Yep, Another List, Bond-Style

Let me start off by saying, I am a HUGE fan of the James Bond movies. I have been since I was a kid. I would watch all the Bond movies when ABC showed them on TV. "A View To A Kill" was my first 007 movie I saw on the big screen and have seen every one since with the exception of one. I have even been lucky enough to have seen "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger" in restoration theathers. Any chance I can get to see a James Bond movies on the silver screen, I'm taking it.

With "Skyfall" coming out today (I'm seeing it tomorrow morning), I got to hear Adele's song for the movie. It was very good. I love Adele's voice and she did a great job with the song. It got me thinking about all the Bond songs. So I decided to come up with a list of my ten favorite Bond songs. Just like any list, this is my personal favorites and you guys may or may not agree with it. As always, I would love to read your opinons in the comments section.

10-Tomorrow Never Dies-Sheryl Crow

This movie was not one of my favorite Bond movies. The plot, which Bond has to stop a media mougl from starting World War III based on events in his newpaper, isn't one of the strongest in the series. The title song, sang by Sheryl Crow, is actually one of my favorites.

9-Goldeneye-Tina Turner

The first Bond movie featuring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. In this movie, Bond has to stop a British rouge agent and friend from stealing money from the Bank of England and cripple it's economy by using the GoldenEye satalite to conceal the theft. Bono and The Edge from U2 wrote the song, Tina Turner sang it.

8-Nobody Does It Better-Carley Simon

This was the first song in the series that did not share the title of the movie (The Spy Who Loved Me). It's in the lyrics though. Marvin Hamlisch composed, Carole Bayer Sager wrote it and Carley Simon sang it. This is a beautiful song which was nomiated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

7-The Living Daylights-A-Ha

The first movie that featured Timothy Dalton as 007. Intrestingly, he was asked to play 007 for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" but he felt that at 25, he was too young for the role. Sam Neil and Pierce Brosnan also audition for the role, with Brosnan getting the role. NBC had cancelled "Remington Steele" and it would have allowed Bronsnan to play the role. Because of Brosnan getting the role, ratings surged for "Remington Steele" and NBC decided at the last minute excersise a 60 clause in Brosnan's contract, effectively knocking him out of the movie.

6-For Your Eyes Only-Sheena Easton

This was the first song where the singer (Easton) appears in the opening title sequence. Which I have no problem with. Sheena Easton was hot! The song was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to Christopher Cross's "Arthur's Theme". I do remember seeing a great performance from Easton at the Academy Awards that year, being joined in the sequence on stage Richard Kiel, who played Jaws in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "MoonRaker".

5-You Know My Name-Chris Cornell

From Casino Royale, this was the first James Bond movie with Daniel Craig as Bond. Chris Cornell wrote and sang the title song for the movie. With this movie, Bond was rebooted and the movie told the store of his first mission as an agent with 00 status. Craig did an excellent job as Bond and this movie is the highest grossing Bond movie of all time, earning $594 million worldwide.

4-Goldfinger-Shirley Bassey

Title song from the Third James Bond movie, released in 1964. Shirley Bassey sang the title song and is the only singer to sing other James Bond title songs, singing "Diamonds Are Forever" and Moonraker". This movie was the template for all Bond films to follow and is widely considered to be the best Bond film ever made.

3-Licence To Kill-Gladys Knight

 

Timothy Dalton starred in only two James Bond movies and both theme songs are on this list. Remember when I said I missed out in seeing only 1 Bond film in the theathers since "A View To A Kill"? well, This was the movie and I have yet to see it. I hear I'm missing out on a very good movie. I will see it soon.

 

Gladys Knight almost didn't get to perfom the title track. Producers had Eric Clapton tabbed to perform a diffrent song for the movie, but the producers didn't like the song that he and Vic Flick came up with and tuned it down.

 

2-A View To A Kill-Duran Duran

 

 

This song will always have a place in my heart. Not just because I am a big Duran Duran fan, but this was the first James Bond movie I saw in the theathers. I remember my mom taking me and my sister to see the movie only because I pestered her into taking me. My sister fell asleep in the middle, as usual and I ate a bunch of popcorn and enjoyed what was Roger Moore's final turn as James Bond.

 

1-Live and Let Die-Paul McCartney & Wings

 

 

Ok, I'm sure I'm going to get a bit of "Beatles bias" accusations for this pick, but come on, it's a great song. Producer Harry Saltzman only wanted McCartney to wite the song for an African American female singer to perform, but Geroge Martin told Saltzman that only Wings would perfom it. Saltzman agreed to it as he had previously turned down the chance to produce "A Hard Day's Night" and didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Live And Let Die was the first Bond theme to be nominated for an Academy Award, losing out to "The Way We Were".

