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Home » Features » In conversation: Tad Doyle on Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
Posted on March 28, 2016 by Nick Soulsby in Features // 1 Comment
Tad Doyle circa 2016 is a man with a hectic schedule. He's performing guitar and vocals with his band Brothers of the Sonic Cloth and he's also the owner/manager of Witch Ape Studio in Seattle where he's professionally engaged producing and engineering numerous bands. It sounds like this is his idea of personal bliss. "Man, it's good. I love being busy and being a guy who has had jobs and worked for other people most of my life it's refreshing being self-employed even though I've never worked as many hours, or so hard, for so little. But it's great! And it's rewarding too. It took me a while to put Tad behind me — no one wants to see something they put a lot of years and hard work into doing go way. But it was freeing for me to let go of that and to let go of the identity that I am Tad in Tad. Then I was able to be 'the uncarved block' as the Taoists say. I find a lot more peace and pleasure in life from being undefined and unnamed than I ever did being named."
People forget that in 1989 Tad — the band — were Sub Pop's second hottest property, right behind Mudhoney, and well in front of a certain unnamed trio of upstarts. In the heady years that followed Tad released album after awesome album, while wrestling with the … pleasures of moderate success: the 'Pepsi' lawsuit; the '8-Way Santa' lawsuit; being dropped by Giant thanks to a poster of Bill Clinton smoking a joint; being dropped by EastWest/Elektra Records after the firing of the A&R rep who signed them. Tad himself kept on moving forward, forming Hog Molly around the turn of the millennium — but the making of today's reinvigorated soul seems to have come only having chosen to quit.
"I did step away from music for quite a while after Hog Molly — we broke up in 2002 and right through 2006 I was out of it. During that period I met my wife Peggy, we began our relationship, I'm married now and love her dearly. It was good to get out and really evaluate what was important to me and my life, do some reflection on what was going on. Realizing my mortality — you can go through life and not realize you're mortal until you're a certain age, I think this happens to everybody. I don't think what I went through was unique, I think it's a natural progression. I needed to ask "Is music something really important to me?" And it turns out it was. I'm definitely more at ease with myself and others than I have been in the past. I'm certainly sixteen years old inside in the way I think sometimes but I've got a maturity now — so it's a good melding of experience and raw power, it's good. Good for me! I love to play, so my desire is just that the band enjoys playing with me — I don't have anything else to prove. I'm completely comfortable doing what I'm doing and I'm happy if other people like it — and I'm OK with it if they don't. it's not going to change what I do, I'm doing this because it brings me joy and I find it challenging too."
The band in question — with wife Peggy on bass and Dave French on drums — is Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. They reach U.K. shores this week for a gig at the Black Heart in London on Saturday April 2nd. Versions of the band existed from 2009 but it was only with Dave's arrival that the lineup solidified. "He's the guy who was behind the Anunnaki, he played everything — he's a multi-instrumentalist like myself. We played a show with his band — we had a different drummer at the time — at an outside festival in Seattle. It was the first time I'd seen them and I was really impressed with their tone and the energy. He was playing bass, I loved what he was doing; we hit it off and became friends. As I got to know him more I realized he played drums and that's how it came about. We were friends first, then musicians and bandmates later. It's how it always starts."
That social aspect to music seems crucial. "Certainly in the early days in Seattle, around Sub Pop, it was very close-knit and we did all go to shows together. I think the camaraderie is still there, but it's broadened. One of the things that led to us putting out the album with Neurot Recordings (the label founded by members of Neurosis) was because Tad played with Neurosis 25-30 years ago. So long as you keep going on in years, your universe gets bigger — you have more friends throughout the planet. I feel that my personal relationships are as important as my musical relationships and a lot of them intermingle, I think that enhances each of them." Throughout our conversation he refers regularly, and warmly, to numerous comrades and fellow travellers. "One other band I really love is Mike Scheidt's band Yob. They write amazing music that hits me on an emotional as well as a physical level which is what I always look for. If I took anything from anyone it'd be the way they meander and play with a riff, turn it into variations and rhythmic motifs. Lumbar — that's one of the things we did together (a one-off 2013 album, the First and Last Days of Unwelcome). I also recorded Mike's solo acoustic record as well (note: 'Stay Awake', released on Thrill Jockey in 2012) — I love to work on anything with him."
Having known of Tad Doyle as a vocalist, a guitarist, as drummer on Mark Lanegan's Whisky for the Holy Ghost, I had to confess to not being aware of how deep his professional production expertise had become — that he'd been producing music for around a decade now. I asked him whether his work back in the Nineties with so many big-name producers — Butch Vig, Steve Albini, Jack Endino — influenced his current direction. "Most of the time when I was working with those guys I had no idea I'd be doing this all these years later, so now I wish I had paid more attention to what they were doing and asked more questions. But I was being a musician — 'on the other side of the glass' as I call it. I was concentrating on my crap — now I get to do both sides. It's a fun place to be for me. Part of it was the necessity of being DIY, I come from that aesthetic, I always want to be able to do things myself without relying on paying others to do it. Also it became a matter of economy — anyone can put together a pretty darn good demo now in their own basement or home. That's how it started and I wanted to take it as far as I could. I'm a professional and I have a passion for it — I love being part of the process not just of songwriting but right through into the production of it, taking different approaches to make things sound unique in a pleasing way. It's what I'm really after. Usually the bands will contact me and I love a challenge so I haven't really turned down much of anything yet. It's starting to get known that I'm doing this, so it's a really exciting time for me. I suppose there'll come a time when I won't work with somebody for some reason, but currently I like to look for those challenges and I don't think there's been anybody that I've recorded that I didn't like. I always ask the bands to send me demos of their stuff so I can get a feel for what they're doing; I ask them what their goals are and what it is they really want to do."
The debut LP from Brothers of the Sonic Cloth benefited from Tad's decade of production experience and the facilities now available to him at Witch Ape Studio. In case you haven't heard the record, it's immense: a precise combination of Sunn O))) ambience, doom metal expansiveness, structural twists and turns, laden throughout with killer riffs — it straight up rocks. Again, like Tad's emotional journey during those four years away, the album comes from a deep place. "A guy said to me a long time ago 'you have your full life to write your first record,' and that's true to an extent. I approached Brothers as being a completely new thing for me and just wanted to put out the best possible music with the very first record — you only have one chance to make a first impression. I'll never take that long to record a record again — it was a long time, a decade, we didn't finish up until 2015. A lot of it was doing demos that led up to the recording, finding what worked, discarding what I felt didn't work or didn't serve the music. All of the actual recording, the official recording, started 2012 maybe? Then continued on until just before we released it in February 2015. A lot of it had to do with Brothers starting as a solo project; it wasn't until 2009 that we started playing as a band when I enlisted Peggy and we started playing with drummers. Over the span of the band we've had more drummers than Spinal Tap."
