Mad Men Season 4 Finale




Don Draper pondering his future...calling it off with Faye

Last night the 'Mad Men' season 4 finale, 'Tomorrowland', capped the best season of 'Mad Men' yet. If season 4 was about change, adaptation and coming to terms then season 5 will be about the journey that follows.

I will leave the dissection of last night's episode to others, but there are a few stand-out scenes for me as follows:

• Don introduces Sally and Bobby to Stephanie and tells them that his 'nickname' is Dick. I only wish that this had taken place when Anna was still alive.
• Don referring to Megan as Maria Von Trapp (The Sound of Music is my favourite movie, and celebrating its 45th anniversary this year :)
• Joan and Peggy commisserating about the men and the women they choose to share their lives. Priceless and so true.
• Joan revealing that she did not have an abortion and that she will have Roger's lovechild.
• Betty setting it up so she would meet Don at what was their marital home before it's sold. She pretending to have forgotten some items in the guest bathroom; he retrieving a hidden bottle of Canadian Club whiskey. Sharing a drink and Don telling Betty that he is engaged. The pained look on Betty's face, her trying to be mature and adult about the situation, congratulating him reluctantly...Don saw her struggle and tried to make it easier for her. The shot of them literally parting ways leaving the bottle and cup on the counter-leaving behind memories both bad & good, and the life they shared...at least in that house.

Matthew Weiner and his staff of writers are some of the most talented people in Hollywood. The lives of the characters are in good hands and I can't wait for season 5, is it July 2011 yet?!

'Jack & Bobby' Reunion on 'Mad Men'

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for...for it may just happen. On Sunday night's episode of 'Mad Men' there was a reunion of sorts as some of the cast of 'Jack & Bobby' appeared on the episode entitled 'The Rejected'. From previous posts, you know that I'm a huge fan of both these shows. Unfortunately, 'Jack & Bobby' was cancelled after just one season, much to my dismay. So it was a pleasant suprise to see Matt Long join the supporting cast of 'Mad Men' for season 4 as Joey Baird who had a memorable introduction into the show as he and Peggy bantered back & forth calling each other John and Marsha, an homage to the comedy of Stan Freberg.

Another alumni of 'Jack & Bobby', Jessica Pare is now appearing as 'Megan' one of the secretaries. Sunday night's episode 'The Rejected' was special as it was directed by John Slattery, who plays Roger Sterling and who also appeared in 'Jack & Bobby' with Matt and Jessica. He played Jessica's dad in 'Jack & Bobby'.

Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Christine Lahti will appear on 'Mad Men', she played Grace McCallister on 'Jack & Bobby'.

Logan Lerman who played Bobby, is more than welcome to join in the fun as well although he may just be a little busy with his burgeoning movie career. Last fall he appeared in 'Percy Jackson & the Olympians' and has been tapped to star as D'Artagnan in the remake of 'The Three Musketeers'.

It has been five years since 'Jack & Bobby' went off the air, time to see it again.

The Power of Bargaining

In these challenging economic times, the power of bargaining or haggling...a type of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a good or service dispute the price which will be paid and the exact nature of the transaction that will take place, and eventually come to an agreement [Source: Wikipedia] is a great skillset to have in today's workplace and personal life.

Employers and employees alike have been asked to be budget-conscious more so these days than perhaps in recent past years. As a manager, it is my mantra to run the office like I would my own finances - mindful of every penny/dollar that is spent and trying to get as much bang for our buck as possible. Since I have been manager, the office budget has come in at 5%-7% under budget, which is quite significant when budgets can be multiple millions.

This year our national office has asked that regardless of how fiscally responsible we have been, we have to constrain our spending by an additional 5%. Some companies would terminate an employee as the amount requested to be slashed equalled a salary. Instead, a lot of time has been spent on reviewing each budget item and reducing it where able. This required a lot of bargaining/negotiating with staff and stakeholders.

Other departments have also been asked to cut-back, for some this is not as easy - they have been used to dealing with this money not as their own and may not have been as careful about how it was spent. For example, a budgeted amount has been set aside for food & beverage (non-alcoholic) at an upcoming conference in the fall. Last year, the same organizers insisted that the hotel we had selected for the conference would not negotiate/bargain a lower price...I knew that was not quite accurate so this year, I took it upon myself to contact the hotel directly and bargain a more reasonable price that came under budget by $20,000. The hotel was very accommodating and told me that "they value our business and are in it for the long-run, not a short-term cash grab". This was a rather refreshing exchange between a salesperson and myself and opened up my eyes as to the power of bargaining.

Recently, I have applied bargaining in my personal life and managed to get two weeks free cable for some service issues that I experienced with the cable company. For some bargaining is not a new concept, however it bears reminding that being able to bargain effectively can be lucrative and that companies are willing to bargain if it translates into retaining you as a customer.

Mad for Mad Men

Sundays at 7pm Pacific on AMC

'Mad Men', I recall the first time (spring 2007) I heard that title and thought "what the heck is that all about?" bringing to mind the notion of a show about anger management. The 'Mad' in 'Mad Men' is a term coined by those who ran the Madison Avenue advertising agencies in 1960s New York. The show was created by Matthew Weiner who also was Executive Producer and writer on 'The Sopranos' another favourite of mine.

