I’ve started watching Mad Men and have mixed feelings on the series. I’ll reserve this discussion until I’ve finished all I can watch. This may take some time as I am watching 30 Rock at the same time…
Anywho, to anyone who has watched Mad Men, they know that Don Draper is Mad Men. So I was searching “Don Draper” and came across this cartoon from The Oatmeal. See below. But actually, you should only see below if you’ve watched the show. Otherwise it will make zero sense.
It’s been just over a year since I found this red chair. It was under my table as I dined with Lisa at the now gone Pasquini’s uptown on valentine’s day 2011. The red chair seemed so significant that night. It’s red and libidinous, it’s ordinary, it’s miniature, it’s alone and was orphaned under the table. It’s something of a symbol of my independence I suppose – especially given the timing of finding it.
A year later I still have the chair and I am still in the same apartment and still at the same job and still have the same 18 year old cat. Seemingly very little has changed but really everything has changed. Some for the better, some for the worse. I’d like to say that in the past year I have figured out what I want in life and who I am and where I’m going but that’s just not the case. Do we ever really know these things though?
The song “Final Countdown” has a whole new meaning for me now that I’ve watched the Arrested Development series. Gob Bluth is a magical genius.
Arrested Development is about a wealthy family that loses most of their money and is left with a failing company and the patriarch in prison on embezzlement and light treason charges. The family is beyond dysfunctional. I mean there is a “never nude” in the show and a son with a hand missing that he lost to a “loose seal” and a failed magician that rides a segway everywhere. There is also a frozen banana stand that is featured prominently. The main character lives in a model home in the middle of a property that was cleared and graded for a subdivision – but there is no subdivision, just bare earth. It’s a little over the top, but it is a sitcom…
As with most TV shows, it took me a while to get into it but somewhere in the middle of season 2 I became addicted. Jason Bateman as the sarcastic and deadpan Michael Bluth really won me over. Michael Cera as his dorky, adoring son was a typical Michael Cera character but it worked. David Cross, as Tobias Funke who married into the family, was hilarious with his innuendo-filled lines (“I'm afraid I prematurely shot my wad on what was supposed to be a dry run if you will, so I'm afraid I have something of a mess on my hands.”)
Anyway, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to another season that is said to be in the works and will lead to a movie.
Here’s a taste of the absurdity:
