Beatles, Bond, Adele

A 50th anniversary is a milestone.  Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the Beatles first single, “Love Me Do.”   It was also the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first film in the James Bond series.  The first cinematic Beatles/Bond “crossover” came in the form of this quote from the movie Goldfinger:

My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done, such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs! – James Bond (Sean Connery)

Bond’s opinion of the Fab Four may or may not have changed in subsequent films, but that didn’t stop Sir Paul McCartney from recording the theme to Live and Let Die some years later.  007′s tastes have always leaned more toward martinis (shaken, not stirred) than beer, and I think he would approve of the theme song to his latest film.

Adele – “Skyfall”

Odds and Ends

I’ve got a few odds and ends to share from this past weekend.

Just in case you haven’t heard, Whitney Houston has died, a sad but sadly unsurprising event.  Considering her drug usage in recent years, it was only a matter of time.  Rest in peace, Whitney.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was re-released in a 3-D edition, and overall the experience wasn’t too bad.  Most of the time, I could tell which objects were in front of or behind other objects.  However, there were some parts where I wondered if they had forgotten to apply 3-D rendering (as it was originally filmed in 2-D).  It seemed to happen where there were scenes with a large number of characters or objects.  Aside from a new, digital Yoda, I didn’t notice any other major changes to the movie.  Jar-Jar is still there.  Whatever feelings you had about Phantom Menace when it first came out probably won’t be any different now.  I know most people are waiting for Episode IV to be re-released in 2015.

Last, but not least, I gave the Long Island Radio Dial a bit of a facelift.  It has a cleaner appearance and seems to match my blog theme better.  I’ve also been poking through the radio station entries in Wikipedia, and noticing how some of them need updates.  I started making updates to the WEHM article, and may update others as time permits.  Feel free to join me in my efforts.