Notes from the Asylum

Gatsby Anyone?

2012-05-23T12:20:00.002-04:00

New York. Circa 1922. Gatsby. On the silver screen. Mark your calendars for this December. That reminds me . . . I'm due to re-read this great American gem again. I adore re-reading The Great Gatsby. It's such a richer experience to read it when you're an adult and you've voluntarily decided to do so rather than when you're in high school and forced to read it when it doesn't quite

Mad Men -- What in the Hare Krishna is Goin' on Here?

2012-05-22T17:51:00.001-04:00

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the latest episode of Mad Men.* Joan and Don flirted in a bar after taking a bright red Jaguar for a spin. And they didn't wind up sleeping together. Paul Kinsey joined the Hare Krishnas and shaved his head. Harry Crane had sex in the office with a Hare Krishna leader Lakshmi, a woman for whom Paul not only has feelings but wants to build a life with her. Guilty

Mad Men Characters as Comic Book Stars, in Ad Campaigns, Plus Other Mad Men News

2012-05-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

The peerless Mad Men-obsessed illustrator Dyna Moe has created quirky new Mad Men images for those of us who simply can't get enough of the period AMC drama. In addition to her book, Mad Men: The Illustrated World where she interpreted key scenes from the show in colorful illustrations, she keeps a Flickr stream where she uploades images inspired by the 1960s show. Her latest pics have

Mad Men -- Everybody's Lookin' Out for Number One

2012-05-15T10:38:00.002-04:00

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the latest episode of Mad Men.* "You are not loyal. You only think about yourself." -- Peggy Olson to Roger Sterling after Roger gave a new copywriter extra work (and cash) instead of asking Peggy. Everybody's got an agenda, and it's all about benefiting the person they see in the mirror every day. Betty, who doesn't seem to want what she has but wants what she

Y'All, I Sure Miss Coach Taylor

2012-05-10T15:21:00.000-04:00

I want to tell you something. I just need to say that I sure do miss Coach Eric Taylor. (Found this via the AV Club.)

'Are You MOM Enough?' Happy Mother's Day from Time Magazine

2012-05-10T11:47:00.001-04:00

Seriously? What the heck is up with that "Are you MOM enough?" headline? And, for that matter, what would possess Time Magazine's editors to pair such a shamelessly Mommy Wars-baiting kind of question with an intentionally salacious (not maternal, not nurturing) image of a nearly 4-year-old boy, who's identified by name, standing on a chair with his mouth on his slender, tank top attired

Notes on Politics: Hillary Clinton Appeared in Public Without Makeup. Film at 11.

2012-05-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

How sad is it, the fact that the U.S. Secretary of State appeared in public without cosmetics having been applied to her face (she wore lipstick) is considered big news? That it was a lead story on Drudge? That the internet was all abuzz about it? While I absolutely love that Hillary Clinton said she has no interest in what people are saying about her decision not to wear makeup (

Mad Men -- Pete Campbell's a Snake Who Longs to be Don Draper

2012-05-08T20:55:00.003-04:00

* Warning -- Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.* When Pete asks a lady of the evening to slap him on the face, hard, then we'll know that his attempt to morph into Don Draper will be complete. But we're not quite to that point yet. Pete is doing to his marriage what Don did to his first one with Betty, along with their cozy little family that was

Notes on Politics -- Obama Goes Dog-Heavy, Scott Brown's Lucky Shot, 'Scandal' & 'West Wing' Quasi-Reunion

2012-05-02T12:50:00.003-04:00

Obama Goes Dog-Heavy at D.C. Dinner This is how presidential humor is supposed to be done, at venues like the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And while President Obama was very funny delivering his litany of jokes -- my favorite was his "What a snob" Santorum reference -- the dog stuff ... really? Apparently the Obama people believe that the way to short-circuit the Obama-ate-dog story

Mad Men -- 'At the Codfish Ball' Episode = What the Heck?

2012-05-02T11:29:00.000-04:00

*Warning -- Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.* Things are seriously twisted in the world of Mad Men. More so than usual. More so than when Roger Sterling dropped acid. You've got Sally Draper -- the girl who was humiliated last season after she was caught pleasuring herself at a friend's house, the kid who adores her father -- walking in on Roger, with whom she was palling

Notes on Politics: I Wish Presidential Candidates Would Stop Going on Comedy Shows

2012-04-25T13:30:00.001-04:00

It's supposed to humanize them, make the voters see that they're more than starched shirts and talking points. But what then-Governor Bill Clinton made popular by jamming on the saxophone while wearing shades on Arsenio Hall's show -- and giving a substantive interview afterward -- has gotten a little old. It's no longer fresh and novel. Presidential candidates are already so overexposed in

Mad Men -- A Triad of Weirdness

2012-04-25T12:06:00.001-04:00

*Warning -- Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.* Last week's Mad Men episode featured an unexpected fistfight between, of all people, Lane Pryce and Pete Campbell. This week Roger Sterling dropped acid. What'll happen next week, Joan Harris will burn her bra? If the parade of ugly late 60s clothing didn't already clue you in, we are deep into the cliched 60s now and I suspect

Notes on Pop Culture & Politics: Prez Campaign Goes Canine, Updating 'FNL' & 7 Reasons Why Katniss Kicks Butt

2012-04-19T17:47:00.000-04:00

No Mas with the Dogs Already As a voter who's squarely in the politically moderate middle of the road, I issue this plaintive plea to the presidential campaigns and the news media: Enough with the canines already. Now I'm as much of a dog lover as anybody. (Check out my lifestyle blog, The Picket Fence Post, where I've been chronicling

