In TV-shows: Mad Men's Cigarettes

I'm not sure what I like about Mad Men. There's no real action in it, but I guess it gives a glimpse, a stylised one, into 1950's and 60's society in the US, and I'm always fascinated by how people used to live before I was born. Of course, it's usually better to watch a movie from that time for that, or read a book.

In any case, things to like about it are:

• the marketing—the industry was just getting started and it's interesting how things worked and have evolved since then.
• the fashion—it's pretty stunning how people are dressed in that show, elegant certainly, and not quite mass-produced elegance either.
• gender-relations—the rise of feminism, the machismo of men
• the vices—the constant smoking, drinking, and sleeping around… in and outside of work

I think there'll be cigarette-counts released as soon as season 1 has ended. But in the mean time, I found out that at least one show featured the lighting of 42 cigarettes—that's one every minute! That alone makes it a fascinating watch; I wonder if they're real!

In people: my Twitter quotes of the day

Twitter.com/vincentvw

I've been collecting a number of quotes over the last few months, not many, but enough for this post.

• "A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." (Warren Buffett)


• [about starting a company] "The truth is boring: the state of the economy doesn't matter much either way." (Paul Graham) http://bit.ly/3rtGG7


• "I only report what I know to be true. This is not some sort of high standard. It is basic journalism." (John Gruber) http://bit.ly/1gE0YN


• "Think about the things that don't change in the next 5-10 years." (Jason Fried).


• "find an editor you can trust, one who is working at the highest possible level of professionalism" (Simon Roberts) http://tinyurl.com/4phbo8


• "How much of human life is lost in waiting…?" Ox, Indiana Jones, 2008


• "Truth be told, I like getting my ass kicked because it makes me angry, motivated and focused." @jasoncalacanis on the downturn


• "When things go bad nowadays, you get yourself an Ism, and you're in business" (M. Vanderhof 1938) http://tinyurl.com/2f56yw


• "Risk Aversion is the single biggest innovation killer" (@KathySierra), via @ceciiil http://tinyurl.com/6x9933


• "He who looks outside, dreams; he who looks inside, awakes." (Carl Jung quote from an AVC comment)


• "what A-list twitterers are doing with their 1000s of followers is turning it into mass-media again."(@Matthias20)

In music: Spoon & The Black Keys

Two albums I liked today:

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Favourite track so far: The Ghost of You Lingers



The Black Keys - Attack and Release

Favourite track so far: Lies

In books: The Elements of Style

If you're a writer and, apparently, a coder, you can't go wrong with "The Elements of Style." As Roger Angell writes in the foreword:

Writing is hard, even for authors who do it all the time. Less frequent practitioners—the job applicant; the business executive with a Faulkner assignment; the graduate-school student with her thesis proposal; the writer of a letter of condolence—often get stuck in an awkward passage or find a muddle on their screen and then blame themselves. What should be easy and flowing looks tangled or feeble or overblown—not what was meant at all. What's wrong with me, each one thinks. Why can't I get it right?

Well, if that's how you feel about writing, then this delightfully thin book is certainly for you. The book ends with a number of sage advices, such as:

• Place yourself in the background.


• Write in a way that comes naturally.


• Do not overwrite.


• Do not overstate.


• Avoid fancy words.

And much more, all of which should be read and reread. You can get it for free online or here. I got my brother the illustrated edition before he left for his studies in creative writing, but I personally prefer the non-illustrated kind—keeping it essential and portable. Though the other kind makes for a nice gift.

In software: favourite official & unofficial Mac-plugins

Check it on Tech IT Easy.

In TV-shows: How to not live your life

My favourite British sitcom, which does narrow it down a bit. But it's definitely laugh-out-loud brilliant.

Not safe for work and if you can't get your hands on it, be creative.

In music: Ziggy Marley's "Beach in Hawaii"

Somebody in my street blasted this song this morning and woke me up. I'm sure that makes me biased, but I liked it. That said, Ziggy M. has the artistic bandwidth of my left foot: always the same rhythm and always the same theme: love.

In web: Phil Gyford’s website

Gyford.com

Design:

• I first noticed the nicely categorised lists at the side: currently reading, the recently listened to tracks (changes to most listened artists when you click on a post, which I prefer).
• I liked the choices in rss-feeds: writing only, pictures only, links only, or a combination of the above.
• The picture feed at the top is very subtle.
• And I love, love the time-line view of the things he's done. Best I've seen so far.

Content:

• The time-line view, once again, is excellent and shows a well-rounded background, which should also translate into better writing.
• I can mainly judge the article I originally fell on through Kottke, entitled "Graphs that lie," which makes for an interesting point.
• The video he acted in, called Manicato, is very nice though!

1st impression: I like.

In events: Wine-tasting Klassiek Europa, Noordwijk

Note to self: use the camera on your phone more, like at least once.

Yesterday, at the Klassiek Europa event at the beach in the Netherlands, I met a lot of cool wine-affectionados, a number of wine-professionals, and drunk a lot, too much wine. Rule 101 of wine-tasting is really to spit out the wine—it might look disgusting, and you won't get drunk as quickly, but you'll still get drunk.

