I turned 50 last month. I didn’t write about my birthday, largely because it just wasn’t a big deal. I’ve always believed that getting older is just fine, considering the alternative.
The most I planned to talk about my 50th year here was in the context of two watershed things I expect to happen in 2012: I will get a motorcycle endorsement on my license and my divorce will be final (crossing fingers.)
But then last week the number 50 started popping up all over the place in my life and I came up with the SEO-bait post title above, so I just had to share with you. Consider it a final attempt to write a title that the search engines, dying though they may be, will not be able to resist. If you come here from that route, I hope you find some things you like.
James Bond, the film version, is 50 just like me
The first film was Dr. No in the fall of 1962. As a child in the 70s I remember discovering (and falling in love with) Bond, by then in his Roger Moore incarnation. My 6th grade best friend Becky and I managed to catch up with all of the films, I think in one single summer. A feat that was much harder before we had video and DVD players. We actually had to convince our parents to take us to Bond retrospectives or let us stay up to watch the rare TV showings.
I never had a difficulty reconciling my love of Bond with my feminism. Aren’t we all allowed some contradictions in our lives?
For your viewing pleasure: “Bond, James Bond” – Sean Connery 1962, Dr. No
And the trailer for the upcoming Skyfall starring Daniel Craig, the closest Bond to Connery’s iconic definition of the character , although I have loved all of the Bonds, even the less popular ones.
Entertainment Weekly also had a great retrospective article and preview of Skyfall.
Good news — you don’t actually need to read 50 Shades of Grey.
Thanks to Facebook last week, I now know about parody sites that can give you all the info you need to speak intelligently about the book, should the need arise. I suspect the parodies are far more intelligent and well written than the trilogy, if the interwebs are to be believed. I’m thinking yes.
This is very good news. I had ZERO intention of reading any of the 50 Shades books; I couldn’t get through more than a few pages of the first Twilight novel, and 5o Shades origins as a Twilight fan fic was not a glowing recommendation. I’ve got no problem with fan fiction; some of it is pretty good “fill in the time” reading. But when it is poorly written, it is beyond painful, and I can’t see paying money for it.
But oh, the parodies are delicious:
- GoodReads has reviewed all three; start with the first one here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215 (h/t Eden Kennedy on Facebook)
- A thirty something male book store clerk is reviewing the first book, chapter by chapter at Mommy Porn and Me (h/t Jen Monroe and Skye Kilaen on Facebook)
- And from good friend Ellen Gerstein, a recommendation for parody 50 Shames of Earl Grey
So now I don’t have to worry about descending into pop culture irrelevancy in my “middle years.” <wink> Thanks guys!
