tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post3921356541440780344..comments2023-03-17T10:41:47.643-06:00Comments on The Universe Smiles: Why is the TV Series "Mad Men" Such a Success? The Nostalgic Interest in Mid-20th Century AmericaVickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151347352054602839noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post-50846599502606654862011-11-16T15:36:58.689-07:002011-11-16T15:36:58.689-07:00when i saw the movie Bug's Life years ago, tha...when i saw the movie Bug's Life years ago, that's when i realized...<br /><br />we don't need them grasshoppers :)paulhttp://musicbypaul.yolasite.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post-46182914282576193692011-11-16T12:54:55.406-07:002011-11-16T12:54:55.406-07:00In reality Occupy and the Tea Party are joined as ...In reality Occupy and the Tea Party are joined as mates in the struggle against the lies and misdeeds of an oppresive federal government. Their complaints may be different but the root cause is the same.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post-22311995291420209992011-11-14T21:31:23.599-07:002011-11-14T21:31:23.599-07:00The two guys on the beach. Bobby Kennedy and Leoni...The two guys on the beach. Bobby Kennedy and Leonid Brezhnev?<br /><br />But yes I agree with the others. This the most interesting thing I've read in awhile. Weaving together several penetrating perspectives on the American Dream. It gets the synapses popping, those that still will pop, anyway.<br /><br />You certainly grew up in the right time and place. You were the American Dream, projected by all of us onto a big screen. The TV series and your niece's work and your wonderings and our comments show that we're still trying to figure out what it means.<br /><br />One thing not often mentioned, that I, too, seldom mention in my rants against Capitalism, is that it was always unsustainable, i.e., that material lifestyle that undergirded the dream made possible by others' cheap labor, by the rapid depletion of the natural wealth of this and other continents. We must all have known it on some level, but kept looking at the bright moving images on the screen.<br /><br />The TV series is ostensibly about advertising? (I haven't seen it). But at the intersection of being sold a bill of goods and buying into them lies what? The ego?<br /><br />Your comment at another web log that the ego is what prevents us from understanding the truth is what drew me here. The ego is like a wall, beyond which is the truth. It projects its own movie onto the wall or invites others to do it for us sometimes. Put on some Paul Simon. Click on one of your niece's pictures. Turn on the TV.<br /><br />Entertainment. But once in awhile the ego can be fooled, maybe. A line in the song or the final shot in a scene on the TV show trigger something. At your niece's web site she mentions carefully building up layers. Some of the paintings you show here have a bit of a translucent effect. Once in awhile, it's as if I'm seeing through the wall, behind the screen. I get a glimpse of the other side. <br /><br />Very interesting post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post-49615083602658565392011-11-14T16:57:13.425-07:002011-11-14T16:57:13.425-07:00Well written and thoughtful post. I think your com...Well written and thoughtful post. I think your comment on the polarity of American dreams and life is what's going on now. A clash of present and past as it were.troutbirderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14087811292280881959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post-18110963789946062872011-11-14T07:08:00.490-07:002011-11-14T07:08:00.490-07:00Good point, Jane. There is the American Dream and ...Good point, Jane. There is the American Dream and the American Reality. Many of us (Americans) are stuck attaching ourselves to only one of these visions and cannot understand or see the other side.Vickihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06151347352054602839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9202242421431357050.post-15576359770815626312011-11-13T06:58:02.929-07:002011-11-13T06:58:02.929-07:00beautiful work , the paintings are really beautifu...beautiful work , the paintings are really beautiful, I love the buddy system one,<br />the nostalgia is perhaps a search for the seeming security of the past, for me people harking back to the 50 are those who like control and the seeming certainty of achieving the american dream, not the american realityJanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09119839550934198921noreply@blogger.com