Saturday, April 28, 2012

Mad Men Far Away places

Last Weeks Mad Men was a great one, but I had no idea how to pull it all together. So I am stealing the post from Matt Hardeman in the HD room.

"Everyone has somewhere to go today." - Bert Cooper

This week's episode of Mad Men, 'Far Away Places,' was by far the most daring and, dare I say, experimental of the series. Taking a narrative page from Kurosawa's Rashomon, this episode focused on the same 24-36 hour time span for three different characters and the journeys they took within that time. This was a bold move for a show that's normally very cemented in its storytelling methods, and I think it turned out wonderful.

Peggy kicks off the episode, panicking about her latest pitch to the Heinz company whilst fighting with her boyfriend Abe over whether she values her job more than him (news flash, Abe: she does). Just before the meeting Don announces he's going out of town and taking Megan with him, leaving Peggy down a team member and now running the show. Despite delivering on everything Heinz asked for at their last meeting, they still aren't convinced and this send Peggy into a tirade, berating them for continuing to turn down good work. It's a move that's worked for Don in the past, but Peggy's not Don (not yet, anyway) and Heinz leaves flustered and Peggy gets booted from the account.

Having to get away from the office before she has a complete meltdown, Peggy heads to the movies. She notices a nearby patron smoking a joint that he gladly shares with her just before moving to sit beside her. He starts to slide his hand up her skirt, but Peggy quite literally takes matters into her own hands and shows that she's the one in control.

Roger starts the day with a plan to get out of town and a dinner date with Jane and her friends by visiting a nearby Howard Johnson motel and taking Don with him. Don, in turn, steals the idea and heads out but, as we saw earlier, takes Megan instead. Roger reluctantly attends dinner with Jane, unaware, in part to his lack of paying attention, that he's also about to do LSD.

The entire tripping scene is exquisitely put together, at time having an almost Lynch-ian feel. This scene, and frankly the whole episode, feels as though it was intended to make the viewer go through their own sort of reality displacement. Stoli bottles blasting opera when opened, characters speaking without opening their mouths, an instantly smoked accordion cigarette. Reality is played loosely, but somehow remains grounded and never topples over into the absurd. It's also refreshing to see Roger, who's had a pretty rough go of it this season, being on top of the world and enjoying life.

Roger and Jane end up back home and finally get to the heart of what Jane really wanted, for them to have a moment within "the truth." The pair has a casual, yet heartfelt conversation about where they are with their relationship and how they both know that it must come to an end. Although they wake up the next day and Jane doesn't recall the conversation, she admits that it was all true and that, not much to Roger's surprise, that it will be expensive.

Don and Megan finish out the episode, and their part, to me, is the weakest. Having embarked on their weekend getaway, it's evident that their "honeymoon period" is officially over. As in control of the relationship as Megan has seemed this season, it's Don who is still calling the shots and his bossing around is driving Megan crazy. She wants to work and be a part of the team, but is constantly pulled away by Don, which causes her much embarrassment.

All of these issues come to a head during an argument that ends with Don driving off and leaving Megan alone in the Howard Johnson parking lot. Once Don calms down, he returns but Megan is nowhere to be found. Don becomes distraught and is thinking the worst. After seven hours of waiting, he finally gives up and heads home to find Megan in their apartment. On the way, he thinks back when he and Megan began this relationship, on the road back from California. Don loses his cool when she refuses to unchain their door and he kicks it in. They collapse in a huff. Don attempts to console Megan by assuring her it was just a fight and that "it's over," but she points out that each one of these fights "diminishes" what they have. Don clutches her tightly, saying that he thought he had lost her. Don comes off as an almost broken man.

They return to work the next day, both wearing forced smiles. Before he can make it into his office, Don goes into the conference room to talk with Bert Cooper. It's here that Bert finally lays some truth on Don that he has needed to hear all season. "You've been on love leave," Bert tells him, noting the obvious laid back approach Don has taken on since marrying Megan. The work hasn't been as good and Don's been none the wiser. Bert leaves him in the glass room, and Don just stands there, watching all of the up-and-coming employees pass right by.


No knitting!

I cut my left thumb pretty badly on Wednesday. I got four stitches from a very nice doctor, who said, "this is the only time I get to be an artist." - meaning stitching up my thumb. I can't say it looks artistic but I do believe it will heal nicely. Only for the moment I can't knit, I can't sew, I can't do a whole lot with out that thumb. I read all my back issues of art magazines last night, and I had a craft show today. i usually knit while waiting between customers, but I can't knit. Soon, bored out of my mind, I found myself drawing. Imagine that, drawing.

