Last year Bear family released the complete George Jones United Artist Recordings and when I purchased it I said a prayer that Bear would next put out the complete Musicor Recordings which would be something of a holy grail of Country Music. On the night of the CMT's where like many true Country Music fans I feel as if I have been kicked in the nads and punched in the stomach while Nashville continues to piss on the grave of country music my prayers have been answered.  Two Box sets. One has Already been released one will be released June 23rd.

Do you ever feel like God is taunting you? I remember walking down the river walk in San Antonio before the Alamo Bowl with the Contessa when we were dating.  It was the first real vacation we had taken together and as we were walking going the other direction  was a brunette about 5' 10" wearing a Michigan State shirt and hat and I remember thinking good one God. Well she was thank goodness a Michigan State fan at least and not a Nebraska fan. Thank goodness for small favors. Anyway after smoking 3 cigars last week I decided that this week NO CIGARS! So what does Oprah do? Starts the week off with a masterpiece 68 degree day. A breeze, clouds but no rain. It was the kind of day that people today call Cold but the kind of day the Count calls perfect. The day had go out on the deck and smoke written all over it. Making matters worse is the fact that I actually have some good cigars put away in the humidor. I got some La Gloria Cubana  and Hoyo De Monterrey cigars in the humidor and those things are the nectar of the Gods. I even have one La Gloria Cubana Serie R. sitting in their. A bute of a cigar. And they are all just crying out smoke me! smoke me! smoke me! look at me! look at me! don't I look good?  smoke me! It's 68 degrees out your kinda weather...and you know you want to smoke me! Man I tired everything to get my mind off of not smoking tonight. I even watched half of One Life To Live with the Contessa before she kicked me out for complaining about how stupid the show was and how much it sucked. Then I had a choice between CNN, Fox News and WWE Monday night Raw... HHH IS BACK!

If you buy a book from the Store, or anything from anywhere for that matter, pay attention to the price sticker. I bought Bill Russell's new book Red And Me My Coach And My Life Long Friend from Borders.



Anyway the book, which is not large by any mean to begin with, was priced $24.95. OK I wanted to read it I  have looked forward to it for a while now. Well Borders put a sticker on it that said $26.95. So I paid $2 more for a book that at 175 pages in hardly small print was overpriced to begin with. Anyway I caught the mistake after I threw the receipt away. Anyway last week to get even I decided I would make my football magazine run at Barnes And Noble and became a member of their whatever club. But then the lady there kinda pissed me off as well. As I was paying for my magazines she says..."would you like to join our club the membership discounts work on magazines as well". As if because I was only buying Magazines this time around I never ever bought books. Oh Well. As for the book itself after bashing critics last weeks this week I will agree with one. The review in Sports Illustrated mentioned that Russell A. was too hung up on race and B. used the word tribe entirely too often. That was spot on. Here is the book in short. I was a black man who grew up in the South and Oakland projects who never got along with my white coaches. Red was a Jew from Brooklyn who became my friend because he allowed me to do what ever I wanted. Him from his tribe and me from mine. The book is not bad by any means and as a fan of the Celtics who considers both men heroes it was a necessary read but you may want to wait until it's in paperback and it's not a replacement John Feinstein's  wonderful Let Me Tell You A Story. (A Lifetime In The Game)

Classic Sinatra II came out this week and with it some justice for the consumer. Classic Sinatra was a 20 track "Greatest Hits" packaged from Sinatra's Capital era that was released in 2000. In other words it was what most people consider the best of the best of Sinatra. It has sold 2 million copies so far. So now 9 years later The Sinatra family put out Classic Sinatra II with 21 tracks (20 previously released) 1 that hasn't been) But the Sinatra's do store exclusives where if you buy the CD at a certain store you get a different exclusive edition" Nancy "Boots" Sinatra says that these are the stores Idea but I believe that they do them because several people get multiple editions of a CD to get all of the different versions. Even though the exclusive bonuses are usually minimal. Hell I have even done this once or twice myself if the exclusive was good enough and the price was cheap. Well Classic Sinatra came out and only Target had a store exclusive. 5 extra tracks. it wasn't announced until the day the disk came out and many people had it pre-ordered. So for many of us if you wanted the "extra" tracks disk you would have to buy the same disk twice. Well the disks at Target that were suppose to have the extra Tracks and  claimed that they had the special tracks...didn't have the special tracks.  Several people on Sinatra boards are complaining. Boots says the problem is being fixed and all of Target's CD's are being sent back. Ebay now has people ripping people off with "rare" editions of Classic Sinatra II that contain the error.

