The second we found this episode of the classic TV series ‘The Twilight Zone” we could take our eyes off of it! Three leaders of the pack clad in “Black Leather Jackets” and black masks open off the episode in what turns into a salacious ride through 1960s paranoia, mystery, conspiracies, and of course, style.
Surely you can see where some of David Lynch’s inspirations may have arisen from in “Twin Peaks” as you watch Shelley Fabares’ ‘Ellen’ get picked up for a night ride by the adorably mysterious Lee Kinsolving as ‘Scott’ on a righteous 1960s motorcycle.
It’s a treat at just 25 minutes…so it’s a great way to pass the time if you’re trying to doze off, or just killing the seconds in secret at work!
Get lost a while, and fall into the depths of “The Twilight Zone”!!!
Maybe it will even come in handy next time you’re mulling over what to wear when you get dressed!
Remember not to miss out on the awesome finds we have in the
Over 20 years ago, Debbie Harry made a solo appearance on Jim Henson’s, “The Muppets Show”. Taking on comedy sketches and a duo of ‘Blondie’s’ hits, the blonde siren shined amongst the motley crew of green boy scout muppets. Truly sensational, sandwiched in a season of star hosts, the like of Diana Ross and Paul Simon, the new wave rocker let her hair down and had a lot of fun in Episode 509 of “The Muppet Show” in 1980.
We proudly bring you a clip of Ms Harry performing “Rainbow Connection”, one of the most iconic Muppet anthems, with the one and only, Kermit the Frog. The Bombshell plays down any knowledge of knowing Kermit’s famed song, until the two come together for a beautiful rendition of “Rainbow Connection”.
Talk about “Far Away Places”, one of the latest episodes of AMC’s premier show “Mad Men” actually featured two of the show’s main characters hanging out with Angela’s Mom from “My So-Called Life” and embarking on an LSD vacation (to help the marriage, of course)!
We’ve seen them drink, dope, and dose before on the show, always bringing the true moods of the times has become paramount to the show . The year is 1966, and while many of us would associate acid trips and LSD with Woodstock and the hippie movement, the development of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and the exploration of its properties were anything but psychedelic at this point.
Bicycling home, Hoffman would recall breaking down and believing he had been poisoned by the LSD – also, that his neighbor was in fact a witch! So you can imagine his distress…
The CIA would infamously use LSD as a form of mind control in a series of experiments involved in the controversial Project MKULTRA. This covert project was uncovered by a reporter in 1977 using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) unveiling that covert units performed series of tests on American and Canadian citizens throughout the 1950s into the 1970s (maybe beyond…spooky, right?!) that included administering LSD for series of days (up to three months) and experiments in electro-shock therapy.
In fact, LSD was also being actively administered to individuals on pharmaceutical levels throughout the 1950s by various doctors around the world. The treatment of many clinical problems such as addiction, anxiety, depression, and a plethera of other psychological “disorders” were being treated with the on set side effects of the drug – the “trip”.
Once administered by a physician, whom himself has taken trips himself up to 40 times (for safety), an individual was let alone to their own vices, often times experiencing life altering epiphanies and self discoveries along the way.
Cary Grant was one such individual who swore by the miracle drug. This wasn’t something kept hidden from the public as many celebrities do presently with various addictions, but was part of a scheduled exercise between himself as a patient of psychiatry. Problems aren’t problems like they are for a man like Cary Grant who praised the techniques and results used to achieve such epic self realization.
As Grant explained in 1959 of the New York Herald Tribune:
“I have been born again. I have just been through a psychiatric experience that has completely changed me … I had to face things about myself, which I never admitted, which I didn’t know were there. Now I know that I hurt every woman I loved. I was an utter fake, a self-opinionated boor, a know-all who knew very little. Once you realize that you have all things inside you, love and hate alike, and you learn to accept them, then you can use your love to exhaust your hate … You can relax … Then you can do more than you ever dreamed you could do … That moment when your conscious meets your subconscious is a helluva wrench. You feel the whole top of your head lifting off.”
It would seem Grant had little aversion at all to talking about it, and quickly appearing in interviews and stories for The London Daily Mirror, The LA Times, and other national publications including a hilarious bit in Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping headlining “How LSD Changed Cary Grant’s Private Life” to America’s housewives and bolting LSD and psychological transformation into public consciousness.
Grant wouldn’t be the only movie star to take the “trip”- other famous “patients” included James Coburn, Clare Booth Luce, Charles Brackett, and even the million dollar mermaid herself- Esther Williams who said that:
“This LSD trip … explained so much about my life’s script … [It was] such a breakthrough for me.””
Bet you never would have thought!
Hundreds of books were also written about the subject- all in hopes that LSD had the key. The magic cure to the impossible! The answer to all the meaning of one’s life necessary. Unfortunately, no sooner did the trend for LSD therapy catch on as it was quickly halted by the outlawing of LSD October 6, 1966 after nearly 40,000 patients treated by the psychedelic and literally thousands of scientific studies on the now illicit substance.
Good thing Roger and Jane caught on seemingly months before it’s demise from clinical and psychiatric care. Though still illegal, there are handfuls of individuals who would argue for LSD and its benefits. After all, every man must at some point come face to face with himself, and if life is a journey, having the ability to harness in on elements of your being is powerful. So if LSD can truly facilitate an out of body experience, and the journeyman is of sound mind, no doubt the results could be fantastic.
