Showing posts with label MI6. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MI6. Show all posts

Sunday, May 21, 2023

A few last thoughts re the amazingly talented Martin Amis, very much a legend in his own lifetime, and my own very tangential relationship to Oxbridge and espionage skullduggery

A few last thoughts re the amazingly talented Martin Amis, very much a legend in his own lifetime, and my own very tangential relationship to Oxbridge and espionage skullduggery



Remembering Martin Amis: obituary
Celebrating the life of the iconic British author, 1949-2023

https://t.co/NIaPGuA37v


Martin Amis was born in Oxford, so per Oxbridge, the second place that I lived at in Washington, D.C., after arriving in 1988, was a neoclassical tan brick house in Tenleytown, at 4100 Nebraska Ave., N.W. that had been the last home of 1950's 'Cambridge Five' spy Kim Philby and his wife -and fellow KGB spy Guy Burgess- while he was MI6 chief of station. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby


According to the version of the story I was told by my landlord, a Georgetown University Philosophy professor, the house was raided by the FBI -quite unsuccessfully- shortly after Philby and company made their escape, but not before he left a fully-loaded and operational rifle in the top window, pointed at the street below, to scare off any and all FBI agents and interested parties, plus assorted angry and exasperated British officials.
Apparently, my English basement apt. is where they had constructed and maintained a fake wall behind a normal-looking bookcase that hid top secret documents that would later be communicated or spirited away somehow to Moscow. 

The house is next to the immaculately-kept Japanese Ambassador's residence, a few blocks down from the-then Swedish Ambassador's residence, the Washington studios of NBC News, the campus of American University, and the huge Naval complex, which includes Naval Intelligence, where the Nazi sub codes were broken in the 1940's.

My last place in the DC area was a comfy north Arlington, Virginia townhouse on a cul-de-sac I lived in for 7 years, which had been President Ford's daughter, Susan's place.
I had her old bedroom, the largest, with a southern exposure, and we still had the 1970's-era Secret Service-installed wall intercom system, along with her trash compactor, both of which never worked. 
Across the street from me lived a guy who worked at the Naval bldg. on Nebraska Ave. doing NCIS type work if I recall correctly.  
He even had the Mark Harmon mustache thing going on!


This excellent Sky News video from yesterday features Sky commentator Adam Boulton, who is also an Oxford grad, and is well worth watching, 


 #MartinAmis wrote SO many of the best things I EVER read, yet was also the ever-compelling subject that so many others wrote abt, too, like this gem by @Alex_Bilmes in 2010, which I still have.

telegraph.co.uk/comment/713495
"There's a passage near the beginning of The Pregnant Widow, Amis's substantial new novel of the sexual revolution and its aftershocks, in which the narrator remarks on the protagonist's prescience:
"Unusually for a 20-year-old... Keith was aware that he was going to die. More than that, he knew that when the process began, the only thing that would matter was how it had gone with women. As he lies dying, the man will search his past for love and life." In the final analysis, acclamation, money and success – even such blazing artistic achievement as Bellow's, or Amis's – count for little, if one's personal history is a cause for regret."

This is genuinely amazing and definitely worth reading while you can!

The Paris Review
Martin Amis, The Art of Fiction No. 151
Interviewed by Francesca Riviere
ISSUE 146, SPRING 1998
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1156/the-art-of-fiction-no-151-martin-amis





Martin Amis Remembered: Legend who was willing to examine the sordid side of his era
Sky News YouTube Channel
Uploaded May 21, 2023 #martinamis #author #skynews

Martin Amis was very much a legend in his own lifetime. He summed up the period in which he lived so very well, of getting over the baby boom, of Britain rediscovering itself as perhaps not as important as it had been, but certainly as a country very proud of its literary heritage.

Read the full story here:

Monday, September 24, 2012

More exciting behind-the-scenes video of new 007/James Bond film, "Skyfall" in London, Turkey and Shanghai with Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and director Sam Mendes; #SKYFALL, #007


Reviewing what we already know -the second U.S trailer for Skyfall
http://www.sonypictures.com/previews/movies/skyfall/clips/5074/

"Some men are coming to kill us. We're going to kill them first."

Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes, opens in U.K. cinemas October 26th and in U.S. theaters November 9th, and as everyone has known for months because it's the worst-kept 'secret' of the year, Adele will be singing the new title song. 
As I've mentioned in my previous posts about this film, Skyfall is the first 007 film to be only filmed in IMAX.


jamesbond007 video: Naomie Harris and Bérénice Marlohe on their roles in new 007 film, Skyfall.  Uploaded September 20, 2012. http://youtu.be/diFTdVBYISg
M: "Think on your sins."


jamesbond007 video: Skyfall director Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig talk about the role of the London locations to show the essential Britishness of James Bond by showing real but iconic places he would frequent, but from unusal and perhaps even menacing perspectives. Uploaded August 16, 2012. http://youtu.be/dl218z68iC4


Amazing Shangai will clearly be a big co-star of the new James Bond film and a revelation for people who have never traveled there.
http://www.sonypictures.com/previews/movies/skyfall/clips/4858/


jamesbond007 video: On the set in Turkey for the shooting of the opening sequences of the film that sets up the premise. Uploaded September 7, 2012. http://youtu.be/sYEpEseJl9U


