Here are May 2022âs imagesâaides-mĂ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.
Posts tagged ‘Hollywood’
May 2022 gallery
02.05.2022Tags: 1950s, 1955, 1960s, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1970s, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1980s, 1983, 1986, 2022, actress, advertisement, advertising, Alfa Romeo, Audemars Piguet, Autocar, Bertone, BL, Brazil, British Leyland, Canada, car, celebrity, Envoy, fashion, film, France, Germany, GM, Hollywood, humour, James Bond, language, magazine, marketing, modelling, musician, Netherlands, Opel, Panos Emporio, retro, Roger Moore, Saab, science, Sean Connery, Simca, Sweden, Switzerland, Triumph, Twitter, UK, USA, Vauxhall, watch
Posted in cars, culture, gallery, humour, interests, internet, marketing, Sweden, technology, UK | No Comments »
September 2021 gallery
02.09.2021Here are September 2021âs imagesâaides-mĂ©moires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month. It sure beats having a Pinterest.
Sources
The 2016 Dodge Neon sold in México. More at Autocade.
IKCO Peugeot 207. More at Autocade.
Double standards in New Zealand media, reposted from Twitter.
The cover of the novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Nice work on the use of Americana, which does take me back to the period, but I’m not convinced by this cut of Italian Old Style. I just don’t remember it being used that much.
Daktariâs Cheryl Miller as the new Dodge model, in her second year, promoting the 1971 Dodge Demon. This was a 1960s idea that was being carried over with minor tweaks into the new decade, and it didn’t work quite as well as the earlier Joan Parker ‘Dodge Fever’ advertisements (also shown here in this gallery).
House Beautiful cover, January 1970, before all the garishness of the decade really hit. This is still a clean, nicely designed cover. I looked at some from the years that followed on House Beautifulâs website, and they never hit this graphic design high mark again.
That’s the Car and Driver cover for my birth month? How disappointing, a Colonnade Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
French typesetting, as posted on the typography.guru forums.
Read books, humorous graphic reposted from Twitter.
My reply in the comments at Business Desk, on why it made more sense for me to have run for mayor in 2010 and 2013 than it would in 2022.
Seven years before its launch, Marcello Gandini had already styled the Innocenti Mini. This is his 1967 proposal at Bertone.
JAC Jiayue A5. More at Autocade.
Phil McCann reporting for the BBC, reposted from Twitter.
Car and Driver February 1970 cover. As a concept, this could still work.
Tags: 1960s, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1970s, 1971, 1972, 1974, 2010s, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, actress, Aotearoa, BBC, Bertone, book, Brexit, British Leyland, Business Desk, car, celebrity, Chevrolet, China, Chrysler, Dodge, FCA, Fiat, film, France, GM, graphic design, Hollywood, humour, IKCO, Innocenti, Iran, Italy, JAC, Lamborghini, layout, licensing, magazine, Marcello Gandini, marketing, mayoralty, media, México, modelling, modernism, New Zealand, Peugeot, politics, PSA, publishing, Qatar, racism, retro, Saudi Arabia, Sawahel Aljazeera, Stellantis, technology, The New York Times, Twitter, typography, UK, USA, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in business, cars, China, design, France, gallery, humour, interests, leadership, marketing, media, New Zealand, politics, publishing, technology, typography, UK, USA, Wellington | No Comments »
Roger Nichols performs the original Hart to Hart theme
13.03.2020In 2013, I wrote a small note on my Tumblog about Roger Nichols’ theme to the TV series Hart to Hart. The music was played as the opening and closing themes in the pilot, and as an incidental theme to many episodes later, but few remember it. I’ve even seen websites proclaim that the Mark Snow theme that most of us know was the ‘original’, not unlike how The Love Boat attempts to exorcise the two pilot films starring Ted Hamilton and Quinn Redeker as the captains.
The tune was later commercially released by the Carpenters as ‘Now’, among the final songs recorded by Karen Carpenter. However, that was with a different set of lyrics, and the original by Leslie Bricusse has never been heard. I suggested in 2013 that the closest might have been Mariya Takeuchi’s recording in Japanese, though that has since vanished from YouTube.
However, there is now a post on YouTube at almost the original tempo, performed by Nichols himself, but the Bricusse lyrics remain unheard. You’d think that there’d be a fan somewhere who has the inside story.
Tags: 1970s, 1979, history, Hollywood, Leslie Bricusse, music, musician, Roger Nichols, TV, USA, YouTube
Posted in culture, interests, TV, USA | No Comments »
When someone you know got ‘Harveyed’
12.10.2017‘Repugnant’ is a very good word, used by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences to describe producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment and assaults. It’s a small world when someone you know was ‘Harveyed’, and it all follows a very familiar script. My opâed’s in Lucire today.
Tags: 2017, film, Hollywood, Lucire, media, news, power, privilege, publishing, USA
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Why I ran
24.04.2014In two elections, I told people some blarney on why I decided to run.
