Action Packed Weekend

The TIFF Bell Lightbox Centre here in Toronto is currently showing an exhibition titled Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style  from October 26 to Jan 20, 2013. My bestfriend and I, viewed the Exhibition last weekend, before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy and despite the continuous rain, freezing temperature and strong winds. In the Exhibit, we saw most of the James Bond's costumes, props, models, gadgets, artwork, Bond's personal effects and even a feature on James Bond's author, Ian Fleming. We learnt from this exhibit the strong influence of the James Bond movies to popular culture, to film making, fashion, technology, art, music and travel. There are also James Bond movies being shown during the exhibit. For 50 years now, since 1962 and twenty two films so far, James Bond movies are always full of action, intrigue, mystery, history,  love and great style. James Bond movies have entertained us from 1962 to the present and will hopefully keep on going. We never tire of watching James Bond movies. 

The book from the exhibit that tells the story of  designing all of the James Bond movies. This is an excellent book about the Exhibit as it featured lots of pictures and essays about the James Bond movie making history. 

Let us test here your knowledge of James Bond movies. Here are some questions for you to answer. There are clues along the way. Have fun answering them in the comments section. I hope you will answer them all correctly. The answers will be posted next Thursday, 8th November, in my blog post, before the release of James Bond's new film Skyfall on 9th November here in North America. 

Q1: What is Commander James Bond's MI6 Agent number? 

Q2: What is the title of Mr. Bond's first movie in 1962 starring Ursula Andress as a Bond Girl?

Q3: What is Mr. Bond's first favourite car?

Here are some swim wear worn by some Bond Girls and James Bond himself in the movies' Beach scenes. The orange bikini suit was worn by Halle Berry in Die Another Day, the White Bikini suit was worn by Ursula Andress, the blue trunks was worn by Daniel Craig in the James Bond movie Casino Royale and the lighter blue swim trunks was worn by Sean Connery as James Bond in Thunderball.

Featured here is James Bond's swimming mask.

Q4: Who is the character that James Bond fell in love with in the movie Casino Royale?

Q5: What is the colour of Mr. Bond's AMEX credit card?  Is it Gold, Platinum, Blue or Black?

Q6: What is Mr. Bond's favourite drink? How does he like it made? 

Q7: What is the name of the Golden Gun in the movie The Man With The Golden Gun?

Some history here: The Golden Gun was actually a gold metal plated gun assembled with a fountain pen for the barrel, a cigarette case for the handle, a cigarette lighter for bullet case and cuff links as the trigger. The gun can only take one bullet.  I learnt that the production made three prototypes but two were stolen so only one was used for filming.  

Q8: What was the name of Ian Fleming's estate in Jamaica which he used as a title of one of his James Bond novels and also became a James Bond movie?

Some Ian Fleming Biography:

• Born in London's Mayfair on May 28, 1908
• Ian Fleming graduated from Eton College and Sandhurst Royal Military College.
• Ian Fleming was a Commander in the British Naval Intelligence Divisions during WWII.  He became immersed in the world of espionage from which he based the story of the James Bond novels.
• After WWII, Ian Fleming became a journalist and the author of the James Bond novels.
• Ian Fleming's boss at the Naval Intelligence Department, Admiral John Godfrey, inspired the character of M in the James Bond novels. In eleven James Bond movies, M, was played by men, then in 1992, M, was since played by a woman. 
• He married Ann Charteris who was divorced  from the second Viscount Rothermere.
• On the later years of his life, he lived a life of heaving drinking and smoking. Ian Fleming died at 56 yrs old due to a heart attack.

The new James Bond movie, Skyfall, will be released in Theatres starting 9th November.

A Fashion question Q9: What is the brand of the watch that the current James Bond is wearing? 

Lastly, Q10:  Who is your favourite James Bond actor?

From James Bond to Les Cabarets...

This is a story I would like to share. After viewing the James Bond Exhibition, my friend and I decided to walk over to the new Shangri-la Hotel to have some afternoon tea and snack. As we walked along the King St West area, which is the Theatre District here in Toronto, an old couple stopped us right in front of the Royal Alexandra Theatre. They offered to us their tickets for free to the La Cage Aux Folles Theatre show, starring George Hamilton. In the beginning, we could not believe it. So we asked the couple, why they are giving their tickets away? They explained to us that they have to leave the show because they have to go somewhere at that time.They kept telling us that it is a really excellent show. Good thing, this all happened during the intermission. Since the old couple really looked respectable and sweet, we decided to accept their free offer and we ended up watching George Hamilton Live! 

It turned out that the show was excellent and entertaining, as the couple told us. It was full of drama, laughter, songs and dances. The ticket the couple gave us were very good seats in the Orchestra section near the stage and almost worth $200 Cdn. George Hamilton was a very debonair and talented actor in the show. He sang, danced and acted so well, dressed in his customary suit and his perfect Tan! The musical is a comedy where the cabaret dancers are played by men (picture above) instead of the usual Parisian women cabaret dancers. Imagine those men wearing complete cabaret glittering and skimpy costumes, full make up and headdress then dancing all over the stage. My friend and I could not believe this experience. Imagine us giggling all through out!  We must have done something really good to deserve this!  Thank you very much to the couple that gave us the free tickets, whoever they are. That was really unexpected. 

Then some calmness from all the excitement...

After the exciting show we just experienced, we finally made it to the Shangri-la Hotel here in Toronto. This is a brand new Hotel recently opened last September during the Toronto International Film Festival. Inside the contemporary lobby is a welcoming, comfortable and cosy fireplace, well designed for guests to socialiaze and relaxing area to have some Afternoon Tea or Champagne. We just drank the Shangri-la Green Jasmine Tea here to warm ourselves. Outside was the opposite due to the stormy and rainy weather. So we stayed here indoors to re-cap our exciting afternoon and to keep warm with our tea. Afterwards, we had an early dinner in the hotel's restaurant, Momofuku, which is one of the highly popular restaurants in the City right now. 

That's all for now from our Action Packed Weekend... I will share more about the Shangri-La Hotel in my future posts. I hope you will watch the James Bond movie next weekend. Please share with me in the comments section your answers to the James Bond questions above. Also, it was fun watching George Hamilton Live!  As the saying goes, the best things in life are free. 

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!