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Viva Mad Men!

Snazzy jackets - Mad Men episode five season five.

I've been downloading Mad Men season Five almost hot off the press via i-tunes. Usually down here in Aus we have to wait an eternity for new seasons to become available, but this time we're only an episode or three behind. Absolute bliss!

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the first double episode Little Kiss, but haven't so much enjoyed the next two: Tea Leaves and Mystery Date. I thought episodes two and three were a bit forced and melodramatic. I was actually feeling a bit concerned for the whole series, but then along came episode five! Signal 30! Wow wee!

Please note---> if you have not already seen episode five you'd better look away now.

There's lots to like in this episode. Essentially it is Pete's in a way:

1) Pete fixes a leaking faucet and flirts outrageously with a young thing at the driver's education class.

2) Megan and Don go to the 'burbs to a Pete and Trudy Campbell dinner. Megan, as always, looks ravishing. Don gets all macho and fixes Pete's faucet as it...springs a leak.

3) Ken Cosgrove, we discover, is still writing short stories. He writes in the sci-fi/ fantasy genre. Cool or what? We also learn via Peggy that one of his stories is about an alien woman who lays eggs. It just doesn't get any better than that.

4) Lovely Lane Pryce scores a dinner date with a potential new client: Jaguar. He doesn't do terribly well, and so the boys are called in: Don, Roger and Pete. Everything goes swimmingly between the three big guns and the client, however, the next day everything goes horribly wrong and the client is lost. This results in: a fist fight between Lane and Pete! Awesome stuff!

5) And then...after the fisty cuffs Lane kisses Joan who is most mature about the whole thing. Lane says memorably: Is there no end to my humiliation today? Although, in retrospect, I don't feel Joan totally rejected Lane's kiss...hmmmm...

6) Pete cries in front of Don in the lift on the way to lunch after the fight. Clearly Pete is losing the plot a little.

7) "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is featured which always makes me feel good and reminds me of A Clockwork Orange which can never be a bad thing.

I've been reading reviews of this episode and critics have been raving about it. So, it's not just me then. It is a pearler. I, for one, am going to watch it again!

All images from here.

QEII: Diamond Jubilee

It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this month. Diamond Jubilee! What a terrific anniversary that is. I hope to have a Diamond Jubilee something someday just so I can say "Diamond Jubilee" non-stop for a few months.  In celebration of this great sounding anniversary, The National Portrait Gallery in London is holding an exhibition of...ahem...portraits that have been commissioned for her over the years. Behold a selection of a few of these...Which is your favourite?

Images from a postcard book I have from The National Portrait Gallery.

Roy Lichtenstein at the Tate

Something I'd be very keen to see! The Tate gallery in London has just announced that it will be holding a huge retrospective exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein's work early next year. Some of his most famous paintings will be part of the show such as Whaam! and Drowning Girl. I can't imagine how lovely it would be to be surrounded by a room full of Lichtensteins!

Ten Great Years

I thought this poster by Argentinian graphic designer Max Dalton was pretty neat. You can see more of Max's work and posters here --> Max Dalton.

In other Beatles news, I see that Yellow Submarine has been cleaned up and restored. Ah! I have such fond memories of that fine film! When it was having a re-run at the Roseville cinema, my Dad used to take me to see it most weekends. It was a very enjoyable way to fill in a few hours together. The music's fantastic and the fab animation certainly appealed to a me as a small girl. You can see the trailer here.

Poster image from here. Yellow Submarine from here.

Kings Cross

Images from a great exhibition I saw last year at the Police and Justice Museum called Sin City: Crime and Corruption in 20th Century Sydney. Naturally enough, Kings Cross featured quite a bit in the archival photos and film. Here are some images of Kings Cross, or The Cross as us Sydneysiders like to call it, circa 1960, 1950, 1969 and 1970. 

Images from Sin City/ The Historic Houses Trust.

Down By Law

I was having a surf through one of those 1000 films you must see before you die books and it was arranged by year. It was actually very interesting. I was particularly struck with the mid to late '80s. 1985 had My Life as a Dog, Pee - Wee's Big Adventure, A View to a Kill, Brazil and European Vacation. I only remember that 1987 had Withnail and I which is probably all you needed to see that year anyway. However, 1986 had the super fine Jim Jarmusch film Down By Law. I remember going along to the cinema and seeing it quite a few times. I don't think I'd ever seen anything quite like it.

Set in Louisiana, it is the story of two wrongfully imprisoned men who meet for the first time in their cell: Jack a pimp played by John Lurie and Zack a DJ played by Tom Waits. A third man, Italian tourist Bob (Roberto Benigni), is also put in their cell. Speaking barely any English but an incredibly chatty person nonetheless, Bob is the exact opposite in temperament to the other two uber cool cats. Jack and Zack don't get along terribly well, but they somehow all end up escaping the prison together thanks to Bob. They wade through Louisiana swamps, walk on foot quite a bit and eventually end up at a house owned by a woman named Nicolleta. Bob instantly becomes smitten by Nicoletta and he stays on at her house while Jack and Zack continue on their way.

Why it's one of my favourite films of all time:

1. Its unhurried character driven plot is by turns meditative, hilarious and intriguing.

2. The humour is central to the appeal of this movie for me. It is not only provided by the effervescent Benigni but also by the laid back Jack and Zack. Jokes are not set up like they would be in a traditional comedy, they unfold.

3. Shot in black and white, it's very lovely to look at.

4. John Lurie and Tom Waits provide the fab music score to the film.

If you haven't already seen it, you are in for a treat!

Images from here, here and here.

The Total Look

Peggy Moffitt (model and muse) + William Claxton (husband and photographer) + Rudi Gernreich (designer) = The Total Look exhibition at MOCA in LA. How beautiful are these photos?

All images from here.

Black Cat Auditions - 1961

Pussy cat central! Another gem from the archives of LIFE magazine via that swell site Retronaut.

Midweek pick-me-up

Nothing lifts my spirits (yes, I've had one of those days) like a whole heap of New Yorker cartoons. ...and nothing lifts my spirits quite as high as when those cartoons happen to be cat themed. Which is your favourite?

 

All images from here.

Love Letter to New York

Classic shots of New York from the '40s to the '60s courtesy of Life magazine.