Mad Men is Back & Madder Than Ever

Last week’s season premiere of Season 3 of the hit AMC show, Mad Men, delivered on its promise of whetting our appetites just enough to have us waxing nostalgic about why we fell in love with the show in the first place.

Where Season 2 suffered from that second season plateau/slump that have befallen many great shows, Sunday’s exploration of Don Draper’s psyche and his relentless unyielding to rise above the multiple identities he cloaks himself in to complement his mood du jour teased us with the promise of a season where we’ll get to see more Draper, and subsequently more of Draper’s past revealed. And let’s face it. Don Draper is why we all watch this show. The man oozes self-assurance, confidence, and the know-how to navigate the treacherous waters of this world with the right balance of acumen - both in business and in people. He knows why people tick and just how to get them to yield to his agenda, whether it’s in the boardroom or in the bedroom.

Per usual, the show balances the heavy (glimpses into Don Draper’s humble beginnings and his unwanted birth and Don realizing that one of his co-workers is gay when he catches him with this pants down) with lighter fare (the hysterical pitting of 2 Account Managers against one another for title of “Head of Accounts” - when both are convinced they’ve solely snagged the title) and throws in the absurd just to make sure we’re all still watching as intently as before.

We are.

Mad Men airs tomorrow night at 10 PM ET on AMC.

Beijing 2008- The Sad Olyimpics

The entire world will be amazed by the beauty of China, and exited with the beginning of the Olympics. I won’t. Not that I don’t like sports, nor was I born yesterday to this cynical-material world, but every day we discover more and more about how the Chinese government managed to pull this production on the backs of it’s poor people, the less I’m inclined to actually watch the games. NBC, who paid $894 million for the US broadcast rights, will show the Olympics no meter what. Here and there, we’ll see an item on the news that gently criticize the Chinese actions, but it disappears between Matt Lauer reporting for the Today Show, and Billy Bush getting a foot massage for $25 in Beijing.

Money talks, as the Chinese and we know, so what are a few million people whose homes were demolished in favor of a shiny stadium? Or a few millions more who are left to starve because they are not allowed to water their rice fields, comparing to Coca-Cola TV commercial?

So, I’m not so exited about the games. Maybe I’ll watch it a little bit, but no more than that.

So What if My Role Model is a Pot Dealer

I’ve made no secret of my certain affection for a fictitious middle-aged widow who supports her extended family weekly on Showtime at 10 PM.

There’s something about the way Mary-Louise Parker saunters as she effectively multi-tasks - Running her underground business while trying to meet the needs of her brood, inevitably falling from grace episode after episode, only to stay afloat and do a public service (Juggling hats again!) by supplying every inch of the food train with much-needed “happy” relief in the form of marijuana.

I’m not advocating drug use here. I’m quite anti-pleasure derived from substances other than chocolate or ice cream. It’s just Nancy Botwin (or Mary-Louise Parker’s character on Weeds) is such a prime example of a social antipreneur.

She has her principles and stands by them - She won’t deal in elicit drugs like crack or cocaine, traded her SUV for a Prius in a way that even Al Gore might have to slap her on the rear for just out of sheer adulation, and she puts her family first before her work. Read More…

Wall-E is a 1st Generation Mac that Falls In Love With An iPod - How’s that Possible?

Talk about having to expand your mental schema around inter-species relationships. In the film Wall-E (adorable Pixar-Disney flick, btw), the film’s title character, a robut named Wall-E, falls in love with Eve, who is another robot that inhabits the form of a a sleek, whitish veneered androgynous (suppository-ish) Apple-looking product. Now Wall-E is a junky, vintage object, but even he even reboots himself each morning with the sound of a Mac starting up, so it’s clear the old chap is a bonafide Apple product (maybe an Apple IIe?). All this Apple love is no coincidence as the film’s computer generated voices were the product of Apple. Did you happen to see the trailers too?

Why Do People Love Zebras? (Or, The Zebra Experiment)

Dictionary.com: Zebra- Any of several horselike African mammals of the genus Equus, each species having a characteristic pattern of black or dark-brown stripes on a whitish background: all zebra species are threatened or endangered.

So, why do we like the Zebra so much? What’s there to love?

(This post is some sort of an experiment, I do apologize for it’s relative meaninglessness…)

You Know That I’m [Still] No Good

Amy Winehouse and her producer Mark Ronson won’t be teaming up for any theme songs to any motion pictures anytime soon. The two were slated to make some more beautiful music together - this time for the upcoming James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace.” Unfortunately for the Bond franchise and Amy fans, Ronson doesn’t feel Winehouse is ready to resume recording sessions for the song.

Said Mark of Amy’s situation:

“We tried to work for a little bit,” he told Sky News. “I’m not sure she’s ready to work on music yet.”

