Unlikely Words

Monkey riding a goat

aaron cohen — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:48:02 +0000

This picture fits quite nicely along with the lion riding a horse, the bears riding horses, and the monkey carrying a puppy.

I'm not alone in my fascination. Here are a few round ups of animals riding other animals, though a lot of the featured animals just look like animals sitting on animals, which I would argue is very different.

23 animals
18 animals
20 animals
A video
25 animals

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 8 Recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:19:16 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. Still working on a different recap structure with David Jacobs. Some thoughts then a discussion.

This was a weird one. The first 40 minutes were drug trips and flashbacks, and then we started getting to the meat of the episode. There were some funny moments, and pithy moments, but overall, I think this was a gimmick episode. It's a good thing the series is ending next year, otherwise we'd probably be headed for a clips show soon.

-The episode title is "The Crash" referencing Ken's car crash with drunken Chevy execs, the crash that comes after the agency's 3 day speed binge, and possibly some darker themes as well.
-Finally Dr. Hex(?) asks what we've all been thinking, "What are you going to call this place?"
-"I hate how dying makes saints out of people." Kind of a throw away line from one of the no name CGC creatives, but valid.
-"Do what you have to." I liked this line, but can't remember what it referenced.
-Stan tried to get with Peggy and she seemed to be willing to try it out, but it didn't stick. Things could be going much better for Abe.
-Sally was reading 'Rosemary's Baby' at Megan and Don's house. It's a book about someone who makes a deal with the devil to further their acting career.
-Why is teenage Don Draper such a dork?
-"I'm your grandma." Sally got social engineered by a burglar who made her eggs. What!? It ends up being doubly Don's fault because he left the backdoor open, likely after visiting Sylvia's door, and because, "Then I realized I don't know anything about you." Sally was rightly suspicious they were being robbed, but couldn't be sure because she doesn't know anything about Don. I imagine this will come up again this season.

David: Hi Aaron, nice use of “lugubrious” last week!

Aaron: I do what I can. Let’s get right into it. What the actual fuck?

David: So this week I’ve been thinking (and talking with friends) about how Weiner actually spends most of the show creating a mood. Obviously, the technical execution of the show, especially the set and costumes, are exceptional. But the show runners aren’t trying to make things happen, they’re trying to make you feel a certain way. We had the wonderful payoff of the merger and the Chevy merger, and then last weeks’ setback for Don - but this week threw me for another loop. I kept going back to Dawn’s comments a few episodes ago about how SCDP was a miserable place - now it’s even more miserable. Have we seen SCDP’s peak? I think so, and I have to say I hope so.

Aaron: Starting out with an easy one, huh? Did SCDP ever peak? It seems like they were on the verge of bankruptcy for a while and then they got their footing and rented an extra floor for appearances. Workwise, what have the highlights been? Beans? (David: LOVED the cameo of the beans artwork this week!) Your instinct is to ask these broad questions about the show as a whole, but our responsibility is recap the episode, so I ask again, What the actual fuck?

David: I know! It’s because we’ve been trained by these plot-driven shows to recap what happened. But I think we’ve been outflanked. There’s nothing but mood. In any case, you were right about Sylvia. Don is shattered, and it’s brought his life as a functioning adult to a halt. I didn’t see that coming.

Aaron: Is that a question?

David: I’m getting there! Last week Done was the master of the universe, getting Sylvia off on an unanswered phone call, and drinking Ted under the table. This week Cutler brings in a doctor to give them all a “boost” and he find himself incapacitated (“Even Chevy is misspelled”). Last week Ken Cosgrove was a “six foot Alan Ladd, this week he’s tap dancing on a broken foot. (Obligatory GIF.) We are all chasing the weekly plot summary, but the scene that most represents this season is Ted flying Don up through the clouds last week. Rain and turbulence, but even above the clouds Don looked like he was ready to retch. He’s lost control of his house, Megan is going to find out about the affair, he’s lost his ability to contribute to the Chevy account, and he even left Sally, Bobby, and Gene alone while a robber visited the apartment. Without reading the tea-leaves too deeply, this doesn’t end well for any of them. Two of the seven initials in SCDP CGC are already dead - I’m guessing we lose one more this year. I know you thought it may be Roger, but do you think there could be a season 7 without Don?

Aaron: No. If the series wasn’t going to end next series, then possibly. It’d be like when Dr. Doug Ross left ER and they’d groom other characters to take his place.

David: I don’t really think he’ll die (until the end of next season). I just want him too. He just writes himself out of everything, and he’s a burden on everyone who surrounds him. There’s still no Chevy in the Chevy pitch. And I don’t think this is coincidental anymore, because not only is the product not mentioned in the ad for Chevy (or “oatmeal?”), the product doesn’t exist! When Peggy calls him out, he rushes to Sylvia’s apartment.

Aaron: That was the drugs. I think he thought he was solving the Chevy issue, too, but you know how you can get hyperfocused on one thing when a sketchy doctor stabs you in the ass with speed? Here’s my question: Did you like this episode?

David: I haven’t liked any of the episodes this year, until I rewatch them (and yes, I know this sounds just like the http://video.wired.com/watch/angry-nerd-new-trek?c=series angry nerd star trek videos). But I have to say, I loved it. The business is built on fiction, just like Don Draper’s existence. We’re seeing the fracturing of that. I’m guessing you loved Betty’s return?

Aaron: Betty is back on blonde, and also mean. Of her 10 or so lines this episode, two of them were inappropriately sexual. Commenting to Sally about her skirt "I earned it." "On what street corner." and saying Megan was working the casting couch. So why’s Betty getting smaller as a person?

David: I don’t know why she has to be so mean! Although I’m struck that perhaps Henry Francis is going to get killed, just as Bobby feared. OK, so other quick notes! I was disappointed there was no follow-up to the Rosen’s son in France. Presumably his life was in danger? It would be remarked upon. I would have liked more Ted this week, I thought he had some nice momentum going last week. And I missed Bob Benson too. I would have loved to see him on that speed cocktail. What would have happened to him? Back to this week, what did you make of Gleason’s daughter, Wendy, turning the office into a “whorehouse,” in the words of Don?

Aaron: I’m actually not sure Don was referring to Wendy when he made the “Every time we get a car this place turns into a whorehouse.” comment. He was definitely talking about Joan and Jaguar, but maybe he was talking about clients in general. More and more, Don feels put upon when the clients don’t like his work. Along those lines, he ends up having to do something he doesn’t want to do, he ends up feeling like he’s working for his money. So as Don’s ideas become less appealing to the clients, as he’s less able to sell the ideas to the clients, he thinks of what he’s doing as prostitution. On Wendy, though, the teenage daughter of a dead advertising exec? That was a pretty vivid foreshadowing of a road Sally could go down in a few years.

David: I think that Don used to feel like his work was meaningful, but he is losing it. Don is recognizing that his work and life are meaningless. I’m not sure there’s a deep meaning to the flashbacks - the point of the flashback was that Don grew up in a whorehouse. And now Don finds himself still in a whorehouse. This may be why he misses Sylvia so much - and as you note why he is so upset about Wendy. He believed that he was selling (and, in a way, producing) happiness. That’s over for good now, there won’t be another “Carousel” episode, I think that Don is gone. Did you miss Bob Benson? I missed Bob Benson.

Aaron: Nah. There are so many characters these days, Bob’s on the team that gets to be in 8 episodes with a small story arc in 3 of them. He’s a glorified Roger, Pete, Joan, Betty, Ted... I wonder if there will be some problem with him and Pete over Joan.

Aaron: I’m surprised you didn’t key more on Wendy’s line, "Does someone love me?” “That's everyone's question." That’s pretty much the best way to describe the Don you see, right?

