Chest hair use to be so sexy.
McDonaldland is creepy
McDonaldland itself, as it was depicted in the commercials, was a magical place where plants, foods, and inanimate objects were living, speaking characters. In addition to being the home to Ronald and the other core characters, McDonaldland boasted “Thick shake volcanoes”, anthropomorphized “Apple pie trees”, “The Hamburger Patch” (where McDonald’s hamburgers grew out of the ground like plants), “Filet-O-Fish Lake”, and many other fanciful features based around various McDonald’s menu items.
The Hamburger Patch is part of the fictional city of McDonaldland where McDonald’s hamburgers “grew” like fruit on plants from the Hamburger Patch. Even though hamburgers in McDonaldland were anthropomorphized and spoke, they were picked by characters such as Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar for consumption. Advertisements featuring the Hamburger Patch were shown as evidence during the McLibel court case in the United Kingdom. During questioning by defendants, McDonald’s Senior Vice President of Marketing David Green admitted that showing the reality of meat production “would not be very appetizing”.
Birdie the Early Bird was the first identifiably female character, introduced in 1980 to promote the company’s new breakfast items. She is a yellow bird wearing a pink jumpsuit and flight cap and scarf. In the ads she is frequently portrayed as a poor flyer, and somewhat clumsy in general. Birdie’s origin is explained in one old commercial: A giant egg falls from the night sky into McDonaldland, and Ronald McDonald decides to show the egg love. When the egg hatches, Birdie was so happy that she had already made friends that she decided to stay in McDonaldland.
Courtesey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonaldland
1. Anyone up for a swim in Filet-O-Fish lake?
2. I think a commercial showing Grimace slaughter a cow would be very appetizing.
3. Did Ronald molest Birdie?
You look happy in your pictures
I look happy in mine too
But pictures can’t show
the geography of me
Can they show the geography of you?
The poetry of Radovan Karadzic, whose actions helped create the term ethnic cleansing.
Half the morning’s gone.
Coming down the hills
A strong and strapping wolf
Bit half the morning off
And in his heart it went
Up to the hills, to the wilds.
Every thing wept afterwards.
Up there in the hills, in the wilds
With wolves round a fire there is fun
The morn feeds itself to the flames
Not letting it die down.
I hope he enjoys his mornings in prison.
Just a typical Saturday night of bar hopping in Penn Station.
Mad about Mad Men
I tell myself that it is okay that I watch too much t.v. and read gossip magazines-I mean afterall I do teach underprivileged kids. Shouldn’t that entitle me to such guilty pleasures as Rob and Big (this being one of the shows I’m not so embarrassed to admit I watch), Rhinestone, and knowing why Bea Arthur didn’t attend Estelle Getty’s funeral (bitch).
Anyway, I’m going to say it does. However, I’m moving on to teach at a performing arts high school with admissions standards. Does this mean I can no longer care if Ryan Sheckler will ever be able to balance being a teenage pro skateboard phenom and finding the right girl (Taylor would only be trouble, bro)? And does this really mean I can’t enjoy a Monday night of cheering on the American Gladiators? I mean what would the performing arts students say about my affection for a wolf-man on steroids who once claimed he would rip off an amputees other leg and knaw on it in his cave?
Well I just might have found the cure-I can replace the boorish charms of The Wolf with the equally boorish but also rakish charms of Don Draper. The two words seem to contradict each other, but Don Draper embodies both. I can’t fault a 1960s man for being sexist, racist, an asshole dad and husband, afterall he is really handsome.
The point is Mad Men is not just t.v., it is art on every level imaginable. The layered plots leave me fulfilled as if I have just read a brilliant short story. The lack of exposition leaves me studying every actors face as if it were the Mona Lisa. Each scene is painted with such colors as an avocado oven and brown plaid wall paper. Such details help build real characters- Don Draper has a drawer at his office filled with pressed white shirts and at home his garage comes equipped with a fridge full of beer and a can opener hanging by a string. Every costume speaks volumes-compare the wive’s taffeta and twin sets to the working girl’s pencil skirts and tight sweaters. These costumes alone reflect the struggles of a changing society. There are so many levels to this show.
So since I have now proved the validity of Mad Men as art maybe it will be alright if I tune into the premiere of The Hills. Afterall the music does do a wonderful job of expressing the emotions of young women struggling—ok forget it. I love crappy t.v. and have no excuse for it, but at least I watch Mad Men.
