This guy makes me “pukin’ sick.”
Prints & more available at Society6! / Daily Drawing #1109.
Posts Tagged ‘hand drawn type’
Mad Men Season 5 Episode 10
Prints & more available at Society6! / Daily Drawing #1108.
Every week, Aaron Cohen (@UnlikelyWords) writes a recap of Mad Men for his blog Unlikely Words, and I illustrate something from the episode to go with it. Here’s Aaron’s recap for season 5 episode 10:
-We are flying! It’s Christmas already (“I love Christmas in Manhattan”). Or almost (Roger is drinking to celebrate Pearl Harbor Day, so it’s 12/7). And the episode title is ‘Christmas Waltz’, a reference to the song The Christmas Waltz which played at the end of the episode. I don’t know what this had to do with what we saw this week, though. I noticed a lot of different relationship interactions, which might reference a lyric in the song, “It’s that time of year / When the world falls in love.” I think naming the episode America Hurrah, the name of the play Don and Megan saw, would have been too obvious.
-This episode featured more of Lane, Harry, and Joan than we’ve gotten in a while. Lane is in deep shit for paying taxes to the US instead of the UK. I’d guess he didn’t pay taxes to the US either, but no way of knowing. I hadn’t realized until the ‘scenes from next week’ last week, that Lane hasn’t been on for a while. There was some conversation while watching this week that Lane would be the one to throw himself out a window (not Pete, as the advisers anticipate). In any case, Lane is broke, has been broke, and still hasn’t told anyone. He has a tax bill of $8K, and concocts a plan to have SCDP borrow $50K on a short term loan so that the firm could pay out bonuses. His plan is somewhat derailed when one of the clients halts all work, delaying the partners’ bonuses. Someone will find out. I liked the deliberateness of the check forging scene. It’s emblematic of the series, and it was notable it was Don Draper’s signature being forged, as he’s living a forgery.
-The return of Paul Kinsey as a Hare Krishna was just one of those scenes. I think we saw him earlier this year at Don and Megan’s party, but he wasn’t Krishna, and he wasn’t as heavy. Am I misremembering that? He’s lost and ended up at a Hare Krishna temple. It’s interesting. Mother Lakshmi definitely represents the culty aspects of HK, while Paul represents the naive devotee (though they like him because he’s a great recruiter). Lakshmi saw Harry, well, Paul’s relationship with Harry, as a threat. “I’m trading the only thing I have.” In one of the surprises of the season, Harry looks out for his old friend and gives him $500 to get him out of town (some of the money was likely leftover from Roger paying him to switch offices), and away from the Hare Krishna temple. Harry saw Paul as a reflection of himself, realized they weren’t so different, realized it could be him adrift, and decided to help (“It will all seem like it happened to someone else.”). At the same time, the frantic chanting did impact Harry, too. Also, Kinsey is STILL in a turtle neck. Remember the pipe? I liked Peggy giving Harry cold ass advice about what to do.
-I thought the Hare Krishnas were a good contrast to Don, who is also clearly adrift. He doesn’t care about work, or the work. Every time he’s alone in the office, he’s lying on the couch. Last week, the only thing that got him motivated was beating Ginsberg. Also, at times, he seems ambivalent about Megan. He’s happy with her, but maybe not as happy as he’s told he is, every episode by someone different. This week it was Joan. (“The car does nothing for me.” “That’s because you’re happy. You don’t need it.”) The play Don and Megan see is America Hurrah which debuted in November of 1966 and in some circles is regarded as the play of the 60s. Don didn’t care for the message. He appears to be souring on advertising, and doesn’t need a play reinforcing that. Maybe he’s not souring on advertising, he’s sensing the world changing, he’s sensing his work won’t be as revered as it’s been. And then, a rousing speech at the end of the episode, pepping up the troops, and himself. I wasn’t moved by the speech, and the nodding approval of the partners first, and then the employees, seemed a heavy handed way of showing the impact of the speech. Instead of us feeling the impact, we’re given cues by the ensemble. We don’t feel moved, but we know we should be. This happened last week with the forced laughter at the lame Pepsi Snowball pitches. Maybe Don is pushing himself back into the work.
