James Bond "News", New Steve Winwood

The BBC has been covering the production of the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace in great detail. Almost daily, we are being treated to news about Daniel Craig, the car, the co-stars, etc. I DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT, so I am resisting the temptation to read them. But if you are interested, here are a few links.

Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson are working on a song for Quantum of Solace.

BBC recently reported that a stunt man crashed a car during filming and was hurt badly.

A museum exhibit on Bond creator Ian Fleming's hundredth birthday revealed some letters to "the real Miss Moneypenny." I recommend the Ian Fleming Centre for swag and info.

I would recommend very highly a visit to Goldeneye, the hotel created in and around Fleming's house in Oracabessa, Jamaica. The view of Bond Beach will remind you of Dr. No, and many places in Jamaica would be familiar to a fan from the movies.

Speaking of Jamaica, Goldeneye and James Bond reminds me of the picture above, which I saw there. Winwood has been on a five-year mission to take back his career from my estimation, having re-debuted around the time of the 2003 Louisville Non-Commvention. He was working his own record and I was on my way out of Island Records. At the time I thought to myself, if he isn't on Island, why should I be?

So I told him about the picture and he was weirded out. But it seemed like a more interesting picture from Goldeneye than Fleming's desk. I have added the others to my "visual flow," powered by Flickr.

Anyhow, I listened Winwood's new album "Nine Lives" the other day and it seems like an improvement on the last one. I wouldn't want him to go all "Roll with It," but I would like him to have a hit. There are some good songs on this album, Winwood's voice sounds excellent and he can still play great guitar and keyboard. His guitar playing has a ton of character and I have seen him fill an arena with it.

Nine Lives is a decent album without too much of the 80s corn. And finally, on the Leftsetz tip, I recently "lent" a young lady some Traffic albums w/o much traction gained. I like how he says he is "first in music analysis" on his site. But that's another story for another day!