And what are you thinking about this Monday?

[hackthis_archive]

1. Morgan Freeman was in a serious car accident last night. I'm hoping it turns out okay, but um, is the Batman project cursed? Seriously, y'all?

2. hackthis: Shiloh Jolie Pitt looks like a mini Katee Sackhoff.
serialkarma: oooh, maybe Katee's the real mother!
hackthis: That's just Cylon propaganda you're spouting now. OMG! Shiloh is the missing Cylon!
serialkarma: Well, that would totally explain a LOT.

3. Mad Men people, if you've ever asked yourself What Would Don Draper Do?, well now you know. Yes, I made an LJ feed.

4. Even Christian Bale thinks Bruce needs to get it on. Bruce/Harvey pron for the motherfucking win.

5.


Dear Mad Men:

Joan, you continue to be the pinnacle of hotass. I mean really.

Paul, you are being a douche. Leave the poor girl alone. She is not your fucking race trophy.

Pete, um, yeah. I never thought I would ever have sympathy for you, and yet… I know it didn't help that Don kicked you out when you only wanted him to bend you over the desk.

Peggy, girrrrrrrrrrrrrrl. I thought the baby might've been put up for adoption, but no, you left it with your mom and sister. Matt, please to be showing Peggy on the doorstep with a baby and a big old, um, so I made a boo-boo explanation.

Don, you are the man all men want to be and the man all women want to fuck. What's it like to look in the mirror every day and know this?

Carry on!
Me



Dear Generation Kill:

Nathan, I am sorry you are possibly going to be disciplined and not in the good way, but being mean to Brad isn't the answer. He does mean it in the homosexual way when he says he loves you. And gun oil. And I really think that you should ask Rudy for some sex pointers. And make it up to Brad.

Brad, holy mother of Buddha, please to always wander around naked.

Dear guy who was Stephen on Kitchen Confidential, Plz to always threaten to kick Captain America's heine.

Twomby, you are a fucktard.

Ray, you are continual awesome. Your sing-a-longs give my life purpose, but I'm still blinking that you were jerking off five feet from Brad in his grave. Is there something you want to tell me?

Rudy, I never see enough of your pretty visage. I can't believe you were actually IN the marines.

<3,
Me


Dear Burn Notice,

I have never liked Nate and yet when he appeared on the screen I clapped. Such is your power over me. Also, Sam your power of awesome continues to overtake all. Teach me interrogation plz?

<3,
Me



Dear Mike Rowe:

Your hot never wanes. This is most impressive when you are shrieking about the sharks.

<3
Me

Comments

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm not sure if she was being racist as much as she was calling Paul on his using this girl as his sort of 'Look at how cutting edge I'm being' card. I'm more suspect of Paul than Joan there. Does he even actually like this girl. As for Joan even pointedly making racial comments though, this is 1962, I'm under no illusions. Paul's girlfriend is the first black person on this show except for the elevator and delivery guys.

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if she was being racist as much as she was calling Paul on his using this girl as his sort of 'Look at how cutting edge I'm being' card.

This was my thought too. My impression was Joan was more just calling it like it is (was?).

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Upon second view, this is what I see (http://hackthis.livejournal.com/492399.html?thread=13406063#t13406063).

[spiderine.livejournal.com]

Joan was still being rude to her host, and her host's girlfriend, at a party to which she was invited. Unacceptable behavior. And as for Paul "using this girl", the woman has a mind of her own, you know, and we know absolutely nothing about her. Who's to say she's not using Paul as a stepping stone to a higher social status? Who's to say they don't really enjoy each other's company? Just because they're from different backgrounds doesn't mean they can't be happy together.

Yeah, Paul's pretentious, but Joan had no call to behave like that when she was a guest in his home.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. I'm not trying to diss you; just having a conversation.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Mad Men is actually airing again right now and I'm rather conveniently rewatching it to see if upon second watch it pings any differently to me, but my thoughts remain these:

Sheila is lovely. Of that there's no doubt. She smiles, she's polite, she's an assistant manager. She's clearly got ambition, but that's not really the issue here. She is not the focal point of this conversation. The focal point is where Joan pointedly states that when she and Paul were together, she never thought of him as open-minded.

a) We learn that Joan and Paul were together.
b) They're not anymore
c) This was clearly not an amicable break-up or Paul never would've put Joan's driver's license on the board. Which then brings me back to my original statement that
d) This conversation isn't about Sheila, it's about Joan and Paul. This is about their break-up, which clearly wasn't pretty. Sheila is just an accessory.

Frankly, I think she could be white, Asian or Latina and it still would've gone the same way. And as for Joan being rude to her host, well, I think a-c pretty much explain any sort of Joan bitchiness, not to excuse it, but rather to just say this is what I believe her justification is.


And like you said, we're having a conversation about differing points of view. It's just TV, it's not that serious.

Another thought

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Now, was Joan nice to Sheila? No. But Joan isn't nice to anyone. Not the secretaries, not the editors. Every interaction Joan has with other characters, even when she's dumping Sterling or telling Peggy she's putting on weight, inevitably revolves around her talking badly about that person, being sarcastic and demeaning.

Re: Another thought

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

You know, it's funny, I don't even see her as being all that sarcastic and demeaning--or rather, I don't see it as being intended to hurt the other person so much as a "this is the real deal, get over it or get out" kind of thing. With the possible exception of her unnecessarily nasty comments to Sheila, but like you say--there was clearly something more personal going on there.

