I found this show by way of seeing what Vincent Kartheiser was up to post-Angel. It didn’t peak my interest at first, but I kept hearing and reading good things about it, so I decided to take the plunge and download it. It’s second season debuts on AMC July 27th, and I am sorely wishing I still had DVR.

Set in an advertising agency on Madison Avenue in the 1960’s, Mad Men depicts the changing social mores of America, highlighting the rampant sexism, racial bias, and un-PC behavior of its high-level ad execs. After showing the new secretary, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) around, Joan Holloway (office manager and my girl crush) introduces the girl to her typewriter. “It looks complicated, but the men who designed it made it simple enough for a woman to use.” Later, the new girl visits the company doctor to get a prescription for the pill. The doc puffs on a cigarette while he examines her and warns the innocent out-of-towner “Easy women don’t find husbands. Don’t think you have to go out and become the town pump just to get your money’s worth.”

Joan (Christina Hendricks) is actually my favorite character on the show (sorry Vincent), mainly because shes fucking gorgeous and sultry and curvy and a redhead. Roger Sterling, partner at Sterling/Cooper, and one of Joan’s biggest fans refers to redheads as ‘the cherry on top of a vanilla milkshake’. Hot. She is the intelligent femme fatale of the show, who thinks that Mannhattan is “everything“.

My boy Vinnie (ew, did I actually just say that?) plays Pete Campbell, a young junior executive at Sterling/Cooper. He’s the black sheep of the office, but is tolerated for his socially influential family. He sexually pursues Peggy although he legitimately wants to be a good husband, and is eager to succeed at his job. He’s the guy you love to hate to love. I am, of course, completely attracted to his misogynistic prickishness (yes I made that word up).

Series creator Matt Weiner (one of the brains behind The Sopranos) wrote the pilot script eight years ago, wanting to portray the changes in American society at the time-the capitalism and social conservatism of the Eisenhower era and the privileged executives that cared less about how good the idea was, more about how well it was sold to the client.

As interesting as the show’s social and political commentary is, the private lives of the Sterling/Cooper employees are the icing on the cake-excess is always fun to watch. Between the material wealth and complete lack of fidelity, these executives are spoiled babies, looking around at their Roman Empires, and wondering what’s missing.

Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the protagonist of the show, is a perfect example of this-he rarely seems happy with his ‘perfect life’. Although his secrets and insecurities are crippling behind closed doors, he masks it with a fearless confidence. When confronted by a beatnik, who challenges: “Perpetuating a lie? How do you sleep at night?”, Don grins and shoots back: “On a bed made out of money.”

I like the show because it’s not the glossy caricature of 1960’s America. You see the grit and the imperfections. The costumes are wicked, and I think I’m gonna check out some vintage clothing patterns, cause I wanna be Joan Holloway. I love immersing myself in a completely different world. I’m lost 1960, and I don’t wanna come back.

Geez yo, I haven’t posted here in forev! Not since intr0vert’s/my joint postings (and by joint I mean me throwing in my two cents while napping on the couch as he typed) during my visit to Hollywood. Speaking of, I thought maybe some of yous (anyone?) would be interested to know about my goings on in the city of angels and dirtbags.

intr0vert was an excellent tour guide and host, my experience wouldn’t have been half as enriched if he hadn’t been my guide. I must admit, when he made the trip to Chicago for my birthday, I probably wasn’t the best tour guide-I’d only been there 7 months and didn’t have my tour guide/public transportation chops up to par yet. (I’ll do better next time, I promise!)

Let me share with you a few misguided misconceptions I had about L.A.:

-You can’t smoke anywhere in L.A.

Mostly I got this idea from Sex & the City, when Carrie goes to L.A. to meet with a production company , and is prevented from smoking wherever she goes, even on the outside deck of her hotel room. (”I have an addiction sir!”) I guess I also had this impression because of the whole Hollywood health/physical appearance obsession that I read about in the news on Perez all the time. I was surprised that a few places we went to had smoking rooms, some were not even open air. Chicago is not down with that shit. You can’t even smoke in outdoor seating areas here. Anywho-doesn’t really affect me, just an observation.

-Nobody walks in L.A.

Again, another thing I’ve heard through the grapevine of pop culture media. I was assuming that since everyone drives in L.A., that nobody walks. Not so, my friends. Oh, we drove almost everywhere…but then we parked 10 blocks away. Parking in L.A. is just as bad as most parts of Chicago. Any parking you find here is either permit parking only or will cost you $50. Not a big deal, I don’t ever wanna be the girl that bitches about how far away the car is, but it did limit my cute shoe options. You see, its a delicate ratio. Typically as the cuteness of the shoe goes up, its comfort level goes down.

On a side note: I also thought that there was no worthwhile public transportation there. I met an actual human being that took a bus to work everyday. Even intr0vert was considering trying the train out as a daily commute. And my experiences on the subway were fairly pleasant. Although, I’m not sure the idea of an underground train on a fault line sits well with me. I’m just sayin.

-Everyone in L.A. is beautiful and glamorous (thanks to Fergie, I can spell that word now).

Oh, there were plenty of beautiful people there. But there were a lot of really unspecial people there, too. The air in Hollywood was thick with ego, which didn’t surprise me so much. What surprised me was that I was expecting the clothes to make the man a little more. Actually, the woman. The chicks there seemed to fall into two categories: The strapless tube dress complete with hooker shoes (do hookers call them ‘work shoes’?) and makeup applied with a paintball gun, or cutesy, hipster chicks. I’m typically the type of girl that prefers to be overdressed, rather than under dressed. And don’t get me wrong, I wear a lot of makeup. A drag queenish amount. On a daily basis.

So…famous people. I was promised by intr0vert at least three sightings. The first was only half a sighting, as it was just Jael from America’s Next Top Model a couple seasons ago. She was a hot tranny mess on Hollywood, trashy outfit, crazy pink furry hat, and I’m sure was operating on one or more psychiatric drugs. We also saw Janeane Garafalo walking in Studio City and Vincent Kartheiser (from Angel-I’m a vampire nerd, remember?) at the Magic Castle. Some others too, I can’t remember. Some dude from a teen movie bummed me a smoke. Good shit, huh?

I will have to make this a to-be-continued post. Even though it was like two weeks ago. Lots happened, and I’m sure people are riveted by my recounts of my vacation. Long story short (too late!), Hollywood did not disappoint. More soon, I promise.