Sunday, August 16th, begins the third season of the exceptional AMC original series, “Mad Men.” The show is about a private Madison Avenue (hence the “Mad” in “Mad Men”) advertising firm, set in the early 60s. This show somehow touches all my subterranean hot buttons. “Mad Men’s” second season ended in the year 1962, at the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the firm is about to be acquired by a London based agency. The second season’s finale was a perfectly coordinated display of the several character centered subplots, each reaching a critical turning point simultaneously.  My tendency to see politics in everything is thwarted by this show, even as it is easily parodied politically, given current “mores and folkways.” But I’ll give it a shot.

The show has an uncanny ability to convince the audience it is watching people as they were then, with no intrusion of modern sensibilities and judgments. The show’s appearance is a gauzy impressionism, which helps create a nostalgic effect. There seems to be less dialogue than most shows. Characters are developed as much through facial reactions to events as with dialogue and plot lines. When watching the show, it feels like 1962, as I nostalgically remember it, even though I never heard of Madison Avenue until years later. Plot lines are about getting and losing clients, and they can be amusing. But plots are primarily designed to create interest in each character. (more…)

Life: Imagine the Potential is the second release of CatholicVote.org’s national new media campaign, “Life: Imagine the Potential.” I’ll excuse them for forgetting me, another adoption success story.

If anyone ever wanted to deconstruct my politics, he or she need look no further than my idyllic upbringing and the choice that one someone made back in the late 1960s.

And happy anniversary to my parents Arlene and Gerry Breitbart who on May 19th celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary.

Thank you for everything. (more…)