Disqus - Latest Comments for JamesS

Re: The Prisoner has finally escaped the village

James S. — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:07:13 -0000

My memory of "The Prisoner" remains a special part of my 60's childhood media consumption, as the Brits, in pop cultural ascension from the detritus of their shattered empire, saturated their former rebel colony with fanciful entertainment.

I remember watching The Avengers on ABC (featuring Diana Rigg)...digging the 50's comedy films from The Ealing Studios on UHF (e.g. "The Man In the White Suit" featuring Joan Greenwood's plummy vowels--yum!), the British invasion of rock and roll music (Beatles, Animals, Stones, & sundry), grooving on Twiggy in Life magazine, Peter Sellers scaring the shit out of me in "Dr. Strangelove" (too young for black comedy, I only saw the black stuff--but, redeeming himself in the "Pink Panther")...and more nightmares from those marvelous Hammer horror films (I thought Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were the same guy using different names...), wearing a Nehru jacket in the 6th grade...cool!...building a model car replica of a Jaguar XKE...watching Peter Cook & Dudley Moore's groovy Faustian farce "Bedazzled"...and circling back to that ominous white blob from "The Prisoner", chasing me down the beach to scrub out those nascent carnal reveries of Diana Rigg, Joan Greenwood, and Twiggy.

Anon Mr. McG...

Re: Blago! (The Musical)

James S. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:12:25 -0000

“Thank you! Holy cow! OK. I'm all shook up! I've got a hunka hunka burning love for each one of you. Tonight, Illinois has voted for change."... Rod Blagojevich, Nov 5, 2002 speaking to supporters at his victory rally after beating Republican Jim Ryan with 52 percent of the vote.

I could never understand how a guy who was a teenager in the 70's could be such an ardent Elvis Presley fan. But whatever you think of the guy's musical taste, you have to admit that he has an operatic gift for political theater.

I like the way he (metaphorically) strips the blackjack away from the skinny hipped punk in a leather jacket and whacks him on the side of the head.

For example, for years the Republican party dominated the Illinois governor's office by pummeling the Democratic candidates for refusing to rule out tax hikes. Yet, shortly after taking office, the newly elected Republican governor (Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, the loathsome convict George Ryan) would hike fees and taxes, and everyone would forget about it, until the next election cycle...when the 'Pubs would break out their handy anti-tax cudgel.

Blago ripped the signature issue away from his political foes by promising to hold the line on taxes, and rather than following the sensible path of the managing the Illinois state budget by flip-flopping and raising taxes like his liberal Republican predecessors, he declared himself a “Reagan Democrat” and (like the Gipper) created a financial mess by engaging in Wall Street engineered alchemy to justify under funding the state teacher & police pension plans, the state mass transit budget, and school building programs.

The guy ran as a reform Democrat and morphed into a crooked, irresponsible, liberal Republican.

I can’t believe I voted for the dude twice…and some time down the road, if Patrick Fitzgerald makes his case, I ‘spose he’s gonna be “Dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock”.

Re: The Spice Of Life… And A Bland One At That.

James S. — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:11:07 -0000

The dude's been coasting on Hugh Grant's blow job for thirteen f_ck_ng years. Ride on big dog.

Re: “Quantum of Solace”: Shaken Beyond Belief

James S. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:22:37 -0000

What can I say? Last night driving away from the theater I punched the accelerator of my shiny, silver people's car with what I imagined was a phantom black Mercedes-Benz on my tail. Those wretched Stasi bastards had a limited notion of what the seventh conscript of Her Majesty's Secret Service had in mind for them.

A self reverential glance in the rear view mirror prompted me to exclaim in dry, even toned, received pronunciation: "The name is Bond, James Bond..."

Since they recently broke the blond Bond barrier, maybe on the next go around they could cast a compact--(er, short), seasoned--(um, paunchy, graying) dirty-blond Bond.

My number is in the book.

