Don Draper has Issues – America’s Favorite Nostalgic Ideal Alpha Male

The whole thing on first glance is that the Cable soap opera Mad Men is about the last time anything used to make sense in America, not that it did make sense but it looks back at a time when few questioned the cultural flow of the 1960s.

The 60s in America were explosive and game changing culturally speaking. Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK Assassination, Civil Rights, Vietnam were the real live explosives of that time. An island of seeming reality and stability in a Madison Avenue Advertising Agency and its evolution to big success in the future – now – is found perhaps in the series Mad Men. 

A manly man male flick series? What did they used to call men like Gary Cooper and Clark Gable – "a man’s man" – whatever that really meant or connoted at the times when those movie stars ruled the screen.

I saw one of my grade school buddies on Facebook announcing the season premiere of Mad Men recently and since I never watched it before; I caught a bunch or half a dozen old episodes on demand and dug in. The really boxy minimalist offices in boxy glass skyscrapers are not the art in this guy flick as opposed to a chick flick art kind of thing.

I wanted to know why Draper was suddenly a hot item in the press.  In anticipation of that new sixth season, Jon Hamm’s “junk” in his business suits got touted in the press. He was described in his dress as going “Commando” (sans underwear) in those modern press releases. 

So I guess Jon Hamm aka Don Draper has sex appeal and the series is also a chick flick on some tier level of perception. All I can say is what Hamm or Draper saves in the cost of boxers or tighty whiteys he must more than make up for in dry cleaning expensive business suits and or their trousers.

It is interesting how we project backward what is considered sexy today onto what was sexy then. 

I can only imagine that Draper’s appeal now is something of a throwback, a Neanderthal throwback to cave men. The “Me Tarzan – You Jane” jungle magnetism found in romance novels of brute force taking his woman every time has it appeals and fantasy charms for some of older generations.

Aside from the monkey suits that business men used to wear all the time before California invented Silicon Valley Friday or Casual Friday five business days a week.  Before then, men in the sixties wore white underwear under white long sleeve shirts, drab thin ties and gray business suits. 

About the only real sexuality of Don Draper in the Drab male fashion of the 1960s is his slicked back Brylcreem tightly cropped haircut. Allusions to the ghost of Ronny Reagan I think here for the nostalgia hungry white male looking to the past for some reinforcement and justification for the all white male patriarchal society that ruled all the way up until the sixties but certainly not in this present virtual age.

Indeed slight flashes of the past creep in to the script by means of newspaper headlines or newsmen on black and white televisions in the executive offices of an Ad agency.  

A lot of good historical background in this series. Done I think to give credibility to the cardboard cliche characters of an imagined idealized cardboard Camelot Advertising industry thing back then.

That somewhere between Tom Rath, the PR guy in the Man In the Gray Flannel Suit and Darren Stevens on Bewitched is an advertising dude of Don Draper who must honcho everybody, the corporate sponsors wanting to sell their glitch, the creators / idea men and the art department making up the final story boards and put them all satisfactorily into the same corral for the night and the 9:15 P.M. showing of the Impala commercial on Bonanza.

Don Draper is I think a white collar version of the rugged individualistic Marlboro Man. (God knows Don smokes like a chimney and self-medicates (drowns) with Canadian Club Whiskey.)

That is how real men used to be that came out of WWII or Korea. No delayed stress syndrome for real American men.  They did what men had to do and got on with it in life with the aid of cigarettes and booze. And not drugs like those unwashed hippies.

Don Draper must gage tastes, wants, desires, goals and package things for his clients as some sort of white collar pimp of sorts working in a sterile office work place. He must also sometimes define what you want or more than likely invent and convince you what you want as a consumer and with your new found unlimited power of plastic credit from the 1960s.

When I see the actor Jon Hamm in this showcase drama of Mad Men, I think of the line by the American poet E.E.Cummings “Jesus, he was a handsome man” in a poem referring to the showman Buffalo Bill. 

In a way the original concept of show business from P.T. Barnum was more along the lines of a Don Draper and an Ad Agency in the nineteenth century of such a concept as opposed to the stage and cinema label of show business as we now associate those two words exclusively with.