In 2010: âI was working at Lewâs Diner and this guy had been picked on. I told him, âStand tall, boy, show some respect for yourself. Do you think Iâm going to spend the rest of my life in this slop house? No, sir, Iâm going to night school. Iâm going to make something of myself.â Some weird guy sitting next to him in a life preserver chimes up, points and me, and says, âThatâs right, heâs going to be Mayor!â And thatâs when I got the idea. Mr Carruthers did say, âA coloured mayor, thatâll be the day,â but it didnât deter me.â
In 2013: âI was wondering whether to stand again and decided to chill out and watch Doctor Who. In that episode, Jenna Coleman turns to the screen and says directly to me, âRun, you clever boy, and remember.â So I did.â
You have to admit these are better answers than the stock politiciansâ ones.
With that, ladies and gentlemen, have a blessed Anzac Day.
Tags: 1980s, 1985, 2010, 2012, 2013, Aotearoa, Back to the Future, BBC, culture, Doctor Who, film, Hollywood, humour, mayoralty, New Zealand, politics, TV, UK, USA, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in culture, New Zealand, politics, TV, UK, USA, Wellington | 2 Comments »
The Saint goes on
30.04.2013I belatedly came across the YouTube preview of The Saint, a reimagining of the Leslie Charteris character, which was shopped at Cannes this month. It had been posted by Ian Dickerson, who at my last contact was the honorary secretary of the Saint Club. (A quick glance at the website reveals he still is.)
I’m in the pro camp on this one. It’s a mistake to compare this too closely to the RKO movies with George Sanders, or the famous TV series with Roger Mooreâit’s only right that the character has been reinvented for a modern audience. I’m a little less convinced by the back-story (who killed Simon Templar’s parents?), but TV networks seem to like these story arcs. I was a big fan of Return of the Saint, starring Ian Ogilvy, and saw as many Saint episodes as I could thereafter. New Zealand missed out on the Simon Dutton series of TV movies (I only ever saw one of the four on YouTube), though we did have the one-off pilot starring Australian actor Andrew Clarke airing here in 1990; and, of course, I saw the Val Kilmer big-screen adaptation as well.
Adam Rayner almost looks the part of how Charteris described Simon Templar, and is athletic enough for the role. I hope they let his version of the Saint be a bit of tough bastard sometimes: the literary Templar wasn’t afraid of breaking a few bones when it came to unsavoury villains, even if that might upset the Moore fans. It’s great to see the return of the Patricia Holm character, whom Charteris regularly had in the books. The last time she had appeared on screen was 1943; this time, it’s Eliza Dushku playing her. It’s a good move, in my opinion, since Dushku has her fans, and they’ll probably want to see her in a new series kicking arse.
We also see Insp John Fernack returnâthe last time he was on screen was in the Clarke version. They may have made him LAPD rather than NYPD, but that’s Hollywood.
While I know Kilmer’s portrayal of Simon Templar was not well receivedâleading some to feel that maybe the new Saint should be closer to the way Moore played himâI didn’t really mind. Perhaps it was a tad too early for a Hollywoodized Saint, but director Phillip Noyce had the disguise aspect right. Templar delighted in them, if my memory of the books serves me correctly, but because we never saw it with Moore, and Ogilvy adopted one of the Charteris aliases only once in his 24 episodes, people tended to forget this aspect of the character. I was more let down by the sugar-sweet and badly edited endingâI understand another version was originally filmed which ended on a tragic noteâbut since this was pre-Batman Begins, 1990s audiences didn’t want to see that. It’s a shame, because a follow-up with Simon Templar out for revenge might have been an interesting proposition.
However, there is an English actor playing Templar this time, which should at least silence those who felt an American should never have taken the role in the 1990s. There is a small group of us proud of our Chinese heritage and note that Leslie Charteris was born Leslie Bowyer-Yin, and that the Yin part is (Singaporean) Chinese, so surely his alter ego should reflect a bit of this heritage, too? A minor point in a globalized world.
If there is one aspect I would like to see retained from the books, it’s the notion that one personâor in this case, two peopleâcan go up against the establishment, and win. A lot of the Charteris villains were dishonest types who fooled the majority of society into thinking they were respectable. But sometimes when you’re right, you’re rightâand it doesn’t matter which part of society you’ve come from.
I know, I’m judging this positively before I have seen the pilot, but I reckon giving it a chance is better than rubbishing it, as a few have around the internet. Sir Roger Moore has a cameo; as does Ian Ogilvy, who seems to be playing a villain this time. As with the Kilmer outing, the trailer seems to use an updated version of the Edwin Astley theme, rather than the familiar eight notes from Charteris. Sir Roger and has son Geoffrey served as co-producers, Jesse Alexander (Lost) scripted the pilot, while James Remar, Enrique Murciano (as Insp Fernack), Thomas Kretschmann, and Greg Grunberg round off the principal cast.