 

For the past 50 years, there has been some great Bond theme songs. Some showed up on this list, others missed it. I'm sure every one has their favorites and I'm also sure that in the next 50 years there will be some more great music that opens up each 007 movie. Starting tomorrow, I will get to see the first of many. I'm looking forward to it.



Score At The Thrift Store

For so long I have been going to thrift stores and I usually leave empty handed. After my big score last Friday, I decided to try my luck at the thrift store by where I work in Manhattan.

There are three thrift stores by where I work. 2 independently owned ones and 1 Goodwill store. I generally gravitate to the Goodwill over the independent stores as there is usually better stuff at the Goodwill and the prices are usually better. The owners of the independent stores usually know what they have and will price to retail and above. Goodwill will just guesstimate and put it out there.

On Monday, I went in during my lunch break and came away with 2 scores.

I usually won't find Beatles stuff at any thrift store so I was quite pleased to find this puzzle sitting on a shelf. I'm not usually a puzzle collector, but this was a Beatles puzzle and it was less than three bucks, so it became mine. A cool addition to the Beatles PC.

I just hope all the pieces are there. I may actually take a stab at putting this together and framing it once I'm done. Not sure what to do if there are any missing pieces. Probably will just display the box on my future Beatles shelf.

I also found this Comedian figure just sitting on a shelf. Now, I must be the only comic fan on earth who is NOT a fan of The Watchmen. I read the graphic novel and it was very good in some parts and not so good in others. The movie was visually stunning, but I wasn't a fan of the story. Guess you can't please everyone. This figure looks like it was never taken out of the box. All accesories are in with the figure. This will be up for trade if anyone wants it.

2 trips to 2 diffrent thrift stores netted some cool stuff for keeps and trade. One day soon, I will put together a trade blog and maybe make some trades with the community.

I'm hooked on thrifting and can't wait to make another trip. My collection needs more goodies.

The Joy Of Bagging Your White Whale

You'll forgive me if I chuckle at the term "White Whale". It always makes me think of the classic Tom And Jerry cartoon (Chuck Jones Years). This one was a take off of the clasic story, "Mobey Dick", renamed "Dickey Moe. It opened with Ahab pacing back and forth across his ship, muttering to himself "Dickey Moe" over and over again. I seem to remember him drawing a pic of Dickey Moe, then dividing the whale into sections like chicken, beef, etc and eating it. To a kid with a warpped sense of humor, like myself, that was the funniest thing ever and I still chuckle at the "White Whale term.

Well, funny or not, I bagged me a "White Whale". Now I can check this item off my list. I managed to find it at a decent price off ebay and it arrived yesterday.

Yeah, I opened it, but I was excited. Don't judge me.

Oh yeah. Bubble wrapped and all. I have an extra toy now. I love popping bubble wrap. Especially in the movies. I said stop judging me!

Finally! I re-added a 1978 A.J. Renzi Spider-Man bank. I used to have this as a kid and the moment I took it out of the box I had a flood of memories come back to me. I used to love this thing. He looked great on my shelf next to my Megos, My Godzilla Shogun Warrior figure and my Darth Vader carrying case that had my Star Wars figures. I've been trying to add this to my Spider-Man collection for a few years. I would either get out bid for one on ebay or when I did get it, something would happen to it and it would get destroyed. Not this time. I will make sure this is well protected until I can re-display my Spidey collection or die trying.

Let's check out it's awesomeness

I remember there was a sticker on either side of the bank. On this one, there was only one sticker, but no matter really. I'm just thrilled to have it.

I love how the web lines are molded into the plastic and are not drawn on.

 

 

With these banks, you had the option of using it as a regular plastic bust or cutting a slit on the top to put change into it and use it as a bank. The only draw back to this was to get your change out, you would have to cut a hole on the bottom as you can see in the pictures above. It's rare to find an unused bank. When you do expect to pay over 100.00 for it.


I wanted to see how the bank stacks up with the A.J. Renzi Spider-Man Halloween pail I bought last month. The bank is taller, but not by that much. The pail has more mass, which means more candy and that is good. Strange, I seem to remember the bank being a bit more bigger. Maybe it's because as a kid, everything was bigger.

