Pulp and Sex

Pulp (and the group's frontman Jarvis Cocker) have been among my favorite musicians since I was 16 or 17. They;re to this day one of my favorite bands--the music always sounds fresh and relevant. Perhaps what is so refreshing and exhilarating about Pulp (and Jarvis's solo work as well, but to a lesser extent) is the way the songwriting approaches love, relationships, and sex. Instead of glorifying sexual acts as idyllic and beautiful like so much of the rock canon, Pulp presents sex in all it's messy, complicated, and nuanced reality. The awkwardness of first crushes and fumbling first explorations. Forgotten lovers and high school dreams are portrayed with a slightly cynical and world-weary realist perspective. Indeed, the song entitled "F.E.E.LI.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E" (in an homage, I suspect, to Wire's "Feeling Called Love", the experience of being in love is cast in dark relief. "I've got a slightly sick feeling feeling in my stomach, like I'm standing atop a very high building, oh yes", and "It's not chocolate boxes and roses, it's much dirtier than that, like a small animal that only comes out in the night". Pulp write about sex in truly naturalistic terms that are far more relatable, in my opinion, than much other musical output on the subject. Recently, I saw a documentary at the Film Society of Lincoln Center entitled "Pulp: A film about Love, Death, and Supermarkets" that charted the band's final reunion tour stop in their hometown of SHeffield in 2012. Not only a portrait of the band itself, the film struck a deep chord as a portrayal of Sheffield and contemporary culture in Britain. I highly recommend it and anticipate seeing it again when it has a wider release in November.

The Best Things In Life Are FREE---musings on Mad Men

The above title is taken from the ending scene of the mid-season series finale of "Mad Men", as sung by (SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) a ghost vision of a dead Bert Cooper (Robert Morse, of Broadway and "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" fame), What a wonderful, wacky, and hallucinatory way to end the first part of the final season. As with Breaking Bad, the final season of the series will be split up over two seven-episode mini seasons. These seven episodes brought some of the greatest dramatic tension the series has seen....from Don and Megan's on again--off again marriage, to the agency being split between two coasts, to Michael Ginsberg's nipple-splicing psychotic break. I was particularly saddened by Ginsberg's sudden departure--while there were a few moments in the show previously that suggested that he was more than just slightly eccentric, it was truly upsetting to view the sinister underbelly of his personality. This season in particular has been mired with a sense of impending uncertainty and doom--not just because the series is almost over. From the arrival of the computer (which Ginsberg, in his paranoid state posits will make the entire agency obsolete...and he's half correct) to the constant question of Don's status within the company, there has been a foreboding tonal element throughout. I really like the full chiasmos of Don and Peggy's characters---of special note are the highly awkward scenes where Peggy gives Don orders, as she is now his superior. There are many pairs and foils within the series, and I am curious to see how everything will end up come next year. I'm thinking about Don/Peggy, Roger/Joan, Peggy/Pete (will their relationship ever get full closure or resolve? For awhile I thought Peggy had really risen above Pete and the scumbag he had become, but I think that he not only showed his respect for her in this seasons but also matured as a character. I know there are a lot of Pete Campbell haters out there, but he's one of my favorite characters, if not my absolute favorite, because even if he might be an asshole, he is tremendously nuanced, and there is a great pathos to his being). Peggy/Stan (are they EVER going to get together? I do want to see this happen!!!!) Stan/Ginsberg (AMC, if you're reading this, please make a spin-off buddy show just about this pair). Now let's just get rid of both Cutler and Chaugh (ugh) and the show will be just fine. I really enjoyed Bob Benson's reappearance this season. While I found him a little grating in the previous season, I admired the show's nod to emerging gay rights issues through his character. As with previous "social issues"--women's rights, civil rights--that the show has portrayed with complexity and dignity--I hope that somewhere in the final seven episodes there is room to make more of a comment upon gay rights, beyond the tokenism of Sal (we all miss him! Maybe he'll be back?) and Benson. Showrunner Matthew Weiner has stated that at the end of the series, all the characters will be facing the consequences of their decisions. I think most viewers can agree that Don will end up miserable, alone, or dead. He's already halfway to two thirds of the way there. I only hope that Peggy not only continues to ride on the success she found in this season (especially during the finale's Burger Chef presentation....I love the slow pan just prior to her monologue....it reminded me of both Kubrick and the bar mitzvah scene in A Serious Man), but that she also finds some personal happiness and satisfaction. Peggy has always been a loner and unlucky in love. Then again, between Pete, Duck, and Abe, she really knows how to pick 'em. I really liked Abe for awhile, but their relationship was heading south way before Pegs accidentally stabbed him. I wish she'd taken up Joyce's offer and maybe had some Sapphic fun....that would have been a curious episode indeed! She just might be a touch too conservative for that. There's been long-standing chemistry, flirtation, and more in the cases of both Pete and Stan. While others might argue that they are beneath her, I think both have proven themselves to be rounded and mature characters, although both are goofballs. Seriously, Peggy desperately needs to get laid. Is it just me or was she starting to be really bitchy this season? I'd like to see the loose strings tied up of whatever happened to her kid, as the show keeps putting Peggy in awkward situations with children (when Joan brings her baby in to the office and Peggy must babysit, or her maternal relationship with her tenant Julio this season). It would be nice if all that were resolved. However, who really knows? As their own commercials so aptly announce, Mad Men is always full of surprises. All the relationships possible for Peggy with someone from the office are probably too on the nose for this show. After all, they brought back a major character only to have him join the Krishnas and write a wacky Krishna-based spec script of Star Trek (easily one of the best plot lines of the stellar season 5). All in all, I found this mini season, and the finale especially, to be enormously satisfying. While I still think the jewel in the crown in terms of seasons thus far is Season 5, this season moved beyond the tediousness of season six and kept the viewer in a constant state of anticipation, wonder, and uncertainty. It's sad that there will only be seven episodes left, but if AMC's other amazing show, Breaking Bad, is any precedent, the final episodes will all be show stopping gems. When one has followed a show for so many years, you really feel as though you grow along with it. Especially in the context of a drama so poignant and layered as Mad Men--the characters almost as human as your friends and neighbors, I'm sure there will be a sense of loss once it's all concluded. Oh well, cheers to a half-season done well! And before it's all over, I'll have new series of Orange is the New Black and Masters of Sex (!!!!) to obsess over.