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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!

Epic Mermaid Saga part XVII

Here is the latest installment in the ever increasing mermaid saga.

It is Galatea having a mid-morning tea break with Phil (crab) and Herbert and Bertha (jellyfish) and Sid and Simon (starfish). As you can see, Sid and Simon have had way too much red cordial and are totally rocking out to the piped muzak in the cafe they're in. It's a bit of a worry.  Meanwhile, Galatea tries to ignore her embarrassing friends by talking to Herbert and Bertha who are in a much more sedate state. They're discussing sea currents and when to expect the next king tide. Lastly, Phil is lost in his own crabby world. He's trying to figure out how to put the straw into his mouth/ mandible/ eating appendage thingy.

...and it's Friday! Well almost.

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.

Way cool

I stumbled upon this awesome ring set on Etsy from shop Lickety Cut the other day...Little Red Riding Hood. This is the sort of thing that would entertain me for days. Very nice! There are a whole heap more here too.

Easter break.

A drawing I've spent a large part of today working on. I Can't Believe You Didn't Know. It's one of those titles in which the viewer can join the dots!

Other than that, I've been having a super low key Easter long weekend. This has been good! Time to reflect and settle the mind down a bit! Have been going for autumnal walks through pretty Sydney gum forests, reading novels and the paper. I have also been re-watching season four of Mad Men. Season four has been my favourite so far, but am very excited and can't wait for season five to hit us down here in Aus!

Happy Easter all!

Black Cat Auditions - 1961

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

Masked (penguin) Ball and other scenarios

So this is a drawing I did a few weeks ago: Masked (Penguin) Ball. I haven't really got much to say about this print as I think it speaks for itself.

However, I have been thinking about the sort of masked ball or fancy dress party I would like to go to and I have decided on these two themes:

1) A James Bond fancy dress party.

Can you imagine? Fine, fine John Barry/ Shirley Bassey e.t.c. music playing all night long and heaps of opportunities to be over the top silly. All. Night. Non. Stop! I suppose everyone would either come as Blofeld or James himself circa Sean Connery. I'd like to think someone would have the chutzpah to come as Jaws (Moonraker) or Christopher Walken (A View to a Kill). I wouldn't mind going as Solitaire in Live and Let Die (v.snazzy long haired Jane Seymour in '70s New Orleans/ New York Bond). I quite like Tiffany Case in Diamonds are Forever (favourite all time Bond film my friends - give it a watch - it is magic!). Then again, I think I'd like to come as Sean circa You Only Live Twice as in wet suit clad and arriving in a toy helicopter thingy. Or perhaps I'd come as Odd Job (Goldfinger baddy). Although, I wouldn't mind actually being Goldfinger, come to think of it, as I could go around all night saying "Goodbye Mr. Bond" in my best heavily accented German/ English. I'm just rambling now...pardon.

2) *Ahem* The other party I was thinking of would be a Beatles party and you'd have to dress as your favourite era of Beatle.

I think I'd come as John Lennon circa Hamburg with a quiff and a leather jacket and smoking a rolled up cigarette or perhaps a white suited Lennon with long hair and a middle part à la Abbey Road (favourite album after all). Then again, would it be permissible to come as George Martin? Hmmm...that's possibly a bit tricky...

 

Helen Dardik!

Helen Dardik - Canadian artist extraordinaire! Her work makes me feel so darn happy, it's ridiculous! She has an Etsy shop here.  Happy Thursday!

All images from here.