Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know: Mad Men, AMC, 2007/2008

The opening sequence of Mad Men floats across the screen like a slick, successful Everyman executive’s nightmare: the silhouetted man reaches his expansive office, which slowly crumbles as he freefalls, past giant advertising billboards towards what end, we are unsure.  His doom?  Utopia?  Only the final episode will tell.

By referencing indelible images of the past (9/11, Hitchcock’s Vertigo) and soundtracked by David Carbonara’s haunting instrumental theme, the scene is set.  Madison Avenue.  New York.  The 1960s.  Nixon is in power and a young Senator by the name of John F. Kennedy is making his mark.  A time when men are men – and on Madison Avenue, they are the masters of the universe – and rarely seen without a cigarette or a drink in hand.  A time when women are housewives, mothers, daughters, secretaries, mistresses and shopgirls and occasionally, artists or divorcées – but never equals.  When children are seen but rarely heard.  When hippy beatniks and their ‘art’ are irrelevant and peripheral.  The Beatles have yet to hit America, the Summer of Love is almost a decade away and Vietnam was simply an exotic destination in East Asia.

Film/Literary Bytes; Torture

The London flat hunt. Is there any other business which is so tiresome, so frustrating, so soul-rending? Firstly, you come prolonged contact with the most dreaded of modern day archetypes: the realtor. To be fair, they’ve not all been bad. But trying to make small talk when you’re being shown around dreadful (and expensive!) apartments by some young geezer in an ill-fitting suit, bryled hair and a souped up car… honestly, I’d rather be at home wading through my receipts and invoices and sorting out my accounts.

Bellini-esque: Intro – Venice 3-6 May 2007

Beauty. Art. Achitecture. Faded glory. The city where Robert Browning died. Where Byron kept his fiery mistress Margarita Cogni. A striped shirted man standing at the rear of a gondola, belting out an aria as he steers the craft through a picturesque, narrow canal while his charges, a couple, canoodle. An unpleasant watery stink. Titian. Caneletto. Pigeons.

Venice means many things to many people. To my father, who visited during the honeymoon with my mother some two decades ago, it meant amazing food. To my housemate, the city would be full of Americans believing they were being faah-bulous in flouncing about far from home, in a city so steeped in history and culture. To a single friend, it would be a ground hog day Valentines’ Day fiasco, a city to be strenuously avoided unless one was with a lover. To a colleague, getting lost in its maze of lanes was one of life’s greatest pleasures. Yet another person hoped it wouldn’t be a chocolate box city, full of tourists and locals catering to them, but with very little real work being done.

When I Grow Up

As the year lazily plots it course, the reappearance of another birthday on the horizon inspired a period of quiet introspection; stock was taken of last year’s events and what I had learnt, and there was much contemplation of what the new year may bring. With this reflective mindset and the annual ’sloughing off of the old self’ fast approaching, off I trotted to Digitise or Die: What is the Future of the Book?, a discussion between Margaret Atwood, Andrew O’Hagan, Erica Wagner, the literary editor at the Times and Stephen Page, chief executive of Faber & Faber at Southbank on a topic close to my heart.

Gaiman’s Fairy Dust

I’m not sure how I missed this!

Mr Claudia Schiffer, Matthew Vaughn (of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) is directing a film version of Stardust, in my opinion the best of Neil Gaiman’s novels. And the cast looks impeccable (apart from slight Sienna Miller-related misfortune): Michelle Pfeiffer (is there a classier B-grade actress?), Claire Danes, Peter O’Toole, Robert De Niro, Ricky Gervais (yay!), Rupert Everett… wow!

His Dark Materials casting – update

Thank God. Daniel Craig – rangy, muscular, charismatic – has been confirmed to play Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass. *phew* He’ll definitely give the role the masculinity it needs which I feared Paul Bettany, fine actor though he is, would be unable to do.

His Dark Materials casting and Hollywood big budget ennui

Production on The Golden Compass, the first instalment of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, begins in September. The casting of the major characters seems to be complete; Nicole Kidman is to play the elegantly evil Mrs Coulter, raven-haired Eva Green will play witch queen Serafina Pekkala whilst Paul Bettany will play Lord Asriel.  A surprising choice as I always envisioned Asriel as being more manly than I believe Bettany is capable of (Christopher Ecclestone would win my vote).  However, here’s hoping he will surprise.  Unknown Dakota Blue Richards, an English schoogirl, will play the lead role of Lyra Belacqua.

Ryo: “no, you order and pay first!”

Hellbent on a seat, much needed after 2 hours trudging through the hell that is the July Oxford Street sales, we halted midstep at the waitress’ bark, spun uncertainly to face the menu lying on the cash counter and began to um and aah our way through it.