All the world is a stage btw especially for ad men.

Draper is definitely an alpha male. He is what so many men want to be or at least the illusion of it all. The handsome part puts him at the top of the heap of his generation clawing away at the so-called American success thing.  

Alpha male is a term probably an anthropologist like Margaret Mead was familiar with in 1960-69. Nobody else would have known the term. Alpha male is now a mainstream meme and pundit fodder word usage thing etc.

As a man earning a living on Madison Avenue where so many of the old ad agencies used to congregate comes the name of the show Mad Men. And if I had to work a sixty to eighty hour a week job trying to be creative and appealing to clients and commuting to the bedroom suburbs where a stay at home mom and the average three and one half kids were the reason for a big mortgage and a long commute on Metro North or the LI RR every grinding day of every grinding week, and kissing your boss’ butt to keep that job and mortgage based social bubble viable, then so be it – the American male success formula(?).

In the few episodes I have seen, Don Draper with his stone face Korean War Army officer charisma is suddenly falling apart internally, getting flashbacks and screwing more women than usual. 

Adultery was not a sin in the 60s if you were discreet and did not get caught etc. Don looks like he headed for a second failed marriage. Don Draper has issues. Issues with women. Issues with success. Issues with trying to keep the series going another season.

Issues then. Issues now.  

Enjoy the mental morphine entertainment of Mad Men.

LOL

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Lamentation for a Country that Once Was Great - Decline of America

I personally date the decline of the quality of life in America to about 1960 or about the same time as the rise of the plastic credit card. After that date, you had to call up your relatives to see if they would be home on Sunday afternoon for a visit or more than likely they would be out in their brand new Chevy bought on credit and shopping across the river in Jersey at the brand new Cherry Hill Mall. lol

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Cardinal Dolan’s Report Card After Four Years on the Job - From a Local Devout Native New Yorker

"...constantly guffawing and cackling like
some backslapping, red-faced Irish ward heeler..."

http://statenislandcatholic.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-dolan-problem.html

Now, after 4 years of Dolan (how time flies!) I think we can say that this man's record has been an unmitigated disaster for the Faith in New York.

Incredibly, Dolan has a reputation as a "conservative" and for some bizarre reason was even touted as papabile at the Conclave. I suppose mere words are enough to get a man a good reputation in the Church these days for Dolan to be considered any sort of orthodox prelate, let alone worthy of sitting in the Chair of St. Peter.

I am unaware of anything the man has done to warrant such popularity and esteem except for constantly guffawing and cackling like some backslapping, red-faced Irish ward heeler. 

No, rather he has undermined the Faith here at every turn. As evidence:

like several previous Cardinals here, he has been enthusiastic about playing ecumenical games by going to seders and engaging in interfaith prayer services, thereby denigrating the uniqueness of our Faith and spreading indifferentism among the Faithful.

he publicly applauded the gay pride group at the openly gay parish of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.

he scandalously invited Barack Obama to the Al Smith dinner at the same time as this baby-murdering Nero was plotting to abolish religious freedom and force the Church to offer birth control to its employees.

worst of all, except for writing a blog post and giving an interview to an Albany radio show, he did absolutely nothing to fight against the passage of gay marriage in NY State. 

When it was all over, he didn't excommunicate the politicians who voted for this abomination; he didn't even say a word about it from the pulpit.

He did, however, write a blog post in which he apologized to gays who might have been offended by the Church's position against gay marriage!

even though the Catholic school closings aren't his fault, he has come up with no alternative solution and has axed them with the alacrity of a Bolshevik Commissar.


he has never spoken out about anything of consequence, or at least not in any way that would suggest to his listeners that he expects them to do anything or that he is going to do anything about it. 

Denounce abortion? Sure, why not? Words are cheap. Refuse Communion to pro-abortion politicians or even excommunicate them? Oh my! That would be scary! What does his new evangelization look like? Fiery preaching? Public protests? Letter-writing campaigns? A renewal of Catholic devotional life? No. 

