Why are people so obsessed with the show?

Well, it’s high art but totally accessible. Top notch writing, complex characters, high stakes historical moment. It’s like a visual novel or a really sexy play. But it’s on TV so it’s relaxing to consume! Also, I think the narrative is engrossing because, you know, we’re so anxious right now! There are these slow rolling cultural shifts that are happening right beneath our feet. Similarly to rumbling Don and the feet of his cohorts.

Tell me about the book.

There all these historical elements floating around in each episode, adding to the overall mood and motif of the show. I want to grab them all and put them in one place, not just because I love the show but because I’m also fascinated by midcentury society, its social mores, politics, design, etc. So the book will use Mad Men as vehicle to explore and catalogue that time in our history. It will be handsome both in look and verse with tons of new stuff.

Most of the actors in Mad Men came from left field. Do you think the show would be the same if Don was played by a marquee name?

Ooo going with lesser known actors was a great move. I feel strangely uprooted when I see them out of their suits. They are also such fine actors that I never feel like they are acting!

What would Betty Friedan say about Betty Draper?

I’m sure she would shake Betts by the shoulders and scream, “is this all?!?” But I think Betty really just needs a friend more than a pamphlet. Oh, Betty! She’s the most complex character of the show, I veer between thinking of her as villain and victim.

Who does the best post show analysis? Slate?

Slate has wonderful dish, it’s a must. The AV Club is my favorite for commentary. Also Basket of Kisses is a kicky site that puts a great emphasis on the ladies of Mad Men. Also, artist Dyna Mo! She created the Mad Men Yourself site for AMC and does beautiful illustrations of a scene from Mad Men once a week on her flickr site.

Why is the date of Roger Sterling’s daughter’s upcoming wedding significant?

Oh dear. Events at a parade in Dallas are going to overshadow her special day and put a general damper on you know, THE COUNTRY.

Why Meditations in an Emergency?

Ah, what a glorious choice! Totally risky, right? But what a great payoff. So many reasons. Ok, let’s start with the title. It just taps right into the sense of slow moving dread and forced introspection of Don Draper and the whole mood of the show. Also, O’Hara’s verses are so wry and punchy, so easily digestible that it reads like the best ad copy and vice versa.

The usual subject of our Monday morning water cooler conversation – Mad Men – was supplanted by the sad news of Reading Rainbow which is going off the air after 26 years. (This makes it the second longest running show after Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street.)

That song! That butterfly! The show will be sorely missed.

This week’s Mad Men mania perfectly coincides with Sammy Wasson’s book on Breakfast at Tiffany’s which I’m currently editing. I loved this:

“If there is one fact of life that Audrey Hepburn is dead certain of, adamant about, irrevocably committed to, it’s the fact that her married life, her husband and her baby, come first and far ahead of her career.

She said so the other day on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Jurow-Shepherd comedy for Paramount, in which she plays a New York play girl, café society type, whose constancy is highly suspect.

This unusual role for Miss Hepburn brought up the subject of career women vs. wives – and Audrey made it tersely clear that she is by no means living her part.”

- From Paramount Pictures publicity, released November 28th, 1960

Check out AMC’s website for details on the “New York’s Gone Mad” event calendar which includes a screening of ads form the 60s at the Museum and Arts Building, and various Mad Men inspired libations at hotel bars around town.

And don’t forget to Mad Men yourself!

Novelist Thomas Pynchon is perhaps as well-known for his uber-reclusive tendencies as for his sprawling, byzantine books, such as V., Gravity’s Rainbow, and Mason & Dixon. This week, his new novel Inherent Vice hit the shelves, and Penguin Press has cleverly created some publicity for a man who has spent his career trying to avoid it. Instead of dragging him out from hiding, Penguin has crafted this coy little promotional video. It’s already generated all kinds of talk as to whether or not the video is being narrated by Pynchon himself. (As for Penguin, when GalleyCat asked to confirm or deny they would say only, “No comment.”) Well, if it isn’t Pynchon, whoever was responsible was cunning enough to hire a voice actor that sounded remarkably like Pynchon did during his voice-cameo on The Simpsons. Then again, who knows if that was really him, anyway? At any rate, it’s an interesting example of publicity generated not in spite of, but because of, an author’s wish to be left alone.

There are a ton of insta-books on Michael Jackson and other MJ books in the pipeline. How is Rolling Stone’s book different from the others?