Re: Another thought

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Maybe not demeaning, but she is definitely not "nice". Not the modern sense and most definitely not in the 1960s Betty Crocker Draper* way. She's... she's a social climbing, gold-digger, but hey, at least she doesn't hide it. And I truly do think she's rather bitchy/spiteful. Look at how she's treated Peggy, especially when she put on weight. Look at how she gossips with the girls one minute and the next talks all that smack. Still, she is the den mother of it all.

*I totally made myself laugh with that.

Re: Another thought

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm...

and along those lines:

http://jezebel.com/5032781/being-a-bitch-is-every-smart-womans-birthright

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

d) This conversation isn't about Sheila, it's about Joan and Paul. This is about their break-up, which clearly wasn't pretty. Sheila is just an accessory.

eeeezactly. Also, good catch, I totally didn't pick up on the "when we were together" thing. Duh.

I think at this point my only real criticism of this season is that the huge time lapse between S1 and S2 needed to be a bit more explicit in the first two eps. I love that they don't kill us with exposition, but, uh, I wasn't alive in the 60's, how was I supposed to know that Jackie's White House tour was a full year and change after the election?

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Also, good catch, I totally didn't pick up on the "when we were together" thing. Duh.

Dude, I swear MM is becoming like Lost where if you miss one thing you're lost forever. I didn't catch that either the first time around; I may have to start listening with headphones. I'm also now more convinced than ever that Joan and Paul's break-up had something to do with money. Either she left him for the doctor b/c he's broke, or he led her to believe he had more money than he does or something. I don't know, but both parties got burned there, and I'm wondering if Paul was the first one to meet someone after the break, which just pissed Joan off more.

I also had more thoughts on Joan (http://hackthis.livejournal.com/492399.html?thread=13407343#t13407343).

And while I agree that the 14 month gap sucked ass, I'm kind of liking how they deal with it.

Also, Don using his kid as a bartender was NOT COOL.

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

Also, Don using his kid as a bartender was NOT COOL.

Yeah, see, that doesn't even bother me. I was pouring beers for my parents and their friends at that age too. But um, I had a weird childhood.

And yeah, I'm beginning to seriously suspect that Paul is broke, or cut off from his trust fund, and this is all a way to cover up some incipient panic on his part. You know he didn't move to Montclair because he really did think it was that cool.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, that doesn't even bother me. I was pouring beers for my parents and their friends at that age too. But um, I had a weird childhood.

Shocking. ;)

And yeah, I'm beginning to seriously suspect that Paul is broke, or cut off from his trust fund, and this is all a way to cover up some incipient panic on his part. You know he didn't move to Montclair because he really did think it was that cool.

Yes, this is -- oh,wait, Paul and Joan are interacting in the office. Dude, I don't know what the hell happened between them, but the gloves are off and the claws are out. She called him poor little rich boy, which is why I thought he was a trustifarian. It never even occured to me that he might be faking it. I'd figured he stole the typewriter for shits and giggles and the lack of sofa I put down to him being a boy. Maybe he really did get cut off.

[serialkarma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know, could go either way, but clearly something is going on with him.

[spiderine.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely with what you say, and all your points (a)-(d). But especially taking point (d) into account, that the conversation wasn't about Sheila, Joan had no right to say that crap she said to Sheila while Paul wasn't there. Joan was taking out her bitterness on an innocent person, which just ain't cool.

Now, don't get me wrong -- usually I like Joan, and I know that attitudes toward race in 1962 were horrendous. But Joan very obviously meant her remarks to Sheila to be catty and hurtful. Yeah, if Sheila had been of a different ethnicity no doubt the specifics of the insult would have been different, but it doesn't excuse what Joan said. Joan is socially savvy and would never say something without knowing the exact effect it would have.

Paul put up Joan's birthdate on the board *because* she was cruel to him and hurtful to his girlfriend. He did it to get back at her, not because of the breakup.

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

Joan was taking out her bitterness on an innocent person, which just ain't cool.

I actually made another comment after the original post specifically about Joan being how she is (http://hackthis.livejournal.com/492399.html?thread=13407343#t13407343), which addresses this. The entire thread is a conversation of what exactly is it about Joan that makes her the way it is. At the end serialkarma has a link to Jezebel, which asks where all the bitches have gone. While the article itself isn't necessarily what I'm aiming for, they made a great point about how the most effective insults are able to find the opponent's weak-points and dig in. This is what Joan does, regardless of whomever she's talking to. At one point she calls Paul a poor little rich boy. Now I dunno if he's rich and got cut off, or if he's faux rich, but that totally smarks when he's clearly not swimming in the cash. Not that Sheila's being black is a weakness in and off itself, but how in 1962 it sure as hell was viewed as such by others. Which then makes me wonder how Sheila must've felt at this part. I wonder if it was her GF debut? I know she had to be uncomfortable, not because she doesn't fit it, but because it's 1962 and she's the only visible minority in a room full of white people. Now THAT conversation I'd like to see.

[spiderine.livejournal.com]

There were a few more black people in the background shots.

In the conversation thread you linked to, you say Joan's not nice to anyone. That's not precisely true; she sticks up for her team of secretaries in the office all the time. I understand what makes Joan the way she is. She's a woman of her time making her way in a man's world, using the weapons at her disposal. And I applaud her being a bitch to those who deserve it. But Sheila did not, and that's my point. Let Joan blast away at Paul all she likes, but insulting Sheila was like shooting gnats with a howitzer: not only is it overkill, but the gnats aren't even hurting you!