Quickie indeed. Just a hit-the-high-points Mad Men meditation on Episode 8, as January Jones turns up the heat… Don and Betty take a quick trip to Rome and enjoy plenty of flirtation and connubial bliss. It was good to bite into a nice slice of this pulchritudinous pair at play, and play they did! Bellissima […]
Wanted: Men in togas. Pay negotiable.
“There’s been a shocking shortage of togas in my life,” she said on the phone. I considered her remark for a moment, running through the past years of coffee dates, dinner dates, dessert dates, assorted cocktails. Cocktail napkins for that matter. Quite right. Not a toga among them. Hell, not even a Third Date toga. […]
Is a Pact With the Devil the Price of Success?
Does success always involve a pact with the devil? Go on. Think back. All those little deals and compromises justified in order to move up the corporate ladder, to get the bigger house, the faster car, the hot guy, the beautiful woman… What wouldn’t we do to get what we want? What if it’s to […]
Mad Men: Gorgeous, Gore, and Gals About Guys
It may be late in the week, but how could I resist a few observations on last Sunday’s viewing of Mad Men? What struck me? A gorgeous guy named Guy appears from the UK office, Joan celebrates her last day at the agency with a difficult secret, Don believes he might have a London assignment […]
Time online: symptom, solution, or nothing new?
I’ve been thinking about recent discussion and comments concerning our kids’ online time. They text, chat, spend hours on Facebook. Frankly – who knows what they’re doing some of the time. And I’ve been considering the remarks that many of us have made about our own (possibly excessive) use of our communication tools and social […]
Mad Men’s Women: Drugged Debs, Bottles over Breasts
Disturbing, on oh-so-many levels. This week’s episode of Mad Men was an unsettling and somber look at the world of baby-birthing in the 60s, and long before. Setting aside all your opinions of the main character’s ambivalence about her place in society, her marriage, her family and her unborn child, it’s hard not to be […]
Hot Shots
When Roger Federer won the French Open in June, I was on the west coast visiting friends. It took a 6 a.m. wake-up to watch the final, and it was worth every minute. At the time, I wrote about heroes. It was an important victory to say the least, and Federer handled his play and […]
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Mmmmm.
Some of our most memorable movie moments offer exotic locales and steamy spaces – sometimes on the go. Ever fantasize about sexy strangers on planes, trains, and automobiles? Not only do these scenes figure heavily in film and erotica, but plenty of people experience the occasional offbeat and… transporting evening. All while maneuvering from Point […]
Mad Men Season 3 Episode 4: Less Beauty, More Brooding
What struck me most about last night’s episode of AMC TV’s Mad Men was pure, unmistakable unhappiness. The veneer is wearing thin; in particular for the main characters, Don and Betty Draper, who can no longer hide their sadness behind the gloss of physical beauty and affluence. That, in a nutshell, epitomizes the early sixties […]
Mad Men, Baudelaire, and the Beatles
It’s Mad Men night! I do so love my Mad Men. What’s not to love? They’re gorgeous, glamorous, mysterious, and the psychological waters are darkening, pulling us in and under. But I watch for other reasons – probably like many viewers. I watch for the aura of the 1960s, either as we imagine it, or […]