We've seen felt banners with banal slogans hung from church doors. His episcopacy has been one, long, demotivational exercise in cowardice and compromise.

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Bill Donohue at Catholic League Yells Foul on George Bush’s IRS Investigating Catholic League Tax Free Assets – Pot calling Kettle Gold

Tax Free - Pigs in Mud Cake and Eat It Too 

Bill Donohue’s unpaid intern must have quit. 

He is bitching about Obama by way of the magic “evil” name George Soros who supposedly commanded the IRS to target the Catholic League during the Bush Administration.  

Paranoia knows no bounds when Bill is desperate for a ghost writer to operate his sole office IBM Selectric typewriter and no temp in sight.  

He even now quotes links to red neck Tea Bagger Party articles with advertisements about investing in gold against the impending end of the world in America.  

The fascist article along with comments, not allowed in Donohue’s usual Catholic League fare, and along with the usual veiled racist and anti-Semitic remarks you would find in such a right wing article.

http://www.newsmax.com/BillDonohue/IRS-Catholic-League-Soros/2013/05/16/id/504883

BTW – FYI

From the Catholic League’s 2011 Tax Free Filing

Tax Year 2011

Contributions  - $3,040,171

Investment Income - $558,074

Grants and Similar Amounts - $502,890

Total Net Assets - $29,386,673

Salaries - $1,288,080

List of states requiring a copy of Form 990 for filing – NY VA NJ WI CA CT MA PA MN IL 

( Not all key gay marriage states but surprisingly the year before a national election, states critical to the election of a president. )

Salaries/Comp

President Bill Donohue – $374,500 + $54,678 = $429,178

Vice President Bernadette Brady - $192,600 + $29,257 = $221,857

Leaving $637,045 salaries for people not listed on the IRS form. 

They have paid staff besides the interns and volunteer seminarians stuffing the contribution appeal letters into envelopes?

Occupancy (rent 450 Seventh Ave.) - $267,967

Other Investments and Securities –

Christian Brothers Investments - $27,712,300

United Parcel Service - $1,228,443

Covidien $3,434

Grants –

Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies zip 90089 - $400,000

Etc.

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Mayor Bloomberg of NYC – Close the Universities – Lower My Taxes – Fix My Toilet

Mike Bloomberg - Whining Mayor of NYC

Nanny / Yenta Mayor Mikey Bloomberg of the New York City wants your mediocre kids to consider skipping college and student loan debts and to become a plumber to fix his toilet.

Close the Universities. Lower my taxes. If everybody becomes a plumber, the glut in supply and demand in that profession will put a plumber’s salary at 50 cents per hour, just where a cheap chiseler like Mike Bloomberg with his 27 billion dollar (I earned it myself!) fortune thinks all low life in his city should be paid – next to nothing or nothing at all.

Just what he thinks people are worth supplying him with the necessities of life in his Beaux Arts Mansion on the upper east side? God forbid the man lower himself and live in a Colonial era wooden farmhouse aka Gracie Mansion paid for by the taxpayers, the once official mayor’s residence.

Mediocre is as mediocre does. Mike and his sheepskin from Johns Hopkins University did pretty good for a mediocre boy from NY to become one of the Masters of the Universe that now rules this planet.

All future opportunities for youth in America are now officially over! Owned by Bloomy and the Koch Brothers etc. ?

Thank God there it is only seven months until his retirement as nanny yenta mayor on January 1. No fourth term FDR MRB!

Maybe then he can retire to his plantation in some fourth world country and preach to his dozens of servants on the evils of taking / stealing Massa’s ten cents an hour salary.  Lol

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/skip-college-plumber-mayor-bloomberg-article-1.1347576

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Who Really Wrote Shakespeare? Trevor Nunn and Mark Rylance Parley with Words and Ideas

My muse led me many places recently on a research trip regarding Shakespeare and his plays.

Suppose a future archeologists in five hundred years come across a DVD collection of cartoons among ruins, mostly Disney stuff, and in the beginning phase of understanding of the cartoon genre, where Snow White, Cinderella, Fantasia get lumped together with Shrek and other minor works like Popeye the Sailor and Bugs Bunny and let’s not forget Daffy Duck.

