Alexander

I've enjoyed Wynton's collaborations with Willie Nelson...

My daughter's (age 11) favorite artists: 1. The Beatles 2. Michael Jackson 3. Elvis Presley Edit: I just asked her to name her current top 3. She now places The Beatles and Elvis at numbers one and two. Rhianna is now number three. She says she still likes MJ, but he's no longer in the top three.

Johnny-Come-Lately that I am, I only recently started watching via Netflix. I am absolutely in LOVE with this show. The writing is top notch, the acting is consistantly excellent (to me, the actress who plays Betty (January something?) is the weakest actor in the cast, although her look is amazing, and she seems to warm up over the course of the first season), the set and costume design are spectacular... I just started season two (love Kinsey's Wellesian beard) and am really digging it. One thing that I haven't seen discussed a lot is the way the show really digs into the major themes and tropes of the period. One of the things I love about Don Draper is that he literally IS the "superflulous man": The hard working, post-war American male who is constantly in crisis over his identity; always suspecting that there's something more than the Eisenhower era American Dream he'd worked so hard to attain. Literally every protagonist on "The Twilight Zone" is an example of this character. Don has so much invested in appearing to be in control that he's always two steps from losing control completely. His "identity crisis" on the series (the fact that he really is NOT the man he appears to be) mirrors the more general identity crisis of his peers. ALL of these characters are in the process of inventing themselves, or at least attempting to do so. Don isn't the only imposter, so to speak. If anything, his impostiture makes him one of the most paradoxically honest characters on the series. At least Don knows exactly what he's running from. I think this is why Bert Cooper didn't give a shit when Pete tried to expose Don. So, yeah. Meaty stuff! Food for thought, as well as entertainment.

Pics or it didn't happen! TOGTFO!

Going back a bit in this thread, somebody brought up the question of why celebrity kills so many, and someone else stated that "it isn't the celebrity that kills, it's the disease." I would agree with that, for the most part. However, celebrity is a factor in several ways. People are less inclined to say "no" to a famous person with money to burn. That's why Elvis Presley was able to abuse prescription drugs the way he did. What doctor was going to refuse to write Elvis a prescription for sleeping pills or laxatives? It's why Michael Jackson was able to have plastic surgery until his face fell off. When a person gets famous, there are more opportunities to abuse, and fewer people willing to stick their necks out and try to intervene...

Uh, yeah, I was kidding. Hence the, "Not that it was hard to see coming" part immediately to the south...

I remember once looking for a Blind Lemon Jefferson album. There was a hole in the section, right where the CD was supposed to be, but the CD wasn't there. I looked through all of the discs I had out (I keep a pile of "to listen" CDs on one of the speakers at all time), but it wasn't among them. I began to have paranoid fantasies that someone had actually stolen it, before I decided to methodically go through my entire collection - disc by disc - to make sure that it hadn't been misfiled. Sure enough, there it was...in the 'L's...under "Lemon" rather than in the 'J's under "Jefferson." A completely wasted afternoon. But at least I found it!

Remember, you heard it here first. RIP. Not that it was hard to see coming...

"The Human Touch." Fantastic Four meetings just got a LOT more awkward...

I've been on anti-depressants since 2003. Glad to say that I've had no problems (a few of the usual side effects some years ago, but nothing disabling by any stretch of the imagination. No side effects whatever in recent years). I'm certainly glad to hear that things have improved for you, Shawn. However, I'm not inclined to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Eight years ago, I was experiencing severe depression, crippling anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and impulses to self-harm. Today, I'm a far, far healthier individual. I've managed to navigate a bout of un/under-employment and a divorce, something that would have been completely impossible before I was on medication. I've also taken chances that I would have been afraid to take before, resulting in a part-time acting career. So, it's great that you discovered that the meds you were taking weren't for you, and that you got off of them. However, I don't want to see your experience generalized to include everybody on anti-depressants. Drugs help a LOT of people lead normal lives. Just because you weren't one of them, that doesn't mean they don't work.

Sad. Fortunately, he put out one last great album before he passed...

Why do the tornadoes hate America?

Great Scott, Marty! Surely there is no problem that a crudely drawn diagram can't solve? "Either this is what makes time travel possible, or I've just redesigned the electric fan..."

Yep. They had some of the top songwriters and studio musicians in the biz making some great sounding records. It's only the hang up over "authenticity" that turned listeners against them for such a long time. And, as I noted above, the Monkees themselves had no pretensions to authenticity. They were actors hired to PLAY a band on a TV show. It wasn't until they were marketed as a band, and subsequently forced to play as a band, that they actually BECAME one. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that much of the music they wrote, played, and produced themselves was on par with the material produced for them...

I remember once reading that Mike Nesmith became EXTREMELY irate when he learned that the music recorded for the first few episodes of the show was to be released as individual singles as though by an actual band, rather as a part of a soundtrack album for a TV show (which he was under the impression was going to happen). Certainly not the best of anything, but from what I've read and heard, they had a good deal of integrity...

My first exposure to Chandler was through the Powers Booth "Philip Marlow" shows. Still a HUGE Chandler fan until this day! Best Chandler film is "The Big Lebowski." No question. The Coens capture Chandler's LA perfectly...

"Wasn't run well."

Speaking as a performing improviser and comedian: You can do whatever you like, but if it doesn't delight the audience, you won't do it for long...

I...don't understand...why people are...knocking on...William....Shatner... (It sounds better when I do it. I am renowned for my dead-on Shatner impression...)

I remember reading similar things about it. It's an entertaining read, when viewed as fiction rather than fact...