I played around with a doll like image, as I have been wanting to make a more lady like doll that has an embroidered face. Here is what i did in my journal with just a fine sharpie marker. I have spent the last four hour fooling around with the images in photoshop. I am thinking about printing these images on fabric to become pillows. I am not certain yet. The one below is my fave. But obviously she still needs legs.

























Tuesday, April 24, 2012

new foundling


Map

I bought this large map of the World at an estate sale for one dollar. It is in bad shape but I love the colors and we haven't been able to find or afford a large piece of art for the dining room - so the map is here for now. I may add some collage to it as time goes by.                                          



Arms by Christina Perry


I never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart
But you came around and you knocked me off the ground from the start

You put your arms around me
And I believe that it's easier for you to let me go
You put your arms around me and I'm home

How many times will you let me change my mind and turn around
I can't decide if I'll let you save my life or if I'll drown

I hope that you see right through my walls
I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling
I'll never let a love get so close
You put your arms around me and I'm home

The world is coming down on me and I can't find a reason to be loved
I never wanna leave you but I can't make you bleed if I'm alone

You put your arms around me
And I believe that it's easier for you to let me go

I hope that you see right through my walls
I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling
I'll never let a love get so close
You put your arms around me and I'm home

I tried my best to never let you in to see the truth
And I've never opened up
I've never truly loved 'Till you put your arms around me
And I believe that it's easier for you to let me go


I hope that you see right through my walls
I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling
I'll never let a love get so close
You put your arms around me and I'm home

You put your arms around me and I'm home 

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Paolo Pellegrin took my picture today at the Rochester Public Market! He is visiting
with 9 other photographers who are all members of the Magnum Group. My picture will be on display during a "pop up" exhibit of the photographer's Rochester work next Saturday.




"I'm more interested in a photography that is 'unfinished' - a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in." 
Paolo Pellegrin

Friday, April 20, 2012

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

new foundlings





I'll have them for sale on Etsy by tommorow.

Painted Ladies




I was photographing foundlings outside today and these butterflies were playing all around me!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Mad Men is getting good



Paralleling the slick deception of advertising, Mad Men has always been astute about the

difference between appearance and reality – between what people seem to be and what they really are.

Sadly this last episode (5/5) shows that Pete is really nothing, a robot of

sorts, but even Pete can't do anything as dramatic as removing a bolt from a bridge.

Pete finally gets Don up to a dinner party at his house in the suburbs-- always needing to

impress, he shows off his big new (7 ft long, mine is bigger than yours) console stereo by playing Beethoven. Living in Cos Cob in a house instead of a NYC apartment he can play it as loud as he wants (except

that his wife/mother tells him to

turn it down).

Beethoven had disdain for authority and social rank which mirrors the obvious trend of the
1960's, but more so it highlights Pete's inability to be ground breaking in any way.

Given all the talk of guns at the dinner party, the summer's murders, Don’s drawing of a noose, the driver's ed film (signal 30), Vietnam and the foreshadowing of racial riots in Ohio, violence plays more than a leading role this season, she's the star.


But episode 5 specifically stars Peter. At the beginning of the show Pete says that he has everything. At the end of the episode, Pete says to Don in the elevator, “I have nothing.” He seems too sad for words, but it turns out that Ken finds just the right words.

The last scene shows Ken imagining a fictional Pete hearing Beethoven on the “miniature orchestra” of his stereo cabinet and he writes a poetic description of who Pete is. While we hear the writer at work, we see Pete at the Driver's ed. class, in as much distress as we imagine Beethoven, listening to the whir of the film projector and watching his high school crush get "fondled" by the track star.

The Man with the Miniature Orchestra

By Dave Algonquin

There were phrases of Beethoven’s 9th symphony that still made Coe cry. He always thought it had to do with the circumstances of the composition itself. He imagined Beethoven deaf and soul sick, his heart broken, scribbling furiously, while Death stood in the doorway, clipping his nails. Still, Coe thought, it might have been living in the country that was making him cry. It was killing him with its silence and loneliness, making everything ordinary to beautiful to bear.

The show closes with the sound of the dripping faucet and a somber rendition of Ode to Joy. Music, silence, water dripping in a sink ...

Ask not for whom the faucet drips, Pete Campbell – it drips for thee.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Lark



I love this woman's work! I have sen these wonderful birds on Etsy and at Art Star

Abby Glassenberg "Lark"

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

ART SALE Saturday at Thread

Felted Flowers


Felted Flowers
It is embarrassing to say I made these...
I just stuck a felted ball on the end of floral wire.
Pretty though.