A High Note

I still remember the first 007 novel I read: it was From Russia, With Love. It had a slightly battered cover but I was intrigued by the woman that appeared in it. It had one of those almost-garish covers that old-timey softcover novels had and I thought it was slightly titillating. I love vintage book covers. I'm hooked on Upton's collection of vintage gay porn novel covers. I found the novel in my cousin's husband's bookcase one weekend I was house-sitting for them when I was around fourteen. I had never read Ian Fleming (I was fucking fourteen and those books were a no-no I guess, but by now you know me, so..) and that book opened my eyes to a genre I learned to love even more than westerns or any kind of pulp fiction (or bodice rippers, natch). I was hooked.

I've always found Fleming's books very male, very heterosexual and somehow stuck in a time and place, and yet the action was so awesome that I kept reading them. I read all eight James Bond books my cousin's husband had and went on to read the whole series by the time I was about nineteen. I loved the idea of a debonair spy who kicked ass and looked fantastic in a tuxedo. And machismo be damned, I wanted to be a Bond Boy. I just KNEW 007 was a fantastic lay.

As for the movies, I've seen them all but my favorite Bond has always been Sean Connery, closely followed by Daniel Craig. The others have been cool (especially Lazenby), but I have never wanted to jump their bones. With Connery and Craig, the reaction was pretty much immediate: I wanted them to fuck me between catching Dr. No and killing Spectre. Really. Hey, I do have a vivid imagination.

So when we sat down over the weekend to watch No Time To Die, I was slightly torn. I knew it was going to be one of those bookend movies, one that would tie all the Daniel Craig as Bond loose ends and I was not sure I was ready to say my good-byes. I mean, can you blame me?

But Dave had told us he liked the movie and I decided to give it a try (you know Dave and his gruffy uncle ways, so if he said it was good..) It was on Apple and we had surround system and popcorn, so why the hell not? And I was not disappointed. It had everything Bond movies usually have and a little bit more. This time James Bond was kicking ass and taking names and he was a little bit more... human? I did not really care for the villain too much this time (the manfriend was like, what's Freddy Mercury doing in a Bond movie? And that was it for me) but the rest of the cast is fantastic and I kind of want to see what they come up with for the next series of movies. This is a very high note in the series. 

So thanks for the recommendation, Dave. The movie reminded me why I liked those books so much and it gave me a chance to watch Daniel Craig rock a tuxedo once more. What's not to like?

XOXO

P.S. one of my favorite parts of the movie: Ana de Armas in Cuba. Oh, I wanted so much more of that...

Two weeks' training my ass.