-Joan got served! And then she freaks out at the moron receptionist. I liked Don and Joan roleplaying in the Jaguar dealership (“Look at your watch.”), and I think they liked it, too. They have such a close relationship, and they flirt. Boy do they flirt. I think Don truly cares for her, as a friend, and that’s nice to see. I’m not sure what the implications of Dr. Harris divorcing Joan are, but it’s interesting she hadn’t taken any steps towards that. Also, we found out Roger was sending her checks to help. I wonder if she’ll start taking them now. Don’s flowers are certainly going to spur Roger to increase his pursuit. “My mother raised me to be admired.” I liked Don trying to get Joan to get with the guy at the bar. “Poor me, I struck out.”
-Maybe it’s just on Comcast in Boston, but in several of the episodes this season, I’ve noticed the audio not being quite synced with the action on the screen. There’s not a whole lot more annoying than the dialogue being about a millisecond off from the mouths moving.
-Roger, who spent most of the episode drunk, had some great lines: “Oh, you’re done with your bombing.” “What’s the hurry, Harry?” I thought What’s the hurry, Harry would have been a reference to Harry Truman, but couldn’t find anything. Only thing I could find was a 1968 book with that as a title. Pete has some good ones, too: “I don’t know how to drive a stick shift.” “You would have kissed me on the mouth.”
-”Does your wife burn for you?” I thought romantic relationships were touched on in a variety of ways in this episode. Joan getting a divorce, Lane keeping their financial situation from Rebecca, Paul and Lakshmi, Harry and Lakshmi, Joan and Don roleplaying at the Jaguar dealership, and again at the bar, and of course Megan and Don. I don’t quite know why Megan was so mad. I think I caught something about how Megan thought Don wanted her to think he’d left work before noon and wanted her to worry (about him cheating). This is probably what I was supposed to think, but that point, Don purposely testing Megan, could have been made clearer. Megan is impulsive (hitchhiking home from Howard Johnson’s, throwing a plate of spaghetti), and maybe Don just likes a little crazy. The scene started to go in the direction of the first or second episode where Megan was yelling and Don told her how things were going to go. That was creepy and I was glad it didn’t go that way this time. I don’t expect Don to take it, but he seems bemused enough to go along with this for now. It feels off, doesn’t it?
-”Prepare to take a great leap forward.”
My Internet!
My new site is here!!! I know I said that in my earlier post, but it didn’t go live until this evening. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up by the amazing JonathanAwesome. He’s definitely earned that name working on this site. If you notice any issues don’t hesitate to send me a message.
Prints & more available at Society6! / Daily Drawing #1107.
Childhood
“People say, ‘Oh, Mr. Sendak. I wish I were in touch with my childhood self, like you!’ As if it were all quaint and succulent, like Peter Pan. Childhood is cannibals and psychotic vomiting in your mouth! I say, ‘You are in touch, lady–you’re mean to your kids, you treat your husband like shit, you lie, you’re selfish … That is your childhood self!’” —Maurice Sendak
Thanks for sending this Lynne!
Prints & more available at Society6! / Daily Drawing #1104.
Mad Men Season 5 Episode 9
Prints & more available at Society6! / Daily Drawing #1103.
Every week, Aaron Cohen (@UnlikelyWords) writes a recap of Mad Men for his blog Unlikely Words, and I illustrate something from the episode to go with it. Here’s Aaron’s recap for season 5 episode 9:
We’re in the week before Thanksgiving, the season is moving along. I remember seasons past hitting Thanksgiving pretty hard, but this season it was more in the background. I had the sense that the first couple episodes were going a week or two weeks at a time, but the last couple episodes have jumped 6 weeks or more from the previous episode. Matt Weiner is committed to getting us out of the 60s.
-Betty’s back, Hi, Betty. It looks like she lost some weight, which I know was important to her, so I feel glad for her. And she’s in Weight Watchers. Incidentally, Weight Watchers was founded in 1963 and was owned by Heinz from 1978-1999. How’s that for a tie in? We’ve seen Betty’s nastiness before, but this was the first episode where we can say it was driven by hunger. In the first scene, she’s eating a piece of toast, a couple cubes of cheese, and a grapefruit in the dark. Realizing now that maybe she was eating late at night as opposed to early in the morning? She’d be doing this to count the meal on the next day’s points, like she did with the bite of Henry’s steak. (‘Bite of Henry’s steak’ not a euphemism.)
-Dark Shadows is the title of this episode, but I don’t think it refers to the new Johnny Depp movie, or even the 1960s TV show, which was something of a supernatural soap opera. There have been dark shadows on the proverbial horizon all season, all series, really. Some nods to the title in this episode, Betty eating in the dark, Don working in the dark, Betty eating in the dark again (shooting the whipped cream into her mouth and then spitting it out), Henry cooking in the dark, Roger and Jane kissing in the dark, the smog warning on Thanksgiving. Winter is coming. The smog warning seems especially important.