Still, I am real happy I can cross this bank off my "Must Have" list. This is a gorgous vintage toy from my childhood and I love it. Too bad there weren't any other characters made like Batman, Superman, Captain America and maybe a Wonder Woman. Regardless, I have the one bank I wanted in my collection and one day soon, I will hunt down the Hulk for the double play and add him to the collection.

It's always sweet tracking down that "White Whale". It's even better when it's someting you had at some point and already has sentimental value to you.

Visit To The Thrift Store

Today was the first day I was able to go out and about in and around my area in the Bronx. I had some errands to run and wanted to head over toward the Riverdale section of the Bronx. There is a thrift store I like going into and I wanted to take the trip over and see if there was anything intresting there.

Yes. I'd say I found some intresting stuff. For 8 bucks I got some nice toys to add to my various collections.

For .99 cents, I scored a vintage Two Bad from The Masters Of The Universe toy line. I don't normally collect Masters Of The Universe, but to score a vintage toy at that price, I wasn't passing it up. He didn't come with his shield, but I will probably not keep it anyway and trade him instead.

 

In this bag, I got 2 of the same Smurf (I hate Smurfs), an Iron Man for my Iron Man PC, a small Ninja Turtle, a Buzz Lightyear that's missing his helmet, 2 Darth Vader figures, another Darth Vader that is missing his light up lightsaber (sad face), a Anakin Skywalker with a broken arm and a Sponge Bob figure. I bought the baggie for the Iron Man and Darth Vaders. Everything else is either trash or for trade.

 

 

This was an intresting lot. I was initially drawn to Spidey but I also scored another Iron Man, a wind up Iron Monger and what I think to be a Halo figure, which will also be for trade. Everything else is mine, mine, mine!

 

 

This was a nice sized lot. I got a few pieces here for my various PC's. I got a Super Friends Batman, a Hulk, 2 figures I really have no earthly idea what they are, an Electro, a Super Nova, a Camo Batman with what looks to be one of the ears chewed off, an Avatar figue, a Jedi Luke Skywalker with the light up lightsaber missing (That one hurts) and a Captain America. I had seen the Capt. America and the Hulk in the baggie and bought it for those two. Everything, but the Avatar and the Double Mint Twins are PC.

 

 

 

This lot was the steal of the day. For 1.99 I scored a construction worker, a small Lego guy, an army guy AND some original Star Wars figures. A Hoth Outfit Han Solo, a C3PO, a Bespin Outfit Luke Skywalker and a Bespin Security Guard. I know the Solo, Skywalker and the Security Guard are from the Empire Strikes Back line. Not sure about C3PO though. I can guess he is. There was a Threepeo released in that line, so I'm guessing he is. The Solo and Skywalker were missing their blasters, but I can pick those up on ebay rather easily. It's always a great day when you can find some vintage swag at a dirt cheap price. Those are going into the Star Wars/Luke Skywalker PC.

 

Tomorrow, I plan to hit a flea market I saw a sign for. I am hoping for much of the same as today. I usually hit thrift stores and come out empty handed. Today I learned that if your patient, you will be rewarded and was I ever.

The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror-My 5 Favorites

I used to love Halloween. Back when I was a kid, I used to dress up as either Spider-Man, Batman, Darth Vader and other favorites as I either went to Halloween parties or trick or treating in the Pelham Parkway section of The Bronx. That's were the best loot was in the Bronx. The houses were always decorated with all sorts of scary things from bats to monsters to pictures of Jimmy Carter. Man, it was great to be a kid in the late 70's/early 80's.

But since I have grown up (in size, not maturity), I can no longer do the trick or treating thing. My friends don't really have Halloween parties and I'm usually working on Halloween. So, my tradition is now going home, popping in my Simpson DVDs and watching the Treehouse of Horror episodes. I'm a huge Simpsons fan. Have been since they were on the Tracey Ulman Show and have watched just about every episode of the show. My favorites are the Halloween specials called The Treehouse Of Horror. They have been doing them since season 2 and, for the most part, are some of the funniest episodes they put out all year.

Today, I wanted to share my 5 favorite Treehouse episodes. As always, these are my favorites and it doesn't mean they are the best ones put out. It was a hard list to put together. I had to leave out some other favorites episodes. I also did not put them in any order as I love these bits equally.