'Mad Men' is my favourite drama on television. It is simply excellent. I read an article when the show first started that all the items on the set are historically accurate to the month and year of where the story is set -ie-telephones, typewriters, clothing, newspaper articles, music...and all the smoking in the workplace, home and everywhere (for the record,I am vehemently anti-smoking). Apparently, detailed sketches and artifacts are kept in a vault. The show began in 1960 and is now set in 1965. Each season roughly covers one year in the story development with 1961 being passed over (season 2 started in 1962). It follows the lives of those working at ad agency Sterling Cooper now known as Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

'Mad Men' consists of one of the most talented casts on television today. The 4th season started on July 25 and I'm already dreading the end - a season consists of 13 episodes. Thirteen well-crafted episodes. When the show first started I would explain to people what 'Mad Men' was and told them to tune in and see if they would like it.  Since 2007, 'Mad Men' has won the Outstanding Drama Emmy twice (2008 & 2009) and won Outstanding Writing for the same years plus additional Emmys for cinematography and art direction. I'm certainly hoping that come August 29, there will be a three-peat plus some acting awards being handed to Jon Hamm (Don Draper), John Slattery (Roger Sterling), January Jones (Betty Draper), Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris) and Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson) - maybe Christina & Elisabeth will tie for Best Supporting Actress.

If you have not yet seen 'Mad Men' first visit the new online video featurettes to catch up on the goings-ons at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and see if you don't go 'Mad over Mad Men' too.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Source: Askmen.com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was introduced to me via 'A River Runs Through It' (1992) a lovely movie directed by my all-time favourite actor Robert Redford. At the time, Joseph (Joe) was 11 years old and already had that certain gleam in his eyes and witty smile that indicated that he would have a bright future ahead.

His next major star-turn would be on the small screen in '3rd Rock from the Sun' (1996-2001) where he played an alien with John Lithgow playing his dad. Not too shabby.

The next time I would see him was in 1999s '10 Things I Hate About You', a witty and smart teen comedy based on Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew'. The movie also starred Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.

It was at this time in his career/life where Joseph decided to make only 'good movies' and subsequent movie role choices reflected this as he starred in several low-budget, critically well-received movies albeit not successful at the box office.

In 2009, '500 Days of Summer' was released. I saw it twice in the theatre and many more times on DVD. It is one of the most original films I have seen in a long time - it is a breath of fresh air. A romantic comedy told from the perspective of the guy - the dialogue and acting is superb. My friends and collegues ask me why I like it so much, for me it is a movie which is true to itself and the audience is able to recognize its honesty; as a viewer you are drawn in and never feel manipulated by the film maker and writers. If you have not yet seen it, please do so.

In 2010, Joseph hit the big time, really big, with 'Inception' another truly exceptional and original piece of film-making by Christopher Nolan (he of 'Memento', 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight'). I know that this movie will be discussed for many years and could be a course taught in film school or any school for that matter. Personally, the action sequence near the end of the movie with Joseph is one of the coolest I have seen in any movie.

It has not escaped me that seeing Joseph play these many, varied characters, at times his expression eerily resembles that of the late, great Heath Ledger. In some ways their careers have mirrored one another. Heath too, in the late 1990s after making '10 Things' decided not to get trapped in the teen comedy genre and followed up with 'The Patriot'. Their paths met on the set of '10 Things' and Joseph embarked on a career which would have seen both actors probably play opposite one another again if it had not been for Heath's untimely death in 2008.

The latest news is that Christopher Nolan is considering Joseph for the role of the Riddler in the latest installment of 'Batman' if that is indeed so, we the movie audience will be in for a terrific performance. It will be sadly ironic for me if Joseph does play the Riddler and can only imagine and dream what it would have been like to have Heath, as the Joker, and he appear together in a movie again.

To 3D or not to Three Dimensional

3D, three dimensional, films have been around since the 1950's and recently have experienced a resurgence in popularity mainly due to the critical and commercial success of James Cameron's Avatar. My first 3D motion picture was last summer's highly successful Disney-Pixar film Up which was utterly charming and went on to win the Best Animated Feature of 2009. This summer, I have seen two 3D features: Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 and Universal Studio's Despicable Me.

Some of the questions posed by some viewers and film critics is whether the resurgence of the 3D technology is a cash-grab by the studios, charging viewers $3 extra (in Canada) to see a movie which is also available in regular 2D format. Some say, if you do not want to pay the extra cash, go see it in regular format; the argument is whether studios are contemplating creating movies exclusively in 3D format so that the higher price can be charged. Additionally, would the movie being shown in 3D be just as good, or better, in 2D? I will only speak for Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me - the answer would be yes - these movies are just as good, or better, in 2D.

Roger Ebert has waded into this discussion with both feet and started a conversation about this subject in an article for Newsweek. Not mincing too many words, he even titled the article "Why I Hate 3D and You Should Too". I do not 'hate' 3D however I would hope that it would not be the new standard in movie making. I could not imagine "The Sound of Music" (my favourite movie) in 3D. 3D for 3D sake is a bad idea.

Summer 2010

The gravel road in front of parental home

It has been a while since my last post, one month to be exact. Time flies when you're having fun, as they say.

After a busy spring, June was anticipated to be a quiet month, however that was not the case. Thus I embarked on my vacation straight from the office and feeling a bit on edge pending certain family dynamics upon arrival. It turned out to be a nice week with my family - parents, siblings and their kids. My sister and 6 year old nephew came back with me to Vancouver and we had a lovely week together as I showed off this gorgeous city.

Stanley Park Train-Spirit Train (Summer 2010)

Vancouver and area have lots of great activities to offer visitors and literally we did not leave the Lower Mainland for the week and still did not see and do everything that is available. We are very fortunate to live here. Some of the higlights: trips to Stanley Park; a ride on the Stanley Park train; visit to the Aquarium and petting zoo; Buntzen Lake; White Pine Beach; Animal Grossology; and a Vancouver harbour tour.

My favourite place we visited is the Vancouver Aquarium. It is a very interesting place and I think my nephew would have moved in, if that was allowed. We spent nearly 5 hours there and it definitely was one of the highlights of the week.

Buntzen Lake, Belcarra Park