Alex Balk, Smoker
Carol Diehl, Art Critic
Matthew Gallaway , Novelist
Megan Lubaszka, Architect
Angela Serratore, Historian
Tim Siedell, Ad Man
Natasha Simons, Writer
Christina Perry & Derrick Gee, Designers
Dave Wilkie, Ad Man
This GUY has been lurking around Bert’s office since season 1.
It’s a samurai suit from Medieval Japan.
It could have also been worn by the Emperor, dyaimyo, and shogun. In other words, the military aristocracy of the feudal Japan.
A favorite question of martial arts enthusiasts: who would win if European Knight battled a Samurai? Hmm. Who INDEED?
Look who we found lurking in Palm Springs: Foo Dog! He was hanging out in the eccentric desert palace of the ‘Jet Set.’
A writer and former lackey at a hip furniture store, Johnny Dale, snagged the image and sent it over with these thoughts about the Old Money / New Money / No Money voids Don finds himself in:
Pointless conjecture: Cooper’s office is blatantly Japanese themed; could the appearance of the Foo Dog here be intended to draw a parallel between Cooper and the menacing Felliniesque aristocrats of this episode?
And if so, what? I guess a case could be made that Cooper is the show’s representation of idly bohemian Old Money, in which case he certainly has a lot in common with Joy’s family and friends, and this Foo Dog would be a reminder to Don that no matter how high he rises in the world he’ll always be New Money, a low-born man who made his fortune by working.
I don’t actually believe that the placement of the Foo Dog was that intentional, though…I’m sure the real reason is that someone said “We need something for this shelf”.
What pretty shelves, though.
Those cream ceramic lamps in Bert’s office are called Foo Lions (looks like it a maybe a Foo Horse). This is part of the whole Japonisme theme that accents Bert’s abode. To review: Japonisme is defined by intricate, flourishing, floating world aesthetic of ‘Oriental’ art. A bit of history that ties into another one of our favorite subjects: the World’s fair:
Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts when Japan took a pavilion at the World’s Fair of 1867. But already, shiploads of asian bric-a-brac—including fans, kimonos, lacquers, bronzes, and silks—had begun pouring into England and France.
By the turn of the century, Japanese graphic arts and textiles were all the rage in the States.
I asked an interior design associate, Max Humphrey, who has beautiful turquoise Foo lamps in his home, why are they so lovely? He responded: “They’re classic. I don’t need to explain good taste.”
The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife is an erotic woodcut made around 1820 by the Japanese artist Hokusai.
A shot of the work printed on a postcard that is being looked at by Anaïs Nin at the beginning of the 1990 film Henry & June earned the movie the very first NC-17 film rating.
The significance of the absence of men in fishermen’s villages is also testified to by the fact that the first dildos were found in fishermen’s villages.
“All these people come to see the White House and they see practically nothing that dates back before 1948,” Mrs. Kennedy said in a September 1, 1961 interview with Hugh Sidey of LIFE Magazine. “Every boy who comes here should see things that develop his sense of history. For the girls, the house should look beautiful and lived-in. They should see what a fire in the fireplace and pretty flowers can do for a house; the White House rooms should give them a sense of all that. Everything in the White House must have a reason for being there. It would be sacrilege merely to ‘redecorate’ it — a word I hate. It must be restored — and that has nothing to do with decoration. That is a question of scholarship.”
