"I'll never let you go. Never. Never."

This week's Classic Cinema Obsession: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (John M. Stahl, 1945)

Check it out at Libertas! (Be warned though: Lotsa spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, get thee to Netflix!)

Also, I my thoughts on last week's MAD MEN are up at LFM.

Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Mad Men, Maaaaad Meeeeeen

My thoughts on episode four can be found HERE.

I am liking Dr. Miller a lot more this episode, by the way.

Also: PETE!

And: TRUDY!

And: KEN COSGROVE!

The gangs all here!!!

Mad Men Thursdays!

I was a little late in writing it, but my recap of this week's episode of MAD MEN has been posted at LFM.

Check it out -- before you get sucked into the multi-dimensional warp on Roger's office wall!

New Mad Men Mondays!

My latest at LFM is a MAD MEN article in which I share my thoughts on the premiere episode of season four. I hope to make this a weekly feature at LFM, kind of like my ol' "Mad Men Mondays" here on dereliction row, only now I'll be posting them at LFM.

Don Draper is back! Though to be honest, I'm most excited about seeing Pete Campbell and the Silver Fox again.

Mad Men Divorce?

No, I'm not talking Don and Betty. I'm talking about me. Towards the end of season 3 (pretty much right after the JFK assassination episode), I was almost ready to give up on the show. I was losing interest, I didn't like the direction they were taking with some of the characters, and I was annoyed by how it all seemed to be turning into a Boomer retread of "The Significant 60s" (an era which had, prior to this show, been almost solely defined by the annoying hippie Boomers and their "youth culture," but which the Mad Men creators were going to reconsider in a fresh, new, adult-minded, understated, and non-hippie-like way). In the JFK episode I felt like the Mad Men creators were going to go back down that played-out road of THE SIXTIES, instead of sticking with the more intelligent and nuanced view of the decade they had been taking in the first two seasons.

I was almost ready to give the show up. Then. Then the finale happened and all was forgiven. The finale was so amazing, so satisfying and powerful and funny and touching and hardcore dramatic and kick ass that basically, I'm back on the Mad Men train. That's pretty much all I have to say about it. Mad Men's season 3 finale was brilliant. Best episode of TV ever. It should win an Emmy for, like, best TV episode ever made. Best Ever.

I've mended my ways with the show and now I can't wait for season 4 -- that was not something I was thinking in the penultimate episode of season 3, so well done, Mad Men peoples! You've brought me back into the fold.

Now, can Betty and her snoozer of a boyfriend/fiancee just go die in a fire already? I'm over you Betty and your divorcing ways. I'm also firmly on team Pete/Trudy. They are my new power couple on the show (though Joan/Silver Fox is also an option).

Mad Men and Why I'm Almost Over This Show

This has been a pretty uneven season of Mad Men. I've loved some episodes, while other episodes left me a little cold. But this is the first time in almost three seasons of the show where I straight-up HATED an episode. I feel bad for admitting it, since this was the "Very Special Episode" of Mad Men where President Kennedy gets assassinated, and I shouldn't really be hating on the episode where Kennedy gets shot and everybody is sad, but dang did this ep piss me off!!! At this point, for me, Mad Men should just turn into the Pete and Trudy show and everybody else needs to go away. Actually, no, scratch that. Everybody can stay but just get rid of Don and Betty. I'm completely over Don and Betty. OVER. Which is annoying, to say the least, since the whole Don and Betty thing had actually been one of my favorite storylines on the show (at least before season 3). Now I want nothing more than for Betty and Don to just go away and take their boring affairs and their boring problems and their boring self pity and leave me alone. I'm over it. Frankly, it's not much fun watching a marriage disintegrate for no other reason than the writers insist on turning these characters into thoroughly unlikeable people.

What pisses me off is that Don and Betty were not unlikeable in seasons 1 and 2. They had flaws, they made mistakes, they did things that pissed me off, but I still felt affection for them as people. But now, after the abortion that has been season 3, I can't feel anything for these people. Well, actually, I still feel a little bit for Don -- because I feel like, for all his flaws, he's constantly TRYING to be a better person. He might be a jerk and a screw-up and a liar, but at least he wants to be better, even if he fails at it.

Mad Men Mondays Double Feature!

