There’s also  been quite a bit of superhero lit making the rounds: Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman is just plain great and I’d also recommend the story collection, Who Can Save Us Now? which features tales of such improbables as The Quick Stop Five and the creepiest SH of of all-time: Silverfish.

Yes, I am part geek.

You see, I was there.

For a brief and miserable period in the late ’90′s, I worked side-by-side at a large, old, and going-to-Hell-in-a-handbasket Chicago ad agency with these guys. Shall I describe them for you? One has a brilliant mind and is, I’d say… talented enough (by “talented enough” I should explain, in the advertising industry, nobody expects you to win the Pulitzer Prize–although I do know someone who did, but he was just a temp secretary at the agency). The other fellow is ambitious, but not-so-much of anything else. Typically, the creative side of the ad business is about 70% blue-collar craftspeople and 30% white collar boobs. So, I’d characterize them as pretty typical ad guys.

Here’s what I predict the show will be about:

The title needn’t have hinted that theft of intellectual property will loom large, as will distrust between creatives and clients as well as creatives and their peers–this is the fire and brimstone upon which the living Hell of the advertising creative department is wholly dependent.

The production trip to an exotic locale, usually L.A., (plenty exotic for Chicago) where the winning team of the moment lives big at, I’m going to guess… Shutters On The Beach (though the Four Seasons is a possibility) will be the boon that is most frequently fought over. We creatives (I’m no longer so officially titled, but, like herpes, it never really goes away) say we live for the awards shows, and you’ll see some of that, too, but a month out of the office trumps a Cannes Lion nearly every time.

Watch for an attractive female to be dissed for getting by on her looks, while nothing is said of the attractive men who slide by on same.

Very talented young people will be played as clueless jolly clowns.

Wise and experienced elders will be played as clueless sad clowns.

Clients will be portrayed accurately as idiots, as will account people–unless a creative is having an affair with one of them. You can expect that, too.

In film circles, the ad biz is referred to as “Hollywood Jr High.” In Chicago creative departments at least, though I suspect it’s the same all over, everyone wants to direct, write for the screen, produce–anything but face another goose-chase assignment, another tap-dance presentation, another frozen subway trip to the veal pens. These future giants of of the greater Los Feliz area might say that big screenplay is what they’ve always wanted to do, but really, it’s just anything to get away.

I also predict it will be no Mad Men. Or Bewitched, for that matter. But it’s not like it has to be. It’s a TV show on TNT, after all, written by guys who no longer have to wear mucklucks to take out the dog. They won the silver, maybe.

So congrats guys, you graduated. Have fun in the 10th grade.

Gotta start with that.

2. Funky President (People It’s Bad) / James  Brown

No… people, it’s good!

3. Yes We Can Can / The Pointer Sisters

Chose this over the Lee Dorsey original for its “sprightlyness.”

4. We’re a Winner / Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions

Obvious choice from Chicago’s poet laureate.

5. Miss Black America / Curtis Mayfield

And a not-so obvious one.

6. A Change Is Gonna Come / Sam Cooke

The new national anthem.

7. The Times They Are A-Changin’ / Bob Dylan

The old new national anthem.

8. Change Is Now / The Byrds

Something for the old, white hippies.

9. The Star Spangled Banner / Jimi Hendrix

The old, old, new national anthem.

10. Chocolate CIty / Parliament

Gaining on ya!

11. Sock It to ‘Em Soul Brother / Bill Moss

If only Bill were alive to see it.

12. I’ll Take You There / The Staple Singers

You did!

13. People Get Ready / Curtis Mayfield

That’s right, there’s a train a comin’ and it’s the…

14. Party Train / The Gap Band

… y’all!

15. Move On Up / Curtis Mayfield

More Curtis? Sure!

16. Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours / Stevie Wonder

Glad Stevie is alive to … hear this happen.

17. 1999 / Prince

Didn’t Al Gore look good today? Lost some weight.

18. Happy Days Are Here Again / Guy Lombardo

If I do any dancing in the street today, it might be to this.

How, while struggling with the trend toward the “my-three-year-old-can-do-that” aesthetic of indie rock for more than a decade, have I not seen it this way, in the context of a culture with immediate access to absolutely everything? The need to learn, let alone master anything has been replaced by the ambition to promote your interest in it. Why so much bad writing? Because anyone can blog only a click away from www.fscottfitzgerald.com. Bad music? Your mp3s are available at the same itunes store as Marvin Gaye’s. Bad art? Take a picture and post it on your own online gallery, right down the street from Mary Boone. Leveling the playing field, instead of  allowing the cream to rise, has mashed-up amateurism with professionalism, creating a sort of “averagism,” that says, “I’ll bet I can do that;” after all, there’s not really a lot of effort involved in shooting for the middle. Of course, put the effort in and you can rise to the top–of the middle. To try harder, to be better, actually puts you outside the ability of anyone to even attempt to “get” you. You’re trying too hard, you’ve overwritten, your record is over-produced, your art is too “painterly.”

Don’t reach for the stars, reach for the moon! I mean, shit, we’ve been to the moon.

Anyway, great post up there at popmatters, at least.