Analyzing tra-la-las of James Bond flicks
Down on the Farm, 007-ologists have focused on the “history of capitalist culture in Bond film songs.” Thanks to
Lina Broydo for pointing to the release from Stanford News, timed to coincide with the opening of “Spectre,” the latest James Bond movie.
Adrian Daub, associate professor of German studies, and Charles Kronengold, assistant professor of musicology, whose book is “The James Bond Song: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism,” have analyzed the music and determined that it reflects “societal trends, especially in regards to material fulfillment.” The authors find that early songs, from the ’60s, depict work “as a means of changing the self, while the ’70s songs portray it as a job.” By the ’80s, says Daub, you show up “and do it and hope nobody notices that you’re totally unqualified to do it.”
The authors say that in its 50-year history, the genre has had hits and flops. They give high grades to “Live and Let Die,” recorded by Paul
McCartney. The worst, they say, is “The Man With the Golden Gun,” recorded by Lulu. According to Kronengold, “The fact that they fail makes them 10 times more interesting than if they actually succeeded at trying to be interesting.” (This is a sentiment worthy of remembering for many occasions, in fact, worthy of being needlepointed on a pillow.)
At a preopening screening of “Spectre,” I’m told, there was audible hissing in the audience at the “Spectre” song.
P.S.: I am just back from Boston, where we went to see “Spotlight,” the movie about the Boston Globe’s reporting on pedophile priests. Every seat was full, and when the epilogue listed the numbers of perpetrators (1,000), there were audible gasps and moans in the audience. Reading Tuesday’s Chronicle, Rick
Popko noticed side-by-side placement of two stories: one was about the Geneva auction of the Blue Moon Diamond, which is expected to fetch about $50 million. The other noted that “Ethiopia’s more than 730,000 refugees could go hungry if $55 million in food aid is not raised by the end of the year.” If you had a spare $55 million, you could either feed 730,000 people, he says, “or you could buy a diamond for yourself.” When Norm Goldblatt saw Los Altos Scouts decorating street lamps with holly and stars, he cracked that they were a little late. “I mean, Halloween was almost two weeks ago.” “These are for Christmas 2016,” he was told. And if that reminds you to begin preparations for Thanksgiving, Sarah Davis sends an overheard from a third-grader in Santa Barbara, who was on a class trip to the Natural History Museum to learn about the Chumash Indians. When the docent described the tribespeople hunting and fishing, one student asked, “But what did the vegan Chumash eat?” (Veggieburg-ers, of course.) After the election: Sean O’Donnell was walking on Columbus Avenue two days after the voting, and noticed Julie
Christensen, who lost the District Three supervisorial race to Aaron Peskin, sweeping the sidewalk outside her (pretty much empty) campaign headquarters. A few hours later, he said, the space was locked up, “and the only remnant of her campaign was a microwave oven at curbside. “What use is an oven,” wisecracks O’Donnell, “if your goose has been cooked?” Lidia Bastianich, whose new book is “Lidia’s Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine,” was here for some book events and was taken around town last week by media escort
David Golia. Despite many invitations to dine at cool, hip places, says Golia, she wanted “local and simple.” They had lunch at the Shanghai Dumpling Shop in Millbrae. Meanwhile, Hoodline says that Harrison Ford was seen in Hayes Valley last weekend. I was out of town and missed the event
Cathleen Schwartz noticed was listed in the Berkeley Times: Lefty Berkeley, a Saturday hike hosted by the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association. “We will only make left turns as we pay homage to Berkeley’s colorful history. ... We’ll be on city sidewalks and some unpaved campus paths, but we will never ever veer to the right. Love beads, peace symbols and tie-dyed shirts are optional.”
“My grandson is learning about the Pilgrims. He says they came on the Mayflower and survived by eating salt pork and heart attacks.” Woman to friends, overheard at the Albion River Inn by Steven Short of KALW