David: Yes, exactly. Everyone else is surrounded by real loss - the death of a partner or father - and Don is mourning an affair. I do worry there’s going to be a problem with Pete & Joan. They’ve been trading meaningful glances all season - but Joan is not getting what Pete thinks he’s sending. Hey, how much time passed between these episodes? Wasn’t Megan going to take a couple weeks off?

Aaron: Damn it. I usually try to keep track of that stuff pretty closely. I’m not sure if there were any clues at all. Interesting how they completely skipped over the RFK assassination, huh? Tell me what else you want to mention about this episode.

David: I’m just uncomfortably drawn to Don. He’s Tony Soprano: if you just step back and look at what he does, he is horrible. But he’s surrounded by all these people we want to root for. Both Twin Peaks and the Sopranos (the two series I feel are closest to Mad Men in tone) had these dark, ambiguous endings, and I think we’re in for that with Don too. Can we go back to the spot that’s ostensibly about Sylvia? Did you like the episode? I forgot to ask you earlier.

Aaron: I liked parts of it. I laughed uncontrollably when Zac Galifinakis, I mean Stan, got stabbed in the arm. I didn’t like it as a whole, I thought it was gimmicky. Did you like it? It was weird, when Don called Peggy and Ginsberg in to talk about his breakthrough. He said it was bigger than selling cars, but... it’s not really clear what “it” is/was. Did he actually have an idea? Or was it just a script to get Sylvia to listen to him? I wasn’t really clear on that.

Aaron: I’ve been annoyed by Don the last two weeks about how he’s taking Sylvia dumping him. He's Don freaking Draper. There wasn't really anything in the previous episodes indicating he had such deep feelings for her, so… what’s the deal? I feel manipulated by the writers because they portrayed this as another of his affairs, but when it ended he’s suddenly crushed. If they wanted us to see it differently, they should have treated it differently. Maybe she's representative of how out of control Don feels in the rest of his life (which is another season!). That is, the one thing he did have control over (for a couple days in a hotel) he doesn't control anymore. "I want you to try to be happy." "I'm feeling a lot of emotions, too." And then, Don snaps out of it after the robbery. It's like the crash after the weekend of working and the danger he put his kids in by leaving the door open snapped him out of it. This is Rock Bottom Don. Maybe we can expect big things from him the rest of the season.

David: I also thought it was odd how shook up he was, they didn’t quite pull that off (last week, I even denied he was). But I think you are right - although I also think the damage has been done - I don’t think they’ll lose Chevy, but we’re still not sure how they are replacing Vick’s/Clearasil, and other products. And what happened to the Joe Namath special? Surely that was a disaster in waiting.

Aaron: My sense is that they don’t need to replace Vick’s/Clearasil because they have Chevy. Cutler said Chevy was paying for all those weekend workathons.

David: I wish I’d been on record earlier about the Twin Peaks -> Sopranos (David Chase) -> Mad Men lineage. We’ve talked about i over IM. but this was obviously a Twin Peaks/Sopranos dream sequence episode. It’s a particular genre, a sort of lazy (but fun) way to make sure that the characters that need to have epiphanies. In fact, we can call this genre of episode “the epiphanator.” Anyway, Aaron, “are we negroes?” Why even have Bobby on the show if we’re just going to destroy him? Is the point that children of the sixties are idiots?

Aaron: I love Bobby. All he cares about is hair grease and watching TV.

Perennial Plate in Spain

aaron cohen — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:44:26 +0000

The latest Perennial Plate video makes me want to go back to Barcelona more than I already do. Which is a lot.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 7 Recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:01:17 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. Still working on a different recap structure with David Jacobs. Some thoughts then a discussion.

First, some quick thoughts David and I didn’t get a chance to discuss.
-I didn't know the phrase "The worm has turned" comes from Shakespeare.
-Pete has a rough go of it this week, between his mother’s Alzheimer’s/dementia, and literally not having a seat at the table, "I went to a meeting this morning and there was no chair for me." Here we go again with Pete getting the sympathetic treatment. I get whiplash trying to decide if we’re supposed to like him or hate him.
-Title of the episode was “Man With a Plan” which is strange because I can’t really think of anything that went according to plan in this episode except Bob Benson’s sucking up to Joan. Maybe it was altruistic, and without guile, but it worked. "Every good deed is not part of a plan."
-Guess we all thought Joan was pregnant, but it was just a cyst on her ovary. Not sure if anything will happen between her and Bob or if what we saw (him taking her to hospital, her saving his job) was “it” happening.
-Don hears a vicious fight between Dr. Rosen and his wife. It was the first scene(?), which I think is why I noted it here.
-"First day in school, are you nervous?" It’s annoying there was no indication of how the merged firm will look structurally. Who will have which role, etc. Peggy is presumably the highest creative, under Ted and Don of course, but beyond that, we don’t really know.
-Peggy and Joan. "How's your little boy?" "How's yours?" They always had a pretty weird relationship. Coolly affectionate maybe? Envy at the other’s strengths.
-The scene between Roger and Bert Peterson seemed mostly like an excuse to give Roger some great one liners. I don’t recall Roger having any reason to not like Bert previously.
-Don was enchanted by Mrs. Dr. Rosen’s, "I need you and nothing else will do." That’s when the dom/sub plot formed in his mind.
-Peggy and Don back in his office having conversation. She still talks to him like no one else does, and I hope we get more of that. “He can't drink like you and you must know that because nobody can.” But also, more importantly, "Move forward."
-"Sometimes when you're flying you think you're right side up, but you're really upside down." Don won the margarine round, but Ted’s wins the Mohawk round. "No matter what I say, you're the guy who flew us up in his own plane."
-Don was crushed when the doctor’s wife dumped him, but even then, he’s trying to put his spin on it. "It's easy to give up something when you're satisfied." It was an moment, because Don yelled at Pete last week about knowing when something was over.

Aaron: It seems as though the SCDP creative is much more of a motley crew. Stan's bushy beard and Bieber hair. Ginsberg's general weirdness. Compared to CGC's buttoned up guy, one of whom is even a Republican. What do you make of that?

David: Well, it's a lazy way to communicate that they are "more creative," and all those CGC folks feel like redshirts to me. I liked Margie (Margie?!) and I am surprised they wrote her out of the show. But I think we're headed to a Duck what-his-face situation with Ted, who’s already complaining way too much about the SCDP culture. There weren't any work villains left in Don's life post-Herb, so Ted is stepping right up.

Aaron: But CGC had been getting the clients/accolades, so I don't think they're less creative. I think they represent more of the older way of advertising instead of Stan and Ginsberg ushering in the type of person we know of as "creatives." For instance, Ted was using a formula to figure out how to pitch Fleischman's. Almost like advertising as science.

David: But didn't his process come to nothing? I think the scene where they were "rapping" just betrayed how little his process worked. No ideas at all, and then the meeting ended.

Aaron: The contrast was pretty stark in how they portrayed the two styles of advertising. CGC and brainstorming sessions, SCDP is Don drinking in a room until he gets an idea.

David: I'm a little bit disoriented when it comes to Don's arc - he's just getting everything he wants over and over, and as Don famously said, happiness is just a moment before you want more happiness. But, I’m not sure why he feels threatened. They went out of his way to talk about how rich he was last week, but it’s always paired with how unhappy he is. Is there another way to tell this story again? I guess I wouldn’t even call it an arc, it’s more of a narrative pancake. What do you think?

Aaron: We better hope so. Don’s definitely in a different place than he has been in recent years. This season he’s neither on top of the world or underneath it. I actually don’t think I’m too concerned about the arc repeating because I don’t see it as so clearly repetitive as you do. He’s the main character of the show and I think you don’t like him very much, which is fair, but it’s not the same story every season with him as it is with Walt in Breaking Bad (1. Figure out how to get money. 2. Get money. 3. Lose money.)

