Blonde guys aren't supposed to be as stupid as our female counterparts supposedly are. I had a true blonde moment yesterday, however, changing what should have been the content of this blog entry. You should have been reading a glorious rave about the amazing G Love and Special Sauce show I saw at the Electric Factory in Philly last night, but thanks to some miscommunication with the girlfriend and some good 'ol Blondie forgetfulness, however, I went online to get tickets YESTERDAY MORNING. That venture was predictably futile, as rule #1 of G Love club is this: do not wait to buy tickets to see G Love IN HIS HOMETOWN until the day of the show. Yes, there is another show tonight, and yes, those tickets were sold out, too. If any of you saw the show or will tonight, please do not let me know about it; I have a good friend who's got dibs on that legal form of torture.

It's not all bad news for the blonde guys of the world, though; there is a certain British blonde guy who was the source of a lot of mockery not even six months ago who seems to have turned all that hatin' into some serious lovin'. Daniel Craig is our generation's James Bond and the first light-haired actor to take on the iconic role made famous forty years ago by Sean Connery; that trait and perhaps a few others were behind a rather large media backlash against his taking of the role led by those who run www.danielcraigisnotbond.com. One trip to that site will reveal that these people are really against the new Bond, but further examination shows that they're fighting change more-so than Craig, and just ask a Republican what happens when you try to fight change.

Why would the Bond franchise have to change? Two words: Austin Powers. Seriously, no one in their 20s can truly watch a Connery-era Bond movie and at no point be thinking of Dr. Evil, Alotta Fagina or Mini-Me... NO ONE. The James Bond movies of the 90s, all featuring the more-than-perfect for the role Pierce Brosnan, were simply higher-tech versions of the Connery movies Mike Myers set out to spoof by creating Austin Powers with Brosnan playing Bond as close to Connery as anyone had in the past. Craig's Bond, which debuted last week in Casino Royale, is decidedly rougher, though the whole point of Royale is to start from the beginning; the first scene shows Bond logging the necessary first two kills one needs to become a double-0.

I saw Casino Royale on Wednesday at the Regal Cinemas off of Routes 33 and 248 in Lower Nazareth Township (great theater, but I heard all the booms of the movie next to us way too clearly). I loved the movie so much that I was actually shocked when it was over; I knew it clocked in at over 2 and a half hours but had no clue so much time had gone by when the credits started rolling. The movie proves that this new take on Bond will not be so easily parodied; our hero is shown making mistakes across the board and getting out of those mistakes without much of the finesse of previous Bonds. This is not to say that there isn't anything for the purists; Craig's Bond still knows how to kick ass and get the girl, and there is still room for the well-delivered one liner here and there.

Let's be honest; could the James Bond of the past, with all the perverted quips and borderline misogyny, survive in today's culture? I honestly think the answer is no, as keeping the legendary character stuck in pre-woman's revolution ways would be more lethal than Jaws, Nick-Nack and Max Zorin, among others, ever were. To be fair, Brosnan did avoid playing Bond as slimy as Roger Moore or even Connery were often guilty of, but Bond was still too often thinking with Bond Jr. in his movies. The first 30 minutes of Casino Royale will prove that though Bond is still quite the sexual being, some extra-curricular action ain't gonna get in the way of finding the bad guy, meaning movie-goers are much more likely to take this movie seriously in our post-Austin Powers world. Some will still call it a total blonde move in the end, but I think plugging the edgy Daniel Craig into the 007 franchise has likely assured that it will stick around for another forty years.

-Ryan