Tad laughs easily throughout our conversation, he's clearly relaxed talking about his current work and just very open about what has gone into making this particular record. "I think that Peggy, Dave and I all come from punk rock backgrounds; I love the chaos and looseness of punk rock, plus I've always admired the ferociousness of metal and the precision of it — those are the things I come back to in those two genres. A lot of things I've done have taken from that. I'm very picky about how I want things done, the nuances of how to play it, the tone — it took this amount of time to find people who were willing to support this particular vision. A lot of the stuff was recorded at Witch Ape Studio — we tracked some guitar and vocals here, a bit of bass — then we turned it over to Billy Anderson for the mixing because I love what he does with other bands. Most bands are a democracy at best but I think that I've always had a fully realized vision of what I want to do in all my bands, especially this one. So it's not like we were creating altogether as a unit — which we're going to start doing with our next record. This first one is very much a vision I had of how I wanted it to happen, I wanted it executed a certain way and that's how it turned out."
I point out that after the album's centerpiece and highlight, 'La Mano Poderosa', the bonus tracks on the end of the CD felt like such a natural coda and comedown that I hadn't realized they were 'extras'. "That was the concern. I always looked at the album more like the old classical music masters, the way they put together music. There'd be an intro, then the meat of the subject, then in some cases it would taper off and dwindle — much like life; you're born with a whimper and you go out with a whimper but there's a lot of roaring in between." The cover art featuring a massive fireball pressing down over a landscape of silhouetted trees, again seems to speak to these larger themes. "Definitely there was an intention to have the art work come together with the music — I felt it was important. The subject matter of a lot of the lyrics and the sound we're playing with on this one meant I wanted it to be conveyed in a way that was immense, natural, the power of planetary events and how vast the universe is, elementals — fire, water, wind — we wanted those to be in the artwork. Like I say, I draw most of my inspiration from orchestral music — I don't listen to a lot of what people call my contemporaries because…I don't know, being in the studio a lot, recording a lot of other bands, I like to take a step away and listen to orchestral stuff — it's where my head's at in terms of listening to music."
This unexpected detour brings surprising illumination to the album in question. "I take a lot of what I do from orchestral music, not necessarily classical, but orchestral — that's a big influence to me. Currently I've been listening to — and this'll sound funny — but Jerry Goldsmith's original score for Planet of the Apes is amazing. I'm listening to Ennio Morricone, then there's Edgar Varèse, a French-born composer from the late nineteenth century — I love what he does. He's one of the first composers to use synthesizers in his music and I love that too. That's a taste of what I'm into. Oh, a guy living with us now, in our time period — Peter Scartabello. He has a metal label he runs and he also does black metal stuff himself. I always stay in touch with what he's doing." This bleeds through into the LP very naturally. "I let the music lead me in the direction I need to go with things. If I was concerned with the attention span of the public I'd be writing two-to-three minute songs and certainly that isn't the case here. The songs, within themselves, have a lot of movement and change that keeps someone with a short attention span busy. You could probably separate all the movements within each one of these songs out into their own songs so each one was shorter. I think it's always been an organic process to me, I've never put a limitation on it. It's always come down to the energy, the emotion, the feel of what I wanted the music to be — so then I'd say 'well this works here, and this doesn't work here — so let's move this around, this needs to be shorter, this can be expanded.' Plus there are variations on a theme that I like to do. That's what I do in a nutshell."
While still engaged in the touring and promotion of the current album, Tad already has a fair idea of the immediate future. "There are a few songs that'll be on the next record that we're always playing. And there are ideas floating around in my sketchpad and a lot of demo work we've already done — I'm always working on new stuff. But it's a question of when, how and if it should be released to the universe — that's always what it comes down to. Time for a breather after the tour — 2017 will be a good year to do the lion's share of the work for the next record then a release in 2018. That's the plan in my head at least. I've always said that in anything I work in, I reserve the right to completely change and go off in any direction. A lot of my essence and my heart is in heavier music so I don't think that's going to change much but we're open to doing other things outside of where we've been in the past."
Asking him to define what challenges and excites him about Brothers of Sonic Cloth brings forth another contemplative and self-knowing answer. "We always try to play above our means — in other words, we challenge ourselves to play the sound we hear in our heads and the same time we don't do it to a point where it doesn't sound natural. I think how I grow as a musician is playing above my skill level, the things I write are above my skill level. The hard thing for me is singing — it's always been challenging to me, the human voice is tough to control and I have a profound respect for people who are gifted in that manner. There's so much that can be done with the human voice that the possibilities are infinite. Getting the right vocal take is pretty much the only time it's not fun for me — it's always hard. And a lot of that might be because I'm hard on myself. I'm aware of my limitations as far as range, so I try to live in that range and be effective. A tuba is a tuba — it can't play piccolo parts. A clarinet can't play snare drum parts. It's very specific and understanding where my voice lives has been really good for me to learn. I've never had any vocal training, I just pick up things. I don't really do any singing as the definition goes — it's not like there's a vibrato there or glissandos up to a certain note or legato vocal textures and stuff. I have this huge voice I can do things with and finding how to use it has really been where it's at for me — and I'm still learning."
As a final question, I try to summarize and express how awesome it is to hear a man on fire, a man inspired — I'm left wondering what's driving him now as an artist. The answer is to the point; "I think it's your obligation to write a fresh record every time and not just rehash what you've done in the past — I think it's real important. It's an integrity thing and if you're going to keep writing the same thing over and over — what's the point?"
And that's where we leave it; birth, death, celestial vastness, self-discovery, love, friendship. Tad Doyle's life in 2016 is a place of spiritual and physical peace that allows him to stand firmly and joyously at the center of the Earth-shaking sonic storm Brothers of the Sonic Cloth unleash. "For me personally, I go to a place inside me that is outside of me — if that makes any sense — where I can focus wholly on what I'm doing; be in the moment of whatever's happening musically. That's one of the things that music has always brought to me is a oneness and a wholeness that comes over me and allows me to be present in a very specific 'now' moment that a lot of people are challenged by. Buddhists try to meditate to make it to that point — I guess music is my meditation." Amen to that brother.
'Brothers of the Sonic Cloth' is out now on Neurot Recordings. The band commence their European tour on Saturday April 2nd in London.
tad doyle
About Nick Soulsby (46 Articles)
Nick is the author of 'I Found My Friends: the Oral History of Nirvana' (St Martins Griffin) and 'Cobain On Cobain: Interviews and Encounters' (Chicago Review Press - February 2016). He lives in Bristol.
