tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post5173983417445514848..comments2024-03-28T18:01:28.997-04:00Comments on What's Alan Watching?: Mad Men, "The Gold Violin": For the man who has everythingAlan Sepinwallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388147774725646742noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-13820272675060488332011-09-18T13:47:07.966-04:002011-09-18T13:47:07.966-04:00Something I'm surprised that nobody else notic...Something I'm surprised that nobody else noticed. In Jane's conversation with Joan on Monday, she includes comments from Sterling that did not occur in his office the previous Friday. Methinks that Roger may have paid a visit to Jane St. over the weekend to further console the young woman. With his penis.<br /><br />Also, Betty's comment toward Jimmy was definitely meant to be anti-Semitic. While Barrett isn't a Jewish name, Jimmy has Catskills-summers written all over him. Betty herself may not be anti-Semitic, but her outburst certainly was.Jorelsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-61053168428439977772010-01-27T01:10:55.933-05:002010-01-27T01:10:55.933-05:00Sorry for chiming in so late. Just catching up on ...Sorry for chiming in so late. Just catching up on old episodes & found the "you people" comment really stood out. <br /><br />As Karen points out, it was definitely a reference to Gentleman’s Agreement: <br /><br />http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/talk/2008/08/oh-yeah-gregory.php<br /><br />Maura makes a good point. The sarcastic “you mean comedians?” response clarified what Jimmy thought. That doesn’t mean he was right.<br /><br />Have we established that Betty knew Jimmy was Jewish? She didn’t seem the least bit ashamed about the fact that her first kiss came from a Jew. <br /><br />Betty can be racist. But she isn't terribly invested in blacks v whites, Christians v Jews, Republicans v Democrats or even men v women. Her world is shaped by the domestic/public divide. Fellow housewives, children & maids are her confidants. Working professionals are the “people” she finds so repulsive.Steve-Onoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-40317595201695202642009-11-26T17:18:52.270-05:002009-11-26T17:18:52.270-05:00And Ken telling Sal that his spaghetti sauce was b...<i>And Ken telling Sal that his spaghetti sauce was better than you'd find in a restaurant. Many Italians would be insulted that you even considered the possibility that it wouldn't be.</i><br /><br />No, that's a stereotype. Homecooking is homecooking, a restaurant's chef is always supposed to be better. People are flattered if you tell them their food is better than in a restaurant. (Are Italians supposed to be that touchy?? :))Raffaella Arnaldihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01226578312496433294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-39349729513098283392008-09-17T17:37:00.000-04:002008-09-17T17:37:00.000-04:00The Martinson's jingle is a reworking of a Serge G...The Martinson's jingle is a reworking of a Serge Gainsbourg song, "Couleur Cafe". You can catch the tune on http://cantara.vox.com, where I blog some of the music and poetry heard on <I>Mad Men</I>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-49646258309300679312008-09-13T17:16:00.000-04:002008-09-13T17:16:00.000-04:00I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter...I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what Betty meant. It matters what Jimmy thought she meant. And he thought she meant Jews.<BR/><BR/>But I wouldn't say that there's something wrong with anyone who didn't interpret Betty's comment as anti-Semitic. Because she could have meant anything from the Barretts to rich people to Jews.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-18984061409173713002008-09-12T22:58:00.000-04:002008-09-12T22:58:00.000-04:00The trash or litter (depends on how old you are) a...The trash or litter (depends on how old you are) at the picnic was so perfect. I just would like to know how many people were shocked by that scene. No... really...how many, because I am 61 and it did not shock me at all, it was how it was. I can remember people shoving paper bags of garbage out of the windows of moving cars... ALL THE TIME, EVERY DAY.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-47019202869358653852008-09-12T22:20:00.000-04:002008-09-12T22:20:00.000-04:00For PamalaJaye and Ascot...This from Wikipedia on ...For PamalaJaye and Ascot...<BR/><BR/>This from Wikipedia on American Airlines Flight 1.:<BR/><BR/><I>Among the victims were multi-millionaire oilman W. Alton Jones (who was flying to meet former President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a fishing trip) and Louise Linder Eastman (whose daughter Linda Eastman would later marry the Beatle Paul McCartney).