Mad Men -- A Parade of Ugly

2012-04-18T17:31:00.000-04:00

*Warning -- Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.* Okay, first we've got to talk about the fashion. Normally, I don't comment on fashion. But come on, those clothes in the "Signal 30" episode were hideous. Don's jacket?! Ken and Pete's jackets? And that heavy swath of blue eye shadow over Megan's eyes ... we are so entering the ugly part of the latr 1960s where the fashion evolved

Attention Fellow Women: Let's Take on One Another's Ideas, Not Personal Lifestyle Choices

2012-04-12T14:11:00.001-04:00

“Guess what? [Mitt Romney’s] wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school?” -- Hilary Rosen, Democratic strategist and CNN political analyst, on Anderson Cooper 360. “Spare me the faux anger from the right who

Notes on Pop Culture: Hillz Yeah!, Plus Trailers for 'Veep' & 'The Newsroom'

2012-04-11T14:50:00.001-04:00

Hillary Clinton's Got Game I first saw it last week, the internet meme based on a single photo of Hillary Clinton on a government plane, using her cell phone while wearing sunglasses. The meme was given a simple name, "Texts from Hillary" where people imagined what our Secretary of State would've texted to the likes of President Obama, Vice President Biden, Mitt Romney, Facebook's Mark

Mad Men -- Don's Violent, Fever-Fueled Dream Freaked Me Out

2012-04-09T16:32:00.001-04:00

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the latest episode of Mad Men ahead.* If the most harrowing scene from the latest episode of Mad Men, "Mystery Date," had not turned out to have been a dream, I would've been tempted to write off the show because it was so wildly over the line. (I've been in a writing-shows-off kind of mood lately, having given warning that my days of regularly reading and reviewing

Embracing Your Inner Peep with the Washington Post's 'Peep Show'

2012-04-04T13:39:00.000-04:00

Many, many moons ago -- well before e-mail or the internet -- two of my good friends couldn't wait to tell my husband and me about their hilarious adventures putting yellow, marshmallow Peeps into the microwave oven as the confections become comically contorted. Now, a lifetime later, Peep pop art has become a creative endeavor. Instead of just being content with its status as a super-sugary,

Mad Men -- The Episode About Betty Getting Fat

2012-04-02T15:30:00.000-04:00

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Mad Men.* Last week, it was Megan's foxy little "Zou Bisou Bisou" song and dance, where she flashed ample thigh to Don while his colleagues looked on in astonishment, that caught everyone's attention. This week, Betty made her first season five appearance and viewers were, um, gobsmacked to see the transformation she'd undergone, eating her

'Hunger Games' Left Me Fully Satisfied

2012-03-29T12:51:00.000-04:00

Normally, when books get the silver screen treatment, the results are mixed at best, depressing at worst. There are exceptions, of course, most of the Harry Potter films were wonderfully entertaining, though the book experience is almost uniformly superior. Largely, the movies are pale, disappointing imitations. Therefore, I didn't hold out a ton of hope that The Hunger Games film would impress

Mad Men -- A Little Kiss (Zou Bisou Bisou)

2012-03-26T15:42:00.001-04:00

*Warning: Spoilers from the latest episode of Mad Men ahead.* Finally . . . a new Mad Men episode to digest and dissect. Let's dive right into the fifth season premiere shall we? Megan: Megan's little "burlesque" dance, as Lane called it, at Don's surprise 40th birthday party where she sang a sassy little French ditty to Don reminded me of Joan's sad French song C'est Magnifique, with accordion

News Flash: There Are Mean People on Twitter, Especially If You're a Celeb

2012-03-22T15:07:00.000-04:00

Though I personally have only been called some version of an idiot and a moron a handful of times on Twitter (yes, I know I'm jinxing myself), if you're a celebrity who dares to wade into the social media pool, it's sage advice to don some protective gear because the water can get really choppy. Jimmy Kimmel called on some big name celebs who've been directly trashed on Twitter and asked them

Don Draper 'Quit' Working for Tobacco, Greg Smith 'Quit' Working for Goldman Sachs

2012-03-14T14:31:00.000-04:00

In Mad Men's fourth season, which took place smack dab in the middle of the 1960s, cynical ad man Don Draper took out a full-page ad in the New York Times entitled, "Why I'm Quitting Tobacco," where he cited his conscience as a reason why his firm would no longer do business with tobacco companies. Draper wrote that using tobacco products made people "unhappy . . . but there was a lot of money

Notes on Pop Culture: New Flicks 'Friends With Kids' & 'Game Change'

2012-03-09T18:07:00.000-05:00

I really liked Jennifer Westfeldt's new film, Friends With Kids about two best pals who decide to have a baby together, a movie in which Westfeldt starred, as well as wrote and directed. In my review of the movie -- which also stars Adam Scott from Parks & Recreation and features Bridesmaids alums Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm and Chris O'Dowd-- I compared it to When Harry Met Sally,

Loads of 'Mad Men' Season 5 Goodness

2012-03-09T16:34:00.000-05:00

Entertainment Weekly has devoted its new issue to the long-awaited return of the quadruple Emmy award winning AMC drama Mad Men which, given all this hype and longing after a 17-month absence, I'm afraid won't be able to live up to fans' expectations (mine included). Nonetheless, as I cross my fingers, knock on wood and hope that Matthew Weiner & Co. have created another insightful, surprising