My John Barry top 10: ready when you are, J. B.

What are my top 10 John Barry picks? The man had done such a variety of compositions that it’s hard to pick them out without qualifying a top 10 with genres. But for me, these stick in my mind as being the most significant, often because they are tied to important moments in my life. […]

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The music of goodbye: farewell John Barry

It was with great sadness that I wrote an obit about my favourite composer, John Barry, today, and published it on the Lucire website.    While Barry didn’t have to do with fashion per se, his music was often fitting themes to each era. Who can write a complete history of 1960s’ music without some […]

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James Bond’s Zinger

Apart from sounding like a burger, the Mitsubishi Zinger—or, to give its full model name these days in Taiwan, the Super Zinger (not kidding)—is one of those oddball vehicles I come across when editing Autocade. It’s a minivan based on a truck chassis—in this case the first-generation Mitsubishi Challenger—and a pretty ugly one at that. […]

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Thoughts on Players, the Indian remake of The Italian Job

It’s been known for some time that Players, the official, licensed Indian remake of The Italian Job, will film in New Zealand, but what surprised me is that Wellington is to take the place of Torino in the 21st-century version.    At least they changed the name, because the American remake of The Italian Job […]

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Is your favourite 1980s’ celeb here?

From the ‘Whatever happened to …’ and the ‘My God, is (s)he still alive?’ files comes this promotional video for the (Norwegian) TV2 show Gylne Tider, with a bunch of celebrities lip-synching ‘Let It Be’ (including, appropriately, Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli).    Sir Roger Moore kicks it off, but right after, you’ll catch (inter […]

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Farewell, Leslie Nielsen

A quick tribute to Leslie Nielsen—the ‘OC’—and the world’s favourite Danish–Canadian guy, who died today at age 84. And don’t call me Shirley, either. You may also like History of the 2010s: a look back at the decade that was Seasonal Canadian humour I wanted to grow up and be the Dean Martin version of […]

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Wellington’s most dangerous intersection (in fiction)

While chatting about the movie Shaker Run with one of our Lucire team (who was not born when the film was made), I noticed that the intersection at Courtenay Place–Taranaki Street–Dixon Street was rather treacherous in 1980s’ fiction (start at 1’56”):    Fast forward to 1986 and the Hong Kong film 最佳拍檔千里救差婆 (marketed as Aces […]

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Titling Goldeneye 007

This is nothing new to gamers (whose world I am not a part of—unless you count the last time I had a gaming console, which was 1984), though I found the opening sequence to the remade Goldeneye 007 game rather well done, apart from the colons. The Neuzeit typeface looks good here. As we’ve known […]

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A tribute to Bernard Schwartz—that’s Tony Curtis to most of us

I can’t let the passing of Bernard Schwartz—a.k.a. Tony Curtis—go without some sort of tribute.    I’ve bitten my tongue a few times this year on writing what I wanted to on this website. And with hindsight, I really should have just gone for it, as someone who preaches transparency. Yes, I do indeed have […]

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Replacing a social network near you: real life

As news emerges that teenagers have spent less time on Facebook, and there are more profiles getting closed on the social network, Sony has released its newest trailer for The Social Network. After 9-11, it’s time to tell the “other” story of the ’noughties. And if Facebook is the topic of a Hollywood film, then […]

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