<BR/><BR/>Also on board were retired Admiral Richard L. Conolly, president of Long Island University and two-time Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, film producer (The Guns of Navarone) Irving Rubine, and millionaire realtor Arnold Kirkeby, former head of the Kirkeby chain of luxury hotels, and whose residence was used as the Beverly Hillbillies mansion.<BR/><BR/>The crash, coincidentally, occurred at the same time that U.S. astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. was being honored with a ticker-tape parade in lower Manhattan for his successful manned space flight aboard the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962.</I>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-74084603984758065672008-09-12T18:39:00.000-04:002008-09-12T18:39:00.000-04:00Is it possible that the lady in car dealership fla...Is it possible that the lady in car dealership flashback somehow fills Dick/Don in on the real Don's life? <BR/>BBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-16138536053159299452008-09-12T14:05:00.000-04:002008-09-12T14:05:00.000-04:00"I thought "you people" was absolutely anti-semeti..."I thought "you people" was absolutely anti-semetic. It's the type of childish insult that Betty would throw out there when she had nothing else to say. And I'm not even remotely Jewish."<BR/><BR/>It scares me--yes, scares--that so many people did not. As a black man in this society, I've always been amazed at how willfully people turn blind eyes to obvious acts and expressions of bias. Worse, they insist the targets of bias give the offenders every benefit of every possibel doubt. Sometimes I think that, if a cross were burning on my lawn, well-meaning people would assure me those nice hooded folks had just dropped their keys and needed the extra light.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-62246648686323275902008-09-12T02:30:00.000-04:002008-09-12T02:30:00.000-04:00<< For crying out loud, (1) the concept of ...<< For crying out loud, (1) the concept of celebrity didn't even exist in 1962 >><BR/><BR/>Wow ... obviously you're not even a tad bit informed about the scandal rags that were so popular in the 1950s ... magazines like Confidential that preyed on 'celebrities'. People were as fascinated with celebrities then as they are now. No concept of celebrities in 1962? Uhh ... I'd have to disagree.DarylOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05779671365993037123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-52645379848408100212008-09-12T00:23:00.000-04:002008-09-12T00:23:00.000-04:00I'm sure no one's reading this any more, but you h...I'm sure no one's reading this any more, but you have to be kidding me if you think Betty's "you people" meant "celebrities" and not Jews.<BR/><BR/>For crying out loud, (1) the concept of celebrity didn't even exist in 1962, and more to the point (2) NY business elite was completely anti-semitic at that time. My grandfather was invited to a dinner at one of the tonier city clubs in that era, and a total stranger seated next to him turned to him at one point and said apropos of the open dinner table discussion, "Thank goodness there are no Jews at the ____ Club."<BR/><BR/>Needless to say, Grandpa's a Jew.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-84936936995406469102008-09-12T00:14:00.000-04:002008-09-12T00:14:00.000-04:00I believe it was the season premiere: For Those Wh...I believe it was the season premiere: For Those Who Think Young.<BR/><BR/>I have no clue about the rest of it, and I wasn't aware they were "hired" till they showed up again. Or perhaps they are just "consulting?"<BR/><BR/>I don't know why one seems French, I can't remember if they explained it.PamelaJayehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07999734611205222130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-34197729115284228342008-09-11T22:39:00.000-04:002008-09-11T22:39:00.000-04:00After all these amazingly insightful comments I'm ...After all these amazingly insightful comments I'm going to add a less than intelligent post to balance things out a little. I don't know where I was when the Smiths were originally introduced, but I'm confused by them. Did they first appear in the season premiere? One is French, but they're both named Smith? Is that somehow supposed to be funny? The French one's accent is so strong that you can't understand him but that's also funny I guess? Hmm...<BR/><BR/>Thanks for clarifying who they are!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-6136711271214103462008-09-11T22:04:00.000-04:002008-09-11T22:04:00.000-04:00If you grew up thinking you'd get married and be m...<I>If you grew up thinking you'd get married and be married forever and your husband would support you, you'd see no reason to get a full four year degree.