To recap: Don’s real name is Dick Whitman. His prostitute mother died in childbirth; his dad, her john, beat him. His fundamentalist stepmother called him a “whore’s child.” Then his father got kicked in the head by a horse, and the stepmother moved in with her sister, herself a prostitute, living in a brothel. The stepmother, heavily pregnant with Don’s half brother, prostituted herself to her brother-in-law, as the teen-age Don knelt outside her door. He watched them, through the keyhole, have sex. C’mon, now. This is no longer the backstory of a serial adulterer; it’s the backstory of a serial killer.
Emily Nussbaum: AMC’s “Mad Men” Review : The New Yorker

Source: newyorker.com

Gasol also has a broad range of intellectual and cultural interests. He has taught himself Italian and French to go along with his childhood languages of Catalan and Spanish plus English. He and Kobe Bryant speak to one another during games in Spanish to keep opponents from knowing their plans. Gasol also regularly reads historical novels, plays the works of French classical composers on his keyboard, and attends concerts and operas; he is a friend of Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, and often visits him backstage after performances.
Pau Gasol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Wikipedia

Lena Dunham by Claire Danes

  • The title of Lena Dunham’s HBO show blasts out in bold letters — GIRLS — filling the screen to its edges. Like Lena herself, there’s nothing coy about it. She reclaims the often pejorative “girls” as she does countless other ideas. Her character, Hannah, says she has covered herself in tattoos to gain authority, or authorship, over her body. Lena bares that tattooed body throughout the series, making it clear that it is hers to share. Lena’s power lies largely in her self-awareness and wit. Like all great comics, she has a joke ready to deflect any jeer. Hannah’s pathetic declaration that she could at least be “a voice of a generation” invites and thwarts many a poisoned arrow. Lena’s true power, though, lies in her transparency. She is unflinchingly, unnervingly honest. She exposes, beneath all that bare skin, a multitude of shortcomings: acute self-involvement, obsessive-compulsive behavior, overeating, oversharing. Hannah is as vivid and raw a portrait as we have seen — nails bitten to the nub — and despite her glaring faults, we ravenously embrace her. Lena’s unique lack of vanity or shame allows us to consider that we may also be able to accept and express ourselves fully. This is not only impressive, it’s important. Because it turns out that girls don’t just want to have fun. They also want to be known for who they really are.
  • Danes, an award-winning actress, stars in Homeland

Source: TIME

lena dunhamclaire danes

Quick thoughts on Mad Men

Some quick thoughts on tonight’s Mad Men before I read a million recaps tomorrow. 

Both Don and Pete are literally shitting where they eat with their respective affairs this week, but only one of them is directly punished for that action. I feel like this week’s theme was deception (and double lives, which is obviously sort of what the season/series is about). 

Don has always been able to deceive with relative ease because his whole identity is a lie. Pete, on the other hand, wants to be like Don, but  can’t pull it off. He’s a bad liar who doesn’t have a poker face. He wants to think Trudy will be there for him no matter how terrible he is, but she isn’t a pushover and won’t allow him to embarrass her. She also has family money and doesn’t need to rely on Pete for financial stability.

Don’s entire vibe is a poker face. But just because he can get away with living a double life doesn’t mean that double life comes without a serious emotional toll. 

I also love Peggy and wish she had an ally at her new job. 

mad men
As a historical document, Give Up is not without value: The Postal Service, along with other early-’00s thoughtful-teenager bait like Garden State and The O.C., is emblematic of indie’s “prestige” period, when middle-of-the-road entertainment could still appear edgy by adopting the aesthetics of indie production and fashion, no matter how nebbish or wimpy these trappings seemed even at the time. And, like the overwrought Garden State and its flashier TV cousin The O.C., Give Up is still very much a product of its time.
Previewing Coachella and looking at Phoenix’s new album, ‘Bankrupt!,’ and the reunited Postal Service - Grantland

Source: grantland.com

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