The burning questions of scholars in the future, not familiar with cartoons for hundreds of years since the collapse of civilization in the late 21^st century might be – Who really wrote Disney? – this body of cartoonic art and entertainment.

That is a good question. Over time, analysis and opinion will render no definitive answer unless someone digs up a download on DVD of Wikipedia on the topic of Cinema of ancient mankind.

In a certain niche capacity for comparison, Walt Disney had over 650 credits for producer, 125 credits as actor, mostly as a voice, and 11 credits as writer.

That more than anything, Disney is manager, Disney is Producer. He is author of the finished work whether his ideas were ever actually written down on paper on in a word processor etc.

Ben Jonson in the First Folio names William Shakespeare as author of the works in that folio. For lack of a better word or understanding of the times, author is as good a word as any in a limited lexicon.

If anything I believe that Shakespeare started out holding a spear in the background of some obscure theatre of the late Elizabethan period. He also depending on his youthful build and stance played some female roles in theatre, when it was illegal for anybody but men to act upon a stage.

I think that being in a female role or a usual spear holding minor supporting role would give a young actor a unique vantage point along with a lyric ear or a good memory for an instant or long standing analysis of the best actors on stage in what he saw up close and personal both on stage and behind stage as well.

And there are the teaching moments where a good actor or manager or producer gives valuable tips on how to improve the delivery of the product.

That Shakespeare’s last will and testament does not make mention of the plays is reflected more in the lack of the concept of copyright laws equal to assets or creative abstract property, an idea that did not take hold until the Victorian age.

That if you have the experience of Bill Shakespeare, how do you leave your knowledge and experience in a will to heirs that have no use of it or understand it. That to produce and make a play, gather the actors, rent the theatre, make the costumes, hire the writer or writers, re-writers, is the person who will make the hog’s share of the money take from the box office along with credit for the whole of the production and or performance.

That and I have to think that in a time with expensive paper that much of what was in the portfolio was likely put down on paper for the first time from the oral tradition of some actors, some of whom may not have been able to read and write that well.

And over time, the memory of lines might mutate or even improve with the input of newer younger actors talking the same lines and delivering them in a way that gets reaction from an audience every time they are delivered. That and the lyric ear of an actor who may actually change and add great beauty to the existing lines and as finally recorded.

I cannot help but think how the King James Bible of the same age was a work of dozens of translators and theologians but it is packaged under the title and or authorship? of King James.

An excellent article here below citing a debate of sorts between director Trevor Nunn and actor Mark Rylance on who really wrote one part of Shakespeare.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/14/shakespeare-playwright-trevor-nunn-mark-rylance

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An Age Without Rainbows (La Era Sin Arco Iris)

        By the old style calendar, Pedro reckoned the year to be 2061 of the

once common era. These days had no commonality even in things local. The

word globalism stuck momentarily on a passing thought as he withdrew a pocket

watch from his vest and began to wind it and refresh the thought again regarding
the failed world order. The economic collapse of the west and the east and

the north and the south plunged the world into chaos over forty years ago.

Pedro had been a small boy when all this happened. Sitting at his desk
he reached for a piece of paper. A chime from a hall clock outside his study
announced quarter to the hour. He took a pencil and added a few lines of
thought to his speech. Soon guests would be arriving for the luncheon meeting
of decision makers.

Don Pedro stood at his open front door as six car loads of business leaders 
and diplomats and another six autos full of bodyguards arrived in the courtyard.
One by one a handshake and an occasional interpreter's echo as one by one

Don Pedro O'Neill greeted his guests. The guests congregated in the vast

zaguan picking up a glass of wine or lemonade, chatting in social friendly
tones. Don Pedro noted that it was an all-male group in his mansion's hallway.
All male if one also counted the one declared masculine female in the group.

