Mad-Men

Giant mechs and giant monsters. I’m all in. (Photo courtesy Domenico) You know how the saying goes, right? When the cat’s away, go see a kaiju homage movie. It was silly stupid fun and it was awesome. Movies Tokyo Godfathers - Min and I were looking for something to watch during dinner and I finally convinced him to check out Satoshi Kon’s fairy tale/holiday story. I love how happy this movie is and ends. Very few mind games for a Satoshi Kon flick too. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Some plush versions of Isaac, Brother Bobby, and Sister Maggie (Photo courtesy Danielleorama)”] [/caption] That Wrath of the Lamb DLC is awesome stuff. It’s still a super challenging game to get through, but I’m absolutely enjoying it. I almost want to play it more than Diablo 3. Speaking of which, I’m getting close to 60…Just three more levels. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“I spent part of the weekend hanging out with my niece. She’s got an awesome Oscar toy (Photo courtesy DJOtaku)”] [/caption] Just can’t get away from moving. Finished moving Tiffany and then I had to move. All this rapid-fire moving has me completely sick of it. I’m considering burning all my stuff the next time I have to move… ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“So sick of these trucks, but I’ve got my own move to think about soon… (Photo courtesy jojothree)”] [/caption] Every joint and muscle in my body is stiff, but I least I put in a nice, hard, honest day’s work, right? …RIGHT?! Movies Not this week. Sorry, folks. TV Community - Who knows what the post-Dan Harmon era of Community will bring, but I thoroughly enjoyed his last season. A lot of experimentation and ambitious stories and episodes. I still love Community and I can’t wait to see it come back in the fall. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“I felt a little guilty being El Presidente. Photo courtesy SegmentNext)”] [/caption] Want people to get a taste of your game? Have a free weekend. I put in 11 hours and I probably would have bought the game if it wasn’t for Diablo 3 dropping tomorrow. Sorry, Tropico 4. Maybe next Steam sale. Movies Election - The prototype that all kinds of high school shows like Popular and Glee seems to crib off of. Not amazing or anything, but I thought Reese Witherspoon’s performance was just perfect. She really hit the right notes in Tracy’s obsessive need to win and I especially liked when she had that confrontation scene with Broderick about the teacher she was sleeping with. ...

“Tomorrow Never Knows” is not my favorite song by The Beatles. Not by a long shot. In general I’m not a fan of their drug-inspired work, but I recognize how Revolver, and, specifically, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, is the turning point for the band (for the record, Rubber Soul is better than Revolver). It’s also the obvious choice for a song by The Beatles that would completely alienate Don. All season long we’ve been seeing old Don. Prior to this Don was actually pretty cool. He had a lot more success with women and the 60s didn’t actively hate him. Now the youth of the country is aggressively turning against him. Megan and Ginsberg seem to regard his distaste for youth with incredulity and horror. I mean, Ginsberg drops an F-bomb, he’s so mad (really, censors…did we really need to cut the audio there?). In the direct aftermath of last week’s episode, Megan decides that she truly does hate copywriting and advertising in general and she wants to act. It’s just so…I dunno. Everything that Don wanted, Megan had. She had the beauty and grace of Betty and the desire to write copy and intelligence (and skill) of Peggy, but now the life that Don has so enjoyed is abandoning him. Hence the open elevator shaft… ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Robert Downy, Jr. was definitely the MVP of the movie. (Photo courtesy JakesplacePS)”] [/caption] Readership assemble! Min and I made the great sacrifice of seeing The Avengers for you. Our verdict? It’s excellent. Go see it, y’all. Seriously. Movies The Avengers - It does precisely what I thought was impossible by focusing on each individual character for a bit and giving them all arcs. Granted, most of the groundwork was laid in all the other Marvel movies, but it’s still tough to do. High props to Mark Ruffalo for his portrayal of the Hulk. His barely contained anger was chilling and, most importantly, awesome. Joss Whedon’s writing also gels quite nicely with the movie, RDJ version of Iron Man. ...

Mad Men has this way of being so beautifully tragic that you almost forget that you just witnessed a wholly depressing episode. “At The Codfish Ball” deals with disappointment that hits the principals like a truck. Don Who wouldn’t love dealing with their socialist-leaning, disapproving father-in-law for an entire weekend? To top it all off, Don was also dealing with almost losing a pitch. Don’s cluelessness in work has not fully evaporated as he fails to notice all the warning signs about the Heinz dinner that he’s about to get canned. He’s lucky that Megan is able to both come up with an idea that is far better than his and able to charm the Heinz guy’s wife so much that she gets the inside information about being canned. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“423” caption=“Gomez: The Hero of Fez (Picture courtesy Titolian)”] [/caption] I did a lot more with this week than I thought I would have time for considering how much I played The Old Republic and how late I was getting home for a lot of the week. Fez gets special mention at the top of this article for completely immersing me in its world. Everything from its ambient, minimalist soundtrack to the weird artifacts, perplexing language, and dense, unspoiled mystery has me super intrigued. ...

Now that was something. Mad Men does this kind of thing from time to time, but rarely is it done this well. Everything about it just felt so surreal and amazing to behold. I know I’m firmly in this show’s pocket, but I really feel like everything in this episode worked…and quite well. The flagship moment of the episode is, of course, the LSD trip that Roger and Jane take. Some have called the hallucinations cheesy or overdone, but I’ve personally never seen such an understated LSD trip. There was no “Tomorrow Never Knows”-esque song leading us into the trip. It went straight and it was more revealing and terrifying for doing so. I thought the music in the vodka and the cigarette were nice touches. ...