-”Look at all these voices, look at all this talent.” Don’s starting to feel threatened by Ginsberg in a way he’s not been threatened by Peggy or other copywriters. This is why he was working late and didn’t get Sally her dang colored pencils. From the “Shit I Have to do” folder, Don knew what Ginsberg was going to pitch and worked hard to come up with something to beat it. Don was only able to match Ginsberg’s idea, though, so he had to leave the Snowball-to-the-face in the cab. Obviously this burned Ginsberg, but no one will sympathize because they got the sale. The Ginsberg/Draper competition will be interesting here on out. (An aside, the pitches on the show continue to be mediocre. This episode it was reinforced when people laughed at the ideas for Snowball, twice. The ideas weren’t funny, and the laughter came off as hollow. The idea for Manischewitz of the wine boxes under the bus seats was pretty good though.)
-”Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Ginsberg quotes this after his pitch has seemingly been chosen by the team to be shown to the client. It’s from the poem Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. While Ginsberg quotes the line correctly, it’s misused in this context, though, because of the theme of the poem. Stan reinforces this by telling him, “You should read the rest of that poem, you boob.” Ginsberg is saying, look how great my work is, while the poem is about how nothing lasts, even, and especially great and mighty things. Great and mighty things like America in the 50s, SCDP, Don Draper, etc, etc. Pretty bleak, and a perfect poetic reference for the show. The advisers think the poem was about the most important thing in the episode, and I tend to agree. The poem was referenced earlier in the episode by Peggy in her Snowball pitch.
-Sally’s family tree is another dark shadow looming. And now someone else knows a little more about Don’s past. So Betty’s been big for a while, but we still haven’t seen her and Don interact in person this season. We don’t know until Don says something about her fat face that he knows she’s fat. Betty’s obviously nervous about going up to get the kids and being seen. She’s also, apparently, curious about the apartment. What’s interesting is the kids weren’t brought down because Megan wanted to look good for Betty, too, and was changing. “Well, you’ve seen most of it,” Megan said coolly, though I’m not totally sure why she would mind so much. In any case, Betty saw the nice note Don wrote to Megan about light bulbs (“Lovely Megan, I went to go buy a light bulb. When I get back, I’ll see you better. Love, Don.” DARK SHADOWS) and needed to lash out about that and Megan looking good without a shirt and about having to eat celery, so she told Sally about Anna Draper. “Don’t forget your father’s first wife.”
-Did you notice Don and Megan have a color TV? I believe that’s the first we’ve seen on the show.
-Sally was a total B most of the episode, and Megan teaching her to fake cry on command is going to end up biting her in the ass. All Sally wants, though, is Don’s attention, and when she finally gets the story from him, she seems mollified. “Your mother doesn’t care about hurting you, she just wants to hurt us.” Remember, Betty is having a Thanksgiving dinner of a bite of stuffing, a schmoo of gravy, and one Brussels sprout. Cut her some slack.
-Don was angry about Betty telling Sally and was going to call Betty and Megan was prescient, she didn’t want to give Betty, “The thrill of having poisoned us from 50 miles away.” As much as Betty was a fairly predictable character, I continue to be impressed by Megan. I also liked Sally putting it back in Betty’s face. Betty was dying to know how her lashing out was received, and Sally played it perfectly.
-Roger continues to have comedic scenes, with Bert talking about selling Manischewitz without Pete, with Ginsberg asking for ideas. And he continues to use money to get what he needs. For the third time, he paid an employee at the office to get work done, and he bought Jane an apartment to get her to come to the Manishewitz dinner. At work, it’s to show how feckless he is. It’s a bit heavy-handed, though, that this has happened in a full third of the episodes this season after never having happened in the past. Roger did seem upset about christening Jane’s apartment, but I have a hard time taking her feelings seriously because she seems super shallow. “You get everything you want and you still had to do this.”
-Oh, Pete. You thought you had the New York Times Magazine all wrapped up and it was going to be so amazing Beth was going to come into the office naked. “I forgot you. And then I saw you in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.” Roger’s line when Pete was telling them about the profile was funny. “You shouldn’t start with the Mayflower.” “Don’t wake me up up and throw your failures in my face.”
-Other quotes, “Am I the only one who can drink and work around here?” “I feel bad for you.” “I don’t think about you at all.”
What’d I miss?
Patterns
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Euromed
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