August 2009
38 posts
What Would Don Draper Do? →
Great blog that takes questions and answers in the voice of the man, the myth, the legend… Don Draper. The author really does nail the voice well. A great example:
Q: Dear Don Draper, What do you look for in an evening of theatre?
A: The easiest way out. If it’s a musical, the nearest.
The 30-Day flight →
Many of you might have heard about JetBlue’s All-You-Can-Jet Pass which allows unlimited flights for 30 days on any of their routes. Two adventurous souls will try to visit all 43 JetBlue-served cities in that 30-day period.
They estimate that more than 83 flight segments will probably be needed, and there will be at least 22 visits to JFK, mostly for connections. Sleep and showers are an...
The drinks of Mad Men →
I’m quite taken with all things Mad Men these days, including this blog post telling a bit about the signature drink of each character from the show.
I’ve had a few conversations since the show’s premiere that have included the words “What exactly is in an Old-Fashioned?” That’s what I get for not being born (or having imbibed copiously in) the 60’s.
I...
S**t my Dad Says →
Possibly my new favorite Twitterer is Justin. You’ll have to excuse the language, because there’s no getting around it, he tweets under the name shitmydadsays. His bio provides the explanation: “I’m 28. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says”
Only 18 tweets so far, but they all struck me as very funny. Sidenote- Justin has...
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“Harry, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give...”
– Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks (I’m getting the itch to watch this again…)
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The A.V. Club interviews BJ Novak →
BJ Novak (better known as Ryan the temp, on the US version of The Office [Ryan started the fiiire!]) is one of the unsung heroes of The Office- he’s written some of the finest episodes (“Diversity Day” comes to mind), and plays an low-key, but always funny character. But, all in all, he’s a really impressive guy- a Harvard graduate who wrote for the Lampoon (Conan fans will...
“Well, technology is a glittering lure. But there is a rare occasion when the...”
– Don Draper, on Mad Men, doing an ad pitch for a slide projector (The quote that this scene is taken from remains one of my very favorite things I’ve ever seen on television)
The Footnotes of Mad Men →
The Footnotes of Mad Men is a great, great blog. No way around it. The tagline of the blog is simply “A cultural catalog,” and it gives real examples of, well, culture from the 1960’s. Examples include real London Fog ads (for those who watched the Season 3 premiere), Heineken ads and photos of art and furniture used in the show.
The blog also includes further explanations of...
“News sites can no longer capture reader’s attention with 20 percent news, and 80...”
– -Erick Shonfeld (The Media Bundle Is Dead, Long Live The News Aggregators)
WatchStephen Colbert interviews Congressman Jared Polis…. and then bongs a beer with him? The clip is a delight…. as per the usual with Colbert.
“Everyone is given a place. You should be what that place needs”
– Wendell Berry
Mad Men Roundup
Well, for you Mad Men-philes out there (guilty…), the Season 3 premiere was Sunday night. Leaving all spoilers aside, I was a bit disappointed by the premiere. I think all fans had very high hopes, and I think Matt Weiner maybe tried to do a bit too much for 1 episode. I love the episodes with long, telling silences, and details, and devotion to one story line, and episode 1 was somewhat...
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Biased Reviews: Teddy Roosevelt Reviews Disney’s... →
The good people over at The Talking Mirror bring yet another great article that I got a big kick out of. An excerpt:
“Smith, whose libidinous appetite grumbles audibly for brown-stained flesh, finds Pocahontas and fails to properly smother her with a smallpox blanket, thus sparking their disgraceful tryst. Vulgarly they profess their love through a nauseating musical duet about the colors...
“Work is the greatest thing in the world. So we should save some of it for...”
– Don Herold
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“AND herein lies the genius of J. C. Penney: It has made a point of providing...”
– NYT (Via)
You live, you love, you blog?
Two interesting blogs that are the yin to the other’s yang:
It Was Over When… This blog is subtitled “Tales of Romantic Dead Ends,” and features user-submitted stories of the moment they knew their relationship was doomed.
It Was Love When… As I’m sure you can guess, this blog features “tales from the beginning of love.”
The former, in my opinion,...
“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to...”
– Aldous Huxley
A.V. Club Interviews Jon Hamm →
Well he’s done it. Jon Hamm has stolen my heart. (And by “my” I mean “America’s.” And by “heart,” I mean “wallet.”)
But that’s neither here nor there. In addition to being a handsome son of a gun who plays the suave Don Draper on Mad Men (third season premieres Sunday!), get this….. he seems like a very cool guy. Perhaps it...
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after growing...”
– Pablo Picasso
Synthesizer... online...toy... thing? →
The website describes it as “ Simple sinewave synthesizer triggered by an ordinary 16step sequencer. Each triggered step causes a force on the underlaying wave-map, which makes it more cute.”
I have zero idea what that means. But you go to the website, can push some buttons, and it makes fun, fun music. A fantastic time-waster- trust me.
The Women Behind 'Mad Men' →
Great article from the Wall Street Journal about the writing staff of AMC’s Emmy-winning Mad Men. Surprisingly, the staff is predominantly female. I was surprised, at first, as the show depicts a time where chauvinism was so much more the norm. But, the show so brilliantly captures the complexities of the female characters, and we get glimpses into how these women think, feel, and relate to...
WatchI do love a good poking fun at Twitter. (Via)
“If at first you don’t succeed, redefine what you did as success.”
– Stephen Colbert
Human Expiration Dates? →
“What do you think are the odds that you will die during the next year? Try to put a number to it — 1 in 100? 1 in 10,000? Whatever it is, it will be twice as large 8 years from now. This startling fact was first noticed by the British actuary Benjamin Gompertz in 1825 and is now called the “Gompertz Law of human mortality.” Your probability of dying during a given year...
Apple Vs. Microsoft
Here’s a straight-up repost from Kottke. Really interesting stuff:
“From John Gruber, an Apple booster, an essay on Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline. And, is if in reply, an essay called Apple: Secrecy Does Not Scale from Anil Dash, Microsoft enthusiast. A perhaps unsubtle reply to both essays might be “I can’t hear you over the continual sounds of the cash...
WatchCharlie McCarthy took long-exposure photos of insects buzzing around a streetlight, and made a video. Very cool idea. (Via)