This book will be the definitive look at Jackson’s life and music. We will tell the full story of his career, in a fascinating essay by Mikal Gilmore, who has been writing about Jackson since the early days, and we will delve deep into his music — examining in detail the early years at Motown, his move to become a solo artist in the 70s, and his key blockbuster solo albums: Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad. We will also draw on deep reporting into Jackson’s private life for a piece that looks at what went wrong in his later years, and we will provide sharp, authoritative critical guides to his songs, videos and other work. It will also contain intimate tributes from artists who knew and worked with Jackson. Unlike the insta-books flooding the market, this book is the ultimate guide to Michael Jackson, with beautiful photographs and elegant design, in classic Rolling Stone style.

The music industry has obviously changed dramatically since the eighties and the media in general is much more fragmented. Does the death of Michael Jackson represent the death of a certain kind of popular culture?

Not really — Michael Jackson was a one-of-a-kind icon, on par with Elvis and Sinatra. His music is alive in so many different styles of R&B, rap and hip-hop – from the Black Eyed Peas to Justin Timberlake to Ne-Yo and Usher.

 Someone who is not a Jackson fan said to me recently that Thriller has the sound of a TV commercial. What do you make of that? I instantly disagreed but have been thinking about how pivotal that Pepsi commercial was in his career.

 Jackson was such a huge artist that his music was everywhere – on the radio, MTV, in TV commercials - Thriller sold more albums than any other in history and for a time it became so big it was like the white noise of our pop culture, and globally too. My wife tells a story of going to Egypt on tour in the 90s, and people came up to her in small villages and asked if she knew Michael Jackson. He was that big. For some people, perhaps, the ubiquity diminished the value of the music. But go listen to Billie Jean or Beat It now and tell me it’s not amazing…

Where did Jackson learn to dance? (Did he get the pulled up pants from Fred Astaire?)

Complicated question: he learned from all over – breakdancing, old movies. I can go into this more later if you want.

Some people feel Jackson’s later albums are interesting musically. Do you agree?

Absolutely! Especially Bad and Dangerous, but Invincible and History have very interesting elements to them too that were often overlooked at the time. We will have a piece specifically addressing these later albums.

 We’ve been talking a lot about the cover of MICHAEL. Why aren’t there more quality portraits of Jackson?

Michael wasn’t photographed a lot in his later years – and he was rarely photographed casually. He was very concerned with how he looked and his image, so there aren’t a lot of photographers he was comfortable with. Also, Michael bought up many of the photos that do exist so they are not on the market.

What is your favorite Jackson song?

“Rock with you” and “Don’t stop ‘til you get enough” are probably my all-time favorites. There’s something about that album [Off The Wall] that’s just so exuberant, like he’s breaking loose for the first time, it’s impossible to resist.

The Next Mark Twain is coming to town for an exclusive reading of the now-complete “Conversations With Satan.”  Mark Twain Bagby will be reading the excellent story and one other piece at Borders in Bakersfield, CA, so if you are in the neighborhood you should head over to the bookstore to see Twain in the flesh!

Bagby, who has been interpreting Twain since 1991, is giving us an added treat by reading the piece as the American master, so everyone will get the full experience of a Mark Twain reading. If you won’t be able to attend, the reading and interview will be taped and shared online.

The event is scheduled for 2:00 PM on Saturday, August 15, 2009.

At the kick-off dinner for the Denver Publishing Institute last night, Joyce Meskis from The Tattered Cover asked the group if they had ever liked a movie more than the book from which it was made. We were all pretty hard-pressed to name one, but we agreed on “Jaws” and “The Reader.” Got any other suggestions?

I have a bee in my bonnet about the chronic use of the word “viral.”

“Let’s make a viral video,” I keep hearing. To me, it feels like saying “Let’s publish a bestselling book” or “I’m going to be popular.”

I keep wanting to shout from the rooftops “just make it GREAT!”

Olympus has done just that with this great video.

NPR’s piece about the 20th anniversary of indie record company Merge is fascinating and possibly instructive. While large record companies (and book publishers) have overextended themselves and now need to scale back, Merge has succeeded by choosing new artists carefully and marketing them frugally.  And even when they have hits (Spoon, Arcade Fire) they continue to warn their artists to keep expectations in line with reality. The result is credibility with critics, music fans and artists alike. 

 So the question is: can Book Publishers follow suit?  In a time where creative ideas are welcome, perhaps we need only look at Merge Records to realize that trust, cautious decision making and staying grounded may lead us in the right direction.

Click here  to read the article or here to listen to the intriguing piece.