Mad Men opening credits sequence

Like most of the tv-blogging world, I’m catching up on last season’s Mad Men. I was always a fan of the show, but shit got busy around the middle of the second season, and I hadn’t had an opportunity to catch up until now. Or, to be more precise, I decided that I wanted to watch Season 3 with the rest of the world.

As I do this, I am reminded of what a true pleasure the titles sequence (created by Mark Gardner and Steve Fuller of Imaginary Forces) is. It perfectly captures the sexy cool of the show (and perhaps the era*) and features an abridged version of the song “A Beautiful Mine” by RJD2.

Titles:

I was excited to find the full version of the song used, but I was dissappointed to find that they exerpted all the cool parts and most of the rest is filler, or iterations of loops. Whatever, here it is:

*I’ll be the first person to praise the art direction and costumes, makeup and casting of the show, but part of me wonders (and I realize that this is paranoid) whether I’ll look back on this reconstruction of the ’60’s and see it as nothing but a product of our time. Like, the first time I saw Dirty Dancing, I didn’t even realize that it was supposed to be set in the ’60’s. It read like an ’80’s movie to me. Now, you’re right to say that Dirty Dancing didn’t take itself as seriously as Mad Men is, but still, it’s a thought that festers…

The semi-regular feature once known as MWE

I am so ashamed.

(Note to the Journal of Happiness Studies, this doesn’t mean that I am actually unhappy)


1. I like pie.

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2.  A cool article from Vice Magazine about Afghani war carpets.

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3. This interactive apocalypse game from Slate…

…is equally fun for politicos and fans of stupid action movies.

4. Everything you could ever possibly know…
….about table manners.

5.  How to disappear and find friends.

From Wired Magazine.

Updating the Blogroll

Is much easier than actually updating my blog. Some good blogs to check out if you’re bored.

Original short stories from my friend Natalie. Steamy real life confessions from ConfessionsOfABoyToy. Geeky awesomeness, and thoughtful insights, from Alyssa Rosenberg. Classical music hilarity from the newly launched Cereal List.

EDIT: Once I realized how time consuming it is to update links on WordREpress, I decided against it. I may later though.

Museums. Economical?

The Economist has been running a great series through their Art.view column on small, overlooked art museums in or near the cities that the jet set often visit. I read them and have a real Marilyn Monroe (or Norma Jean) moment as I sigh and wish that my life were glamorous enough to support visiting Paris or New York just to check out a cool museum. Which is a little pathetic. On the other hand, that sort of caché is the Economist group’s bread and butter, so at least I’m supporting their business plan.