One of my absolutely favorite composers of all time has passed away. John Barry, winner of five Academy awards and numerous other awards. Many will remember him for his tremendous work of scoring 11 of the James Bond movies and co-authoring the famous 007 gun barrel theme, but that’s only part of his career. He also scored music to 100 other films and tv-shows. His...
Film is escapism. Anyone who has seen “The Thomas Crowne Affair,” or a classic James Bond film knows that part of film fantasy is an exotic environment and all it contains. While that environment is not always true, in escapism people tend to look up at glamour rather than down at the real world. In film, fantastic environments are created by sets. Ironically, though, the...
To say the television series “Mad Men” has been influential would be an understatement. Aside from influencing screen drama towards more meaningful storytelling, the show has also influenced fashion, beauty standards, and revived interest in the mid-20th century and the Atomic Age / Lounge sub-culture of today. “Mad Men’s” approach to history has always been subtle. Its writers don’t “hang a lantern” on historical events...
As of 1965, women’s liberation has not yet pervaded mainstream culture. In season four of Mad Men, we get a taste of what’s to come as women become more independent and empowered. Despite the increase in seemingly independent women, including budding feminist, copywriter Peggy Olsen, most of the ladies inhabiting fictional 1960s NYC are marriage-minded and family-oriented. When SCDP (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) lands the...
From the The Pierre in NYC to the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome, hotels frequently serve as backdrop to exciting plot points on the hit series Mad Men. Creative ad man Don Draper and his cohorts use hotels to seduce clients and women and to celebrate their latest conquests. The show often provides a fictional peek at the advertising strategies and campaigns of real-life brands and...
Alan Hawkshaw has been known for composing music for many movies and television shows in the 1960s and ’70s. Listening to an organ sometimes gives people the feeling they’re in a funeral or church – not when you listen to Hawkshaw! Hawkshaw’s Mo’Hawk album has the right grooves that offers a spectacular mix of organ, flute and brass instruments. Emotions emerge when you feel like...
The first Barbie doll was launched in around the same period as the award winning television show Mad Men depicts. So what could be better than to combine the two and release a special Mad Men collectors series for adults. Here’s a fun chance to act out what adventures could happen with Don Draper, his wife Betty and ginger bombshell Joan Holloway in the same...