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Those of you who read the blog regularly, or know me in real life (and yes, there’s some extreme overlap there) know that I have a bit thing about time — how there’s not enough of it, how to maximize it and how to get up at ungodly hours to bleed it try. Now, there’s a movie for me. It’s called “In Time” and Stars Justin Timberlake and Vincent Kartheiser, the guy who play Pete Campbell in Mad Men. The premise — we all only have 25 years to live, unless you earn more time, or steal it apparently. Time, in essence, it the world currency. (Via Kottke)

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Speaking of movies, it turns onto that Friday the 13th actually had a pretty cool opening when it was released in 1980. How do I know? Why, the Movie Title Stills Collection, of course! The site presents a collection of the opening title and closing titles of famous (and less famous) films from 1900 to 2010. For Friday the 13th, hit this link and scroll down. (But don’t miss Airplane!) (Via @jasonfried)

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On the music front, the 25th anniversary issue of R.E.M.’s Life’s Rich Pageant is out o reissue. The album includes the digitally remastered original LP, and 19 unreleased demo recordings from the time period. If you buy the physical album, you;ll also get new liner notes, a poster and four postcards. There’s a vinyl reissue as well if you’re into the whole analog thing. Aquarium Drunkard has a nice review, noting its place in the canon:

“Pageant has always sounded like the first hint of R.E.M. really trying to make a go of it on a more, if not mainstream, less subversive level. But as always there was the push and pull, the yin and yang of R.E.M.—a ‘college rock’ band with global aspirations.” (Via Aquarium Drunkard)

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Finally, a practical use for QR codes! Tesco grocery has begun testing a system in South Korea that prints photos of grocery store shelves on subway walls. Users can scan the QR codes of items on the photos and have them delivered to their house later that day. It’s kind of genius actually. (Via DesignMilk)

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Finally today, Best 404 Page EVER. (via Hacker News)

Via The New York Times: Jon Hamm Reaches ‘Mad Men’ Deal With Lions Gate – NYTimes.com:
“No official terms were disclosed, but Variety reported that the deal includes a substantial raise for the coming season, and that Mr. Hamm would be making $250,000 an episode by the last year of the agreement. That would rank him among the highest paid stars in television.”

The good news is, Mad Men is coming back for three more years. The bad news: You’ll have to wait until March, 2012 to watch any new episodes. Until then, we’ll have to feel the pain from an old wound. [hat-tip: kottke.org]

OK, if you haven’t heard yet, Mad Men is being shelved for a year and won’t debut until 2012, most likely next March, due to contract disputes between the show’s creator Matt Weiner and AMC. To get the full skinny, read Variety, the definitive source for this type of thing.

Before you jump to conclusions about another Hollywood schmuck clawing for more money, know that AMC is pushing $30 million over the negotiating table to Weiner and that the sticking points between the two sides is creative control. Namely:

• AMC wants to shave 2 minutes from each episode to include more advertising,
• AMC wants more product integration in each episode to drive revenue,
• AMC wants to cut two cast members to reduce costs.

In essence, the show about advertising is fighting over advertising.

Taking each of these individually, the first one seems fine to me, I mean seriously, what’s two minutes? I’m going to fast forward through the commercials anyway and Mad Men will still be longer than most hour-long dramas on basic cable — 45 minutes instead of the average 42-44 minutes. On the other hand, more product integration would send the show into farce. I mean, how could you get more product placement into Mad Men? It’s a show about advertising brands and products, the whole damn show is product placement. To me, this is where you take a stand.

Finally, cutting cast-members should be a non-starter, but it may be necessary. When I hear this, I  think about Alison Brie, who is now ensconced over at Community and is probably going to demand some more coin to be on Mad Men. I love Trudy and would hate to see her go, but is she necessary to the show? Not really. (I also think about HBO and how none of this wold have happened if they’d just picked up the show when Weiner presented it to them.)

Look, AMC is a business and it has to make sense for them to air Mad Men. While many of us love the show, it is not a ratings hit for the network and after four seasons, it probably never will be. It’s a niche and niches have to make money in order to stay on the air. If I were in Weiner’s shoes I’d give in on the two minutes,  find a way to cut some extraneous cast members and fight like hell to keep additional product placement out of the show.

But my real question is: What would Don Draper do?

He’d find a way to sucker AMC into creating a two-hour Mad Men movie to air over the summer that would advance the plot, create event programming, and satiate the needs of the fan base. He’d get AMC to premier it on Netflix instant two weeks before the network release and have the Netflix showing  sponsored by BMW, with minimal exclusive ads. Then show it again on AMC, again sponsored by BMW, but chock-full of ads.

This would create buzz, highlight AMC’s innovation and provide Wiener with an opportunity to stretch creatively. It would also give him the chance to retire some of those costly characters.