Re: Live Blogging Mad Men: Crisis Management 101

James S. — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:06:05 -0000

Do you remember that conceptual art screening of Hitchcock's Psycho one frame a second at MoMA? This season M-Squared seemed to me like televising a Douglas Sirk movie one frame a second.

Re: Live Blogging Mad Men: Crisis Management 101

James S. — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:39:46 -0000

Time to work on your Mid-Atlantic accent guys...

Re: Live Blogging Mad Men: Crisis Management 101

James S. — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:20:18 -0000

Maybe they were at the 7:00 AM speed Mass...

Re: Live Blogging Mad Men: Crisis Management 101

James S. — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:08:43 -0000

Don, there's no there, there...

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:05:58 -0000

I see Don checking into the Sandstone Retreat in the next episode...oh, wait that's ten years down the road...

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:02:31 -0000

...and they bumped out playing Jay Gatsby's theme song. I'm all messed up.

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:44:41 -0000

Old Europe is working over the Ameri-mutts this week.

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:39:21 -0000

Was that briefing at the RAND corporation office in Santa Monica?

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:32:09 -0000

He completed his residency with Raymond Chandler's Dr. Verringer.

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:14:01 -0000

The Viscount is a phony, look at him slithering away as Pete taps the Blue Blood index...

Re: Mad Men: EST, aka Even Suckers Transform

James S. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:30:34 -0000

Every time I try to wade into this topic I wind up giving myself a self-inflicted psychic wound. Mike Nichols had me right on sight with his nightclub patter: "Way down deep inside...you're shallow."

Re: Trapped in a Rat Pack Suit on a Soundstage, Looking for Grit

James S. — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:06:23 -0000

This was an entropy episode, with the story threads falling apart. I'm sure they will stitch it back together next week.

Re: Trapped in a Rat Pack Suit on a Soundstage, Looking for Grit

James S. — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:40:34 -0000

Was that Douglas Sirk's specter hovering over the scene with January Jones &
the housekeeper?

Re: Echoes of a Movie Legend in the World of Mad Men

James S. — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:12:47 -0000

Um, I'm sorry but Don Draper died in Korea. Dick Whitman swapped his dog tags with Don and assumed his identity. Remember when slime ball Preppy Pete tried to blackmail Don? He said Don looked much younger than his age.

Re: “Shut up and deal…”

James S. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:55:32 -0000

I'm guessing he needed a payday to pop for a KOKOSCHKA.

http://arte.observatorio.in...

Re: “Shut up and deal…”

James S. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:50:50 -0000

....

Re: “Shut up and deal…”

James S. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:42:26 -0000

We shouldn't forget that Dr. and Mrs. Dreyfuss wound up snoozing through the whole ordeal.

Re: “Shut up and deal…”

James S. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:13:22 -0000

I thought the ceilings should look the same as I remembered them in the 4th grade. But I wasn't writing copy for DDB in a Madison Avenue office building, I was chucking my way through "Wide Horizons" at Valley View school.

http://www.juliascollectibl...

Re: “Shut up and deal…”

James S. — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:58:51 -0000

I am sorry to admit that I was going to take down the "Mad Men" production designer
by pointing out that they got the fluorescent ceiling light fixtures wrong.

I stopped short after I found a photo from "The Apartment".

http://blogs.suntimes.com/s...

I read somewhere that John Huston bumped up the production design budget
when he pioneered the habit of shooting ceilings in "The Maltese Falcon".

Re: The World According to Bert Cooper

James S. — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:44:41 -0000

Is this the guy who started the guitar Mass? Sheesh...gimme that old time
spooky-tooth Sunday show...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: Mad Men: Everybody Into The Typing Pool (Liveblog The New Girl)

James S. — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:28:19 -0000

I thought for a moment that Don and Bobbie were gonna T-Bone Roger O. Thornhill's
car driving through Glen Cove, with a CGI generated guest appearance by Cary Grant.