Mad Men

This aired in the U.S. last year and I heard a lot of good things about it but only now that it’s airing on CTV have I had a chance to see it. It’s worth the wait.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Mad Men is a drama set in a New York advertising agency in 1960. Along with rampant workplace smoking, viewers are treated to casual sexual harassment and racism. It’s a real window into an often romaticised time.

From the two episodes I’ve seen, the show centers around two people: Don Draper, the man in charge of creating such memorable slogans as “Lucky Strikes: They’re Toasted”, and Peggy Olsen, his newly hired secretary. Don is having an affair with a beatnik greeting card writer, Peggy has just moved into the city and prompty went on the Pill. Don also has a murky past that will likely be uncovered as the show goes on.

The show sometimes goes out of its way to show us how much attitudes have changed: Women smoke while pregnant, everyone is half-cut on cocktails before climbing into their pre-Ralph Nader cars where nobody wears seatbelts, and Don’s daughter is seen playing “Spaceman” with a plastic drycleaning bag over her head (I assume she survives the series). It also hits us over the head with clumsy lines like “Well, unless there’s some machine that magically makes copies of documents, I’d say you took this report from my office.”

In any case, it’s a particularly well-crafted series and it’s worth catching (CTV also helpfully streams full episodes online if you want catch the first two).

Thank you, Leah

A few years ago, in a small fit of rage, I threw my Saturday Globe and Mail against the wall after reading one too many self-important columnists waste valuable paper space on utter horseshit. I vowed never to read it again.

This was, in itself, horseshit because I still read it online and once in a blue moon, will pay for a copy, just for a change. I still hate the damn thing.

I can never tell what demographic they’re going for with that paper because, if their weekend section is to be believed, the Globe reader makes >200K per year, lives in Rosedale (but with a condo near Queen West), has a massive cottage in the Muskokas, and like the couple in the old CIBC commercials, is torn between a retirement in Provence or Tuscany. In other words, whatever it is, it ain’t you. So I quit reading it. For a while.

Turns out, their most important columnist Leah McLaren is reaching out to me. She has decided for me that it’s ok to be me. It’s ok to buy the inexpensive things I buy because, hey, she buys them too.

So to you, Leah, I say thank you. Thank you for letting me enjoy what you call “crap“.

I have gone my entire life purchasing cheap fast food, buying housewares from discount stores, eating frozen food not, as you might conclude, in an elaborate attempt to be ironic but because it was what I can afford. Turns out a rarefied person such as yourself also enjoyed these things in her less sophisticated youth and now you have the choice to enjoy them again.

Of course, it’s not because you have to for financial reasons. Oh no, let’s make that clear, as you do in your column. You got money and you do move in fabulous circles. You could continue to enjoy quality goods (that I’ve never heard of) if you want. You just choose not to, for now.

You’ll grow tired of it, of course. Eating at McDonald’s and shopping at Wal-Mart will save you money but it does mean you’ll have to rub shoulders with the acne-faced, the working classes, the suburbanites, the recent immigrants, and, yes, the fat. By the time the fall Vogue comes out (assuming it’s still read in your circles), you’ll have moved on to the latest movement you and your friends have noticed.

But until then, I’ll remain content in the knowledge that you and I could be eating a Big Mac at the very same time. I’d like to think that connects you and I on some level, if only for an ever fleeting moment.

Music for a Friday Afternoon

Sam Roberts - “Them Kids”

Hey, it’s Sims: Sub-Prime Mortgage Edition!

Degrassi! The Musical

Remember that stuff I was saying in the previous post about not wanting pop culture to be confused with a shared national identity?

I totally take it back. Oh yeah, Degrassi is Canada.

And I just may be seeing it Sunday night, if the missus can wrangle some tickets.

That Song

For what it’s worth, I think the theme song to CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada is one of the most perfect pieces of music there is. It’s up there with the theme to Doctor Who or James Bond.

So when I learned that the CBC couldn’t make a deal with the song’s composer to keep it, I was a little bit shocked. As a sports broadcast, HNIC is one of the things CBC has perfected and the song is a key component of that broadcast. So for the show to lose its signature song to a rival network is one of those things that frustrate me about the CBC. I’ll defend public broadcasting to the death but sometimes, CBC really doesn’t make it easy.

Radio 2 is going to add more contemporary music? Sure, I’m for that. Test the Nation? Sure, it’s fun. Little Mosque on the Prairie is never missed at our house, nor is Rick Mercer. The majority of the podcasts on my iPod are CBC as well.

But then they go and do things like taking their ratings and cash cow, and decide they’re going to futz with it, just because they can. The fact that they’ve announced a contest for aspiring composers to write the new theme makes me wonder if they had intended to let the current theme go all along.

Of course, to put this into perspective, it’s just a show and it’s just a song. It’s not our national identity and if it were, that would be kind of sad (besides, as a Canadian, I kind of prefer not to have one. National identities are nice and all but they can get kind of ugly). It doesn’t have any effect on the country and its people, other than marking the end of a broadcast era. The CBC could have dug in a little more to keep the thing but maybe the cost wasn’t justified. But it is a ditty designed to sell beer and power tools and retirement plans.

Personally, I would have kept the theme and dumped Don Cherry, but that’s just me.

The Wedding Week that Wasn’t

Our Cuban wedding vacation scuttled by the impending arrival of a youngling, the missus and I spent this past week in and around Saint John. Seven days there, and we still didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to.

We decided to break up the soul-crushing boredom of the more efficient route via Quebec and New Brunswick and went through New England, so we could count Obama and Hillary bumper stickers. Vermonters sure do love their bumper stickers (it’s a white people thing).

We also stayed overnight in Bangor to do a little shopping and ended up having supper at the Ground Round, simply because it was closest to the hotel and we were tired from driving. I ordered a southwest chicken salad thingy and while I’m no foodie, it may well have been the blandest thing I ever ate. The Sam Adams beer was the best part of the meal. And man, are American waitresses ever chirpy. I also realised that I had been in that restaurant once before, when I was 9 or 10.

A far better meal was to be found at Nougatine et Chocolate in Saint John, a new-ish French bistro run by real French people from France. I ordered the croque-monsieur (which is kind of my favourite sandwich) and it may well have been one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten. Kerry had the quiche lorraine. They also serve coffee from Maison Richard. The bistro is mainly a pastry shop and bakery that has expanded into offering simple meals. If you ever find yourself in the John, I’d recommend it. As a side note, the bistro occupies the old location for Callahan’s, my favourite dive bar from when I lived in Saint John.

While there, we ran into Mare, a friend and high school french teacher who was taking her class there for their last day before exams.

It’s tempting to move back to NB what with the cheap real estate and cool summers but I think I prefer it here.

Finally!

My tickets for the Just For Laughs Gala on July 18th arrived today. Craig Ferguson will hosting.

Here’s a little bit of Craig in action as Michael Caine in Space and advice columnist Aquaman: