'Trigger Mortis' Announced & Raymond Benson Books Ranked

It was announced today the newest entry in the literary James Bond series will be titled Trigger Mortis.  The book, to be published September 8, was penned by Anthony Horowitz, but the really special treat about the upcoming story is that a portion of the book includes an unreleased story written by 007's creator, Ian Fleming.  Fleming's material was a treatment for a television series titled Murder on Wheels, which will be set in the world of motor racing.  The announcement was made on what would have been Fleming's 107th birthday.

 

Another few interesting tidbits from the book's title announcement are that it will be set within the original timeline of Fleming's stories and it will bring about the return of Bond girl Pussy Galore.  The exact timing of Horowitz's new story will take place two weeks following the events of Goldfinger.  Bond's globe-trotting adventure will involve the American-Soviet Space Race.

 

Horowitz has published more than 40 books and his literary talents include continuation novels for Sherlock Holmes.  He is also the author of the teen spy series Alex Rider.  Horowitz is also the creator of Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle's War.

 

Today's 007 announcement made me realize I never put my rankings of Bond continuation author Raymond Benson's novels on the blog.  I listed Fleming and John Gardner's continuation novels nearly a year ago and the Benson stories were ranked soon after that, but I just didn't take the time to put them on the blog for posterity's sake.

 

Below are the six James Bond novels from Raymond Benson, listed from best to worst:

 

1. The Facts of Death

2. Zero Minus Ten

3. Never Dream of Dying

4. Double Shot

5. The Man with the Red Tattoo

6. High Time to Kill

Vancouver Trip: Part 2 (U2 Concert Photo Album)

I don't have many photos from the concert (since in today's world of Twitter/Facebook/the World Wide Web there are a ton of better pictures from anything you were probably doing at any point in time), but what I do have I will share.

 

This is what the stage looked like following the first night's show.  The platform to the right is the main stage and the circular area to the left is the secondary stage (where the Edge fell).  The black screen in the middle is raised during the performance and different images are shown throughout the show (as you will see in a few pictures).  The band also performed inside the video screen for a couple of songs.

 

I don't remember which song this was for, but it is from the first night.  It may be from the opening song, "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)."

 

Here is the obligatory cell-phone flashlight moment that has replaced lighters during a band's slow song.  This was done during "A Song for Someone."

 

 

 

 

The four photos above are from the band's entrance during the encore.  The first three are from night one and the last one is from my vantage point on the second night.

 

A clear shot of the back of Larry Mullen Jr.

 

A blurry version of the front of Larry Mullen Jr.

 

Here is a nice close-up of the Edge.  As you can tell from the previous few photos, my spot on the first night was very close to the stage.  To be exact, I was on the rail right in the middle of the catwalk between the main and secondary stages.  It was a great spot to see the band members close, but you couldn't see what was going on with the screen above.

 

That leads us to the second night's general admission spot.  I was as far back as possible, but still right in the middle of the main and secondary stages.  Here is a shot of the Edge inside the video screen and an image of Bono singing from the main stage on the outside of the screen.

 

And finally a shot of both the Edge and Bono inside the screen.  You wouldn't know it, but the color of the screen was actually yellow.

 

The concerts were great.  Thanks to the unfortunate death of B.B. King we heard "When Loves Come to Town," which hadn't been played live since the early 90s.  Overall I enjoyed the set list, view, and experience of night two more than the opening show, but both were great.  Really glad I went with James to see U2 in Vancouver.  I'll never forget it.

A Photographic Recap Of My Trip To Vancouver

I recently traveled with my friend James to attend the opening two shows of the new U2 tour in Vancouver.  We flew to Seattle and drove up to Canada for financial reasons, but it turns out that was the best way to do it because the scenic drive along the Pacific Coast of Washington was one of the most picturesque viewscapes I've ever been privileged to experience.  There were some funny stories that I might share later when I have a little more time, like how James nearly contradicted my Customs interrogation answer about whether or not we were bring foreign foods into Canada, but for now it will mostly just be some pictures from Seattle, Vancouver, and the concerts.

 

This is a distant view of downtown Seattle from the inside of our rental car.  You can see to the left a domed building.  That is Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariners play baseball.

 

Did someone mention Safeco Field?  Here is a bit closer view, but still from the I-5.

 

After turning off the main interstate to take a more leisurely paced, charming drive we came across the above mountain with looming cloud coverage.  All of Seattle and its surrounding suburbs were this gloomy both days we were in the area.

 

Before entering Canada, we pulled the car off to the side to take a closer look at the above view.  This is Bellingham Bay.  It was gorgeous.

 

This was a trail leading off from our view above of Bellingham Bay that went down toward the water's edge.

 

This is the entrance into Vancouver's Chinatown, which is where our hotel was located.

