Basket of Kisses

Given the irony Mad Men has shown on the subject in past episodes, it is perhaps fitting that the show’s first official charity auction benefits the Lung Cancer Program at City of Hope.

There’s a walk-on role up for bids, plus plenty of vintage Sterling-Cooper furniture.  However, the big draws may come from Janie Bryant’s closet of awesome, including the metallic brocade dress Bobbie Barrett wore in “The New Girl,” a teal evening gown worn by Betty in “The Gold Violin,” and the green frock worn by Joan in “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency.” (Would we prefer those last two cleaned, or not?)

She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother, by Bryan Batt

Bryan Batt (Salvatore Romano to us) has written a loving memoir about his mother, Gayle. She is a Southern belle of diverse charms, a comic figure, a tower of strength, a maze of idiosyncrasies, and deeply, deeply loved by her son. (Presumably, she is deeply loved by both her sons, but I meant the one writing, of course.)

The book is full of light-hearted tales, written with an eye for the flair of the moment. Stylistically, Bryan is florid. There was a point early one when his over-embellished prose got on my nerves, and then I thought of Bryan, who played a train in Starlight Express, Lumiere in Beauty & the Beast, and Munkustrap in Cats: Costumes, sparkle, bizarre makeup. And I thought of Gayle, with her masses of hairspray and pearls and her chiffon gowns, and I realized, this is the right language for this pair of characters.

You will like this book if you want to be entertained by lively stories of colorful people. You will dislike this book if you prefer memoirs that delve deeply into the underside of their memories. She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother is lightweight by design, so choose your poison.

My friend Keath Graham won this book and was kind enough to give it to me as a gift, so I owe him a thank you for this review.

Cafe Press sent me a neat Mad Men t-shirt to review. They let me choose my own shirt from the styles here. I chose this one:

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Wiley, the publisher of the “…and Philosophy” series of books that examine pop culture in a philosophical light, is offering Basket of Kisses five copies of Mad Men and Philosophy to our lucky readers.

To enter, simply comment below. Comment by August 31 to be eligible.

Want to double your chances? Become a Twitter follower of the book series. Leave your Twitter name in the entry comment below; the publisher will verify which new Twitter followers are contest entrants here and you will get an extra entry.

U.S. entrants only (sorry).

Please, no chit-chat in comments (I need a clean numeric list of comments in order to manage the random drawing).

You know you’ve hit the “Big Time” when one of the world’s most successful toy companies turns you into a doll !

Riding the success waves of our favorite television series, Mattel has released it’s own line of Mad Men characters.  A brilliant move on their part! Not only is the Mad Men series set in the 1960′s, which parallels Mattel’s most famous icon herself (Barbie), but couple that with Mattel’s now very successful line of Silkstone dolls, who in themselves, slip perfectly into character by the mere reflection of their vintage counterpart.

Being a doll aficionado myself, I was totally taken with the miniature representations of  Don, Betty, Joan and Roger!  The cover of the Barbie Collector catalogue features the foursome  in all of their Mid Century Modern glory!

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Trudy is back for Season 4!

Mad Men has been nominated for a Television Critics Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama. (That’s down from three nominations in 2009 and four in 2008.)

Basketwriter Anne B. found a piece on retro wedding dresses, of course, citing Mad Men in the opening paragraph.

Anne also sent me this very funny cartoon with a note that it might be the 21st Century Pete Campbell. Personally, I think it’s the 21st Century Paul Kinsey (on a particularly obnoxious day).

Basketcase Peggy Joan shared this link to Maureen Dowd’s column on Debrahlee Lorenzana, who was fired for being “too beautiful” and is now suing. It does seem that Lorenzana is living the down-side of Joan Harris’s struggle. It’s worth an entry in Mad Feminist News.

AMC has nice interviews with La Monde Byrd (Hollis) and Embeth Davidtz (Rebecca Pryce).

I absolutely adore the title of this article: Matthew Weiner Finds New Ways to Reveal Nothing About Mad Men.

Basketcase seagirl sent us this Vulture bit about Jon Hamm’s worst review a while back; sorry we left it out last time.

Compare and contrast: Cable summer (prestige shows like Mad Men) versus network summer (mostly reality competitions). Also, cable and network have different business models, which advantages cable at awards time.

Film.com runs down the most ultra-masculine summer shows, including Mad Men.

I found this on QVC, it is just about exactly what Don bought Betty:

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Ah, Mad Men style! If you want cufflinks that truly represent all that is Don Draper, maybe they should be, I dunno, maps of Madison Avenue?

Madison Avenue Cufflinks found on Etsy

Tonight, the Lincoln Center location, signing his new book, She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother.

The reviews are pretty terrific. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

“Bryan Batt’s childhood is like a mash-up of a Tennessee Williams play and a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movie. This memoir is a gumbo of fun, feeling, and fortitude in the face of all that life has to throw at you. A fairy tale come true!”
–Alan Cumming

Mention the Basket and you’ll get a free–smile? I’m pretty sure. I wish I could be there tonight–bad, bad planning on my part!

We love you Bryan, and big congratulations on this wonderful accomplishment!

Basketcase SmilerG sent us this link, saying:

Here’s a link to create Mad Men Logo Themed wedding invitations.

I’ve been married twice (didn’t work out either time) but maybe another BasketCase will have fun with this.

If you go to the homepage of Wedding Chicks, you’ll see where they say this is “the first of our Mad Men wedding series.” A series! Awesome.

Also on the homepage is the story behind this design, and you should really read it.