Tags: 2013, actors, Adam Rayner, adaptation, California, Cannes, Eliza Dushku, France, Hollywood, Ian Ogilvy, Leslie Charteris, Los Angeles, New Zealand, Roger Moore, Simon Templar, The Saint, TV, UK, USA, YouTube
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I wanted to grow up and be the Dean Martin version of Matt Helm
15.07.2011As a child growing up in Wellington, there were a few TV series that shaped my beliefs about being grown-up in the occident. The first I’ve written about before: The Persuaders, which is in part where this blog gets its name. I’ve probably mentioned Return of the Saint elsewhere, not to mention the plethora of TV detectives and cops. It’s the old-fashioned idea that good beats evil, and that one man can make a difference.
But there was also one movie that appealed to me. Tonight I watched, for the first time since the 1970s, The Wrecking Crew. This was the final Matt Helm spy pic starring Dean Martin, and it’s amazing what sticks in your memory from age five, when this was aired on television. Considering my memory goes back to c. nine months, I realize remembering stuff at five is not that remarkable, but I surprised myself at what visuals I recalled, nearly perfectly.
It may have also shaped my idea that when you rescue the girl, you have to sing like Dean Martin. If anyone wants to lay blame somewhere for my impromptu crooning at parties (or, more embarrassingly, at restaurants), this is where it all started. This is also why I sing ‘Everybody Rock Your Body’ to the tune of ‘Everybody Loves Somebody’.
As a child, I had no idea there was a series of Matt Helm films. So, as a teenager, I began renting them or recording them off telly. When I saw Murderers’ Row air on TV1 in 1982, I set the video recorder to tape it, but could see nothing from it that I remembered from the first time I watched a “Dean Martin spy flick”âI could not remember the title of what I had seen in 1977. At five, I actually didn’t care.
Then there was The Silencers, actually the first movie, rented at the Kilbirnie Video Centre around 1990. Hmm, still not the one I saw.
I then rented The Ambushers, the only other one they had thereâstill not it.
So, by process of elimination, I knew it had to be the last one, The Wrecking Crewâor I could not trust my memory. Finally, thanks to DVD, over three decades on, I was able to relive what I saw as a five-year-oldâand it was this one after all.
This gives you an idea of what piqued my interest as a child.
1. That the bad guys had a Mercedes W111.
2. Elke Sommer. Probably not due to the fact that I was a perve at age five, but that she was the model flogging Lux soap on telly at the same time. (If I was a perve, then I would have noticed Elke’s very low-cut dress in her first scene. Then again, I remember the dancers from The Monte Carlo Show, but I was eight by then.)
3. Dino punching some guy in a Merc and running off.
4. This set, meant to be the interior of a train.
5. Villain Nigel Green’s trap door on his getaway train.
6. Dino making sure Sharon Tate didn’t fall through.
7. Dino making sure Nigel’s stuntman did fall through.
I presume I knew who Dean Martin was probably because of my mother, who explained itâthis was back in the day when parents made sure that what you watched was OK before they went off and prepared dinner. I can’t remember what was on the other channel, but I must have enjoyed this sufficiently to have stayed with itâand there were no remote controls for Philips K9 sets.
Might have to watch it again tonight. It was genuinely ridiculous, but certainly better than The Silencers (whose theme you still occasionally hear on Groove 107·7 FM here in Wellington) or The Ambushers. Watch out for the second-unit actors on location and the fact that Dino and Sharon Tate stayed firmly in Hollywood; the fake grass on top of padding which moves when Dino pushes down on it; the director’s expectation that we could believe Dino’s character could build a helicopter from bits in a few minutes; and the really bad ride Mac (the boss) has in his Lincoln Continental.
I’d still pick Murderers’ Row as the best one of the lot, thanks to Ann-Margret being very groovy, Dino’s Ford Thunderbird with rear lights that doubled as a dot-matrix display, the Lalo Schifrin score, and Karl Malden being evil.
Tags: 1970s, actor, actress, Aotearoa, cars, celebrity, childhood, Dean Martin, Elke Sommer, Hollywood, humour, memory, Mercedes-Benz, music, New Zealand, singer, TV, USA, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in cars, culture, humour, interests, New Zealand, TV, USA | 3 Comments »
Time to ïŹght the Wellywood sign—again
21.05.2011Wellywood sign: see blog posts from last year (like this).
You’d think Wellington Airport would know that the majority of residents are against this awful idea. An intelligent person would think: floating an idea in 2011 that was nearly universally rejected in Wellington in 2010 isn’t smart.
Yet that’s exactly what they’ve done.
As I said last year: copying someone does not celebrate our originality.
The sign runs counter to any notion of Wellington’s creativity and civic pride.
Let’s go through the motions again. Time to dig out last year’s emails to the Hollywood Sign Trust, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the licensing company with a new link to the Fairfax Press article.
Yeah, I’m a narc when it comes to protecting originality, more so when it’s going to make our city look like a global laughing-stock. I would similarly act for any Kiwi firm that gets ripped off by someone else. Even in non-election years.
Tags: Aotearoa, branding, California, city branding, destination branding, Hollywood, intellectual property, law, licensing, New Zealand, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in branding, culture, marketing, New Zealand, Wellington | 2 Comments »