This is why I about fell off my chair laughing when I saw Boots Sinatra said she hated Bootlegs because they kept food off of her table and why I don't lose a moments sleep when I come in possession of one. I do not question the decision to put out a CD with songs that many Sinatra fans already have. because many also do not. The first sold 2 million copies and who knows how many of those people discovered Sinatra through that disk? A volume 2 only made sense. But their little plan to get people to buy multiple copies backfired and thank God for that. By the way. Classic Sinatra II with out many of the "signature sings and hits" that were on Classic Sinatra I is the better CD for that very reason. There are some "hits" on Classic Sinatra II like too Marvelous For Words, Love And Marriage, High Hopes, I've Got A Crush On You. But what's makes Classic II the better listen is the non hits. I get along with out you very well, Here's that rainy day, our love is here to stay etc. It's just a better listen to these ears. I found the bonus tracks that were suppose to be included and made a disk with the bonus tracks. I even added another song " So easy to remember but so hard to forget" It's an ultra rare Count exclusive edition.

Anyway There maybe a part 2 coming but I am tired.

as always

KTF

Count Istvan

Stephen

Thank you to Commanderbond.net

Written by Devin Zydel on 07 Jun, 2009

Gentlemen may prefer blondes, but according to a newly released academic study, that isn’t quite the case for James Bond.

According to the Telegraph, a group of researchers have found that the famous secret agent in fact prefers brunettes overall—specifically, those with long hair, an American accent and who carry weapons

This decidedly odd research information resulted from a group of academics who assessed the physical traits of 195 female characters in the first 20 official James Bond movies, then contrasted the characteristics of the 98 who had ‘sexual contact’ with Bond with those of the 97 who did not.

Their findings have been published in the journal Sex Roles and are meant to examine how Bond girls have changed over the years as well as exploring what kind of women end up with 007.

Unsurprisingly, those classified as Bond’s sexual partners tended to be younger, slimmer and more attractive than the women he does not bed. They are also less likely to wear glasses. Examples included Moonraker’s Lois Chiles as Dr Holly Goodhead and Lana Wood as Plenty O’Toole in Diamonds Are Forever.

The average age of the women was estimated at 26. Overall, 46 were deemed to have had ‘strong’ sexual contact with Bond, while a further 52 were classified as having ‘mild’ contact (such as kissing).

27% were blonde, while 40% had black hair, 19% brown and 9% red. For whatever reason, Bond more often ended up getting intimate with the dark-haired Bond girls. Furthermore, 18% of women with long hair were more likely to end up in a sexual situation with 007 than the 22% who had short hair.

Bond girls with an American accent accounted for one-fourth of the total, but but those that did were more likely to have some form of sexual contact with Bond than the 43% who had a European accent of some kind.

A majority of female characters engaged in some sexual activity, particularly those in major roles. And the great majority of sexual behaviours involved Bond himself,’ says the research team, led by Kimberly Neuendorf, professor of communication at Cleveland State University, Ohio.

‘Every Bond film has multiple female characters who variously tempt, distract, and assist James in his latest mission. At least one ‘Bond girl’ is particularly striking—a woman with an adventurous nature, cunning attributes, strong potential for romantic entanglement with Bond, and a sense of self-assurance, whose name—Pussy Galore, Honey Ryder, or Holly Goodhead, for example—is as provocative as the character she portrays.’

On a negative note, the study also found that one in five female characters were dead by the end of the movie, including many who had had sexual contact with Bond.
 

On a bizarre note, Bond was more likely to have sexual contact with a woman if she used a weapon than if she did not. Two women attempted to kill 007 before sexual contact, two tried during sex, and a further 10 tried afterwards.

‘The women of Bond are eternally attractive,’ the report stated. ‘Their typically slender body type … is unchanged over time. The women of Bond continue to be portrayed in a rather limited and sex-stereotyped manner. The ultimate penalty for a woman in a Bond film—death—seems to accrue from promiscuity and daring to threaten the ultimate iconic masculine hero, James Bond.’

‘This study provides further evidence of the continued sexualisation, marginalisation, and disposability of women within Bond films. The Bond films glorify the sometimes chauvinistic persona of Bond.’

‘Bond single-handedly takes on any ‘bad guy’, saves the world and always gets the girl. Bond accomplishes these feats by the power of his wit and more importantly through violence.’

 

She is so Beautiful that I actually think this picture doesn't do her any favors. She is scorching though. I am following her on twitter. :)





From her twitter pic.