</I><BR/><BR/>I did grow up believing that. My mother was married till my father died. That was... 43 years. I never went to college. My mother never graduated from HS (come to think of it, neither did my father - he ran away from home and joined the Navy in WW2)<BR/><BR/>oh well.PamelaJayehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07999734611205222130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-13682255033218229972008-09-11T17:39:00.000-04:002008-09-11T17:39:00.000-04:00"So Jane is 'a college girl' at 20?"Associate's De..."So Jane is 'a college girl' at 20?"<BR/><BR/>Associate's Degree. Back then, it was perfectly normal for women to go to a two year college and get an Associate's Degree. If you grew up thinking you'd get married and be married forever and your husband would support you, you'd see no reason to get a full four year degree.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-60860344150970847222008-09-11T11:01:00.000-04:002008-09-11T11:01:00.000-04:00Did anyone notice the heavy use of BLUE and RED in...Did anyone notice the heavy use of BLUE and RED in this episode?<BR/><BR/>If so, any theories as to what they symbolize?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-19933356166266537972008-09-10T22:29:00.000-04:002008-09-10T22:29:00.000-04:00You all make really great points and observations ...You all make really great points and observations here! It makes watching the show even more enjoyable. <BR/><BR/>One thing I would like, is to be able to plunk down $6500 dollars for a top of the line car, like Don did. :o) Of course back then that was around twice the yearly salary for the average Joe.Capcomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06841675195251354073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-37774669839358302692008-09-10T20:19:00.000-04:002008-09-10T20:19:00.000-04:00N/P = N/T = NIP/TUCK.Oops.N/P = N/T = NIP/TUCK.<BR/><BR/>Oops.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-84069449746841046102008-09-10T17:10:00.000-04:002008-09-10T17:10:00.000-04:00"So Jane is "a college girl" at 20?"Could be a sec..."So Jane is "a college girl" at 20?"<BR/><BR/>Could be a secretarial college (though, in that office, she'd have been better served by going to bartending school). Wonder how many WPM she types? :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-49059835301384125112008-09-10T15:12:00.000-04:002008-09-10T15:12:00.000-04:00I'm just gonna say it: Don Draper is the most bla...I'm just gonna say it: Don Draper is the most blazingly sexual, vulnerable and fucked-up character since Dr. Christian Troy. <BR/><BR/>Only difference is that Dr. Troy knows his abuse made him the crass, sexually-compulsive and unloving person he is, and that he exists in a culture that embraces his jerkiness... as long as he stays pretty. Don can't even begin to have that level of self-awareness, because he stripped himself of his past, which means he'll always be respond to that past returning like he got a slap in the face. N/P showed its, er, hand, with their 25-years-in-the-future show, but the jury's still out whether these men can redeem themselves without destroying their respective families.<BR/><BR/>In terms of the cringing comedy of manners of MAD MEN, only NIP/TUCK comes close to that sense of laughing sexual dread -- we just don't usually compare the two because N/P is seen as a street-walking slut with lesions in unmentionable places, while we pretend along with MM that social diseases aren't caught by good people.<BR/><BR/>Man, the paper someone could write with a dual series compare-and-contrast....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-31612442479190282722008-09-10T15:06:00.000-04:002008-09-10T15:06:00.000-04:00A thoughton Joan's rewearing of her clothes. Norma...A thoughton Joan's rewearing of her clothes. Normal as noted, but a dress from *two years ago?* Admittedly, I have clothes much older than that (and some of those still fit. the ones from thhe late 80's with the fitted bodices, not so much).<BR/><BR/>How long would a woman working in a city that has to have been the height of fashion, wear the same dress? In the 60's.<BR/>Obviously Peggy was.<BR/><BR/>I wore a lot of "little girl" dresses, as Peggy has. Only in the past 5 or so years have I found any "grown-up" looking dresses that I actually liked. My ex-husband was pleased when he saw them. I knew he would be, though I don't know why I cared. (how about "yes, I finally dress like a woman - now go home to your wife." Perhaps it was to show hin what he tossed away. th again, at the time, he was trying to crawl back - while still re-married) <BR/><BR/>So Jane is "a college girl" at 20?