David: It drives me nuts when the writers of Mad Men wink to the superfans, it just gets in the way of the narrative for me, and it's distracting. But I loved the Gilligan Island's conversation. Whereas the SCDP to Gillian's character mappings were quite clear, now that there are more characters on the show, they just don't match up anymore. And when Don connected the growing number of brands of margarines, I couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t talking about the growing number of characters on the show as well. Lots of meta-winks this episode. Megan talking about being written out of the show (as January Jones and others have been), the Gilligan's Island chat, the news of Bobby Kennedy's assassination being broken by Pete's mother (I also assumed she meant JFK), and the deep background of the May '68 Paris riots. The show (especially last week's show) is rich enough without these distractions, in my opinion, and compared to last week's episode absolutely nothing happened. Should we be worried? I hate to go there, but are we in a Lost season 5 situation, where the occasional great episode fools us into thinking this is better than it is?

Aaron: I don't know, I don't know. I want to believe I'm staying up late writing these recaps every Sunday night for a reason. In talking about TV, there are 4 tiers of program for me from lowest to highest. 1) The dreck I won't watch. 2) The dreck I will watch, which has a span from drecky dreck to actually OK dreck. 3) Cable dreck, shows that are just better for various reasons from writing to acting, etc. 4) The unparalleled programs. The Wire, Deadwood, etc. I think the first season of Mad Men was absolutely in tier 4, maybe the first three seasons. The last couple have gone from tier 3 and 4. I look forward to watching it every week, but I'm not totally sure it's as amazing as it used to be.

David: I’m feeling that too. So, was margarine a reference to the show feeling faked, or forced. I can’t imagine so, but it was the first thing I thought of. And that certainly betrays something not great. (I want to remark that the "It was our pleasure to serve you" coffee cups made a brief appearance last week, and they were indeed invented in 1963. So that was satisfying, but it’s not great drama.)

Aaron: We should talk a little bit more about Ted and Don. I like to think it's not just going to be them battling the next season and a half. It's hard to see where everything is going because we don't know how the new agency is set up. We don't know if they have parallel positions or what. Wouldn't it be more interesting if they became a great creative partnership? Are we underestimating Ted? He’s getting Don’s charm offensive, "He seems more interested in me than he is in the work." Ted got the advice to let Don have his way in the early stages, "Give him the early rounds." and he's obviously intrigued, "He's mysterious, but I can't tell if he's putting it on." And don't forget, Ted got some hand back in the relationship during the flight.

David: I loved it when Peggy said "Move Forward." It was obvious how quickly she picked up on Don’s misery, his emptiness, and that he was taking it out on Ted by drinking him almost literally under the table. But I think it's going to be just this season - not the next as well. If they became a great creative partnership, that would be more exciting since it would be unexpected. There's no way he can "win," though, because it's basically Don's firm. I just don't like Ted. But the last episode’s bar scene was one of the more perfect scenes of the entire series. So it would be a shame if their relationship is only a power struggle from here on out. When they realized that their Chevy creative was complementary, there was a real shared connection.

David: As above, I think it's a little lazy to tell a story through references. There's a nuanced but important difference in using historical context to set a mood and inspired a massive change in a character's worldview, but sometimes I feel like major events like (say), the May 1968 riots in Paris are less than window dressing. Perhaps it shouldn't have come up at all? And the second is the Sun Tzu quote, “If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” Because for better or worse, that's been Don's philosophy. He never competes, he just does what he does best. The show teases Don towards a realization that his life's work doesn't matter by juxtaposing his (and his neighbor and co-worker’s) struggles with 1968 in Paris (and will they get to Columbia?) and Bobby Kennedy's assassination. His will be the body floating fown the river. Do you the writers have something that existential in mind for the series finale? Remember, Weiner comes from the Sopranos, which came from Twin Peaks - two shows with ambiguous (at best) finales.

Aaron: Gosh, that’s a big question. You make these huge declarative statements about how Don is realizing his life’s work doesn’t matter, and I’m not there yet. There was a huge contrast between how the show treated MLK’s assassination and RFK’s, which was shown quickly at the very end and then overtaken with dissonant music about coming together. The reason is the MLK episode was build up to a series reset, a throwaway episode, while this episode is the morning after and there’s too much to cover. On whether we’re going to get a bleak, dystopian, philosophically empty end to the series, maybe? I don’t think anything is being telegraphed ahead of time, though. 1968 is a gigantically tumultuous year, lots of change in lots of facets of life. Maybe the finale will be about change or about renewal.

Aaron: We've seen hints of dominant Don before on a couple occasions, but with Dr. Rosen's wife (whose name I still don't know for some reason) he seems to have overplayed his hand. What I don't get is why he was so into her in the first place, and why he was so completely shattered when she ended it. Was it just because he doesn't like to lose or not get his way?

David: Ah, I think he was trying to drive her back to Dr. Rosen. Because he overheard them arguing, and it was all about how the relationship was only about him. So he made their relationship ALSO only about himself.

Aaron: Subconsciously? I don't think that's what he was doing at all, but that's a good point.

David: Oh, I thought consciously.

Aaron: Then why would he be so upset?

David: He wanted one more romp in the jungle. Or, she thought he loved him more. As he was losing power at work, he was asserting more power with Dr. Rosen's wife. So once that outlet is removed, he only has Megan. Who, obviously, has some self-determination at this point, even affecting the plot of a popular show.

Aaron: The Don after she dumped him was the Don after he found out Mrs. Whitman in CA had died. When Jon Hamm is playing sad, he gets lugubrious. He closes his mouth and swallows audibly. It's annoying.

Hamburger Cheeseburger Hotdog: A Tribute to Backyard BBQ

aaron cohen — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:42:19 +0000

The latest Super Precious Art Gallery show is up featuring 26 pieces from 20 artists. It's an illustration heavy tribute to backyard BBQs and there are plenty of hotdogs and hamburgers to go around. Please take a look!

Here are a few samples by Josh LaFayette, TJ Kelly III, Ryan Frease, Michael Rapa, Carolyn Sewell, and Emily Chionchio.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 6 Recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:55:26 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. This week, I wanted to try something new, so I invited David Jacobs to have a conversation about the show instead of a straight recap. Let us know what you think.

David: How important is money to the SCDP partners? They keep saying Don is "rich" - but is he? And aren't Bert Roger supposed to be basically ultra-rich? I get that the IPO is exciting, but I'm surprised, especially after the Sterling/Cooper deal went bad everyone was eager for this.

Aaron: Bert and Roger are "fuck you rich," while Don is just getting there rich. Pete's probably on the same level, but this would be life changing for Joan. Roger wasn't in the room with the banker. I think Bert is a collector, and that includes money, he's also in legacy building phase, and bringing an agency public would be a big boost for his profile. I think Bert wants the IPO, but not for the money. Pete wants the IPO to prove he is somebody, and then for the money. Joan wants the IPO for the money. Roger and Don could care less about the money, while Don would probably actively oppose the IPO because it would give him a boss in the form of a board of directors. "I don't think Don cares about money."

David: A boss, and presumably, some scrutiny.

Aaron: Due diligence. Guess we ought to check if that's an upcoming episode title.

Aaron: I noticed a lot of relationship 'stuff' this episode, Pete and Trudie, Pete and his father in law, Roger and his flight hostess spy, Don and Megan, Abe and Peggy, Peggy and Ted, Don and Ted, Pete and Don, Don and Joan, Marie and Arnold, Marie and Roger, Arnold and Don, etc. Was there more of that this episode or am I crazy?

