that I also teach. They were debating whether much of the Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sandford should be excised from constitutional-law courses.”
Hard “nope” from me; I divorce the work of the individual from the individual; that a mathematician was a true believing Nazi (and many were) does not mean their mathematics isn’t worthy of study. And part of the job of a scholar is to separate the two.
Ok, so you want to watch some James Bond but are unfamiliar? I’ll outline a few courses of study. One caveat: don’t watch these if you want high level cinema; these are fantasy films, period. And there are some obvious mistakes (example. ..no this wasn’t “cheating”; I am sure that all players would know that a “5” is not a “9”; the film editors really screwed up here)
And yes, at times, the plots are downright ridiculous, the plot holes a mile wide and there is miraculous TV feed.. you HAVE to suspend realism to enjoy these. And the social background; very non-pc; after all, the first film dates from 1962. Bond sexually harasses women, sometimes hits them (ok; can be spy stuff, but often these are women he ends up sleeping with), and there are extreme cultural/racial stereotypes at times (e. g. the women eating dinner scene in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service).
With that in mind, here are my “Bond courses of study”
Bond appreciation course: get a minimal idea of what it is all about; primer for iconic Bond moments and characters. Yes, this leaves off some of my favorites.
Goldfinger (several iconic lines, a very famous henchman: Odd Job, Sean Connery’s Bond personified.
From Russia With Love (SPECTRE is in this one, Cold War theme; a “spy yarn.”
One of the Roger Moore Bonds; he plays the character in a distinct way; I’d say one of the “Jaws” movies, either: a. The Spy Who Loved Me (a Bond favorite) or b. Moonraker (Bond in Space; gadgets and a “special unit to save the day” at he end)
Goldeneye: one of the highest rated Bond movies and a good representative of the “modern Bonds”; a Pierce Brosnan Bond.
Casino Royale (Craig, 2006); note there is a 1967 spoof version, and a 1954 “made for TV” version….I like the latter.
Bond 101 course: for potential Bond majors. Find out more about the series; fill in some of the gaps and get a bit deeper into it.
Dr. No. The first Bond film; where “Bond, James Bond” starts.
From Russia with Love
Goldfinger
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (the background in this film is built on in later films..and, while it was made AFTER “You Only Live Twice”, in Bond chronology, it actually comes before. It is the only George Lazenby Bond.
You Only Live Twice: the villain’s base is iconic, as is Blofeld.
The Spy Who Loved Me. (I am leaving off “Live and Let Die” as optional; it is Roger Moore’s first Bond, but I think that LALD is an “off the main sequence” film. )
Moonraker (one of the cheesy but fun Moore ones)
For Your Eyes Only (references On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at the start..) ; a solid spy yarn
One of the Timothy Dalton Bonds: The Living Daylights (Cold War) or License to Kill (very dark but a very human Bond; this is one of my personal favorites)
Goldeneye
A second Brosnan Bond: either The World is Not Enough or Tomorrow Never Dies.
Casino Royale (Craig)
Skyfall (another Daniel Craig Bond)
Master’s Degree in Bond
Ok, you REALLY want to go all in but don’t have quite the time to watch them all.
So, my course looks like this: All 15 of the ones listed in the previous list (e. g. both Living Daylights and License to Kill, both World is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never dies. To these 15 we add:
Thunderball (early Connery Bond, after Goldfinger; quite good, especially if you like scuba)
Diamonds are Forever (I think it is fun; Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are good henchmen) This one gets panned by the critics though.
Casino Royale, the 1967 spoof; I found it funny but many did not.
Octopussy: second to last Moore Bond; it irritated me when I first saw it but if you don’t take it too seriously it can be fun.
Never Say Never Again: a “non-Eon” Bond (not “official”); a reprise for Sean Connery in a role that he is too old for; it is similar to Thunderball, but with missile warheads instead of free fall atomic bombs carried by a British Vulcan bomber.
View to a Kill: Moore’s last Bond; he is 58 and kind of old for the part. The villain and chief henchwoman get praise though…not sure I want to see Grace Jones in a thong though.
Die Another Day: parts of this film “jump the shark” (all of the ice hotel stuff, or the surfing past iceburgs shot…invisible car….but there are parts that work too.
SPECTRE: ugh..it has its moments but..well, like the other Bonds it is probably worth a look.
