Starting Disc 2, Season 2, Mad Men, art

Even though the characters are shallow, the writing & cinematography are average, the styles are so damn lovely.  The beginning always has that catchy,  Hitchcockian bit, too, which fools you into thinking you are going to watch something with depth.  It's actually quite a soap opera.

Did anyone see Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslett & Leo Di Caprio?  I loved that.  I saw it before I saw Mad Men, and I think I was expecting more depth from the characters because of characters in Revolutionary Road.  I didn't realize it was based on a book until I read it somewhere today or yesterday.  Now I want to read the book.

I think one of the most interesting characters on Mad Men is Bertram Cooper, the older partner.  He doesn't get nearly enough air time.  He's the one who made me think of Ayn Rand, because he is an obvious devotee.  He recommends Atlas Shrugged to some of his employees.  Albeit, advised Don Draper to buy a copy, but gave that snake Peter Campbell a copy.  I wonder if anyone noticed that.  He had this great remark in one of the the 1st season episodes to Don Draper about passion or art or creativity, then this smart ending about how all they really want is to benefit themselves.  Ergo, devotee of Ayn Rand.  He keeps his office in this very Zen-like manner, and has interesting personal habits.  I wonder if the Mad Men creators/writers use this Ayn Rand connection and Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency to make the show seem smart, since, in my opinion the writing isn't particularly smart.  And, once again, the lack of character development.  I'm still going to watch it to see what happens, since it's really kind of like a soap opera or 'story' as my Mama used to say.

I did want to give a shout-out to Ms. Randi Davis, who, until tonight, I didn't know had a website.  She is quite a renaissance woman.  She was a chemical engineer, and now has a career as an artist.  She was always an artist, but later in life made it her career.  I had the pleasure of meeting this lively woman last weekend.  She is one of the people who inspired me to start this blog.  http://www.randijanedavis.com/ .  Her artwork is soft, kind of ethereal at times, and appears to evolve constantly, from what I have seen, which isn't enough.  Oh, to have a brilliant, scientific mind and an artistic mind.

I wonder who in history might also have had a mind with this wonderful combination of science and art.  I would argue that science is an art.  I don't know why I think that.  It just comes to mind when I think of people like Einstein, Galilleo, Margaret Mead & Freud.  And whiz-bang woman Randi Davis!