David: There was definitely more. And the sex/advertising double entendres were also laid on top, especially "He's a client for Pete's father-in-law." The show is best when the characters are suffering, with the exception of Dick Whitman's trips to California. This season has been direct with it's intentions, the characters you listed all voiced displeasure with their situations. Even Herb's wife got some minutes talking about the puppy's birth. It was such a dense episode that dinner scene may get lost, but it was actually wonderfully written and directed, from Don's "I love puppies" to Marie's cursing in French.

David: You noted last week that Don's campaigns were all about the absences of the brand - no hotel in the Hawaii campaign, not ketchup in the Heinz campaign, etc. Once again, he proposes that the Chevrolet commercials not show the car (for a week!) and Ted's "bend in the road" monologue is so much better Don practically surrenders on the spot. At this point, can we assume that pattern is intentional? And does it connect to Don's professed inability to feel love, and can we connect that with your observation about the general malcontent of all the characters in relationships?

Aaron: I think we can assume we're seeing Don's advertising style, and I only wish time was endless so we could look back at previous pitches to see when this style developed. (I sometimes think about an idea I don't have a name for. Basically, I'm assuming this is Don's current style of advertising, but what if Mad Men is suffering from Studio 360-style writing. Remember how the show was OK, but the comedy sketches were awful? What if the people they have writing Don's pitches are out of ideas and they're not amazing, this isn't a pattern, they're just bad?) I don't think it connects to Don's love issue, because remember the carousel pitch. That wasn't an absence of the product and he certainly wasn't full of love when married to Betty. If you're reading that differently, let me know. Rather than Don's inability to feel love, I think it's more about Don's unwillingness to put something on a pedestal. He likes the new, the chase, but gets bored/complacent with something he already has. Did you see his glee in the first Chevy meeting, "No, it's completely new." He fired Jaguar because he was tired of them. Etc, etc, etc. Additionally, Megan was more attracted to Don when he was chasing something because it reminded her of the man she fell in love with (when he was chasing her).

Aaron: Don and Joan have always had a complicated relationship, maybe they recognize something of themselves in each other. The scene starting with Pete falling down the stairs (obligatory Pete Campbell falling down the stairs gif), into Don yelling about it being over (which he's done at least once before), into Joan yelling at Don was one of the most powerful of the season. It was the scene that alerted me to the fact, "Hey, something's happening in this season, finally." Why was Joan so angry at Don for firing Jaguar? Why'd she attack him for getting rid of Herb and Jaguar? She didn't do what she did for nothing, she did it to become a partner. "Because we're all rooting for you from the sidelines hoping that you'll decide what you think is right for our lives."

David: Is it because she lost the IPO money (or thought she would?) Or because, perhaps, it confirmed her worst fears about Don's lack of empathy. It's a hard one. I'm sorry I don't have more on that one! I've always thought he was the little soul of the organization. Skilled, but ultimately hollow of ethics and morals

Aaron: The organization has no soul?

David: Well, it has Pete. They're fundamentally not honest people - Peter has always been the one to remind the audience "Hey, these are not people you want to be friends with!' I think we're seeing Don wake up, ethically. And that's why he just can't bring himself to put these objects in the campaigns. He is blocked on it, because he knows it's a lie.

David: But I guess I meant to ask - where Joan's behavior has perhaps been building up over the last few episodes (frustrations with Dawn, makin out with a stranger at Electric Circus, etc.) Pete seems to be zigging and zagging. Are there some tea leaves for us to read here? Or is he just the same as he's always been?

Aaron: They've always done that with Pete, though. They'll take 3 episodes to build sympathy for him, and then make him hatable again. Up and down forever. I'm not even totally sure he's hatable here. His father in law basically dared him to tell Trudie. Pete ALWAYS wants to prove people wrong. His father in law sealed his own fate when he told Pete he'd do the right thing. For what it's worth, I got the sense with Dawn and Joan that there was a different tone to her treatment of Dawn. I want to say it's because Joan likes her.

David: I hate to go out of order here, but I am fading. I am SAD about this merger. I felt like we were just getting into Ted & Peggy as a real rival to SCDP. And their work was better. (Especially Peggy's HUGE FUCKING Heinz bottle.) Now I feel like we've lost something in the show before the arc ran it's course. This would have been all fine as the season finale. But it's too soon for me. What do you think? Ultimately, Peggy wanted SOME self-determination, and not to have money thrown in her face (per the teaser)

Aaron: Well, the teasers are always useless. I thought this was the best episode of the season. I thought there were three great scenes: Joan yells at Don, Don and Ted in the bar, Ted and Don breaking the news to Peggy. There were also huge arrows pointing at this happening with SCDP about to come into money, and CGC about to need a lot of money. I hate jerking the show off, but this type of thing happening mid-season is an excellent for viewers because now we get two mini-seasons. I hope it doesn't turn into Friday Night Lights Season 2 Episode 1. Last week had all the makings of a set up episode. Now there are so many questions. What's the structure of the new company? What's the name? Will all these characters become main characters? Will they buy out extraneous partners? Specifically, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what's this mean for Peggy? What's this mean for Joan? What's this mean for Pete?"

David:To your list of great scenes, I'd add the dinner scene. Mad Men is best when it's about what's unsaid (which is why it's so frustrating when all the characters narrate their feelings, or find poop in the stairwell). For Peggy: She's back to square 1. She's surpassed her mentor, and now she's back working for him again. The result of her beating him was a return. Not good. For Joan: What Harry Crane says to her face, everyone thinks behind her back. And when Don, who is supposed to be her great supporter, fires Jaguar without a second thought, that's made even more clear. For Pete: He got this amazing validation from Bert this episode. But he's immediately reminded that Jaguar & Vic's - the two big gets, had nothing to do with his charms/account management. I wonder how Ted will treat Joan.

Other thoughts from the episode:
-In the first scene it seemed a little like Pete and Joan were flirting. Is she the only one who doesn't think he's a creep?
-It's never been totally clear what Roger does for the agency and it's taken halfway through season 6 to see one of his tricks. That was pretty cool, wish they'd made him seem more useful earlier.
-Marie had some great lines: "Do you want my flowers, I'm quite done with them." "You talk like a woman who's been married for much longer than you have." "She's the apple that goes in the pig's mouth."
-There were some indirect and obviously direct ties to the episode title, "For Immediate Release." The indirect ones were about sex.
-Abe and Peggy. Ted and Peggy. Didn't get a chance to go over this is the recap, but yeah.
-Did you notice Roger using the shoeshine kit he got earlier in the season?
-"They designed it with a computer."
-"It's one thing to want something, it's another to need it."
-Don and Arnold in the elevator talking about fate.
-"Unless this works, I'm against it."
"Make it sound like the agency you want to work for."
-May 17, 1968.

Ruby the cat plays drums in remembrance of Jeff Hanneman

aaron cohen — Fri, 03 May 2013 01:58:09 +0000

The metal world is mourning the death of Slayer guitarist Jeff Haneman tonight, but Ruby the cat is listening to Reign in Blood to feel better. For what it's worth the audio of this video completely pacified my fussy 8 day old. I don't know what that means.

Thanks, Seth.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 5 Recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:07:16 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. Our baby, Campbell Grace finally came this past Wednesday, so I may have watched this week's episode in a partial vegetative state. I guess this was the episode for it, though because plot wise, not much happened.

-I can't remember an episode of Mad Men where a single story took up so much of the episode. I guess what they were doing was using the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr as a foil or pivot for a few different characters. I didn't feel it was super successful, did you? Without knowing what they were going for, I guess I can't judge that too much. I hate to say it, but I think Don's secretary, Dawn, had a bigger role last week to set her up for this week and possible future episodes.
-I guess I was surprised at the response to the assassination, how shaken everyone was. We're only a few seasons away from Roger doing a blackface routine at a party, and now it seems al the characters have completely evolved on the race relations front. (Except for Harry Crane who was more distressed at lost advertising revenue.)