The shoulder feels “slightly” better ..I’ll try some gentle swimming tomorrow. The butt..sort of hurts in a different way…cycling? Deadlifts?
Workout: yoga with Ms. V then 38:30 for 12.5 “fake” miles.
Yesterday: Chiefs game with Barbara. The Chiefs loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8’th; two hits, wild pitch to get runners on 2’nd and 3’rd, strike, out, intentional walk (a mistake?), then a “hit by pitch.” The Chiefs only got one run but then lead 4-3 and won with a double play to end the top of the 9’th.
Attendance was low, even for a Wednesday; wonder if the price increase hurts?
Shoulder ache: still there. So, I skipped swimming; did yoga (decent), shoulder PT and 20 km on the exercise bike (39:20).
Wonder what the appointments will bring.
Off…will this be the resumption of mathematics for me?
Note: last night was sort of rough but the morning/day wasn’t that bad. Weirdly: naproxen almost makes it worse; it is as if the micro swelling braces stuff up.
Ok, Jury duty again. This time I got to be questioned by the judge and then the attorneys. I was dismissed by the State attorney; of the 7 that came before me the state attorney agreed to all of them; defense dismissed one.
Reason: long and short, I was/am a friend of the defense attorney. I agree with the call.
I still swam and got a full set of pull ups (50 reps) and push-ups (3 sets of 40); achy shoulder caused me to skip the presses.
swim: 300 of 100 side, 100 breast, 100 side, 300 of kick (no stroke, with fins), 200 of side, 200 of kick drills (one 25 free per 100) (fins), 200 side, 400 fins (last 100 was free; rest were 75 kick, 25 free) 4 x 50 (alt free, pull).
I am not sure..after my week of jury duty, I see the doctor to see if something is seriously wrong with the shoulder. My guess; probably not. But I thought that about my knee in 2010 and ended up with surgery. I really don’t want the knife.
Piriformis: that is messed up as well; I probably need professional level help. But I can swim, bike and do certain weight exercises.
I went through something like this 12 years ago..ok, that was worse…a lot worse. Then, pain was waking me up at night.
And I can do a bit more right now.
Deadlifts:
10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224
On the 3: 5 sets of 251 x 3. Time to up the weight?
Well, the lay-off from walking has not improved my piriformis, at all. I am setting up some future PT, but of course, next week is out due to…jury duty. Grrr..
Shoulder: some ache last night; probably too much free on Friday. I have an adjustment that might work.
I did workout:
1.5 mile walk (called 2.4 by Garmin); first mile was ok but 1/4 of a mile later; pain.
I am wondering if I shouldn’t do 1 mile walks just to warm up my piriformis for stretching.
Then..after stretching and attitude adjusting…
pull ups (55…20 on the 10 seconds, 5, 10 singles, 10 reps, then 2 sets of 5)
push ups: 40, 40, 30
bench press: several shrugs, 2 sets with the empty bar; 10 x 94, 5 x 94 close grip (felt bad), 2 more sets of 10 x 95
curls: 4 sets of 10 x 50
shoulder: 10 x 65 close grip, 2 sets of 10 x 85 usual grip; 3’rd set was better; 2n’d set was too shallow.
Ok, for reasons I do not quite understand, I made it a point to watch every James Bond movie that I had not seen before, and rewatch those I had not seen in full.
And I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. As part of the fun, I’ve discovered some fun “fan resources”; obviously something that is close to 60 years old has SOMETHING going for it.
And like most Bond fans, there are things I love, and things that make me roll my eyes.
Yes, Bond is pure fantasy; somehow he can do everything than an expert does..when the expert was selected for aptitude and trains constantly.
Yes, the henchmen; most of them anyway, are incompetent. The Brosnan Bond takes a couple of guns and shoots up 30-40 heavily armed henchmen at once. Sure.
I admit that I do not like the action-shoot-em-up aspect when it is just Bond, or Bond and the partner of the movie.
It is sort of the Sir Galahad fantasy: Bond wins because he is on the side of right (well, ok, in one movie Bond’s wife gets killed at the end…and in this case, Bond didn’t make sure that Blofeld was dead when he had the chance to kill him and it came back to haunt him; similar can be said when the Dalton Bond had the chance to kill the drug lord Sanchez early in License to Kill and didn’t… sure he did burn him to death at the end but only after Sanchez had created a pile of bodies.