"Of a same mind." flashed through Don Pedro's mind as he gestured for

his guests to enter into his dining room. Colonial silver of regional origin
decorated this Sonoran palace's dining room. Friendly chit chat, toasts, fine

cuisine created a warmth of assembly fitting to the host's forthcoming speech.

Pedro reviewed mental notes. It had been his father who had originated
this center of common interests. The military collapse of France in 2018
followed by massive earthquakes and economic collapse in Japan set the dominoes
falling. Russia and China fighting in Mongolia for decades. Of course the
gringos to the north only had the appearance of having a political-economic
structure that was still standing. Don Pedro's family controlled the electric
grid for all of North America west of the Mississippi. The Arab oil would

have continued to flow in spite of the Arab League's neutrality on Morocco's 
United Front (of North African nations) invasion and military occupation of 
southern France, with that country recently withdrawn from the EU. But it all got 
twisted up in religious fundamentalism. France's acceptance of Muslim demands to 
stop broadcasting television images via satellite to North Africa was the beginning. 

         The fanatic Arabs and the Persians in the east dropped a few atomic weapons 
for the sheer heck of it on key oil distribution points in the Gulf was something of 
the final blow to the old order of things.

"The Israelis have developed an enzyme that can decontaminate the
radioactive oil fields." said one guest to another.

"Tel Aviv is the new economic capital of the planet ... "

It was the plagues that started in the southern France war zone.

Unpredicable reactions to chemical warfare kicked in. Overnight all of
Europe was in a new dark age. Reaction to reality pushed Christian
fundamentalism to the forefront of western culture that was left and with a flavor 
that sounded distinctly Islamic. The human image and television were now forbidden
in many global regions.
         Economic collapse, plagues, depopulation. Weeds grew a plenty in the once
great and now heavily abandoned urban centers of Europe. BBC and German radio's 
weekly broadcasts were the only voices heard these days in Europe. America's 
decline was marked by officially unrecognized regional civil wars and internal strife. 
Television was blamed by many as the decline of the west. Christian fundamentalism
pushed video tapes, DVDs and other image viewing underground. The real truth was 
that television and other items were sacrificed to a new lack of electricity

used only now by the government and large industry.

Don Pedro stood and started his speech.

"The world's economy now reflect the statistics of 1920. In another
generation or two, we may very well reach the statistics of 1940."

Applause.

"But we must also realize that with the impending flow of middle east
fossil fuel, there will be a glut of electricity on this continent and in
Europe."

"What do we do with all the new energy?" asked one of the guests to
his host.

"Private consumption will rival public consumption. State industries
will probably reinvent appliances like refrigerators, washing machines and even
television."

There was an unusual feeling of silence in the room on these last words.

Don Pedro sensed the unease and reaction to his words.

"Of course no official production of television will be pursued. Parts
for repairs of the bulk of televisions already warehoused or hand made and in 
private use. These parts will be produced in greater quantity. We will call it 
a push to revitalize cathode ray tubes in the hope of resurrecting the old collapsed 
worldwide computer internet. No images allowed of course. Text only."

Still a silence. Don Pedro pulled out his hankerchief and wiped his
forehead. Ever confident, he continued.

"When my father started this community of mutual interests some
thirty nine years ago, it had always been recognized that the Dark Age
would one day end. We are the few here that are about to see the dawn
of a new age. A rebirth. A new world beginning ... "

Don Pedro finished his speech. A new speaker got up to address the
luncheon. Don Pedro sat down and penciled in the margin of his recently
finished speech.

Dark Age?

"What shall I tell the historians to call the past forty years?" he
thought to himself.

His pencil etched "La era sin arco iris?" (The age without rainbows?) __

THE END 


copyright 1996

P.S.

I was looking for this story some months ago and could not find it. Thought it was lost. Yesterday I ran into it while looking for something else in a box of old papers. Decided to self publish it after all these many years. Did a little editing, changing dates etc. It is basically the same story as rejected by letter below in March 1996 when we were living in Arizona. Put the letter up because I have destroyed the hundred or two others along the way and some of you have asked me about my writing etc and I wanted to share one such experience with you all, the rejection letters paving the path to wherever. lol

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