-In the first two episodes of Season 5, Pete had two instances of looking uncomfortable around racism. Tonight his outburst seemed to have more to do with his own situation, but it would be pretty tight if the writers were knowingly making Pete the most comfortable around various races on the show, but only dropping evidence of this once or twice a season. Pete is spiraling, trying to make smalltalk with the Chinese food delivery driver and trying to set the groundwork to convince Trudy to let him come home. While there's no doubt his argument with Harry Crane was partially about MLK, his last line about MLK's family drives home the point that this was about his own family. "It's a shameful, shameful day."

-It's curious the characters for whom they choose to focus on and provide backstory. For instance, this week we found out Michael Ginsberg is a virgin and is a wreck around women, but we'll never find out anything more about Stan. I don't know what the Ginsberg story had to do with this episode or this season. Any ideas? Maybe to show the Men of Mad Men, aren't all handsome and suave, there is some vulnerability there.

-Peggy has a tax problem and she's going to solve it with some interest payments on a new condo. There were some funny moments with the real estate agent when she assumed Abe was the money behind this purchase. The Second Avenue Subway mentioned as the boon to the condo's price still isn't completed yet, so maybe it's a good thing Peggy didn't get that apartment. The biggest part of this plot line was Abe guilelessly discussing Abe and Peggy's future children. It was a really sweet moment seeine how Peggy responded to that. "I'm going to Harlem in a tuxedo."

-Ethan from Lost is now a trippy insurance salesman named Randal Walsh trying to push the advertising envelope. I've got no idea either, except Roger's still experimenting. "This is an opportunity. The Heavens are telling us to change." I saw Don consider this for an extra beat.

-This episode was titled The Flood, but the only direct reference to a flood was Ginsberg's father, "In the Flood, the animals went two by two. You, you're going to get on the ark with your father." Did you catch anything else?

-I noticed this week a commercial with a voiceover by Jon Hamm. Is that new? Also, Christina Hendricks has been pitching scotch all season.

-Awkward meeting between Megan and Don and Arnold and his wife. And then Don calls DC to check on them? Come on, Don, settle down.

-The hug between Peggy and her secretary and Joan and Dawn contrasted nicely. There's real warmth between Peggy and her secretary, while Joan and Dawn are still trying to figure each other out, though. Don did seem genuinely concerned for Dawn, though. Peggy's secretary: "I knew it was going to happen. He knew it was going to happen. But it's not going to stop anything." That could be about Don.

-I can't really remember much of this from the earlier seasons, but I feel like newspapers/radio/TV are being used for expository and dating information more consistently this year. It was used a significant amount tonight.

-I'm not going to by into a Bobby story line until they promise not to change the actor again. We've had the same creepy Glenn forever, why can't we stick with the same Bobby? In any case, Bobby can't allow for the wallpaper to be uneven and gets punished for his obsessiveness. I think this was supposed to show his steely steadfastness to details, he is his father's son, but they've never really illustrated that specifically for Don, so what do I know. I did love Bobby in the movie theater, though, first when his mind was absolutely blown by Planet of the Apes, "Jesus!" and then when talking to the movie theater employee, "Everybody likes to go to the moves when they're sad." It showed a compassion and empathy never exhibited in Betty (except for with Glenn and the violin girl) and hardly exhibited in Don. That was a sweet moment, too.

-Setting up Don's speech on fatherhood, which is especially poignant to me as a brand new father. "I don't think I ever wanted to be the man who loves children." "And you act proud and excited, hand out cigars, but you don't feel anything." Don's never really loved his kids (which is going to make it harder for Megan down the road), or more accurately, has never really lived for his kids. And one of the first times he does feel true parental love for Bobby is after Bobby's kindness to the man in the movie theater, "You feel the feeling you were pretending to have and it feels like your heart is going to explode." But then this is all turned on its head because Bobby's biggest fear is his step-dad will be shot. Don acidly clarified Henry isn't important enough to be shot, but is clearly stung. That juxtaposition was one of the best of the season.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 4 Recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:39:31 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. Guess the baby never wants to come out, because it's still not here.

-We're in March, 1968 with the announcement of Robert Kennedy's campaign, the announcement of Johnson's non-campaign (cute moment between Roger and Bert), and an NYU student protest against Dow Chemical recruiters. This pace ties with last year with about a month in between each episode.
-We got some Harry Crane and Joan stories in the episode, and neither of them are very happy. Harry continues to feel slighted and jealous of Joan, and Joan, despite her status, still isn't very respected or well-liked.
-The episode's title, 'To Have and To Hold,' caused me to look closely at different ways marriage was represented in the episode. ('To Have and To Hold' was also the best selling book of 1900, but I defy anyone to read the Wikipedia summary and connect it to this episode.) We saw it in the first scene with Heinz Ketchup Timmy, Dawn's friend getting married, Megan's love scene, Megan's co-workers inviting Don and her to swing, Joan's friend cheating on her husband. It's an overall terrible depiction of marriage in the late 60s.
-Right away, there's double infidelity. Don, Pete, and Timmy from Heinz Ketchup are meeting in Pete's apartment behind Raymond's (Sauces, Vinegars, and Beans) back. Timmy used the meeting as an excuse to stay in the city and see a woman, not his wife. He makes this clear by creepily taking his ring off on his way out. "I don't need much of an excuse to come to Manhattan." (Also, adults with y sounds at the end of their name are OK as long as it's not Timmy.) This is also Don being unfaithful to his client, Raymond, and I'm not totally sure how Pete convinced him to change his mind. And then Pete and Don share a special moment with Pete offering up his bachelor pad for Don's use. It's like he got a quarter through saying it and realized it was a bad idea, but he couldn't stop. "Well, it's available to you if you ever need to spend the night in the city."
-Don's secretary, Dawn, went to meet with friend/sister? who is getting married. Dawn's the maid of honor, but can't find a date. (Always the bridesmaid, never…) Mad Men's continued avoidance of race issues in the 60s has been a thorn to many critics. It'll be interesting to track Dawn this season to see if she's the only view into this side of the 60s. She also described the life of a non-principal at SCDP, "Women crying in the lady's room. Men crying in the elevator." We never really do see how the worker bees live, but tonight at least, Dawn got some good lines. "It sounds like NYE when they empty the garbage." "I don't care if everyone hates me here as long as you don't."
-Joan has a friend visiting from out of town which gives us a chance to check in on her. Both her friend and mother make much of her title at the firm, but when Joan tries to fire Harry Crane's secretary, we get an illustration of how much power she really has. SCDP is willing to let her do her thing and manage things as she sees fit, and they were happy to get Jaguar as a client, but they also need to be mindful of what Harry brings to the business. I don't know if they'll ever make him a partner, but mostly because Sterling just likes playing with him. I thought the shot of her in the cab while her friend and the manager were making out, replicated almost exactly in the club - Joan set apart, sitting up straight - but then willing to be seduced, oh gosh end this run on sentence. Anyway, that shot made me think of Joan at SCDP. Alone and unhappy, but up for it. Joan's friend came in from out of town to see what it was like to choose career over family and… "I'm really not you, am I?"
-This episode did focus more on the women characters, Joan, Megan, Dawn. We even got to see Peggy pitch.
-Megan was bound to do a love scene at some point if she continued to get bigger roles, and did you really think Don was going to like it? He starts off gruffly accepting, "If I wasn't your husband, I would be happy for you." And then Megan pushes it a little further, "Honey, I can tolerate this, but I can't encourage it." Don came to watch the scene, and it wasn't just a love scene, it was a character betraying his entire family, and I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but the guy was a cartoonish version of Don. So… Don, a guy playing someone else, was watching his wife playing someone else while she made out with a guy playing him. That's a lot to take in.
-Besides the obvious and comedic, two things stood out for me in the swinger dinner with Megan's writer and castmate. Don's been an actor his entire life and he's now married to an actor and here is at dinner with some. "I could cast you." "I'm sure he's a man that plays many roles." The second quotation is just one of what is basically a weekly reminder of how Don is not who he says he is. The second part that stood out was Don saying he was agains the war. I'm not sure if it was just the company he was in or he actually believes that, but I'm not sure how prevalent that opinion was among the NYC businessmen of the late 60s. Not sure how many of them smoke dope in a room with tinfoil on the windows, either, though.
-Harry Crane's office is ridiculous, but at lease he has the window he coveted for so long. For what it's worth, his $22K salary in 1968 has the 2013 spending power of $149,003.60. Thus making his bonus worth another $150K or so. Not bad, Harry. Harry continues to have a giant chip on his shoulder, and I'm of two minds. Either it's unwarranted because he's not good at his job, or we just don't see how successful he really is because of how the character is written. I'm going to go with unwarranted based on how SCDP treats him. They give him enough to keep him wanting more. "I was different than you, Mr. Crane, in every way." "Should we fire him before he cashes that check."
-The pitches to Heinz. It's clear Don's ideas only work on certain clients and others either need more coaxing, or something else to convince them. For their pitch to work, Timmy from Heinz would have had to be more confident in his brand. Interestingly, Peggy's pitch gave him everything he said was missing from SCDP's - the bottle, etc - and neither of them got the account. So it seems Timmy just wanted to be wooed. [Update: J. Walter Thompson ended up with the account, which wasn't quite clear]. Peggy intro'd her pitch, "If you don't like what they're saying, change the conversation" the same way Don discussed his idea with the Madison Square Garden team in Season 3 Episode 2. "If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation."
-There was a neat parallel in Don's pitch, using a customer's imagination to sell ketchup, and when he went to the set to watch Megan's scene to avoid having his imagination run wild. "If you can get into that space, your ad can run all day." Megan did get into that space and it wasn't sitting well with Don. "You kiss people for money, you know who else does that?" Another prostitution reference that was maybe supposed to go in last week's episode.
-Mrs. Rosen is praying Don finds peace and I'm too tired to think about it.