So speaking of Bonds: report on them..maybe even rank them. But there are 3 that I love and the rest are good…I will merely discuss.
I’ll discuss the villains and henchmen too and there are some that I feel are underrated.
But right now, I’ll list my favorite “come to save the day” units.
For those unfamiliar, the climax of many a Bond movie (some of them, NOT all of them) is a special group, sometimes military, sometimes paramilitary, sometimes private, that swoops in on the bad guy compound and helps save the day at the end.
This is spoofed at 1:54 of this clip of the Spoof version of Casino Royale:
I am not counting the British Navy ship in Tomorrow Never Dies that shells the villain’s sea vessel at the end.
4. US Marines in space: Moonraker. They attack the space station where Drax (the villain) is going to launch poison gas globes to kill us all and to repopulate the world with genetically perfect people.
3. Navy Frogmen in Thunderball: they attack the Spectre frogmen who want to set off an atomic bomb off of the coast of Miami.
2. Captured submarine sailors (British, Russian and American) who overrun Stromberg’s super submarine capturing ship. And the surviving US Submarine torpedoes Stromberg’s sea hideout
And finally: 1. The Ninjas in You Only Live Twice who overrun and capture Blofeld’s crater where he sends spaceships to capture Russian and US spaceships in hopes of starting a nuclear war.
Favorite villains/henchmen
Unlike some, I did not distinguish between henchmen and chief villains. And these are just those that appealed to me, for some reason. A complete list (with a few errors) is here.
15. Alec Trevelian (006): Goldeneye. He is a rogue British agent and a match for Bond. 14. Sanchez: License to Kill: chilling drug overlord. 13. Kristatos: For Your Eyes Only: spoiler alert: he is a surprise traitor. 12. Carver: Tomorrow Never Dies: evil media mogul whose greed leads him to kill and try to start wars. 11. Frost: Die another Day: spoiler alert: surprise traitor. 10. Moon-Graves: sort of a surprise: evil North Korean gone rogue; even kills his own father. 9. Boris: Goldeneye. Evil computer wizard; a highly competent nerd gone over to the dark side. 8. Emile Locque: cold blooded hitman; IF you were on his kill list, he’d kill you with the remorse of a shark. 7. Klebb: From Russia, with Love: rogue Soviet intelligence officer with the shoe blade. Now we get to my all stars: 6. Dario: License to Kill. The actor who played him can ACT. He is one of the few bad guys that gave me chills; damn, I don’t want him in my city. Evil just oozes through his pores. 5. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd: Diamonds are Forever. Psychotic gay couple who kill for a living, and enjoy every minute. No, not as believable as Dario…but..there is something chilling about mixing humor with such darkness. 4. Roul Silva: Skyfall. You DON’T want to be on his bad side. He was almost as chilling here as in No Country for Old Men. 3. Elektra: The World is Not Enough. oh-boy…merciless…charm you then finish you off. Technically, she wasn’t the chief villain, but she really was. 2. Grant: From Russia with Love. Sculpted, highly intelligent, highly disciplined super competent killer. If you are on his hit list: adios. 1. Odd Job. Has a non-speaking part, but he has that smug, amused look (“you expected THAT to hurt me?”) Some call him “unbelievably strong.” But the actor (Harold Sakata) on a silver medial as a light heavyweight in Olympic weight lifting…he didn’t just *play* a strong man. This guy really could rip you in half.
Memorable kills
Here is a reasonably complete list:
My favorite kills:
Dr. No: RJ Dent. Here the professor picks up a gun but Bond knows he has already used up his bullets ..and then kills the evil prof. “you’ve had your six.”
From Russia, with Love: kills Grant on the train in an epic rail car fight.
Goldfinger: kills the powerful Oddjob by electrocuting him; uses a cut wire to electrify the bars that Oddjob’s steel rimmed hat is stuck on.
Her Majesty’s Secret Service: an anonymous henchman chasing Bond is lead to ski right into a snow blowing machine…”He had a lot of guts”
The Spy Who Loved me: Sandor attempts to kill Bond; doesn’t; huge fight and Sandor is left teetering on the edge of a roof. Bond gets information he wants and then pushes Sandor’s hand away, allowing him to fall to his death.
Moonraker: the henchmen (Jaws and someone not named) attempt to kill bond by standing him on a crashing plane without a parachute. Bond aerial dives after the the anonymous henchman and steals his parachute in mid air.