Good countries that I remember (note to self: take pictures of bottles):

• A red wine from Italy—yum, fruity!


• A white dry wine from Spain—yum, dry!


• A white Riesling from Germany—yum, dry!


• A white quasi-Riesling from the Netherlands—omg, I've never tasted anything so horrible in my life.

Was hoping to track down a white German whine that I tasted in Luxembourg and was the best I ever had, but I didn't.

In places: Christies Auction-house, Amsterdam

Note: not all things I write here are favourites, just things I want to remember.

What is there to remember about Christies, Amsterdam? Not much to be honest, not even worth a picture. It's outside of Amsterdam-centre, in a nice neighbourhood, close to the museum-quarter (of course). It's burgundy flags welcome you from a distance and when you walk in, you are confronted with some art-work. The receptionists look like female flight-attendants. There's art-brochures in the waiting-area and that's about it.

I was met in a tiny office on the ground floor, in contrast to any majestic expectations you may have had. It's important to remember that Christies is only a mediator and not a curator of art.

In film: Guess who's coming to dinner (the original)

I don't get how this film was remade the way it was. The original from 1967 was meant to provoke, well, I don't know how the world worked in 1967, but it certainly presents a new concept to the characters in the film. And that concept is nowhere near comparable to Ashton Kutcher coming to dinner.

GWCTD (I hate repeating long titles) is about race, it's about a black man coming to meet the parents of his future white wife. And it's not really a comedy, though the characters, Sidney Poitier as the husband to be, Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn, playing the parents of the bride to be, are comedic at times. The premise of the film is that the parents have to approve of him, and they have to do so by dinner as he has to fly away that night and they want to be married in a week.

There's a moment in the film which illustrates what this film (and really any film is). Tracey asks Poitier whether it's really fair to force this decision on them in so short a time. And that's what the film does: it asks you to pass judgement in two short hours on whether black and white people are equal, whether black people are worthy to be married to white people (and vice versa). And, of course, Sydney Poitier represents the best that any man, black of white, could wish to be: charming, educated, good looking, what more do you want?

There's a myriad of characters that appear in the film and show a rich picture of what groups of people would be confronted with this issue. The parents represent the older white generation. Poitier's parents that show up for dinner as well, represent the older black generation. And him and Katherine Houghton, as the daughter, represent modern society (for 1967). The black cook represents black lower class. There's even a priest, who is the most chilled out guy in the film.

There's a great scene in the film where Poitier says:

"Dad, you're my father, I'm your son. I love you, I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a coloured man. I think of myself as a man."

I think we can envision ourselves as having a similar conversation with our father at one point or other.

A fascinating film, and I wonder, I really wonder how they could have remade it. Maybe we should have seen a gay couple. But a Kutcher-flick!? Seems more like devolution than evolution.

In web: favourite bookmarklets

Definition: A bookmarklet is an applet, a small computer application, stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page. The term is a portmanteau of the terms bookmark and applet.

• Del.icio.us — bookmarks


• Printwhatyoulike — remove unneeded graphics & blank spaces before printing.


• Send to Twitter (alternative: send to FriendFeed)


• TinyUrl it (or bit.ly it)


• Translate.google.com — the key to multilingual web-browsing.


• I ♥ Twitterkeys

In film: why I crush on Naomi Watts

One movie and one scene.

In film: Jean Arthur, everyday heroine

There's nothing particularly special about Jean Arthur, except that she's funny, she's got spunk, and she prefers to be photographed and filmed on her left side—ever since I found out that fact, I've been paying attention and it's true.

She's famous for three films mainly, in which she's not the quintessential "hot" actress that everyone expects a leading lady to be. Rather she's the everyday heroine, but what a heroine she is.

3 great movies she's in:

• Mr. Deeds goes to town (1936)
• You can't take it with you (1938)
• Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939)

Enjoy!

In film: 5 good foreign fantasy and horror films

• Pan's Labyrinth (Spain)


• City of Lost Children (France)


• The Orphanage (Spain)


• Die Blechtrommel (Germany)


• The Ring (Japan)

In Music: tracks U can dance 2 like Daft Punk's 'Around the World'

• Daft Punk's "Around the world" (no really!), on Homework


• MGNT's "Electric feel" on Oracular Spectacular


• Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." on Cross


• Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic (Strawberry Bath and Jelly Soles Instrumental Version) (original track)" on Best Of Grand Royal 12's


• Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Jess & Crabbe Remix)" on Daft Club: Daft Punk


• Crystal Castles's "Crimewave (Crystal Castles VS Health)" on Crystal Castles


• Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork" on Fancy Footwork

In Music: best Beck songs

• Chemtrails, by Beck on the Modern Guilt album


• E-Pro, by Beck on the Guero album


• Electric Music & The Summer People, by Beck on Air's Deck Safari Vol. 1 album


• The Golden Age (CD101 Version - Beck Cover), by The Flaming Lips on the Fight Test EP.


• Modern Guilt by Beck on the Modern Guilt album


• Soldier Jane by Beck on the The Information album.


• Still Missing (Royksopp remix) by Beck on the Guero (Deluxe!) album.