What did I miss?

How Reddit and Twitter got it wrong and made life worse for a missing kid’s family

aaron cohen — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:19:57 +0000

A missing Brown student was unfortunately smeared last night in the confusion/excitement/torrent of news flowing on Twitter. At about 2:45 AM this Tweet (deleted in the last 30 minutes, or so) started getting RT'd by people I follow and it moved very quickly from there up to media members RT'ing it as well. The person who posted it said they were sharing a Reddit transcript of the Boston Police scanner broadcast. The Reddit back patting from both Reddit users and new-media members came quickly because Reddit had at some point earlier speculated on the connection to the bombers and the missing Brown student. Much criticism had been heaped on their efforts to identify bombers all week, so it'd be understandable for them to want to gloat.

Except they got it wrong. I was listening to the scanner when they mentioned the first guy's name on the BPD scanner, and did not hear the second name on the scanner at all. It wasn't said. 50K other people were listening to the scanner at the time, so maybe others can corroborate this. And it turns out the guy mentioned as suspect #1 didn't have anything to do with the bombing and was probably related to another issue BPD was dealing with last night. The guy listed as suspect #2 in the above Tweet is the missing Brown student, and as we know now, was not considered a suspect.

Last night was the first time I've heard of a police scanner driving the "facts' of a major news story for several hours, and if you listened, you now know why. There were several announcements made over the scanner that turned out to be part of the understandable confusion of a massive police chase. I went to sleep right after hearing about officers being directed to a specific area for a supposed foot chase between Newton police officers and the suspect. One of the last messages I heard broadcast was, "Uh, just talked to Newton police. There was no foot chase."

Some other thoughts:
-General term "Reddit users" tossed around a couple times in this post which obviously lumps them all together. Too tired from staying up most of the night to write more artfully, but I know there's no way to describe all Reddit users as one.
-Not sure whether the scanner transcript on Reddit mentioned the missing student or if the Tweeter above just added it in to a Tweet.
-I'm not usually a fan of Tweets being deleted, but the Tweeter above did the right thing by deleting his Tweet. Before it got deleted, I noticed the RT number going down, so people were obviously trying to disassociate themselves from this message.

Cat licking a vacuum hose

aaron cohen — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 01:15:35 +0000

Kind of needed this video of a cat licking a vacuum hose this week. They have the weirdest cats in Russia.

Via Stellar

I don’t know

aaron cohen — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 03:58:06 +0000

I don't know what to say about today. Earlier I was raw. I couldn't watch the news without tears welling and I don't know when I got so emotional because this stuff didn't used to impact me so deeply. This stuff. This stuff happened about 3 miles from where we live, around the corner from where my wife used to work, and around the corner from where she works now. It's a block I've walked down, driven down, rode my bike down countless times. I don't think that has anything to do with it. I grew up in a town along the Marathon route and can't remember ever not going to cheer the runners on. I was just wondering this morning if we'd bring our baby (who will more than likely be born in the next few days) to watch the race. I don't know if that has anything to do with it either, though it must. The baby is to be born at a hospital that was closed for several hours after the bombing because of either persons of interest or threats or both.

Did you see how quickly people ran towards the explosion on the video they keep playing over and over. The bomb explodes, there's a beat when people look around stunned, and then almost instantly, they're tearing at the fence to get to the injured. Later, over a thousand Bostonians signed up in a few hours to open their homes to out of town runners. Seeing that did help me process a little bit. One person or a group of people left the bombs at the Marathon, but so many more people were ready to help. So many more reached out with compassion to people they didn't know. I hope that's what I remember most about today. I know that at least.

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 3 recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:27:01 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. We've got no baby yet, so I'm still doing the recaps. We'll see about next week.

I didn't immediately know what to write about tonight, but I'm starting to center around 3 major themes from tonight: prostitution, advertising, and war. First let's get some plot details out of the way.

-Megan had a miscarriage. She didn't want to tell Don because she didn't necessarily want to scare him away by bringing up the conversation about whether to have kids or not. Ever helpful Don does not answer one way or another. "You have to know I want what you want. Is that what you want?"
-Peggy is still having a hard time managing people, this time getting management advice from her secretary. I wonder if this will continue all season. And getting pranked/hazed by her employees. I was surprised, naively perhaps, that her employees would prank a superior in this manner. (Also, did that firm get Clearasil last year when SCDP got Dow Chemical?)
-Don and Mrs. Rosen continue their dalliance and talk about their feelings. When Don feels her pulling away, he seems even more attracted. To me there were huge similarities in his "You want to feel shame right up to the point I take your dress off" speech and when he forced his hand up Bobbie Barrett's dress (also in a restaurant.) Don goes after these women who have rebellious streaks, but not too rebellious. Don seems to want to be found out, a trait he's exhibited consistently in the series.
-Pete uses his Manhattan bachelor pad to seduce a woman from down the block. Her husband abuses her and Trudy finds out about it. This leads to a conversation where she acknowledges she knew about Pete's philandering. "It's all about what it looks like, isn't it." Pete also seems like he wants to get caught.
-Don and Pete, Don and Pete, Don and Pete. Their stories are so entwined. Pete wants to be Don, wants to live like Don. Don maybe sees that in Pete and despises him for it. "Why can't you just follow the rules?" Dunno, Pete, why can't you?