1 Comment on In conversation: Tad Doyle on Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
Mitch Holmquist // March 29, 2016 at 8:26 pm	//
Tad is and always has been one hell of a performer, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth are Flat out incredible ! the only band I have ever heard that can make the Melvins sound like the Beatles, I hope someday he will forgive me about the whole Melvan sale fiasco I Miss hanging out with him and Pegadeath. At any rate England is never going to be the same after this show !
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Q: Как сделать так, чтобы при нажатии на картинку она менялась местами с другой картинкой

Monkey Apes

A: Первое, что приходит на ум - это подмена адреса изображения.
(Просто поразительно, как схож JS-код, который был сохранён гораздо ранее на Codepen в процессе написания ответа, с кодом в предыдущем ответе. Возможно, что это просто совпадение в виду очевидности и оптимальности решения ;-)

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Monkey Apes

Если же присмотреться к исходной разметке, то можно заметить, что у изображений присутствуют также дополнительные атрибуты, такие как alt и id. Переносить каждый из атрибутов по отдельности иррационально, поэтому предлагаю перемещать непосредственно сами элементы :

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Monkey Apes

A:
когда нажму на любую картинку внизу (круглую) то она станет на место большой, а большая пойдет на на место той картинку на которую я нажал в низу

Как вариант...

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Monkey Apes

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Jeff Peek, Esq.
Teresita Rodriguez
Nicolás Arroyo
Texas Advocates Act for Better Treatment of Immigrants
By Peek & Toland
As Texas immigration and criminal defense attorneys, we are acutely aware of some of the challenges immigrants face in custody. The deprivations suffered by some immigrants who are imprisoned are so extreme that advocates groups are taking legal action over poor treatment.
Last month, the Austin-based publication Statesman reported on how the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and its counterpart in New Mexico have filed an administrative complaint with the Department of Homeland Security.
Treatment of immigrants by federal agencies is under fire
The action was launched on two fronts and concerned bond conditions and the seizure of property from immigrants. The ACLU claims:
1 – Border Patrol agents are seizing the property of immigrants, before deporting them to Mexico. In many cases, they are being deported to cities where they don't know anyone. The complaint relates to 26 people and says some of them were intimidated by officers.
2 – The ACLU of Southern California has filed a legal action to demand immigration judges and deportation agents consider the ability of individual immigrants to pay when they set a bond, in the same way as criminal courts. The ACLU alleges immigrants are being jailed because they are poor and as many as 100 immigrants a day are detained, even though bond was granted.
Advocates claim some of the seizures endangered the immigrants. The report said a 23-year-old from Chihuahua, Mexico was forced by agents to sign a form giving up his rights to his belongings, according to the complaint.
They say nearly $400 was taken from a 23-year-old woman from Guerrero, Mexico after she was detained in El Paso. Many of these immigrants make little money and have saved hard for years. The money formed a significant part of the woman's life savings.
The Department of Homeland Security, the department that oversees the Border Patrol, said its policy is to safeguard and eventually return detainees' property, according to the Tribune article.
We have noted in the past many attempts by the authorities in Texas that undermine the rights of immigrants who are routinely treated in ways that run contrary to public policy.
If you or a loved one has been mistreated or is facing deportation, our Austin-based family immigration attorneys can help you and would like to hear from you. Contact Peek Law Group at (512) 399-2311.
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Jerusalem is a major character in the gospel according to Luke. In fact, in the two volume work (Luke-Acts), Jerusalem is mentioned 90 times. That's an amazing number considering that the rest of the Christian New Testament only mentioned Jerusalem 50 times. Today's text (Luke 13:31-35) is in the middle of Jesus' journey to the city, a journey that dominates the last half of the gospel. So it makes sense to wonder why Jerusalem mattered so much to Luke. Beyond its significance as the city where Jesus died, why did Luke spend so much energy involving the city in Jesus' wider story? We have no real evidence if Luke ever lived in the city, and I get the sense that, based on the introduction to the gospel itself, that Luke wrote this text for a person who would have viewed Jerusalem as a city that couldn't compete with the more modern (and more Roman) cities in the area. We also know that Jesus wasn't born in the city nor did he grow up there. But his life seemed to circle around the city. At eight days old, he was presented at the Temple. When he was 12, he was caught teaching elders in the Temple. And when he was resurrected, he met his followers in a room in the city. If we look at the entire expanse of scripture, we can see why the city mattered. But, on a personal level, why did the city matter so much to people who didn't live there?
It's possible Jesus knew Jerusalem to be his spiritual home. A spiritual home isn't necessarily the place we live in. Instead a spiritual home is, in the words of James Burns, "a centering force in my life." Jerusalem always weaved in and out of Jesus' story. He not only knew of the city because of its prominent place in scripture but the outline of its Temple was mimicked and copied in the synagogues he preached in. Jerusalem held a special place over his life and, as we heard at Transfiguration, "all of his life was pointing to the Holy City." When Jesus turned toward Jerusalem, he was heading towards the place that shaped his life, regardless of the amount of time he actually spent there.
I imagine we all, to some degree, have our spiritual homes. They could be the homes of grandparents that we spent time in during the holidays or our first apartment once we left home. They are the places that inform how we live and move through our lives. Even if we haven't seen our spiritual home for decades, it still impacts our life and informs the decisions we make. Luke, I think, recognized that Jesus was drawn to Jerusalem in a way that was deeply personal. Jesus was doing more than visiting a holy city; he was going home.
Pastor Marc's sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent (March 17, 2019) on Philippians 3:17-4:1. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below.
Everything we do on Sunday morning had to be invented. The type of prayers we say, the kind of music we sing, and the special vestments I wear - all of it comes from somewhere. Some items are pretty easy to explain, like my alb, the robe that I wear. It's colored white as a reminder of our baptism and it resembles the kind of basic, everyday clothing, that people actually wore in the Roman world 2000 years ago. But not everything we do on Sundays is so easy to explain or so old. In the mid 1890s, the New York Times and other newspapers reported on a new trend in holy communion that had gone viral. Some of the more "hip" churches in Brooklyn were starting to use, for the very first time, individual communion cups. This trend was so compelling that reporters went to church to see how the people would react. Yet the energy behind this new movement in communion didn't come from theology or some rediscovery of an ancient church practice. No, individual communion cups were all the rage because by the 1890s, the world had finally discovered germs.
