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a set of sharp and cogent notes

Stuff We Like

  • F for Fake

    This is Orson Welles's masterpiece, a virtuoso performance of sound and video editing that co-opts the documentary but is not one. It is the rare postmodern text that's laugh out loud funny, steeped in the relativism of the post war period but not held hostage by it. He appears as himself, sheared of doubts and humanity, in full possession and knowledge of his genius, but he is not the subject (excuse my language) of the film. It's a "film about trickery, fraud and lies," and about two great exponents of those arts, Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. The film is not much watched by people from any generation, met with cold critical reception on release, how can it be Welles's masterpiece? But it is, and is neglected due to its translation from the dross and palaver of our late capitalist society in which relativism extends mainly to the comparison of ledgers, a number of hard, unpleasant truths about meaning, about value, and about our modern oracles, the experts. Or as Welles says of art (or anything): "How is it valued? The value depends on opinion. Opinion depends on the expert. A faker like Elmyr makes fools of the experts, so who's the expert? Who's the faker?"

  • Ferret-Legging

    Ferret-Legging

    The ferret goes in your pants. Your pants are cinched to prevent its escape. Then you stand there while a scared rodent scratches, bites, and generally freaks the fuck out in the vicinity of your manly-bits. He who endures the longest wins. There you have the “sport” of ferret-legging, a Yorkshire coalminer practice now revived at the Richmond, VA Celtic Festival. While I cannot speak for the rest of the Plasma Pool team, I have not personally experienced the joy of ferret legging – nor do I have any desire to do so in the future. But what should be Liked about this particular Stuff is not corporeal, but rather its statement about the competitive nature of man such that he would trap a ferret in his pants for over five hours for no reward but the knowledge that he did what no other man could do. There exists in each of us a compulsion to strive for greatness, and in the course of this pursuit we are capable of unimaginable sacrifice in the name of achievement. Today humanity faces new and difficult challenges, but what drives these semi-sane “athletes” is the same that drives those in more noble fields to cure diseases, create art, and improve humanity in countless other ways. So, thank you ferret-leggers. Just keep that animal away from my junk.  -- Donny Bridges

  • Reactions to the OJ Simpson Verdict

    OJ Simpson Verdict

    Without getting into any kind of commentary about the trial itself or its place in pop culture memory, this video of the OJ Simpson verdict is stunning. Pay attention to 1:24, 2:10, 3:30, 3:59. The camera pans over a near-complete spectrum of emotions, almost oblivious to the murmur of the verdict while the faces hang on to every word. The calm voice at the end advises to "expect the worst." For me, the bizarre essence of the clip is that some idea of "justice" is located somewhere in the physical and conceptual space between the rows of silent faces and the implied source of the unseen voices. The mass of bodies tenses and contorts as an articulation of the disembodied speech of the justice system. I am reluctant to give a reading of all this beyond this cursory description, but one final thing to consider is that our detached gaze is nearly embedded in the perspective of the invisible jury, who sits at the center of the verdict.  -- Scott Coomes

From the Vault

Things that died in 2008.

Our president pledged as primary candidate to staunchly defend individual civil liberties and curb the domestic intelligence abuses of the Bush Administration. As the Democratic candidate, he hedged. As president-elect, he made stunning about-faces, notably on immunity for telecommunications companies who cooperated with Bush's illegal requests. Now, as president, he's continued as many of Bush's abuses as he's curtailed. Also, there was a time when John McCain wasn't an unprincipled, dishonorable bigot. He was quite the man, when he was a man. Then came a succubus to hasten his by then inevitable decline.

Nov 13, 2009

Mad Men: The Moon, Don!

Darren Franich

Did Jon Hamm lose weight this season? Or did they just change the lighting so that his proud Captain America face (aside: “Football hero who hates his father” officially enters the lexicon as a synonym for upper-middle class successful male ennui) began to look gaunt, malnourished, the face of a noir anti-hero who ends up bleeding alone in a getaway car? Back in the season premiere, I was worried that Hamm looked more like a wax imitation of Don Draper than a real person — here’s old Don, bedding an eager stewardess and making you believe there is fog in London! But then “Seven Twenty Three” happened, the middle episode of the season which left Don toadishly signing his life away, modeling the Chinatown nose-bandage which can only symbolize impotence and ruin.

I think you’re hitting on something, Eric, something which only became clear as the back half of the season played out: Season 3 was about Destruction, but the quiet kind of destruction. We saw JFK die, an event which Weiner once claimed he didn’t feel like showing, because what was left to say? Well, Weiner managed to be the first person in years, maybe decades, to say something new about the JFK assassination: far from changing everything and spoiling everyone’s fun and destroying Camelot, it was the best thing to happen to the characters all season. It opened their eyes.

In a nutshell, Season 3 felt weird because it mostly took place geographically in the corpse of Season 2. Almost every key plot point developed from decisions that were made last season — the purchase of Sterling Cooper, the revelation of Don’s adultery, the Draper’s shotgun reconciliation, Joan’s engagement, Roger’s new marriage. In a sense, all of these decisions were bad ideas, and the genius of Season 3 was in seeing just how long it took the characters to figure that out. (Conversely, the one professional and personal success story all season was Harry Crane, who took a gamble on television and ended up the all-important sixth man at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce dot dot dot Campbell, if Pete has his way.)

I’m intrigued, Eric: how did you feel about the final three episodes, which struck me as the most Dick Whitman-centric since season one? (I guess you could count Don’s trip to LA, but that felt more like a leisurely escapist dream, complete with European decadents who vanish in the night.) I know you’ve never been a fan of the Whitman stuff, but I felt like the final three episodes were practically about the death of Don Draper and the rebirth of Dick Whitman’s soul.

First, he expurgated his life story, the first time he’s ever told anyone a thing about himself besides Rachel Menken; and if he had ever been afraid that Betty would leave him if she found out, then he must have felt a bit of relief when she actually did. Then, he gave up on pleasing his substitute father, Connie, and decided to take matters into his own hands. It was another identity rebirth, a shapechange, but this time he was taking other people with him. In a moment that could have seemed mawkish, he walked into his new hotel room office and grinned at his new co-workers.

I couldn’t be more excited about Season 4, though the AMC preview that played right after Mad Men’s finale got me uncommonly excited about the intriguing persona the whole channel is adopting (The Prisoner, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men are all shows about people with secret identities — motif alert!) What do you think Season Four will bring? I’d be sad to see Ken, Paul, and Smitty go, but I think this show could do with a minor cast-cull before it gets overextended. Also, is Don/Peggy the hottest non-sexual couple on TV?

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