-War, advertising, and prostitution were big tonight. Advertising compared to prostitution, prostitution on its own, advertising compared to war, war on it's own, advertising on its own. Advertising has often been compared to prostitution, and it was tonight in various ways. Intimations to prostitution have come up previously, and comparisons to advertising, but right now I can't remember where war themes were so abundant, both metaphorically, and literally in the radio accounts and the conversation with Rosen at dinner.
First the references to prostitution:
-It's in Don's nature to be hamfistedly helpful, so him whipping out a wad of bills to give to Mrs. Rosen after they finished probably didn't have too many undertones to it in his mind, but I was surprised how willingly she took it. I think if I was sleeping with my neighbor and she offered me money, I'd at least make a joke about it.
-Don moving in to a brothel with his uncle and stepmother(?). I got the sense that this era's flashback would be present throughout the season…
-'Just a Gigolo' playing at the end of the episode. (David Lee Roth covered this later on.)
-The Jaguar/Joan storyline came back as well.
-Pete saying, "It's all about what it looks like, isn't it." could be describing prostitution or advertising, in the same way as Don's "I wish you handled the clients as well as you handled me." And Pete again, "I really have to get back, can you move it along a little." Her time was up.
-The title of the episode is The Collaborators, the name given to war-time citizens who cooperate with invaders, but what do you call the people you work with? This was just the beginning of the war references.
-It's the end of January, 1968, and the Viet Cong have just launched the Tet Offensive. (District Attorney Garrison was on Carson on 1/31/1968. Here's audio of the interview. The Tet Offensive occurred when a cease fire was signed for the Tet New Year. Trudy signed a cease fire with Pete by letting him get an apartment in the city and then he ambushed her.
-When Ted Chaough gave Peggy the Heinz account to research, pretty much everything he said compared advertising to war. "He's not your friend, he's the enemy." "This is how wars are won." "Blow their mind." Except for one part where I picked up a prostitution reference, "Maybe you need a friend more than you need a job. I didn't know that, I'm in advertising."
-But then this, "Your friend's mistake was underestimating you," which was talking about Don as much as it was talking about Don as much as it was talking about Stan. (If I ever have to micro-analyze a Ted Chaough paragraph, I will be upset.)
-"This is Munich" comparing the Jaguar/SCDP relationship to the appeasement of the Nazis is about a clear war reference as you can get, while Roger Sterling's 'self-immolation' comment was a hair more nuanced. Was Roger just saying Don had burned up, or was he saying Don's protesting the client's idea was similar to the protesting Vietnamese monks. In the third season of Mad Men, Sally saw a news report about a self immolating monk, so it's ground Mad Men has covered before.

The following points don't really tie to the above.
-The firm gets introduced to the Heinz Ketchup account, but is instructed to ignore it. Ken doesn't know why, but Don explains it says they have to, "Dance with the one that brung ya." It's crazy how loyal Don is to the clients (Mohawk Air) while knowing only infidelity in his marriage. He has more control over his professional life and can live it the way he feels like he should live his personal life. For some reason, he's not able to do this.
-I liked the line, "It's the Coca Cola of condiments!"
-The Jaguar plot about always saying yes to Herb was contrasted by the Pete / Trudy conversation which included, "I have never said no to you."
-This recap took a little longer than usual because I spent time trying to track the origins of "blow their mind," "dance with the one that brung ya," and "x is the y of z." Seems like all of those would have been in use in the 60s, but maybe not in heavy rotation.

Love on a Sri Lankan tea farm

aaron cohen — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:41:36 +0000

The Perennial Plate team got engaged last month and celebrated by posting an endearing love story from a Sri Lankan tea farm.

Minister Pete Nice’s photo album

aaron cohen — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 23:19:56 +0000

Pete Nice from 3rd Base has a pretty cool collection of pictures from his days as a rapper. Here are some of them with descriptions. He's also a big time baseball memorabilia collector who has admitted fraud. (Boston fans may be interested to know he's also a co-owner of McGreevey's.)

Wu-Tang Forever – 20 years since 36 Chambers

aaron cohen — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:55:04 +0000

Here's a story on NPR's Morning Edition celebrating Wu-Tang's long career and focusing on Rza's 20 year plan. A major part of the plan was allowing individual members to sign with different record labels. This would spread the promotion money around, while also opening up door at record labels for other rappers.

One of the first record execs to come sniffing around was Steve Rifkind, who had a new label called Loud. The RZA got him to sign an unprecedented deal: For only $60,000, Rifkind got the Clan as a whole. But the RZA also convinced him to allow each individual in the group to become, in essence, a free agent. They could sign a solo deal with any other company, and take the Wu-Tang name with them.

"When Def Jam wanted to sign Method Man, they wanted to sign Method Man and Old Dirty," says the RZA. "And Old Dirty wanted to be on Def Jam — everybody, that was like the dream label. But if I had Old Dirty and Method Man on Def Jam, that's two key pieces going in the same direction, whereas there's other labels that needed to be infiltrated."

The RZA's plan was to spread his group's sound as widely as possible. And just a few years later, members of the Wu-Tang Clan were recording for five of the six major labels, back when there were six major labels. Sales from those albums enriched each label — which meant they saw more potential in hip-hop made by street kids.
[…]
"I recall telling GZA, 'You'll get the college crowd,' " because he's the intellectual. "Raekwon and Ghost, all the gangstas" — their metaphors read like a police blotter — "Meth will get the women and children — and he didn't want to do women and children. He didn't know that, though. Method Man is a rough, rugged street dude, but all the girls love him." Method Man is playful. "Myself, I was looking more like that I bring in rock 'n' roll," says the RZA, whose rhyming style is the opposite of laid-back.

Via @graysky

Mad Men Season 6 Episode 1 and Episode 2 recap

aaron cohen — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:48:29 +0000

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates a moment from the episode and I write up a recap. This season should be an interesting one for the flash recaps as my wife and I are expecting our first child to be born sometime between now and Episode 3. There will still be illustrated recaps on a weekly basis, but from time to time, they may be written by someone other than me.

-That was a startling fade in. Who did you think it was going to be getting resuscitated? I thought it was clumsy how they eventually came back around to that scene, maybe too quick of a cut from present to flashback. Almost certainly on purpose as they do. Jonesy the door guy had a heart attack or something and after being resuscitated by Arnold Rosen, was back at work when Don and Megan returned home. Rosen asks, "Jesus, what's his real name?" and maybe Don imagines himself dying without anyone knowing who he is.

-Before the premier, there had been plenty of speculation about when this penultimate season would take place. There is every year Part of the speculation is because people want to know how far the show will get into the 70's. Part of the speculation is because Matthew Weiner guards the timeline of the season so jealously. So everyone was right. We're about to be in 1968. (The first heart transplant, joked about on the Tonight Show, was in October 1967.) You get your Summer of Love, the assassinations of MLK and RFK, and coming up at the end of January, the Tet Offensive. At least ONE of those things will be featured this season.

-Just a quick catch up on where everybody is at the moment. Don and Megan are a few more months into their marriage, and Megan is a regular on a show called To Have and To Hold. Betty is a little heavy, though not as heavy as last year, and her and Henry have taken in a ward of some sort. Sally's 14, and has a deeper voice. Bobby is, again, played by a new actor. Roger (sideburns!) seems smitten with a 29 year old, and Peggy is busy putting out fires. We didn't get an update on Pete (except for his sideburns and continued hairline recession) or Joan.

-The problem with titling an episode 'Doorways' is that every single doorway in the episode takes on monumental importance. On the other hand windows, doorways, elevators have always had lots of importance on Mad Men. Here are a couple of the more memorable doorways: Betty tearing her coat on a hook in the doorway of the house at St Marks, Don and Megan coming in after vacation, Jonesy coming out of a doorway, Sally closes the door on Betty.

