Weird Al Yankovic Goes Bowling With The Cast Of Mad Men.

This is the kind of get together you can only dream of stumbling upon.

Website Nerdist organised the bowling match between the cast of the hit show Mad Men and a few of their own staff led by non other than Weird Al Yankovic  at The Spare Room in the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

If John Hamm and Vincent Kartheiser persist with their facial hair they’ll need to rename the show Tramp Men…I’ll get my coat.

Jaguar’s Ad Agency Responds To Don Draper.

Without spoiling anything for anyone who so far hasn’t watched the most recent episode of the fifth season of Mad Men just be aware that by reading the enclosed letter below will lead to nothing more than complete confusion.

For those of you who have kept up with Mad Men so far then you’ll recognise just how savvy this fictional response is  from Jaguar’s actual ad agency, (Carrot Creative), in light of  Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce’s recent failure to secure a contract with the car manufacturer.

(via Uproxx & Carrot Creative)

Mad Men Characters Have Been Archer-ized.

With the fifth series of Mad Men due to air in the UK tonight on Sky Atlantic at 9pm, here’s a fitting tribute from the always brilliant artist John Defreest. Don Draper, Joan Harris and Roger Sterling re-imagined as characters from the hilarious animated series Archer.

(via John Defreest)

Afternoon Doubloons – Links In Brief(s)

Stuff which what we found interestin'.

Scientific proof that people with red hair are f@cking nails! (io9)

British Olympic athletes told not to shake hands with others – (Sky News)

Latest Mad Men advertising campaign comes under critical fire (Adweek)

One of the stars of the new comedy party movie Project X was in a porno (Film Drunk)

Can’t be bothered to learn how to play the piano, but still want to be able to play the piano? Japan is your friend. (Gamma Squad)

The dirtiest most unsporting moments in sporting history – (Bleacher Report)

Reporting Scotland suffers another bout of the dreaded ‘technical problems’, this time with added Nazis (You Tube)

Woman defrauded British taxpayers with 1o fictional children (Anorak News)

HMS Friday’s Brief Round Up Of 2010.

Don’t worry this isn’t an exhaustive post littered with top ten lists for the year we decided to veer away from that. In fact we’ve gone straight for the jugular and cherry picked our top favourites for different categories which we feel stood out among the rest over the last 12 months. For that reason alone our disclaimer is that these are our selections and ours only, you can and probably will disagree with them and we still wouldn’t give a shit.

Best Film Of 2010: Inception.

Yes it merits at least a second viewing but it truly is sci-fi at it’s best. Grounded in a realistic structure never straying too far into the fantastical, it’s tense throughout and grips you from the start until the finish and has you trying to work out what the f@ck is going on in between. Honourable mentions go to How To Train Your Dragon, Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim, Toy Story 3, Shutter Island, The Prophet and Frozen.

Best TV Series Of 2010: Breaking Bad/Mad Men

The crew were split right down the middle over this decision so we decided to offer them joint honours. Breaking Bad continues to be the single most engaging and enthralling crime series ever filmed for the small screen. The chemistry, (excuse the pun), between actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul is electrifying. It was another great year for Mad Men as advertising executive Don Draper’s story continued to unfold and unravel at the seams with a few shocking surprises along the way. Never has a series managed to blend style with debauchery so effortlessly. Honourable mentions got to True Blood, Eastbound And Down, The Walking Dead, Party Down, Fringe, Lost and Justified.

Best Music Video Of 2010: LCD Sound System.

Directed by the legendary Spike Jonze this video for the band’s single Drunk Girls sees the group being mentally and physically abused by a group of overall wearing miscreants in panda style balaclavas. Unnerving, twisted, chaotic and at times hilarious this music video has it all.

Sportsman Of 2010: Lionel Messi.