So, without further ado, I give to you, my list starting with:

A Clown Without Pity

This episode is from Treehouse Of Horror III from season 4. In this one, Homer forgets to buy Bart a birthday present and runs out to your local store, which happens to sell trinkets of pure evil and frozen yogurt. Homer buys a Talking Krusty The Clown doll, which tries to kill Homer because he doesn't like Homer. Krusty tries to stab Homer while he's watching TV and harpoon him while he's taking a bath. Eventually, Marge calls the KrustyCo toy company for help and has a repairman come over. The repairman sees the doll was set to evil and resets it to good. Homer and the doll become friends, but Homer now uses it as a slave and has Krusty doing chores like getting his snacks, walking the dog and sponge bathing Homer. The end sees Krusty returning home to his Malibu Stacey and snuggling with her.

King Homer

Some of my favorite Treehouse episodes are their parodies of other horror movies. In this one, they parody King Kong and turn him into King Homer, which was also from Treehouse Of Horror III. In it, Marge joins Mr. Burns and Mr. Smithers on an expedition to Ape Island to find King Homer. The natives, see Marge and agree the blue haired woman would make a good sacrifice and tie her up as an offering. We first see Homer fighting a T-Rex and is distracted by the drums summoning him. The T-Rex takes the opportunity to bite Homer who responds in a loud D'oh which echoes across the island. Homer is smitten by Marge who sees the good in Homer in return. Smithers knocks out Homer with gas, but is eaten by a sleeping Homer as Mr. Burns is congratulating him. Homer is then taken to Downtown Springfield and is displayed in front of an audience and newspaper photographers. The flash of the camera's enrage Homer who breaks loose and runs amok in Downtown Springfield managing to eat Shirley Temple in the process. Homer then captures Marge and tries to climb the Empire State Building, but grows tried by the second floor and falls down. Marge agrees to take care of Homer and marries him. Homer eats Marge's dad at the wedding, yet Marge is not angry.

Citizen Kang

This episode is from Treehouse of Horrors VII, season 8. This episode involves 2 of my favorite Simpsons Characters, Kang and Kodos, the aliens who always try to enslave humanity. In this episodes, Homer is abducted by the aliens as he is fishing and is told to take them to his leader. Homer explains that there is an election coming up and while President Clinton is in charge for now, it can change with Bob Dole taking over should he win. The aliens decide to capture both Clinton and Dole, place them in suspended animation tubes and disguise themselves as Clinton and Dole, so they are ensured that one of them will be in power after the election. They douse Homer with rum, so no one would believe his story and throw him off the spaceship. The aliens go out on the campaign trail seeking votes while Homer looks for the ship. Once he finds it, he flies off and turns off the suspended animation tubes that Dole and Clinton were in. They agree to team up and get rid of the aliens, but Homer accidentally releases them into outer space, thus killing the President and his opponent. On the day before the election, Homer crashes the ship into the Capitol and reveals to Amercia the aliens. Since they deem it too late to find replacements, the Americans hold the election as is with Kang winning. The Americans are enslaved and is forced to build a ray gun aimed at another planet.

The Raven

From Treehouse of Horror I, season 2. This episode parodies the classic tale by Edgar Allan Poe and is narrated by James Earl Jones. Lisa reads the story, which finds Homer as the lead character. He dreams of his dear Lenore, which is played by Marge. Lisa and Maggie play the seraphim. Homer argues with a raven which has a spike head and sounds like Bart. The episode is done straight from the book with added humor.

The Shinning

If I had to pick one of the Treehouse of Horrors episodes, I think this one would be my favorite. From Treehouse of Horror, season 6,  this episode parodies Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie, The Shining. The episode opens with the Simpsons driving to Mr. Burn's mansion to become the winter caretakers. Homer has to turn back twice because he forgot to lock the front and back doors of their home. Mr. Smithers removes all beer and shuts off the cable to ensure an honest winter's work from Homer. When Mr. Smithers questions the move, Mr. Burns tells him that if the Simpsons are all dead when they get back, he will owe him a Coke. Groundskeeper Willie discovers that Bart can read his thoughts and tells him to call him if Homer goes insane. Because there is no beer or TV, Homer starts to go insane. A Ghostly Moe tells him he has to kill his family in order to get a beer. Marge discovers that Homer wrote "No TV and No Beer Make Homer Go Crazy". Homer attacks and Marge has to defend herself with a bat. Homer, while stalking Marge up the stairs, sees his reflection, gets scared and falls down the stairs, knocking himself out. Marge locks Homer in the pantry, where Homer is gorging himself silly. Moe returns to remind Homer of their deal. Homer refuses to stop eating and has to be dragged out by Moe and his gang of monsters. Homer chops down multiple doors and recites different TV openings until he finds the family eating dinner and chases them. Bart calls Willie for help. As soon as Willie arrives, Homer kills him with the axe and chases the family out into the snow. Lisa finds Willie's portable TV and shows it to Homer who's urge to kill fades. He invites the family to sit in the snow and watch TV with them. They freeze and are unable to change the channel when the Tony Awards begin. Homer's urge to kill then returns.