Now, it's sort of amazing to imagine a time when we didn't know about germs. Pretty much every cleaning item today brags about how many viruses and bacteria it can kill. But before the 1870s, germ theory and the dangers of microorganisms were not widely accepted. Yet as the science matured, people discovered how diseases could be transferred from person to person and how hygiene mattered. Hospitals began, for the first time, sterilizing their equipment and cities worked on the problem of sanitation. Dozens of new scientific journals dedicated to the wonders of hygiene started being published. And as indoor plumbing started to become more widespread, taking baths more than once a month became part of our cultural standard. A certain kind of cleanliness, once reserved for the very rich, was now available to many people, including the new "middle class." It wasn't enough to just own a large house. Your home, your body, and your entire life needed to be cared for, maintained, and "cleaned." In other words, you needed to match society's new definition of what was hygienic and everything that didn't match this new spirit of "clean" was pushed away.
Entrepreneurs, caught up in this moment in history, noticed how all kinds of people drank out of the same cup when sharing holy communion. A new technology needed to be invented to bring the spirit of hygiene to the practice of holy communion. Many different people, all at the same time, filed patents for individual communion glasses as a way to combat the supposed scourge of unhygienic holy communion. By the time individual communion cups finally reached New York City, the buzz had been brewing for so long that a Brooklyn church advertising their use was standing room only on Sunday mornings. Soon after, religious newspapers and theological journals were full of letters and articles debating the new practice. Some challenged it on theological grounds while others advocated for the individual cups as a way to make Sunday morning as clean as Jesus wanted it to be. The debate over individual communion glasses lasted decades with the question of hygiene dominating every argument. Science, not theology, was now the go-to for the how-to of holy communion.
Yet in the dozens of articles, letters, and minutes from Lutheran churches who argued about this issue that I've read, it seems that the idea of hygiene rather than any scientific evidence was the real driving force behind the debate. Rarely did anyone show bacteria growing on chalices or give evidence showing how one communion cup spread some infectious disease. Instead, that conclusion was assumed to be true. Communion chalices had to be, according to advocates for the new practice, covered in germs. But that wasn't the chalice's fault. Rather, the real problem was the kind of people who drank from that chalice. And if you weren't careful, the wrong kind of people would have touched that cup before you and they would make you sick.
Over and over again, early advocates for individual communion cups moved from a general statement about hygiene to detailed arguments designed to make you afraid. They weren't worried about people who dressed like you, looked like you, or lived in the same economic class as you. Instead, they were concerned about that other person who happened to be kneeling next to you at the communion rail. And since the authors couldn't use science to diagnosis that fictional person, they vilified them instead. Using every ethnic, racial, and economic dog whistle they could, the authors of these writings tried to frighten so-called "respectable people" from being contaminated by what the "other" might have touched. Actual science and facts didn't matter. Consciously or unconsciously, the early advocates for the individual communion glasses gave in to, and promoted, fear. It wasn't germs they were worried about. Rather, they were concerned about who God might want them to share communion with. They had no problem communing with someone who fit into their 'clean' world but if someone didn't dress like them, talk like them, shop in the same places like them, live in the same economic class as them, or look like them, then holy communion was literally off the table. Their claim as citizens of their so-called hygienic world was only available to a select few and that opportunity for citizenship was denied to anyone who they didn't already pre-approve.
Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, made a claim about citizenship that's almost easy to miss. He was, as he wrote this letter, probably in prison writing to one of the many church communities he founded. That community, like all early church communities, struggled in the face of persecution, challenge, and internal conflict. Paul wanted to offer the two dozen or so followers of Jesus in Philippi some hope. The community there was surrounded by thousands of people who didn't believe. Many of these early followers of Jesus probably didn't grow up Jewish and they came from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. A few were probably even slaves. We can assume that a sizable portion of the church in Philippi were not Roman citizens and that they never expected to be granted that status. It wasn't easy for them to keep the faith since so many other people were against them. So Paul wrote to strengthen them, encourage them, and remind them whose they are. No matter where they came from, what they used to believe, what language they spoke, what status they had, or what their personal hygiene actually was - they, because of the gift of faith and the gift of their baptism, belonged to God. Their citizenship in God's kingdom, as they were, was already secure. Even in the midst of fear, terror, and conflict, they were Christ's and Christ was already there's. By standing firm in the Lord, they could live into a hope that would transform them into something brand new. They were no longer merely what they once were or limited by what the citizenship of the world could offer them. They were citizens of God's eternal kingdom and that, to Paul, changed everything.
But that citizenship isn't a citizenship that's only to come. Rather, for all who follow Jesus, that citizenship is here, right now. Jesus' own ministry was a sign of God's kingdom come near and as citizens of God's kingdom, our very lives are called to do the same. We are rooted in an identity that will not let he worlds we create for ourselves hold us back from fully embracing the diverse world that God not only created but, through Christ, God truly loved. We are called to dismantle, uproot, and undo any worldview that aims to do the opposite of what Jesus did. We are not here to deny citizenship of others; rather, we are called to live as if our citizenship actually matters. In the face of hate, evil, extremism, violence, and the very small worlds that we too, try to create and maintain, we are reminded that we are, first and foremost, citizens of heaven. And as citizens of heaven, the only thing we can do is to be like Jesus and that means, no matter the cost, we're here to just love.
Pastor Marc's sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent (March 10, 2019) on Luke 4:1-13. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below.
One of my favorite comic strips growing was Calvin and Hobbes. The strip showed the vivids adventures of six year old Calvin and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. Hobbes, of course, was more than stuffed. He was, to Calvin and to the rest of us, fully alive. Hobbes embraced his tiger identity and had an approach towards life that was entirely his own. One of my favorite scenes has the two of them in the middle of a creek, jumping from one rock to the next. While in mid-jump, Calvin asked Hobbes if he believed in the devil, "you know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of humankind?" Hobbes, without even thinking, jumped to a new rock and said, "I'm not sure people need the help." Calvin then looked at us, saying "you just can't talk to animals about these things." And he's probably right. We can't really talk to animals about the devil. But we can, I think, talk about the devil and the nature of evil with each other. When we imagine the devil, we might think of some creature wearing an all red jumpsuit, holding a pitchfork, and who's surrounded by fire. Or, we might view the devil as something a bit more abstract, like some kind of spirit we can't fully describe. We might experience the devil as a kind of spiritual force or we might even have seen that force personified in the people closests to us. For every fan rooting for the New Jersey Devils while they play hockey in Newark, there's another person whose experience an evil that feels as if it must have some from somewhere. When it comes to the spiritual questions I'm most often asked about, the problem of evil and the devil comes up a lot. And today, on this first Sunday in Lent, the gospel of Luke introduces us to a devil who tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness.