Beatrice if I am not on that is why :)

2 things I noticed tonight on my travels through the net that made me want to bash my head through the door really hard until I was blissfully unconscious. Both come back to the same point. People are fucking idiots. Really, truly.

Item #1 On Amazon.com they sell Used playing cards from casinos. One deal is 13 decks for $13 another is 72 decks for $35 or so.

Now here's the deal. Some people myself included collect playing cards from Casinos. I started doing this because I thought hell I dropped enough money here I might as well get a cheap souvenir. Another good thing about collecting these cards is they are reminders of places you have been to. I once took out a deck that I got from Chinook Winds casino and was showing them to The Contessa and it reminded us of the day we spent on the coast in Oregon.

One thing you can not do with these cards is have poker games for money with your friends. When the casino discards the deck and sells it or gives it to it's customers they do so after marking or cutting the cards. this is COMMON SENSE. If they didn't do this then somebody could pocket the aces or a royal flush or a Black Jack and a 10 and walk back in the casino and cheat them. Or at least you would THINK this was common sense. Even though the Amazon description clearly says USED decks of cards from casinos the idiots who have bought them are complaining that the cards are used, marked and can't be used for their poker games.

Douchbags if you want a deck to use for your poker game go to Walgreens or your grocery store and buy a deck of Hoyle or Aviator cards. Used casino cards are for collectors. And if the product description says USED cards from casinos don't bitch because you got used cards from casinos.

I read a review of Angels And Demons in the NY times back when it first came out and honestly and typically I couldn't tell whether or not the person thought the movie was any good. Not that it would have mattered either way. What the reviewer seemed more interested in, and this reviewer isn't alone in doing this, was cracking himself up with his pithy put downs of Dan Brown and wowing us with his grasp of the English language. As is typical with a NY Times reviews I came away convinced the reviewer loved himself and that he didn't actually see the movie he was reviewing. Still how many people read this review and formed their opinions? which leads me to the second thing that got my attention. I was on a Frank Sinatra message board and somebody asked whether or not they should buy Live At The Meadowlands because the reviews he had seen had been average.

Now let's ignore the fact that Since the disk came out on may 5th I have seen 3 reviews for the disk. Two were very positive one was mixed. And also the fact that if you are a Sinatra fan especially one who hangs around a message board you bought the disk that night and didn't have to ask whether or not you should. Why would somebody actually rely on critical reviews or word of mouth from somebody else on a message board to tell them whether or not they should buy a disk or go see a movie? How the fuck would I or anybody else know whether you will like it or not? How about forming your own opinion? Especially in an age when hearing or seeing something before you pay isn't exactly that difficult.

The fact that many people actually base whether or not to see or buy something on a critical review or somebody elses word is to me both highly disturbing and unbelievably lazy. To start with Critics themselves are lazy. Once the first review gets written notice how 90% that follow say the same exact fucking thing? One critic says something the next critic reads it and says...well I don't have to review this thing I'll just slightly reword this thing and then some lazy son of a bitch reads both reviews and says... Well they said it wasn't any good it must not be any good. I am amazed at how many myths get started about a album, a CD, a movie, etc because one critic said it another 10 didn't do their homework and repeated it and then some idiots read it and now the myth is reality.

Having to have somebody else tell you whether or not you liked something just doesn't get any lazier than that does it? If somebody outright relies on word of mouth from others to form their opinions or they allow other people opinions to shape the way they feel about soemthing they should not read reviews or ask other peoples opinions untill after they have actually done enough work to decide for themselves what they think.

Now ask me about Live At The Meadowlands and I'll tell you compared to other concerts I have heard from that time period from Frank Sinatra it's a pretty amazing piece of work that is much better than the other concerts that I have heard from the same time period most of which I have found to be if not prime Sinatra, very good Sinatra. This was great Sinatra prime or past prime. But that's what my ears heard. If you think you might want to buy it but don't know hunt around on the net or go to a store with a listening station and decide for yourself.

As for Angels and Demons I saw it. Sorry to not wow you with my command of the English language but the truth is I thought it was a pretty good movie. Certainly not something I am sure I would go out of my way to see more than once but solid none the less. It was a perfectly acceptable way to spend 2 hours on a hot Sunday afternoon. I thought Tom Hanks performance was sub-par and Ewen McGregor's was quite good. Now if you are basing your decision on whether or not to see it on that opinion you're a damn fool but then that would be the case if I said I loved it or hated it now wouldn't it?

KTF

Count Istvan

Stephen