 

Speaking of our hotel, this is one of the views from our hotel.  We had a corner room on the fourth floor (which turns out to actually be the fifth floor if it were in America) of the Patricia Hotel.  This building has a storied history but is currently located in a rough part of the city.  Many homeless people lined the street, but not once were we accosted.

 

And here is the night view out the other window of our hotel.  Yes, that is the business's neon sign that brightly shines every evening.  Luckily the drapes were quite thick and we were not bothered by the light.  Now, the fact that we didn't have any A/C was another issue.

This is a waffle I had one morning while in Vancouver.  It's the greatest waffle I've ever put in my mouth.  The line was an hour long, so we had to wait a bit longer than anticipated to eat that morning.  This particular waffle was crispy and covered in strawberries, caramel, nuts, powdered sugar, whipped cream, and ice cream.

 

And this is James's waffle.  Did I mention we waited an hour for our breakfast?

 

I know I said I would post some pictures from the U2 concert, but that will have to wait until later in the week.

O Canada!

Tomorrow morning I get on a plane with my friend James as we head to Vancouver to see U2 in concert.  We land in Seattle and will make a two-and-a-half hour drive north into Canada, my first time to visit our neighbors to the north.  We will then spend Thursday and Friday nights watching our favorite band perform the first two shows on its American leg of shows, Innocence & Experience Tour.

 

While this is my first trip to Canada, it will be my eighth and ninth time to see U2 perform live.  I saw the band five times in college traveling around Texas to see them in Houston twice, Dallas twice, and Austin, once in Phoenix while visiting my brother, and another time in Arlington (which was also my first time to be in Cowboys Stadium).  Unfortunately this will not be much of a sight-seeing trip, which I am trying to get my wife to understand since she is sad she doesn't get to go with me, but I have told her that we will go to Canada some time in the future when we can have a relaxing time and not be forced to schedule around a rock concert.

 

I won't have access to a computer, so anything of interest will have to be posted upon my return.  Until then, all you suckers with jobs enjoy the rest of your work week.

We Get It Marvel; Avengers 2 Is Here

I don't follow the film industry as closely as I used to when I had nothing to take up my time but disc golf, poker, and movie watching, but you don't really need a good feel for the pulse of Hollywood, or even a BA in marketing for that matter, to realize that Marvel is throwing away millions of dollars on advertising for its latest feature film, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

 

In the days prior to the Internet, if you didn't watch television or read magazines/newspapers, it was pretty easy to avoid film advertisements.  That really was about the only way to know about an upcoming release.  Toy lines and other kid-friendly marketing tools were also available in stores, but that is pretty easy to miss.  No, the marketing departments at film studios only had so many chances to inform its target audiences that a new, super-exciting movie was being released in the next few weeks and you wouldn't want to miss it.

 

Then came the World Wide Web.  Pretty much every human being in the free world (minus a tiny percentile that makes a concerted effort to stay off the grid) uses computers, which leads to being on the Internet.  The way things are set up nowadays, you can't visit any website without seeing some sort of pop-up advertisement or web banner.  It doesn't really matter what it might be selling, they are hard to miss.

 

That being said, I dare anyone to tell me that in the last two months they haven't seen something promoting Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was released today in theaters.  The trailers, both on television and the Internet, are running non-stop.  Product advertisements are everywhere right now for that movie.  It is impossible to go a single day without seeing something related to the second superhero team-up film for Marvel's Cinematic Universe.  But is all the press really necessary for this movie?

 

 

In 2012, Marvel's first Avengers film made $623 million domestically and raked in $1.5 billion worldwide.  That ranks third on both the all-time domestic and international box office lists for highest box office draws.  Comic book films are obviously doing well right now and Marvel is king among the production companies releasing those type of movies.  People want to see Avengers: Age of Ultron and releasing film trailer after TV spot after Internet trailer isn't swaying anyone one way or the other.  The budget for Avengers: Age of Ultron is $250 million and that doesn't include all the money they are paying to market the film.  With everything I have seen released on every form of media possible, they have had to spend a minimum of another $50 million on marketing.

 

Personally, I feel like they could have cut back on half of that and had the exact same results in who will and won't see the film.  Now, when your movies make more than a billion dollars internationally, $25 million might not seem like much, but Marvel is out to make as much money as possible and an extra $25 million is something the executives would obviously like to add that to their pocketbooks at the end of the day.  Avengers: Age of Ultron has to be one of the most heavily marketed movies in the history of the industry, but I will admit I don't have any facts or figures to back that up.  I am simply going off of the eyeball test.

 

If anything, the bombardment of advertising might actually have a negative effect as someone who might have been on the fence about seeing this movie could decide they are tired of all the advertisements or maybe they have seen so much footage it feels like they have already seen the entire movie.  With a movie like Avengers: Age of Ultron going all out on your marketing budget doesn't seem like a financially fiscal thing to do, but Marvel continues to release profitable hit after profitable hit.  They are basically the new PIXAR.