Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Mad Men: Get Your Fix Before Sunday

Mad Men fans (and if you’re not, it’s high time to become one!): Check out Slate magazine’s weekly recap of the episodes. Smart people talking about a very smart show.

Also, I highly recommend the Vanity Fair article about the show and creator Matthew Weiner:

“A scene-setting anecdote everyone in the Mad Men orbit tells is how Weiner came onto the set one day and focused on some pieces of fruit he said were too large and shiny and perfectly formed; produce in the early 60s—period produce—wasn’t pumped up. Get smaller, dumpier fruit, he ordered. (Depending on who was telling me the story, from cast members to network executives, the offending produce morphed from apples to oranges to bananas, but Amy Wells, the set decorator, said definitively: it was apples.) In a similar vein, the show’s prop masters have been plagued by the steroidal dimensions of contemporary American pastry whenever a Sterling Cooper secretary needs to pick up a Danish from the coffee cart.”

Shameful confession: I also read about Farrah in the same issue.

Work-in-Progress

DC-area author Leslie Pietrzyk explores the creative process and all things literary.