<BR/><BR/>Sadly, 1963 being an off year, it won't be one of those the sereies covers (though the assassination was in November...) I was reminded by, among other things, the mention of American Dreams, which started right then. American Dreams also, ultimately, made me understand "the awe and wonder" of going into space for the first time. Enterprise tried - but I couldn't understand it. Going to the moon was something that happened when I was 10, and after that, I stopped caring. But Enterprise seemed to always have this "awe." It never made any sense to me till I saw JJ Pryor figuring out a way to make the astronauts' gloves workable.PamelaJayehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07999734611205222130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-39759102701063576682008-09-10T14:16:00.000-04:002008-09-10T14:16:00.000-04:00What I think is good about the end when Betty vomi...What I think is good about the end when Betty vomits in the car is how it contrasts with the other time the two of them were together in the car, also after dealing with the Barretts. Sorry for the run-on sentence. At the end of the Benefactor when they were on their way home, the romantic light from the dash board, her head on his shoulder and nice music accompanied the tenderness of Betty and Don realising that they made a good team. That image was completely flipped over with the starkness of them both in their respective seats, not talking, then...you know what.janahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02712544662159511512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-56855609328492699742008-09-10T13:47:00.000-04:002008-09-10T13:47:00.000-04:00Apologies on the Lee Eastman thing.It was Linda's ...Apologies on the Lee Eastman thing.<BR/>It was Linda's mother, who died. At least according to this (detailed enough to believe)post<BR/><BR/>http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/<BR/>2008/08/mad-men-episode.html<BR/><BR/>I'd read Mo's (?) article, but i'm still reading the comments to this one.<BR/><BR/>btw, is Barrett a Jewish name?<BR/><BR/>I was mentioning earlier that we've never seen the fallout on the Draper family side (okay, he's a hero, and he's not dead - so where *is* my son/husband/etc) and yes, I too expected that was part 1 of as least a 2 part flashback. darn.<BR/><BR/>Have a nice day. It became a catch-phrase later, but I have trouble believing no one ever said it back when (and the Staten Island Ferry was running in 1817). I *think* at some point, someone offered food or ddrink may have said "I'm good" which would much more anachronistic - at least to me. But I'm not sure that was on Mad Men - it's just that I can't remember having watched any other "period pieces" lately.<BR/><BR/>And finally (for now) it was a movie about Linda that I had *recorded* a year ago - not "watched." oops. (not that anyone would care but me)<BR/><BR/>still reading...PamelaJayehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07999734611205222130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-84372087027215333412008-09-10T12:03:00.000-04:002008-09-10T12:03:00.000-04:00I disagree with others about the vomiting - it was...I disagree with others about the vomiting - it was a perfect finish.<BR/><BR/>The episode began with the beginning of that 'new car' smell - and it ended with the ending of it. And I suspect some other things might be ending as well.<BR/><BR/>And I disagree with people saying that this or that (e.g. vomiting) has been overused in TV or film. Folks, there's nothing new under the sun - let the writer's use any device to express their creative vision. <BR/><BR/>Anyway, it's all a matter of usage and context - and this context (which fit the opening and the theme so well) was new for me.MadMemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13719499288325313334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-76880897432439458132008-09-10T11:07:00.000-04:002008-09-10T11:07:00.000-04:00Huh. And what I was thinking, as I watched that sc...<I>Huh. And what I was thinking, as I watched that scene, especially as we saw Jane in Cooper's office, was, "Did women really have that kind of body in 1962?"</I><BR/><BR/>Well, sure, just like there are lots of women now who don't look like whatever is considered representative of womanhood in the early 21st century.<BR/><BR/><I>Actually, one of the things I like about the show is that you'll see Peggy and Joan repeat outfits at the office, like women do in real life. So, in fact, we have seen Joan in that purple number with the built-in ascot before. All we need is a screen shot from one wearing of the dress to the other for a comparison about how "matronly" she's looking these days. (Um, pshaw.)</I><BR/><BR/>Heh. I didn't say she was <I>entirely</I> successful in looking matronly. :) But she does look different, even though she's wearing some of the same clothes (which I know she and Peggy do, although I couldn't have identified what clothing has been repeated). I will put that down to Hendricks' ability to tell us something without the benefit of accoutrements. <BR/><BR/>I'm totally on the "no more vomit scenes" train. Please, I can take just about anything (I can even eat while watching CSI), but that's where I draw the line. I don't care of it's supposed to be a metaphor.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com