Now, it's important to remember what happened right before today's scene from the gospel according to Luke. Jesus went to see what his cousin, John the Baptist, was doing in the wilderness. It was there, in the untamed places, where John told large crowds to share, to love, and to serve one another. John invited even tax collectors to collect only what was owed and ordered soldiers to not extort those they're suppose to defend. John said a lot while out in the wilderness. And also baptized a bunch of people too. It was after his baptism when Jesus heard the voice of God identify him as the beloved, as the one in whom God was well pleased. In fact, God was so well pleased with Jesus that the Holy Spirit immediately sent him out into a different, and even more menencing, kind of wilderness. But before we get to that wilderness, in the few verses between Jesus' baptism and Jesus' temptation that we don't read on Sunday mornings, Luke went shared one of Jesus' genealogies. Starting with Joseph, Jesus' earthly dad, Luke connected him back through history to king David, Isaac, Abraham, Methuselah, and even Adam. For Luke, Jesus' identity as the Son of God wasn't only affirmed by the story of Christmas. Jesus' identity, as the Messiah, was part of the history of God being active, and present, in the world. Jesus, according to Luke, knew who he was. But he might not have known, exactly, how his identity as the Son of God was going to be lived out. So it's during this in-between time, in the space between baptism and how he started his ministry with a sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, when the devil shows up.
The text doesn't tell us much about the devil, at least what the devil looked like. We don't hear if the devil has a forked tongue, hooves for feet, or is busy holding a hockey stick. Instead, Luke focused on what the devil said. And if you pay attention to the words, you realize the devil never really challenged who Jesus was. The "ifs" in verse 3 and 9 aren't really meant to be questions; they're really statements affirming that, since Jesus is the Son of God, he could turn stones into bread and he could tempt God to protect him. The devil doesn't confront Jesus' identity as God's beloved directly, preferring to test and corrupt how Jesus will chose to live his identity out loud. And that's why the second temptation is so insidious. It's not the type of power the devil offered that's scary; rather, it's the scope of it. The devil used Jesus' own sense of purpose and his mission to love and change the world, against him. Jesus wanted all people to discover what it's like when God's kingdom was near. And so the devil offered Jesus what seemed like the easiest, most painless, and quickest way to do it.
Yet that 2nd temptation shows us who, and what, the devil really is. Because what devil truly offers to Jesus is a lie and Jesus knows it. If we take seriously the whole scope of scripture, from Genesis through Daniel and even including the book of Revelation, we discover that the devil is offering a promise they can't back up. Because when it comes to God's Creation, it's God, not the devil, who has ultimate authority. Whatever authority the devil thinks they have, it's at the best temporary and one that they can't wield or use or give out like they think they should. The devil, for Luke, is less a creature and, instead, is really a lie. It's the lie that tries to convince you of your unworthiness. It's the lie that tries to claim an authority over you that it doesn't really have. It's the lie that, by targeting your hopes and dreams, aims to shrink who you know yourself to be. "The devil," in the words of one commentator, Professor Karoline Lewis, "does not question who Jesus is, but tries to get Jesus to question who he is." The lie the devil offered comes when we are at our most vulnerable to try and convince us that we are not who God knows us to be. The devil, at least in Luke, tried to convince Jesus to question his own identity. Jesus, as we see, didn't fall of it. But we, I'm sure, often do.
We don't always remember that, because of your baptism and your faith, you've already been claimed as God's own. God, in a very public way, anointed you as God's beloved child. It wasn't because you were perfect or lovely or always said the right things that God chose you. No, God made you God's own because that's just what God does. And because you are God's beloved, a huge part of your identity is about being a child of God. Yet I know owning that identity is sometimes easier said than done. There are plenty of ways we lie to ourselves to say that's not true. And there are people around us who try to further that lie by diminishing the fact that we are loved. It's not always difficult to see the lie that's around us but it's sometimes difficult to chose to do something about it. Yet doing something about it might be what God wants for us during these next five weeks of Lent. Professor Karoline Lewis wrote, "perhaps a Lenten discipline this time around could be naming those persons and things who think they have you all figured out, who want you to be someone you are not, whose only true interest in you is how you might benefit them -- and maybe giving up those persons and things for the next five weeks..." Jesus, in the wilderness, knew who he was. And maybe this Lent, we can re-learn who we are too. You are, right now, a beloved child of God. And your life is different because of it.
Pastor Marc's sermon for Ash Wednesday (March 6, 2019) on Matthew 6:1-6,16-21. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below.
One of the most trendy and completely overused terms in business is "disruptive innovation." It was originally coined in 1995 to describe the kind of technology that subverts an existing industry and eventually replaces it. For example, the first cars in the late 19th century were amazingly innovative but they didn't replace the horse and buggy market because cars were really expensive. But once Ford started to mass produce cars with the innovation of the assembly line, the horse and buggy went the way of, well, the horse and buggy. Since the late 1990s, tons of startup companies and inventors have tried to make a lot of money with so-called "innovations" that "disrupt" the market. Sometimes, it worked. Uber and Lyft, the ride-hailing companies, really did disrupt and subvert the taxi industry. But other "innovations" really didn't. A few months ago, a company wanted to put fancy vending machines filled with deodorant, laundry detergent, ramen noodles, and basically everything you find at a neighborhood store or a bodega - in apartment buildings. At the time, they seemed like they wanted to "disrupt the bodega" which is an industry that, as someone who relied on them while living in NYC, doesn't really need much disrupting. Some churches, also, want to find some kind of "disruptive innovation" that would reinvigorate what the Christian faith is all about. We want to "disrupt church" and make it more meaningful in the lives of those around us. I saw an attempt at this recently when the actor Chris Pratt, from Guardians of the Galaxy, posted online about something he tried. He shared with all his fans about his experience with the "Daniel Fast" which is based on a handful of verses from the book of Daniel. The Daniel Fast usually takes place in January and is supposed to grow your faith and your sense of well-being by encouraging you to eat less, pray more, and work on your connection to Jesus Christ. It's a movement that's been around for a few years and it even has its own website, how-to-guide, and devotional book. Yet, it basically sounds like a program reinviting what we believe Lent is all about. And instead of spending 40 days (46 if you include Sundays) on Lent, the Daniel Fast let's you do all similar things in only half the time. In the words of a friend, the Daniel Fast is an attempt to "disrupt Lent." And it's not the only one. A colleague reported seeing a similar kind of devotional book for Christians who don't practice Lent to use in the 21 days leading up to Easter. There's a desire, by some, to repackage this season of the church year, turning it into a program that will give us the results we want. We fast to make ourselves slimmer, we read some bible verses out of context so that we can feel more spiritual, and we do it all 21 days because 40 is too long for our attention span. But when we disrupt Lent, we actually end up doing the opposite of what Lent is all about. Lent isn't about doing more, trying to aim for something we can get; Lent is about rooting ourselves in a season to discover what we already have.