Ronson, who produced much of the troubled singer’s Back to Black album, also said it was unlikely work on the Quantum of Solace track would continue “unless by some miracle of science it gets recorded and someone sings a vocal on it”.

He added: “We did work on it but we never finished it so that’s about it.”

For more on the lovely Amy, click here.

Life After People- A Quick Review

I could have said that The History Channel’s Life After People is I Am Legend, minus Will Smith and the huge budget. I could but I won’t because Life After People is far more interesting, and so much better then the box office hit. The name of the show gives up what it’s all about. It all starts with the first day after human race suddenly disappear forever, and goes on for weeks, months, years, and centuries. As a case study, the show goes to a place that was actually deserted 20 years ago- the city of Pripyat, Ukraine-the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
As a disclaimer I just want to say, that though I think Life After People was excellent and worth watching, my dear wife didn’t like it at whole, especially the parts showing our good friends the rats and cockroaches.

November Snow

“To appreciate the beauty of a snow flake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.” (No idea who said it found it on Google…)  Sometimes it snows in November, and for someone who grew up in a very warm place, it’s always some sort of magic. So conflagrations to Boston’s first snow of the season!!!

Dr. Brad and Mr. Dude

For me, Brad Pitt is always the dude who managed to go through the commentary to the movie Fight Club with only saying clever word like Yeah, Sure, and That was cool between Edward Norton’s somewhat enthusiastic comments. That’s why It was kinda funny to watch Brad Pitt the other day on The Today Show so articulate talking to Ann Curry while touring New Orleans green housing project he helped launch. I guess there is nothing like a strong, tough and most important aware to the environment wife to improve your verbal skills.

Year Of The China

AP

Despite all the protests and controversy, the countdown to Beijing 2008 is on. Today marks exactly one year before the Olympics begins.

It’s The Mary Poppins Forecast

Sometimes you hear about a new invention, that has a cool idea behind it although you know that you are never going to use it, one of those things that will make Jay Leno ask his How lazy are we getting question. Ambient Devices, a US company that combines Internet information and everyday products, came up with an umbrella that forecasts the weather. The umbrella is equipped with a radio receiver, that gets weather info using a wireless network. Company spokesman Mark Prince said: “You can put this umbrella by the door, in an umbrella stand, and on your way out it’ll be telling you if this is the day when you are going to need an umbrella.”

Calling All Opportunists

A college student in LA inherited Paris Hilton’s old cell phone number in February and doesn’t mind that she receives calls from party-goers or strange men with foreign accents purring, “Baby girl how are you.” It’s all par for the course when you’ve inherited a socialite’s old phone number.

Shira Barlow had to switch phones and decided to switch to a 301 number after damaging her own phone in February. Shortly after on Paris’ birthday (she is an Aquarius-that she let us all know in her “Larry King” interview), Shira began receiving random calls from people wishing her, Happy Birthday. Most recently, she’s been the recipient of tons of phone calls related to Paris’ incarceration and subsequent release from jail.

So how did Shira react to the strange seductive man with the foreign accent? Calling it “more amusement than hassle,” she’s not complaining about the number. Nor does she have plans to switch numbers anytime soon. Why would you when literally have in your very hands a tell-all book just waiting to happen?

Live Al

An Inconvenient Truth, Now The Musical!!

Not Your Al Gore Variety Hybrid

Is this a horse? A zebra? If the mother is a zebra and the father is a horse, what does that make their hybrid spawn Eclyse? Interesting to look at to say the very least. And much more entertaining than Al Gore’s pothead son getting pulled over and arrested for possession of a gazillion prescription meds. No jail time on this celebrity. Not at present. The pressing question on my mind is was he or wasn’t he driving a hybrid…

I’m On Strike From Paris

I was mixed about writing a post on Ms. Hilton’s over-publicized prison break. Dirty Harry she ain’t. More like a pampered princess who rolled out of her tanning bed and fried her extensions. Still the only whole Paris-goes-to-jail incident and mockery of the judicial system in this country (as if OJ wasn’t enough) was capitalized on by every media whore and PR opportunist out there so I didn’t want to dignify it. I’m happy that D.R. chose to focus on a celebrity worthy of our attention in his post, but can’t help but wonder why it was more difficult for me to find mention of Cuba Gooding’s rescue mission than it was who Paris Hilton is going to allow interview her about her harrowing 3-day ban from prison food.

In short, I want to understand why all of us jump on board in giving this self-involved b*tch of a stick an iota of our attention. So if there’s anyone who knows, please feel free to comment here. Enlighten me.

Did He Use Too Much Toilet Paper?