Recently Dyan Cannon has described her life with Cary Grant, and his obsession with LSD. Her account also includes many eyebrow-raising details of the matinee idol, we otherwise would never have guessed.Just as we always say at The Eye of Faith- “Everything is not always as it seems”, and so is the case with the seemingly cavalier Grant.
It’s powerful stuff potent enough to make someone legitimately go crazy. But, you gotta love how Roger handles his experience. You could almost imagine Roger having a Cary Grant penis rocket ship blast-offing from Earth kind of trip, but the Sterling actually pulls it off from beginning to end, and seems genuinely refreshed from his voyage of discovery.
John Slattery adds great panache and humor to the role, as he always does, and as surprising as it seems, is one of the most probable characters to be put in this situation. Poor Jane, always misunderstood and painfully misguided, if only LSD was really the answer to everything. At least they give her a great sense of style.
Totally feeling the Cleopatra inspiration on Jane’s hair, a very popular movie that was released in 1963, but received a shit load of publicity and press due to Liz’s mood swings and passionate affair with co-star Richard Burton. There probably wasn’t a shred of paper that didn’t have a story on the now infamous production. Good to see it rubbing off, as it seems most things in magazines do- LSD included.
And if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you got to! Definitely award-worthy on all accounts! Just what everyone loves from the talented team at “Mad Men”. AMC has the clip of Roger and Jane taking acid, so click here if you dare.
Really had a lot of fun writing about this one! Never thought the day would come I could watch Roger Sterling take acid with Angela’s mom. I’d say, things are pretty sweet!
Would love to hear your take! It’s really cool how context shapes perception. The kid definitely seems happy, so what’s the deal?!
Would you take LSD with Angela Chase’s mom? Was Cary Grant totally off his rocker? What do you think? Let us know!
They always say: “God is in the Details” and every time there is the opportunity to watch AMC‘s pinnacle of television drama, “Mad Men” we are boldly reminded of this fact! So here goes our “Close Up” of some of the ties, rings, and things the men are wearing this season.
Five episodes into the long awaited fifth season (almost a year and a half!) and Matthew Weiner and his talented team have already lifted the bar, and continue to raise it as the seconds count down on each new episode.
Full of all the racism, sexism, cigarette smoking, adultery, feminism, and homophobia that characterizes the era, Mad Men has made success from context and exploited it against our own. It’s fun to see the evolution of the characters, changing or not changing with the ticking of the clock.
The men of Sterling Cooper Draper Price (Say that three times fast) haven’t much changed, but the evolution is there in their wardrobe. We are beginning to see the times liberating the characters and their style. There is a casualness, a cool that stemmed in America from the Beat movement, and an undeniable pull from the European art flicks of Fellini and the French New Wave.
Speaking of French New Wave, we have the bright return of talented Canadian actress Jessica Paré as Megan, Don’s new 20-something wife. Pare is such a talent; so charismatic, and just strikingly gorgeous. She had her screen debut in Denys Arcand’s “Stardom” where she played a normal Canadian girl who becomes a high fashion supermodel. [FASHION LOVERS WATCH TRAILER]
On the other end of the scale, Betty is still around residing in her “haunted mansion” (a grim corner property definitely rivaling the Gothic grandeur of the house in American Horror Story ) with her politician husband, and three children. With a house that big, it’s no surprise Betty is feeling engulfed by this new marriage.
Everyone is worried about her, mostly because she’s fat. Compared to the dainty used to be model Grace Kelly look-a-like, this Betty is shocking. It’s really fun to see her like this, though. Count on an Emmy Award for those prosthetics! Absolutely Freaky! My guess is she’ll stay this way for a while.
One of the other delights is definitely Sally Draper. She’s no little girl anymore. She’s in that fantastic age where your mind is opening to different facets of the life that surrounds you. Growing up is hard, and I’m guessing this isn’t going to come naturally to her. Especially between homes, the dynamic between her parents is definitely straining, and she’s managed to pick up some angst and attitude from them on the way.
As movie theaters switch from film to digital projection, home flat-screens take up a wall, Blu-Ray discs exhume masterpiece-painting volumes of color and intricate detail from popular releases, and the unholy moviegoing experience cries out for human-pest control, cinema has lost its sanctuary allure and aesthetic edge over television, which as a medium has the evolutionary advantage. Movies will never die, not as long as a director like Terrence Malick can make every green blade of grass sway like the first dance of creation, but TV is where the action is, the addictions forged, the dream machine operating on all cylinders. As I write this, the Academy Awards are a few days away, with The Artist the odds-on best-picture winner. Does anyone think The Artist is better than Mad Men?
I guess everyone knows the answer to that… And if this season is any proof, Wolcott is definitely onto something! Mad Men indeed transports you, and the best part is it doesn’t ask you to go any farther than your living room to take a trip through time.
Mad Men is truly such a treat. It is really the perfect dichotomy of performance, writing, and production. After an episode, or entire day, there are definitely a million things you can take away. For a true vintage nut, this latest season of Mad Men is off to a great new start, and it’s hard to get enough!
[End Credits Song from Ep 4. “Mystery Date” – “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” by Gerry Goffin & Carole King]
