How I Got to Madison Avenue. And beyond.

As with life, this blog is developing and changing. It began with a lot of stories that occurred on my career path from Albany to Madison Avenue and back.

There were some similarities to the AMC series "Mad Men," and then I went even farther back in time with a somewhat fictionalized version of growing up in Troy's Little Italy.

And now, a new development. As my free lance advertising and marketing career winds down, I'm becoming more interested in the theatre arts that my father and his 3 brothers helped instill in me as I grew up.

As a result, I've volunteered to help promote the Theatre Institute at Sage, and now, to continue a long-interrupted desire to be behind the proscenium, I've joined the newly formed Troy Civic Theatre, and was actually fortunate enough to appear in their first production.

So, I hope you'll enjoy the new stories that will develop from this latest turn.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Love is climate, like is temperature.

Today, the weekly blog entry takes an interesting turn. Last week, I teased about writing about women I dated in Manhattan in the 1980's, while I was working on Madison Avenue.

I'm beginning that part of the reminiscence today, but with more of a general outlook on dating and relationships. Just because spring begins today, and there's a lot of thinking and discussion about the subjects swirling around me.

I'm thinking about where I was in 1980, after experiencing my second successful divorce, and having ended a torrid affair with a buxom blond upstate saleswoman who didn't think twice about canceling a date at the last second for a better opportunity. I was relationship-less, having told Hilda that I would not date anyone who treated me worse than I treated myself, and feeling very lonely in my newly adopted city – the one that never sleeps, and will keep you awake letting you know that, just for spite.

But I was in the dream job of my life, and I was surrounded by beautiful, intelligent women, and certainly, it would only be a matter of time before, well, you know.

I had also had a disastrous affair with a blond I worked with, so another rule I established was to never date anyone I worked with. I pretty much stuck to that, for a few years, anyway.

Anyway, to pay off the metaphor in today's headline, I usually chose tropical climate, and, as you might expect, raised quite a few temperatures.

In the advertising business, creatives meet a lot of actors and models. And an acquaintance recently posted a list of reasons to never date that type. I didn't have that list back then, and so, I succumbed.

I dated a couple of actress/waitresses, one of whom was also a lingerie model and had been on screen in a minor sci-fi cult classic, a smart executive who has led the ad research departments of a couple of major national publications, the daughter of the head of a great boutique agency, and others, too numerous to mention right now.

More on each of them, one at a time, in future entries.

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