For Your Eyes Only: hitman Emile Locque gets away but Bond catches him wounded with his car dangling off of a cliff. Bond throws a dove trinket at him reminding him that Locque killed a friend of his, and then shoves the teetering car off of a cliff.
For Your Eyes Only: Apostis: henchman almost gets Bond by intelligently knocking out his climbing pegs as he ascends up a cliff to get at the evil guys.
Living Daylights: Nercos: serial assassin who openly taunts Bond; but Bond ends up fighting him on a plane with an open cargo door; Nercos ends up handing by Bond’s boot and Bond cuts his laces allowing Nercos to fall to his death.
License to Kill: Ed Killifer: traitor cop is paid off to let a loathsome drug lord escape. He also kills. In this case..when the water about to be killed by a shark and offers Bond a lot of money to save him. Bond throws the money at him, telling him to keep it.
License to Kill. Bond kills Dario by getting him to fall into a grinding machine.
License to Kill: Sanchez is about to finish Bond off. Bond shows the lighter of a friend that Sanchez maimed (and killed his wife) before setting the fuel drenched Sanchez on fire.
Goldeneye: Bond kills rogue 006 (and former trusted friend) by letting him fall to his death…”For England? ” “No. For me.”
Tomorrow Never Dies: Prof. Kaufman: hitman is hired to kill Bond and make it look like a suicide. Bond turns the tables. Kaufman says “I am just a professional doing my job.” Bond responds “Me too.” and kills him.
Tomorrow Never Dies: Evil arch villain Carver is killed by Bond when Bond shoves him in front of a lethal screw propeller, used formerly as a type of torpedo.
World is Not Enough: Bond kills Elektra (who he had slept with and saved at times) by shooting her when she disobeys his command and orders the operation to continue. Prior, she says “you wouldn’t kill me; you’d miss me.” Bond kills her and says “I never miss.”
Die another day: a two-fer: in the epic plane scene, Bond kills Moon/Graves by using his electrically charged artificial hands to shock him as he hangs on to the plane. Meanwhile, in the other concurrent battle, CIA agent Jinx (female) kills rogue turncoat British agent Miranda Frost with a knife.
Quantum of Solace: Bond drives Greene out to the desert, gets the information, and strands him there, with only a can of motor oil to sustain him. Later, we learn that he indeed drank the oil but was killed by other bad guys. Note: Greene killed someone else by oil.
My Favorite Bond films
Now this is not a comprehensive list or ranking; you can find fun ones here (superfan site) here , here and here (fan rankings). And these are just MY preferences (which seem to be in line with what the fans like).
Just a short note to start out: it seems as if I love EVERY Connery Bond movie, was lukewarm on the Lazenby one (liked aspects of it) like the first 5 Moore ones (Octopussy and View to a Kill…not so much), liked both Dalton ones, liked aspects of the Brosnan ones (too much shoot-em-up vs. Stormtrooper caliber henchmen), and liked two of the Craig ones.
Goldfinger
From Russia with Love
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds are Forever
Moonraker (yes, I know the critics panned this one but I liked it..even with the silliness)
Note: if you think I am crazy or blind, I am listing by what *I* enjoy. Yes, the Craig Casino Royale is a better movie than some that I like more (the two three “space” movies, whose plots are downright ridiculous)
And yes, MY list is very closely correlated with chronological order.
Memorable scenes
I won’t rank these but just lay them out there:
Goldfinger: Oddjob and Bond fight to the death.
Goldfinger: “No Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!”
From Russia with Love: Grant and Bond’s epic fight on the train.
From Russia with Love: Klebb’s death
Dr. No: “You’ve had your six” when Bond kills the evil professor.
Thunderball: the underwater fight at the end.
You Only Live Twice: Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond. My friends call me Tiger.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: Bond holds his freshly killed wife at the very end.
Live and Let Die: Mr. Big gets blown up (completely ridiculous)
Man with the Golden Gun: Bond “persuades” a gunsmith to talk to him.
The Spy Who Loved Me: Bond sends Sandor to his death off of the top of a building. The Spy Who Loved Me: submarine sailors save the day (toward the end) Moonraker: opening scene when Bond steals a henchman’s parachute. Moonraker: Bond persuades Jaws to help him.