-Don was reading Dante's Inferno on the beach in Hawaii. Dante, you may recall, passes through the Gate of Hell (a doorway), which has the inscription, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Heaven and Hell, or fire and ice, were referenced several other times in the show: Hawaii is like Heaven, Jonesy "checking the steam," Betty getting pulled over because it was so icy, Roger's daughter wanting him to invest in refrigerated trucks, "Heaven's a little morbid" during the pitch.

-Don's watch didn't work when they were on the beach because time literally stands still in Hawaii. If you want to be like Don and Megan, you too can stay at the Royal Hawaiian.

-Don met a PFC Dinkins on R&R from Vietnam who was in Hawaii to get married. "You some kind of astronaut?" "One day I'll be the man who can't sleep and talks to strangers." Somehow Don ends up giving the bride away, and they exchanged lighters it's revealed during a scene where Don was peeved at being photographed. The lighter had the inscription, "In life we have to do things that are just not our bag," which has actually never applied to Don. Exchanging the lighters really shook Don, as if the two of them had exchanged lives. The photographer says, "I want you to be yourself," and obviously this is difficult for Don. (Eugene Dinkin was a PFC stationed in France. He went AWOL in Nov 1963 and showed up in Geneva talking about a plot against JFK. Just an aside.) In 2003, Phil Kline researched the poems GIs inscribed into their Zippos and included the 'not our bag' quote above. That phrase wasn't on the internet anywhere else until last night.

-The Francis house is always, always so dark, and all the scenes from this week were no exception. I guess it would be dark if you had to live with Betty. I've been writing this next sentence for 15 minutes and I am moving on. While, Betty graphically details a rape she encourages Henry to commit of a 15 year old girl staying with them her eyes have this crazy look. The look says, "I'm kidding, but not really, Henry, I'm jealous of this violin player, don't don't get any ideas and I don't know how inappropriate talking like this is because I'm a sociopath." But then also, "It makes me feel so much."

-Roger's in therapy this year, which replaces dictating his book as the device to just let him expound on everything and anything. He mentions the doors and paths and windows and gates, but says they're all the same, and they all close behind you. He hardly reacted to his mother's death, but sobbed when he found out about the shoe shiner. Sort of a cliche, but I'm OK with it for the glimpse into the real Roger. "Talk to Joan, she'll know what to do."

-"I smell creativity." Stan and Ginsberg are still there, along with another dude and another woman.

-Glad to see Peggy playing a big part. She's pitching clients (or calming them down in emergencies), and still coming up with good copy. "You're good in a crisis." We already knew that, Ted. One thing I noticed was both Abe (he's been around a while now) and Ted subtly mentioned Peggy's management style. Abe said she shouldn't be so mean, and Ted said she should have let people go home. I can't decide if this was done to show that Peggy's over her head (unlikely), or to show she's sort of clueless about how other people work. She works tirelessly and expects her bosses not to sugarcoat things, so why doesn't everyone? I like how her and Stan still work late together over the phone.

-"This is my funeral." It was as if Roger was throwing a party, not a funeral. I'm don't know why Don got so drunk at the funeral, but he started to lose it it when Roger's aunt emphasized the word "Wit" and "Man" in her eulogy. "Roger Sterling, no matter what you do, everyone loves you." Roger thought it was hilarious his mother left all her money to the Zoo and someone else can leave a comment below about the significance of the jar River Jordan water.

-"So, you'll still love me if I'm a lying cheating whore?" Don's cheating. Again. This time with the (older?) wife of his new friend, Arnold Rosen. (Did you see the look on his secretary's face when Don introduce him as a friend? Like, "Uh, you don't have friends.") Don feels bad about the cheating, but it hasn't stopped him yet. The two men, Draper and Rosen, are fascinated with each other's professions. Rosen said something like, you get paid to think about the stuff people don't want to talk about, and I get paid to not think about it. "Please don't compare what I do with what you do." Rosen made several comments comparing their two professions and Don kept avoiding it. People will do anything to alleviate their anxiety.

-But anyway, Don's cheating again. He does his best work when he's brimming with self-loathing, so that's good for Sheraton, I guess. I can't imagine we're back to self-destructive Don, since we've already seen that, or maybe I just hope we're not back there. I guess more on this next week.

-The part where Don asked Stan if the ad made him think of suicide and Stan saying that's why he liked it.

-A brief mention of Bob Benson, a new ass kissing character to keep an eye on.

-There were a lot of different references to photographs/pictures this week: The slide show of Hawaii (itself a reference the carousel of the first season), Rosen came to get a camera, the firm's partners being photographed, Betty showing a picture of the missing girl.

-It did snow in NYC on 12/31/1967.

Game of Thrones stretching television’s story telling ability.

aaron cohen — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:36:17 +0000

Television critics have discussed how cable shows like The Wire and The Sopranos showed how television could be like books in the storytelling and character development. Scott Meslow joins Alyssa Rosenberg to discuss how Game of Thrones might be pushing the envelope on the novelization of television, or how, at least, Game of Thrones might be too much book to effectively transfer to television. I just finished book 3 and 4 of the GoT series, and… There are a lot of new characters and stories. Where as the story of the Starks and Lannisters might be enough to fill several seasons of television on their own, the GoT series actually contains at least 6 or 8 other stories going on by the end of book 4. I really liked this thought: "Sprawl, for good and ill, is a characteristic of books in a way that it never can be of television."

Now, obviously Martin’s books have been released on a cycle that by the standards of television look leisurely. But they’re also able to give much more space to each character—sometimes for good, sometimes for ill—unconstrained by the production budgets, writing, production, and editing cycles, and standard length of a television episode that inevitably provide structure to the show. That means he writes a fair amount of digression and worldbuilding into the books, but also that he’s not bound by anything except how many pages his publishers can bind into a single volume, and even then, if he’s got to spill over into more volumes, they’re going to be nothing but happy. And those digressions, and the amount of time it takes to read the books, just give readers more hooks into the stories, the characters, and the settings. Sprawl, for good and ill, is a characteristic of books in a way that it never can be of television. I’m not saying that means the books are better than the show. But I do think that they expose some of the irreducible differences between reading and watching television once you reach a certain scope.

Via @tcarmody

Can someone please do something about the bees

aaron cohen — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:12:16 +0000

Bees are important because they pollinate fruits and vegetables and if you like fruits and vegetables, you should worry about why all the bees are fucking dying.

Precisely why last year’s deaths were so great is unclear. Some blame drought in the Midwest, though Mr. Dahle lost nearly 80 percent of his bees despite excellent summer conditions. Others cite bee mites that have become increasingly resistant to pesticides. Still others blame viruses.

But many beekeepers suspect the biggest culprit is the growing soup of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides that are used to control pests.

While each substance has been certified, there has been less study of their combined effects. Nor, many critics say, have scientists sufficiently studied the impact of neonicotinoids, the nicotine-derived pesticide that European regulators implicate in bee deaths.

The explosive growth of neonicotinoids since 2005 has roughly tracked rising bee deaths.

I also like this guy who would have been insulted to be called an environmentalist previously, but gee, maybe they were on to something now that all his fucking bees are dying. You think?

Experts say nobody knows. But Mr. Adee, who said he had long scorned environmentalists’ hand-wringing about such issues, said he was starting to wonder whether they had a point.

Of the “environmentalist” label, Mr. Adee said: “I would have been insulted if you had called me that a few years ago. But what you would have called extreme — a light comes on, and you think, ‘These guys really have something. Maybe they were just ahead of the bell curve.’”

Irish Whiskey Cheese

aaron cohen — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:52:08 +0000

I'd try it at least once. "Infused with the robust flavor of whiskey, Kerrygold’s rich and creamy Aged Cheddar now has unique undertones of the smooth, woody and nutty taste of pure Irish Whiskey."

Via @ohheygreat