“Curb You Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld” creator Larry David and his wife, Laurie, of 14 years announced their split. The split is said to be “amicable” and the two will continue to jointly raise their daughters. While David has made quite a name for himself for being the genius behind our most memorable cultural neurotic icons since Woody Allen, his wife, Laurie, an active environmentalist has pursed more serious undertakings. Her most notable role being that of producer of the Al Gore documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” and a recent college tour stint with Sheryl Crow. Of course the latter can only raise certain flags. Like, will Crow’s now infamous rationing of toilet paper inspire a future episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”? One can only hope so…

Green Never Looked So Enticing

Famed deep-sea explorer Jacques Cousteau is a name that nearly everyone knows. Another name and face which people should start to get acclimated to is Philippe Cousteau Jr., Jacque’s grandson and an environmental activist himself (see EarthEcho). A side note: Philippe’s sister Alexandra ain’t too shabby in the looks dept. either…

Philippe and Alexandra are taking their symmetrical faces and mutual adoration for the outdoors to TV in a new network show for Animal Planet called “Spring Watch USA.” No doubt Philippe’s timely interview with Reuters and the premiere of his new show (April 21) was deliberate.

Happy Early Earth Day everyone! Maybe by next week, I’ll be in a more celebratory mood if and when the Northeast finally emerges from its spell of freezing rain.

Somewhere Between Wonder Woman & Maggie’s Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

As a little girl I was obsessed with female icons. Not so much Wonder Woman as Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Gos. She looked like she was having so much fun on those jet skis in that “Vacation” video. Indeed, she and her bandmates were to the point of excess, indulging themselves. After I learned of this, I no longer looked at the band in the same way, but I still dug what they’d managed to accomplish. They were chicks doing their thang, or rather the “guy” thing. They didn’t take any shit, lived fast and furious lives and had, what looked to be on the surface, a whole lot of fun in the process. They weren’t subjecting themselves to archetypal 60s female folk roles of the”girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.” They were playing in an industry long dominated exclusively of men and saying, “Look, we’re women and anything you can do, we can and will do better.” I loved that they exuded this energy and I was beholden to it. I realize that the Wilson sisters were rockin’ out long before The Go-Gos but I’m not a classic rock gal and I never will be even when I begrudgingly succumb to my husband’s weekly quota for Led Zepellin on our car rides.

So over the last few days I’ve been preoccupied with female role models and the need for young women to hear encouraging, supportive feedback as youngsters or at the very least someone (preferably, a mentor) to tell them, “It’ll all be alright” and really mean it.

And then boom, I look at the front page of the Sunday New York Times today and the cover piece is devoted to Newton North High School and the female over-achiever. It documents the lives of a few of the “perfect” girls who go to school there and all the extra-curriculars they engage in along their quest to be the best or die while trying to live up to their parents’ expectations. You get the feeling from the article that none of these girls has particularly high self esteem (the cover girl frequently complains she is “no athlete” and is haunted by this deficiency) and moreover may suffer from what her mother calls “anorexia of the soul.” This anorexia of the soul manifests itself in the desire to succeed at all costs but with little grappling over where this drive stems from.

I’m well acquainted with Newton North and its social milieu, the yuppies that shop at the Whole Foods Market which is in close proximity to the 4 Starbucks, 2 yoga studios, and 3 SAT prep centers all in a radius of a quarter of a mile. It’s a generic affluent Northeast suburb and might look like any other in such an area. It manufactures similar kids, ones that are destined from birth to over-achieve because their parents ingrained in them the importance of excelling and because engulfing their every move is the latent pressure cooker reminder of failure not being an option.

From this article, I should be impressed that Colby Kennedy practices a gazillion hours a day on the piano (i myself know what it’s like) or that Esther Mobley reads and can actual digest Nietzsche and Kierkegaard or that another of their classmates is trying desperately to balance all her AP courses and a starring role as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. These girls are undoubtedly dedicated and hard-working and should be celebrated for their accomplishments, but I can’t help but be concerned for their futures. Perhaps because I too suffered from this mindset in high school and in my early 20s nearly fell into an emotional abyss.
If we’re instilling in our girls the proper instruments and tools to learn and succeed are we also making time to teach them about how to laugh, smile, and have a bit of fun from time to time? Are we checking in with them emotionally on a regular basis? Or are we trying so hard to convince our girls that the fun will come later because we’re still waiting for it to emerge or trying to remember what it was like to once live a stress-free life.

To witness Belinda Carlisle’s face transform into a grin as her jet skis splashed water over camera lens, ever so innocently, was for me as a child one of the first images I associated with elation. For this I am indebted to my Go-Gos. If only vicariously as a child, they taught me to be cognizant of what bliss looked like so that later in my life I could identify those exact emotions and know how to embrace them.

Yes Sir