For Your Eyes Only: Bond kicks an assassin’s car off of a cliff (it was teetering)
For Your Eyes Only: Bond overcomes Apostis’s attempt to kill him as he climbs the side of a cliff.
For Your Eyes Only: Bond throws the coding machine off of the cliff so that no one gets it.
Never say Never again: “who sent you?” (hopeless assistant shows up when Bond wasn’t expecting him
Never say Never again: “That’s top secret …who did you know about that? ” “From a Russian translation of one of your service manuals. Sorry about that.”
Living Daylights: Bond pulls back on a kill when he realizes the sniper isn’t a competent professional.
License to kill: Bond throws the briefcase full of money at the crooked US agent.
License to kill: druglord blows up a henchman in a pressure chamber. License to kill: Bond sets Sanchez on fire…”Do you want to know why?” Goldeneye: “For England James?” “No..for me”
The World is Not enough: “you wouldn’t kill me. You’d miss me.” “I never miss.”
Tomorrow Never Dies: ” I am just a professional doing a job.” “Me too.”
Tomorrow Never Dies: Bond dispatches the evil Carver with the screw torpedo.
Die Another Day: the double header at the end when Jinx kills Frost and Bond kills Moon/Graves
Casino Royale: the sinking building.
Casino Royale: Bond gets tortured while sitting on a chair.
Skyfall: scene at the end when Silva has M captured but gets killed.
Quantum of Solace: Bond drives Greene out to the desert and leaves him with a can of motor oil. Spectre: at the end..Blofeld: “finish it.”
If was fun to watch the social norms change with time. The early Bond movies could not be made now; for example, while it would probably be ok to torture an an enemy woman for information (on film..I am NOT talking about the actual ethics), it wouldn’t be ok for said woman to fall in love with him. Homosexuality is treated as a negative thing (Diamonds are forever, From Russia with Love)
Culture stereotypes are used (From Russia with Love: “Gypsies”, Japanese in Diamonds are Forever)
In Goldeneye, the new M calls the Brosnan Bond as a non-pc relic of the Cold War.
My comments on the Bond actors:
I am not counting the spoof one (Casino Royale in 1967)
Connery: smooth, ruthless when necessary, but could show fear (e. g. when he was about to be cut by a laser in Goldfinger, or when physically overmatched by Grant and Oddjob)
Lazenby: I liked the moment when he sort of froze at dinner when a young woman wrote her room number on his leg..in lipstick (he was wearing a kilt) and his moment with his slain newlywed wife was well acted. The skiing: kudos to the professional skier for that one.
Moore: priceless facial expressions; he was good until he got too old for the part. He showed anger (Sandor and Locque kills), “oh boy” (when he was hit on by an underage skater in For Your Eyes Only) and fear (when Apostis came close to killing him)
Dalton: I enjoyed his character the most. He showed the full range of emotions, killed only when he had to; showed conflict on his face. I really liked him and sorry he only did two of them.
Brosnan: in his movies, I didn’t care for all of the Rambo style “shoot up the incompetent henchmen” action stuff, but that’s on the screen writing. I liked his interactions on an individual level and probably would have liked him better in, say, a “license to kill” script.
Craig: ironically, the most athletic Bond had trouble passing his physical exam in the script! He mentioned that he played the plot a bit more psycho as the Bond of the novels really did use drugs and they couldn’t show that directly.
Bonus Barry Nelson played Bond in a Casino Royale “live for TV” episode in 1954. His character didn’t have the super human qualities of the movie Bonds and gets by with thinking quickly, remembering stuff, and guts. He gets tortured and doesn’t recover “on the spot”; he doesn’t overcome 10-1 odds, no gadgets, etc.
Bond Villains and Barbells
Yes, Harold Sakata (Oddjob) was a silver medalist weight lifter in real life (light heavyweight, 1948 London Olympics)
And he was so popular after the fact that he was featured in a commercial!
From Russia, With Love, Grant used them in his conditioning:
And in the Man with the Golden Gun, the hitman had a full gym with a barbell and squat rack:
Submarines and nuclear reactors were prominently featured: Dr. No had a swimming pool nuclear reactor (NOT used for power in real life), The World is Not Enough featured a stolen Soviet submarine and a plot to melt the reactor down, and of course, The Spy Who Loved Me featured stolen submarines, and Bond was taken aboard a US submarine in Never Say Never again. …and I believe taken aboard a British sub in You Only Live Twice.
Life of an old goat 