Even if you don’t like football the wee man is a joy to watch. His feet seem to be at times covered with super glue, when he has the ball he dances round defenders like a graceful ballerina panicking the opposition every time he launches a blistering attack. The reason we chose Messi as Sportsman Of The Year is because in an age when six foot plus, muscular players seem to go to ground like a bag of bricks at the slightest of touches, 5ft 7 Messi bucks the trend, refuses to dive and instead rides out even the most brutal of challenges. Why? Because he loves to play the game, pure and simple and when he does we love to watch. He is the rarest of players – an honest one. Don’t believe us? Here’s the proof.

Man Of The Year: Nick Vujicic.

Don’t worry we didn’t vote for some CEO or multi-millionaire instead we honoured Nick Vujicic a man who was born without arms or legs but who continues to travel the world spreading his message of hope and motivation to thousands of schoolchildren. Born in Australia to Serbian parents Nick was brought into this world with Tetra-Amelia disorder, missing both arms at shoulder level and legless except for two small feet, one of which has two toes. The adversity Nick had to overcome from the start was colossal, initially refused enrollment at his local school due to his disabilities he was then relentlessly bullied by school mates before becoming depressed and at one point contemplated suicide. Instead Nick went on to become a motivational speaker, he has spoke to over three million people so far in 24 different countries spreading his message of hope along the way.

Woman Women Of The Year: The Tecktonic & Shuffle Girls.

In a year when most women looked up to the likes of Cheryl Cole, Fearne Cotton, Amy Winehouse and Megan Fox the HMS Friday crew have plumped for the one woman who doesn’t have a fragrance, movie, album or self to sell but instead throws caution to the wind and enjoys herself simply by dancing and throwing her hands up in the air to hardcore techno dance music. Yes, the tecktonic and shuffle girls, (tecktonik seen by many as a purer form of hardcore dance usually expressed through greater movement in the arms whereas shuffle concentrates on intense leg movement) are creating an underground dance scene among females, which grew even more this year, to almost epidemic proportions. In doing so gives everyone a little joy and raises the spirits of those watching. Our woman of the year goes to the one who slips on some track suit trousers, turns up the sound system and dances, no matter how stupid it may look to other people. 


Game Of The Year: Red Dead Redemption.


Rockstar Games proved once more they know better than anyone else how to construct and develop a rich, detailed multi-layered gaming experience which blasts the rest of the competition out of the water. Unjustly described by some critics as Grand Theft Auto on a horse Red Dead Redemption opened up a virtual portal for gamers to revisit the wild west and take to the plains raising hell along the way. They also managed to produce one of the finest pieces of downloadable content for a game with Undead Nightmare. Zombies and cowboys? What’s not to like about that match-up? Honourable mentions go to Call Of Duty: Black Ops, Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Rising 2, God Of War 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns and of course Angry Birds.

Best Epic Fails Of 2010. This lot!

Finally what review of the year would be complete without a look at some of the fails in the last twelve months. Here’s an outstanding collection of the very best ‘epic’ fails of 2010 proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that you should never underestimate the sheer stupidity of people.

And just to round things off here’s our very favourite ‘epic’ fail of 2010, from the slowest and most unco-ordinated run-up to a jump in the history of epic fails, to the eventual disasterous landing and subsequent hilarious embarrasment, it has it all. Here’s to 2011. From everyone at HMS Friday have a Happy New Year.

Avast! Rockstar’s LA Noire Trailer.

Following on from their highly successful Western themed sand box game Red Dead Redemption, gaming giants Rockstar have proudly unveiled the first official trailer to their highly anticipated new title LA Noire. Set in the city of Los Angeles in the 1940s , drawing obvious inspiration from the likes of LA Confidential, Chinatown and other film noir from the same era, the game is centred around a young detective and his efforts to crack a series of mysterious murders. The game was announced over six years ago and fans have been in a state of anxious anticipation since then. Obviously, with all of their titles, it will be a well researched game giving players that specific feel of authenticity Rockstar are known for.

One thing we did notice was how the lead character looks uncannily like actor Aaron Staton, whose most famous role to date is that of Ken Cosgrove in the excellent 50s drama series Mad Men. What do you think?


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