Author Archive

JG

Having spent most of my life in South Florida it was not uncommon for me to see exotic cars on the streets. Unfortunately, of all the vehicles I had seen I had never had the opportunity to see an Aston Martin DB5 up close. This has always been a dream of mine, a dream which was realized just a few weeks ago at the Dezer James Bond Car Collection in Miami.

Walking into the massive exhibit area, I could not help but notice that due to me going on a weekday, I was alone and it was going to be a private tour.…

Nathanael Means

The polar star against which I have measured my life has always been my own notion of a Bond Experience encapsulated in the old-fashioned, but mildly modern, English gentleman. For me it is more than the films; the Bond Experience speaks to the way of living of that older generation of Englishmen and Americans like Ian Fleming who did service in the Second World War.

I look not exclusively to Fleming to find the essence of the James Bond lifestyle.

I see the world that Fleming captured in James Bond similarly revealed in the genteel, English manner of living of Americans like the columnist Joseph Alsop who defined the American Anglophiles of the age as the W.A.S.P Ascendancy.…

Frank Herbert

This may be a bit of a different story for you.

I have been a Bond fan since 1964 (Goldfinger). In Sept 2011, I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. This knocked the winds out of my sails.

The first thing you think of is how far off death is and ill I ever see Bond 23??

I elected to do radiation treatment but before I began the treatment, I started my Bucket List. I took a short trip to London and searched out some filming locations; some from past Bond movies and also from “Skyfall”.

When I returned home, I started my radiation treatment.…

At The Bond Experience, we have received an exclusive picture and excerpt from the latest edition of Cinefex, the SkyFall edition. Below is an excerpt from the Cinefex “Skyfall” article, contained in the new issue (133-APRIL 2013). We also have a picture (above) of one of the images in the “Skyfall” story.

I don’t know if you are familiar with Cinefex, but they are a quarterly film magazine that has been covering the field of cinematic effects for 33 years. This issue features a 28-page story on the making of the latest Bond film “Skyfall.

The article is based on in-depth interviews with the film’s special and visual effects teams, and is accompanied by 36 behind-the-scenes full-color photos and frame clips from the film, many of them exclusive to Cinefex.…

Dan Longoria

Many years ago when I lived in Chicago a friend and I used to go snow skiing. As beginners we both took many pratfalls of a histerical nature. On one trips toward late evening, the temp was dropping and the number of skiers was thinning down.

I had a habit of swinging my right ski pole over the top of the tow rope to facilitate holding on to the tow rope easier. As night was falling I had done just that as usual. As my friend passed me he took a particularly hilarious fall. I started laughing and somehow tripped and fell.…

As a journalist, I have had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing many celebrities. Their star power usually doesn’t faze me. Only one time did I ever become “star struck.” It involved a chance encounter in 1987 with James Bond himself, Sir Sean Connery.

I had been a college senior attending a work-related conference in Vancouver, Canada. The hotel in which I had been booked screwed up and, to make it, right transferred me to the more-upscale Mandarin Oriental. There, a co-worker had been talking to the desk clerk who told him Sean Connery was staying at the hotel. He told me, knowing that I was a huge 007 fan.…

And when I say sneak I mean sneak!

During my SkyFall Tetbury Boot Review video I decided to make a trip to the International Spy Museum in Washington DC.

The PR blurb promises the following: Meet Bond’s villains, uncover their evil schemes, and explore their exotic lairs and weapons in this special exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Bond films. See over 100 film artifacts from the archives of EON Productions, the Bond film producers.

What I couldn’t be prepared for was the amazing amount of props they had on display. Only MAJOR problem was they were fanatical about no pictures being taken and there were stern guards everywhere.…

Joseph McNeil

The icon Sean Connery picture.

Growing up in the 60 and 70s, I was always a huge Bond fan and especially aligned with Sean Connery. The iconic picture of Sean Connery holding the long barreled pistol next to his cheek is such a classic photo. However, the photo was so iconic that I never gave it much thought till about a year ago, that the 1950s competition Walther LP53 (LP stands for Luftpistole or “air pistol”) that my dad had let me shoot from time to time when I was growing up and that I now have packed away in a trunk in my closet, could possibly be the same gun.…

Sometimes life is about blind luck. Today started out simple enough with my wife and I arriving in New York City to do a few errands and enjoy the crisp weather. As happens, we found ourselves walking to build up hunger for our lunch, which was still a few hours away.

As we walked, we realized we were by the Tom Ford store and as we hadn’t been there since August, we figured we would stop in. Actually, I have to give credit where credit is due…my wife pushed me to try on the SkyFall Glen Plaid so in we went.…

Kaleb Kochensparger

Dressed for my Day of Bond

On Thursday November 8th, prepping to see Skyfall at midnight, I decided that I would spend my entire day doing Bond related activities.

I started out the day with a bond style breakfast which consisted of black coffee, and scrambled eggs prepared the way Ian Fleming suggested.

I then pulled out my Bond 50 Blu-ray box set and watched Goldeneye through Quantum Of Solace. Between Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies, I followed James Bonds shower routine of hot then cold, shaved with manual razor that bond would approve and so on.

Then I continued my marathon, and when my marathon came to Casino Royale, I contemplated having a vodka martini but decided not to since my 21 year old body can’t handle that much liquor yet so I settled for whiskey, neat and I drank it in a similar style to Bond-s post stairwell fight.…