Episode 3.4 "The Arrangements"

Basic thoughts: Grandpa Gene is the best. Seriously. That German WWI helmet was boss. Shut up, Don! So what if it's a dead man's hat. It's a dead WWI German's hat! That's frickin' cool!!!
I was very sad about Grandpa Gene's passing. I hope he comes back as a ghost.....

Mad Men: Episode 3.3 "My Old Kentucky Home"

A week behind. Whoops. Anyway, Episode 3:

Mad Men, The Musical. Three musical numbers and a dance sequence too! It was a Mad Men talent show episode!

Mad Men Mondays: Episode 3.2 "Love Among the Ruins"

I don't think I'm smart enough for this show sometimes. I've watched this episode twice and I'm still not sure what was happening in some of the scenes. Also, I'm not sure how I should be reacting to what some of the characters are doing.

Why was Don fondling the grass during the May Pole dance?

What was that long look that Don gave Peggy while she was in her office on the typewriter at the end of the episode?

What was the thematic connection between the different plot lines (the Madison Square Garden storyline, the Peggy hates Ann Margaret storyline, and the Betty vs William dutiful children of senile father storyline)?

I'm so confused!!!! Waaaaah!

Mad Men Monday: Episode 3.1 "Out of Town"

For season three of Mad Men, "Change" seems to be the watchword, but I think a better word might be "Upheaval." Change is too positive, it's too nice. Change makes me think of "new" and "forward" and "frontiers" -- it can be a frightening word, but that fear is often tempered by anticipation and promise. The world is changing: that is both an unsettling and an exhilarating thought.

It's the old adage: "Change can be good." But for my money, the change I feel coming for the guys and gals at Sterling Cooper does not look good. The changes coming, the ones that seem to be edging closer the further we move into the 60s, are not full of promise and forward momentum and the dawn of a new age. The changes coming are going to shatter things; the changes coming are going to destroy institutions. Some people say, let those institutions burn, but I'm not willing to jump onto the youth rebellion, or start banging my drum for the impending revolution just yet. What's coming over the horizon is a devolution. Adulthood will be shattered. The Hollywood studios will crumble. Fashion will tumble into oblivion. Don Draper will eventually meet the 1970s and that's too depressing a thought for words.

Odds and Sods

Old school cool: Retro Candy Boxes! Mmmmmmmmmm! I really want to try the C. Howard Violet Gum because, well, it's violet gum! What the hell is that?!

Question of the Day: Candy cigarettes -- yea or nay?
(answer will be at the bottom)

Stone cold fox: Betty Draper! Mad Men season 3 starts August 16th!!!!!!!

I think I'm going to blog the third season -- recaps/reviews, that sort of thing.

I might never leave the house again: Beatles Rock Band comes out 09-09-09!!!!!

Speaking of candy..... : A friend you can eat! Mmmmmmm..... Ja.

Thing that annoys me: Salute Your Shorts is still not out on dvd

Other Thing that annoys me: The new TCM prime time opening
For some reason they changed the old intro to this new lame-o version. The twinkly music is annoying, the cgi is poorly done, and it's just basically stupid. Why is there a movie being projected onto a huge billboard in a dense urban metropolis??? Won't the huge skyscrapers make it hard to see??? Who wants to watch a movie on a roof??? What does any of this have to do with old movies??? What was so wrong with the old opening???

My new favorite books: Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin! "Winter is coming..." (I'm on the second book of the series, but the first one -- Game of Thrones -- blew my mind)

And now, finally, the answer to the Question of the Day:

Yea.

(With candy cigarettes you get all the benefits of cigarettes (i.e.: you get to look cool with a white stick dangling out of your mouth; you get to have something to occupy your hands and mouth that looks sophisticated and suitably retro; you can roll the pack up in the sleeve of your white t-shirt greaser-style; etc.) but with none of the cancerous side effects. The only drawback is that you can't blow cool smoke rings with candy cigs. Smoke rings are cool. But, on the plus side, they taste like candy and not like an ash tray.)

Faygo pop flavor of the week: 60/40

MADness

Attention burgeoning RetroHeads!!! If you are not watching Mad Men, then you need to buy the dvds. Season 2 comes out July 14. Buy. Now. Don Draper commands you!