Mad Woman

One of my favorite shows is Mad Men on AMC. If you don't watch, you are missing the best show the television people have ever put on. I won't run through the synopsis of the series, if you're smart, you'll find out on your own (that is, if you don't already watch, which you should).

Trent informs me about two weeks ago that they are do a "Casting Call" where the winner gets a walk-on role on the show. I immediately pounce.

As an aside, I should not even have thought of entering since I have terrible stage fright, and can't even imagine how embarrassed I would be if I actually had to go on the set with these people. It actually makes me sick to my stomach to even think about it. However, I'm always up for stuff.

The requirement is to go to a Banana Republic store and get a code to input on the AMC web site as part of entry. BR is doing some kind of Mad Men-inspired line of clothing for the fall. I checked it out, and it's about as miserable as everything else they've put out for the last ten seasons. Can we take a moment to reflect back on how great Banana used to be? Back in L.A., I used to visit the flagship store in Santa Monica, and pine away for the clothes as if it were art in a museum. They always had what I wanted. They designed the best basics with that edge. Now, they design for the homely office worker. Straight leg cotton/poly blend slacks may have been the rage in '98-99, but are they cutting it now? And how many slim fit, wide lapelled white shirts can we have in our closet? Didn't they get the memo that wearing your lapels outside and on top of your jacket collar was never, and will never be cool. Cc Brenda Freese on this fact please...someone.

Anyway, we got the codes from the store, and we were set to enter.
I was in Los Angeles for work for a week, so this was throwing our timeline in getting this thing off the ground. Plus, people on the site vote to say who looks cool, and the winners are chosen from the leaders, so entering late hurts. Oh, I forgot to mention, the picture has to show you in your best Mad Men-esque depiction.


I had many ideas like: aloof mom (which was already done by someone else), prim worker, drunk mistress, sexy seductress, and finally worked over girl.

Last night was the deadline, and we were feeling uneasy about making the deadline. Trent went to the grocery store, and when he got home I had teased my hair, put on my Jackie O outfit, and made myself up.

Trent shot about 20 blurry shots of me upstairs on the third floor in various poses. I am completely unphotogenic, so all of the posing and lip pursing I learned from America's Next Top Model was obsolete for someone like me who not only isn't that great looking, but also photographs poorly. I also look a lot like a drag queen with make-up, but I had to put some on. In the black and whites you can't tell, but in the colors I'm totally dolled up. I added those too just for reference.

Ok, so we get all the shots, and I choose one to upload, and I am ready to go at 10:30 p.m. on the night of the cutoff. I get on the computer, and enter all the info. The first time, I accidentally uploaded a file that was too large. The junker AMC site however, doesn't deal with the error correctly, and I get a generic "we cannot save your info at this time..." So, I upload the correct size, and it tells me the email is already used. Oh great. The programmer that created this page, really knows nothing. The account was created in the database, even without the image, or the completion of the form. This is 101 of web dev by the way. After about a million attempts of creating new emails, and using both codes, I could not get it to work. I tried everything. I was so mad. Here I was, gussied up, garters, and everything, and no go on the entry. Damn them.

So, the pics are above. They run the spectrum of sweet, to beat up with mascara runs, and puffy eyes.

Some other poor slob will win, not me, and I will resort to watching them instead of myself in the limelight. I guess my big break will just have to wait for Survivor, The Amazing Race, Jeopardy, or Rock of Love. Love ya Bret.