Tonight's reading from the gospel according to Matthew is the middle part of Jesus' sermon that Matthew uses to frame everything that comes next. In a sense, Jesus is upfront about how his life, his teachings, and how his death will disrupt the expectations we all have. He started the sermon in chapter 5 with the beatitudes, the verses about "blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn," and blessed are those who we don't see as being blessed. Jesus inverts our expectations, showing us how we can have a different kind of life once we re-discover who God is and who we really are. And that experience isn't always easy and doesn't, necessarily, make us comfortable. Tonight's verses from Matthew chapter 6 asks us to spend time realizing what we want and what we expect. In Jesus' day, the wider community understood the world in terms of honor and shame. The relationships people had with one another were rooted in a sense of what you could get from someone and what you could give. There was an entire system of patronage, of using what you could give and what you could get as a way of building personal loyalties and personal brands that the entire community chose to embrace. Being seen while in prayer was important. Being known as someone who gave generously mattered. Having other people watch you do your faith out loud was part of what society was about. If you weren't being seen, then it was as if it didn't happen. And if no one knew it happened, why do it in the first place?
That, I think, is why Jesus moves to treasure at the end of tonight's reading. Treasure isn't only limited to gold, silver, and how well our investments in the stock market are doing. Our treasure is also those things, experiences, and realities that we choose to keep. They're what we work hard to cultivate and what we choose pay attention to. Your treasure is what you chose to tend. And what we tend, in the end, reveals who we are.
That kind of revelation takes time to discover because we have to be honest about what we're trying to get and also what we try to give. Are we generous with our neighbors? Are we willing to give ourselves grace? Are we intentional with our faith or do we just sort of go with the flow? What do we put our trust in? And do we only care about what we get? None of these questions are easy but they're not meant to be. Because the season of Lent is a season designed to disrupt us just like Jesus disrupts our expectations of what faith, life, and love are all about. These next forty days and six Sundays are an invitation to take ourselves, our lives, and our faith seriously.
And we choose to start this process with a little bit of ash, mixed with olive oil, on our foreheads. Most of us don't usually wear a lot of ash. Yet tonight, the ashen cross will disrupts what we normally do. The next time we look in a mirror, we don't see who we usually expect to see. Instead, we will re-discover what was first given to us. The ashen cross, like some kind of divine blacklight, reveals what we have: and that's Jesus. In your baptism, you were marked on the forehead with the sign of the cross and sealed with the entirety of Jesus' story. You were given a new life that doesn't let your limitations or expectations be the end to your story. In the Cross, we discovered how far God goes to show each of how much we're loved. And it's that kind of love which has the power to turn what we get into what we can give. In Jesus, the world was disrupted. In Jesus, our old way of living has been replaced. We are not the sum of our expectations. We've been loved by too hard and too much let ourselves be the only ones that define our story. When we Lent, when we cling to God, and when we follow Jesus to wherever Jesus takes us, we end up tending to a new reality where you, me, and the entire world end up being as treasured as God knows we should be.
Today's reading from Deuteronomy 26:1-11 is one of the centerpieces of the Haggadah, the Jewish text that sets the order for the Passover meal. While those gathered around the table re-tell the story of the Exodus, they make a confession to each other and to God as laid out in verses 5 through 8. They admit how they were part of a wandering community that was enslaved by the Egyptians. They testify how God saved them. They affirm that their relationship to God isn't only tied to the fact they were born into the family of Jacob. Their God is their God because God freed them from slavery. What's amazing about this text is that the pronouns here ("you") are singular. These words are meant to be spoken by individuals. It's not the community that's saying "a wandering Aramean was my ancestor;" I'm the one asked to say that. God wants each person to remember their history and, through the act of remembering, realize how God is currently doing the same for them. The God that loved them in the past is the same God who loves them now. And the God who loves them now is inviting them into a new future where God's love becomes what primarily defines them.
A Jewish colleague of mine described this passage as a text about "arriving." It's about remembering where you've come from and pointing to where you're going. When we remember our faith stories, we're doing more than looking at things that happened in the past. Instead, we're re-participating in the ongoing story of how our God makes a difference in our lives right now. The stories in the Bible point us to that realization. It's not enough to read scripture; we need to also make scripture our own. We do that by paying attention to those moments in our lives when God shows up. Your faith is your own and your faith is a gift. It, through Jesus, is already yours. Yet we also have the responsibility to make that faith a true part of who we are. We need to first tell ourselves and then tell others about how God has made a difference to us. And when we start doing that, we start arriving in the place God wants us to be.
When was the last time you put on a face mask? Face masks (or facials masks) are one of the quintessential skin-care products that, in theory, transform your face. They are thin sheets covered in oils or a creamy paste you slather over your face. After leaving it on for a few minutes (or overnight), you peel it off to reveal a re-invigorated you. The mask (in theory) cleans your pores, removes wrinkles, moisturizes, firms up the muscles in your face, and makes you look years younger. The Face Shop, a beauty manufacture based in South Korea, sells dozens of face masks based on natural products. You can buy a mask infused with kelp, olives, cucumbers, blueberries, potato, rice, bamboo, and honey. If you use it correctly and often, the face mask is supposed to make you look healthier and younger. In other words, after you wear these masks, your face will shine.
One part of Moses' story (Exodus 34:29-35) we don't always teach in Sunday School is about what happened to Moses when he encountered God. We tend to focus on his message, the commandments, and the golden calf but we ignore how Moses changed. Moses, while talking to God, did more than receive divine ideas to pass on to the people. According to Exodus, each encounter with God changed Moses himself. After meeting God, Moses' face shined. In fact, he glowed so much, he veiled himself when he talked to other people. When Moses walked back down the mountain to talk to the community, the divine light went with him. It lingered on his face, reflecting through Moses and into the community that was all around him.
As baptized followers of Jesus, we carry that divine light with us at all times. When we were baptized, a thin cross of olive oil was gently placed on our forehead. We were sealed with a sign of the Cross and that oil, lingering on our forehead, shimmered in the light. Even though the oil eventually wore off, the Cross never will. That seal was the ultimate face mask, a sign that God, through the community, has claimed us as God's own. Regardless of our later choices and doubts, God never stops loving us because God, through Jesus, has placed his light on us. We are bearers of God's light into the world. We are always carrying the Cross of Christ with us. We are the beloved. The people around us might not always see how our face shines but we can, through our actions, act like it does. We can let our light shine - because that light will never end.
Pastor Marc's sermon for Transfiguration Sunday (March 3, 2019) on Luke 9:28-43. Listen to the recording here or read my manuscript below.
