From the Law Office of Ginsberg & Wong, Philip, Mies & Hugo
We’ll get to what’s in the above photo, in just a bit. But first, since I didn’t link to James Lileks’ review of Mad Men’s season five kick off last week, here’s a belated link, in case anyone on the right is still watching the show after the sucker punch hit to Romney’s father. (From the character who’s working for John Lindsay, who will soon run Manhattan deep, deep into the ground.) Also, after Lileks’ recommendations over the years both at the Bleat and at PJM, I went back and rewatched the first season of Michael Mann’s Crime Story series from 1986-’87 on Netflix, which Lileks once described as the dark Deep Space Nine to the sunlit Vice’s ST:TNG. Crime Story had great drive to its stories, and much more consistent writing than Vice, even if they tended to be somewhat formulaic cops-versus the mob at the core. But Dennis Farina and Anthony Denison as Elliot Ness and Al Capone Mike Torello and Ray Luca are classic cop and gangster adversaries. And the season finale is…explosive, to say the least. (The show’s Wikipedia page gives it all away, if you’re interested.)
Last September, when the networks were all rolling out their Mad Men rip-offs (did any of these survive past 13 weeks?) Crime Story would have been the easiest high-concept series to pitch to a network: “Boys! It’s Mad Men with guns!” “Sold—give me 13 weeks; let’s hit the links!”
As I mentioned when my mom passed away at age 87 in mid-February, I brought a treasure trove of photos and memorabilia back to California from her home in New Jersey. (Dad passed away in 2006.) And speaking of the Mad Men era, after the page break, which I’m putting in to ease page loading, and to not waste the time of those who are here (understandably) just for politics and the like, here are a few snapshots of mom and dad from the Mad Men era, followed by the matchbooks from a few of their favorite restaurants in the ’70s and early ’80s.
And this was the evil middlebrow culture the avant garde-ers were so hellbent to destroy. It looks like Eden compared, say, to the video clip of multi-culti-ed Luton UK that Roger L. Simon posted about today.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/04/02/will-there-always-be-an-england-2/
Thanks for a fond look at time long since lost, Ed. May our culture one day regain that justified self-confidence and sense of purpose.
Thanks for the kind words. Fred Siegel has a tremendous piece on the middlebrow culture of the 1950s through the mid-1960s, when the left really began to first lose it. It’s currently behind the firewall at Commentary since it’s part of the April issue. I’ll link and quote from if they make it publicly. But it’s well worth checking out if you’re a subscriber.
Please do link it if/when it’s available again, Ed.
And you’re very welcome for the kind words. You consistently have the best blog on PJM (although Wretchard’s Belmont Club comes a very close second).
Crime Story was great.
Also? It has the “it puts the lotion on itself” guy from SofLambs.
Ted Levine — I knew I saw him somewhere else!
“Also? It has the “it puts the lotion on itself” guy from SofLambs.”
Not to mention a young David Caruso in the pilot, plus appearances by Julia Roberts, Ving Rhames, Kevin Spacey, Gary Sinise, Christian Slater, Stanley Tucci, David Hyde Pierce, and Dennis Haysbert, among others. Great show, although I always thought Anthony Denison would make it bigger after playing Ray Luca.
– was too good; had to be taken off the air because it made that life seductive. Most glorious moment was the shootout on the Vegas Strip. And then our bad boys took refuge in an atomic bomb testing site. 3..2..1..
“Wikipedia says that alphanumeric telephone numbers began being phased out in the mid-1960s”
NYTel kept them longer, at least until 1972 or so.
A dollar a day, roast beef, and the Chinese must go.