See the studio stage here, including a 360 view, at:
http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-studios/uk/pinewood-studios/stages/007-stage-pw

Visit the official website at http://www.007.com 

See more 007/Skyfall videos at their official YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/jamesbond007

See who else Likes James Bond at http://www.facebook.com/JamesBond007 

Monday, May 21, 2012

First teaser trailer for new James Bond film, Skyfall, released today! "Some men are coming to kill us. We're going to kill them first." Skyfall opens in U.K. on Oct. 26th and in U.S. on Nov. 9th



The first teaser trailer for the new James Bond film, Skyfall, was released today to set the mood for the millions of eager 007 fans around the world. May 21, 2012. http://youtu.be/xJ4dAY3DW4c

"Some men are coming to kill us. We're going to kill them first."

Skyfall, the first 007 film to be only filmed in IMAX, opens in the U.K. on October 26th and in the U.S. on November 9th, the first Friday after the election.
Directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris. And yes, once upon a time, the amazing Rachel Weisz dated Mendes for three years before breaking-up in 2002; she's now married to Craig since last year's surprise wedding.

Over 284,000 people have already seen this teaser within the first 12 hours it's been online...


New SKYFALL Production Videoblog. May 3, 2012. http://youtu.be/GK5ws85Rxd8

See the studio stage here, including a 360 view, at:
http://www.pinewoodgroup.com/our-studios/uk/pinewood-studios/stages/007-stage-pw

Visit the official website at http://www.007.com 

See more 007/Skyfall videos at their official YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/jamesbond007

See who else Likes James Bond at http://www.facebook.com/JamesBond007 


Robbie Williams -  Millennium
http://youtu.be/BJ5uIkJDb6o

In a word, brilliant!!!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sublime and fascinating! Channel 4 News video: A Licence to Reveal: MI6 spy secrets uncovered; speech by MI6 "C" Sir John Sawers


Fascinating Channel 4 News video with reporter Jonathan Rugman on the evolving history of MI6, the British Special Intelligence Services, including an interview with former MI6 "C" Sir John Scarlett. For the first time since its creation in the run-up to the First World War, Britain's secret intelligence service has allowed its secrets to be unveiled in an official history covering its first 40 years. Jonathan Rugman reports. This segment is ten minutes and 23 seconds.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid64523559001?bctid=614006288001

Here's one of those many posts in Blogger Draft I was talking about earlier today that were just lingering on life-support, a fascinating report from late September that came on the heels of some very troubling news for MI6, with the death of an employee under very mysterious circumstances.

Here's the story from three weeks ago on the historic public appearance on TV by current MI6 "C" Sir John Sawers, the first public speech by a sitting Chief.

http://www.channel4.com/news/mi6-chiefs-historic-speech

Channel 4 News: MI6 chief speaks out on terror threat and torture



Story at http://www.channel4.com/news/mi6-chief-speaks-out-on-terror-threat-and-torture

See also: http://www.channel4.com/news/liveblog-mi6-chief-sir-john-sawers-speaks-live

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See this interesting blog post by Channel 4 Political Editor Gary Gibbon story on whether or not the end is near for 'control orders,'

http://blogs.channel4.com/gary-gibbon-on-politics/could-it-be-the-end-for-control-orders/14032ns

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Sir John Sawers: profile of MI6 chief Described as a "smooth operator" and likened to Pierce Brosnan's portrayal of James Bond Sir John Sawers took up the post of head of MI6, known as "C", in November 2009. By Laura Roberts 10:22AM BST 28 Oct 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8092322/Sir-John-Sawers-profile-of-MI6-chief.html

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If you don't recognize the tune at the beginning of this next video, being hummed by an animated early 1940's John Bull, followed by his trusty bull dog, it's the same one that's instantly recognizable by anyone of a certain age who ever listened to BBC Radio's World Service.

In my case, that was for years via my Radio Shack short-wave radio while studying at Indiana University in Bloomington, from 1979-'83, especially on weekend mornings, and more recently, digitally from Washington, D.C., Arlington County, VA and South Florida.

My recollection is that the tune was played after the time chirp and the intonation, "This is London," just before the news broadcasts began.

British WW2 Public Information Films - Collection Three, Part 1 of 3.

Central Office of Information

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USye8ZoXye8

http://www.youtube.com/user/blaster2012


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Special Operations Executive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5aH8pLdv5g


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I previously mentioned it a few years ago on my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, soon to be revamped, but since many of you readers never saw that in the first place, I'll just mention here by way of circumstance that my family -and certain of my friend's relatives- have worked for U.S. intelligence agencies or in intelligence operations since George Washington was a Continental general fighting the British.

Here's a video tidbit that dovetails with the above stories.


BBC World Service idents over the years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuJ5_j4U6HQ



1945: BBC Radio announcement of Adolf Hitler's death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZICBPh0wc

Gary Gibbon's
blog: http://blogs.channel4.com/gary-gibbon-on-politics/

Channel 4 News Catch Up service for the past 7 days:
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

Channel 4 News homepage: http://www.channel4.com/news/