Now that's something we don't say as much as we should. If you flip through our church bulletin, those words appear nowhere else expect in our reading from the gospel according to Luke. It's not difficult for us, as a church, to say we're glad you're here. But we rarely say it's good for us to be here too. We tend to, I think, assume that's one of those things that goes without saying. If we didn't think coming to church was a good thing, we wouldn't be here in the first place. So whether we arrived today 20 minutes before worship started or if walked in mid-way through the first song, once we come together to spend some intentional time with Jesus, we do church as quickly as we can. We pray, we sing, we read scripture, and then we take a moment to have a little something to eat. We do church without taking a moment to pause and reflect on what being here actually means. It really is good for us to be here. And I'd like us to take a few seconds to let that reality sink in.
Now, me saying that it's good to be here and you really sensing that are two separate things. We might find ourselves not really connecting to "that good" as much as we think we should. The wider church has, over the years, acted as if coming to church should be easy and that ease is a sign of how good church can be. But that's not always the case. Just because something's easy doesn't necessarily mean it's good. What's good is to be part of a community that God has already created for us. Yet being in that community, especially during worship, might not always be easy. For example, we might find ourselves spending all of worship completely exhausted because our kids are, well, young. Our hands spend more time searching for snacks, handing out crayons, picking up toys, and escorting kids back and forth from the narthex than they ever do holding an actual bulletin. We're lucky, on most Sundays, to hear every fourth or fifth word. And that might make us feel as if we're too worn out to respond to anything Jesus just said. Yet, even then, it's good for you and your family to be here. It might not feel like it. And I know nothing about it is easy. But when we, as we are, hang out in the places Jesus promises to be, we end up experiencing the good that sustains every one of our moments.
Now Peter, who saw Jesus lit up like some human version of Times Square, almost missed the whole thing. As we hear in today's text, Peter was exhausted. Scripture says that he, and the others, were weighed down with sleep. Which, to me, means his entire body, from his eyelids to his back, arms, and legs, were completely tuckered out. For several years, he had traveled with Jesus all over Northern Israel. He saw Jesus' miraculous healings and he struggled with Jesus' teachings that challenged his point of view. Peter wasn't just physically tired but I imagine he was also emotionally, spiritually, and mentally exhausted as well. He needed time to reflect, process, and understand what he was going through. I wouldn't be surprised if Peter, with his eyes closed in prayer on that mountain-top, ended up zonking out for a minute or two. Yet he managed to stay up. And while Jesus prayed, Peter saw Jesus changed. Not only did Jesus' clothes turn a dazzling white; his face changed too. Jesus no longer looked exactly like he did before. Yet Peter, James, and John knew Jesus was exactly who he'd always been. After Jesus was joined by Moses and Elijah, who talked with him about the dangers of the journey ahead, Peter chose to break the silence. Tired, worn out, and with his body full of adrenaline after seeing something he didn't expect, Peter struggled to put words to what he was experiencing. He stated, quite bodly, that it was good for them to be there. But Peter couldn't stop; he needed to do something. Instead of just sitting there with the experience, he rushed to the next thing. The three dwellings he wanted to build would not only mark the spot where they experienced God, but they would also be places where the experience could be captured, housed, and visited again in the future. I imagine Peter, knowing full well how tired he was, wanted to trap Jesus in that place so, after a nice long nap, Peter could return to the experience, giving it the honor and respect it truly deserved. He knew he was only hearing every fourth or fifth word and he believed his response to God needed more. So God chose to respond to him, covering them all in a cloud, and telling Peter, James, and John to settle down and listen.
What's interesting about this story, though, is what didn't happen on the mountain-top. Luke doesn't tell us if Jesus responded to Peter or not. Instead, Peter's desire to rush to the next thing is met by God's command to pause and listen. Peter knew it was good for them to be there. But not every experience of the divine is an invitation for us to do something. There are moments when God just shows up, letting us know we're not alone. And those kinds of moments don't ask us to make a decision, or take an action, or to be anything but ourselves. All God asks for us is for each of us to notice what God is already doing. Even when we are tired, even when we are exhausted, even when coming to church is hard because of where we are in our life or because of things the church has done to us, when we gather together to spend time with Jesus, it really is good for us to be here. Because when we're here, Jesus is here, and he feeds us in the very ordinary and the very extraordinary experience of words and scripture, bread and blood. These gifts are not designed to only transfigure us into something brand new on Sunday morning. Rather, these gifts are here to sustain us so that we, during every minute of every day, can listen to Jesus' voice. Peter's experience of Jesus wasn't meant to stay confined to that mountain top. Because Jesus was already heading down into the valley and into the reality of our everyday lives. It is good for you to be here, in this place where the experience of Jesus doesn't depend on how you feel or what you think or what you're able to pay attention to. Instead, Jesus is here because he has promised to be. And that promise makes a difference not only in this moment; but in all our moments yet to come.
When was the last time you just breathed?
Breathing is essential to life and, at the same time, is something we don't think about very much. The last time we might have even noticed we were breathing was when, during a crisis, we couldn't. Breathing is something we, as human beings, just do. On average, a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. An article from the Herald Tribune calculated that, on average, "a person at rest takes about 16 breaths per minute. This means we breathe about 960 breaths an hour, 23,040 breaths a day and 8,409,600 a year unless we get a lot of exercise. The person who lives to 80 will take about 672,768,000 breaths in a lifetime." That's a lot of actions we take that we don't pay attention to.
One of the blessings we've received, I think, from the rising popularity of meditation, yoga and other practices is that we're spending a lot more time noticing our breathing. During moments of silence, we feel the air entering and leaving our chest. When our kids get angry, we teach them to take a deep breath. And when we're holding a pose, we remind ourselves not to hold our breath. When we pay attention to our breathing, we're paying attention to life. One simple breath can help us slow down and notice what's essential in our life. And paying attention to the essential is what Lent is all about.
Starting on Ash Wednesday (March 6), we will spend 40 days with the essential Jesus. Through prayer, fasting and regular worship, we can discover who Jesus is for us. We'll breath in Jesus and, in the process, discover the life with God that is meant to fill our lungs. Lent is when we are invited into a deeper faith that forms a closer connection to God. In the words of Rev. David Hansen, Pastor of Spirit of Joy! Lutheran Church, "Lent is a season for changing your life, turning things around, for getting back on the right path." This Lent, just breathe and discover your God.


text:
Goldfinger [1964)
Honor Blackman really did know judo. I am speaking, of course, about Pussy Galore. No, not the band Jon Spencer fronted prior to the Blues Explosion, but rather the original article. Blackman plays Pussy ("Poosy," as Connery says it) and gets to show off the martial arts skills she indeed has in real life.