This episode has one of my favorite bits in all of the Treehouse episodes:

Well, those are my favorites. Not all of them. I narrowed it down to 5, but a few others could have made this list like Hungry Are The Damned, The Devil and Homer Simpson, Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace and Desperately Xeeking Xena which were all great episodes. Would love to hear what your favorite Treehouse of Horror episodes are.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Making An Announcement

First of all, I want to extend my prayers to those who were effected by Hurricane Sandy, which touched down here on the East Coast. NYC was hit hard as well as Long Island, Westchester and Rockland Counties. Non was hit as hard as New Jersey, which was in the direct path of the hurricane. I saw the devistation New Jersey is in on the news. Families losing their homes in the floods. Some were damaged by winds, fires or trees falling on their homes. I consider myself pretty fortunate that I didn't lose power and still have a place to call home. If you can send a prayer out to the less fortunate, I'm sure they would appreciate it.

Now, on to the announcement. When I first started The House Of Swag, it was a sports collectors blog and was under a different name. Then, I started to write about pop culture and collectables, mixing it up with the sports stuff. Now, the blog has become more pop culture than sports and for the House Of Swag, it will become a pop culture, comics blog only. So, what about the sport enteries?

Simple, I'm creating a blog just for that.

So, from here on, The Sexy Geek's Sports Room will be where I post about anything sports related. Be it a card pick up, an autograph score, a bobblehead add or just my thoughts on a particular subject, The Sports Room is the place I will have all my sports related content. I wanted to keep my two hobbies seperate as I have readers who just read the pop culture stuff and readers who just read the sports stuff. Now, I can satisfy both.

Can I make this a success? Am I biting off more than I can chew? I don't think I am. If I thought this was a bad idea, I wouldn't have created the seperate blog. I just hope I can make The Sports Room into an enjoyable blog for the sports fan and one that they will come back to read over and over again. I will probably post my first blog there tonight so please look for that.

I Hope you will support The Sports Room just as you have supported The House Of Swag.

League Of Extraordinary Bloggers Assignment: Back To The Batcave

Pardon the interuption on the Beatle Blogs, but the League calls with an intresting assignment. This weeks assignment is:

Take a trip to anywhere in pop culturedom. What fictional town, time, or world would you want to visit?

This was too easy for me. Or was it. I could have visited Hill Valley and watched Marty McFly twart Biff Tannen or I could have gone to a California beach house and hung out with The Monkees or even visited a galaxy far, far away. But for me, where I wanted to go was pretty simple. It's a place I've wanted to visit ever since I was a kid.

I want to travel back to 1966 and visit the Batcave.

Ever since I was a kid, watching Batman on reruns, usually on Channel 5, although I believe it was on Channel 11 here in NYC later on. I remember watching with fascination as Batman and Robin would work on a riddler or look for clues on a particular object or punch some information into the Bat-Computer (I'm sure that they would have a Mac or at least the latest version of Windows on their PC).

I would behave myself. I would stay away from the Batmobiles nucular powers source. I wouldn't answer the Batphone saying, "Mr. Wayne's residence". Nor will I take a joy ride in the Batmobile, although I cannot promise I wouldn't sleep in it at least once. One thing I will do, above all objections is slide down the Bat-Poles. I have to see how one minute they are Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson and the next Batman and Robin. I mean, that bugged me as a kid. I need to know, dammit!

I'm sure I will be more pesty than Bat-Mite in the 1977 New Adventures Of Batman show. I'd ask such dumb questions as how did you get being out at sea as C for Catwoman? Maybe break a test tube or two. Eat too many of Aunt Harriet's delicous cookies. I'm sure the last straw will be hen I put on the Batman suit, look through the utility belt, find something intresting and ultimately knocking myself out with Bat-Gas. Then waking up on a beach somewhere, not knowing how I got there. Wow, I just got kicked out the Batcave. I'm on par with Penguin, King Tut and others who has broken into Batman's sanctuary. I'd say I was like Molly, but I didn't take a header into the Batmobile's nucluer power source.

As Batman once said, "What a way to Go-Go.