A YouTube video about Botox's effect on Hollywood actors and acting inspired this post.
Photo by Gerald So
Growing up in the time of instant film cameras, I recall posing for or taking few photos, denying countless shots where I blinked, looked away from the lens, or had my hand over my face. Unlike the hypothetical average person, I don't own a smartphone. Only two years ago did I start bringing my 2014 Kindle Fire HD7 outdoors, taking my own social media profile photos.
I correct the photos' lighting and color, but nothing to change my face besides a shave. I think I look good. A life avoiding alcohol, tobacco, and firearms has helped. I may give my cartoon avatars darker hair, but that's another realm.
Unlike me, actors and other on-camera personalities feel pressure to maintain youthful appearance to be considered for more roles. Besides, they may want to make changes for life beyond the business. Does it affect their acting? I don't know. Their faces or bodies haven't pulled me out of shows or movies.
In the clip below, Carr and Zaritsky discuss the new editions of Ian Fleming's Bond books, which have been edited for sensitivity:
Carr and Zaritsky pan the editing and yearn for the books as originally published in the 1950s and '60s. While this stance is valid, it's very narrow-minded. It denies the Bond films, books, and trappings since the '60s have outgrown Fleming.
It's valid to revere Sean Connery as the first actor to play Bond in major motion pictures, two even in Fleming's life. I wonder, though, how many of those so-called purists have refused to watch or accept George Lazenby's, Roger Moore's, Timothy Dalton's, Pierce Brosnan's, or Daniel Craig's take on Bond. Have they also refused to read the post-Fleming Bond books?
Bond persists in the public consciousness because he's been allowed to change with us. If not, the audience at large would've left him behind. A handful of superfans would be trying to make a movie, struggling with funding for lack of interest. I doubt that's really what Carr and Zaritsky would prefer.
The new editions show Bond's value is independent of Fleming's sexism and racism. Surely true fans agree.
Next to the number of photos taken since the advent of digital cameras and smartphones, I've taken few. I haven't needed a smartphone enough to buy one, nor do I have the money for a good standalone camera. Much the way people used to shoot roll after roll of film hoping not to catch themselves blinking, until last week I hoped for the best with a PlayStation Eye webcam and my 4th gen Kindle Fire HD7.
Last week I read up on the best times of day to take photos and went out with my Kindle. Instead of using its 640-by-480-pixel VGA selfie camera, I made short movies with its 2-megapixel main camera. It yielded 1920-by-1080-pixel, 300-pixel-per-inch imagery and I didn't have to snap the shutter at just the right instant. I uploaded the movies to my computer, took screenshots with MPV, and cropped the screenshots with GIMP.
I'm posting audio reads of my book blog reviews to YouTube to grow their audience. First, a reading of my review of Ace Atkins' June 25, 2024 novel, DON'T LET THE DEVIL RIDE:
Second, my review Alison Gaylin's September 10, 2024 second Sunny Randall sequel, ROBERT B. PARKER'S BUZZ KILL:
And my latest advance review, of Mike Lupica's November 26, 2024 second Spenser novel, ROBERT B. PARKER'S HOT PROPERTY:
My friend Bill Crider died early Monday night, having battled cancer since July 2016. Bill was a fellow fan of Robert B. Parker and short stories and a great supporter of countless writers.
Yesterday at SleuthSayers, Paul D. Marks asked why writers write and publish, wondering if it was to achieve a measure of immortality. Here's what Bill and others had to say about that from a Bouchercon 2016 panel, posted by Lawrence Block:
I replied to Paul's post that I'd like my writing to stand the test of time, but I have no way to know that it will. I only know that if I refrained from writing, wondering whether it would truly endure, I'd have less writing about which to ask that question.
Like Bill, it won't matter to me when I'm gone whether my work endures, but I spend my time writing and seeking to be published because maybe my work will inspire future readers the way my favorite things inspire me.