Art imitated life as well in the directorial realm. Guy Hamilton took the helm when disputes arose between previous Bond director Terence Young and Eon Productions. Hamilton had known Ian Fleming and also, like Fleming, done intelligence work for the Royal Navy in WWII.
Ken Adam returned to set design after working for Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove.
Just as odd as Oddjob (the Korean with the throwable hat of death) is the fact that Goldfinger was the seventh Bond novel Fleming wrote. As I mentioned in my article on Casino Royale (the first Bond novel), there was a bit of trouble concerning rights to these books. Eon Productions would go on to dominate the screen versions of Bond, but Casino Royale was made as a spy spoof by Colombia Pictures in 1967 (not unlike Modesty Blaise of 1966). Indeed, it was a court case which convinced Eon Productions to hold off on Thunderball and go ahead with Goldfinger.
Credit for the ingenious "irradiation of the gold" should be given not to Fleming, but to Richard Maibaum. Fleming had not quite thought through the impossibility of emptying Fort Knox of its gold deposits (unless the thieves had a couple weeks time to haul it off: not exactly conducive to a "getaway").
Hollywood magic provided for Sean Connery to be filming Marnie with Alfred Hitchcock while a small crew actually showed up for the location shoot in Miami. Ian Fleming himself visited the set at Pinewood Studios in the U.K., but died before the film was released. Notably, there was actual filming done in the Fort Knox area because of a connection between producer Albert Broccoli (a real name, to be sure) and Lt. Col. Charles Russhon, but they were never (reportedly) allowed in the depository. Ken Adam was tasked with imagining what the inside might look like. The result of his imaginings was built at Pinewood.
The very latest Aston Martin (1964) was chosen to be Bond's super-spy car (complete with smokescreen, oil slick, machine gun and other such technology). The make was chosen at the behest of Ken Adam (who considered it England's most "sophisticated" brand). Bond would return with the same model in Thunderball (though he drives his first-issued DB5 into a brick wall).
The laser in Goldfinger morphed from a circular saw in Fleming's book to the edge of science fiction (industrial lasers not existing in 1959 when Fleming wrote the book, nor in 1964 when the film was made).
To emphasize the human version of gold, the creators of the film took a page out of Hitchcock's "icy blonde" book and liberally cast blondes for nearly all the female characters.
It is interesting to note that the Goldfinger soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 chart (thanks to Shirley Bassey's brassy rendition of the title song).
One particularly novel product tie-in which emanated from Goldfinger was Bond "dress shoes."
But lets get back to people, shall we? It is people who make products. The title designer Robert Brownjohn not only referenced Moholy-Nagy, but he was the New Bauhaus founder's protégé. Today we know it as the Institute of Design in Chicago. Brownjohn died in 1970, but not before designing the cover to The Rolling Stones' album Let It Bleed.
Guy Hamilton directed three more Bond films after Goldfinger, but not until after a long hiatus which stretched to 1971. He is a French director and, perhaps to the astonishment of those who also don't realize Godard is still alive, is 91 years old.
Of the producers, Harry Saltzman was born in Quebec and died in Paris. The aforementioned Albert "Cubby" Broccoli was born in Queens, NY and died in Beverly Hills.
Writers Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn have both passed away.
Ian Fleming we have already noted as concerns mortality.
Sir Sean Connery is alive and well being born, like Godard, in 1930.
Gert Fröbe (Goldfinger himself), funny enough, appeared in the movie version of another novel written by Ian Fleming: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
And Pussy Galore? Dear, sweet Pussy Galore? She lives on as Honor Blackman (even though she was the oldest actress to play a Bond girl). She declined a CBE in 2002. She is a signed supporter to replace Britain's monarchy with a republic. Indeed, what was it that inspired Pussy to call Washington, D.C.? Motherly instinct?
filed under Bond
tagged as Albert Broccoli, Alfred Hitchcock, Aston Martin, Gert Fröbe, Goldfinger, Guy Hamilton, Honor Blackman, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ken Adam, Moholy-Nagy, Pussy Galore, Richard Maibaum, Robert Brownjohn, Sean Connery, Shirley Bassey
2 responses to "Goldfinger [1964)"
Chris Lindsay ⋅
I like your insight about the blonde women being the "human version of gold." Austin Powers spoofed this film as well, e.g., Goldmember and Random Task. I wrote a short post on Goldfinger called "The Absurd Nature of Greed." If you would like to read it, here is the link: https://christopherjohnlindsay.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/goldfinger/
Thanks! Will check it out.
Dr. Strangelove [1964)
The Pink Panther [1963)


in Poland. During the event, more than 120 distributors of components, PCBs and manufacturing technologies will present their offer.
Obviously, some very interesting lectures were planned, e.g. on the topics of electronic applications, industrial displays, wireless power transfer technologies, new soldering alloys, or innovative laser technologies. The conference will be a great opportunity for establishing new contacts with customers and suppliers.
We would like to invite you to visit TME's stand during TEC Warsaw 2017!
25.05.2017: 9.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.


The Original Seeds Store presents Afghan Kush Ryder cannabis seeds created by the breeder World of Seeds (See all World of Seeds).
Afghan Kush Ryder is a Feminized and Auto Flowering strain created by breeding Afghan Kush x Ruderalis. This results in a strain that is Mostly Indica.
Afghan Kush Ryder reports a THC content of 22.00%.classed as High THC level.
Afghan Kush Ryder hasn't won any cups or awards yet.


The girls in blue will be straight back to the Autotech Stadium this Sunday (6 July) for the visit of Notts County Ladies in the Continental Cup, 2pm kick-off.
Following on from the Blues 2-0 victory over Oxford in the group, David Parker's side will head in to the battle of the Midlands against Notts County, sitting at the top of the group.
A special family ticket for just £15 (2 adults, 2 under 16s) will give access to a host of activities including; Blues' famous half-time chip and win competition, a raffle for a signed Blues Ladies 14/15 home shirt, and a hog roast, with hot pork baps served with stuffing and apple sauce available for £3.
Single match tickets for the game are available at just £6 for adults and £3 for concessions, with a discount available for Birmingham City Football Club's 13/14 season ticket holders at just £5 for adults and £2 for concessions.


Is your top mechanism in need of repair or adjustment? Bring your car to us. At Convertible Service, we're experts at convertible top repair. And since we stock a wide selection of convertible top parts and weatherstrip, we're prepared to service your convertible in a timely and professional manner. So if your top needs servicing, bring your car to the convertible experts at Convertible Service. Give us a call today.
Please call us for an appointment at (626) 285-2255.
We are specialists at solving difficult top repair problems! We service many late model American convertibles, as well as most older classic American convertibles, including the 1960's era Lincolns and Thunderbirds, and 1971-1976 GM "Scissor Top" convertibles.